Shane The Realtor's Blog by Shane M. Higginbotham PLLC

How will the down payment assistance program effect you?

Shane M. Higginbotham PLLC — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 17:37:00 GMT

Many lenders and agents alike all know one thing, the current down payment assisitasnce program is going away. What will we do now? Is it chicken little time or do we have a plan? We have a ton of inventory to sell yet and to shut the valve off would be and is crazy.

Currently Ameridream has a bill on the table in congress HR 6694 that will reauthorize the programs indefinitely. Urge your representatives to make this bill pass so we can continue to offer a real solution to thousands of potential home buyers.

Have a question or want to get or give an opinion? Drop us a line!

Is there any hope for a housing market recovery?

Shane M. Higginbotham PLLC — Fri, 23 May 2008 08:17:00 GMT

Turn off FOX news and CNN, put down the liberal newspapers they will rot your brain. The market ebbs and flows with the times. We have had 12 recessions and have recovered from all of them. We all got fat and lazy and have lost our direction, greed, would be speculators, (flippers) and shifty lenders have tanked our economy. All bloated inventory is the result of our not paying attention. The biggest criminals still at large in my opinion are the builders and the lenders.

I had a conversation with an Engle homes rep yesterday, they are giving my owner his model leaseback back to him at the end of June. They told me they were selling all of the model furniture off last night in an auction (thurs nite, employess can buy, fri & Sat the public can go) and that they were unaware of where my owners keys are. I was outraged that they would hold an auction with out letting my owner know to see if he would like to come ..(read more)

Bank bailouts, Federal lending reform and you

Shane M. Higginbotham PLLC — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 23:06:00 GMT

Many Americans are upset the the Feds steped in and helped Bear Sterns and are concerned on how morttgage bailout will be distributed and qualified. Few taxpayers like to hear talk about "bailouts," especially as many tighten their own belts to deal with rising energy and food prices and falling values for their homes or stock investments.

Questions of fairness are sure to figure in the policy debate The people who might get bailed out, after all, include the same reckless lenders and often-speculative borrowers who helped cause the mess. Should mortgage companies be forced to knuckle under so borrowers can keep their homes and avoid foreclosure? Should taxpayer money be used to help troubled banks?

To a large number of Americans, such interventions in the marketplace are wrongheaded. Still, signs of economic weakness in the past month have made a hands-off approach less likely.

One choice is to be very puritanical and say that those who have ..(read more)

Beware the Ides of March!!

Shane M. Higginbotham PLLC — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 01:55:00 GMT

Quite to the contrary I would say! I would like to dedicate this blog today to the negative idiots that are clogging up our news media, I am sick and tired of the people with little to no sense or experience commenting on the housing market and having the public forum to cast such negative drivel.

This is a buyers market for the history books and as a REALTOR this is my favorite type of market. The perfect storm, sellers and builders must bend over back-wards like trained bears to help a first or second home buyer to buy a home from them. Just like a Golden Wonka ticket good borrowers can find the homes they only dreamed of and pay only the fair price for them or sometimes even steal them. Rates are still historically low and will be lowering more. This is the real market here in Arizona anyway, we sell and will sell on average five thousand homes or more a month, that has been ..(read more)

New Years Home Sales Resolutions!

Shane M. Higginbotham PLLC — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 07:53:00 GMT

Happy 2008, Thankfully Congress got our house bill passed and a whole lot of loans that were set to adjust are frozen. The banks who made these crap loans for people that were only done to benefit the banks are being held off and at bay by our government wearing shiny armor thank you Congress! Lawsuits by the banks are skyrocketing, good luck banks, I am sure you will find a sympathetic jury, NOT!

FICO just revamped their credit reporting system and released FICO 2008, it will hit the books in early spring 08! Accurate credit reporting is just around the corner. Sales are rebounding and I see Arizona recovering this year and next. thank God, and the Fed. I have my crystal ball out, I see the Fed discount window hitting 3.75 percent, equating to loans in the high four percents available for you and me! We need to keep our eye on the ball though, speculation carries risk, unless you are willing to accept it, do not get in the pool folks.

Real ..(read more)

What are you doing to plan your sale or purchase 2008?

Shane M. Higginbotham PLLC — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 09:59:00 GMT

Happy Holidays or Happy Halloween? Like you most people are scared of the market and rightfully so. I for one am half glad that this market is the way it is, it has and will weed out all the crooked lenders, Realtors and title companies from the market place and thank God for that.

The sub-prime market only makes up 15% of the overall market and more than half of the foreclosures happened or that are happening are in that 15 percent. The ramifications of the idiot lending crisis are that over three trillion dollars in bad paper out there is due to adjust and the lending of new money has made home loans an un-appetizing dish for investors on wall street as they used to buy all the loans over 417K that the federal entity Fannie May will not buy. They are also charging 2 points or more to buy for the pleasure of your loan in this market because they can. In Congress right now is a bill to modernize FHA to be ..(read more)

DOOM & GLOOM OR MARKET RECOVERY?

Shane M. Higginbotham PLLC — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 14:00:00 GMT

I asked my friend Dr. Doom what his thoughts on the market were and it's all gloom to him, but that is what he is all about and what we pay him to say. The negative will always have an audience because we all have the tendency to despair, especially when money gets tighter, lending money to consumers gets more expensive and we feel the grip around our collective throats of a credit crunch and a looming recession. The Fed's recent discount gave an enormous boost to the markets temporarily but days later rates are right back where they were weeks prior. So what do we do? Most analysts agree the true bottom won't be realized until the dust settles this fall.

The good news for you in Arizona with Arizona holdings (homes, land, commercial, rentals etc) a hell of a lot of people move here day after day after day, 150,000 a year by recorded standards, what do you think the odds are that one of those prospects will buy or rent a place from you? The odds ..(read more)

How can you sell your house when inventory is bursting?

Shane M. Higginbotham PLLC — Sun, 19 Aug 2007 12:40:00 GMT

The first thing to remember is your house is an inanimate object with value, do not let your emotional attachment get in the way of your business decision to sell. It is imperative you price it right, and that it shows well. Paint is the easiest and most dramatic step, but cleanliness is also paramount to your success. You can usually keep a buyers attention if you are lucky for several minutes, if you can get them to imagine themselves living in your home, the battle is half over. Curb appeal is key, if they hate the exterior of your house or the neighborhood, all the trim and custom touches inside will mean nothing and you may have a challenge. If you are home when it is being shown the greeting you afford these people can also make it or break it, I advise my clients to treat each showing party like guests you were anticipating over for Thanksgiving dinner, they should feel welcomed and appreciated but do not overwhelm them with your "guided tour", tell ..(read more)

What is the market doing? Part 2

Shane M. Higginbotham PLLC — Sun, 15 Jul 2007 22:08:00 GMT

I love a hot buyers market, much like my love for our hot Arizona sun, this is another market for the history books! Inventory is plentiful, builders are rolling over so you can rub their scary pit bull bellies. Owners are realizing their house isn't worth the ten million dollars they thought it was worth because of the tile floor they put in themselves. Banks are getting smarter, mortgage fraud and the scumbags who were doing it are going to jail and the industry is correcting itself. The part time Realtors and loan officers are going back to what ever niche they came from, all is getting right with the market. When is the next sellers market? If I had a crystal ball I would be retired by now, but rest assured it is coming.

Does anybody remember the 2005 sellers market? That was when a house would go on the market for a matter of minutes, and in less than thirty of those minutes, the place was crawling with buyers and ..(read more)

What is the market doing? Part 1

Shane Higginbotham — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 13:44:00 GMT

Is anyone but me sick of the all the media and nay sayers stomping on the housing market? Every person i meet asks the same thing, "whats going on with this market?" I practically have to pull some clients in from the window ledge at times because they let themselves get all worked up for nothing by some negative story teller or the bad information they over heard. Well lets look at the facts, The housing market, has three tells. The first is builder starts, that is the number of houses builders get permits for and how fast they build them. The second is the number of homes that are selling or the volume of inventory that actually sells. The third is the prices that homes are selling for, are they down or are they up, or are they holding steady?

Builder starts are down about 18% for 2007. Big Deal? To me no. We had at one time 160+ homes a day under construction in Maricopa county that flooded us with ..(read more)

Pirates of the Lending Industry! Savvy?

Shane Higginbotham — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 22:17:00 GMT

Ahoy Homeowners! I like many Americans, want to get better loan terms on my mortgage yes I know who doesn't? Make no mistake though, the banks are experts at making themselves and their investors money. Get past that fact and you are half way home. Banks once drunk with power and greed made a nice living from the ignorant bliss that buyers and homeowners in recent years afforded them. But now with the adjustable rate and negative amortization loans once seemingly affordable, attractive and inexpensive are coming due and their rates ever increasing.

The loan officer who recommended you cash out equity and pay off the car, your student loans and take a world vacation was a fool, but no more than the homeowner for listening to them. Your home is not a vending machine to cash out and make foolish purchases with, it is an instrument to be used ..(read more)

Don't go shopping without your REALTOR!

Shane Higginbotham — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 18:30:00 GMT

Ever been driving around on a Sunday, and decided to stop in and check out the models of a community springing up near you? Stop turn the car around, get hold of yourself and your Realtor. If you don't have a Realtor, call me because you need one. The minute you walk in the models the sign on the door says "If you are working with a Realtor, they must accompany you on your first visit." If you choose to go in with out an agent you eliminate all chances for representation and protection your Realtor could have provided for you. In case you didn't notice the signage out in front, the builder represents themselves, not you.

I cannot tell you how many times I have walked in the door with a buyer, and they had already been in to "shop" and the builder refused to work with us, even in a slower market. Do your self a favor, call me ..(read more)