This blog post is the courtesy of Barry Allen of the Temple-Allen Group of First Federal Bank. 

#1)  Thou shalt NOT change jobs, become self-employed or quit your job. 

The reason that this is so important is if you would happen to change your job there is usually a certain amount of time that you would have to wait before you would be able to close.  FHA for instant requires that you have been at your current job for 1 month prior to closing.   If you happen to decide to quit your job and become self-employed then in order to be able to use your income we would at least need 1 year of personal tax returns with your new position  and most loan programs require two years.   If you decide to quit your job before closing and the lender will be using your income for qualifying it may cause your loan to be denied.   Before any of this takes place please contact your mortgage consultant and explain to them what you are planning on doing when it comes to your Job. 
 

#2)  Thou shalt NOT co-sign a loan for anyone. 

 During the loan process, any changes to your credit report or status could negatively affect your ability to close your loan on time or at all.  Co-signing any type of car loan, student loans, or others loan would result in inquires into your credit and additional financial responsibilities.  All of these could result in loan closing delays or denials.  If this situation applies to you, please contact your Mortgage Planner.    
 

#3)  Thou shalt NOT buy a Vehicle (or you maybe living in it! 

Applying for credit to purchase a vehicle will be recorded as an inquiry into your credit by credit bureaus.  This may decrease your credit score or decrease the amount of money that you may qualify for when purchasing a home.  It is very important to avoid applying for these types of loan throughout the loan process.  If this situation applies to you, please contact your Mortgage Planner. 
 

#4)  Thou shalt Not use charge cards excessively or make late payments on ANY of your accounts.  

Excessive use of credit cards can have 2 negative affects on your credit rating.  One, inquires will be recorded by credit bureaus and could decrease your credit score.  Two, balances on credit cards exceeding 35% will affect your debt to income ratio and could decrease your credit score.   Also, late payments of any sort can decrease your credit score, increase your home loan interest rate, delay loan closing, or cause loan denial.  If this situation applies to you, please contact your Mortgage Planner.   
 

#5)  Thou shalt NOT spend money you have set aside for closing. 

Most conventional loans require 2 months of reserve money to be verified in your available financial accounts.  Once it has been verified for use at close, spending these reserve funds may result in loan closing delays or even loan denial.   If this situation applies to you, please contact your Mortgage Planner.      
  

#6)  Thou shalt NOT omit debts or liabilities from your loan application.

Please be very honest and clear about ALL of your debts or liabilities early in the loan application process.  Having the right information will allow your Mortgage Planner to provide you the best qualifying loan value.  Unrecorded debts or liabilities that are found later in the process may affect the amount of money you qualify for in addition to causing delays or even denials of your home loan.  If this situation applies to you, please contact your Mortgage Planner.       
 

#7) Thou shalt NOT buy furniture, appliances, or household items before closing. 

lthough many people are anxious to furnish their new home, during the loan process is NOT the right time.  Large purchases causing deductions in your banking accounts or additional debt on credit cards can negatively affect your loan process resulting in delays or even denials.  If this situation applies to you, please contact your Mortgage Planner.    
 

#8) Thou shalt NOT originate any inquiries into your credit 

As mentioned before, multiple inquires into your credit may result in decreasing your credit score.  As this applies to vehicles, furniture, appliances, and household items; it also applies to ANY credit checks  Applying for additional lines of could negatively affect your ability to qualify for a home loan.   If this situation applies to you, please contact your Mortgage Planner.   
 

#9)  Thou shalt NOT make large deposits without first checking with your mortgage consultant. 

Abnormal deposits or large deposits into checking, savings, or any financial account beyond normal payroll deposits must have money sources verified by Underwriting.  Making these deposits could result in loan processing delays or even denials.  If this situation applies to you, please contact your Mortgage Planner.  
 

#10) Thou shalt NOT change bank statements.

Because the loan process requires a 2 month history of reserve funds, opening new financial accounts near a closing date may void this history.  New bank accounts will not have the 2 month history available and cannot be used.  This may result in loan closing delays or denials.  If this situation applies to you, please contact your Mortgage Planner.   

Visit my website at www.kansascityhomefinder.com for the latest market updates.

“What you see depends on what you’re looking for.” Anonymous

The following is a “abbreviated” version of an article that came out of a Broker/Agent network publication I am a member of.  It was written by Bob Corcoran who is a nationally recognized speaker and author.  I love his perspective and would like to hear your opinion.

Here’s the article………….

Do social networking and technological changes have your head spinning?  For me,… “spinning” is putting it mildly.  You would think that after one of my office’s social networking classes things would seem clearer?……HA!  The two biggest lessons I have learned are:  #1… If I could retain one one hundredth of what my instructor knows I would be a social-networking genius.  And, #2…Don’t get married to anything he teaches because by the next class, some things will have already changed.   In fact, social networking is changing so fast it doesn’t just make my head spin.  It feels like it’s going to explode!   

I have a love hate relationship with social networking.  I hate it because it’s one more thing I need to do/learn  And it’s changing way faster than it takes me to learn it.  The “Love” comes from the consumer who is no longer annoyed by my unsolicited phone calls and door knocking.  Social networking is the new “warm call”.  It’s engaging in conversations with others who have a common interest.  NOT real estate.

My initial way of thinking was……if I don’t blog about real estate how is that going to get me real estate business?  Let alone let anyone know what I do.  But then I got to thinking.  When I meet someone for the first time and they find out I’m in real estate they usually turn tail and run as fast as they can in the opposite direction.  Blogging and Facebooking are both non-threatening.  However, they give one the opportunity to get to know someone  over time, and develop a friendship.  Hopefully the business will come later.

Another reason to “Love” it is for the money it saves in marketing.  No more newspaper and home magazine ads.  In fact, in one of my previous blog posts regarding newspaper vs internet advertising.  Statistics revealed that 37% of homebuyers used the internet to find their home where only 2% used a newspaper. 

To be successful in real estate 10 years ago, you had to knock doors, advertise in newspapers and home magazines, and hold open houses on a regular basis.  Today there are so many ways to advertise homes for sale on the web that I have made that the main focus of my listing presentation.  If a Seller asks me how much  print advertising I plan on doing, I know they haven’t been paying attention. 

In closing, I will continue trying to learn as much as my little brain can hold about social networking and web advertising.  And when it gets too overwhelming I’ll just send out a little “link-love” in one of my blogs.

Just recently I attended a short sale seminar where it was mentioned that nearly half of the real estate transactions in the nation are short sales.  This has changed the real estate industry drastically.  But is it changing it so much  that realtors aren’t able (or willing) to do their jobs?  As a realtor of 20 years I can say that it is not a  job which is harder now than it’s ever been.  Enter, the Short Sale Compay.  Short Sale Companies in a nutshell do the Realtors work for them.

I just recently had a Buyer’s Agent tell me that her Buyer would not pursue a contract on one of my listings unless I agreed to allow a short sale company handle the deal.  I could go off on many tangents about this but I will try to contain myself and focus on how this could affect the Law of  Agency.

If you’re a realtor you know that a short sale is anything but easy.  But as a Realtor you should also know that your fiduciary responsibility is with your client.  And in the case of a short sale, the agent for the Seller carries the heaviest burden of getting the short sale approved with the investor.

Short sales are often frustrating and time-consuming.  Hence, having someone else take that burden off of our backs might sound pretty appealing.  But……in our quest at being more efficient and letting someone else do the work we are either not willing to do or have the patience to do.  Are we putting our clients and our agency relationship at risk?

My feeling is the latter.  Firstly, being somewhat of a control freak, I don’t like not knowing what’s going on let alone not having anything to say about what’s going on.  Hence, doesn’t my loss of control put my client at risk?  Not to mention the agency relationship?

Then we can go on to talk about how these short sale companies get paid.   Recently, I had a buyers agent try to sell me on short sale companies tell me they’re latest and the greatest, blah blah blah.  And how much she loved them because they do all the work for you, so on and so on. And when I asked how they were paid, I didn’t get a straight answer.  It think it was something like whe wasn’t quite sure but that it was taken out of the costs of the short sale.  This led me to to confirm my initial suspicion.  Which is….. their fee comes out of the realtors commission.  Being a realtor, it is my opinion that there are enough people out there wanting a piece of me I don’t need to give it to a company that wants to relieve me of doing my job which is what I’m getting paid to do in the first place.

I will post more about this later but I welcome your comments.

At the present time there are 4 homes on the market in Kensington Manor in Overland Park, Kansas.  The home most recently listed came on the market August 21 at 12200 Knox St. with an asking price of $260,000.  This home is a 4 bedroom 2.2 bath 2 story home in desirable Blue Valley school district. 

For more information about this home or any other listed properties, go to  www.kansascityhomefinder.com or contact Kim Schulte, “Your Realtor in the Know” at kims@remax.net.

At the present time there are 3 homes on the market in Fontainebleau in Overland Park, Kansas.  The home most recently listed came on the market tody, August 26 at 12817 Slater St. with an asking price of $250,000.  This home is a 4 bedroom 2.1 bath 2 story home in desirable Blue Valley school district. 

For more information about this home or any other listed properties, go to  www.kansascityhomefinder.com or contact Kim Schulte, “Your Realtor in the Know” at kims@remax.net.

At the present time there are 3 homes on the market in Summercrest in Overland Park, Kansas.  The home most recently listed came on the market August 25 at 7904 W. 114 with an asking price of $210,000.  This home is a 3 bedroom 2 bath split entry home in desirable Blue Valley school district. 

For more information about this home or any other listed properties, go to  www.kansascityhomefinder.com or contact Kim Schulte, “Your Realtor in the Know” at kims@remax.net.

At the present time there is only one home on the market in Rolling Woods, Overland Park, Kansas.  This home is located at 8292 W. 116 St. and is listed for $268,750.  It is a 1.5 story with 4 BR and 2.1 baths, and an inground pool. 

For more information about this home or any other listed properties properties, go to  www.kansascityhomefinder.com or contact Kim Schulte, “Your Realtor in the Know” at kims@remax.net.

Buyer graph of Real Estate Sales as reported to the National Association of Realtors.

This blog has been brought to you by Kim Schulte, your “Realtor in the Know”.  For questions or comments, contact Kim at kims@remax.net or visit my website at www.kansascityhomefinder.com

In Rolling Woods the number of home sales has increased significantly over 2008.  With 4 being the number in 2007-2008.  There have been 11 sales so far year to date.  These statistics were taken from Heartland Multiple Listing Service as the information was reported to them.  Keep in mind, however, an increase in the number of sales doesn’t always mean an increase in value.  Activity… yes.  Value…not necessarily.  Stay tuned for future blogs with additional statistics for Rolling Woods.