Maryann Salt

I would say tell it like it is, and if it smells bad, than it's bad. Trust your instincts when it comes to people that take too much of your time. Also, delegate those menial tasks to someone like your assistant. :) - Wed Mar 19 2008, 01:36

Hi Yvonne,
That is such a broad question to be totally honest with you. As you can see everyone on this forum answered your question in many ways. The best way for you to find out what kind of credit you have to have is to have your local loan agent pull your credit, and to have your local loan agent review your income. You can forget about stated income and stated asset loans from the past, or loans where you didn't have to prove that you had the capability to repay your mortgage. Nowadays, even with loans that have lax underwriting credit score requirements, you still have to prove the capacity to repay the mortgage, and you have to be able to show that you have saved up some money. You also have to show continuous employment. Depending on credit scores won't do you any good. Lenders nowadays look at the whole picture.

There are ways to buy a home and get into a home through creative financing; however, your local loan agent and your local realtor need to work on first figuring out what you qualify for, then developing a list of homes where sellers may carry, homes where you can use down payment assistance money for, etc.

Hope this helps. :) - Wed Mar 19 2008, 01:15

From what I've seen, 80% of as-is market value. If home is a fixer upper, buyer could bid lower with a supporting bid for repairs. And no we're not talking about bid for a luxurious repairs, but repairs to bring home back up to comparable neighborhood homes. As-is value needs to be supported by good comps in local community. - Thu Mar 13 2008, 17:59

I think there's many parts to that answer and it's definitely a discussion that continues to permeate the news media, local t.v. stations, and consumers. There's no easy answer to that. But from my perspective for Hercules as I have for other areas, the market will perform according to the demand and where that demand fits in. National Assoc. of Realtors forecast that Q2-Q4 into 2009 will be a slight improvement in sales demand nationally. From a more local level, where the markets will rebound from my standpoint is under median local sales prices. If you take a look at the City of Concord, multiple offers are happening in the lower priced homes. And I believe that's what will happen in decent communities across the Bay Area. If an investor can positively cash flow on the property, meaning if the mortgage payment, taxes and insurance are less than market rental rates, it's a good investment. Of course, it's very difficult to time the market at the exact time to buy, if you can purchase a home that can fit within your overall investment or budget, even if the market drops another 15% this year, prices will eventually go back up. My advice would be to look at real estate from a buy and hold strategy if you're an investor, and if you're a first time homebuyer, now is the best time, because home prices are pre-2001 home prices. You can afford to buy, and work in the same city these days. With mortgage programs coming around, and as Wall Street and banks squeeze out all the ill-leveraging issues, it will come back around. You can keep asking the same question over and over again, "Will the market get better" and one things for certain from my standpoint, by the time one takes to figure that out, opportunities will be lost, and some will be left thinking, "darn, I wonder why I didn't do this...or that..." Anyways, that's my 2 cents. :) - Thu Mar 13 2008, 17:49

In addition, if full doc 95% 680 fico jumbos are o.k. stated 680 conforming to 95% - Wed Feb 20 2008, 16:31