Excerpt: Tip #5. The wrong one & modern homes: Just because something is brand new does not mean it’s going to fetch top dollar. If it’s the wrong type of house for the neighborhood, buyers might actually pay less for the property. It’s like when someone builds a plain earth-tone stucco tract home in a classic area with Tudors and Bungalows. Despite being new it might actually sell with a price discount if it doesn’t have any hint of era charm for the neighborhood. On the other hand there are modern homes popping up all over Sacramento (CA) and beyond that seem to defy this idea. These homes definitely don’t blend into the neighborhood at all in terms of design, but they’re still fetching high prices. Keep in mind though modern homes tend to carry wide appeal, so they are often able to break the mold of the neighborhood and still command a price premium because of their style. In short, modern homes are not vibeless tract homes, so it’s not really the same thing.

Click here to read the other 4 great tips plus some interesting comments!!

Excerpt: …Loftium, a service in Seattle… will provide prospective home buyers with up to $50,000 for a down payment, as long as they are willing to continuously list an extra bedroom on Airbnb for one to three years and share most of the income with Loftium over that time.

If the link above does not work go to:

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Just a few months ago, lenders, etc. were screaming about not being able to find appraisers, high fees, slow turn times, etc. AQB was working on lowering appraiser requirements, etc.

This is an inevitable consequence of the huge ups and downs of mortgage lending. Getting more appraisers licensed will not solve this problem.

Now, appraisers are getting desperate. Some are willing to do desktop appraisals with someone else doing the inspection. This has already started picking up. Lenders have always wanted faster turn times so they like this. They are not particularly fee sensitive like AMCs.

Did you ever do any ‘comp checks’? If not, you are unusual. These were free appraisal opinions but no one seemed to care. The same people are screaming about desktop appraisals.

I will never forget my first appraisal association meeting (SREA) after I started my appraisal business in January 1986. From 1980 to 1985, mortgage rates were 18%+ and many residential appraisers left appraising as there were no jobs. (Most appraisers were staff appraisers for lenders at that time.) The room was filled with appraisers quoting turn times of 6 weeks or more. However, the same as the mortgage broker boom prior to 2008, there were relatively modest fee increases.

Of course, commercial fee appraisers have always done bidding. There have always been variable fees, depending on demand and supply, an individual appraiser’s workload, difficulty of the appraisal, purpose of the appraisal (litigation etc.)

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Surviving the Residential Fee Wars

WASHINGTON, D.C. (September 20, 2017) – Mortgage applications decreased 9.7 percent from one week earlier, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending September 15, 2017. Last week’s results included an adjustment for the Labor Day holiday.

The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, decreased 9.7 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index increased 12 percent compared with the previous week. The Refinance Index decreased 9 percent from the previous week. The seasonally adjusted Purchase Index decreased 11 percent from one week earlier. The unadjusted Purchase Index increased 10 percent compared with the previous week and was 2 percent higher than the same week one year ago.

The refinance share of mortgage activity increased to 52.1 percent of total applications from 51.0 percent the previous week. The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity increased to 6.8 percent of total applications.

The FHA share of total applications remained unchanged at 9.9 percent from the week prior. The VA share of total applications decreased to 10.1 percent from 10.3 percent the week prior. The USDA share of total applications remained unchanged at 0.7 percent from the week prior.

The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with conforming loan balances ($424,100 or less) increased to 4.04 percent from 4.03 percent, with points remaining unchanged at 0.40 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent loan-to-value ratio (LTV) loans. The effective rate increased from last week.

The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with jumbo loan balances (greater than $424,100) decreased to 3.99 percent from 4.00 percent, with points decreasing to 0.23 from 0.24 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans. The effective rate decreased from last week.

The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages backed by the FHA increased to 3.97 percent from 3.94 percent, with points remaining unchanged at 0.34 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans. The effective rate increased from last week.

The average contract interest rate for 15-year fixed-rate mortgages increased to 3.35 percent from 3.30 percent, with points increasing to 0.44 from 0.39 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans. The effective rate increased from last week.

The average contract interest rate for 5/1 ARMs increased to 3.30 percent from 3.17 percent, with points decreasing to 0.34 from 0.36 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans. The effective rate increased from last week.

The survey covers over 75 percent of all U.S. retail residential mortgage applications, and has been conducted weekly since 1990. Respondents include mortgage bankers, commercial banks and thrifts. Base period and value for all indexes is March 16, 1990=100.