Category — Uncategorized

Very rarely do I ever post something not real estate related but I can’t help it — our very dear Phoenix Coyotes hockey team has made the playoffs for the first time in a loooong time and I am so excited for them!

Please cheer them on and even if you have never watched a hockey game it would be a huge loss to the city of Phoenix, the city of Glendale, as well as a major economic downfall for the real estate around Westgate if they were to leave town. So please support your local teams (especially the Coyotes) and let’s keep them here in town where they belong!!

I knew I could tie a hockey team into real estate somehow…

The FHA loan limit has been extended into 2010 and will remain at $346,250 for single family properties in Maricopa & Pinal counties.

Assuming the 3.5% down payment this means you can purchase a property at $358,800 or lower.

We are expecting to see the FHA down payment requirements increase to probably 5% as well as allowable seller concessions to drop from 6% to a maximum of 3%. We’ll probably see these changes sometime in 2010.

With the Nov 30 tax credit expiration date looming buyers are scrambling to get homes bought & closed to take advantage of $8,000 in free money from the government in the form of a first time homebuyer’s tax credit.

Yes, that’s right…you don’t have to be a large banking institution to get free money from the government (but it really helps!!)

There is “talk” of extending the credit into 2010 and this would only help the nation’s economy. CAN YOU HEAR ME OUT THERE??? This is a GOOD thing!!!!

Why in the world they WOULDN’T extend the credit is beyond me! There is no good reason not to and considering the absolute disasterous state that our country is in right now giving people the opportunity to continue to buy a piece of the American dream is not just a good idea but a necessity!

There are tons of buyers out there right now who would love to jump on a good deal on a nice short sale property however because we can’t give them an exact close date and can’t guarantee properties will close by Nov 30 there are a lot of buyers just passing on these types of properties and that’s unfortunate.

If we see an extension to that date then it opens up a new world of possibilities for these homebuyers and this would be wonderful news to our economy, our housing market, and home buyers AND seller nationwide!

Wow…ok, this is another good foreclosure tale here!

Cheronda Guyton, a Wells Fargo Senior Vice President for foreclosed properties has been using a 12 million dollar Malibu mansion that Wells foreclosed on as a personal weekend getaway home!!

Real estate agents have offers for the property but Wells Fargo has denied the prospective buyers from viewing the property.

No wonder why…Cheronda has been living it up Malibu style in a rent-free 12 million dollar beach home! She can’t have prospective buyers party-crashing now can she??

She even held a huge bash at the end of August where guests arrived via yacht and docked at the home’s waterfront entrance! This is great stuff–I couldn’t make this up!

Another wonderfully amusing yet sad tale in the land of foreclosures, short sales, and bank mis-behavings…

Oh, and in case you were wondering, the property was about 3,800 sq. ft. Valued at 12 million, that makes it about $3157.00 per sq. ft. And who says the average Phoenix home at $125.00 a sq. ft isn’t affordable???

Now here’s someone we all should buy a drink for…

New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo

In case you haven’t heard, Mr. Cuomo has brought havoc to Bank of America due to their unbelievably suspicious merger with Merrill Lynch.

Interestingly large bonuses were paid out to Merrill Lynch employees (ok, more than large…how about 3.6 BILLION!!!) and Bank of America was fined 33 million dollars by the US Securities & Exchange Commission for failing to disclose pertinent information.

33 million?? That’s it? That’s less than 1% of the 3.6 billion dollars that BOA paid top execs at Merrill Lynch! How in the world does BOA continuously get away with things like this?

Well, if Attorney General Cuomo gets his way then hopefully not much longer. BOA now has until Sept 14 to start disclosing some facts or else Cuomo may be pressing criminal charges against top-level BOA executives for illegal activity.

Sound familiar?? Mozilo, the ex-president of Countrywide busted for fraud?

Can you believe that our government not only backs these companies run by criminals (literally!) but also gives them our tax money to continue to screw the common consumer??? They disguise it as TARP money – money supposedly to HELP the American homeowner — not to buy large, underperforming companies with back-alley techniques and behind-the-back hand-greasing payoffs.

There is something inherently wrong here and don’t even get me started on the “The recession is over…” business. We are 12 trillion dollars in debt, unemployment is at 10%, 20% of homes are in foreclosure, and the American dollar is worth about as much as a cup of water is to a sea turtle — but the recession is over??? Do the feds really think that the American public is stupid enough to believe this?

I think President Obama should spend a little less time worrying about the Xbox 360 and a little more time concerned about helping us homeowners.