Towne Lake is building out a waterfront center

The folks over at Towne Lake are set for a busy new year...the developer is moving forward on a planned waterfront center called The Boardwalk of Towne Lake that is to  include restaurants, retail stores, office buildings, a hotel, a green area, a 3,000-seat amphitheatre.  Check out the details here:

http://impactnews.com/northwest-houston/328-news/15750-towne-lake-builds-out-waterfront-center

Christmas Tree Recycling

Every year, Houstonians discard thousands of used Christmas trees that could be recycled into useable items. The City of Houston is encouraging residents to recycle their Christmas Trees to give them a new lease on life and make the recycling of Christmas trees a family tradition.

Click here for more info: Christmas Tree Recycling

FHA Extends Waiver of Anti-Flipping Regulations Through 2012

In an effort to continue stabilizing home values and improve conditions in communities experiencing high foreclosure activity, Acting Federal Housing Administration (FHA) Commissioner Carol J. Galante will extend FHA’s temporary waiver of the anti-flipping regulations.   

With certain exceptions, FHA regulations prohibit insuring a mortgage on a home owned by the seller for less than 90 days.  In 2010, FHA temporarily waived this regulation through January 31, 2011, and later extended that waiver through the remainder of 2011.  The new extension will permit buyers to continue to use FHA-insured financing to purchase HUD-owned properties, bank-owned properties, or properties resold through private sales. It will allow homes to resell as quickly as possible, helping to stabilize real estate prices and to revitalize neighborhoods and communities. 

The extension is effective through December 31, 2012, unless otherwise extended or withdrawn by FHA.  All other terms of the existing Waiver will remain the same.  The Waiver contains strict conditions and guidelines to prevent the predatory practice of property flipping, in which properties are quickly resold at inflated prices to unsuspecting borrowers.  The Waiver continues to be limited to sales meeting the following conditions:

·         All transactions must be arms-length, with no identity of interest between the buyer and seller or other parties participating in the sales transaction.

·         In cases in which the sales price of the property is 20 percent or more above the seller’s acquisition cost, the Waiver will only apply if the lender meets specific conditions and documents the justification for the increase in value.

·         The Waiver is limited to forward mortgages, and does not apply to the Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) for purchase program.

-- This information was originally shared with us by our friend Diane Rifai, Residential Mortgage Loan Originator. Visit her on the web at: http://www.DianeRifai.com

Wow...

Property Flipping rules and FHA

On December 31,2011 FHA’s Temporary Flipping Waiver expires. For over a year, FHA had waived their requirement for 90 day ownership prior to purchasing a property using FHA insured financing. But that waiver expires December 31, 2011. If FHA does not renew it this means we go back to the regular policy.

FHA flipping policy:

FHA requires a property to be owned by the seller for 90 days before re-sale (this means the contract date cannot be prior to the 91^st day of the seller’s ownership). No work can be done by lender on the property prior to the 91^st day- this includes ordering an  appraisal or ordering a case number from FHA on the borrower). So if you have an investor property under a listing agreement, then you need to prepare your seller for this. The 91 days is calculated from the date title transferred to seller (not necessarily the same as the purchase date) to the date of a new sales contract.

-- This information was originally shared with us by our friend Diane Rifai, Residential Mortgage Loan Originator.  Visit her on the web at: http://www.DianeRifai.com

Hot On Homes - Albury Trails

The Pye Team was recently featured in a Hot On Homes! segment. Click the picture below to view:

Preparing for the Holidays

A few good tips from our friend Diane Rafai...

This time of year everyone is focused on the holidays: gifts, trips, parties...so much fun but so expensive. Be careful as you navigate through the next few months- you do not want to ruin the good credit scores you spent the year maintaining. Here are some tips to keep in mind about credit scores:

1. Inquiries: every time a creditor pulls your credit, it can hit your credit score 4-8 points PER INQUIRY according to the credit bureaus. So applying for new credit at department stores to get a discount on a purchase can cost you more than the discount it worth. Be careful about applying for new credit.

2. New credit: every time you do get approved for new credit, you get a new hit to your score for the following reason: length of time since new account established - and depending on what type of account it is, you could see too many revolving accounts, or too many department store accounts or too many open accounts any of these can have negative effects on your credit scores.

3. Credit limits: even if you keep your credit cards paid on time, if your balance at the time of the statement exceeds 30% of the available credit on the card, you may have points taken away from your score. (This shows up under your credit explanations as proportion of balances too high or ratios of revolving credit too high.) Many people believe as long as they pay the credit card off monthly, they are ok. But the fact is the balance used to evaluate your score on the credit report is the amount shown on the monthly billing statement. So if your plan is to pay the credit card off monthly, and you want to maximize your credit score, then you need to pay the balance BEFORE the bill comes out so the statement reflects an amount less than 30% of the available balance.

Use your credit wisely this season so you start 2012 in as good or better shape than you end 2011. Credit scores are so important to all aspects of your financial health that proper management insures a solid foundation.

How long does a borrower have to wait to get another loan when they have had a financial issue?

Download this PDF prepared by Diane Rifai to answer that question: Download the PDF