Part 2 (Excerpt)

The median income family can afford twice the median priced home; prices drop over 50%

And now I mentioned Dan Havey is back in the studio with us, Dan has done a lot of great things in the mortgage industry. He left us about a year and a half ago, is that right Dan?

Yes, I left the mortgage industry in October of 2007. Tell us a little bit more about yourself.

As you know I came originally from Wisconsin, where I got a degree in Business Finance and I came out here in 1989 and started working with my brother selling real estate owned-REO, bank owned properties for Fannie Mae, Countrywide, and the Resolution Trust Corporation-RTC which was the government entity that was put in charge of disposing of all the real estate owned by the 1800 S&Ls that had failed. I did that until about 1995 when I moved into the mortgage industry and there for 12 years I worked predominately with bankruptcy attorneys helping their clients get out of bankruptcy and foreclosure. I left the mortgage industry in October of 2007. Now I am working predominately in the arena of marketing for real estate and mortgage companies, helping out companies, just like Im here helping out Michael today, to get people to realize that right now actually is a really good time to buy.

There are a couple of points I want to make and it was something that Michael had said earlier. The first one was that 4% interest rate. Originally Obama said a couple of weeks ago, when he rolled out the mortgage plan, that they were going to take the $200 billion and use it to buy mortgage backed securities, well the article I was reading today said it appears that plan may have changed. Instead of buying the mortgage backs they were actually buying the stock of Fannie and Freddie to help support the company and keep these companies going under. I dont quite understand why being how they own them now.

Well youve got to hand it to the government they have really done a heck of a job helping Fannie Mae out, for instance today the stock is up to $0.41. Wow, doing so well, I remember when it was $150 or so, where it was at the top of the market.

Today, right now is definitely the best time even if rates dont get down to the 4% point. The beauty of it and were going to talk more about this in a later segment, is that we have seen a 51% decline in home values from the peak of the market. So you dont have to have the absolute greatest interest rate in order to be able to buy a house today. The median home price right now is $130,000 in Maricopa County, it was $264,000 just two years ago.

So the median home price is $130,000? We are going to talk a little bit about what a person has to make to actually qualify for that. Well it is definitely well within the means of a median income family. Right now a median income family makes about $64,000 in the state of Arizona according to the US Census Bureau and HUD. I ran some numbers today, I think at 6% interest and at that rate they can buy a $280,000 house. So you can buy twice the median home price if you are making just what the median income family would be in the state of Arizona. So the median household income buys double the median priced house in Maricopa County. That is correct, at 6% interest.

And the reality of it is interest rates are not even that high right now. So for people to be waiting for that perfect interest rate of 4% it doesnt really matter if it gets here or not because right now is such an incredibly fabulous time to be buying a house. There are so many foreclosures out there on the market right now, there are so many short sales out there on the market right now, and the point you made earlier is very important, that people have to get in and get prequalified, know exactly what they can buy. Now in many cases you are going to need a down payment, so get with your mortgage broker, get with Velocity Financial and start working on that program of getting those funds together for the down payment as well.

Dan Havey we talked in the past about whats available for financing these days, interesting to give little pat on the back for Velocity Financial is one of less than 15% of all of the lenders in the state of Arizona that are qualified to do FHA financed homes. Now FHA financing, people used to think it was only for first time home buyers, thats no longer the case. The FHA loan which only requires 3.5% down payment it doesnt matter if you have owned a home before and in many cases you can own another home now so long as your new purchase is going to be your primary residence you can utilize FHA financing and put only 3.5% down.

Duration : 0:6:42

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Duration : 0:5:23

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Part 7 (Excerpt)

FHA Guidelines regarding foreclosures and first time home buyers; incredible home buying value

Ok I was just checking because I thought this was a story about all the mortgage backed securities that were going under. It started at the top and it worked its way down. The reality of it is that people were buying homes, not reading what they were signing, not understanding how it worked and shame on the people who were putting it in front of them, knowing that they didnt know and we all need to take a little responsibility here for this past crisis. It is not just the Wall Street firms; its not just the mortgage companies and banks, the brokers have little in fact to do with it, we didnt create the loan products that people were buying, we were merely disseminating it to the public. I am glad to say I was not a part of any of that. I was able to stay away and do traditional, conventional type financing for people. So luckily I didnt have a lot of clients who got stuck into that nightmare.

Speaking of that nightmare, Dan when we talk about the people who have had foreclosures, their lives have been turned around, turned over and they think that there is no where for them to go. One of the nice things about the Federal Housing Administration loan, the FHA loan, thats the first time home buyer type loan, the minimum down payment loan, its only 3 years after you have had a foreclosure that you can qualify to purchase a home again. So it is important if you have had a foreclosure, you need to point your future away from the flame, you need to save your money, do your best, work as tightly as you can on a budget and look forward to that time when you can go back out and buy a home again.

Property values are going to be up from where they are today, but there is still going to be plenty of great value out there and there are not going to be loan products that are going to get you in trouble again. They wont exist. What really caused the great inflation in home values starting in about 2002 was the financing was just getting crazy. I wont get into a whole lot of technical stuff about mortgage backed securities and all that, but the lenders were creating products, selling them off their books, thinking that they would never have to worry about them again. They sold trillions of dollars worth of these loans and those are the ones that are going bad.

Ones that were toxic in the first place: the stated incomes, the option ARMs, all those loans are all gone now. I was saying earlier today that we are back to where we were in financing in 1992-1993, back when the median home price was $75,000. Now I dont think we are going to go anywhere near that again, I think at $130,000 we are getting real close to the bottom of the market and what I was thinking was when I got into the business in 1995 and you were in at about the same time I was, and I remember talking to a guy who comes into our office to sell us loan programs, now this is the very beginning of the really crazy stuff, and he was saying we can do 70% no doc loans.

We go, what do you mean? If somebody puts down 30% they dont have to verify anything, they dont have to verify their employment; they dont have to verify taxes, anything. We were absolutely floored, but by the peak of the market we were doing 100% no doc loans. If you were breathing they gave you a loan and the credit scores didnt have to be that high, I think I saw them as low as 600…

Duration : 0:5:36

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Part 8 (Excerpt)

Analyzing tax returns for self employed and small business owners; Use a Mortgage Planning Expert

Credit scores now are a major factor with interest rates. You see the liars up on the internet with interest rates being at 4.625% and all this kind of hocus pocus, its not true. You are never going to qualify for that rate today. They are going to lie to you, once you sign and see the fine print you are going to realize that it is a ridiculous idea to pay that amount of money in fees.

Credit scores have to be significantly higher than they used to, but again I have to tell you, its my opinions that a 70% no doc loan with someone who has a 720 or higher credit score I believe is a good loan. I personally believe that at some point it will be brought back.

I am not arguing with that, with a good FICO score I can agree with a 20% down for a stated income loan. People are encouraged through our tax system to write off all of their expenses and so often we have small business people who really are making money but because they take advantage of our tax system they are not able to get a loan. They cant qualify based upon their income.

In a lot of cases yes, but once again I definitely want to point his out just because someone is self employed and owns a small business and they do write everything off, that does not mean that they will not qualify. They may have been told now that they have to go stated income because of tax returns, but most people, the small business owner, the consumer doesnt know how to analyze his taxes, whether or not he is going to qualify for financing thats not his area.

Most CPAs dont even know how to analyze taxes to extrapolate enough income back out where we can use it as income, so just because a person is self employed does not mean that they cant qualify for financing and honestly nothing could be further from the truth. Plenty of people self employed, small business owners will qualify using their tax returns.

I think that anyone right now who doesnt own a home should be giving you a call getting pre-qualified. If nothing else give you a call and see what you can do. So you say, I wrote off a bunch of stuff last year and I am not going to be able to buy a house well maybe you can. But get in there, have a professional, have someone who knows what to do, whos been in the business for 15 years, have them take a look at it and decide whether or not you can really get that loan.

One of the things with my mortgage education; I am a certified mortgage planner. I am a certified mortgage analyst and a certified mortgage planning specialist. The significant part of that training and those certificates is in analyzing complex tax returns and we analyze complicated tax returns for professional athletes, for professional musicians, all the time. There is income always, it is just a matter of knowing how to get all of it out there. So I think we have kind of hit that.

So yes if you dont own a home today and you have been told NO, you need to find out if the person who told you no is qualified to tell you no, #1, and #2, less than 15% of the lenders in Arizona are qualified to do FHA loans. Those are the loans we are talking about, $100 down to buy a HUD-home, less than 3.5% down to buy a house with the best interest rates that we have seen in my career, its crazy not to look at your options.

If a lender does tell you no, it would be like going to a doctor and he says you have to have your arm amputated because you have a pimple on it. I think you are going to go get a second opinion, maybe even a third. To make sure you dont have to have it cut off. And that is exactly what we have here, if you go to a lender and he says, Well you are going to have to put down 20% you know he is not an FHA lender. So run out of there and call Michael at Velocity Financial and get yourself pre qualified.

Dan Havey, you have a great website, its called http://discountdreamhome.com and why dont you talk real quick about that. Its real simple, if you are looking to buy a foreclosed home, and as we discussed earlier they are many times the best homes to buy right now, they are vacant, they obviously have a highly motivated seller. You dont have to deal with all the troubles you would have to deal with from a regular or as we refer to them, an organic seller, because a lot of these people are upside down.

Duration : 0:7:49

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