Loan limits for the VA loan program have increased to $812,500 in the two MD Suburbs of DC areas I serve most -- Prince George's County and Montgomery County.  They have also increase, though not as high, in Anne Arundel County and Howard County to $537,900. This opens up a world of possibility for veterans seeking to purchase a home in the Metro DC area.  The VA Loan program is about the only zero down payment mortgage available.  The best part is that, if you qaulifiy for the loan you get the great interest rates available to vets. I write in more detail about the ins and outs of the new loan limits in this blog post. Check it out.  The loan limit increase is currently temporary through the end of 2009 and it's available only for purchases (no re-fi's) but it's a great, great deal for... 01/11/2009

Recently, I've been running into folks who are not "in trouble" or "underwater" with their home.  The payments are current.  Income is good enough to keep the payments current.  Yet, they can't sell their home!  Or, at least, they can't sell it and make enough money to buy something else. Why not? Well, it seems that some folks saw the huge run up in home prices and decided to refinance and/or take some home equity lines out  so they could have some cash.  Lots of reasons for cash: vacations remodeling toys (of the adult and child variety) tuition for the kids medical bills ..all kinds of things.  I go into more detail in this post about the costs of selling a home even if you decide to do For Sale By Owner. You see, contrary to popular belief, the fee to the Realtor is not the only cos... 01/07/2009

A couple of posts back I wrote about a great end-of-year settlement for a nice Split Level in College Park Woods.  The house hadn't been on the market that long and the previous owner had kept it in good shape. Now, just days after that one settled an offer cam in on another listing "across town" from College Park Woods near the Town of Berwyn Heights. We're really just talking a couple of miles here. Still a great neighborhood with great access to the University of MD and major employers as well as major commuter routes and METRO. You can read more about the experience here. I'm beginning to wonder if College Park is not undergoing some kind of renaissance or if it just so happens that there is a kind of "perfect storm" of circumstances: low mortgage rates, low home prices, and Sellers... 01/05/2009

I don't know if it's the interest rates, people getting tired of renting, a perception that home prices are pretty darn low (relative to recent home values) or what but homes are selling.  At least a couple of my listings. I serve a community near the University of MD called College Park Woods.  It's a nice subdivision of single family homes built in the mid '60s.  Community pool. Community park. Close to METRO and some fairly big employers (USDA, NASA, Archives, to name a few).  So the location is good, the prices reasonable. Yet, because of the "meltdown" and subsequent tightening of mortgage standards sales have slowed down pretty significantly and short sales have started to pop up. Yet, if a Seller is not "in trouble" with their mortgage and actually have some equity they can sell ... 01/02/2009

Yes, it's Christmas morning and I'm here on Active Rain posting to my blog.  You'd think I'd have something better to do.  Like open all my presents!  Well, like every kid, I got up bright and early to see what Santa bought and I was ecstatic! a promise for a new iPhone so I can be cool and connected and a GPS so I can find my way around once I find someone who wants to buy a home :-) Whatever happened to those poor ADC map books?  I still see them in stores but I have to guess they won't be around too much longer. Anyway....Merry Christmas to all and a very Prosperous New 2009. BTW, you can see both my Letter to Santa for the housing market and my Predictions for 2009. It'll be interesting how they turn out.   12/25/2008

Yes, folks,it's time to sit down with family and friends to remember the good things in life.  It's hard, sometimes, in the midst of economic crisis, terrorism around the globe, war and hunger to stop and be grateful for all the things that are wonderful in our personal lives. I am reminded, though, that our forefathers endured great hardship to come and found this country and that Thanksgiving, of all our holidays, is uniquely American. Yes, I know the Canadians have their Thanksgiving as well.  The American Thanksgiving, though, is rich in the history of the discovery of the North American continent and it's settling. Some interesting links - The First Thanksgiving Proclamation The Presidential Thanksgiving Proclamation (by George Washington) The National Turkey Federation Have a grea... 11/27/2008

Recently, I've been lucky (I think) to get some listings that have Sellers with equity.  This means that when an offer comes through there's no waiting for a bank or other "third party approval".  You would think that would mean that these Sellers would be ready to work with reasonable and even not-so-reasonable offers that come to the table. You would be wrong. In fact, I'm working with a Seller now that has equity and can certainly make a decision to move forward pretty quickly...if they really wanted to. Of course, they tell me they're ready to sell but, of course, they don't want to "give it away" (don't pay attention to all those short sales and foreclosures that are being "given away"). To be fair, some of the offers are pretty low and pretty insulting. However, one came in the ot... 11/25/2008

The Fed and US Treasury have finally come to grips with the fact that, oh yeah, maybe the housing industry could use a little help. While they've been busy handing out money by the truckload to banks so they can buy other banks and keep those corporate jets in the air, the ordinary person who wants to buy a house or re-finance is left out in the cold. Today, that finally changed.  Blog buddy Alan Gorss of National City Mortgage wrote a nice blog post about today's developments at Treasury and the Fed. The lower interest rates (predicted to hit about 5.25%) will make housing that much more afffordable in the MD Suburbs of DC. Maybe this is the breather from all the bad news we need to help get us back on track. 11/25/2008

I know I should have bought a camera to take in the long lines and such but I just plain forgot.  Luckily, I was intuitive enough to know to get their early in order to trade in my old Supra lockboxes, old Supra key and old Sentrilock key card (it's old already???). So I had plenty of time to hang out and read the Wall Street Journal while I waited for the training to begin. Bottom line.  All went well.  A little bit of a wait in line at the end to pick up my new Sentrilock lockboxes and new keycard. Oh yeah.  The serial numbers on the lockboxes probably won't be in the "system" until tomorrow.  That's OK.  I was able t get the lockboxes back on my listings and if anyone has been through the conversion they can get in.  If not, they'll have to wait until sometime tomorrow (I hope not la... 11/10/2008

Tomorrow, I walk into a hotel ballroom in Greenbelt to convert all my Supra lockboxes and key access to Sentrilock lockboxes and key access.  Woo! Hooo!!! Neighboring jurisdictions have converted long ago (and one will convert a little later this year or early next, I understand). So I went and got my Sentrilock key and card reader several months ago.  I wasn't going to forgo showing property in either Anne Arundel County or Howard County just because Prince George's was running out the clock on their Supra contract. I'm see a lot of pluses to Sentrilock, not the least of which is that they will trade me one-to-one for all the Supra lockboxes I have.  Lockboxes aren't cheap and being able to maintain my personal inventory without breaking the bank is important.  I'm just hoping they acc... 11/09/2008

In the never ending line of chain blogs, I've been "tagged" by fellow CRS Chapter member and Realtor Extraordinaire, Rich Mielke to write about why I'm in this wacky business.  Rich got "tagged" from fellow Rainer/Realtor Sandy Shores from Melbourne, FL (can Sandy Shores be a real name for a Realtor in Florida??  Evidently so.), who was "tagged" by Fred Chamberlin, a mortgage guy, in the Eugene, OR area. It never ceases to amaze me at the widespread connections we tend to make on Active Rain.  It just shows the awesome power of networking, writing, and experience...from a variety of different fields. It is this diversity of experience, both in terms of years and in terms of expertise or "niche", that keeps me engaged in the real estate profession and on Active Rain. Where else can you f... 11/03/2008

I saw this as I was floating around on Facebook and I was both inspired and impressed. I'm a more of a Boomer myself and I find myself really hopeful that the next generation is considering itself the WE Generation. This is a great little video...and only four minutes and forty five seconds. 11/03/2008

This is a little off the real estate topic but it's something that started to bother me yesterday. Recently, my wife and I have had a run-in with various ailments, most notably my wife came down with asthmatic bronchitis, which was both annoying and painful because of the shortness of breath and constant coughing. Luckily, she works for the Federal Government and has great health insurance.  She dutifully wen to the doctor who gave her antibiotics.  When her condition didn't abate she called back for a more in depth consultation.  Unfortunately, the primary care guy was now out-of-town and she was referred to a local health center (as opposed to an emergency room at a a hospital). The heath center took close to six hours to see her, treat her at the center for short term relief and they... 10/21/2008

We all know that the market in inundated with short sales and foreclosures.  That makes it hard on everyone, most importantly, Sellers who have equity in their home and have maintained it in good condition over the years.  Prices of homes in short sale or foreclosure situations are pushing prices down all over the place. Add to this the fact that it is now harder to get a mortgage than anytime in recent memory.  Sure, that's probably a good thing because a lot of people got into homes they couldn't afford.  But what about those Buyers out in the world that can afford the house but can't get a mortgage for a whole host of reasons.  Less than perfect credit comes to mind (and by less than perfect, I'm talking about credit scores in the mid 600s which used to be considered "good").  Howeve... 10/18/2008

Today the DJIA - that's the "DOW" to the rest of us - went up 936.42.  This was the biggest point gain in the history of the index and the largest percentage gain - 11.08% - in the history of the index, according to this CNBC web page. Isn't it amazing.  The end of the world was at hand on Friday and today everybody is drinking happy juice and uncorking the champagne.  Friday everyone was worried about not being able to retire and today it's "Happy Days are Here Again!"  Roller Coaster CIty. Hey, it ain't over yet.  That's why the stock market and any investment including real estate should be viewed as a long term investment.  I actually wrote about this today on my "outside" Blog in a post called My Crystal Ball because I got an e-mail from someone who wanted help finding a condo he w... 10/13/2008

I'm kind of a big fan of Dave Ramsey because he's about getting out of debt and staying out of debt.  It's amazing what kind of freedom and stress relief not having the wolf at the door provides.  Anyway, he has this "Common Sense Fix" which you can read (it's a quick one pager!) you can read here -- The Common Sense Fix If you're on Facebook you can see Dave Ramsey's Three Steps to Change the Nation's Future If you're just surfing the web, you can read it ...Here Maybe someone can tell me what's wrong (or right) with this approach. 09/30/2008

I've been thinking about this whole, big mess with the big Wall Street firms and how they say the credit markets are seized up and all.  It reminds me of a car wreck on the infamous Washington Beltway.  I would be driving down the road (with thousands of other motorists) and there would be a wreck on the other side of the Beltway.  It might be a small, fender-bender or a full-fledged blood and guts Med Evac helicopter type wreck.  Doesn't matter. People slow down and "rubber neck".  But, in the end, they pick up speed and keep on going. I guess there is some sort of macabre interest in other people's misfortune that causes us to slow down and look.  It's kind of the same thing on Wall Street.  Here are these big banker types who were supposed to be soooo smart and sophisticated and now ... 09/30/2008

Here it is, Saturday evening and the economy is still going.  Maybe not as strong as it used to but things are still happening.  Of course, it's not Monday, yet, so maybe the economy is getting ready to collapse as soon as the markets open on Monday. Here's something I've been thinking about, though. Remember the Administration (Treasury Secretary,Fed Chair, President) were all saying this bailout thing ($700,000,000,000) has to happen now!  Not later!  Now! It didn't happen overnight and, wow, nothing bad happened.  In fact, the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S & P Index went up and down just like they've bee going up and down for months, if not years.  Yeah, it's volatile but it's been that way for a long time. I think it really had more to do with the election.  Congress (i.e.,... 09/27/2008

Is it just me or has the world gone crazy?  I haven't seen this type of paralysis in the market since 9/11/01 and that was when some wackos flew a few planes into some buildings scaring the bejeezus out of everyone.  Now it seems that the "all bad news, all the time" cable and regular network shows have everyone standing around like deer in the headlights. Here is an article n today's business section in The Washington Post about potential home buyers and why, all of a sudden, they aren't doing jack. Here's a big alert, everybody, there are Sellers out there that have equity in their home and want to sell their home.  No short sales that might mean months of waiting while a bank decides that they may or may not accept your offer. No "fixer uppers' "as is" homes with wet basements and br... 09/25/2008

It's hard to think of one Depression being "greater" than another but if you think of "greater" in terms of "more than" the last "Great"Depression we may be in for a hell of a ride.  In this morning's edition of The Washington Post there is this article entitled: Markets in Dissarry as Lending Locks Up. I don't know about you but when I see words like "...Lending Locks Up" I get worried about all those people out there who are trying to get a mortgage.  I understand that FHA and VA are backed by the government through insurance or outright guarantee.  I wonder, though, how much that is going to mean, going forward, if good ol' Uncle Sam continues down the path of nationalizing the financial services industry. I know this can't be good for the American taxpayer and if we keep borrowing m... 09/17/2008