Jenny Mac Homes

A home is the biggest purchase most Americans will make in their lifetime, so getting a good deal matters.

While playing hardball to get what you want at the price you want, you risk over negotiating and being left empty handed. Here are five tips to secure the home of your dreams without breaking the bank.

Keep Emotion Out. Experts advise treating a home purchase as a business transaction, and avoid getting emotionally attached to a home which eliminates any leverage during negotiations.

“You have to treat the transaction as a business decision,” says Michael Corbett, Trulia’s real estate expert and author. “The minute you get too emotionally attached to this house, you are dead in the water.”                                       CONTINUE READING

To buy or sell in 2012, what with Armageddon coming and all? Absent any ancient Mayan wisdom on real estate strategies, let’s just hope the real cataclysmic event in the real estate market already has passed, even if the rubble from the bubble remains.

A stubborn overstock of households with loans higher than their value will continue to restrain prices and create some major obstacles for sellers in 2012, a year that’s shaping up to be another homebuyer’s market. In fact, recent studies indicate that more than 20% of all residential properties with a mortgage are still underwater, hinting that many foreclosures and workouts are still to come.

However, even the most conservative forecasts call for growth in home sales in 2012, with some select pockets around the country already busting out where there are competitive offers on new listings. More than one-third of home resales were made to first-time buyers in 2011 — another good sign.

Meanwhile, here are 12 tips for 2012, aimed largely at the group that needs the most help — home sellers.  CONTINUE READING

How to increase a credit score

Credit scores are one of the largest factors that lenders use in evaluating whether or not to lend money to a borrower. Credit scores are designed to measure the risk of someone defaulting by taking into account various factors in a person’s financial history.

If you are considering purchasing a Massachusetts home one of the things you want to be sure of is the accuracy of your credit report.  The economic down turn of the last five years has vastly changed the mortgage landscape all across the country.

If you ask any mortgage broker they will tell you that things have changed in the mortgage industry on a monthly basis. Given the increase in foreclosures and short sales lenders have increased their standards when evaluating the potential for default of every borrower.  CONTINUE READING

As a Realtor  one of the questions that I get asked quite often from home sellers is how long will it take before I will be able to buy a home again.

The answer to this question does not have any clear cut and dry answer. There are quite a few variables involved when trying to figure out when someone will be able to purchase a home after a foreclosure or short sale.

Going through either a short sale or a foreclosure has the potential to seriously impact ones credit.  Government entities Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and FHA do not directly loan money to individuals but are the governing body that work with lenders to guarantee loans and free up money to provide mortgages.

Banks typically have the authority to lend to whoever they want but will generally follow the guidelines set forth by these entities. There are some lenders of course that will take greater risks with some borrowers than others.

CLICK HERE for the general guidelines that FHA, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac follow when considering a loan after a short sale or foreclosure:

The arguments about title and improper assignment of notes being made by lawyers and pro se litigants may in fact be right, at this point there’s no question that Wall Street and commercial mortgage bankers screwed things up big time.  They failed to comply with numerous laws governing the transfer of real property, failed to comply with the applicable articles of the Uniform Commercial Code or the rules set forth in Pooling and Servicing Agreements, and they attempted to correct these improper acts by creating fraudulent documents and robo-signed affidavits.

However, even the most experienced foreclosure defense attorneys who continue to argue with increasing skill that the securitization of mortgages should preclude foreclosure, find that judges are more interested in the fact that their clients haven’t made their mortgage payments… and the foreclosures march on, and on, and on.

The question for a judge hearing such a case brought by a delinquent homeowner is… how were homeowners damaged by the inadequacies of the securitization process?  The answer is, and let’s be honest about this… they weren’t.  A homeowner was not prejudiced by the fact that the bank did things wrong as far as the securitization process is concerned.  And homeowners wouldn’t care about any of this… had their bank just modified their loan as they requested in the first place.  CONTINUE READING

Martin Mandelman; Mandelman Matters