FHA Extends Waiver of Anti-Flipping Regulations Through 2012:

In an effort to continue stabilizing home values and improve conditions in communities experiencing high foreclosure activity, Acting Federal Housing Administration (FHA) Commissioner Carol J. Galante will extend FHA’s temporary waiver of the anti-flipping regulations. 

With certain exceptions, FHA regulations prohibit insuring a mortgage on a home owned by the seller for less than 90 days.  In 2010, FHA temporarily waived this regulation through January 31, 2011, and later extended that waiver through the remainder of 2011.  The new extension will permit buyers to continue to use FHA-insured financing to purchase HUD-owned properties, bank-owned properties, or properties resold through private sales. It will allow homes to resell as quickly as possible, helping to stabilize real estate prices and to revitalize neighborhoods and communities.

The extension is effective through December 31, 2012, unless otherwise extended or withdrawn by FHA.  All other terms of the existing Waiver will remain the same.  The Waiver contains strict conditions and guidelines to prevent the predatory practice of property flipping, in which properties are quickly resold at inflated prices to unsuspecting borrowers.  The Waiver continues to be limited to sales meeting the following conditions:

·         All transactions must be arms-length, with no identity of interest between the buyer and seller or other parties participating in the sales transaction.

·         In cases in which the sales price of the property is 20 percent or more above the seller’s acquisition cost, the Waiver will only apply if the lender meets specific conditions and documents the justification for the increase in value.

·         The Waiver is limited to forward mortgages, and does not apply to the Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) for purchase program.

30-Day Market Snapshot as of 12/17/11
(from ARMLS for past 30 days – residential sales only)

These numbers mean there is currently only 2.55 months of inventory (2.79  last week)
(Active listings divided by sold listings!!!!)

Active listings in ARMLS                                                      19,183                                        (19,394 last week)

Active with contingency                                                         7,253                                        (7,337 last week)

Pending sales                                                                        10,196                                       (10,435 last week)

Sales in last 30 days                                                               7,513                                       (6,959 last week)

Cancelled in last 30 days                                                      1,753                                       (1,653 last week)       

Expired in last 30 days                                                             646                                       (606 last week)

Temporarily Off Market-last 30 days                                    608                                       (567 last week)

What a wonderful upbeat ( new to me) Christmas song by Nicole C Mullen that i just had the pleasure of seeing in concert last night.

Andrew Monaghan

The Monaghan Group

Keller Williams Professional Partners.

602-308-4660

Andrew@themonaghanGroup.com

The Fiesta Bowl has recieved a lot of negative publicity due to the actions of a few, as a member im proud to be part of the organization and be part of many good things that we do.

Andrew Monaghan

The Monaghan Group.

Keller Williams Professional partners

6025419416

This song brings back memories of John lennon, His contribution to the music world in addition to being a fantastic song.

What a wonderful song to start out the Christmas season.

Have a wonderful end of the thanksgiving holiday

Andrew Monaghan

The Monaghan Group

Keller Williams Professional Partners

I found a very interesting article talking about the fact that your Smart phone photos can be used to track where and when the photos were taken opening us up to privacy issues.

The piece talks about how photos taken with Smartphones and later uploaded to the web can contain Geotags that can be researched to find the location the picture was taken and so on.

http://icanstalku.com/how.php talks about this in more detail

I found this great post about Geo Tracking on your smart phone photos.

Scary stuff and its not even Haloween.

Andrew Monaghan

Keller Williams Professional PArtners

602-541-9416

In the Phoenix Metro area, We have recently been informed that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will not accept a short sale offer from a buyer utilizing a PC, Trust or any other entity beyond Natural, PLLC or LLC.

There are too many ways for buyer to attempt to avoid paying taxes by hiding behind certain entities. Fannie and Freddie are very concerned with this. You will want to counsel with your sellers as it is not in their best interest to accept this type of offer. Again Natural, PLLC or LLC are acceptable.

http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/2011/11/05/20111105arizona-banks-shift-short-sales.html

Andrew Monaghan

The Monaghan Group

Keller Williams professional partners

Your resource on all areas of Short Sales and Distressed property in the cities of Phoenix, Glendale and Peoria

The Valley Freeways Closures & Restrictions Map & Information is also available in a printable PDF version. Weekend closures and restrictions allow more work to be done at once, so projects are completed in less time and on budget. That gives you more time to drive on a modern, well-maintained freeway system. For the latest weekend work schedule, sign up for ADOT email updates.

Please note: Other overnight restrictions are possible. If planniLoop 101ng to travel overnight, please check www.ValleyFreeways.com/OtherRestrictions.

State Highway Restrictions to Note:

North Arizona Travel: I-17 narrowed to one lane in both directions overnight near SR 69 at Cordes Junction from 7 p.m. to 6 a.m. Sunday - Thursday nights for interchange reconstruction.

Gold Canyon/Globe Travel: US 60 narrowed to one lane in each direction in the Gold Canyon area east of Apache Junction from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday - Thursday (October 27) for paving work. Please allow extra travel time.

RETIRED HUSBAND

After I retired, my wife insisted that I accompany her on her trips to Target.

Unfortunately, like most men, I found shopping boring and preferred to get in and get out. Equally unfortunate, my wife is like most women - she loves to browse.

Yesterday my dear wife received the following letter from the local Target store management:

Dear Mrs. Harris,

Over the past six months, your husband has caused quite a commotion in our store. We cannot tolerate this behavior and have been forced to ban both of you from the store. Our complaints against your husband, Mr. Harris, are listed below and are documented by our video surveillance cameras:

February 2: Set all the alarm clocks in Housewares to go off at 5-minute intervals.

February 19: Walked up to an employee and told her in an official voice, "Code 3 in Housewares. Get on it right away." 

March 4: Went to the Service Desk and tried to put a bag of M&Ms on layaway.

April 14: Moved a "CAUTION - WET FLOOR" sign to a carpeted area.

April 15: Set up a tent in the camping department and told the children shoppers he'd let them get in if they would bring pillows and blankets from the bedding department, to which twenty children obliged.

May 23: When a clerk asked if they could help him he began crying and screamed, "Why can't you people just leave me alone?" Paramedics were called.

July 3: Darted around the store suspiciously while loudly humming the "Mission Impossible" theme.

July 18: Hid in a clothing rack and when people browsed through, yelled "PICK ME! PICK ME!"

And last, but not least:

August 23: Went into a fitting room, shut the door, waited awhile, and then yelled very loudly, "Hey! There's no toilet paper in here." One of our clerks passed out.