KCM Blog

From the category archives:

For Buyers

What is Today’s Luxury Buyer Thinking?

March 9, 2010

Whenever you are selling anything, it helps to have an idea what your customer is thinking. I had the opportunity to attend a session at the Luxury Portfolio Summit in Las Vegas which covered the findings of the Survey of Affluence and Wealth in America 2010 produced by American Express Publishing and the Harrison Group. [...]

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Is the JUMBO Market Loosening up?

March 8, 2010

There has been an improvement in the interest rates available for Jumbo Mortgages, and that is encouraging news.  In addition, some lenders are even lowering the amount of down payment required in the Jumbo loan programs- which is even more good news.
Let’s begin with some basics.
Jumbo mortgages are those mortgages which exceed the Fannie Mae/Freddie [...]

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FHA 203(k) – Understanding Its Real Value – Part 2

March 5, 2010

Here is Part 2 of Skip Schenker’s two part series on understanding the FHA 203(k) and its real value. In case you missed yesterday’s, here is a link to Part 1.
How Is the Appraisal Completed?

The appraiser is given a detailed report from either a licensed contractor [for the “Streamline” 203(k)]; or from an FHA 203(k) [...]

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FHA 203(k) – Understanding Its Real Value – Part 1

March 4, 2010

Many readers have requested a post on the FHA 203k program. I was lucky to meet Skip Schenker, a national expert and instructor on the subject, while we were both speaking at a conference in Dallas last month. I asked him to share some of his thoughts. Here is his contribution. – Steve Harney
The FHA [...]

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The Silver Lining in Today’s Cloudy Market

February 22, 2010

There is no doubt that the immediate future of today’s housing market is, at best, cloudy. However, there is at least one silver lining which oft times goes unmentioned – affordability. We sometimes tend to concentrate on the seller in this market. There is no doubt that many sellers have seen much, if not all, [...]

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Buyers and Sellers Team Up on Financing- Part 2

February 18, 2010

Last week, we began with a premise…that Buyers have a WANT (the lowest monthly payment, even more than the lowest Sales Price) and Sellers have a NEED (to differentiate their home from all the others on the market), and that creative approaches to financing is a method to satisfy both Buyers and Sellers.  Part I [...]

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Buyers and Sellers Team Up on Financing

February 11, 2010

Let’s start with the premise that buyers do NOT buy big ticket items (like a home or a car) based on its sales price; rather, they buy based on their proposed monthly payment (or cost).
Additionally, when looking to sell your home with so much availability of homes on the market, the biggest challenge a seller [...]

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Homeownership: Still the American Dream

February 9, 2010

There seems to be a long held American belief currently under attack. For over two hundred years, homeownership in this country was a desire of almost every American family.  Recently however, more and more people have been pontificating on the fact that owning your own home should never have been held in such high regard.
I [...]

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Fed Flip-Flops on House Flips

February 3, 2010

Finally, some good news from the FHA. Effective February 1st, the FHA is waiving their requirement of the “90 day holding period” before home sellers (predominantly real estate investors and speculators) can resell a piece of real estate to a buyer who uses FHA Insured financing.  Given the recent increase of the UFMIP, coming reduction [...]

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The Fed Exit Raises Interest… Literally

February 1, 2010

I have been reading some interesting things this week in regard to the effect of the Fed exiting from their program of buying mortgage backed securities (MBS) on March 31 this year as they announced they would last Wednesday. There seems to be some people who do not believe that the Fed’s exit will have [...]

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