According to CNN Money, some housing experts say that if the administration is interested in the future, it should help speed up the foreclosure process to get the delinquent borrowers out and to get the foreclosed homes on the market and back into use.

Some of the July ’11 numbers on delinquency are staggering:

• 2.2 million loans in foreclosure
• 37% behind more than 2 years
• 34% behind more than 1 year, less than 2 years
• 71% total behind more than 1 year

Clay Lee – Realtor

Century 21 Beal, Inc.

(979) 255-1839

www.ClayLee.com

clay@century21bcs.com

Timeless Service, Quality, and Experience Guaranteed

Here in College Station, there have not been many reports regarding foreclosure-prevention scams.  But if you are a homeowner, it is still a good idea to make yourself aware of the possibility.  Alert consumers can identify fraud from legitimate help if they learn these three basic signs.

1. Avoid anyone who asks for a fee in advance.  If you pay these fees (which can range from $1,000 to $5,000) you will likely never hear from them again.
2. Avoid anyone who tells you they can guarantee foreclosure will stop.  Nobody can do this, especially before they find out about your individual circumstance.
3. Avoid anyone who urges you to stop paying your mortgage and pay them instead.  They are keeping up the pretense of helping you, while adding to the money they are stealing from you.

If you are having issues with foreclosure and don’t know where to turn, please call me.  I am here to help and can explain the many options that are open to you.  We can discuss negotiating a short sale, a loan modification, or even quick sales to avoid the potential harm to your credit.  Call (979) 255-1839 anytime.

Clay Lee – Realtor

Century 21 Beal, Inc.

(979) 255-1839

clay@century21bcs.com

Timeless Service, Quality, and Experience Guaranteed

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As the real estate market picks back up, so does the progress on new home building. Crowley construction is nearing completion on two if its custom builds, 3515 Matoska Ridge and 303 Timber, and if you haven’t stopped by lately to take a look at either of these, it’s about time you did.

The house on 3515 Matoska is a beautiful farmhouse style home set on 1.27 wooded acres in Indian Lakes. The house is painted both inside and out and the installation of the flooring is nearly complete. Many of the appliances and amenities have already been installed, such as the custom light fixtures, master tub and granite countertops, with the rest of the appliances to be installed soon.

303 Timber is a one of a kind build in the College Station Historic District, featuring huge covered patios, a flexible floor plan and wide open rooms that make this house perfect for entertaining. The exterior was just finished being painted, and the interior will be done within a week. This floor plan is completely unique and if you have not seen it since the drywall went up, you will hardly recognize it!

These great custom builds, priced at $699,900 and $600,000 respectively, will both be completed soon and if its’ been a while since you’ve seen them, you owe it to yourself to go see how far they have come. If you have never taken the time to go check out these homes, located in two of the best areas of College Station, then there has never been a better time to go see what you’ve been missing.

If you have any question, feel free to contact me anytime at rclaylee@yahoo.com or 979-255-1839

Clay Lee

College Station’s #1 Luxury Lifestyle & Real Estate Expert for over a Decade!

Home Equity and PMI

PMI has been a large money-maker for the mortgage lenders. The amount of the insurance (usually $40/month for a $100k home) is commonly rolled into the mortgage payment. Given the size of the overall note payment, this additional fee is often overlooked. Homeowners continue to pay the PMI even after their loan balance has dropped below the original 80% threshold. This occurs naturally, of course, as the home owner pays down the principal on the loan. On a typical 30-year loan, however, it can take many years to reach that point.

Lenders were under no obligation to tell home owners when they had reached a point where the PMI can be dropped. That all changed back in 1999 when the Homeowners Protection Act took effect. In most cases, this law now obligates lenders to terminate the PMI when the principal balance of the loan reaches 78% of the original loan amount. Savvy homeowners can get off the hook a little sooner. Upon request of the owner, the PMI must be dropped when the principal balance amount reaches 80%.

Here are the disclaimers: this only works for homes purchased after 1999 and wwners must be current on their loan payments. For buyers prior to 1999, they must initiate the process to have it removed. Lenders are under no obligation to remove it, but most will.

There is another way that your home equity can reach beyond the 80/20% ration. Raise your hand if you know the answer…actually leave your ideas below in our comments section.

Here’s tricking you,

Cindy Seaton, REALTOR

The mortgage foreclosure epidemic has been taking thousand of families who can no longer afford to pay their mortgage and putting them out on the streets. But what about the families who are still making their monthly payments, do they deserve to be thrown out too? In apartment complexes all across the country, good tenants, who have never so much as missed a payment, are being evicted from their apartments because building owners have fallen behind on their mortgage payments. Fair? Illinois sheriff Thomas J. Dart doesn’t think so, and is now refusing to evict good tenants from their homes, calling it “insane”. Get all the details here and decide for yourself whether these people deserve to be out on the streets.

If you have any question, feel free to contact me anytime at rclaylee@yahoo.com or 979-255-1839

Clay Lee

College Station’s #1 Luxury Lifestyle & Real Estate Expert for over a Decade!

1.  He wants to take away all the tax cuts for big earners and give tax cuts to the middle class.  My concern with this is the money available to hire those middle class earners.  Am I crazy to think that if a company has to pay higher taxes that they won’t have to reduce their payroll?  Would this not mean lower salaries and fewer jobs for the middle class?

2.  He claimed to want to pump $70 billion dollars into the countries infrastructure to help upgrade roads and bridges immediately.  While this sounds like a lot of money, when you divide that by 50 states, that is only $1.4 billion per state.  Now it probably would not be split fairly among states, but for the most part, it would give states less than $2 billion each.  A road widening or replace for roughly 5 miles can cost anywhere from $10 to $20 million.  When you add on Major Bridges, those can reach $100 to $150 million very quickly.  At $15 million per 5 mile stretch, that would only fix 500 miles per state with $500 million in bridge repairs.  The number that will be reduced even more by costs for analyst, management, and other costs associated with distributing government funds.  It really is a joke.

3.  He stated that he wanted to give bankruptcy courts the ability to reduce mortgage balances and reset rates to keep people in their homes!  I value home ownership as much as any other American; however, if he thinks this will increase home ownership and stabilize the housing economy, he is strongly mistaken.  If bankruptcy courts have the ability to reset balances and interest rates on home loans, banks will react in their lending practices.  It will cost more money to get a loan, and it will be harder for borrower’s with questionable credit to get a loan.  Those borrowers with less than AAA perfect credit may not even be able to get a loan or will have to pay interest rates that will be the highest we have ever seen.  It would essentially remove a lenders ability to foreclose on properties and protect their assets.   If we think Fannie and Freddie are in a bad place now, imagine that all people have to do to save money on their mortgage is to file bankruptcy, have their loan balance and interest rate reduced and watch the mortgage company sit back and drown to the bottom of the lake with their hands tied behind their backs.

While disagree with the Republican Campaign’s stance on many things, I have to look past those personal preferences to the issues that will affect me for the next 20-30 year as I work and save for retirement over the next 4-8 years under a new regime.  If the economy is made even worse, my ability to save for my retirement and the future is diminished which means I would not have enough money for a wedding anyhow!

If you have any question, feel free to contact me anytime at rclaylee@yahoo.com or 979-255-1839

Clay Lee

College Station’s #1 Luxury Lifestyle & Real Estate Expert for over a Decade!

In the past PMI seemed to be available to anyone who was approved for a loan by their lender. As a REALTOR with 13 years of experience, I had never heard of someone not being approved for Private Mortgage Insurance. However, that came to a halt recently when one of my clients didn’t get approved for PMI right before the closing of their new home! With the foreclosure crisis happening in so many parts of this country, PMI companies are possibly being hit the hardest! With that being said, they are tightening their belt on the types of loans that they will insure. FHA loans are not affected by PMI as they are insured by the federal government which approves the loan and the mortgage insurance at the same time. Higher risk loans are what they are afraid of. Clients with high credit scores sometimes qualify for “No Doc” types of loans that don’t require them to provide any type of paperwork to prove they are qualified to purchase the home. This has been a great program for self-employed folks for years because so many times it’s very hard to document their actual income. However, PMI companies are now rejecting most undocumented types of loans, especially from self-employed people who have not been in business very long.

So, the moral of the story is, PMI is something you really need to think about. First, if you have it on your current loan, make sure to watch your home’s value so you don’t keep paying it unnecessarily. Second, if you are getting a loan, use an experienced lender that is up on market trends and ask them to get your private mortgage insurance approved early on instead of right before closing. If you don’t’ get approved, you will have to either put more money down or change your loan program to one that will approve you for PMI.

If you have any questions about financing your new home, feel free to email me anytime at rclaylee@yahoo.com.