Presenting The Lister Sisters!

This is a wonderful short sale piece that was done by Kare 11, here in Minneapolis. It is a great resource! Happy home hunting!

Ready to have a place of your own, sick of renting, parent’s basement getting you down, failure to launch?

Calling all campers…come and join this fun and exciting class just for First Time Home Buyers and their guests.
Taught by two knowledgeable and experienced Realtors, Kristin Rial and Lisa Pearl as well as our Mortgage Specialist Robyn Kellogg, you’ll walk away with with the knowledge you’ll need to buy your first home. This is a no pressure class, taught with you in mind. We’re teaching what you want to hear and you’ll be surprised. It’s your time to buy!

Saturday-May 9, 2009
10:00 am to 11:30 am
Edina Realty Eden Prairie
11800 Singletree Lane #401
Eden Prairie, MN 55344

Please RSVP-
Kristin Rial 952-210-3121 KristinRial@edinarealty.com
Lisa Pearl 612- 226-4673 LisaPearl@edinarealty.com

For those who need to launch, but don’t know how to do it….

• Falling Home Prices Also Hurting Sales (hsh.com)
• Recovery (dealerdan.blogspot.com)
• Existing-Home Sales Rise for a Second Month (nytimes.com)

Tags: buyers, buying, class, first time home buying, Kristin Rial, Lisa Pearl, real estate home buying seminar, Realtors, Realty, Robyn Kellogg, seminar, Taught

Fannie Tries Short Sales Over Foreclosures
Fannie Mae has launched pilot projects in Phoenix and Orlando intended to reduce foreclosures by pre-approving short sales, agreeing on a price and the loss it will take prior to a deal even being made. It is hoped the program will improve the popularity of short sales among real estate agents.

Property professionals initially had welcomed short sales but soon found the process to be a frustrating one–due to squabbling about the sale price and slow approval times by the mortgage companies–that often ended with no sale at all.

“Short sales have received such a bad reputation among real-estate agents that, as a portion of the overall mortgage market, they have gone down,” says Tom Popik of the research firm Campbell Communications, whose November survey of realty practitioners found that agents had to wait as long as 8.1 weeks to receive a response from the lender on a short sale. That was nearly double the 4.5 weeks the process took earlier in the year.

Fannie Mae’s pilot will focus on homes that are listed at less than the mortgage balance and carry a Fannie Mae-backed loan serviced by Countrywide Financial Corp.
If it proves successful, the concept could be expanded to other geographical areas and additional lenders. There are concerns, in the meantime, about the program’s success, with real estate agents noting that property prices could decline before the pre-approval is issued.

Source: The Wall Street Journal, Nick Timiraos (01/09/09)

Tags: fannie mae, Foreclosures, Mortgage, mortgage rates, short sales