Q : Why did the real estate agent not look out the window in the morning ?
A : It gave him something to do in the afternoon.
This may be a joke but it is a frighteningly accurate summation of the last two years of my life.
To your question.
Yes and no.
Yes my phone is ringing, my appointments are up, my requests for showings are up, people are attending my open houses, I'm getting hits on my website and I feel like I actually have a reason to get up in the morning again. None of these things happened for most ' 07 or all of ' 08.
No because as of yet none of this activity is turning into closed transactions. They can offer first time home buyers incentives and government back loans at 4% fixed rates all the want but until the criteria for obtaining a loan changes its not gonna matter a snuff. Only giving loans to people with 25-30% debt to income ratios, fifty large in the bank and 800 credit scores is limiting your potential pool of clients to about one in a million. The only people getting approved for loans these days are those they do not need them.
I am very hopeful and somewhat confident that ' 09 will be a transition year from the dephts of dismay to a levelling off and decent ' 10 and ' 11. It will be 5-7 years before we see any kind of appreciation worth noting, the only question remaining for individual investors is whether they will still be in the game when that happens.
I sadly will not but I will be ready to jump in and start all over again and believe me I will have learned from my mistakes the first time round.
A : It gave him something to do in the afternoon.
This may be a joke but it is a frighteningly accurate summation of the last two years of my life.
To your question.
Yes and no.
Yes my phone is ringing, my appointments are up, my requests for showings are up, people are attending my open houses, I'm getting hits on my website and I feel like I actually have a reason to get up in the morning again. None of these things happened for most ' 07 or all of ' 08.
No because as of yet none of this activity is turning into closed transactions. They can offer first time home buyers incentives and government back loans at 4% fixed rates all the want but until the criteria for obtaining a loan changes its not gonna matter a snuff. Only giving loans to people with 25-30% debt to income ratios, fifty large in the bank and 800 credit scores is limiting your potential pool of clients to about one in a million. The only people getting approved for loans these days are those they do not need them.
I am very hopeful and somewhat confident that ' 09 will be a transition year from the dephts of dismay to a levelling off and decent ' 10 and ' 11. It will be 5-7 years before we see any kind of appreciation worth noting, the only question remaining for individual investors is whether they will still be in the game when that happens.
I sadly will not but I will be ready to jump in and start all over again and believe me I will have learned from my mistakes the first time round.
Hey, I meet all of your criteria: $50k to put down, 800 credit score. First time buyer. Can I really get a rate near 4%? Lowest I'm seeing is 5%.
I live in upstate NY- Saratoga specifically. Have a connection at one of the main banks here. He said they have $200 million in mortgages right now and only 1 person is in forclosure.
Sucks for me as I waited for these market conditions but upstate NY's bubble hasn't burst yet.
I live in upstate NY- Saratoga specifically. Have a connection at one of the main banks here. He said they have $200 million in mortgages right now and only 1 person is in forclosure.
Sucks for me as I waited for these market conditions but upstate NY's bubble hasn't burst yet.
