Maryland Real Estate Blogsite » Consumer News

9806 Tribonian Drive, Fort Washington Maryland 20744

specialed — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 17:37:14 +0000

Indian Queen Beautiful and spacious colonial home in Fort Washington Maryland. Finish basement, very large Master bed and Bath. five bedrooms, four baths, family room and much more. Great location--near to 495,295,National Harbor,Alexandria, and DC.

14105 Pleasant View Drive, Bowie, Maryland 20720

specialed — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 17:22:34 +0000

Old Stage Knolls Well maintained five bedroom, two and half bath Colonial located in the desirable Old Stage Knolls neighborhood of Bowie Maryland. It features that include a two-story foyer with gleaming hardwood flooring throughout main level, family room with wood burning fireplace & ceiling fan, step-down living room with bay window, kitchen with newer appliance, pantry & breakfast nook, Master bed suite with master bath with dual vanity, soaking tub, skylight & ceramic tile flooring. Finished basement with craft room & recreation room.

13312 Marlton Center Drive, Upper Marlboro Maryland 20772

specialed — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 14:58:23 +0000

Marlton Town

Beautiful four bedroom, three and half bath located in Upper Marlboro Maryland. Its twenty minutes. from DC, Waldorf, and Bowie. Beautiful gleaming hardwood floors on the main level. Inviting kitchen with island and plenty of room for your table and more.Nice double decks off the back perfect for summertime gatherings.Huge master suite with two walk-in closets, soaking tub,& double vanity.Finished basement with rec room ,full bath,& fourth bedroom.

Upper Marlboro has a downtown area along Main Street, which is home to a variety of local business as well as the Prince George’s County Courthouse and the County Administration Building. The main Board of Education offices for the Prince George’s County Public School system are a short walk from Main Street. Additional businesses and government offices are located in the Old Mill complex a short distance from downtown. The main residential area is the to the west of the downtown on several quiet streets. The Town has about 313 dwelling units, mostly single-family homes with 657 official residents in 2008, according to estimates from the Census Bureau. Numerous civic organizations in and near the town contribute to the sense of community and “small town” atmosphere that characterizes life in Upper Marlboro.

Search For Upper Marlboro Homes For Sale

Web Link: 13312 Marlton Center Drive, Upper Marlboro Maryland 20772

Upper Marlboro MD Real Estate Sales- Ed Haraway. Owner/Broker of Exit First Realty

Exit First Realty is one of the Mid-Atlantic Region fastest growing,top-producing real estate brokerages. I specialize in helping agents market and position themselves to sell real estate in the Maryland Metropolitan area including Bowie, Crofton,Upper Marlboro, Annapolis, College Park, Davidsonville, Gambrills, Odenton, Greenbelt, Laurel, and surrounding areas. 240.375.2871

2803 Buxmont Lane, Bowie MD 20715

specialed — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 14:20:36 +0000

Buckingham

Show and sell this four bedroom 2 bath Cape Cod in Bowie Maryland. It has a huge addition featuring a Family Room,Office space and den!! Home has been cleaned, landscaped and has a BRAND NEW stove!

Bowie is a great place to visit or to live. It has easy access to public transportation, strong public services, a variety of shopping choices and lots of recreational opportunities. With the many leisure activities you will always be entertained, from the local farmer markets, to the international festivals. You will love the streets and people. Along every road there is always a friendly face to see. One of the things that make Bowie a wonderful place to live is the strong community spirit that is evident throughout our neighborhoods. Bowie residents and businesses are active in a variety of organizations that assist others and strengthen our city. They are proud of our open spaces and our recreational facilities. The City has been recognized nationally as a winner in Tree City and Plant City USA competitions.

Search For All Bowie Homes for Sale

Web Link: 2803 Buxmont Lane, Bowie Maryland 20715

Bowie MD Real Estate Sales- Ed Haraway. Owner/Broker of Exit First Realty

12407 Madeley Lane, Bowie Maryland 20715

specialed — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 19:44:13 +0000

Meadowbrook

Very nice updated Cape, shows great! Remodeled kitchen with ceramic flooring, pergo style flooring at the entrance and hall. French doors into family room (converted Garage) Thermal windows (except living room and laundry) Pella triple window slider opens to patio/deck and lovely fenced yard.

Search For All Bowie Homes for Sale

Web Link: 12407 Madeley Lane, Bowie Maryland 20715

Bowie MD Real Estate Sales- Ed Haraway. Owner/Broker of Exit First Realty

12600 Chanler Lane, Bowie MD 20715

specialed — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 17:03:37 +0000

Chapel Forge

This is a charming five bedroom, two bath, Devon Rancher in Bowie Maryland! Features of this home include a beautiful foyer with Pergo flooring, dinning room with ceiling fan, HUGE GREAT room with brick-front wood burning fire place , eat-in kitchen with sliding doors leading to the rear yard and large family room with double ceiling fans. The Master bedroom is spacious with separate master bath & Pergo flooring.

Search For All Bowie Homes for Sale

Web Link: 12600 Chanler Lane, Bowie MD 20715

Bowie MD Real Estate Sales- Ed Haraway. Owner/Broker of Exit First Realty

Maryland Mortgage Loans and Solutions – Gordon Haraway

specialed — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 01:57:08 +0000

Gordon’s Mortgage News

Recent and Pending Changes for FHA loans

August 10th, 2010 4:27 PM

There are a number of changes that have taken place recently and more on the way in the FHA loan arena. Some of these changes are specific to certain lending situations so will not effect all loans, while others are global in nature so everyone will be affected. While there have been many changes of late and more possibly to come, this column attempts to highlight the changes affecting the most borrowers .

Mortgage Insurance: Currently the UP Front Mortgage insurance or (MIP) as it is known is 2.25% of the base loan amount. HUD Secretary Stevens announced this will be reduced to 1.0% while at the same time increasing the annual mortgage insurance from its current 0.55% to 0.90% This change will be in effect as of any new FHA case number issued starting September 7, 2010
Condo Rules: No more spot approvals, For FHA approval at least 50% of the units must be owner occupied.
Property Flipping: If a home is resold within by an investor less than one year after the investor purchase. The price appreciation may be limited to 20% of the investors purchase price. A second appraisal may be ordered to justify the new price and documentation may be required of the seller showing substantial improvements have been made to the home. This documentation may include, material receipts, contractor invoices ect. Tell your investors to take a lot of pics, before and after.
Credit Scores: FHA plans to impose a minimum credit score of 500 later this year, and scores 580 will need a down payment of 10%. Credit scores over 580 will still only need the FHA minimum 3.5% down payment. This rule is really a waste of in on paper since virtually all lenders now requires a minimum credit score of 620 and some are even require a score of 640.
Seller Concessions: FHA at present allows seller concessions up to 6% of the sales price. The new rule will be 3%. The new rule is expected to have a hugh impact on first Time Home buyers. This new rule is now in a comment period and is expected to be put into effect in the very near future.
Underwriting Guidelines: Changes have been made to the underwriting guidelines over the last few months. These changes will be incorporated into the revised 4155 lenders manual that should be updated in the near future. Until then all the recent changes are available on Hudclips, (under mortgagee letters) The 4155 lender manual and hudclips are both available on line at the HUD website.

Maryland Mortgage Loans and Solutions – Gordon Haraway Southern Trust Mortgage, specializing in helping home buyers realize the dream of home ownership. Purchase and Refinance home loans. Gordon Haraway is a Senior Loan Officer with Southern Trust Mortgage in Crofton MD (301) 938-1655

Treasury hopes new rules send short sales to the rescue of underwater mortgages

admin — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 04:35:29 +0000

This Article appeared in the Washington Post on March 13th, 2010

Treasury hopes new rules send short sales to the rescue of underwater mortgages

By Tracey L. Longo
Special to The Washington Post
Saturday, March 13, 2010; E01
With new Treasury Department rules designed to expedite short sales set to take effect April 5, relief can’t come soon enough for some area buyers, sellers and real estate agents who have waded through a long and arduous process to get short sales approved by the bank.
In a short sale, a homeowner sells the property for its current market value, which is less than what’s owed on the mortgage, and the lender agrees to accept the lower amount. The new rules that offer participating lenders cash incentives to get them to approve more short-sale deals also allow them only 10 days to approve or reject short-sale purchase offers, said Treasury spokeswoman Meg Reilly.
Incentive payments written into the Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternatives Program are designed to help offset some of the financial pain that banks experience when they agree to settle for less than they are owed on a home loan. Mortgage servicers (the companies that accept and process homeowners’ mortgage payments) may receive up to $1,000 for the successful completion of a short sale. Treasury will also pay up to $1,000 to those holding second liens and home equity loans, if they agree to the deal. While junior lien holders have begun to ask for more compensation, the rules now limit incentives to $3,000.
To help speed up short sales, the program calls for lenders to use standardized paperwork and to establish an acceptable sale price before the home is put on the market. Sellers will be allowed at least 120 days to market the home and possibly as long as one year. During that time, the lender cannot foreclose. At closing, the government will give sellers up to $1,500 to cover relocation expenses.
Banks participating in the program have also agreed not to negotiate reductions in real estate agents’ sales commissions after they receive a short-sale contract. Such commission reductions have discouraged some agents from listing and showing short sales, according to the National Association of Realtors.
According to the Treasury rules, a participating loan servicer must offer the short-sale program to a borrower who does not qualify for, or did not succeed at, a loan-modification under the administration’s home affordable mortgage program.
Nationally, 38 percent of all sales in January were distressed sales, which include short sales and foreclosures. In the Washington area, short sales accounted for 6 percent of all sales in Maryland and 8 percent in Virginia during the last four months of 2009. That number is expected to rise significantly in the next several months, according to NAR. Agents have not yet reported short-sale activity in the District.
Some who have worked with short sales, however, are skeptical that the new rules can compress the approval process into 10 days.
“I’ve done five short sales in the past year and, frankly, I don’t want to do another one,” says Cyndy Davis, president of Flaherty Group Realty in Kensington. Her most recent short sale, which required a sign-off from Bank of America, took 10 months.
“I contacted the bank at least every other day, and it still took them 90 days to respond to our first offer on a Silver Spring townhouse,” Davis said. “They took from June until August. Then when we ordered the appraisal, it came in $33,000 below my buyer’s offer. When we resubmitted the new offer, it took the bank another 45 days to respond.”
Mortgage servicers take 90 to 120 days on average to approve short sales, according to NAR.
Juwana Bauwens, a spokeswoman for Bank of America, acknowledged that the process did take that long.
“When the buyer lowered the offer, we had to almost start the process all over again,” Bauwens said. “Short sales are a very complicated process, and at times we have to get approval from the bank and the investor on the loan and the second lien holder. We are working on ways to improve technology and resources so we can get an approval in the hands of Realtors as quickly as possible.”
Sometimes buyers are willing to wait on what they believe is a good deal. Sometimes they walk away. Davis’s client, two aid workers currently stationed in Kenya, didn’t mind the 10 months it took to purchase the property. They bought the Silver Spring townhouse for $214,000. It originally sold for $380,000 in 2005 and had been on the market for 285 days.
Writing down loans is a tough business. Short sales involving home-equity lines and second liens often require the junior lien holders to write off the loans altogether. But when lenders hold on to offers, hoping that a better one will be presented, they risk not only losing the buyers, but that real estate prices will fall.
“We see this all the time,” Davis said. “Banks stop communicating as they wait for better offers. Then months go by.”
When an offer is finally accepted, if a home doesn’t appraise at the buyer’s first offer price, they lower their offer. That’s what Davis’s buyers did — lowering the offer on the townhouse by $33,000 after it didn’t appraise.
To avoid such long delays, the new Treasury rules requires banks to establish fair market-value prices on homes at the front end of the short-sale approval process, instead of waiting until after offers start rolling in. They can modify that price if a real estate agent is willing to sign an affidavit stating that the new price reflects its market value.
“I think if lenders can make it work, it could be amazing. But the issue we see time and again is a hold up getting banks’ approvals,” said Guled Kassim, who works on more than 40 closings a month as a settlement officer with Atlantic Title & Escrow in Bethesda.
“Banks have to be convinced that the sales price is market value and that a reduced payoff amount is better than foreclosure,” added Kassim, who bought a distressed property using Flaherty Group last year. “Essentially, you’re asking lenders to take a bath. It’s not a business model most companies have set up. They are very doubtful about pricing, which is why I think the 10-day timeline may be wishful.”
Pilot program launches
To quicken the pace of its own short sales, Bank of America has launched a pilot program for customers and real estate agents to help them through the process.
“If an offer is received, we will be in a position to approve the sale within two weeks,” Bauwens said. “This program is currently in a limited pilot stage, and we hope to expand it soon.”
The bank has also deployed a password-protected Internet portal that agents, sellers and bank employees can use to track short sales in real time, communicate and exchange documents, Bauwens said.
“We hope the new rules revolutionize the short-sale situation,” said Jeff Lischer, managing director of regulatory policy at NAR. “It has the potential — by setting deadlines, identifying property values upfront and providing standardized forms.”

Counties pushed for revenue, get creative and Short sales could come to screeching halt!

specialed — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 21:40:09 +0000

Urgent Tax Issue Affecting Short Sale Transactions

On Friday, January 8, the Montgomery County Finance Department’s Transfer Office put forth a memo regarding how they process and charge recordation and transfer taxes on Short Sale Transactions. The position the County has taken has caused some grave confusion and concerns for many in the real estate industry because it is contrary to how short sale transactions have been charged recordation and transfer taxes to date. The following is the excerpt from the County’s memo:

We tax on the unpaid principal balance of the mortgage as if the excess debt over and above the sale price is being waived/cancelled.

We will rely on your assertion of the unpaid principal balance and WILL NOT typically require a copy of a payoff statement or a seller’s last mortgage bill.

We will tax on the Short Sale price ONLY IF evidence is presented to us that the excess debt over and above the sale price is being paid off by the debtor or pursued by the lender.

GCAAR as well as the Maryland Association of REALTORS® (MAR) have taken the position that this interpretation of the Maryland State law is clearly against the plain language, which states that the taxes can ONLY be charged on the amount of “consideration.” It has always been our understanding that consideration is interpreted to mean the sales price. Therefore, on short sales, the taxes paid should not include the amount of the mortgage not being paid off.

GCAAR is working directly with MAR since this is an interpretation of Maryland state law. We are going to be speaking with Montgomery County’s Finance Department regarding GCAAR’s concerns and how this will put a halt to short sale transactions throughout the county. MAR is speaking with the state legislators to look into the possibility of an Attorney General’s opinion on the law or a possible legislative change and/or codification of the current law.

FHA May Be Changing the Rules and trying to close down more fraudulent lenders.

specialed — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 22:46:39 +0000

The Federal Housing Administration is proposing to increase the up-front cash paid by borrowers as part of an effort to shore up the agency’s finances, which have been staggered by rising defaults in its flagship mortgage insurance program, according to FHA officials.

The changes also include raising minimum credit scores for borrowers who receive FHA-backed mortgages and limiting the amount of money sellers can kick in, including paying closing costs or giving free upgrades.

These measures are designed to increase the amount borrowers invest in the homes they buy, thereby making it less attractive for them to default on loans and walk away from properties, as many people have done during the current housing crisis.

Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan is scheduled to announce the agency’s policy changes when he testifies Wednesday before the House Financial Services Committee.

The FHA has played a critical role in propping up the housing market by insuring lenders against default after the mortgage market unraveled. Currently, the agency backs about 30 percent of all loans for home purchases and 20 percent of refinancing. In the past, the FHA has resisted raising down payments or insurance premiums for fear of shutting out qualified borrowers and stunting the housing market’s slow but steady recovery.

But Donovan plans to tell the House committee that the exploding volume of loans the FHA is now handling requires stricter risk controls than the previous administration had in place, according to a copy of his prepared testimony. A recent audit shows that the FHA’s financial cushion already has eroded below the level required by law.

“We’ve learned from recent history that the market is fragile, and we have to plan for the unexpected,” Donovan’s prepared statement says. “That uncertainty is complicated by an organization we inherited that, to be honest, was simply not properly managing or monitoring its risk.”

By requiring that borrowers bring more cash to the table, the agency is seeking to ensure they have “more skin in the game and a stronger equity position in their loans,” Donovan says. But he does not specify the size of the proposed increase. FHA officials said they have yet to determine how much cash will be required.

“There are several ways to accomplish this, and so we are currently analyzing various options to determine which is the most effective and consistent with our mission,” Donovan says.

Up-front cash can include down payments as well as other payments. For now, FHA borrowers can put down as little as 3.5 percent, a level that many FHA critics say is too low. One lawmaker has introduced legislation that would boost the minimum down payment to 5 percent.

As for seller concessions, the agency now allows sellers to kick in 6 percent of the home’s value. Donovan said he wants the maximum permissible level to be lowered to 3 percent, in line with industry norms.

Agency staff are reviewing whether to increase the monthly insurance premiums charged to borrowers, officials said. These payments come on top of insurance paid up front.

The current up-front premium is set at 1.75 percent of the value of the loan. FHA may decide that an increase in that premium is needed also, officials said.

To protect itself against the riskiest borrowers, the agency has decided “for the time being” to raise its minimum credit score requirements for new borrowers. Again, FHA staff are still analyzing what the new threshold should be, Donovan’s prepared testimony says.

The minimum credit score requirement is now so low — 500 out of a possible 850 — that it’s basically irrelevant. Many lenders that make FHA-insured loans impose much tougher restrictions. The concern is that if FHA does not toughen up, abusive lenders will get away with financing risky, poor credit borrowers already rejected by more reputable lenders.

Most of the new initiatives do not require congressional approval. Many have previously been suggested by critics and even supporters of the agency.

These measures are meant to build on other actions the FHA has taken to curb its risk and beef up its eroding cash reserves.

An audit released last month found that the agency’s cash reserves have shrunk to a level far below what is required by law, and the agency could need taxpayer funding if worst-case scenarios play out.

The audit, designed to measure the agency’s financial health, examined the excess cash the agency must set aside to deal with unexpected losses and found that those reserves were at about $3.6 billion as of Sept. 30, a drop from the $12.9 billion available a year earlier. The current total represents 0.53 percent of all outstanding single-family-home loans insured by the FHA, well below the 2 percent threshold set by law. This is the first time reserves have fallen under that level since 1994.

To stop the financial erosion, the FHA has focused in part on weeding out abusive lenders. This year, the agency has suspended business with seven lenders, including the now-defunct Taylor, Bean and Whitaker. It has withdrawn FHA-approval for 270 others, including Lend America. On its Web site Tuesday, Lend America said it has ceased its loan origination and operations, effective immediately.

The FHA is currently working on a new rule that would require banks it does business with to have up to $2.5 million in capital that they can use to repay the agency for losses if they were involved in fraud. Now, they are required to hold only $250,000.

On Wednesday, Donovan will ask Congress to grant the agency more authority to close down abusive lenders.