The real estate blog.

The last 24 hours on Wall Street have been a crazy mess. Ben Bernanke handed Wall Street trick or treaters a “sweet” rate cut of .25% and like overstuffed children, the Dow promptly threw up yesterday’s 137 point gain with a drop of over 360 points.

The 10 year bond saw a huge gain yesterday (good for investors, bad for borrowers) and also saw a dramatic reversal of 12 basis points today. Oil is up, the dollar is down and the Fed just injected an amount of money into the financial system not seen since 9/11.

As a homeowner or prospective homeowner, how can you make the best mortgage decision in today’s volatile market?

Good sales people have a philosophy called SWAT. Sell what’s available today. It means that as a salesperson, you will probably never have the same customer, same needs, same product, same pricing available like you have now. So take advantage of it.
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A few weeks ago, I wrote about Eagle Mountain mayoral candidate Richard Culbertson. If you recall, Culbertson was investigated by the Division of Real Estate and punished by having his real estate license revoked, having a fine levied of $40,000 and having his case turned over to law enforcement.

Since then, new details have emerged about the case. For instance, the specifics of what Culbertson was accused of were revealed. Political challengers of Culbertson have been particularly diligent in finding information about him. The facts of the fraud case Culbertson admitted to were revealed here -

Using a straw buyer to buy 3 houses (paragraphs 9 & 10)
Falsely claims that the straw buyer would occupy the house he is currently living in (paragraph 11)
Forged signatures on multiple documents (paragraph 12 & 16)
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The number of new homes available in Utah has nearly doubled from last year according to a recent report.

At the end of September the Wasatch front had 93 percent more newly built vacant homes than they did one year ago, according to a Metrostudy report.

This is bad news for home builders, but good news for home buyers. Much of the excess new inventory is concentrated in Northern Utah County in communities like Traverse Mountain. Multiple cases of mortgage fraud in Utah County aren’t helping home values either.

Not all new homes are created equal. Some communities are still seeing demand. Based on a search of existing inventory from a builder I’m familiar with, I noticed certain homes in Lehi were seeing discounts of tens of thousands of dollars. Meanwhile homes in Daybreak weren’t being discounted at all.
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Adding value to a real estate asset. ______________________
At minimum, a Realtor always must ensure that the Client has an understanding of whatever interest he/she wants in a real estate asset and the character that particular interest might include in the wide range of real estate asset types. Real estate transactions range from simple purchases of single-family dwellings to more elaborate types of transactions, such as leasing of office, retail or warehousing space to acquisition of real estate assets in liquidation.

The value any talented real estate agent can add goes well beyond the standard of care Clients are entitled to expect, which is the knowledge or competency element of such transactions. Real “value add” derives from the structural elements that flow from experience
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I received a post card in the mail a few weeks ago advertising a new town home community in Sandy. East Town Village is a development by Trophy Homes and the front side of the mailer said - Own a new home in Sandy for as little as 981/mo*.

I’m always curious when I see a mortgage marketing piece because so many of them violate the advertising section of Regulation Z. This piece was no exception the asterisked note said the following - $981 payment based on condominium purchase price of $162990 and includes a 2/1 buy-down through Copper Mountain Mortgage using Utah Housing financing, OAC. HOA fees and insurance not included. See sales agent for details. Incentive and prices are subject to change or be withdrawn without notice.

Nowhere did this marketing piece mention the APR, a requirement of Regulation Z 226.24 when a monthly payment is mentioned.
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Two reports out this morning suggest the American economy isn’t as bad off as it may seem. First of all, economic production is up more than forecast.

The gross domestic product, the broadest measure of the nation’s economic activity, rose at an annual rate of 3.9 percent during the three months ended in September, according to the report.

That’s up from the 3.8 percent growth in the second quarter. Economists surveyed by Briefing.com had forecast growth would slow to a 3.1 percent percent growth pace.

It was the strongest pace of economic growth since the first quarter of 2006, when the U.S. economy was catching up from the hit it took in the wake of hurricanes Katrina and Rita the previous quarter.

Individual consumption was up by three percent.
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