Dan Polimino's Blog

This week’s column is dedicated to my brethren in real estate. I know that many of you read this column on a weekly basis. I know this because of your continued emails and phone calls, or in the course of doing business together. I am always flattered when a fellow agent contacts me to tell me how much they enjoy reading my column. I equally appreciate it when fellow agents contact me and tell me how much they disagree with what I write in my column. We may not agree on every topic I write, but I always humbly recognize your opinion and I appreciate you taking your time to write to me. More importantly, I appreciate you reading my column.

Recently in my new position, I have been speaking with a lot of agents about the state of their business. I heard from one colleague that had 26 properties under contract, another had 15, and yet another had 20. Even my fellow luxury agents are boasting the same type of numbers. My team, The Colorado Dream House Team, has enjoyed the same success this year and I think that we are poised to have our best year in the last five years. It seems as though as the song says, “Happy Days Are Here Again,” that real estate agents in Denver have reason to celebrate and I could not be more thrilled for all of you.

If you were able to weather the storm for the past four years after the worst real estate crash in the history of our nation, then you are to be applauded. I know it was not easy to keep a smile on your face, keep the lights on, put food on the table, and sell real estate in that environment. I know that many of you burned through your entire savings and retirement funds just to keep you and your family afloat. If you are still standing today and selling real estate, you are a success story. More importantly, if you are starting to reap the benefits of a better market, then you deserve every bit of it.

Jonathan Tisch is the Chairman of Loews Hotels and the author of three best-selling books on leadership. In his book “The Power of We,” Tisch talks about his philosophy that he never felt he had a competitor in the hotel business. Tisch never tried to compete against another hotel chain; instead, he tried to find a way to work with other hotel chains. His philosophy was, “There is enough business for everyone to succeed.” As such, no one was a competitor for Tisch; rather, everyone was an opportunity to work together and succeed.

I share the same philosophy and feel the same way about all of you. Congratulations to you and your business. I look forward to partnering with you in the future.

Dan Polimino is an Owner/Broker with Keller Williams Realty DTC. He can be reached at dan@coloradodreamhouse.com  and www.coloradodreamhouse.com/denverpost

"Did you know that Denver is No. 2 in the nation for the shortest length of time a home is listed (33 days) before being sold?

Here are the facts (March 2012/March 2011):

1) The Number of Sold Properties is up 4.2% over last year. (3,514/3,371)

2) The Number of Properties for Sale is down 53.4%! (13,246/28,440)

3) The Average Days on Market is down 11.7% (91/103)

If you are in the market looking for a home, it is extremely important to have the very best experts on your side! The Colorado Dream House team is here to help you find your dream house of choice. If you are interested in buying, selling or investing in real estate, contact us today. http://coloradodreamhouse.com"

Every year you do your due diligence and order copies of your credit reports so you can be sure that everything is in order and you’ve not been a victim of identity theft. Just for the heck of it you order your scores too. So far, so good – scores in the 700’s. Now you’re going to apply for a mortgage and the loan officer pulls your credit and your scores are in the 600’s?! What happened? Possibly nothing...

Every industry has its own scoring models or scoring method. If you apply for a car, a credit card, a mortgage, even insurance – all use different scoring models and will have different scores, based on different parameters. Personal scores or those you get when you request your own credit report or scores, will almost always be the highest, but they are not used by any industry for any reason. I prefer to call them the “warm and fuzzy scores” to make us feel good about ourselves.

There are some scores that are not even true FICO (Fair Isaac Company) scores. One place you can get your FICO scores, short of a lender requesting it, is through www.myfico.com. But again, you receive personal FICO scores that are not industry driven.

What about www.annualcreditreport.com? This takes you to each individual bureaus website to obtain your credit. Those are FICO scores – right? Not necessarily. When you pull credit though Experian and order your scores you receive a Plus Score which is a score based on an in-house model developed by Experian not by FICO. The same is true for TransUnion; you are receiving an in-house model called a TransRisk score. If you want a FICO score from Trans Union you have to order it through their sister sight which is www.transunioncs.com. Equifax does provide a FICO score; however, they are still personal scores. The only way to obtain your mortgage scores is when you apply for a mortgage loan through a lender, bank, credit union, etc. They are set up with special codes that are used to pull your credit through the mortgage scoring models.

There are many websites that offer “credit scores”. Be careful since they are usually not true FICO scores but rather in-house score models, otherwise known as FAKO scores.

We’ve all seen the rather annoying guitar playing, table waiting gentleman on television who’s been a victim of identity theft and is touting “freecreditreport.com”. This is an Experian based website and you will receive the Experian Plus score, which is not a FICO score. In addition, it’s not free! You have to sign up and pay for their credit monitoring service to receive your “free” credit report. The TransRisk score is provided at “TrueCredit.com” and “PrivacyMatters.com”. Both may offer valuable services, but again, they are not true FICO scores.

Be careful of “bankcard scores”. Washington Mutual/Providian will send you your score on your monthly statement. This is a true FICO score, however, it is a revolving score which will be different from a mortgage score and they are usually 30 days old by the time the cardholder receives the statement. Scores can change daily so they may not be very accurate. Why so many scores and why even bother to look at your score if they’re all going to be different? Each score model has factors that carry different weight depending on what they support. For example, when you apply for a credit card it will look primarily at past credit card history and balances, whereas a mortgage FICO score will lean towards previous or existing mortgage history.

When you sign up for a credit card or through some credit monitoring services you may receive a Vantage Score. This score was developed by the credit repositories (Experian, Equifax and TransUnion) and the score range is from 501-990. However, it is not accepted by Fannie and Freddie or used when applying for a mortgage loan.

Just remember, the most important scores are your FICO scores. If you decide to order your credit scores from any entity, if it just says “credit scores” and it doesn’t say FICO you’re not getting the real deal.

Chip Allen

Crestline Mortgage Bankers

A Division of Universal Lending Corp

Direct: 303.947.2109

Fax: 303.987.0676

Loanchip@hotmail.com

Your Lender for Life!

When people you care about need a mortgage,

for purchase or refinance, please do not keep me a secret.

Did you know that in Costa Rica, the contract to buy and sell real estate is just two pages long? In fact, it’s not even written by a real estate agent. All contracts in Costa Rica must be written by an attorney and it is quite an easy and painless transaction.

In Australia, the contract to buy and sell real estate is a generally a three-page contract. They don’t even do inspections in Australia. They do a walk through, meaning the buyers walk through the house and if it looks good, then they buy it. There is no inspection period, inspection notice, resolution, and the endless stream of paperwork that we have here in the US.

In Colorado, which may be one of the worst states in the country for excessive real estate paperwork, we have a 15-page contract to buy and sell real estate. But that is just the tip of the iceberg. By the time you put a home under contract, including things like disclosures, inspection notices, amendments, addendums and other documents, you could sign well over two to three dozen different documents. Why? What is our problem? Why can’t we make this an easy transaction like our foreign friends?

The answer is twofold: 1) We live in an incredibly litigious society (we love to sue each other) and 2) No one trusts anyone. Just last month, I was negotiating an inspection objection when the listing agent said to me, “Why won’t your buyers just take our word for it?” I laughed and thought to myself, “Because my buyers don’t trust you or anyone else for that matter.” I was working with another agent on closing one of my listings and his buyers objected to just about everything you could object to in the real estate contract. They objected to title, to inspection, to CIC’s, to survey, and would have objected to due diligence documents had we had any to provide. In fact, I am pretty sure these folks would not be able to go through the Burger King drive through without a team of lawyers and a week of research.

So what is the solution? How we do we make this process better? It seems as though we just keep adding more and more legal documents every year for buyers and sellers to sign. When is it too much? I can’t imagine that we can continue to legislate every possible circumstance that COULD go wrong in a real estate contract? I would love to hear your suggestions and I will print the best ideas in my column next.

Dan Polimino is a Realtor with Fuller Sotheby’s International Realty. He can be reached at DPolimino@fullerproperties.com and www.coloradodreamhouse.com/denverpost

There is no question that inspection is one of those days in the home buying and selling process that is stressful for both parties in the transaction. Buyers are always worried that they are going to find something seriously wrong with the house that they just made an offer on, while sellers are worried that there is something seriously wrong with their house. In most cases, the buyers, sellers, and their respective agents don’t breathe a sigh of relief until the inspection period is over and has been resolved.

One way that sellers can relieve their stress ahead of time is by having what I call a pre-inspection done of their home even before they put it on the market. They hire an inspection company to conduct a standard inspection, as if the home was under contract. Then, they take the results and fix all or some of the problems noted in the inspection report. Once done, they can sleep easy that in the event someone makes an offer and their home goes under contract, the inspection period should go smoothly.

In fact, most people can increase the value of their homes by doing a home inspection every two or three years. Let’s face it; our homes take a beating inside and out. You may not even be selling your home, but keeping up with the structure every two or three years can halt the damages of nature. I see people all the time scrambling to get their home fixed or in shape just before they sell it. Most people don’t even think about maintenance issues until it’s time to sell. What if you did it different this time and started working on one or two projects every year, instead of trying to tackle them all at once? It would also help out financially if you spread out the maintenance cost over time instead of being shocked with a big bill right before you need to move.

Many home inspection companies like Home Systems Data will do a home inspection for you, so you can find out which maintenance issues you have now or coming up in the future. They’ll look at the roof, the basement for leaks, issues on structural, heating, plumbing, and electrical, and they’ll do tests for radon, mold, and termites.

This time around, be prepared, get ahead of the game and increase the value of your home.

Dan Polimino is a Realtor with Fuller Sotheby’s International Realty. He can be reached at DPolimino@fullerproperties.com and www.coloradodreamhouse.com/denverpost

“Dan, my house isn’t selling and I am not sure what to do for us to get an offer.”

I hear this all the time from sellers.There is frustration in their voices, and with good reason. This is a difficult market to sell a home as everyone already knows, so I usually ask them a question back and it is simply this, “What are you doing to move the meter?” Are you making adjustments and changes in order to sell your home, or do you keep on doing the same thing over and over again, expecting a different result? Let’s take a look at some things that all sellers should consider to make a difference in selling their home today.

1. Price reductions. I know that every seller hates to hear this and thinks that’s all Realtors want to do, but it moves the meter more than anything else. You cannot run away from the fact that this is a price driven market and not much else matters right now. You must be presenting your home as a VALUE and a compelling VALUE. So much so that you are almost daring a buyer to make an offer.

2. How does it show? Have you received any feedback that your home is not showing well? If so, make those corrections if possible. If you are not sure if your home shows well, have some friends, family, or other Realtors walk through and give you an honest critique.

3. Marketing. Sit with your agent and go over all the marketing that has been done up to this point. What has been effective and what has not produced any results? Remember, marketing is supposed to produce showings, and then showings produce offers. You may need to re-budget your marketing, taking money away from endeavors that are not producing fruit and spending it on strategies that are resulting in showings. You may also need to kick in some dollars of your own (out-of-pocket) to help your realtor with marketing costs.

If you have done all of the above and still there are no offers for your home there is a good chance that there are no buyers for your price range and product at this time. At any time if you need more help, ideas, or advice, feel free to contact me at the information below.

Dan Polimino is a Realtor with Fuller Sotheby’s International Realty. He can be reached at DPolimino@fullerproperties.com and www.coloradodreamhouse.com/denverpost

In addition to not requiring a down payment, VA mortgages are now a superior choice to FHA mortgages in most cases. The reason is simple. While the upfront costs are usually higher than a FHA loan, there is no monthly mortgage insurance on a VA loan. 

Upfront costs, referred to as the mortgage insurance premium (MIP), for FHA mortgages are currently 1% of the loan amount. In addition, there is the annual mortgage insurance premium which is paid monthly. This will be increasing to 1.15% on April 18, 2011. On a FHA mortgage of $200,000, the upfront MIP would be $2,000, bringing the loan amount to $202,000, and the annual mortgage premium would be $191.67 per month.

Upfront costs on a VA mortgage are referred to as the Funding Fee. The funding fee for purchase mortgages are as follows:

* ZERO for a veteran with a service related disability 

* 3.3% for a veteran who has used his eligibility before. 

* 2.15% for first time buyers who are on Active duty or Veterans. 

* 2.4% for reservists and National Guard. 

For streamline VA refinances the funding fee ranges from zero to 0.5%. A first time buyer with a funding fee of 2.15% would have $4,300 added to a $200,000 mortgage for a total loan amount of $204,300. While this is $2,430 more than a FHA mortgage, the buyer is not paying the monthly mortgage insurance of $191.67. The buyer is money ahead after 13 months.

I recently did a purchase mortgage for a Vet who could have come up with the down payment for a FHA mortgage. After looking at his options, he wisely choose the VA mortgage. The $10,500 he would have used for his down payment was instead used for home improvements on his new home. His earnest money was $1,500, which he received back at closing. All in all, a win-win deal.

Chip Allen

Crestline Mortgage Bankers

A Division of Universal Lending Corp

Direct: 303.947.2109

Fax: 303.987.0676

Loanchip@hotmail.com

Colorado Mortgage Broker License # 100019831

NMLS # 378621

Your Lender for Life!

When people you care about need a mortgage,

for purchase or refinance, please do not keep me a secret.