St. Louis Park – Live Where You Work
I was working with a Minnesota First Time Home Buyer last week and we were searching for properties in St. Louis Park, MN. One listing told us the buyer could get $2,500 in local grants, so we decided to look into it.
As it stands now, St. Louis Park has a buyer incentive called “Live Where You Work”. The program is designed to encourage employees of the city to buy properties and not have to commute as far for work. Here’s a quote from the city’s website on the program:
Once the employee obtains a mortgage from a participating lender, the grant can be used to help finance a down payment, closing costs and gap financing. The program not only gives workers an opportunity to own a home close to their job, it increases employee loyalty, retention, and morale, and creates a positive community building environment for the homeowner and their family, the company they work for and the city. Having employees living in the community also will reduce commute times and fuel costs.”
The good news is that this program is not limited to First Time Home Buyers, so even repeat homeowners can benefit from this grant.
There is also a nice $1,000 bonus if you’re buying an REO (Foreclosure) property.
Like all buyer programs, there are certain restrictions on the sale, so check with an expert before diving in.
See this Flyer for more info
First Time Buyer Class – North Metro
| February 25, 2010 | ||
| 6:30 pm | to | 8:00 pm |
*REGISTER HERE*
We’ve gotten a number of emails asking “when will you have a home buyer class in the Northern Metro area?” Well, your request has been granted!
Starting in February we will be holding First Time Buyer Classes up north, so you don’t have to travel across town if you live in the upper part of the Twin Cities. See below for full details.
Join us for a very informative 90 minute home-buying course where you will learn everything you need to know about buying your first home. We’ll show you the importance of getting Pre-Approved for a Loan, how to Search for Properties Online, and how to become an Expert Negotiator in the process.
This is not a “Sell-a-thon” like some other seminars on home-buying. It’s totally free, we have no products to sell you, and there are no documents to sign. We’re all about educating buyers in order to help you with the biggest financial decision of your life. If you’re a fan of a low-pressure and laid-back atmosphere, you’ll feel right at home.
Our three presenters - Steve Howe, Tony D’Agostino and Darcy McDonald - have teamed up to give you the full spectrum of buying your first house in the Buyer’s Market today. Learn how getting the right loan can save you Thousands of dollars a year.
Some of the topics we will cover include:
- First Time Home Buyer Tax Credit
- Credit Score Ratings
- Down Payments and Loan Qualification
- Special Mortgage Programs for First Time Buyers
- Writing and Negotiating Offers
- Closing Process
- and Much More
If you are thinking about buying a home in the next 2 years we would love to answer your questions and help you make a solid home purchase, without paying too much. Anyone in the Minneapolis St. Paul area of MN should come on down to one of our monthly seminars.
Here’s the info:
- What - First Time Home Buyer Class
- Where - Shoreview Community Center; 4580 Victoria St N, Shoreview; Room #203
- When - Thursday February 25th, 6:30-8:00pm
Space is limited so please REGISTER HERE.
Filing Your Home Buyer Tax Credit
I just received a very informative note from a colleague of mine regarding tax filing for the 2009-2010 Home Buyer Tax Credits. If you are eligible for either Tax Credit you must file a paper return, and NOT an e-file tax return.
I’m not a great tax mind, so don’t ask me why, but the IRS is requiring people to file their returns by paper and snail mail, as opposed to electronically online.
For full information on the tax credit filing procedures, visit the IRS website.
Just thought I’d spread the word to you.
MN Housing Programs
It’s no secret that First Time Home Buyers have a good number of programs and loan options available in Minnesota. If you’re looking for down payment assistance or closing cost help there are a couple programs you could take advantage of through the Minnesota Housing Finance Agency (MHFA).
The first is called the “Minnesota Mortgage Program” (MMP) which can provide low interest-rate loans along with a no-interest loan for closing costs and/or down payment on the house. There are certain requirements for this program (like all programs), but the good news is any one of the following can be true to qualify you:
- Household of “color”
- Single head of household (with children)
- Households earning less than 60% of the area’s Median Income
- Households with a member who has a disability
- Purchase in a low-income census tract
- Buying a Foreclosed (bank-owned) property
Some of those may not be so clear to the average new home buyer, which is why it’s a good idea to work with a real estate agent and loan officer who can help educate you on the home buying process and terms you’ll need to know.
Another mortgage program that could be useful to you is the “Community Activity Set-Aside” (CASA) Program. This is a great home loan for low to moderate income 1st time home buyers in MN. It’s offered through local lenders who help target emerging markets, single-headed households, foreclosed properties, and workforce housing. The CASA program offers low-fixed-interest-rate loans and also the possibility of interest-free loans for down payment and closing costs.
Under both of these programs offered through the MHFA, a certain amount of requirements need to apply:
- Buyers must attend an 8-hour Home Stretch Class before closing
- Buyers must contribute $1,000 of their own money to the transaction (rest can be a “gift”)
- Buyers on the loan and PA must have minimum of 620 Credit Score
- Post-close liquid asset limit of six months PITI or $5,000 – whichever is greater
- Down payment assistance loans are due when the buyer sells, moves out of the property, or refinances.
There are always changes occurring with these programs, so please make sure you contact a knowledgeable loan officer and Realtor before thinking you can go out and obtain these things on your own. Needless to say, there’s a lot of help available to buyers looking to take advantage of the lower prices in Minnesota. Best of Luck!
Frozen Pipes
No, this is not a blog all about the world of plumbing, but as it turns out most houses have plumbing for their water and sewage systems (alert the media, right?!). We also happen to live in Minnesota, which is always a fun time around the winter months because it gets below freezing most nights for around 4 months of the year.
It’s also no secret that a lot of vacant houses are on the market right now. Whether they are a bank-owned foreclosure, short sale, or even a retail listing being vacant can lead to a number of problems.
The most common, and almost most damaging, is that if the heat is turned off or stops working for some reason, the pipes in a house can freeze in a matter of hours. When this happens you will often get a lot of water damage unless the water has been turned off already.
I am seeing more and more properties on the market that have been vacated in the winter and have suffered this freezing fate. Some homes are not even made available for showings because the damage is so bad and can be hazardous to a person’s health if mold has started to grow in the affected areas. Unfortunately when this happens, there are only a couple options a buyer has when looking to purchase a freeze-damaged home.
Most FHA and Conventional Loan companies will not close on a loan for a house that does not have properly and fully functioning plumbing, therefore the buyers would need to come up with the cash to pay for the entire house, get a private money lender (not very likely), or use a rehab loan.
There are a few different kinds of rehab loans available for buyers, but the best one for most First Time Home Buyers in MN is the FHA 203(k) loan. This offers the lowest down payment with a good interest rate, and can make your offer attractive to a seller, especially if it’s a foreclosure. Otherwise, you will not get an acceptable appraisal and the deal will be dead before you get to close and move in.
If you need more information on loan programs or the home buying process, please contact me to get started.
First Time Home Buyer Class – February 18, 2010
| February 18, 2010 | ||
| 6:30 pm | to | 8:00 pm |
*REGISTER HERE*
So you want to buy a house – now what?! Well, the first step towards home ownership is getting educated about the process and finding a Team of Professionals you can trust and feel comfortable with.
That’s where we come in. Join us for a very informative 90 minute home-buying course where you will learn everything you need to know about buying your first home. We’ll show you the importance of getting Pre-Approved for a Loan, how to Search for Properties Online, and how to become an Expert Negotiator in the process.
This is not a “Sell-a-thon” like some other seminars on home-buying. It’s totally free, we have no products to sell you, and there are no documents to sign. We’re all about educating buyers in order to help you with the biggest financial decision of your life. If you’re a fan of a low-pressure and laid-back atmosphere, you’ll feel right at home.
Our two presenters - Steve Howe and Darcy McDonald - have teamed up to give you the full spectrum of buying your first house in the Buyer’s Market today. Learn how getting the right loan can save you Thousands of dollars a year.
Some of the topics we will cover include:
- First Time Home Buyer Tax Credit
- Credit Score Ratings
- Down Payments and Loan Qualification
- Special Mortgage Programs for First Time Buyers
- Writing and Negotiating Offers
- Closing Process
- and Much More
If you are thinking about buying a home in the next 2 years we would love to answer your questions and help you make a solid home purchase, without paying too much. Anyone in the Minneapolis St. Paul area of MN should come on down to one of our monthly seminars.
Here’s the info:
- What - First Time Home Buyer Class
- Where - Cornerstone Mortgage; 436 Gateway Blvd, Burnsville, MN
- When - Thursday February 18th, 6:30-8:00pm
Future Dates in 2010 are: Mar 18, Apr 15, May 20, Jun 17, Jul 15, Aug 19, Sep 16, Oct 21, Nov 18, Dec 16
Space is limited so please REGISTER HERE.
Realtor.com iPhone Application
For the Tech-savvy home buyer and seller out there, you have a new option for searching homes available in your area.
Realtor.com has launched a nice little app for the iPhone in which you can search for homes near you based on MLS #, size, ammenities, and a number of different options.
See the video below for a few more details, and as always, if you’re looking for an agent to represent you while you start the home buying process don’t hesitate to contact me.
Word of The Week: FHA 203(k)
When buying a distressed property like a Foreclosure or Short Sale, you may have limited options for what type of financing you can use. The main reason many homes can’t use regular FHA or Conventional financing is because the property may be without plumbing, electric, or other living essentials. These “typical” types of financing require homes to be fully livable in order to close the loan when you buy the property and take ownership.
For most first time home buyers, FHA is going to be their only option when buying a property because of the low down payment amount and the competitive interest rates.
It’s a common scenario amongst MN Buyers today that their financing will not allow them to purchase a home. So how can you work around this fixer-upper roadblock? Easy: by taking advatnage of the FHA 203(k) Rehab Loan Program.
What this program essentially does is allow a buyer to purchase a property which may have “essential living issues” such as the problems named above. They are able to close the home purchase with the seller, then begin rehab work after closing and roll the costs of the improvements into the end loan.
There are two different types of FHA 203k loans available, a streamline version and regular version. I have attached a PDF here that you can save or print with all the information you need on these loan programs. Click Below for the File:
FHA 203(k) Loan
If you’d like to see if you’re eligible for this or any other loan program, contact me.
2010 Real Estate Market Predictions
So the time has come to make some predictions on what 2010 will hold for the Twin Cities Real Estate Market, and more notably how this will affect MN First Time Home Buyers.
Well, we saw a lot of change in 2009 – 8 Thousand Dollar Tax Credit signed into law replacing the 2008 $7,500 version; Market went down, then up, and then back down for December; an extended and expanded tax credit for repeat homebuyers; and some signs that the economy may be bottoming out.
I don’t normally like to play the role of fortune teller, but I have to chime in on this issue of market stabilization and economic recovery. My gut reaction to “the worst is over” claims is that the worst may in fact be over, but there is no return to grace coming in the next 2 or 3 years. What we saw in 2000-2005 was very abnormal and had never happened before in our housing market’s history.
People who believe home prices will “rebound” to their 2005 levels in a matter of years are severely mistaken. Those were inflated prices which did not reflect the real value of most homes. I’ve included a graphic here which shows the Median U.S. home prices since the 1960s. I’ve also included another line which is the average price from 1968 to 2000 as a constant.
As you notice by looking at the two lines, around 2000 we shot up drastically and for the past 3 years have been descending almost as drastically until we stand right about at the constant line. My best guess is that we will probably dip below this line for a few years, before returning to our normal course of steadily increasing home prices sometime in the 20-teens.
So for 2010 I see a bump in home sales for the first half of the year due to the 2010 Obama Tax Credits, and probably a steady market for the second half of the year followed by a good numbers of foreclosures coming onto the market later in 2010.
All this adds up to a bit more competition for buyers in the spring, but more homes to choose from later in the year due to higher inventory and lower buyer levels.
700 Homes Sold in 2009
I just received word from my Team Leader that The Minnesota Real Estate Team has officially closed 701 homes in the 2009 Calendar year. For most of you reading that probably doesn’t mean too much, but to offer a little perspective–no team is even close to that level of sales in the state of MN, and as far as Real Estate Companies go, it’s impressive to see the same team be the Top Sales Team for 4 years now (2006-2009).
There are about 50-60 agents that make up the MN Real Estate Team, and I myself have been with them for a couple years now, contributing 22 sales over that time–all to home buyers.
If you’re thinking about buying a home I would highly suggest you pick your real estate company carefully. There are a lot of brokers and agents hanging up their sales licenses because they’re not equipped to deal with today’s changing market.
Personally I picked the MN Real Estate Team because I recognized a growing, thriving team who really put the emphasis on the customer first, and let the “sales” numbers take care of themselves. Obviously that is the more beneficial strategy for you, the client, and has turned out to be a win-win situation for all us agents as well.
Last post of 2009, Happy New Year and make sure to check back for another great year in 2010…!
