HUD foreclosure properties

HUD Properties Definition: HUD stands for Department of Housing and Urban Development (US government). A HUD property is a 1 to 4 unit residential property acquired by HUD as a result of a foreclosure action on an FHA-insured mortgage. HUD becomes the property owner and offers it for sale to recover the loss on the foreclosure claim. FHA pays the lender's claim and transfers ownership of the property to HUD, and then HUD sells the home. HUD homes are often sold at a discount. Unlike with auction properties, HUD buyers are not required to pay with cash, financing is available for HUD purchases. You can finance the HUD property or pay with cash. HUD does not finance homes. If financing the property, you will need to arrange for conventional financing or other financing. Any real estate broker registered with HUD may submit an offer and contract to purchase on your behalf. HUD will pay the real estate broker's commission, if included in the contract

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Improving your credit score when buying a home

Learn what your credit score is and how to improve it

You may not even know that you have a credit score, but you do -- and it's used by credit card companies, home equity lenders, auto loan lenders, and finance companies when you apply for credit or a loan. Produced with a computer model created, most often, by Fair, Isaac & Co. (or "FICO"), a credit score is intended to be a snapshot, or summary, of your credit history. A low score can mean you don't get a credit card or loan, or that if you do, you will pay a higher interest rate. Also, some lenders use your credit score and other information to set the "price" for your loan.

Factors affecting your credit score

Although we don't know exactly how a credit score is determined, FICO considers the following factors (the approximate weight it assigns to each factor is in parentheses):

Payment history (35 percent).Your score is negatively affected if you have paid bills late, had an account sent to collection, or declared bankruptcy. The more recent the problem, the lower your score -- a 30-day late payment today hurts more than a bankruptcy five years ago.

Outstanding debt (30 percent).If the amount you owe is close to your credit limit, that is likely to have a negative effect on your score. A low balance on two cards is better than a high balance on one.

Length of your credit history (15 percent).The longer your accounts have been open, the better.

Recent inquiries on your report (10 percent).If you have recently applied for many new accounts, that may negatively affect your score. Promotional inquiries don't count.

Types of credit in use (10 percent).Loans from finance companies generally lower your credit score. FICO says this is most important when there isn't a lot of other information upon which to base a score.

Although this is a good guide as to what credit scoring companies deem important, keep in mind that some companies may consider different factors.

What the numbers mean

Credit scores range from 300 to 900, with the average around 750. According to the model, as your score increases, your risk of default decreases. Industry experience shows a direct correlation between low scores and high default rates.

This means that you may have a hard time convincing a creditor to make you an affordable loan (or any loan at all) if your score is far below average. But just as your credit history can vary from credit bureau to credit bureau, so can your credit scores. It is possible to have a fairly high score with one credit bureau (Equifax, Experian, or TransUnion) and a somewhat low credit score with another, just as you might have a clean credit history with one bureau and a muddied record with another.

Wide-ranging credit scores are rare, however, although some lenders admit to seeing borrowers with scores that vary by 100 points or more. To combat this, a lender usually uses the middle score -- but that can be of little comfort if you have scores of 550, 570, and 700, and the interest rate for a borrower with a score of 570 is two points higher than the rate for a borrower who scores 700. Narrow ranges are more typical. For example, a person with good credit might have scores something like 685, 702, and 710.

How to get your credit score

You may now obtain your credit score from credit bureaus that develop or distribute credit scores by paying a fee (the Federal Trade Commission sets the fee). The bureau must provide your score, the range of possible scores under the scoring model used, four key factors that affected the score, the date on which the score was created, and the name of the entity that provided the score (such as Fair, Isaac). Be aware, however, the score and the scoring model that you receive may be different than those your lender uses. Fair, Isaac, in partnership with Equifax (one of the "big three" credit bureaus), makes credit scores available online to consumers for a fee of $14.95. To get your credit score, visitwww.myfico.com or www.equifax.com or www.scorepower.com.

How to improve your credit score

If you want to improve your credit score, Fair, Isaac offers these tips:

• pay your bills on time
• make up missed payments and keep all your payments current
• maintain low balances on credit cards and other "revolving debt" Don't use more than 30% of your credit limit on each card.
• pay off debt rather than transferring it to a new account
• don't close unused credit card accounts just to raise your credit score. In fact that may lower your score.
• don't get new credit cards that you don't need just to increase the credit available to you. You only need three established trade lines of credit.
• see more tips in "Understanding Your Credit Score" on the Fair, Isaac website, www.myfico.com.
• Go to www.optoutprescreen.com and register for opting out for 5 years this will take you out of junk mailers form creditors and lowers your risk factor for potential lenders.  You will lose most of your junk mail. You can also opt back in anytime.  This could raise your score 10-20 points in about a week. (Not a guarantee just past experience).
• Use the help of a credit professional. Shawn Torres of Serrot & Associates has a good track record with my past clients. He is inexpensive and can help you negotiate those past collections to a much lower amount.
• Shawn Torres Serrot&Associates c:740-624-6404 f:614-453-8197 email: Shawn.k.torres@gmail.com

Finally, don't give up hope just because you have a low score. If you think there are mistakes on your credit report, you can get a copy of the report, fix the problem, and explain the situation to the lender. Some lenders may override credit scores if they think you are a good risk despite problems with your score.

Learn more about credit scoring

To learn more about credit scoring -- particularly its pitfalls -- you might want to visit the website of one of credit scoring's biggest critics, Greg Fisher. He beat the scoring proponents to the punch by scooping up the Web address www.creditscoring.com, from which he launches often strident, sometimes wacky, but usually well-documented attacks on the credit-scoring concept and the industries that support it. If you're interested in the other side of the story, get the booklet "Understanding Your Credit Score" from Fair, Isaac atwww.myfico.com.

2523 Horseshoe Rd, Delaware, OH 43015 - Single Family Residential for Sale - 4 Beds, 2 Baths - Mike Meyer - Better Homes & Gardens Real Estate

2523 Horseshoe Rd, Delaware, OH 43015 - Single Family Residential for Sale - 4 Beds, 2 Baths - Mike Meyer - Better Homes & Gardens Real Estate

Real Estate Outlook: Existing-Home Sales Improve

All of us are looking for something positive these days. With all the turmoil going on its refreshing for sure.

click here for the article talking about homes sales improving

How much house can you afford?

Every wonder how much house you can possibly qualify for when getting a mortgage. Here is an article that may help you determine your mortgage budget. Contact us if you need any help getting qualified for a mortgage.

Central Ohio home sales were up again in central Ohio

Home sales in central Ohio home have exceeded 2010 for the last four months according to the

Columbus Board of REALTORS®. The 1,543 homes sold in October marks an 8.6 percent increase over

the 1,421 homes sold in October of 2010. Home sales in September were up 16.6 percent compared to

the year before.

Year-to-date, home sales (January through October 2011) are only 2.1 percent behind 2010 and closing

the gap.

Homes put in contract last month (1,379) were up 46 percent from a year ago making October the sixth

straight month of increased contracts.

“The number of homes put into contract have been up for the last several months,” said Rick Benjamin,

2011 President of the Columbus Board of REALTORS®.  “However, contract failures – cancellations

caused largely by declined mortgage applications or failures in loan underwriting from appraised values

coming in below the negotiated price continue to be a problem for central Ohio buyers.”

Total housing inventory at the end of October fell 23.3 percent to 13,827 existing homes available for

sale, which represents an 8.1-month supply at the current sales pace, up from an 8.7-month supply in

September.

The average sale price for single family homes and condominiums year to date is $157,327, down 2.4

percent from homes sold January through October 2010.

“Affordability conditions this year have been the most favorable on record since 1970,” said Benjamin.

“As mortgage interest rates continue to remain low, more first time home buyers, investors and move up

buyers are being drawn into the housing market.”

Click here  to view the October sortable housing market report by area.
Click here to view the entire central Ohio Local Market Update.

The Columbus Board of REALTORS® Multiple Listing Service (MLS) serves all of Franklin, Delaware,

Fayette, Licking, Madison, Morrow, Pickaway and Union Counties and parts of Athens, Champaign,

Clark, Clinton, Fairfield, Hocking, Knox, Logan, Marion, Muskingum, Perry and Ross Counties.

For more information about the central Ohio housing market, visit ColumbusRealtors.com/statsTo view commercial properties for sale or lease in central Ohio, visit COCIE.org.

For custom area reports to help with your home search at 2obvious.com CLICK HERE

Search thousands of homes instantly at www.2obvious.com

Like us on Facebook click here 

Get instant information on homebuying here

Understanding Lease Option Contracts For Sellers

Is Your House Not Selling? Is It Just Sitting There Vacant? Have you settled On Trying to Rent It Out Since You’ve Been Having Trouble Finding A Qualified Buyer? Are You Scared of Being A Landlord?

Discover how the advantage of a “Lease Option” Can suddenly change your fortunes from a Real Estate Nightmare - To a Real Estate Dream !

The “Lease Option” may be the answer !

Utilizing a Lease Option strategy will enabled you to get your property handled quickly by tapping into the unlimited pool of tenant-buyers who are hard working, respectable people, hungry to own their own home but might not be able to qualify for a traditional mortgage.

A tenant-buyer should provide you the necessary cash flow to pay your mortgage, property taxes, and perhaps more. The tenant-buyer has vested interest in treating the property as if it’s their own, because after all they are buying it!

We simply call this a Delayed Closing

What is a Lease Option & How Does it Work?

A Lease Option contract is the combination of a rental agreement and a sales agreement between the seller and the tenant-buyer, which gives the tenant-buyer the exclusive option to purchase the property at an agreed upon price at anytime within the length of the contract.

The seller would be paid monthly rental payments by the tenant-buyer to live in the property until they are ready and able to purchase the property out right, within the agreed upon terms.

What are the Benefits of working with Better Homes and Gardens Bighill Realty?

• Property Handled Quickly: Your property will be handled quickly because we have a large pool of pre-qualified tenant-buyers looking for the opportunity to become homeowners through our Lease Option program. In some cases we can get your property Lease Optioned to a pre-qualifed tenant-buyer within 5 days or less.
• Relief of Mortgage Payment: The monthly rental payment from the tenant-buyer should cover most, if not all of your mortgage payment and taxes, with potential cash flow.
• Option Payment: An up-front payment called a non-refundable option deposit will be negotiated and collected from the tenant-buyer prior to them moving into the property. This non-refundable option deposit is credited back to the tenant-buyer when they exercise their option to buy. If the tenant-buyer does not exercise their option to buy, you keep the entire non-refundable option deposit.
• No Landlord Headaches: With Lease Option contracts the tenant-buyer is usually responsible for the day-to-day maintenance of the property. So no midnight calls to fix that leaky toilet!
• Peace of Mind: Fortunately , your tenant-buyer does not have a renter’s mentality. They have an owner’s mentality and will take care of the property as if it were their own. Your tenant-buyer may even make improvement to the home- with your permission of course.
• Tax Benefits: Until the tenant-buyer exercises their option to buy the property, you still get all the tax benefits of owning the property.
• Credit Repair: If the tenant-buyer has credit issues, we will help guide them on how to repair their credit so that they can obtain a mortgage within 12 to 24 months in order to exercise the option to buy.
• Hands on Help: We are very experienced and knowledgeable in Lease Option transaction and will assist in structuring and implementing the deal.

What Steps Should I Take to Sell My Home Using a Lease Option ?

Call us today at 740-274-0757 to schedule an appointment with one of our Lease Option Specialists to meet with you to evaluate your particular situation.

You may also visit us at www.2obvious.com to view our website.