The housing market seems to remain all over the place. Some of the headlines seem to be more positive but we are still very concerned about the summer months and going forward.

• Freddie and Fannie are clearly bankrupt but continue to get tax payer funding.
• Interest rates will have to move higher and government incentives have gone by the wayside.
• It is very difficult to get a mortgage right now, and most are coming in one form or another from the government agencies, which are in very bad shape.
• What really scares sellmyhouse.com, is the fact that there are so many foreclosures in the pipeline and default notices have increased over the last few months, not decreased.
• The supply side of the equation is about to be throw out of whack again, and that is never good for prices.

Preparing for this, if it does unfold as we suspect, will be about surviving the next year or so. Large inventory + low mortgage base = owner financing explosion. Only time will tell if we are correct but we began positioning for this a few months ago with our new website and service.

A recap and links provide the story:

1. Foreclosure Inventory = 103 Months
2. New Home Sales Still Ailing
3. Home Prices Fall in Major Cities
4. Despite Positive Signs in Housing, More Declines Expected
5. The Mortgage Problem Hasn’t Gone Away
6. Does Freddie Mac Deserve Another $10.6 Billion?
7. Fannie Mae: Where the Bankrupt Only Get More Bankrupt
8. The Disconcerting Truth About Fannie and Freddie Default Rates

SellMyHouse.com Staff Writer

fannie mae · Foreclosures · Freddie Mac · Home Prices · housing market · Pending Home Sales · sell my house · seller finance · sellmyhouse.com

May 03, 2010 – Palm Coast, FL. The owners behind the website www.sellmyhouse.com are proud to announce the launch of the new owner financing website www.ownerfinancehq.com.

Since 1995, the organization’s built by Jason Roberts and Scott Surgener have developed a reputation as one of the most trusted and respected real estate organizations in the business. Over the years, we have expanded into a national company and are considered to be one of the foremost experts in the real estate investment community investing primarily in distressed foreclosure properties while helping our clients stop foreclosure via short sale or quick sales via our investor network.

In early 2009, Mr Roberts was introduced to Michael Walker based in Atlanta, Georgia who has become an expert in the field of owner financing.  They quickly decided that due to current market conditions, there was a tremendous need for this service. SellMyHouse.com offers a national platform and service network while Mr. Walker brings the expertise of the specific owner financing niche. Last fall they began building the new website with the goal of national expansion via the SellMyHouse.com network this spring.

Jason Roberts, CEO of Merida Marketing Co Inc says, “The launch of the new website will help to expand this service to all corners of the country. This gives us a platform to advertise our investor and traditional seller properties to the thousands of buyers that go to any of our websites.” Mike Walker, developer behind www.builderleasepurchase.com explains, “There has never been a time in history where the surge in inventory has been trumped by the lack of lending options. We are very excited to be able to help buyers with good jobs and reasonable downpayment purchase a home at prices that havent been seen in ten years. We provide a solution to sellers who need to sell their house where a short sale is not an option and renting is not possible.”

OwnerFinanceHQ.com will focus on 2 facets of the business. First, we plan to use the website to inform buyers and sellers of the processes, pitfalls, and options related to the different seller financing options.

Next, we plan to display all of our seller financing properties on the website to make sure our buyers know which properties are considering some type of owner financing.

“Many buyers and sellers simply do not understand that this is a solution to their housing problems. Our job is to teach the public that there are alternative solutions, and if used properly, seller financing can be a real option,” Mr Roberts explains.

Expansion of the service into new markets will happen rapidly as the SellMyHouse.com Realtor and Investor networks are educated on the new service.

Home Prices · housing market · lease purchase · owner financing · Pending Home Sales · sell my house · seller finance · sellmyhouse.com

On April 30, the Tax Credit will be gone. Banks seem to be holding ’shadow’ REO inventory that has been reported in the 4-8 million range. Interest rates are set to go higher because of all of the government debt that has been added to the books trying to avert all this.

However, the real scary issue is relayed in a recent Charlie Rose interview with housing expert Robert Shiller:

Charlie Rose: You’ve said that 90% of the housing market is supported by the government.
Robert Shiller: Well, it’s 80% or 90%. Really almost the whole market now is government. And we know this can’t last.

Rose: And that means prices are being artificially inflated?
Shiller: It seems to. Government support is especially prominent in sales of existing homes, which shot up to over 6 million on an annual rate in November 2009, the month that the home buyer tax credit initially was supposed to expire.

Fannie Mae has reported the rate of serious delinquencies (90 Days overdue) for conventional loans in its single-family guarantee business jolted to to 5.52% in January from 5.38% in December. This is a 100% increase since January 2009. But look at the chart below and explain to me how we are anywhere near an end to this housing crisis!

It is our stance that we still have some real issues to work thru before we can claim “an end to the housing crisis”.

Jason Roberts

Founder & CEO

www.SellMyHouse.com

Bank Owned · fannie mae · Foreclosures · Freddie Mac · Home Prices · housing market · Pending Home Sales · sell my house · sellmyhouse.com · short sale · stop foreclosure

The National Association of Realtors said Monday its seasonally adjusted index of sales agreements rose 8.2 percent from January to a February reading of 97.6. January’s reading was revised slightly downward to 90.2.

The report “may signal the early stages of a second surge of home sales this spring,” said Lawrence Yun, NAR’s chief economist.

Home sales were spurred on after a sluggish winter, partly because the government extended the deadline to qualify for a tax credit. First-time buyers can get a tax break of up to $8,000 if they sign a contract by April 30. Lawmakers also added credit of $6,500 for existing homeowners who move.

The biggest month-to-month increase was in the Midwest, where pending sales rose by nearly 22 percent. Sales posted gains of 9 percent in the South and Northeast, but fell nearly 5 percent in the West.

www.SellMyHouse.com

Staff Writer

Home Prices · housing market · Pending Home Sales · sell my house · sellmyhouse.com

The White House will announce today new steps to fight the foreclosure crisis. They may require lenders to temporarily slash or eliminate monthly mortgage payments for many borrowers who are unemployed.

Banks and other lenders would have to reduce the payments to no more than 31 percent of a borrower’s income, which would typically be the amount of unemployment insurance, for three to six months. In some cases lenders may allow a borrower to skip payments altogether.

Haven’t we been through this already with the loan modification programs of the past year? Less than 200,000 permanent loan modifications have been secured since the program was enacted.

The new wrinkle will be the administrations push to deal directly with the massive number of mortgages that are ‘underwater’. They could offer financial incentives for the first time to lenders to cut the loan balances of such distressed homeowners. Those who are still current on their mortgages could get the chance to refinance on better terms into loans backed by the FHA.

I do think this could help stop people from walking away just because it is underwater who can actually afford their house payment. However, as a general thought, it feels a lot like just one more government attempt to help boost numbers thru the remainder of the year so that we can get past the elections.

Lets be honest, government attempts to resolve the housing crisis have been a miserable failure. More importantly, it has strapped the tax payer with a debt level that has never been seen in this country’s history. That will have a much longer negative effect on the housing market than the false boost we have been given from the tax credit offered.  Despite billions of dollars in government incentives, home sales and new construction totals are sinking, not expanding. 

The truth, as hard is it may be to accept, is that this is a supply and demand issue. Until supply is worked thru, the housing market will not recover substantially. The foreclosure inventory has to be taken out of the system. New home builds will not recover until ‘cheap’ houses are not an option to purchase. Who in their right mind would pay $300,000 for a new house when they can buy a similar house with more square footage that is only a few years old for half of that total?

Existing house values rise as a direct result of new home construction. New housing construction has also proven to be a leading indicator for an overall economic recovery.

To me it is pretty simple, we fix the problem by expediting the foreclosure inventory thru the system as quickly as possible. Until that excess inventory is removed from the system, the housing market will not recover. HAMP and other government programs will just drag out the inevitable supply and demand issue.

I wrote an article last fall discussing my ideas on how to fix the problem. I’ve been in countless board room and conference call discussions with industry leaders about this very thing. I’m still convinced to this day that dealing with supply will ultimately resolve the demand issue, and event he economic problems we face.

Jason K Roberts

CEO

www.SellMyHouse.com

Bank Owned · Foreclosures · Home Prices · housing market · sell my house · sellmyhouse.com · short sale · stop foreclosure