Alrighty....I'm done predicted anything exact because it's impossible and I'm too proud to be wrong more than a couple times...tops! Stock market tanked 372 points (closing at 11,015), the NASDAQ shed 95 points (2,178 close) and the S&P rid itself of Friday's gains to the tune of 48 points (closing at 1,207). So of course if money left stocks, it went into bonds right? Wrong, our 5.5% FNMA benchmark dropped 59bp to close at $99.51. That will push rates 3/8ths of a point to 1/2 point higher than we were looking at on Thursday and Friday of last week. So if money didn't go into stocks, obviously, and it didn't go into bonds, obviously, where did it go? Directly into gold ($44.30/oz increase to close at $909/oz) and just when you worried about oil prices "being too low", crude oil futures ... 09/22/2008

Part 1 one of 5: With an ever increasing number of guideline changes and borrowing money becoming more and more difficult, we have to be able to advise our clients of things they can do in order to help the process out. Income is one that immediate change is often not an option. Assets, with time, can be built up through saving. Credit is often not so much overlooked but seen as the wild card. Almost like people don't have full control over it and certainly no real understanding of it. Granted, it is not an exact science in that "If I do or don't do "A,B, and C", then I know that the results will be "X, Y and Z." However, by knowing several key ingredients and operating with this knowledge, you will never be caught completely off guard by your credit score. (Or that of your client.) The... 09/20/2008

Apparently the government is 100% in the banking business these days huh? Markets volatile, as always. Dow finished way up, two day gain of 778 to close the week at 11,388. NASDAQ jumped 74 points to close the week at 2,273, and the S&P banged out a 48 point gain to finish at 1,255. This took money out of bonds and our benchmark FNMA 5.5% mortgage bond finished 47bp lower at $100.53. This lead to several reprices for the worse. Although we traded in a 104bp range which was bigger than yesterdays so several lenders, the knee jerk guys anyway, repriced in BOTH directions today. It was pretty wild to say the least. What may have been lost in the shuffle though was the fact that Fannie and Freddie will have increased purchasing power of mortgage backed securities so this should, should, hav... 09/19/2008

Violent swings today in all markets. It's apparently a situation where no one has a clue what's going on. Employment market appears to still be headed towards more bad times as initial claims were higher. Should've been bond friendly but we're down 22bp as of 2:36pm. We're currently trading within a 78+ bp range. We've been down as much as 60+bp after opening the day up a little bit. The kicker is that the changes, when they have occurred, have been violent swings. One refresh of the page can be a 20bp move in either direction so there is almost no way to know what the next change is going to bring. We've seen lenders reprice where the notice comes out and before the new rate sheet is available, there has already been a significant move in the other direction. I've erred on the side of ... 09/18/2008

The Economy is in the news all day long. Which Bank is going under today? How is the Government going to step in and Solve our Problems? Wait a minute - How is the Government going to Solve OUR Problems? Is the government really responsible for us -or are We responsible for ourselves? For the past 4 years, I have had a "Solve the World's Problems" Summit during lunch at least once a week with a buddy of mine where we ussually divide this discussion into 3 topics: How can my Personal Budget keep me from Feeling the Pain of this Economy? How  can I Lessen the Pain of this Economy for others? How does my Faith affect my Perception of these times? If anyone was to listen to our converstion, they may think we were a combination of Grumpy Old Men, Dave Ramsey, and Slingblade Carl (just becaus... 09/18/2008

The effects will be clearer tomorrow but in spite of the market betting on a 100% chance of a .25 cut by the Fed today, the Fed left rates alone. This should start impacting bond prices tomorrow and anything that happens today will most likely be a knee jerk reaction. Stick around, could be some interesting days ahead of us if nothing else.   09/16/2008

As a specialist of assisting buyers in their purchase of new homes in the Columbia, SC real estate market, I am often asked: "If I receive all the new home warranties when buying a new home, why would I have a professional inspection done?" That is a very good question. Let me break it down for you. As the house is being built, the county may inspect the house 5 to 8 times. They are looking for code violations, not necessarily workmanship or functionally issues. These inspections and professional home inspections are not comparable. During construction the home builder's site or neighborhood superintendent has been inspecting behind contractors as each phase of construction is done. Again, nice to know that there is some quality control going on during construction. Typically a week or ... 09/15/2008

Save now, save every month! Holiday Builders is offering $7500 off all move-in ready new construction homes in their SE Columbia neighborhood Chandler Hall. Additionally, the builder is offering a fixed interest rate of 5.75%. That is about 1% lower than the current rate. That would equal a savings of about $150 per month on your mortgage payment on a $150,000 house. That is nothing to sneeze at. :) Houses are priced between the $140's and $190's with square footage from 1472 to 2485. All houses include 2 car garages and 30 year architectural shingles. There are currently 7 houses available for closing within 30 days or less. The Chandler Hall neighborhood is located in SE Columbia which makes it a suburban neighborhood just minutes from downtown Columbia and 5 minutes from Fort Jackson... 09/15/2008

National home builder Beazer Homes has discontinued building homes in the Columbia SC real estate market and is slashing prices of completed new construction homes. Just reduced to $169,990 is a new 2300 square foot home in the Lexington area. Highlights of this home are the 5 bedrooms, 3 full baths, loft on the second floor, 2 car garage, large eat in kitchen, 42" cabinets, gas stove, refrigerator, and blinds throughout home. Also included are hardwood floors and a gas fireplace. The spacious master suite with deluxe bath is located on the first floor! Click here for an interactive floorplan of this house. Click here to email me with any questions or to set up an appointment to view the homes. You may also call me toll free at 1-800-620-1323 x7. Your Columbia South Carolina New Constru... 09/14/2008

On the cover of the September/October 2008 Issue of The Residential Specialist is Janet Lopez with Taylormade Properties, Inc. in the Tampa area. Congrats to Janet! Within this issue, there is an article entitled "wonder y". Kathryn Rudziensky discusses how Certified Residential Specialists (CRS) are learning to service the needs of Generation Y buyers. I was lucky enough to be interviewed for this article. Thanks to Kathryn, I used the opportunity to share my experiences and strategies for working with my Generation Y clients. One piece of advice that was shared in the article is related to the importance of schedule flexibility. At times, we have all had to work outside "the standard 9-6 business hours. Some Generation Y buyers don't have as much flexibility in their work schedules as... 09/13/2008

With some bond friendly economic reports out today, I expected a break above the ceiling of resistance today and oops....we didn't get it. The market movers that were due today were PPI for August, estimated at -.5% and the actual was -.9% so that's good news right off the bat at 8:30 this morning. Bonds opened up 6bps and all was well as my Friday morning got started. Retail sales were worse than expected, -.3% compared to the expected +.3% and retail sales minus auto were -.7% compared to the estimated -.2%. This means that business is down but inflation was better/less than expected. Both VERY good for bonds. Consumer sentiment was higher than expected, 73.1 compared to the estimate of 64.0, but even still, bonds should've seen a rally. We hit that ceiling of resistance and didn't br... 09/12/2008

National home builder KB Homes has announced a Secret Sale at their three Columbia SC real estate market neighborhoods. How secret? Unless you happen to stumble upon their website or are a Realtor on their email list, this blog post may be the only way to know about this sale until Saturday morning at the earliest. KB Homes says its Quick-move-in homes are at prices too amazing to reveal. Smart values (discounts) on homes Built to OrderTM. How big of a discount? My guess would be at least $10,000 off on most homes, probably more. This builder has three new neighborhoods in the Columbia, SC market. The NE Columbia gated neighborhood Spears Creek has houses at 1740 square feet starting at the low $130's. The Lexington neighborhood of Millstream Crossing has houses from the $140's to the l... 09/12/2008

I've been right so far, Monday's spike in mbs (drop in rates) has held up. The price of mbs has been in an upward trend cycle since around Mid August. The stock market has been volatile, the bond market has been volatile, hurricanes, energy up and then down, gas/oil is dropping to levels unseen since early spring. Prediction of what is going on within a window of time is very difficult to do right now. We saw bond prices down as much as 28 bp and up as much as 31 bp. That was all just today. The problem is that the markets themselves are hyper reactionary and hyper sensitive. The slightest hint that anything is good or anything is bad, causes a completely unwarranted rush in one direction or the other. It's honestly ridiculous. Not only have Markets been hyper reactionary and hyper sens... 09/11/2008

     If you are currently thinking of buying a home, then here is some more food for thought. If you are a first time home buyer, you are currently being offered a tax credit to purchase a home. For these purposes, a first time home buyer is considered anyone who has not owned property in the past three years.  The credit will have to be paid back at the rate of $500 a year, but it is an excellent oppertunity to recieve a credit that can be used for investment purposes.  With prices low, interest rates low, and inventory high, now is definitely the time to buy a home. If you are thinking about buying a home, now is a great opportunity to get in touch with a Realtor or a lender and see how they can help you in the process. Don't wait around until it is too late or let fear stop you from ... 09/10/2008

September 9, 2008 In a heated divide Richland County Councils Vote was 6-5 on a new $50 Million Bond to be issued to pay for dozens of projects for the Richland County Recreation Commission. The cost will be shared by putting a hard cap on taxpayers of $12 per year for the owner of a $100,000.00 home in the county. The projects slated are the destruction and rebuilding of two parks. The St Andrews and Bluff Road parks. And the construction of a new administration building for Richland County's Recreation Commission. As well as a dozen other smaller projects. Many of the council members were not in agreement as in the last week alone over $5 Million was added to the plan at the last minute with little time to review. The addition was a pool to the St Andrews park. Columbia SC is a growi... 09/10/2008

In case you spent the last 2 days in the Amazon basin, I'll tip you off to some news from the weekend. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac had operational control taken from them by the government following Sunday's announcement. The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) will be taking over the board of directors and management of the mortgage giants and the US treasury is providing up to $100 Billion in Capital for each (that's right, EACH) to ensure that they will be able to stay afloat amid their current debt obligations. Without coming right out and saying it, what this boils down to is a form of conservatorship similar to a Chapter 11 bankruptcy that will allow the two companies to reorganize their operations. However, both will be run by the FHFA for a period of time yet to be defined. Thi... 09/08/2008

Official: Loan criteria too tight nowComplaining that even many credit-worthy borrowers can no longer qualify formortgages, the president of the California Association of Mortgage Brokers on Thursday called for exceptions to underwriting criteria that tightened in response to skyrocketing foreclosures. The lending industry should create "sensible alternative loanproducts" that, for instance, would allow people with good credit butnontraditional income to buy homes, Fred Arnold said at a news conference. Among those who would benefit, he said, are firefighters who regularly workovertime and teachers with second jobs. Under today's underwriting criteria,he said, lenders frequently won't consider such supplementary income. "We are hoping the secondary market comes back," Arnold said. He sa... 09/06/2008

While working on a listing lead from my Sphere of Influence, Patterson Group Investment Representation Specialist Troy Robinson comes to me with a thought-provoking scenario and question. TROY: David. I have a client that is planning to purchase a property for the purpose of meeting their investment goals through "rehab flipping". She plans on rehabbing the property to meet ABOVE MARKET CONDITION standards. If we come across a buyer for this home in the first 45 days after purchasing it, are there any restrictions with obtaining funding through a FHA loan? DAVID: Let's call Leah Avery with Bank of America Mortgage and get the answer. LEAH: I'm glad that you called. I was putting together a FHA Funding presentation for several real estate groups throughout Columbia SC. Here is some infor... 09/03/2008

The events of this summer have moved me to write a series of articles about challenges with the sale of homes that are currently on the market. Over the last few months, topics on my blogs have included:  1. Having Trouble Selling Your Home? 2. Having Trouble Selling Your Home? - Part Two! 3. Why Aren't Buyers Coming to See Your Home? Do you sense a theme to the topics that are most visited on my blog? Unfortunately for the current home seller, Summer is quickly turning into Fall. Within days, most people will shift their focus from buying a home to buying a Thanksgiving Turkey or Christmas Presents. Attention Home Sellers! I have some serious questions for you! 1. Do you NEED to sell your home in the next sixty (60) days? If YES, then here are some other questions that will go to the h... 09/02/2008

According to my Keller Williams Team Leader, the number of Days on the Market (DOM) for metropolitan Columbia SC homes for sale is steadily increasing. Depending upon how you slice and dice the data, the average real estate listing is sitting on the market for approximately 95 to 105 days. What are you and/or your real estate agent doing to reduce your DOM number? Are you having trouble getting buyers to visit your home? One reason could be how you arrived at your listing price. Did you and/or your real estate agent calculate your Absorption Rate before pricing the home? What?.............. You are unfamiliar with the term Absorption Rate. "Basically, absorption rate is the amount of time it will take to sell all of the homes on the market, based on current sales trends." -- Ryan Hukill... 08/31/2008