Real Estate Information

With 50% of the registered voters in Charles County having voted during the 2010 General Election, the following are the election results for Charles County, MD.

If you are interested in viewing homes for sale in the Southern Maryland Real Estate area visit Charles County Real Estate, or call DeHanas Real Estate Services at 301-870-1717.

I have worked with a large number of clients to date, helping them to avoid Foreclosure by short selling their home.  Many of my clients have been military, or Government employees who have been relocated out of the area, and for one reason or another are unable to sell their homes. Often, the only recourse many homeowners have is either short sale or providing the mortgage company with a deed in lieu of foreclosure.

A short sale is a lengthy process by which the property owners mortgage company agrees to allow the owner to sell their home for less than the current mortgage.  It allows the homeowner to avoid the pain and humiliation of Foreclosure as well as the devastating damage to their credit score A credit score can see a drop of as much as 250 points with a foreclosure.  In some cases, as will military and Government employees who have security clearances, job-loss can occur with a foreclosure on a credit report.

There are possible drawbacks, however.  The I.R.S. will see the debt forgiveness as income, and your lender may want to pursue a deficiency judgment, meaning that they may want that money back.  I highly encourage anyone considering a short sale to consult with a lawyer and/or CPA.  Each lender treats short sales a little differently, but this is an overview of what to expect. 

Communicate with your Lender

Do not avoid communications with the lender.  This will only make matters worse for you.  In some cases the lender will be able to work with you on a “Mortgage Modification”, adjusting your payments to make them fit into your current budget, allowing you to stay in your home.  This process, however, can be very tedious, and time consuming. Take plenty of notes and stay on top of correspondence. If this fails, consult a Realtor who has plenty of experience with short sales.

Locate an Experienced Full-Time Realtor

This costs you nothing, and anyone asking for up-front payment should be avoided.  An experienced Realtor should have a history of successful transactions.  Do not be afraid to ask for references.  An experienced short sale Realtor also has a designation as a Certified Distressed Property Expert (CDPE), which provides them with the tools and knowledge to get the job done  quickly.  In the case of a Foreclosure, “time is not your friend”.

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Be Prepared to Provide Documentation

Your mortgage company is going to want to know your complete financial history.  You will be asked to submit a financial worksheet, recent pay check stubs, recent bank statements, and in some cases the last two years of tax returns.  You will also need to send a letter of explanation, called a “hardship letter”.  Your Realtor should be able to help you with all of the documents.

Do Not Move!

Stay put until you get word from your Realtor.  Maintain all of the utilities and continue to maintain the property.  If a lender suspects the property is vacant, they will immediately seize the home and change the locks, making it difficult to sell.  You will have plenty of time to make other living arrangements.  Speaking of which, your Realtor will be able to assist you in locating a new home as well.

I can help you!

Call me! My advice and expertise is free to you.  My primary goal is the keep you in your home if at all possible.  When that is not possible I can guide you the entire way through the short sale process.  Call me at 301-870-1717 x106 or e-mail at [email protected].

If you are interested in viewing homes for sale in the Southern Maryland Real Estate area visit Charles County Real Estate, or call DeHanas Real Estate Services at 301-870-1717.

It would be an understatement to say that this is a big week for financial markets.  The highly anticipated mid-term elections are on Tuesday.  Anything other than the expected sweep by Republicans could rattle markets.  The Federal Open Market Committee meets on Tuesday and Wednesday with a statement to be released on Wednesday at 2:15 pm.  The Fed will likely introduce a second round of quantitative easing which most market participants expect will be in the form of a $500 billion package of Treasury purchases over the next 6 months.  Lastly, we have the always important Unemployment Report for October on Friday.

RATE TREND: Steady.

CAUTION: Possible interest rate volatility later this week.

For up-to-date rate information, contact DeHanas Real Estate Services at 800-842-0190.

Sales of new single-family homes rose 6.6 percent in September to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 307,000 from the revised August rate of 288,000, but they were 21.5 percent below the 391,000 level in September 2009, according to the latest figures from the U.S. Commerce Department.

The median sale price of new homes sold in September was $233,800, a 3.3 percent increase from a year ago. An estimated 204,000 new homes were available for sale during the month, representing an 8.0-month supply at the current sales rate. Wed, Oct 27, 2010

Locally, in Charles County, September sales rose over 10% compared to last year, and while home values have been on the decline for the better part of the year, they were flat, compared to September 2009.

U.S. home prices, including distressed sales, declined 1.5 percent in August over a year ago, according to the latest CoreLogic Home Price Index. It marks the first price decline measured by the index this year. Excluding distressed sales, year-over-year prices declined 0.4 percent in August.

From the peak of the housing market in April 2006 to August 2010, the index, including distressed sales, fell 28.2 percent. Excluding distressed properties, the index fell 19.6 percent during the same time period.

States with the highest price appreciation in August, including distressed properties, were Maine (5.8 percent), New York (3.7 percent), Connecticut (2.5 percent), Virginia (2.4 percent) and South Dakota (2.1 percent).

States with the highest price depreciation in August, including distressed properties, were Idaho (14.0 percent), Alabama (10.4 percent), Utah (7.3 percent), Oregon (6.3 percent) and Florida (6.2 percent). Thu, Oct 28, 2010

Are you looking for a no-money-down solution to buying a home? The Federal Governemnt has authorized the funding of the popular USDA's Rual Developement Loan, under section 502 of the Single-Family Housing Program.  This program fell short earlier this year when funding ran out in April.  It took Congress until just recently to reauthorize the funding, but with some changes.

USDA will now be charging a 3.5% fee which will be financed into the loan, and an annual .5% fee of the balance of the loan, in an effort to become self sufficient, which means funding will not run out again.

In 2009, the USDA guaranteed 116,000 loans.  Other than VA eligibile home buyers, the RDL is the only 100% financing program available for the purchase of a home.  Not all properties or applicants are eligible.  Please contact DeHanas Real Estate Services for details at 800-842-0190.

Bank of America says it plans to resume foreclosures in 23 states next week and will refile paperwork for 102,000 cases.

The company says it will begin refiling documents next Monday in states that require a judge's approval to restart the Foreclosure process. The company says it will continuing delaying about 30,000 foreclosures in 27 states that don't require a judge's approval.

Bank of America is the only lender to halt foreclosures in all states after evidence emerged that the bank filed documents that employees did not read.

Allegations of possible mortgage fraud against financial giants GMAC, JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America read like a criminal rap-sheet: forged documents, faked Social Security numbers, phantom titles, disappearing paper trails, "robo–signers" and mortgages sliced and diced so many times that nobody really knows who owns them.

With news just starting to come out about how criminally mis-managed the Foreclosure process has been in the banking industry, it is hard to say what will happen next.  One thing is for sure, we have a real mess on our hands.  Any delay in getting through this housing crisis will cost the American homeowner, big time!

Across the country, State Attorney Generals have begun filing petitions to halt foreclosures pending an investigation in the thousands of allegations that big banks have committed fraud in the Foreclosure of hundreds of thousands of home. In addition, class action lawyers are signing up entire neighborhoods as clients, and gearing up for one of the largest class action law suits ever.

Being on the “front line” of this crisis, Realtors, all too often, hear the horror stories of struggling homeowners trying to fight with their mortgage holders for loan modifications. There are accounts of people spending more than a year in this process, not to be any better off than the day they began. As a Certified Distressed Property Expert (CDPE), I have a responsibility to help homeowners make the best choice for their situation. My first obligation is to help them stay in their home if at all possible.  In order for this to happen, there must be an open line of communication between the home owner and the mortgage institution.  The sad part about this is the vast majority of homeowners who attempt this process give up in frustration because of the lack of responsiveness from their bank. It becomes an overwhelmingly, frustrating task to get a mortgage modification, and in most cases short sale or Foreclosure is imminent.

If you feel as though you have been a victim of Foreclosure fraud, you should contact your States Attorney General to file a complaint.

This year, 2010, certainly has been a bumpy ride for the housing market.  We saw another wave of foreclosures hit this summer, the tax credit ended in June, and USDA's popular Rural Development Loan ran out of funding.  There continued to be a tightening of credit and credit requirements, and home values, at least locally, continued to fall.

As we look froward to 2011 there are current policies in place that will dictate the direction the housing market will turn.  Will it remain the same?  Will it get worse? Will things improve? With policies changing on almost a daily basis, it will be hard to tell, but here are a few details we do know:

The President recently signed into law a measure that allows HUD to increase the amount of Mortgage Insurance Premium (MIP and also known as Private Mortgage Insurance PMI) to as much as 1.5%.  What does this mean to the current homeowner?  Right now it means little.  What it means for homebuyers after October 4, 2010 is a higher mortgage payment.  I consulted with Jeff Halbert, Senior Loan officer for First Home Mortgage.  According to Jeff, the impact for a home buyer purchasing a $300,000 home after October 4th could be an additional $200 a month.  In addition, home buyers would now qualify for less once the additional MIP is figured into the equation.  Potentially, this "cost" could be passed along to the sellers in the form of lower sale prices....to the tune of 5% lower as a result.  The projected impact of this policy change will hit in the Spring of 2011.

Another factor is the current Credit & Swisse statistic on upcoming ARM adjustments.  Do you remember back in the summer of 2006 when Adjustable Rate Mortgages were being handed out like candy at Halloween?  Those will finally be maturing this year.  We are expected to see a peak in home defaults as a result.  The month of July is expected to see the final and largest wave in what has been a series of waves that have rocked the housing industry.  This wave will also be comprised of Americans who have had good to excellent credit, and coupled with a bad economy, are unable to hold onto their homes.

But there may be some help coming.  While details are just now emerging, there is a program being rolled out this month that may help struggling home owners. What I know of this plan is that banks will be able to lower struggling homeowners mortgages to the current value and write off the remaining loss to the Federal Government.  Details should be out later this month. As a real estate agent, being on the "front line", I am anxious to see an end to this crisis, and hope the timing of this program is more than just politics.

What we do know is that none of the past programs aided ALL homebuyers, nor did they address the majority of hardship scenarios.  Many homes that were lost were military and government employees who were reassigned to work in a different area.  These were people that had exceptional credit.  What about the average Americans that lost their jobs or took a pay cut? How do banks adjust mortgages to homeowners who now have little or no income.  There are still a great many questions to be answered.

After months of lobbying Congress to restore the 502 single family loan guarantee program for rural housing, NAR was pleased when Congress reauthorized this program at the end of July.  However, despite the fact that the legislation has been signed into law, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has indicated that it will still only issue conditional commitments until well into the Fall.  On August 13th, NAR sent a letter to the Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack, encouraging him to restore the loan guarantees sooner.  There are lenders who are settling on homes under this program, unfortunately, some lenders refuse to honor the conditional commitments now issued by the USDA.

For a list of participating lenders, please call our office at 301-870-1717.