$8,000 First Time Home Buyers Credit as a Down Payment?

Shaun Donovan, secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, said that the Federal Housing Administration is going to permit its lenders to allow homeowners to use the $8,000 tax credit as a downpayment. Donovan said that important changes, which the National Association of Realtors (R) has been calling for, will help consumers purchase a home. "We all want to enable FHA consumers to access the home buyer tax credit funds when they close on their home loans so that the cash can be used as a downpayment," Donovan said.
According to Donovan, the FHA's approved lenders will be permitted to "monetize" the tax credit through short-term bridge loans. This will allow eligible home buyers to access the funds immediately at the closing table.


According to my colleague, Rick Williams, a mortgage broker with Bancgroup: 'This loan can be used to pay the down payment, closing costs, and pre-paid (escrow) items on a new home purchase. What remains to be seen is WHERE this money is going to come from exactly, but that seem to be a somewhat minor detail, as it seems that the following entities will be able to make these loans available: Federal, state, and local governmental agencies and nonprofit instrumentalities of government, FHA-approved nonprofits and FHA-approved mortgagees.'

This could be a HUGE lift to home sales nation-wide.

A Horrible Sellers Market

Many will tell you that this is a horrible sellers market, and for many, it is.

My second to last listing sold for sold for 97% of its list price on its first showing (day one). My latest listing was put into the Multiple Listing Service on Friday morning and by the end of business today will have had 11 showings and a minimum of 3 contract offers- should be under contract tomorrow. 5 total days to sell my last two listings???

How does he do it? "Tricks" of the trade revealed this week. But the hints are:

• price
• commission

A follow-up report, for fun

What are some of the silly catch phrases REALTORS use to market properties? I probably know them all.....instead of poking fun of them, I've decided to embrace them. Here's what I used for my latest listing:

Hi! I'm your new brick fronted, mostly vinyl sided ranch on a nice
sized lot. I have 3 bedrooms, 1.5 baths (the half's in my master), a 2 car
garage and big eat-in kitchen with plenty of possibilities. I do have some
obsolesence, so be prepared to install new flooring and paint me- but for the
price, what I'm a deal, right? Call my matchmaker today to set up a
date!

What do you Thinko de Mayo

Happy Cinco de Mayo to everyone out there (especially those that actually know what is celebrated on this day)!

I'm a little (lot) rusty with this, so I'm going to pose a couple of questions and hope for some response. As a home seller with his/her home on the market or a buyer reading through listings, do any of the following phrases attract you and which? Also, do any of them turn you off a house?

• This one won't last long
• Location, location, location
• New roof in '99
• Hurry!!!
• Just perfect
• Cozy
• Charming

Sorry

I owe you all a huge apology for the lack of blogs as of late, and as of late is basically all of 2009 to this point.

If you did not know, I've been waiting on a new website to be completed.....it was going to combine the best of this blog with my www.JimLudes.com into one-stop-shopping, so to speak. I feel there's no sense in promoting two or three sites when I SHOULD be able to offer you all of it at one.

BUUUUUUUUUUUT- it's taking a LOT longer than I anticipated. I was weening myself off of this site during what I thought were critical times to complete the new site, but ended up neglecting you.....if you'll still have me, I'd love to start blogging consistently for you again!