Preapproval financing letter may not be worth much

homelessThe Seattle Times ran an interesting article on how on-line preapproval letters. It should serve as a warning to sellers to make sure that you are getting a pre-approval letter that is actually worth the paper it is printed on.

The agents said 39 percent of preapprovals issued by Internet-based lenders are faulty or invalid. Nearly 30 percent of mortgage broker-issued preapprovals are in the same category, along with one out of every five preapprovals from national lenders.”
A faulty preapproval letter may say something to the effect that “We have preapproved Mr. and Mrs. Flanagan for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage at 5.5 percent in an amount not to exceed $500,000.” That allows the Flanagans to look at — and bid on — homes without anybody seeing proof of their actual qualifications.

But what happens when the lender simply relies on Mr. and Mrs. Flanagan’s statements about their income, assets and credit, and issues a preapproval without verifying the information?

“That’s where you can get into deep trouble,” says John Marcell Jr., a real-estate broker who is the incoming president of the California Association of Mortgage Brokers. He runs Compass Realty and Better Mortgage Brokers, both based in Upland, Calif.

Marcell’s loan brokerage does not issue preapprovals for buyers whose credit files, assets and income have not been verified, and his realty firm won’t accept preapproval letters if the information has not been confirmed by the lender or broker issuing the letter.

“In those cases [functioning as Realtor] we go to the [mortgage] broker and say, ‘Look, we’ve got to see the credit reports. We’ve got to see the W-2s. We’ve got to see the bank statements.’ ”

Compass Realty also warns the seller on homes it lists whenever preapprovals look dubious.

Seattle Real Estate Blogs

[photopress:half_dome.jpg,thumb,alignright]The problem with most real estate blogs is that after an initial flurry of activity, the bloggers quit making regular updates. However, there are two new seattle real estate blogs that have been providing some great information and hopefully, they will be around for the long haul.

Seattle Property News is written by an annomous individual who claims:

I’m not a real estate professional, just a Seattle resident who enjoys tracking the world around me, in a literal sense, by watching real estate trends and discovering the stories behind different properties around the region. I started this site for myself, as an open notebook of the information I find interesting.

However, I find the writing to be too full of technical details to believe that the person is involved in the real estate industry in some manner. Keep up the great work!

Seattle Real Estate Talk
has also been putting some interesting content together. As it stands, this site is currently producing content similar to Rain City Guide in that it covers general interest real estate news and local Seattle updates.

There is definitely room for some more good real estate information in Seattle, so good luck to both of these blogs!

Troll Avenue North

[photopress:victorious_half_dome.jpg,thumb,alignright]I just returned from a wonderful vacation in Yosemite to find out that two blocks of Aurora Avenue are proposed to be renamed Troll Avenue North. Such huge news! 🙂

We had a wonderful time, and while my family didn’t make it up to the top of Yosemite Falls (so we do not have a “five-years later” photo), my husband did make it up to the top of Half Dome!

[photopress:river_rafting.jpg,thumb,alignleft]With over 40 members of my family in the valley, our vacation involved lots of laid back time with family. We went on many small hikes and found time to go river rafting just about every day. So much fun!

Anyway, I’m sure that as I go through all the websites that I missed while on vacation, I’m going to find lots of stuff to blog about. I’ve got lots of reading (and writing) to do! In particular, google came out with an official “API” for their on-line mapping which should simplify the development of the ghomes tool that I’ve put together. I’m going to work on that this afternoon, and hopefully, I’ll have something interesting to share with you soon!

Freedom and Independence!

[photopress:100_1769.JPG,thumb,alignright]Happy Fourth of July! I could go on and on about how home ownership is the key to independence and how it can give you freedom from renting, but instead here are the Seattle PI’s list of celebrations around town. Hope you all have a safe and magical 4th of July!

P.S. If you are interested in the whole independence and home ownership discussion- don’t hesitate to call!

Mary Jereczek

Starbucks on Anna?

[photopress:luke_hurley_and_bird_patterson.jpg,thumb,alignright]I’m always interested in new marketing approaches and I recently read about two ideas that seem worthy of more consideration. The first comes from Rosa where she describes an investment banker that buys everyone coffee at the local Starbucks once a week. Here’s how Rosa describes it:

This morning Kerwin and I walked into a Prescott Starbucks and both ordered their strong-brew coffee of the day to then find it was free. The barista at the cash register motioned over to a gentleman sitting in an animated discussion with a group of about six others, and said, “Your coffee is on Mr. Perez this morning.

European Solutions

london bridge
The Seattle Times ran an interesting commentary discussing how much the central government of Britain has been promoting redevelopment. Without a doubt our government could make vast improvements if they rearranged their priorities. However, I’m not sure enough Americans want to live in these dense “utopias”.

At a recent conference in Seattle, Britain’s Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott…

described the amazingly broad set of activist initiatives that Prime Minister Tony Blair has allowed him to lead and champion — in housing, transportation, recycling abandoned industrial lands, revitalizing towns and using government power to force new malls and megastores back into downtowns.

All of this is rolling forward with tens of billions of pounds invested, pushed with little opposition in a national parliamentary system with few of the checks and balances of the U.S. system.

More links:
The Thames Gateway London Partnership

mortgage update…

Turtle on RockMortgage rates are still quite competitive:

Mortgage rates fell across the board over the past week, mortgage finance firm Freddie Mac said Thursday, suggesting the housing market still has room to grow.

The rate on 30-year, fixed-rate loans averaged 5.57 percent for the week ending Thursday, with an average 0.6 point payable upfront, down from the prior week’s average of 5.63 percent, according to the mortgage finance firm’s survey.

$90 million home sets US property record

garden viewWow!

A 40-acre estate in the Hamptons – the Long Island summer retreat of New York’s rich and famous, has been sold for $US90 million, a new US record for a residential property.

The New York Post cited sources close to the deal as saying the purchase was made by a Swedish industrialist who has rented the estate for the past few summer seasons.

To answer the obvious question… Assuming standard commissions (and this was far from from a standard situation), two real estate agents just earned $2.7 million in commissions!

Interested in Pre-foreclosures?

Exit 3On Saturday, the Seattle PI hyped pre-forclosures:

A good place to find these cash-flush speculators is at foreclosure auctions, according to longtime Tampa, Fla., property investor Tom Lucier, author of “The Pre-Foreclosure Property Investor’s Kit.” But by the time a property reaches the auction block, it’s probably worthless as a short-term investment. The trick is to find the distressed property in pre-foreclosure.

Pre-foreclosure is that period of time between when the lender files a foreclosure lawsuit or notice of default in the public records and the date the property is to be sold at public auction or trustee’s sale.

Seattle Resource for Gnomedex Attendies

[photopress:seattle_center.jpg,thumb,alignright]Gnomedex 5.0 is coming to Seattle this weekend!

I thought I would send out an early welcome to Gnomedex attendees. If you’re looking for interesting Seattle resources, I may be able to direct you to some interesting resources… For those of you who are unfamiliar with this conference, it is a tech event where all-kinds of big-shots will discuss and announce new products and services… I’d be most interested in (1) learning how I can better use the current technology tools and (2) how some of the companies (Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, etc.) are going to work with small businesses (like me).

In terms of events for the weekend, the stranger will list just about anything worth doing! If you’re looking for live music, I would highly recommend the Tractor Tavern which will have the meat purveyors (“bluegrass on booze”) on Friday night and Omar Torrez on Saturday night. (Scoble has also been talking about a camping trip before or after the event, but I don’t know if that is still on…)

If you are a map person and want an overview of the Seattle area, the gHomes tool that I’ve developed can give you an overview of the different neighborhoods. For example, the tool lets you pretty easily zoom in on the million dollar neighborhoods if that is of interest to you! Also of interest is the fabulous new Bus Monster that Chris Smoak developed.

For a different kind of overview of the neighborhoods, simply to browse some of the posts I’ve put together… There is lots of info (and more every day!). There are too many great Seattle bloggers around to put any type of definitive list together, but two of my favorite are Dave Fox and Greg Linden.