We are pleased to announce the launch of our new Virtual Tour program. Powered by RealtyOpen.com, this new capability allows our Members to create and share an unlimited number of Virtual Tours.

We all know that Sellers expect maximum exposure for their property and Buyers rely on Virtual Tours as part of the home search process.

Best of all, these are included as part of your membership at NO ADDITIONAL CHARGE!

For more information, visit: http://www.agentsuccessclub.com/tours/

Sincerely,

AgentSuccessClub.com

17905 Villa Creek Virtual Tour

Down payment assistance programs were all the rage and still remain a very confusing topic to most homeowners. Once a thriving business market — until President George Bush signed H.R. 3221, The Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008. Part of the act banned seller-funded down payment assistance programs such as AmeriDream, the Nehemiah program and others.

Down payment assistance programs allowed the seller and charitable organizations to contribute towards the closing costs and down payment of FHA loans. For first-time homebuyers, down payment assistance programs helped make getting that first home with an FHA loan even more affordable. When the law banning down payment assistance programs took effect on 1 October, 2008, many borrowers and lenders had to find other ways to reduce or mitigate closing costs and down payments. Now there are developments that could give hope for homeowners who want to purchase using an FHA guaranteed loan; a bill called the FHA Seller-Financed Down Payment Reform Act of 2009. This was introduced in January 2009 by Representative Al Green (D-TX) and 17 co-sponsors.

But I thought you still could get Down Payment Assistance?

That’s the confusing part; there are still programs for Buyer’s in most large counties and cities that make it possible for someone to buy a home without any down payment. This can mean that you could buy without any money down but requirements vary by county/city, and the general rule is that the Buyer cannot make over a certain amount per year. It’s really targeted to help revitalize communities.

The new FHA Seller-Financed Down Payment Reform Act is designed to, “revise the requirements for seller-financed down payments (also known as SFDPA for short) for mortgages for single-family housing insured by the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development under Title II of the National Housing Act,” according to OpenCongress.org.

There are pros and cons to reviving down payment assistance programs. Opponents of the 2009 FHA Seller-Financed Down payment Reform Act say bringing back down payment assistance programs like AmeriDream or GrantAmerica could potentially distort housing prices. According to one site which opposes the return of seller-financed down payment assistance, “Usually the SFDPA money comes from simply marking up the home (sic) value.”

Those in favor of SFDPA programs point out that the FHA requires a 3.5% down payment as part of the terms of an FHA home mortgage. When down payment assistance programs are available, that down payment isn’t necessarily made by the borrower. Some down payment assistance programs even offer additional money to cut the costs further. The advantage to the cash-strapped buyer is obvious. Little or no down payment means a smaller financial drain during the transition to becoming a homeowner.

Assuming the “marking up the home value” complaint is legitimate, the issue can be viewed from a different perspective. If a buyer knows in advance that getting a greatly reduced down payment means getting a markup to offset the down payment issue, seller financed down payment assistance becomes an option–IF the buyer is willing to accept the markup.

You could choose to pay the required FHA loan down payment in full, or opt to pay a bit more over the long run to make up for not having to put a larger amount of money down at closing. The real issue is being an informed borrower, reading the fine print, and knowing your choices about making the down payment and how much could affect your bottom line overall. Choose a larger down payment and lower FHA loan payments every month, or accept a higher monthly bill to avoid putting a drain on your bank account. It’s the informed decision that counts.

For now, the “controversy” is moot—the 2009 FHA Seller-Financed Down payment Reform Act has not been passed or rejected. Until changes to the law are passed by the federal government, down payment assistance programs are still banned, sort-to-speak; there are other ways to find down payment assistance if you really need help.

The real question is whether or not these programs will truly help drive sales. As agents, we are looking at all opportunities to help buyers get into a home and more programs (as long as they are legitimate and make sense for the borrower) will almost certainly help.

It ties right in to what I do at www.agentsuccessclub.com

Focusing on new tools, resources and ideas for residential real estate agents and a commitment to building bigger, better business.

Have any of you attended one of these?

Not a bad incentive; and what’s even better is that for those current homeowners who thought of moving, now is your chance to move down to a lower priced home and save big money.

• You’re getting a $6500 tax credit to purchase another home
• If you move down think of the savings you can put into your pocket
• The tax credit does not hinge on a current homeowner selling, so you can also rent out the home
• Mortgage interest rates are still lower than usual

There are a few restrictions this time around; because of so many fraudulent transactions you are unable to get the tax credit at closing. The IRS is going to check and double check to make sure you’re not using fraudulent social security numbers or any other paperwork to scam the system. Once all the checks and balances have been done the IRS will issue you a check and mail out to you.

Be aware of the dates. We have until April 30 to sign a contract on a home and June 30, 2010 to close on a home. The biggest problem is that people procrastinate. You can’t start looking for a home April 1 and hope to sign a contract by April 30th. Is it possible? Sure, but you’re not taking into account all the “what-if’s”

So don’t wait until the very last minute if you want to take advantage of the extended tax credit.

This is the time of year that we really should be looking at how we plan on growing our business. Were you happy with the number of deals you did in 2009? Do you have a plan in place to grow your business in 2010?

My advice to you is to take time and think about what your business will look like this year. Don’t obsess about it, but give it the time and attention it needs.

One thing is certain. Tomorrow will come and circumstances in people’s lives will create the need for them to buy and/or sell a home. Make sure they are thinking of you when that happens.

Don’t listen to the naysayer’s and other negative people around you.

Think POSITIVE and commit to prosperity.

Steve
www.agentsuccessclub.com

As Sally did, many relocating individuals and families maximize the services of a home buyer’s representative for home purchase advice. Sure, a buyer’s representative can provide invaluable information regarding the housing market, but they can also give much information about the communities where properties are for sale. A valuable representative will readily realize that their clients are interested in purchasing much more than a house. Most assuredly, a client is purchasing a community, and yes, even a lifestyle. Buyer’s representatives usually know plenty of useful statistics that might be of interest to their clients. It is not unusual for a representative to have at hand community crime statistics, school system rankings, and local points of interest, be they historical, cultural, educational, or recreational.

Another excellent resource for those making a long distance move is to consult with the local chamber of commerce. The chamber of commerce provides extensive information. Whether one is accessing the chamber’s website or utilizing, in person, the knowledge of the chamber’s helpful people, one can quickly gain valuable facts. From weather information to a calendar of events, to local church listings, it can be accessed quickly. Also sure to be compiled is a listing of local businesses. One should also be able to find area specific maps as well. Best of all, their services are a courtesy to the public.

Perhaps one of the most natural ways to get acquainted with a new community is to simply visit some local establishments. It could be well worth one’s time to spend a couple hours visiting a local coffee house nearest one’s home. View all of the bulletin board postings, talk with the baristas, and visit with fellow patrons. If not the coffee house, how about the library, the doughnut shop, the dog park, or even a community church or synagogue? Good old fashioned word-of-mouth is sometimes the best way to get connected with all scheduled events around town. Those who have lived in an area for a number of years are often more than pleased to educate newcomers. Most of the time lifelong residents are proud of their town and it’s offerings. Plus, they can share many useful facts.

After the US housing market got into trouble, its Vancouver relative still worked fine for some time and managed to grow until the beginning of 2008. Anyhow, the market slowed down as it’s been influenced by the pressure of affordability demand, and the market freeze persisted for a few months. At first, the average price stabilized, but later dropped, and under the influence of the global economic crisis in the autumn 2008, the housing market of Vancouver got into record-low values in January and February 2009. People were generally worried of the deep and long taking real estate crisis as the one in the USA.

If you believe the same, look at the graphs around – February 2009 was the moment of rebound, not the beginning of stagnation! And from that moment on, all the key figures concerning the Vancouver BC housing market are telling us that things are going fine. Sales in June 2009 were almost 6 times higher than in February and almost double compared to the last summer. In concrete numbers, the sales in June 2009 were 75.6% higher than in the same month previous year. Average price decline stopped in December 2008, remained flat till March, since then continues to grow steadily again. The price level of October 2008 was achieved again in June 2009.

Is this amazing? Not so much, if you follow the numbers carefully. Let’s examine the graph of new listings change. New buildings kept flowing to the market till October 2008, then the general inflow began to decrease.

This has a simple explanation, which lays in the basic advantage of residential real estate, which is that people just need a house to stay. People do really need a home, while they can quite well live without cars, hairdressers or holidays. Demand can decrease, but this drop hardly can reach zero, even for a short time. Some regulations should be followed at the supply side. Real estate items mostly represent the most valuable part of your personal property. When prices are declining, it may be a good decision to hold your home and refuse selling it, but then this kind of approach helps new housing starts. Eventually, an agreement has to be reached at some moment both for sellers and buyers, and the sooner the better.

So what are the underlying factors behind Canadian market’s fast recovery, regarding that the US market is still struggling with the crisis? Canada managed to avoid the most severe event – wave of foreclosures. Compared to the financial health of institutions and individual house owners in the USA, the Canadian ones are doing much better. Canadians don’t necesssarily have to be better off, but apparently they are more ready to cope in case of any sudden financial problems. Subprime mortgage sector (the most affected one in the United States) is much more limited in Canada; our economic fundamentals are not in the best condition now, but still quite stabilized.

What future shall property market in Vancouver BC expect? We can expect solid sales and average price growth in the next few months. Nevertheless, the situation will calm down after reaching the pre-burst level, due to general economic slowdown. Next year the interest rates should still be low and prices still under the recent peak, which will make properties very affordable and thus a wonderful opportunity especially for first time buyers!

The concerns were based on two basic thoughts. One of them is the mighty attachment between the Canadian economy and real estate market and the circumstances in the USA. The second reason is originating from the progress of the housing market in Canada between the years 2006 and especially 2007. The situation showed a possibility for a similar bubble to occur here. Now let’s look at things almost a year after that.

The situation around the turn point of years 2008/2009 intensified the opinions of many pessimists, on the contrary to us, optimists. If we look at the monthly year to year sales statistics, we can identify a significant drop with its peak in January 2009: -47% compared to the same month last year. Apparently, the “depression panic” from fall 2008 came to Canada. People were worried to make any radical financial decision and our housing market almost froze. Looking at these facts, no wonder that some “experts” predicted that Canada would end up in the same collapse as the USA. Nevertheless, the truth doesn’t confirm these prophecies. Let’s focus on the 2009 numbers.

Number of sales and year-to-year change

The most representative and closely monitored figures. We can clearly see how the market froze in during the winter. Nevertheless, the sales volume between December and June grew more than four times. Sales began to grow again in May 2009 compared to May in the previous year. And the June results indicated clearly that the Toronto housing market is back out in the clear.

Days on market

This is another crucial number. Whereas the before mentioned ones illustrate the market volume, the “days on market” is showing the speed and freshness. These are crucial characteristics, since if we had only the overall market volume numbers available, we wouldn’t be able to predict how long any property would be out on the open market. It is like another side of the same coin. During the most difficult days in January, it took just 14 days more to sell your house. In comparison to other places such as South Florida or Detroit, it shows that our market was still quite working, because there it took even 120 – 150 days to sell a property.

Active listings flow change

This figure expresses the atmosphere of the real estate market. If the number of new listings is increasing, it usually tells us that house owners are scared that their property price would decrease and they want to save their investment. The opposite situation means that the dominating opinion is that this is a favourable time for buying property. The future of other market’s indicators can be predicted from the active listings flow change. For instance the positive change after January was interpreted as a market turn signal.

Average price

Price usually interests my real estate clients in the first place. Their dwelling forms the largest part of their general property, meaning that every change in the market means losing or gaining thousands of dollars. When the prices fell in autumn 2008, already the next April they got back and higher.

Why the outcomes are so positive?! Even now, negative news about the state of our economy are printed almost daily. So why has such a fast improvement of the housing market occurred? There are two basic reasons:

1. Failed expectations

Many Canadians saw the collapse of US housing market and presumed the same scenario at home. But we have to realize the crucial problem of United States was in the subprime sector. Some unresolved problems and failures at the beginning resulted in a chain reaction of bigger trouble later. It started with a price decrease, and as a result foreclosures and short sales were not covering all the toxic loans, so the banks were pressed to put even more foreclosured properties on the marked, which lowered the prices even more. The subprime sector in Canada is quite narrow with a minimum of foreclosures. If we add it up with a healthy (and we can spell it out and say extraordinarily healthy) financial system, we get the result that our real estate market has been secured by this. Homeowners realized this fact very soon and relaxed.

2. Stabilized economy and buying opportunities

Have a quick look at inflation, unemployment, GDP predictions and interest rate data. If we focus on the real estate prices explanation, we can clearly see the importance of these numbers for the housing market. Although I can imagine much more favorable numbers for employment or economic growth, our economy is slowed, stagnating, but definitely not collapsing. The winter real estate panic was also stopped after people started to be aware of all these facts.

Conclusion and the future

Toronto housing market has first very well endured the pessimistic mood during the winter months, and then it has got well very quickly. Now it is increasing again and condo resale market can be even evaluated as hot in the present. Low interest rates and good prices after “one year break” present terrific opportunity especially to first time buyers. It’s also great time for investors to pick some cherries, which prices haven’t recovered till now. Sellers can be calm too – the market is quick and their property will be sold probably within a month for a reasonable price. On the other hand, slower labor market and pertaining level of uncertainty will prevent abrupt price burst and bubble creation in next years. June’s 27% was extraordinary, but this means the market is trying to catch the weak months and we can expect stabilization soon. Toronto housing market forms a firm base of stability for Ontario’s economy in wild times.

If the real estate transaction exists, it is always better to hire Real Estate Lawyer Toronto which is more suitable for real estate transactions in Toronto.. The Real Estate Lawyer review the offer made by the purchaser. The buyer include many provisions that favor to buyer. In such situation, the Real Estate Lawyer ensures to remove or alter such clauses so that the opposite party may be in comfortable position. The Real Estate Lawyer is a specialist and able to give advice for the real estate property.

Advice in financing in respect of real estate can be provided by the Toronto Real Estate Lawyers. When the property is about to sell what is the need of finance? The mortgage rules do not permit the properties to be sold out. With the advice of Toronto Real Estate Lawyers, the borrowers able to take the finance and release the property from lien thereby able to sell the property. But no rule or law exists in connection with hiring of Real Estate Lawyer when real estate transactions continued. Hiring the Real Estate Lawyer protects rights of buyer or seller.

In North America, Toronto real estate market is more familiar than other areas of business. The Toronto real estate market has all levels of market that may be related family, home, commercial real estate or condo type. People making investment on Real Estate in Toronto as Toronto has many facilities, amenities etc. The speculators interested in the real estate market as subprime market crisis in United States. Considerable transactions of selling and buying are existed in real estate properties and simultaneously the role and importance of Toronto Real Estate Lawyers increased unreasonably.

Since the Toronto Lawyers are registered with Law society, they are eligible to practice in Toronto, Ontario and Canada. The Toronto Lawyers are members of various associations such as Toronto Lawyers Association, Ontario Trial Lawyers Association, Criminal Lawyers. Hence the Toronto Lawyers provide services in Real Estate and as well as other areas too. In anticipation of danger debts, the Toronto Real Estate Lawyers provide to advice to mortgagors and mortgagees.