DBPR: Watch out for unlicensed real estate agents in Florida

As a follow-up to the Blog Post I made last week about new Real Estate Agents hitting the market. Well, I was right, as Florida is seeing "new" agents hit the market. Only Real Realtors in Florida will be featured on the myfloridalicense.com website.  Make sure you check to see that you are working with someone who is licensed for this work.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Feb. 21, 2014 – The Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation (DBPR) issued a media release warning Floridians about unlicensed real estate individuals.

 “To ensure the financial and personal safety of potential homebuyers and sellers, the Division of Real Estate is responsible for the examination, licensing and regulation of over a quarter of a million individuals, corporations, real estate schools and instructors,” says DBPR Secretary Ken Lawson. He adds that the state oversaw 4,681 sales associate exams just last month.

Lawson also included a reminder about real estate licensing in his email newsletter.

“Moving forward, the Department aims to continue improving the standards and regulation of the profession while taking initiatives to keep the public informed,” Lawson said. He urged Floridians to first verify a real estate agent’s professional license before moving forward on any real estate transaction.

Real estate licenses can be verified online at www.myfloridalicense.com or by calling (850) 487-1395.

#LizBobeck

Lenders Return To The Subprime Market - Suprise!

You know that feeling when you are watching JAWS, the movie, and the music starts, da-da da-da da-da and you get tense because you know that the shark is approaching and its only a matter of time before IT happens. Well, have I got news for you........the housing shark is back.

Lenders are returning to the subprime market – although still at only a fraction of what subprime lending was before the mortgage crisis, BusinessWeek reports. Some subprime lenders that collapsed during the financial crisis are coming back into business with new nonprime loan offerings.

“There needs to be a solution for people who don’t fit in the box, and rebuilding nonprime lending is it,” says Bill Dallas, with his new venture New Leaf Lending in Calabasas, Calif., which will begin issuing nonprime loans. However, he says this time around tougher lending rules will require borrowers in some cases to put up to 30 percent down as well as require more careful documentation of borrowers’ incomes, credit, and work history. 

About $3 billion of subprime mortgages were issued during the first nine months of 2013, according to Inside Mortgage Finance. In 2005, subprime originations totaled $625 billion. Subprime loans – mostly targeted to those with credit scores below 660 – took a lot of blame in the financial crisis.

Lenders sold high-risk products to investors with adjustable-rate mortgage products that had interest rates that could triple after two years, in some cases. Also, many of the loans had required little documentation about the borrowers’ income and assets. The loans were blamed for sparking a huge wave of defaulting borrowers.

Since then, federal regulators have restricted many high-risk mortgage products. Lenders are also requiring higher credit scores and greater documentation of a borrowers’ financial situation. Athas Capital Group in Calabasas began issuing subprime loans last April, offering mortgages at 9.75 percent for borrowers with a credit score of 550 to 599 who can make a 30 percent down payment. 

“We’ve done enough loans to prove to us that it’s a product we’re going to continue to grow,” says Brian O’Shaughnessy, Athas’s chief executive officer. “The biggest thing that has held us back is that a lot of brokers don’t know the product is back. The word ‘subprime’ in a lot of people’s minds is dirty, but the product today is much different, much safer.” Banks, they are a different breed, for sure!

So it would appear that as long as a buyer has 30% down, and can stomach a 8, 9, 10 % or higher rate, banks are willing to put people in mortgages and homes. Will we ever get back to the days of 5% down or as it seemed, all you needed was a mirror on your breath to get a loan? Never say never, we typically repeat the past mistakes, mainly because "The main thing about money,...., is that it makes you do things you don't want to do." As quoted from the 1987 Movie Wall Street. We all know how that turned out for the main character....jail. Yet no one from the mortgage business seems to have gone to jail.

We shall see.

#LizBobeck

lizbobeck.com

Housing Gains Predicted for the Year

More modest gains are likely this year, according to the most recent Kiplinger Letter forecast. The national average of appreciation in home values is up 4 percent-4.5 percent, compared with a gain over 11 percent in 2013.

The top stated reason for this increase is rising mortgage rates, will increase by 5 percent or so for 30-year fixed rate loans by the end of the year. Another possible is that fewer investors are offering all-cash deals, with bargain prices and interest rates fading away.

“Building will get a bump this year with just over 1 million new houses started in 2014, the first time starts have passed the 1 million mark since 2007,” says Kiplinger Letter’s Associate Editor Gillian White. “Sales of new homes will also be a bright spot, with 16 percent growth this year, just shy of 2013’s substantial performance.”

Another prediction: More existing homes will go up for sale, as price hikes pull homeowners out from mortgages that are underwater, making them more willing to sell. Sales will climb by 4 percent, but inventory won’t be as tight.

The Kiplinger letter forecasts that new-home building will accelerate again, helping to offset the construction drought of 2008-2012. Keep an eye out for housing starts this year to climb by 15 percent and top 1 million for the first time since 2007.

Affordability, though declining, is still better than the historical norm: A median-price home costing 20 percent of household income. In 2013, it took just 15 percent of income to buy an equivalent home. When mortgage rates rise to 5 percent, it will cost 17 percent of income.

“More moderate growth this year is not necessarily bad news, it signals a more sustainable, long-term growth trajectory that will help quell fears that another bubble is arising,” says White. “Rising rates will also be helpful in some cases, cooling overly hot markets, where cheap rates and high demand sparked outsized price spikes.”

For more information, visit http://www.kiplinger.com. 
#LizBobeck

It's happening again......bad Realtors are making their way into the Real Estate universe.....

They're back, the idiots who left the Real Estate industry during the downfall, the ones who could not cut it, hack it, build relationships, the ones who only were in Real Estate for the easy "Hello, Realtor on the phone, let me write up your sale" closes. They have returned and are coming out of the woodwork as we see the economy improve. Would you buy from this guy?

Its not just Realtors who are getting a bad rap, its also investors. The Doctors and Lawyers who over-speculated in houses, land and Real Estate in general have begun to call owners of land to begin their speculative journey. Stop!!! Aren't there enough issues in a medical practice, Obamacare, Medicare, Medicaid, Insurance, Patients, to where you don't need to dabble in the world of Rocket Science too? Here is a neat article on this point : Physicians do not belong as Real Estate experts

This all comes to fruition as I received a low-ball offer, two actually this week. One on a house that had been on the market for 14 days, or 2 weeks and the offer was only 80% of the asking price. The prospect had been to open houses, and was hovering over it, and thought that asking 20% off of a rehabbed house in a Historic District was appropriate. This is not Fantasy Island folks, this is reality!

On the other property, the Realtor was being led around by investors. Who holds the license, who knows the market? They made an offer that was at 60% of what was offered. Really? The house is priced below the market value, any idiot Realtor could run a property appraisal and see this. Apparently bottom fishermen, or perhaps they have been hanging around with the lawyers of the world, you know the joke, what's 1000 lawyers at the bottom of the sea.....A good start. 

So watch your children, watch your parents and most importantly, watch your pockets, because the roller coaster appears to be moving on an up slope. The Fed is tapering off its support, China is buying less US debt, and the old appears to be new, yet again. Hold on for a new bumpy ride in 2014.

#lizbobeck

lizbobeck.com

#Jacksonville stats for #January 2014

It is a new day and a new year here for Real Estate in 2014. I appreciate all of my clients and customers, I have been informed that I ranked in the top 5% of all Real Estate professionals in Northeast Florida in terms of sales and transactions in 2013. Thank you to my customers.

The portrait in #Jacksonville Real Estate is similar to other parts of the country, albeit not as chilly now, but we have a judicial state which means we still have many more houses in foreclosure. Many more yet to hit the market, but for 2013, there were some nice surprises as compared to this time in 2012.

The median sales price in Jacksonville for January 2013 was $110,000. The median sales price for January 2014 in Jacksonville was $120,000. That’s a difference of 9.1%.  The median sales price is the average of all the prices of homes sold for a period of time, in this case, the last 12 months. So prices are rising.

I have highlighted the area of the data that I think is most compelling, Days On Market. The number of days a property sits on the market is down from 2013 to 2014 January to January, for low end houses it is down almost by 1/3. The old adage that time is money is true here. Imagine an investor, if they could shorten their time of ownership by one month, how many more homes they could process and sell?

REO sales are increasing, a sign that we still have a LOT of inventory on the books. With Florida as a judicial state, our foreclosure process takes a LOT longer than other states. In Texas, you can foreclose on a house in 21 days, in Georgia 30, but Florida is a long process.

What this all means? Well, it means that 2014 is acting much like a lion, we shall see when the lamb of real estate returns. Not even the threat of higher interest rates has really slowed down the march of investment. We are seeing investors move back into the market, we are seeing first time #homebuyers, we are seeing more people looking to buy. It is HOT, HOT, HOT out there, so if you see a home, and you LIKE it, but don't LOVE it, get to Loving it quick, homes are not staying on the market in hot areas of town.

#LizBobeck
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