Thank God for GOOD CREDIT Loans!

Yes indeed - "Thank God" for those buyers who have good credit so they can keep our real estate market plugging along this summer selling season!

You see, without good credit now (typically a 600+ mid-fico score to qualify for a FHA 30-Year fixed rate) our Littleton & Highlands Ranch real estate market would not be doing very well at all...nor would the rest of the Denver real estate market - or the whole national real estate market for that matter! Statistics show that around 24%-27% of all potential homebuyers in Denver now (and nationally) have lower credit scores and CANNOT qualify to buy a home with the stricter mortgage lending regulations now in place since last fall. Here's why...

What that means is that 24%-27% of the existing Littleton, Highlands Ranch and metro Denver real estate CANNOT be bought now...causing a continuance in the real estate selling problems plaguing the USA now. Yes - that means that about one in four homes for sale will NEVER sell during the 4-9 month listing period - because 1/4 of all potential buyers CANNOT qualify for a mortgage loan now. This is not "doom & gloom" - it's just stating a stastistical fact. To take advantage of this problem, most Sellers ABSOLUTELY need to make sure that their home is in 'fine' selling condition - and priced accordingly!

Selling condition means: 1) Clean and in "model home" showing condition, 2) freshly painted walls in NEUTRAL colors!, 3) remodeled and updated kitchens, bathrooms, new or newer carpet and NOT looking like anything that has "Brady Bunch" era decor, 4) Nicely landscaped exterior & yard - with flower pots on the entry or porch areas, 5) NO CLUTTER and no old wallpaper/old messes/pet odors! Sellers absolutely need to spend more time and MONEY to get your home sold this summer!

Buyers DO NOT want to make you a full price offer if they have to fix-up or remodel your dang house! Worse yet, they will probably find a nicer home in your subdivision that DOESN'T need new carpet, paint and major remodeling - because THOSE other Sellers were given advice that having a nearly perfect house will actually help them sell their house FASTER and for MORE MONEY!!! Buyers are now required to put 3-10% Down Payment to qualify for almost every single mortgage loan offered currently (...there are NO MORE $0 Down loans folks!) which means they will NOT have extra money to do your remodeling, painting and carpet that your home needs!!! REALTOR TIP: You spend the money upfront for all this fix-up stuff and your home will sell faster.

If you'll make your home look pleasant for incoming buyers at your showings, you'll increase your 'probability' of getting a good or reasonably good purchase price offer! Pretty simple - huh?

Unfortunately, I showed homes last weekend in the Littleton area at $250,000 to $280,000 - and 6 out of 10 homes looked terrible when the Buyers walked inside of them! No one wants to buy your crappy looking house - and my Buyers didn't want to spend the time or money to remodel your "mess"!

Read my next blog on: "The Top 3 Reasons Your House WON'T Sell This Summer - and The Top 5 Reasons Why Buyers Will NOT Buy Your House."

Is The SKY FALLING On Denver Real Estate?

Is Denver real estate doomed? Is this sky really "falling" on Denver real estate?

In this Realtor's opinion the answer is NO...but we sure have slowed down a lot - as most of Denver real estate sales are "off" target from last years sales by about <28%>.

Only Highlands Ranch, Thornton and Erie remain the same -or showing sales increases. Is there an explanation for this? Well let's think about that...

There still remains two big problems for the Denver real estate market. First, there are less people able to qualify now with the tightening of the underwriting rules & qualifications for mortgage lending. With no more zero down loans and harder to qualify FHA and conventional loans - more people CAN'T buy - even if they wanted too! Second, everybody seems scared to death with the economy, the price of gas and other expenses going higher! Consumer confidence is definitely hurting the Denver real estate market.

But, is this very logical - and does this make sense in reality?

The answer is no! The reality is that you're going to neither have to rent or you're going to have to buy. You get a tax deduction when you own a home you get zero when you rent. In many neighborhoods it's pretty cheap to rent, but the stuff you're renting is pretty crappy. Nobody seems to care of their cars depreciating at record rates... but so many people are convinced they should still wait before they buy. Why the insanity difference here?

Savvy buyers are snatching up houses left and right at very low prices - and at very low interest rates! Why aren't you? Many homes for sale in the Littleton real estate market, Highlands Ranch, Parker, and southeast Denver and Southeast Aurora are selling in less than 30 days on the market - if they're priced correctly! Ugly homes and unremodeled homes are taking forever to sell - go figure...!!! But there are still many bargain homes out there if you still hurry! There certainly isn't anything wrong with a 5.875% 30-year fixed-rate loan - and I just did a 10% down investor loan at 6.625% for another client who just bought a foreclosure deal!!!

The only question for you is - how long are you going to keep sitting on the fence?

Why Isn't Your House Selling FAST?

One of the biggest PROBLEMS in the Denver metro real estate area especially in the cities of Littleton, Aurora, Highlands Ranch, Parker, Arvada, in Lakewood, is that your home stays listed for sale for 6 to 9 months without selling or getting a reasonably good price offer! But why is that happening?

The TOP 6 List of Seller ISSUES is:

1. Your home has NOT been updated, remodeled and/or looks poor - based upon it's list price (which is probably too high for the existing condition.)

2. Your home has poor looking paint, wall paper and/or bad carpet.

3. Your home is OVER PRICED given your current competition in your subdivision - and based upon the condition of your home to their homes!

4. Your home backs to a busy street, is on a busy street, has a bad location, has a weird shaped or too small of a lot, your landscaping looks bad, it's painted an unattractive color - or the paint/trim is peeling, or your neighbors homes look BAD - so no one wants to buy next to bad neighbors. (Some of these you just can't fix...)

5. Your home shows poorly because (it's NOT staged) there's too much furniture, too many pictures on the wall, closets too full and closets packed with unworn clothes, basements and garages "packed" full with junk - or smells bad with pets or food smells.

6. Your Realtor isn't promoting your home at the "right" price and marketing/advertising it ONLINE. If you're home isn't on the TOP 10 real estate search engines...you've eliminated 70% of the potential buyers...

What can you do to fix your problems?

Do NOT put your house on the market until it's ACTUALLY ready to be sold!!! Your highest probability for receiving the highest offer on your home will occur within the first three to four weeks of it being listed for sale on the MLS.

Then, make sure you hire an experienced and smart Denver Realtor to help you with your sale, because if you don't, your home may end up on the market six to nine months later without even a reasonable offer on it... Good Realtors "earn" their real estate commissions by giving three marketing and advertising advice!!! See my blog again in the next few days to read about what home improvement and remodeling projects return the most money BACK TO YOU before you list your house for sale...

NO MORE $0 Down Loans to Buy Denver Real Estate

Well - it's going to be "sink or swim" for most Denver real estate, as ALL major national lenders have now canceled the last zero down financing loans (except for the VA 100% loan.)

The Denver housing market - and all other Denver Metro real estate is going to have to rely on the regular Conventional and FHA loans which require a minimum of 3% down to 5% down to purchase real estate now. For real estate brokers like myself, that have closed nearly $100 million worth of real estate business - I question whether our Denver real estate market is going to "crash and burn"- or if it's going to be able to survive without 25% of the available buyers being able to get a loan this summer?

If I was betting $1000 of my own money, I would bet that we have a serious problem this spring and summer - simply because buyers cannot get loans!

What this means for Denver real estate Sellers is that there will be LESS traffic coming through your house for showings - and a lot more showings that will be wasted on buyers that are incapable of buying... Denver home Sellers truly need to understand that your home had better be clean, neat, remodeled, updated, "ready to sell" and priced right -- because if it isn't, you are going to be competing with almost 40% MORE unsold inventory this summer - and 25% FEWER buyers. The problem that we have right now is very simple... it's the economics of too much supply and too little demand. There is an oversupply problem right now and the demand is just been cut by 25% by all the national lenders stopping their good (and normal) zero down financing like the Home Possibles and Flex 100 loans. These were good loans designed for A paper and A- paper borrowers (that should've never been canceled) - as they had low default rates! Now, A paper borrowers are going to have to dip into your 401(k) or other savings accounts to come up with 3% for an FHA loan or 5% for a traditional conventional loan to purchase any Denver real estate, Littleton real estate, Highlands ranch real estate or Aurora CO real estate.

Buyers with marginal credit are going to have to start working on credit repair to boost your scores to a minimum of 580 on all future FHA loans (but preferably at 620 or above) to be able to get qualified to buy a Denver homes for sale with 3% down. Read more on my Credit Repair Program here, as there are no more FHA loans if your fico scores are below 580 -- or if you've had ANY unpaid collection accounts (other than medical collections) in the last 12 months reporting on your credit reports!!!

Your alternative to this "mess" is to work with a very sharp Buyers Agent who understands that the Sellers or your parents may contribute the 3% down on FHA loan -- including the closing costs -- converting a regular FHA loan to a zero down FHA loan. Please email me and I'll explain how we can help you on that.

I feel very sorry for all home sellers in the Denver real estate market this summer it's going to be a very rough one with 25% less buyers available to buy your home...

GENIUS Idea To Fix Denver and US Housing Problems!

What’s the #1 Problem stopping Denver real estate and the other national real estate markets from booming again?

The answer is - there are no more good Investor Loans!

Currently there are not enough buyers in the United States or in the Denver real estate market specifically, to purchase the entire outstanding extra inventory of homes. Typically, one in 10 to one in 15 homes are purchased by real estate Investors nationally. With the current mortgage mess and credit crunch, Investor Loans have nearly dried up or been wiped out completely. If you want to STOP the oversupply of homes for sale - you simply need to be generous and grateful to Investors with loans! Currently, the only loans available for Investors right now require a minimum of 10% down payment, debt to income ratios at 45% or BELOW, 6 months of documented reserves (401k/savings/mutual fund portfolios) and great credit scores above 680. Unfortunately, these requirements ELIMINATE 8 out of 10 potential Investors from getting a loan!

If you slash 80 percent of the potential Investor home buyers and then combine that with the 24 percent of regular homebuyers who have lower credit and can’t get financing now - you have a BIG DENVER REAL ESTATE PROBLEM!!! Worse yet, is that it’s even more disastrous nationally – as most other US cities aren’t as strong as the Denver real estate market (many Denver Metro are flat or still appreciating in value…despite what you might have read or heard on TV or the radio!). There will be NO RECOVERY until the US Government and Mortgage Banks decide to help the Investors get good (and easier to qualify loans.) Although the “super easy” $0 Down stated-income/stated-asset Investor loans of the past few years added to the real estate mess we have now, those same loans also enabled Investors to purchase much of the outstanding inventory in most major US cities, and helped Denver specifically with our high foreclosure home inventory. In my professional opinion, after closing nearly $100 million in real estate and mortgage transactions, is that we simply need a 95% fully documented Investor loan - even allowing real estate equity as reserves and modifying the 45% debt ratios. If not, we’ll NEVER recover from this housing over-supply mess …not unless they start offering 4% 30-Year Fixed FHA Loans next week!

If you’re a Denver home seller right now, or are planning on selling in the next few months - one of the biggest tricks we recommend now is to make sure your home is remodeled and as nice-looking as possible - so it’ll appraise for the highest dollar amount. Not only will it help you get a higher Purchase Offer, but the REAL REASON is so that the buyers can “roll-in” their loan closing costs into the purchase price of your house, in order to qualify to purchase it. This is because there are virtually no more zero down loans available - just the VA loans now. However, sharp Denver Realtor’s (like yours truly) can use a 3% down FHA loan for many buyers and “roll-in” the 3% down payment plus the approximate 2-3% closing costs into the purchase price of your house – thus converting a 3% down loan into a good $0 Down FHA loan. Don’t forget, FHA loan regulations allow parents & home sellers to contribute the down payment and closing costs, when documented properly by a real estate professional who knows how to write a FHA Purchase Contract.

If your Denver home will appraise for more than your list price or purchase price (that’s why we recommend remodeling) – many of us smart listing agents will advertise & market your home’s competitive advantage, thus typically slashing your listing and SOLD time frame by half the current time of 6-8 months in many “over-stocked” Denver neighborhoods! Why not remodel inexpensively now (ask me what you REALLY need to do!) and add value to your home now - so you “capitalize” on the Investor loan mess and appeal to more regular FHA homebuyers – who’ll be able to purchase YOUR home, despite the fact they have a big decrease in loan qualifying power now.

Write and call your Congressman and tell them to help the Investors Loan problem, and you’ll see most real estate markets recover in 6-12 months. If not, you’ll have 2 years or more years to absorb all the inventory of homes currently in Denver and the United States. This ‘genius’ solution is simply all about “supply and demand” - and the ability of American capitalism to easily fix this gigantic housing problem!