Here are some tips to make your offer stand out from the rest if you are in a multiple-offer situation:

• Get Pre-Approved, not just Pre-Qualified with a Lender: To get pre-approved, your lender will thoroughly evaluate your application and then approve you for a loan of a pre-determined amount. If you are pre-approved, you are on equal footing with cash buyers.
• Consider minimizing contingencies: Contingencies are those clauses that allow buyers to back out of a contract if certain conditions are not met. Consider shortening the escrow period or remove your contingencies in a shorter amount of time. Offers with the fewest contingencies are more attractive to sellers.
• If possible, don’t make your offer contingent on selling your current home: Even if you have an offer in hand, that offer may be contingent on that buyer’s selling his/her home, etc.
• Try to connect or establish a relationship with a seller: Consider writing a letter to the seller about why you want his/her home. Find common ground and share brief stories. The more the seller gets to know and loike you, the better the chance your offer will stand out in a competitive situation.

Finally choose a real estate agent like Marilyn Dashe at Sea Coast Exclusive Properties in Encinitas who will work with the listing agent to make you stand out as a buyer and notice your offer.

Good-faith estimate rules mean that lenders must provide a clear picture of the costs involved in buying or refinancing a home. Yet consumers may not realize that some of those numbers are actually negotiable, mortgage experts say.

Closing costs can run a borrower 3 to 6 percent of the price of a property, according to the Federal Reserve.  In 2010, the average cost for a $200,000 purchase rose by nearly 37 percent to $3,741, according to Bankrate.com.

Most borrowers pay less attention to closing costs, focusing instead on the interest rate offered by a lender. But because many of the fees associated with closing are not set in stone, mortgage experts say, consumers should review the line-by-line estimates with a view toward challenging them. Lenders are required to outline all of the estimate closing costs withint three days of receiving a loan application.

John T. Mechem, the vice president for public affairs of the Mortgage Bankers Association, said borrowers should simply ask the lender which fees are negotiable and which are fixed.

The good-faith estimate rules say that certain charges cannot increase at closing, including those for loan origination and points paid to the lender to reduce a locked interest rate, with 1 point equal to 1 percent of the loan amount. But borrowers can negotiate those charges.

While regulators discourage lenders from overestimating costs, they don’t penalize them for doing so. Therefore, borrowers should understand that “it’s not a time to be polite,” said Kathleen Day, a spokeswoman for the Center for Responsible Lending, an advocacy group.

Here are some tips to consider if you want to buy a foreclosure:

1. Work with an agent who has access to foreclosure information.
2. Bank-owned properties generally close much faster than short sales. While short sales can be bargains, they also can take a lot longer. Some banks will negotiate in a timely manner on short sales, but most will prioritze properties they have already repossessed.
3. Always offer less than the asking price. Don’t assume that banks are firm on their price.
4. Ask the bank to pay your closing costs. The worst thing that can happen is that they say no. Sometimes buyers are surprised to find that banks can be quite accommodating when they want to be.
5. Get pre-approved from the right bank. When making an offer on a short sale, it’s often strategically helpful to be pre-approved by the same bank who is selling the property. During negotiations, this may tip the scales in your favor.

Before you even look at any foreclosures, get pre-approved by a lender. The good foreclosures don’t last long, and you need to be ready to go.

If you need advice about foreclosures, please call Marilyn Dashe at Sea Coast Exclusive Properties in Encinitas, CA. She has a certification in short and sales and foreclosures and is ready to help buyers through the process

1. Find out what you can afford to pay for a house or condo. This will depend on the amount of cash you have available for a down payment, your credit score, income, assets, and overall financial situation. Mortghage qualification is easier for buyers who work as employees whose income can be easily verified. If you are self-employed, the qualification process may be more difficult.
2. Get a preapproval letter from a lender which says you are qualified for the mortgage you need to close a sale. This letter will be essential if you are in a multiple-offer situation.
3. Concurrent with shopping for a mortgage, search for a real estate agent to represent you. Ask friends who bought a home recently if they would recomment their agent.
4. Buy in the best neighborhood you can afford without overextending yourself financially. Don’t buy a home that you will outgrow in a couple of years.
5. Buy a home that has good resale potential. Many homes that arent’s selling in today’s market have incurable defects such as a steep driveway, lots of stairs leading to the front door, or a location near a busy street or highway. You can’t change an incurable defect.

Follow these steps and buy a home with broad-based appeal that will sell again in any market. For advice, call Mariyn Dashe at Sea Coast Exclusive Properties in Encinitas.

Many economists expect prices to remain relatively flat this year as the economy rebounds with job growth and consumer spending. Unlike in past recoveries, home buying is ot playing its historic role of jump-starting the economy because so many owners owe more than their homes are worth and cannot sell at a profit.

An Encinitas real estate broker said that overall median prices are falling while overall sales are rising because home buyers are doing more research into market prices and using that knowledge to haggle for lower prices. Sellers are now more likely to take those lower offers because fewer people are qualifying for loans dur to more stringent guidelines. “Buyers are more sophisticated than they used to be,” the Broker said. “They have access to more information.”

Meanwhile, the new-home marketwas up in December and the median price stood at $500,000, the second onth in a row it was at or above the half-million mark. That’s the first time in five years of back-to-back median prices at that level.

A Vice President of a Real Estate Consulting company said,” The best thing you can say is that pricing seems to be stabilizing.”

To qualify for the program, homeowners must:

• Purchase a single-family home in California between Oct. 1, 2010 and Dec. 31, 2011.
• Use the home as a primary residence
• Conduct a HERS home energy audit of the home prior to close of escrow or no later than 60 days after close of escrow
• Use a California REALTOR in the transaction

Homeowners can apply for R.E.AP. by requesting an application from their California REALTOR. Call your Sea Coast Exclusive Properties REALTOR today!

Eligible taxpayers who close escrow on qualified principal residences between May 1, 2010 and December 31, 2010 will be able to take the allowed tax credit.

This credit is equal to the lesser of 5 percent of the purchase price, or $10,000 taken in equal installments over three consecutive years.  Under the bill, purchasers will be required to live in the home as their principal residence for at least two years or forfeit the credit (i.e., repay it to the state). Buyers also must be at least 18 years old and not be related to the seller.  First-time buyers are defined as those who have not owned a home in the past three years.

This state credit is good news for buyers living along the coast in San Diego’s North County and are looking to buy a home in Cardiff, Encinitas, Carlsbad, Vista, San Marcos, or Oceanside. It will be a supplement to the Federal tax credit for first-time buyers where the buyer must be in escrow by April 30, 2010.

Here are three reasons why you might regret it if you’re not under contract by April 30th:

1. You won’t receive a home buyer tax credit.  The financial incentive offered by the Federal government for the past two years is set to expire soon.  If you’re not under contract to purchase a property by April 30th, you will not collect the $8000 if you are a first-time buyer, or the $6500 if you are a repeat buyer.
2. You won’t lock in on historically low interest rates.  Because the Federal Reserve has taken many measures, including purchasing mortgage-backed securities, interest rates have remained historically low for several years. Since the economy is beginning to show signs of recovery, the government may soon put an end to these stimulus efforts. If that happens, many economists believe we will begin to see a sharp increase in interest rates which could result ina much higher monthly payment for those who wait.
3. You might miss out on record home price affordability. Home price affordability is at itsw most optimal level in decades.  As a result, those who wait to buy will likely pay more for the home they purchase than what that same home would cost right now.

“There is no time to waste for anyone who wants to take advantage of this great buying opportunity, ” added Weichert.

Buyers in the United States paid a final sale price of 2.8% or $5,823 less than the last listing price during January, up from a median discount of 2.7% in December and 2.6% in December.

The biggest discounts continued to be found in Florida, although buyers in several New York City-area metros also found relatively large discounts during January.

However, sellers continued to do well in severalmarket, with most buyers in places like Southern and Northern California, paying more than the last listing price of homes sold in January.

Fewer for-sale homes experienced price reductions in January 2010 than in December, with nearly one in five of homes for sale on Zillow experiencing at least one price cut as of the end of January.

Here are 5 sensible tips to manage your credit card:

1. Maintain prompt payment status with your credit card company.   Demonstrating that you can responsibly meet your current credit obligations is the number one behavior that will impact your standing with the credit card company and your credit score.
2. Pay down high balances to improve credit card utilization.  This will show that you can responsibly manage your credit limit, minimizing the chance of higher tiers of interest rates or reductions in credit limit.
3. Maintain activity on your credit card account. By using the revolving credit lines that you need or want to keep and promptly paying on them, you can help avoid cancellation of those credit card accounts.  Additionally, some credit card companies are introducing inactivity fees.
4. Avoid fees through responsible spending habits. Credit card providers will likely look to recoup revenue by charging fees for extra services.
5. New regulations do not apply to corporate or small business cards. This means some small business owners might consider using personal cards for business expenses because of fee and rate limitations.  However, these owners should remain cautious because their personal credit scores could suffer in the event of missed payments of defaults.

Manage and protect your credit to increase your purchasing power when buying a new home in Cardiff, Encinitas, Carlsbad, or Vista.