MORTGAGE FRAUD REACHES RECORD HIGH

Mortgage Fraud Reaches Record High


Scammers are taking advantage of the real estate market, changing their schemes to take advantage of a distressed real estate market. Reports of mortgage fraud in 2010 reached the highest level on record, the Treasury Department reports.

Suspected mortgage fraud activity increased nearly 5 percent to 70,472 “suspicious activity reports,” according to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network. That’s up from 67,507 in 2009 (and a dramatic increase when compared to 37,000 mortgage fraud reports in 2006 during the housing boom). The agency estimates more than $1.5 billion in losses from mortgage fraud in 2010.

Mortgage fraud reports include everything from borrowers falsifying information on loan documents, fraudulent appraisals, to elaborate schemes that target home owners underwater on their mortgage.

Reports of suspected mortgage fraud have continued to rise since the housing boom.

However, while the number of reports of mortgage fraud continues to rise, the number of fraud cases have actually decreased, the LexisNexis Mortgage Asset Research Institute reports. Mortgage fraud cases dropped 41 percent between 2009 and 2010, the biggest drop since the institute began to track reports. The drop was attributed to a decrease in home loans from banks tightened lending standards.

"We've got lower originations, less loan volume, less attention being paid to in terms of what's happening to those loans, and tighter credit scrutiny," says Denise James, who co-authored the report.

Where Fraud Is the Most Prevalent

The states with the highest incidence of mortgage fraud are:
Florida (which also led the nation in 2009)

New York

California

New Jersey

Maryland

Michigan

Virginia

Ohio

Colorado

Illinois

Source: “Reports of Mortgage Fraud Reach Record Level,” The Wall Street Journal (May 10, 2011) and “Reported Cases of Mortgage Fraud Down, But Actual Fraud Still on Rise, Experts Say,” Associated Press (May 9, 2011)

STASH YOUR TRASH

HOW DO YOU WANT ME TO SELL THIS?
COME ON NOW!!

You don’t have to be a pro appraiser to know that a yard drowning in junk is a sure way to devalue your property. It’s also an invitation for stray critters to move right in. Have mercy on your neighbors by renting a dumpster and removing trash. A 20-yard dumpster is about $400 to $500


8 TIPS THAT WILL INCREASE YOUR CURB APPEAL

Homes with high curb appeal command higher prices and take less time to sell. We’re not talking about replacing vinyl siding with redwood siding; we’re talking about maintenance and beautifying tasks you’d like to live with anyway.
The way your house looks from the street—attractively landscaped and well-maintained—can add thousands to its value and cut the time it takes to sell. But which projects pump up curb appeal most? Some spit and polish goes a long way, and so does a dose of color.


TIP#1 WASH YOUR HOUSE'S FACE :)

Before you scrape any paint or plant more azaleas, wash the dirt, mildew, and general grunge off the outside of your house. REALTORS® say washing a house can add $10,000 to $15,000 to the sale prices of some houses.

A bucket of soapy water and a long-handled, soft-bristled brush can remove the dust and dirt that have splashed onto your wood, vinyl, metal, stucco, brick, and fiber cement siding. Power washers (rental: $75 per day) can reveal the true color of your flagstone walkways.



Wash your windows inside and out, swipe cobwebs from eaves, and hose down downspouts. Don’t forget your garage door, which was once bright white. If you can’t spray off the dirt, scrub it off with a solution of 1/2 cup trisodium phosphate—TSP, available at grocery stores, hardware stores, and home improvement centers—dissolved in 1 gallon of water.

You and a friend can make your house sparkle in a few weekends. A professional cleaning crew will cost hundreds—depending on the size of the house and number of windows—but will finish in a couple of days.


FRESHEN THE EXTERIOR PAINT!

The most commonly offered curb appeal advice from real estate pros and appraisers is to give the exterior of your home a good paint job. Buyers will instantly notice it, and appraisers will value it.
 
Of course, painting is an expensive and time-consuming facelift. To paint a 3,000-square-foot home, figure on spending $375 to $600 on paint; $1,500 to $3,000 on labor.




Your best bet is to match the paint you already have: Scrape off a little and ask your local paint store to match it. Resist the urge to make a statement with color. An appraiser will mark down the value of a house that’s painted a wildly different color from its competition.


Tip #3: REGARD THE ROOF!

The condition of your roof is one of the first things buyers notice and appraisers assess. Missing, curled, or faded shingles add nothing to the look or value of your house. If your neighbors have maintained or replaced their roofs, yours will look especially shabby.
You can pay for roof repairs now, or pay for them later in a lower appraisal; appraisers will mark down the value by the cost of the repair. According to Remodeling Magazine’s 2010-2011 Cost vs. Value Report, the average cost of a new asphalt shingle roof is about $21,500.





Some tired roofs look a lot better after you remove 25 years of dirt, moss, lichens, and algae. Don’t try cleaning your roof yourself: call a professional with the right tools and technique to clean it without damaging it. A 2,000 sq. ft. roof will take a day and $400 to $600 to clean professionally.


Tip #4: Neaten the yard

A well-manicured lawn, fresh mulch, and pruned shrubs boost the curb appeal of any home.

Replace overgrown bushes with leafy plants and colorful annuals. Surround bushes and trees with dark or reddish-brown bark mulch, which gives a rich feel to the yard. Put a crisp edge on garden beds, pull weeds and invasive vines, and plant a few geraniums in pots.





Green up your grass with lawn food and water. Cover bare spots with seeds and sod, get rid of crab grass, and mow regularly.






Tip #5: Add a color splash


Even a little color attracts and pleases the eye of would-be buyers.
Plant a tulip border in the fall that will bloom in the spring. Dig a flowerbed by the mailbox and plant some pansies. Place a brightly colored bench or Adirondack chair on the front porch.



Get a little daring, and paint the front door red or blue.
These colorful touches won’t add to the value of our house: appraisers don’t give you extra points for a blue bench. But beautiful colors enhance curb appeal and help your house to sell faster.






Tip #6: GLAM YOUR MAILBOX

An upscale mailbox, architectural house numbers, or address plaques can make your house stand out.

High-style die cast aluminum mailboxes range from $100 to $350. You can pick up a handsome, hand-painted mailbox for about $50. If you don’t buy new, at least give your old mailbox a facelift with paint and new house numbers.




These days, your local home improvement center or hardware stores has an impressive selection of decorative numbers. Architectural address plaques, which you tack to the house or plant in the yard, typically range from $80 to $200. Brass house numbers range from $3 to $11 each, depending on size and style.



Tip #7: FENCE YOURSELF IN

A picket fence with a garden gate to frame the yard is an asset. Not only does it add visual punch to your property, appraisers will give extra value to a fence in good condition, although it has more impact in a family-oriented neighborhood than an upscale retirement community.




Expect to pay $2,000 to $3,500 for a professionally installed gated picket fence 3 feet high and 100 feet long.

If you already have a fence, make sure it’s clean and in good condition. Replace broken gates and tighten loose latches.


Tip #8: MAINTENANCE IS A MUST

Nothing looks worse from the curb—and sets off subconscious alarms—like hanging gutters, missing bricks from the front steps, or peeling paint. Not only can these deferred maintenance items damage your home, but they can decrease the value of your house by 10%.

Here are some maintenance chores that will dramatically help the look of your house.

Refasten sagging gutters.

Repoint bricks that have lost their mortar.

Reseal cracked asphalt.

Straighten shutters.

Replace cracked windows.


***REMEMBER TO HIRE A GOOD REALTOR***


I AM ALWAYS HERE TO HELP!

Alasgar Farhadov(Ali)
REALTOR, ABR, MBA
MULTI MILLION DOLLAR CLUB-2010
C-703-989-3344
E: ali@solutionsrg.com
FB: facebook.com/alasgar
Skype: alasgarf
myalisel.com



The finest compliment I can receive is a referral from friends and clients!

6 Worth-the Price FIX Ups

6 Worth-the-Price Fix-Ups

Simple and affordable do-it-yourself projects can greatly increase a home's resale value, according to HomeGain's annual home improvement and staging survey.
April 2011

The marketing company surveyed nearly 600 real estate professionals to discover which DIY home improvement projects give sellers the biggest return for their buck. Here are six projects under $1,000 (amounts are estimated) that made the list.

1. Cleaning and de-cluttering. Remove any personal items, unclutter countertops, organize closets and shelves, and make the home sparkling clean.
$290 Cost
$1,990 Return

2. Brightening. Clean all windows inside and out, replace old curtains, update lighting fixtures, and remove anything that blocks light from the windows.
$375 Cost
$1,550 Return

3. Smart staging. Rearrange furniture, bring in new accessories and furnishings to enhance rooms, incorporate artwork, and play soft music in the background.
$550 Cost
$2,194 Return

4. Landscaping enhancements. Punch up the home’s curb appeal in the front and back yards by adding bark mulch, bushes, and flowers and ensuring current plants and grass are well-cared for and manicured.
$540 Cost
$1,932 return

5. Repairing electrical or plumbing. Fix leaks under the sinks, remove any mildew stains, and ensure all plumbing is in good working condition. Update the home’s electrical with new wiring for modern appliances, fix any lights or outlets that don’t work, and replace old plug points with new safety fixtures.
$535 Cost
$1,505 Return

6. Replacing or shampooing dirty carpets. Steam-clean carpets, replace any worn carpets, and repair any floor creaks.
$647 Cost
$1,739 Return

SHOULD I BUY OR RENT

To rent or to buy: what used to be a given – that you would buy a home as soon as you could afford to – has become an agonizing conundrum for many a would-be homebuyer, in the face of the housing market’s big bust and super-slow recovery. Low prices seem to create a wide-open window of opportunity, but they also create the concern that prices will keep falling after closing. And that Catch-22 has hundreds of thousands of buyers-to-be stuck on the fence.
Fortunately, there are handful of life, mortgage and local market signals which indicate that the time *might* be right to hop – scratch that – leap off the fence and into homeownership:

Mortgage rates are going up. Home prices have been low for the last several years, and in fact are currently looking like they’re heading back down to the same levels they were at the depths of the real estate recession. During this same time frame, interest rates have also been low – this one-two punch has created record-high affordability for the last four years running, causing buyers to believe that this window of opportunity won’t be closing anytime soon.

While prices don’t look like they’ll be skyrocketing anytime soon, interest rates are another story. Rates have been on a rollercoaster over the past few months, and with inflation and Fed rates set to spike later this year, today’s low interest rates might be as good as they’re going to get for a long time to come. And I mean a very long time – in the next few years, governmental intervention in the mortgage markets is likely to wind down, and that means higher mortgage interest rates are not only inevitable, they’ll probably be here for a long, long time.

Mortgage rates on the rise are one signal that now might be the peak of home affordability, and the peak of the opportunity to buy.

Rents are going up. Rental rates in many areas are also on the rise – in fact, the foreclosure crisis has acted created additional demand on many markets’ rental housing inventory in several different ways. First, former homeowners who lost homes to foreclosure now need to rent; as well, buyers in foreclosure hot spots have been hesitant to buy, many electing to stay renters far beyond when they would have otherwise. On top of all that, super-tight lending guidelines have stopped even some who would like to buy homes from doing so. As a result, rental homes are in high demand – and rents are rising.

Rising rents at a time when the prices of homes for sale are low and, in some places, falling? One more signal that now might just be the time to buy. (Of course, where foreclosures are high, the chances of continued depreciation are, too – to offset this risk, have a long-term plan, to minimize the possibility that you’ll owe more than your home is worth when you need to sell. Read on for more on how to plan for the long term and minimize your homebuying risk.)

Your income and career are stable for the foreseeable future. The smartest homebuyers look to their lives, not just the market, for signals about when the time is right to buy. Homebuying is a long, long-term endeavor these days. The goal is to be able to commit to staying in the same place, geographically-speaking, for 7 to 10 years before you buy (more in a foreclosure-riddled market, less in an area that has been more recession-resistant). Most lenders will require that you’ve been at your job – or in the same general field of work – for at least two years before you buy. But that’s the bare minimum – beyond that, you don’t want to be barely beginning a career in which you think you may need to move sooner than that, nor do you want to buy when you’re advanced in your career, but in an industry which is dying or downsizing the workforce in your region (unless you have a strong Plan B).
When you get to the spot in your career where you can realistically project a stable income 7 to 10 years out, life might be giving you a green light to move forward on your homebuying dreams.

You can reasonably predict the home you’ll need in the years to come. Since successful homeownership requires that you be ready to be in the place for a good number of years, best practice is not just to buy a home with the space and number of rooms you need right now – rather, you should aim to buy the home you’ll need 5, 7 or even 10 years down the road (to the best of your ability to predict, of course). You might be a newlywed with no kids now, but you plan to have them in a few years. Or maybe you’re a newly minted empty nester right now, but can project that you’ll want to retire - and might not want to climb two flights of stairs to get to and from your bedroom - 10 years down the road. Before you buy, you should be in a position to buy the home that meets your future needs – not just your current ones; and that requires that you have a reasonable idea of your life vision and plan for the future.

If you’re able to predict – and afford, at today’s prices – a home with the space, amenity and geographic location you’ll need 7 to 10 years from now, you might be in a good phase of life to get off the rent vs. buy fence.

With that said. . . buying a home is a massive decision and includes multiple, long-term financial and lifestyle obligations, so if one or more of these signals are present for you, that doesn’t mean you have the green light to run out and buy a home tomorrow – rather, it’s a good sign you should begin down that path, if you’re so inclined. You’ll still need to do the work to make sure your personal finances and holistic life picture are also in alignment before you buy, as well of the work it takes to ensure that your real estate and mortgage decisions are sustainable and smart, over the long-term.

It’s not overkill to check in with a mortgage pro, a tax pro, a local real estate broker or agent and a financial planner to make sure all your ducks – not just one - are in a row before you make your move.

SUCCESSFUL HOMEBUYING-I AM ABR- I CAN HELP!

• 

  Negotiate Your Best House Buy

  Keep your emotions in check and your eyes on the goal, and you’ll pay less when purchasing a home. Read
• 

  Keep Your Home Purchase on Track

  You’ve found your dream home. Make sure missteps don’t prevent a successful closing. Read
• 

  7 Steps to a Stress-free Home Closing

  By doing homework in advance, you’ll understand what you’re asked to sign when you close the sale of your home. Read
• 

  8 Tips for Finding Your New Home

  A solid game plan can help you narrow your homebuying search to find the best home for you. Read
• 

  Find the Home Loan that Fits Your Needs

  Understand which mortgage loan is best for you so your budget is not stretched too thin. Read

Visit houselogic.com for more articles like this.

Copyright 2011 NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®

Earth Day-

• 

  9 Unexpected Energy (and Money) Savers

  Here are a few surprising and simple ways to cut your energy bill this season. Read
• 

  Is a Passive Greywater System for You?

  Simple passive greywater systems use recycled water to irrigate plants and save money. Read
• 

  Start a Compost Pile

  Save money and grow healthier plants by recycling yard and kitchen waste into nutrient-rich compost. Read
• 

  Saving Money with Salvaged Building Materials

  Salvaged building materials allow you to improve your home inexpensively—but might require an extra investment of time and energy. Read
• 

  Plant Trees To Save Energy and Grow Value

  Plant a tree to add value to your home and have a positive impact on the local environment. Read

Visit houselogic.com for more articles like this.

Copyright 2011 NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®

HOME ENERGY EFFICIENCY IMPROVEMENT TAX CREDITS

HOME ENERGY EFFICIENCY IMPROVEMENT TAX CREDITS

2011 Federal Tax Credits for Consumer Energy Efficiency
NOTE: Tax credits that were 30% up to $1,500 EXPIRED on December 31, 2010. New tax credits were passed, but at lower levels.

Please note, not all ENERGY STAR qualified products qualify for a tax credit. ENERGY STAR distinguishes energy efficient products which, although they may cost more to purchase than standard models, will pay you back in lower energy bills within a reasonable amount of time, without a tax credit.



What is included in the Tax Credit?

Tax Credit: 10% of cost up to $500 or a specific amount from $50 - $300
Expires: December 31, 2011
Details: Must be an existing home & your principal residence. New construction and rentals do not qualify.



How do I apply for my Federal Tax Credit?

For products "placed in service" in 2011, you need to file the 2011 IRS Form 5695 and submit it with your 2011
taxes (by April 15, 2012).

On the 1040 form the residential energy tax credit (from Form 5695) is claimed on line 52.

What you need to submit and save:

Save your receipts and the Manufacturer's Certification Statement for your records.
Submit Form 5695 with your taxes.