Early this month, mortgage finance company Fannie Mae, stated that they will loosen guidelines and allow investors to finance a maximum of 10 loans. When the financial crisis in September happened, they went from allowing 10 loans for any individual down to four. Due to increasing demands for policy reviews, Fannie decided to reinstate the original guideline.

Since their September takeovers, Fannie and competitor Freddie Mac have loosened some underwriting rules and set policies for their loan servicers to rework more delinquent debt to aid the slumping housing market and lower their foreclosure costs. The companies, which own or guarantee almost half of the $12 trillion of U.S. residential debt, also have tightened guidelines and boosted fees for some loans to reflect their higher risks.

There are some restrictions with the new policy reinstatement. First, borrowers must have a strong credit history, and up to six months reserves in the bank. Investors with five to 10 properties will need six months of reserves for their other properties, compared with two months for borrowers with fewer homes, according to the notice. Fannie also changed its definition of the payments to include homeowner association dues, cooperative fees and other loans secured by the properties, along with the first mortgages, taxes and insurance. There will also be higher fees with these loans, and rates above normal.

All in all, despite the new changes, it’s refreshing to have the ability to have more than four mortgages. The change will definitely help the housing markets all across the country, and allow the investors and homeowners the ability to buy up some of the surplus homes available for sale. For more info on this topic or any other, visit my site at JoshSellsVirginia.

As we have all been witnessing over the last three weeks. The stock market has taken a tremendous hit. A reported 2 Trillion has been lost, possibly more, taken from everyone across the country that has money invested in 401K’s, stocks, mutual funds, ect……

There are conflicting comments on the volitility of the stock market, some are saying it’s a great time to get in, and others are saying to get out. Hedge Funds are some of the largest personal market investments out there, with minimum investment capital needed in the millions of dollars. It has been reported that 50% of all hedge funds have pulled out, which is one of the reasons we have see between 500-800 point drops in the DOW.

Personally, my opinion is that there is too much to risk in the stock market until we see some stability return, once that occurs, I would get in and ride the wave up, but as we can see now, it’s like gambling on the craps table.

Commodities have been a safer bet. Things like energy, gold, silver and even real estate are types of commodities. Commodities are tangible items mainly. I personally have a hoard of gold and silver I’m holding onto just in case the dollar tanks and we temporarily return to the barter system or need to exchange it for other currency. Which by the way, shouldn’t happen. I am still very optimistic about real estate, and it’s not because Im biased being a Realtor, it’s because I know that the real estate market is cyclical and it’s a tangible thing that everyone needs and relies on. Everyone will need a place to lay their head and over the long haul, it will rebound and continue to appreciate, whereas, with stocks, you don’t know if that company or particular stock will even be around in the next 5-10 years. Roughly about 30% of the stocks from the late ninety’s to early 2000’s are no longer in existence.

Real Estate must be a long term investment. Sure there are times in markets like we’ve just seen where you can purchase and flip to make good money, but you need to make sure that your in it for the long haul, and if the situation arises to where  you can sell for profit, then take it! Don’t buy into the media hype about real estate, the market is correcting itself. There are markets worse than others, but here in Hampton Roads, we have a fairly secure and stable market. If the media scares potential buyers from buying the surplus of listings out there, then it can be more detrimental for the correction period and take even longer for us to correct ourselves.

Main point of my topic is don’t Panic! Continue to look for the good deals out there and just remember that if your getting a good deal in this market when we’ve seen decreases in prices of 2%-7%, then when the market does fully correct itself, you have just built in equity that you can hold for later purposes. Also, real estate is too important for our country to let fall to the wayside, every measure will be taken to ensure that real estate is fundamentally sound and secure. So, jump in, and get a good deal out there, there are plenty to look at and see, and call on me to help negotiate you the best deal.

You can check out my site at www.JoshSellsVirginia.com for more info and market updates.

With the recent passage of the enormous bailout from the government in the tune of 700 Billion dollars, many analysts believed it would be an immediate fix for the lack of liquidity in the market place. In consequence, the stock market has seen historic drops and closes within the last couple of weeks. It’s been a very volatile time for the stock market, but does that theory carry with Real Estate????

The answer to that question is a resounding “NO!” Many people outside the real estate industry are telling people that now is not the time to purchase, and that obtaining financing today is not the right move for you. Fears have been spilled into the marketplace, and consequently, it’s making it more difficult to correct the abundance of listings that are currently available, making the longevity of a market correction and turn around farther out of our reach.

What these so called ‘Gurus’ don’t understand is that if a buyer has stable employment, good credit, and some money for downpayment and reserves, along with a good reputable lender offering a solid 30yr. fixed rate loan program that the buyer can obliviously afford, it’s a fantastic time to purchase!!!!

Nationally, we have about a 5% foreclosure rate. Out of those, the majority of the people could either, not afford the mortgage with anticipation of reselling the house and pocketing the profit with appreciation, or wound up with a loan that does not have a fixed interest rate, but actually one that readjusts depending on where the prime rate floats. So if they started out with a teaser rate of say 5%, and with an adjustment of 1-2% a year, their rate could possibly go from 5%-7% in a year! If they have owned the property for say 3 years, their interest rate could have adjusted from 5%-11%. That’s almost double what they were paying to start with, which is a reason some of these adjustable rate mortgages or ARMS are so dangerous and have caused havoc in our industry.

On top of the silly loans that were issued, lack of government oversight to the practices of the evil and greedy lending institutions that gave these loans made matters worse. If there was proper regulation and oversight, they would have never given these crazy loans a second thought, and we wouldn’t have the mortgage meltdown we are seeing now. Am I for the government bailout? The answer is “Not Really.” The reason being is that 700 billion is a lot of money. That would equal about 400K for every household in the country! Why don’t they bail us out??? I mean, if we are just handing out money, hand it out to the people that need it most, the ones of us that were misled by greedy lenders that wanted to make bonuses on selling these stupid loans. Going back to the bailout, I am for bringing more liquidity into the marketplace. I believe however, we could’ve achieved that in alternative means, such as lower the capital gains tax, corporate tax, and other taxes that would give incentives for money to begin to flow again. Even if we couldn’t go that route, the bailout would have served a purpose if it had not been filled with Pork and wasteful spending to get the House and Senate to actually vote for it. Tax breaks for Wooden Arrows???

Getting back to the point of issue, don’t believe the media. They are in the business of making news, and there is no news, like bad news! Buying a house is the American Dream, and as long as you purchase a home, and plan to live it in for the next 3-5 years and with the criteria I have already gone over, you will be thankful you got into the market and got a great deal. Hampton Roads Virginia is one of the best and most stable real estate markets in the country due to our enormous military presence.

Check out my website at www.JoshSellsVirginia.com for more information and market updates.