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Jim a little bit of advice. How much discount can you build into an offer if you have 20% down, FICO>750, income qualified and verified, and no contigencies? I hear many offers are FHA where people are trying to use the down payment assistance. Do you know what you need to do to get down payment assistance? How difficult is it to close one of those FHA deals?

He needs to get a new script writer.. Says mortgage rates are at historic lows, than says the higher end stuff isn't selling because rates are too high????

Now they say the FAST DECLINE in prices is a good thing, means the bottom is here…This guy is a joke…

Also used the new standard, TEXAS WILL BE OK.. No sh**, it didn’t have a run up………..And the baby boomers are going to save the day….

Funny he didn’t mention there was not a SOFT LANDING like they had predicted…..LOLOL

I will get my shirt next time I see you.

There would have been a soft landing if it had not been for this unexpected credit crisis ;). I mean no economic analysis would ever include someone's ability to pay as a metric for a loan being repaid. Therefore the credit crisis should not have occured, and there would have been a soft landing. Right?

Is Seattle still a superstar market where prices do not need to hold a relationship to income. You know what I mean superstar cities like, NYC, Paris, Tokyo, London, and Seattle.

Holy Cow - you made it through to the end? I don't even have any bubbleinfo.com T-shirts, and I didn't think I had anything to worry about with the quality of that dribble coming out of Yun.

I'll need a catchy saying to put on the shirt - have any suggestions?

you can handle the truth
bubbleinfo.com

?????????????????????

LV Renter,

With an FHA loan there are buyer fees that the seller has to pay on their behalf - I'll get you an exact amount but they are around $2,000 to $3,000. The FHA also has the appraiser look for repair items, including goofy stuff like chipped or peeling paint. The lender then mandates that the seller repair the item to get the deal closed.

Because that sounds like an open ended ticket, I'd say that a conventional loan is about $5,000 better than an FHA loan, in the eyes of a seller, and maybe more depending on the condition and age of the house.

The benefits of the FHA loan program is that virtually everyone qualifies who can verify income and stay under a 40% or 41% back-end ratio. They'll take FICOs down in the low-600s, and they will allow as many borrowers as needed to qualify, as long as all borrowers are "related". There tends to be a lot of long-lost relatives who pop up just in time to close an FHA loan.

As far as the gift program, that won't technically make a difference to the seller, but it could cause doubt in the eyes of the listing agent if they aren't familiar with it, which not many are.

I got almost 4 minutes in trying to build up my tolerance. It would how better with one of those CNN strips across the bottom.

The one that got me other than the historic low rates and rates too high was the bit about expecting 'improvement.' Well duh, That's what has to happen when using y-o-y type comparisons. Notice how quiet they are about comparing to peak prices and peak sales rates. The other thing he flat out lied about was pent up demand. He just plain old doesn't have any way of measuring it. He's worse than assuming pent up demand, he's also baselining from the period 2001-2006.

How about:

bubbleinfo.com

Facts not Fluff…..

Thanks for all the info. There was an article I read where a mortgage broker in the bay area said that FHA with DP assistance was half of his business. Is there an income cut off for DP assistance? If I am reading this right, if you get an agent that knows what they are doing you can use being fully qualified on a conventional loan to push the price down enough to be about even verus DP asistance. Am I correct?

I have been against buying. However, there are some prices here in LV which may even get you in for less than rent. I used the agent the relo company provided. Cause I did not want to use a friend of friend and hear their, "It is a great time to buy" speech.

The realtor greeted me at the door to the property I picked out. Before entering she told me I would probably need to bid over to purchase the place. That's right before she even asked about what I could offer to keep the price as low as possible she told me to bid high. Then she used every line from the NAR. Foreclosures are hot so you need to be aggressive and she knows Vegas and knows it can turn around quickly so I should act.

She actually had a page in her sales brochure circa 2006 where someone forecast normal price appreciation for LV. Does that mean it is normal for prices to fall 20% a year?

I told her to get in touch when there are more sales than foreclosures in Vegas. I have not been in touch since.

Jim, your blog got mentioned on www.calculatedrisk.com</f> today.

Fixed link: http://calculatedrisk.blogspot.com/

LV Renter,

I found out that the FHA seller mandatories got discontinued a year or two ago, disregard the above. I haven't had to worry about doing FHA loans for years!

OK I just finished listening to the interview. I was going to make a juvenile "Dick Gaylord" joke, but Lawrence Yun's shtick was even funnier and more juvenile so I guess I'm beat on that score. I half expected that at the end the interviewer would say "Thank you ladies and gentlemen, and remember Lawrence will be appearing all this week in the Bubble Lounge!"

The main thing that got me was the near complete lack of substance. It was about as satisfying as eating the whipped froth on a Starbuck's coffee. I guess the point of that was not to have anything useful, but still it would have been nice.

I made it one minute into the interview. It was such a propaganda set-up it reminded me of some sort of a cross between religious programming and an infomercial.

53 seconds

bubbleinfo.com

"Now is a great time to blog"

I was thinking about "Now is a great time to wait," but figured you deserved some chance to make a living. If home buyers/sellers had a decent chance of getting someone like you, the biz would have a very different reputation.

The guy interviewing Yun is out next president of the NAR. Based on his demeanor and questions, it looks like another year of nothing from NAR.

Why does it never occur to them that they have a duty to the sellers too? You never hear them giving any seller advice.

bubbleinfo:
the truth is out there.

I made it through the whole thing, sadly.

bubbleinfo.com
Reality Real Estate for the Masses

I must confess, I witnessed this train wreck and could not look away either. Why do I feel the need to take another shower?

I tried to make it through but could not. I think the most ridiculous is there is so much pent up demand b/c there are 25MM more people in the country now than 10 years ago. How about the fact that you said 2007 was the 5th best year ever. Does that mean all the demand was pulled forward? Who could believe that?

Oh yes and the economy is very strong except for Financials, Homebuilders, Autos, and Retail. Selling Ipods to the world is enough for the entire US economy.

PS get an economist who does not speak in broken English if he is going to be a Marketing tool.

This raises a couple of questions...Are NAR dues free? Also, if Mr. Gaylord is the NAR President-elect, were there hanging chads?

T-shirt suggestion:

20% down.
Initial payment, or yearly sales?
www.bubbleinfo.com

No T-shirt for me. He lost me when he said that the only reason people aren't buying is because of "market pessimism" and tight lending. Geez, what about the fact that most of SD is still ridiculously overpriced???

I liked your slogan though, Jim. Maybe as a question:
Bubbleinfo.com
Can you hanlde the truth?

Maybe people aren't buying becuase there are 25mm new people, but only 13mm new jobs in the last 10 years. Those new people could be from new birth to immigration. That can't be good for those kids out of school trying to find a job (1st time buyers) or immigrants.

Jim, do sellers (banks) really care what type of financing you get as long as you are pre-qualified and have the required down payment? Or is it better to use conventional financing and not require them to provide closing cost assistance? Do they really look at their bottom line that closely that they would give up a sale over paying some buyer non-recurring closing costs or an offer 5% below asking price, etc.?

Just wondering what I will be up against when we start making offers.

Thanks,
Angela

0 seconds. I couldn't even make myself click on the "play" button....

Jim, question for you (or anyone else who knows...)

What if I put in an offer on an REO with pre-approval for a loan with 10% down, conventional financing, excellent credit, no contingencies and then after my offer is accepted, decide to go FHA to save myself some of my money for home improvements.

What would happen?

Probably nothing, as long as the appraiser didn't note any repairs that the seller would have to fix.

The cost of repairs is a negotiable item, the buyer can pay them too, but if they are bad enough that the appraiser makes mention of them, then he'll have to come back before closing to verify that they were fixed.

In the contract you have stated the loan terms under which you are planning on getting - if you change programs and then can't get financing, any seller will have a problem with that, and expect you to complete the original deal.

But as long as you can get a loan, there aren't many if any sellers that are going to care, as long as it closes.