Isanti - Sherburne - Wright - Anoka County Minnesota Real Estate Blog: August 2009

A great buyers incentive for Minnesota HUD homes is the FHA $100 down program.  A typical FHA down payment is 3.5% of the sale price, but when buying a HUD home in Minnesota your down payment is as low as $100.

Most of the HUD listings in Minnesota do get listed on the MLS.  However, every so often you will find one on the HUD site that is not listed in the Twin Cities Area MLS.  You may go to www.best-assets.com to search for HUD homes in Minnesota.  However, note you will need a HUD registered broker to help you buy one of these homes.  RE/MAX Associates Plus inc. is a HUD Registered broker in Minnesota. 

If you are having trouble navigating the HUD website please contact me directly at chuck@thediscoveryteam.com or 612-290-3809 and I will send you a list of HUD homes in Minnesota that match your search criteria!

Chuck Carstensen

Re/Max Associates Plus Inc

Here is a great new tool for buyers looking to purchase a home in the future.

Its a BUYER 411 service that with the number 763-235-4111 you can call on any MLS listing and get essential MLS information sent right to your phone.

This is a number buyers in the market will want to program to their phone.  This program is brought to you by RE/MAX Associates Plus inc.  More information at this link.  Call or email me if you want your phone numbers activated for this service.

Chuck Carstensen

RE/MAX Associates Plus

612-290-3809

www.thediscoveryteam.com

You most close on your new home purchase by November 30, 20009 to receive your $8000 tax credit if you are a first time home buyer. 

The reason why time is running out is that most people don't decide to buy a home one day and then make an offer the next day and have a closing set for 4 weeks later.

First off, you will want to be pre-approved for a mortgage.  Lets now assume that you have done this.  You started looking for homes and find one you like. Guess what happens?

...If the house is any good and priced well (which is normally why you liked it), then you will find that about 2-5 other people like it. So you make an offer, some of those people make an offer and someone ends up hungrier then you and pays more for the home and gets their offer accepted.

Tick, tick, tick...the clock runs.  This is good time to remind you that most closing for an FHA loan or a USDA loan are taking 45-60 days to process. So once you get an accepted offer you can expect to need 6-8 weeks time to close it.  So to be safe you really want an accepted offer by the end of September or sweat things out a bit if you get an offer accepted in mid October.

Some of the best purchases on the market now are short sales. These sales are taking about 2 months to get accepted by the bank.  Meaning at a certain point in your accepted short sale offer you will want the appraisal done in faith that the bank will approve the loan just so you have a chance at closing before November 30th. So if you want to purchase a short sale and close in time the window is almost closed.

Being on the fence much longer will cost you up to $8000!!! Get moving!

Chuck Carstensen

612-290-3809

Re/Max Associates Plus Inc

Serving: Isanti, Anoka, Chisago, Wright and Sherburne Counties in Minnesota

Highly thought of as a great strategy by the bank who requires the pre-approval; this strategy seems mostly to upset agents and there buyers.

In my area Bank Of America and Wells Fargo are the banks that require you to be approved with them if you are trying to buy a bank owned home from them.  I know this has helped them service extra buyers along the way.  However, now with tighter guidelines these "required pre-approvals" only see to slow down the process and upset buyers.

See this featured post today that relates to my post: The Loan That "Can't" Be Done, and How the Big Lenders Can Hurt You as a Buyer

I have had one buyer get turned down by the "required lender" only to get super mad at the situation because he lost the house.  There are other times where the house is not really something you can approve with financing because its missing a furnace or has some mold. However, the buyers local bank where they are approved at will do the loan.  So why require an approval on a house you can finance.

What do others think of the "required pre-approvals"?

This weekend Elk River, MN will have a community wide Realtor open house.  I will be at Mel Beaudry's listing below:  The home will be open from 1- 4pm this Sunday!

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10496 181ST LN NW ELK RIVER, MN 55330 $220,000 3 Bedrooms 2 Full | 1 Partial Bathrooms 3,000 Est. Sq. Ft. Listing # 3670280

Chuck Carstensen - 612-290-3809