Reno Sparks Real Estate Today

ACORN Housing Launches Non-Profit Mortgage Brokerage

Major Lenders Partner With Leading Consumer Advocate to Reach Homebuyers
ACORN Housing and CitiMortgage, Bank of America, First American Title Insurance Company, and Fannie Mae announced today the launching of a new non-profit mortgage brokerage called Acorn Housing Affordable Loans, LLC, to help qualified borrowers enjoy the benefits of homeownership throughout Florida. Additional offices will be launched in other states in the coming months. The new mortgage brokerage will also help homeowners faced with resetting adjustable rates that may make their current home mortgage payments unaffordable.

For more on this story, click on this link. 

www.realtown.com/articles/foreclosures/acorn-housing-launches-non-profit-mortgage-brokerage

Speed up Home Sale in a Slow Market

JOE LOPEZ (online@rgj.com)
February 24, 2008

With so many amazing new homes on the market here in northern Nevada, many homeowners are looking to move up on the property ladder. By expending a bit of effort before it goes on the market, you can ensure that your home presents well, stands out from the crowd and doesn't turn off potential buyers so that you can sell quickly -- and at the best price.

Here are a few tips to improve the marketability of your current home:

Use a Realtor

A Realtor can help you in both the selling and buying processes by helping you determine a selling price for your current home and finding new homes that meet all of your needs. The Realtor will use professional tools and networks to market your home much more efficiently than you could do on your own. A Realtor also will provide you with current information about the marketplace, pricing and the condition of competing properties. A Realtor is an excellent source for community information such as utilities, zoning and schools.

Tone down personality

Your bookshelves may be filled with Pulitzer Prize winners and your collection of Americana figurines may reflect your personal interests, but to homebuyers, it looks busy and cluttered, and may distract them from truly seeing your home's unique architectural features and spacious rooms. Also consider whether family pictures help or hinder a sale. Future homeowners may not be able to look past your kids' smiling faces plastered all over the walls and see themselves building their own future in your home.

Since you hope to move soon anyway, go ahead and box them up and put them in storage.

While that red accent wall opposite the lime green fireplace perfectly ties in with your ultra-modern furniture, potential buyers at your open house may be turned off immediately and decide the entire house doesn't reflect their style. Consider painting walls a neutral color such as beige or taupe.

Don't burden buyer with repairs

If there are problem areas in your home, get them fixed before the showing. When prospective buyers tour the house and see leak stains on the ceiling or peeling paint, they also will see future work and assume that bigger maintenance and repair issues are lurking behind those small problems.

This particularly is true in kitchens and bathrooms, which often are the two rooms that make or break a sale. The expenses you incur on the front end sprucing up your home will be cheaper than the profits you could lose by having to lower the price to meet buyer demand.

For more helpful hints, contact the Builders Association of Northern Nevada at 329-4611 or online at www.thebuilders.com.

Maximize exposure

As I suggested earlier, use a professional Realtor. This really is the best way to get the most exposure for your home.

You also can take advantage of new technology to find different ways to market your house. Use Internet social networking sites such as Facebook or MySpace to create a Web link with a profile of your home. Include pictures and a description of your home's features. E-mail the link to your friends and ask them to forward it on to their network of contacts.

Joe Lopez is secretary for Builders Association of Northern Nevada.

Home Builder Offers Unprecedented 'Risk Free' Price Guarantee for the Life of Its Communities

 
PR Newswire
Comtex

Reno, Nev., Feb 25, 2008 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- In an unprecedented move that takes the uncertainty out of today's real estate market, builder Pacific West Companies is offering home buyers a price guarantee good through the life of its communities. The Reno, Nevada-based builder just announced it will guarantee buyers that if the base price drops on a home like theirs before the last home sells in the community, it will issue a check to the buyer for the difference -- even if it's two to three years later. Other builders may only guarantee prices through close of escrow or for a few months after purchase if they guarantee them at all.

"When you really deduce down the issue with the market's slowdown right now, it's not that prices are still inflated, interest rates are bad, or builders built the wrong product, but rather it's a psychological issue relating to buyers' confidence," says Taylor Cohee, Vice President of Sales for Pacific West. "With our program, we truly believe that we will bring back a sense of comfort among buyers who will no longer need to worry about prices falling, and we will also set a precedent that our competitors will have to take notice of. We've taken a hard look at all of our markets, we have defined our capital bottom, and we've insured that bottom with a guarantee unlike any other available today."

This one-of-a-kind price guarantee is good for as long as participating communities are selling homes. Pacific West is offering the guarantee in Reno, Nevada and at all but one of its California communities. The builder was named the 8th largest multi-family builder in the nation last year by Builder Magazine and builds in the Sacramento and Fresno areas of California, and Northern Nevada.

The "Risk Free" guarantee is now available at Madrone, a 219-unit condominium community in Folsom, California, priced from the low $200,000s; at Lesarra, 160 condominiums in upscale El Dorado Hills, California, also priced from the low $200,000s; at Montage in the Clovis area of Fresno, with 252 units priced from $199,990; and at Fallen Leaf, 245 loft style condominiums located minutes from the slopes of Mt. Rose in Reno, Nevada from the mid $200,000's. The builder introduced the program last weekend, and already sales have jumped.

"We are the first to offer such an extensive guarantee -- both locally, and to our knowledge, nationally," says Cohee. "Most builders only offer this on certain homes and only through the close of escrow or perhaps for a few months after purchase. Our program lasts as long as we are selling homes at each community."

Pacific West is promoting its guarantee through a new ad campaign and website entitled "What the heck are you waiting for?" More information can be found at: www.WhatTheHeckAreYouWaitingFor.com.

SOURCE Pacific West Companies

http://www.WhatTheHeckAreYouWaitingFor.comCopyright © 2008 PR Newswire. All rights reserved

Construction begins on downtown ballfield

STADIUM TO BOOST RENO'S IDENTITY The stadium is expected to draw families from throughout the region, boost the city's identity and provide another reason for people to come to Reno or stay a little longer. It also will serve as an anchor in redeveloping the blighted east side of downtown; SK Baseball has plans to fill some of those blocks with a new entertainment/shopping zone. "It will put a point on all the good things happening downtown that are coming in small pieces or increments," said Chuck Alvey, Economic Development Authority of Western Nevada chief executive officer. For More On This Story, Click On The Link: http://news.rgj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080226/NEWS04/802260344/1002

Project Lifeline

Assist-2-Sell, the leading full-service discount real estate company, is encouraged by this week’s announcement that six of the nation’s largest mortgage lenders will reach out to homeowners most at risk of losing their homes through a new plan known as “Project Lifeline.” The Company is also pleased to see such strong support for the plan come from the White House, the U.S. Treasury and the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Project Lifeline www.hopenow.com  helps homeowners avoid foreclosure by temporarily suspending the foreclosure process for 30 days. The plan will initially involve Bank of America Corp., Citigroup Inc., Countrywide Financial Corp., JPMorgan Chase & Co., Washington Mutual Inc., and Wells Fargo & Co. Homeowners who are 90 days or more behind in payments on any type of mortgage, not just subprime loans, can use the extra time to work with their lenders on more affordable loan terms.

Mary LaMeres-Pomin and Lyle Martin, co-founders and co-chief executives of Assist-2-Sell Inc., had these comments on Project Lifeline:

“We’ve all become so accustomed to seeing statistics about foreclosures and short sales and declining home prices. We have to remember that these aren’t just numbers. These are people; these are families. So it’s a good thing when steps are taken to help people on the brink of foreclosure. Any time you can keep someone in their home, it is good for the family; it is good for the community; it is good for the economy; and it is good for America.

“It’s unfortunate that so many homeowners are truly afraid they will lose the home they worked so hard to put over their head. They shouldn’t feel alone, though, and they shouldn’t avoid the problem. There really are options. We encourage homeowners who are in trouble with their mortgages to use this extra time to get help. They shouldn’t wait any longer. Resources, like Project Lifeline, are available to them. This extra time just might be enough to save their home.

“Project Lifeline is only a start, though. We hope these and other lenders will take their efforts further by making changes within their own organizations. Resources are tapped, which means foreclosures and short sales are piling up on people’s desks, homes are sitting on the market for months on end, interested homebuyers are walking away after weeks of waiting, and distressed homeowners are going further and further into debt. The longer mortgage lenders take to address their own problems, the longer recovery will take.”

FHA Loans - General Information

As of 01/01/08, subject to change without notice

• Loan Limits*                       Washoe County                Lyon County                   Douglas County              Storey County 

                 Single Family:      $362,790.00       $251,750.00     $362,790.00     $362,790.00
                          2 Units:      $408,616.00       $283,550.00     $442,950.00     $408,616.00
                          3 Units:      $496,449.00       $344,500.00     $538,200.00     $496,449.00
                          4 Units:      $572,826.00       $397,500.00     $621,000.00     $572,826.00

• Figures above reflect the base loan amount.  Up Front Mt. Ins. Premium (UFMIP) to be added.  (1.50% on 30-year fixed rate loans).

• Owner Occupied Only.  1 – 4 Family and Condos.  No second homes or investment properties.

• 97% LTV.  (Up to maximum loan amount).

• Gift Money is allowable for 100% of Down Payment and Closing Costs.

• Monthly Mtg. Ins. Premium (M.M.I.P.):  30 Yr. Loan:  .50% of base loan amount (+ 12)
  15 Yr. Loan:  .25% of base loan amount (+ 12)

• Appraisal Fee:  $400.00!± (Single Family)

• Seller Concessions:  The Seller may pay up to 6% of the appraised value or sales price, whichever is lower, for the following:

A. Non-Recurring Closing Costs (Loan origination fee, discount pts., Title ins., escrow fees, etc.)

B. Recurring Closing Costs (“Pre-Paids” – Taxes, Ins., Pro-rated interest)

The Seller will be charged with the following fees:  (FHA does not allow the borrower to pay These fees).

A. Tax Service Fee - $82.00±   

Important Changes to Note:

• Pest inspections are no longer required unless noted on Appraisal.
• Well and Septic inspections are not required unless noted on Appraisal.  (Note:  Well inspections are required in Fallon).
• Borrower may pay for Doc. Prep. Fees.  (Previously, this was a fee the seller was required to pay).

For additional information or a quote on current rates, please call:

                                                                Sue Snyder
                                        (775) 448-9667 – Direct Line
                                        (775) 742-7497 - Cellular