the wasserblawg

Back in June, HUD issued FHA Mortgage Letter 09-19, announcing several dramatic changes to mortgage loan guidelines effecting condominiums. For the first time, FHA direct endorsement lenders will be able to approve condominium projects in whole, rather than on an ad hoc or "spot approval" basis. Those changes are all ON HOLD for at least 30 days. The Federal Housing Administration is delaying the Oct. 1 effective date of its new condominium policies while it finalizes several modifications. "We'll be issuing new guidance soon, with several modifications to the policy described in Mortgagee Letter 09-19," a HUD spokesman said, with a November 2 effective date.

The slow real estate markets continue to wreak havoc on title insurance companies. Fitch Ratings, has downgraded the financial strength rating of Stewart Title Guaranty Co., from "A-" to "BBB+" and the default rating from "BBB" to "BBB-." Separately, Fitch also downgraded First American's default rating from from "BBB" to "BBB-" and the senior unsecured debt rating from "BBB-" to "BB+". WHY THIS MATTERS : Title insurance is only as sound as the company that provides it. A policy is of little good to a homeowner if the title insurer is insolvent and cannot pay claims. Thus, a careful Buyer wants to make sure that the title insurance issued will come from a strong, secure entity. In Chicago, Sellers select the title company and purchase the title insurance that protects Buyers. That decision is almost always left to the Seller's attorney who, more often than not, recommends an insurance company that ...

Sitting around the closing tables (business may be slow, but i do close every now and then) I have been noticing far fewer buyers using mortgage brokers to close their loans lately... and far fewer brokers still in business. Consolidation and tough, tough market changes are taking a toll on that segment of the money lending industry. How bad is it? Check out this report from National Mortgage News: The dollar amount of mortgages funded through loan brokers hit a new low in the second quarter in terms of market share — just 14.9% of all originations. Wholesale lenders tabled funded just $87 billion in loans in Q2, out of a total origination pie of $583 billion. Loan brokers' dominance of mortgage lending peaked in the fourth quarter of 2007 just shy of 30% Business volume cut in half over the last 18 months? yikes! On the bright side, the brokers who are surviving seem to be doing very nice loans for my clients. The processing times seem to be running shorter than the retail lenders...

Like most all of you (I imagine) I have been spending every waking hour by the front door, staring at the mailbox, waiting for the letter carrier person to deliver my 2008 2nd Installment Property Tax bill. OK, maybe not. For the 16th year of the last 17 (by my count, anyway) tax bills will be delivered late. No word from anyone I've spoke with on when to expect them. But let us leave that sleeping dog lie for a moment. Lets look forward to next year's property taxes... and to pieces of legislation still pending action NEWLY ENACTED: Two weeks ago, Governor Quinn signed SB2125 into law. Beginning in 2010, the 1st installment of property tax bills in Cook County will be computed at 55% of the total of each tax bill for the preceding year (up from 50%) The purpose of the bill is to reduce payment pressure on taxpayers when actual tax numbers are calculated and reflected in the second bill. Counties with 3 million or more residents (i.e., Cook) can also now change their tax cy...

Chicago area real estate contract live or die depending on the results of mortgage lender appraisal reports. If the property value does not justify the loan, the contract is going nowhere. As the market defalted over the last two years, many of my clients saw contracts collapse based on low appraisals. A great many Chicago area Realtors , bloggers and other real estate pundits were quick to place blame for low property valuations on the Home Valuation Code of Conduct that became effective this past May. Frankly, the low appraisals were already a problem long before HVCC went into effect. For all the uproar, I am seeing a rather interesting (positive) trend of late. More on that in a moment. First a quick recap. The HVCC is not so much law, as it is the result of an agreed settlement entered into by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the office of the New York State Attorney General. The idea was to stem the tide of appraisal fraud and abuse by changing the way that lenders select their ...

Have you tried to modify a client's mortgage loan, negotiate a short sale or tried to discuss a file in process with an underwriter recently? If not, this video pretty much sums up what the experience is feeling like. Ok, the dialogue is in russian, but watch it anyway..... You'll get it.

I had the good fortune this afternoon to be retained in another Chicago condominium purchase. After an introductory phone conversation, I asked the client to forward his contract for review. Much to my surprise (and delight) I immediately recognized that the newest local form contract is finally in circulation. Ladies & Gentlemen of the real estate community, I give you "Multi-Board Residential Real Estate Contract 5.0. A more complete exploration of the Multi-Board 5.0 form will follow in another post or two. I know that a lot of realtors do not like the form for its shear heft (14 pages compared to the Chicago Board's 4 pager), but I like this one and encourage everyone to at least give some consideration to "trading up" These two features alone make it the best available contract for local transactions: A new font and larger type make this one emminently more readable, even if faxed 3, 4, or 7 times back and forth during negotiations. The electronic form (5.0e...