If a property is being sold as a Short Sale it means that the loan on the property is for more money than the property can be sold for. There is a shortage of funds due the lender. Sometimes a lender will forgive this amount and sometimes it will not. If the amount is forgiven it may not be a win for the seller because they may have to show this amount “forgiven” as income in their taxes the following year. It must be shown as income because it was money that was owed by the seller through a note to buy the property, but not paid back to the lender and the IRS looks at this as money in your pocket even though you never see the money.

It is now critical that your lender is consulted first about potential closing dates for the contract in order to set expectations for everyone involved in the agreement — that means the buyer, the seller, the lender and both Realtors representing the buyer and the seller. The minimum amount of time we need to plan on to complete the loan process is at least 30 days from the initial application.

When a lender evaluates a loan application, a process called underwriting, they try to evaluate the ability and willingness of the potential borrower to repay the loan. The application the borrower fills out is sent to an underwriter, who is a real person and not a computer program. The underwriter then judges the borrowers ability to repay by reviewing the income and stability of past earnings.

Here we go again, with the talking heads on financial news misinterpreting the impact of the Fed’s actions on home loan rates.
Here’s the scoop. What the Fed just announced is huge – they have committed to buy another $750B in Mortgage Backed Securities, and $300B in Treasuries.
But what does this mean and why do you [...]

Last week Burlingame had 63 houses for sale and only saw one sale.  The Median Price for Burlingame single family homes was $1,299,000.  The least expensive house listed was $699,000 and the most expensive listed at $3,325,000.  This median aged home is 67 years old and it has 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms.  This house [...]