Many thanks to all the Windemere agents who attended the Blogging 101 class yesterday (on Thunderbird and 101). I sure enjoyed teaching the class. I owe this opportunity to Chris Mattix, my newest Facebook friend! So, thank you Chris for having me.

As promised here is a link to the Powerpoint presentation from yesterday. Additionally, I have posted the video of a class I did on setting up a Wordpress blog at the Arizona RE Bloggers Network meeting last month.

Arizona Real Estate Bloggers Network Meeting - May 2008 from phoenixrealestatelive on Vimeo.

I do mortgages on the side to support my blogging habit, so please feel free to refer any clients who may be in the market and need a good quality lender! If you browse through this blog you’ll realize that Aimee and I certainly know what we’re doing and we have a history of providing 100% customer satisfaction!

Just a friendly reminder

Post Updated Monday June 16th. Here is the powerpoint slide from my presentation via SlideShare:

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Welcome to the Arizona Mortgage Guru blog, a great resource for all your home financing needs. If you're new here and like the content, you can subscribe to my RSS feed to get regular updates on all things related to mortgages. Thanks for visiting.

Tags: arizona, bloggers, blogging, phoenix, Real Estate
Categories: Arizona, Bloggers, Blogging, Phoenix, Uncategorized
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If you’re like me and don’t have time for cable T.V. then you probably won’t be able to see these commercials. This is the Ghimire families first performance debut in a commercial. I think my bride and daughter look stunning. Not sure about the guy in the blue shirt next to them though!

If you’re wondering about Homewerx - its owned by Scott Hubbard and Shannon Hubbard. They’re both very prolific bloggers! Also, we would be interested in any future opportunities, so if you’re making a commercial and need some good actors, well you know who to call!

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Tags: commerical, home inspectoion
Categories: Arizona, Gilbert, Phoenix
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Over the past month or so Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have made a few announcements regarding maximum loan levels. For some odd reason I didn’t post these changes as they were announced. Perhaps I was distracted by other things going on. So, I want to share with you some of the major changes which have been announced recently and how it could affect your situation for obtaining a home mortgage loan.

The really major change is regarding declining markets. As you may or may not be aware the term declining markets entered our lexicon late last year. In fact I even wrote a post suggesting that while “subprime” may have been the word of the year for 2007, “declining markets” has a good chance of being the word of the year for 2008. The reason being that because Fannie and Freddie (along with mortgage insurance companies) announced that they would be automatically cutting 5% off the the maximum loan to value on any property determined to be in a declining market. Now Arizona has been deemed a declining market, so it affects all loans in this great state of ours.

What does this mean to you? Well all Fannie and Freddie loans cap out at 95% which means the borrower needs to put 5% down from his/her own funds. This maximum loan amount was cut back to 90% in declining markets. Which meant the borrower no had to put 10% down for the same loan.

Recently Fannie and Freddie have made some changes stating that they would allow 95% loans again. The problem is finding mortgage insurance companies willing to insure mortgages up to that high of a loan to value. We have developed a relationship with such a mortgage insurance company. Hence, moving forward we are able to do loans upto 95% under the following conditions:

• Fixed rate programs only (fully amortizing)
• $417K max loan size
• Primary residence only
• Purchase or rate and term refinance (no cash out refinances allowed)
• 680 minimum credit score

This is only part of the full set of guidelines, therefore it is important to review this completely with your lender. So I will forewarn you that not all will qualify for this new higher loan to value. Additionally this is a lender specific policy, different lenders have different risk tolerance and relationships with different mortgage insurance providers. Do not take this as an industry wide guideline.

The other changes announced are regarding loan to value for investment properties and cash out transactions. But due to the fact that the Phoenix market is designated a declining market, the changes do not really affect anything for loans here. Meaning our terms are already more strict and we are required to follow the more stringent guidelines when making an underwriting decision.

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Tags: declining markets, fannie mae, freddie mac, Mortgages
Categories: Arizona, Mortgages, Phoenix, Real Estate
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From GasBuddy.Com. If you visit their site you can zoom in on your area and get an idea for what prices are like nearby. Great tool.

For Phoenix Metro (a bit hard to read, but if you go to GasBuddy.Com you can view a larger much readable map):

Have a great Memorial Day Weekend everyone!

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Tags: arizona, gas prices, phoenix
Categories: Phoenix
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The East Vally Tribune reports that existing home sales increased compared to last year. According to the morning news, this is the first time since 2005 that the year over year (YOY) sales numbers have been positive. For Gilbert, there were 360 sales in April of 2008 compared to 330 in the same month last year, a 9% increase. The news is mixed though since median home prices have come down a bit over the same period.

Now, what I just said is just a paraphrase of what is being reported across newspapers and T.V. news. But in a Web 2.0 world, I’m also interested in what local real estate bloggers have to say with the same numbers. This is because most of the time local area agents have a better understanding of the market and can shed better light on these numbers than the so called “experts”. Below is a sampling of what I found in some prominent local real estate blogs discussing the good news.

The Phoenix Real Estate Guy (Jay Thompson) says:

Beginning of a recovery? One time blip? Who knows. One YOY data point does not a trend make. But sales seem to be picking up steam, foreclosures are creating affordability, and absorption rates are falling. All of this seems to indicate we may be bottoming.

AllPhoenixRealEstate.Com (Jonathan Dalton):

Lower prices can be expected since it is the bank owned home sector fueling the current real estate market. And as I’ve said at least a half-dozen times, that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

The biggest gem though comes from North Phoenix Agent (Heather Barr) who in the middle of April posted anecdotal evidence asking if the market was improving, some of her nuggets (which is being validated through improved numbers):

• I’ve also got 3 new buyers, money in hand, FICO score safely in the mid- to high-700’s, ready to buy this month
• My A/C guy is busier than he can keep up with, with new work based on home inspection findings
• His friend who does truss work for area builders, says he’s busy again after a 1-1/2 year lull
• A friend of mine who works for Pulte says their sales office is slammed; she’s working Saturdays again

So what does it all mean? It seems we’re getting our usual spring inventory increase. With an already bloated market full of too many under-improved and over-priced houses, this should be bad. But the good news it we seem to be selling it.

Way to go Heather. You nailed this one a month in advance.

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Tags: bloggers, phoenix, Real Estate
Categories: Bloggers, Phoenix, Real Estate
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Regular readers of this blog know that even though this blog is focused on mortgages and home financing like a laser beam, I’ve had Jennifer Furrier contribute a few times. Jennifer is a professional organizer, and a very good one at that. The feedback from her customers is always amazing and her work ethic is legendary. That is why I’ve always thought she’d be a great addition to the blogging community.

Well, now it looks like she’s taken the plunge. Last week she e-mailed and and told me she’s set up a blog on professional organizing and I was elated to hear that. Her blog is called “Overcome the Overwhelm” and already has some really good nuggets on getting organized, improving productivity and living a stress-less life. I already know this is going to be an awesome blog, and that is because I know that Jen is an awesome professional organizer!

The only thing I can say at this point is “watch out”, to the other bloggers who focus on professional organizing. You guys now have some pretty tough competition coming your way. However, as a blogger I know it’s not all about competition, but also about building community and interaction and relationships. So, on that front Jennifer is going to make a great addition to the already mushrooming professional organizing blogosphere.

Head on over to Jennifer’s blog and leave a note!

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Tags: Jennifer Furrier, professional organizer
Categories: Bloggers, Blogging, Phoenix
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Warning: it’s kind of cheesy, but it’s different and novel. That’s what I like about it. It was featured on Fox News last night!

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Tags: listing, phoenix, Real Estate
Categories: Arizona, Phoenix, Real Estate
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Zillow published some stunning numbers yesterday regarding the US housing market. According to their analysis they believe “one out of two homeowners who purchased during the national market peak in 2006 are currently “underwater” on their mortgage”. This is a lot of people, and it does not appear to let up too much in 2007 either, because they claim “45% of homeowners who purchased last year (2007) are already underwater on their mortgages”.

This is not good news. However, is this a reason to walk away from your home, like so many are doing? In my opinion - NO! In order to put things in perspective I ran a hypothetical scenario to see how long it would take to recoup the equity. If you bought in 2006 with no down on a mortgage of $200,000 and experienced a 25% decline since. Then your home would be valued at $150,000 today. Now at the historically average appreciate rate of 6%, it would take you five years (from today) to be back at 2006 home price levels. (Side note: I sincerely believe we’ve hit bottom.)

Certainly not something you may have hoped for, but it’s not as dire as you may think. Five years isn’t too long of a time, it goes by pretty fast. Even if you purchased on a five year ARM - you’re almost covered. Also, remember ARM’s can reset lower too - if the index is falling. Even if rates go up when it adjusts, I’ve run situations for clients where the saving they received against a 30-year mortgage pretty much covers the increased payment for about a year or so (assuming its a five year ARM of course). More importantly you have five years to figure something out -maybe you make extra payment so increase your equity? Maybe you save some more. What ever the case you have five years to make a plan. The situation is completely different of course if you are in any kind of negative equity loan program.

Now, that I may have assured you a bit, let me share the rest of the bad news. Phoenix is cited in Zillow’s report as one of the hardest hit markets. I share with you some of the charts they have for Phoenix. To read the full report head on over to the ZillowBlog.

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Tags: market analysis, phoenix, zillow report
Categories: Arizona, Phoenix, Real Estate
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So everyone is talking about the lights that appeared over the Phoenix sky last night. The strange thing is the lights hung in the sky for a while and didn’t appear to be moving. AZCentral has a sideshow of pictures and a video of the lights for those interested.

Talk radio is abuzz with those who saw it. I personally didn’t see it but here are some eyewitness reports form the local radio KTAR:

“From my position, it looked like they were just hanging, not moving at all,” said one man, who called 92-3’s “Gaydos After Dark.” He said he “absolutely” saw something.

A woman caller said, “It looked like four red tower lights, but it was pretty high up in the air. I called my husband and he said, `Get home, what’s wrong with you?’”

A man in north Phoenix told CBS-5: “They were about 3,000 feet high, approximately. They looked as though they were kind of hovering or floating from west to east, very slowly. They were up there for 15 or 20 minutes.”

Those who saw them said the lights were visible about 13 minutes before moving off to the east.

I’m not a conspiracy theory type person. Nor am I one to think that we have been visited - yet. But, this is kind of strange. However, if these are indeed alien visitors, I want to welcome them and make peace with them so we can live together in harmony! Maybe they are interested in buying some of our real estate? That to me is great news!

However, we currently do not have an alien loan program. Despite this, the Phoenix market does offer some excellent deals for buyers who can make cash offers. Once you establish some degree of US credit, we can certainly look into refinancing you into a suitable loan program, and help you leverage your assets with this debt to build long term wealth. Unless of course all you want to do is just enslave us and take over our planet.

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Tags: aliens, arizona, lights over phoenix
Categories: Arizona, Humor and Fun, Phoenix
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I went to my first Barrett-Jackson show this past weekend. So, this is a late post. Barrett- Jackson fancies itself the worlds greatest collector cars event! And boy did that name live up to its hype. I was awe struck at the cars, the sheer number of people and the event itself. According to the East Valley Tribune 1,163 cars were sold for $88 million over the week long event. This is supposedly $24 million less that last year, so it was a downer in sales, but not in attendance.

Overall I had a very pleasant experience. Even though Steve Belt had offered me a parking spot in his office, I parked in the make shift parking lot on the corner of Princess and Hayden (North Scottsdale) and took the 10-minute shuttle. I was there at 9am so the lines were not long and I didn’t wait for to bus or at the main gate. You could buy tickets at the main gate, but I already had mine (bought over the Internet), so I just walked right through.

The first section was pretty much just concept cars and promotions from Ford. Then followed a range of vendor booths. There were vendors representing a wide range of businesses from car supplies and classic collector paintings to real estate agents and wine distributors! So, it was like a mini mall of sorts. However, the people manning the booths were just fantastic people, friendly knowledgeable and excited to be there.

Once you pass through the vendor booths and the food court, then you arrive at the main event - the auction. I sat at the back with my friends (you need a bidder pass to sit in the main area) and just watched the cars go by and get bought. There is no reserve in this auction so you must sell at the highest bid.

I am by no means a car enthusiast, so I had no idea whether the cars were selling at the right price or not. However, I was impressed by the enthusiasm, the cars (they really looked beautiful) and the organization. After an hour or so I finally understood what the auctioneer guy was saying (Imgoingtobidat$25,000,$25,$25forsomethingthatsworth$27,5,doIheara$27,5…..).

Finally, I strolled over the the last section where all the classic cars were on display. I got quite an education but alas no matter how hard I tried I couldn’t figure out a way to buy one of these classics! Maybe one day once I start making $1million/year I”ll get a Bentley, but for now I’ll have to do with my Hyundai Elantra!

Here are some pictures I took:

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Tags: auction, barrett Jackson, classic car
Categories: Arizona, Humor and Fun, Phoenix
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