If you find yourself in the position were your flat may be repossessed and are looking ways that you may be able to avoid being evicted from the property that you own then a “Sell & Rent Back Scheme” might be for you.

The fundamental principle behind the Sell & Rent Back Scheme is that the current owner of the property is able to sell his or her house quickly to avoid being evicted and have the property repossessed while at the same time not having to leave the property and be able to rent it back as a tenant, quite often it is not unusual for these schemes to include the ability to buy back the property at a later stage if your financial situation has improved.

By using this method it does see that all your debts are cleared not only the outstanding balance of the mortgage but any secured debts and mortgage arrears will be paid in full as opposed to the alternative of the property being auction any thing outstanding will be chased by the lender until it is paid back in full also of course if the property went to auction would be removed from your house and would have to find alternative accommodation.

For this reason this solution is increasing in popularity in the UK and is supplying an alternative to that of eviction amongst the UK’s growing credit crisis also referred to as “the credit crunch”

Even if you find your self in the situation were eviction is just days away by engaging in one of these schemes you will find your lenders more than willing to cooperate as they would much rather prefer this alternative were they get paid back in full than the expensive and lengthy process of eviction, repossessed, auctioning and the chasing of the remaining debt.

go now to http://www.avoidhomerepossession.co.uk/



Quick Property Sale

There may be periods in a homeowner’s life when his or her personal circumstances change dramatically and it makes economic sense to sell the house as quickly as possible, thus releasing the capital that has built up in it. The reasons are many and varied and may include:

1. The breakdown of a relationship. Whether the partners in the house are married or not, there may be financial pressures caused by the breakdown of the relationship. One of the partners may have started another relationship, in which case they may require capital release in order to finance another mortgage or rental costs. Some of the Sell and Rent Back companies will buy the house very quickly, and rent it back to the remaining partner at a competitive rate.

2. The homeowner may have to move with his/her job, either within the UK or abroad. If this move is seen to be fairly permanent, then capital will be required to finance a new home in the new location. For those relocating or emigrating, some of the Sell and Rent Back companies will buy the house in as little as 14 (working) days.

3. If the homeowner has been in arrears with mortgage payments they could fear the prospect of having their home repossessed and see that a quick house sale would be a financially better alternative and enable them to avoid repossession.

4. Should one of the partners in a house die, the remaining partner’s income may be insufficient to cover the mortgage, then again, a quick house sale may be seen as a beneficial alternative to having the home repossessed.

5. In a falling house market, to sell your house now may be a shrewd move. If financial experts project that house prices may fall 20%, then the homeowner could take the view that selling the house quickly, without Estate Agent’s or Auctioneer’s fees, for as close to its current value as possible, will reduce the capital loss. The house could then be rented back at a competitive rate until the market is viewed to have ‘bottomed out’.

The average level of personal debt is increasing, and a quick house sale may be seen as one way of paying off all debts in one go. This is especially useful if you suffer a reduction in income which is viewed as a temporary situation. To sell the house, pay off the debts and live in rented accommodation for a while may be a sensible strategy. Indeed, with many of the Sell to Stay companies, you can sell your house quickly and rent it back at a competitive rate.

There are many routes to achieving a quick house sale.

1. Estate Agents – Estate Agents will always tell you that they can sell houses very quickly. This may be true when the market is rising and there is a lot of competition for every house, but when prices flatten, or indeed fall, houses stick and your ‘quick sale’ may be lost.

2. Auction – Auctions are the ultimate vehicle to value a property. Any property is only worth what another will pay for it, and an auction with many interested parties in the room will produce the best market price for a property with a very quick sale.

3. However, anyone who goes to an auction will be expecting a bargain – they view the items that go to auction as being ‘on-offer’ and only there because they have failed to sell elsewhere. You may not get a good price at auction.

4. Sealed Bid – Requesting sealed bids is another good way of valuing a property. However, the process suffers from the same market pressures as the previous two. From the buyer’s point of view, putting in a sealed bid when the market is rising is a worrying process, as he/she doesn’t want to bid too low for fear of losing it. This can result in some extremely over-priced bids. On the other side of the coin, in a falling market the worry is that the buyer may bid too high and end up with a home in negative equity. This results in the seller receiving a number of disappointingly low bids.

5. Sell and Rent Back – Sell and Rent Back companies will buy your house very quickly – many of them promise to buy it within 14 (working) days. They will give you 80% or more of the value of your house – but that’s it! You don’t have to pay the Estate Agent or the Auctioneer, just your legal fees. Furthermore, many of the Sell and Rent Back companies will allow you to stay in your home and rent it back at a competitive rate.

So if you need a quick house sale, you must try to strike a balance between speed and the amount of money you will receive from the different methods of selling your property.



Passive Income

 

Statistics as of Friday, 3/20/2009

 

The market continues to shift.  The supply of available Single Family Detached homes  dropped an additional 2% to 38,652.  In the past month, closings stayed strong at 6087 to lower the overall supply to 6 ¼ months.  Keep in mind a balanced market is considered 6 months, which makes about 60% of our market a sellers market.

 

Additionally, pending sales have reached another new high at 12,265.  Scottsdale, another area of pendings, is under $1M so it is showing activity.  An increase of nearly 30% in pendings has been observed here in the past 3 weeks, so increased sales should be seen over the next few weeks.

 

The best markets in the Valley at the current time are Phoenix and the West Valley, at 5 ¼ months each.  Following closely is the SE Valley at 5 ¾ months.

 

Because of a shortage of realistic financing for JUMBO loans, the higher end continues to lag behind.  For $1M+, supply levels are at 4 years for Scottsdale and 5 years for PV.

 

 

 

 

 

 

MLS Statistics

Area Breakdown

 

Overall Market.  Since last week, inventories are down 2%.  Active listings total 38,652 with closings in the past month of 6087.  This is approximately a 6 ¼ month supply.

 

Phoenix.  Since last week, inventory levels are down by 2%.  Active listings total 8816 with closings in the past month of 1719.  This is approximately a 5 ¼ month supply.

 

West Valley.  Since last week, inventory levels are down by 2%.  Active listings total 9644 with closings in the past month of 1800.  This is approximately a 5 ¼ month supply.

 

NE Valley.  Since last week, inventory levels are down by 1%.  Active listings total 5691 with closings in the past month of 309.  This is approximately a 18 ½ month supply.

 

SE Valley.  Since last week, inventory levels are down by 2%.  Active listings total 8696 with closings in the past month of 1532.  This is approximately a 5 ¾ month supply.

 

Scottsdale Over $1M.  Since last week, inventory levels are down by 1%.  Active listings total 1469 with closings in the last month of 31.  This is approximately a 47 ½  month supply.

 

Scottsdale Under $1M.  Since last week, inventory levels have not changed.  Active listings total 2494 with closings in the last month of 192.  This is approximately a 13 month supply.

Paradise Valley.  Since last week, inventory levels have not changed.  Active listings total 578 with closings in the last month of 10.  This is approximately a 58 month supply.



Sell House Quick

We all know it’s bad out there…With the severe credit crisis and the declining housing market, Fox, CNN, MSNBC, and even the President remind us of our struggles daily. Home foreclosures are at an all time high, even in my neighborhood in Austin Texas with many more foreclosures predicted to come. Housing resale values are at all time lows with no end in sight. Even the banks are going bankrupt as many Americans no longer qualify for credit.

Because of the recent credit crisis, many people don’t qualify for a new loan to buy a house right now, despite the incredibly low housing prices. Many home sellers can’t sell their unwanted houses because they owe more than their house is worth due to falling house prices. Many sellers can’t even rent their houses out for enough to cover their mortgage payments, taxes and insurance resulting in severe negative cash flow that bleeds then dry month after month. To make matters worse, many tenants end up trashing the house when they move out making it even more difficult and expensive to sell.

If they list their house with a real estate agent, their house will likely sit on the market for a long, long time waiting to sell since the buyers seem to have magically disappeared. Even if the house does finally sell one day at a greatly REDUCED price to get it sold, the owner has to pay a 6% real estate commission plus the majority of the closing costs. This often results in the seller writing a big, fat check at the closing table to finally get their house sold.

So what are my options to sell my house in Austin Texas fast in this depressed economy and housing market when many folks can’t get a loan? By trial and error, I discovered the following 3 alternatives to try to sell my Austin TX home quickly…

1. I tried to sell my house in Austin “For Sale by Owner” aka “FSBO”.

At first, selling my house by myself sounded easy enough, but it soon became my worst nightmare! What went wrong:

At first I didn’t know how to attract buyers that might be interested in purchasing a home in Buford Georgia…The For Sale By Owner sign in the yard wasn’t working. I ended up spending a fortune placing classifieds in the local paper which resulted in few potential buyers. Those that did respond wanted to see my house at all different hours of the day or night. I was afraid to say no in fear of losing a potential buyer. I would have to keep my house clean and all picked up, only to have them flake out and not show up! Other times I had some pretty scary people show up with their rowdy kids in tow, trampling through my home.



I never did find my ideal buyer. Even if I did, I had no idea how to get them qualified, how to handle all the purchase and sale paperwork or how to get the house closed. I said “There has to be a better way to sell my home!” and I was determined to find it.

2. I listed my house for sale with a local Austin real estate agent.

I called an agent from a local, seemingly reputable, real estate agency and made an appointment for her to come out and see the property. The agent sounded like she really knew what she was talking about and got me really excited about the prospect of selling my home quickly. She said she would list my house in the MLS, on dozens of real estate sites throughout Texas, advertise my house in the local paper and other print publications, do multiple open houses, put out signs, balloons, flyers in an information box and went on and on about how she could sell my home and still get top dollar. How could I refuse? I didn’t.

I listed my house and waited, and waited and waited. The agent put the house on the MLS, but the market was pretty tough and, despite her best efforts, six months later, I still didn’t have a buyer. Meanwhile, my house had not only decreased in value because it would not sell for the list price, which had been reduced repeatedly, but also because of all the other listed houses and foreclosures on the market in my area of Austin. At this point, I was all out of ideas and praying for a solution. About that time, someone at my church told me about RedBuysHouses.com.

3. I contacted a local, professional home buyer from Austin, Texas.

My friend from church told me that she had similar problems selling her Austin house, but that she had contacted a local professional home buyer who bought her house in under a week! What? Is this possible? Could I sell my Austin Texas house in 7 days or less, too? She said there are professional house buyers out there, also known as “real estate investors”, who buy and sell real estate for investment purposes. You’ve probably seen their “We Buy Houses” advertisements around town but never gave them much thought. These are people who buy houses professionally and are always actively looking for more houses to buy. She gave me their phone number and web address (Locally 512-945-6006, website: www.RedBuysHouses.com) and I contacted them ASAP. A local Austin home buyer from there called me and said that if my house qualified and if I was flexible on price or terms, that they may be able to buy my house in the next 7 days or less. She said depending on my situation that they may be able to pay all cash, pay some cash now and some cash later or take over my mortgage payments giving me immediate debt relief. At this point I was definitely flexible and had nothing to lose by scheduling an appointment for them to come see my home and possibly allow me to sell my Austin Texas house fast!

So I scheduled the appointment with the Austin home buyer and she came out and inspected my home. She said it was just what they were looking for and that she had several buyers looking for a similar home. I was ecstatic! She made me several offers to buy my house as promised. I chose the offer that best suited my needs and we scheduled a closing the following week with a local real estate closing attorney. It was that fast and that simple to finally sell my house in Austin! I still can’t get over it. After waiting two years trying to sell my house on my own and through a licensed agent, I was able to sell my house in less than 7 days to a local professional home buying company!

If you have an unwanted Austin Texas house you need to sell fast, call 512-945-6006 or visit www.RedBuysHouses.com and complete their online Seller Questionnaire for a FREE, no obligation consultation. You have nothing to lose by contacting them and everything to gain. I was able to sell my Austin home fast and you can too!



Sell House Quick

Reaching the age of retirement brings in a lot of additional problems. Retiring from a job means the stoppage of income on a monthly basis. This means a lot of problem and this definitely is a big issue. One needs to learn to fight these problems to lead a happy life. However, fighting financial problems is not that easy and particularly for the elderly people who have retired from their job. In such cases, they generally tend to take the help of their near ones to solve their financial problems. However, the introduction of the reverse mortgage scheme has undoubtedly made things better for these senior citizens of the United States of America. The introduction of the Cameron reverse mortgage for the senior citizens of Cameron has given these people a new impetus to live life happily and to the fullest.

Therefore, taking the help of Cameron reverse mortgage could prove to be one of the most beneficial moves for any senior citizen of Cameron. This policy has definitely helped the senior citizens of this place get a new zeal to life. With the help of this policy, now they can actually solve all their financial problems and they need not take the help of anyone to do the same. With old age comes in many problems and tackling these problems is definitely a major issue. Therefore, it is crucial to take intelligent steps to solve these problems on a long term basis. With the help of Cameron reverse mortgage, now any senior citizen of Cameron can fight against their financial issues and come out as a winner.

Well, there are some basic requirements that are needed to be fulfilled to qualify for a Cameron reverse mortgage. The person needs to have a property or a part of a property in his or her name and should be of the age of sixty-two years or more. Once you qualify these prerequisites, you can opt for this policy to solve your financial issues and lead a healthy and a happy life. Money is the basic necessity for a living and a person who is suffering from a financial problems, knows exactly the situations and the problems. Therefore, it is necessary that one has proper funds to lead a healthy and a happy life. However, one at times, needs to fight and arrange for various means to settle any sort of a financial issue. Again solving a financial issue for a senior citizen can be quite problematic. This is only because they cannot take up a loan because they do not have a steady income.

However, with policies like Cameron reverse mortgage, now these senior citizens can also solve their financial problems. The money that they would be getting as a loan through this policy can be taken in the form of a lump some amount or in the form of monthly installments. Moreover, there is no restriction on the way one wants to spend the money. They can spend it for any cause.



Sell House Quick

Most people do not like to buy a house that is older than ten years, but many of us like to sell homes that are older than this! The meeting point is in the condition of your home.

In the stealthy realty market of today, we need to be selling our homes in top notch condition. If we are a buyer, we can feel confident to ask for certain repairs to be carried out before we move in.

In amongst all the woeful realty articles we have been reading, there are a few outlining the difficulty that builders are having in selling their homes. There is even talk that they have overbuilt for the present market, and this is not good news for a home owner that wants to sell.

The house prices being asked now should be comparable with prices of similar houses sold in the last three months. Even if the house was worth 10,000 more last summer, it still needs to be priced in today’s market if you want to sell it.

The Internet will often show you how much a brand new home costs in your area, if you want to check out the competition! Your real estate agent will have the up-to-the-minute pricing information.

Of course, there are many advantages to buying a home that is not new; all the ’settling’ underground has been completed and usually the yard is well laid out to lawn, garden, pathways and driveway. The site of mounds of muddy top soil can deter many buyers from a new home, so some conditions still favor older homes.

All this points to one obvious need to be taken care of when putting your house on the market: ensure your front yard looks as good as it can get! Another reason for this is that the front yard will be the seen on the only picture of your home that is shown on the Internet.

The first picture that potential buyers see is a view of the front of the house and the front yard. If they do not like the look of this they will not click any deeper into the file to take the virtual tour of the interior. The front yard is also involved in tempting the ‘drive- by’ buyers so it is very important.

Spend a few dollars buying some trees and shrubs in pots and place them strategically to enhance the photo appeal of your home. Hose down your pathways and ensure the edges are sharp – this shows in a photo.

If buyers think that new homes are the optimum, then make sure that the prospective buyer feels confident that your home is in ‘as new’ condition. Be one step ahead of the buyers and show them your house report.

Pay a home surveyor to come and do an appraisal of your home. Ask for a quote that will require two visits; it will be cheaper than two separate visits, also you have negotiating power over price before the work is awarded. Ask for a brief copy of the quote in writing.

You will require two visits as you will get one report before the repairs he lists and one after you have repaired them. When the buyer comes offer him a copy of your appraisal, it will save him a few hundred dollars, and set a tone of trust in any house-price negotiations.

Your real estate agent will advise you of any inexpensive changes you can make. If you do have any spare cash, the best place to invest it is in your kitchen or bathroom. You get approximately 80% of the expenditure back on the price of the house, and these two areas are the first that new home owners decorate when they move in.

Always re-decorate in neutral colors, grays, cream, beiges and whites. Add extra inexpensive lighting, preferably for ambience in the bathroom and for brightness in the kitchen. It doesn’t matter how top-of-the-line your kitchen gadgets are – buyers like to see a clear counter top.

If you do not want to re-furbish your whole kitchen then replacement cupboard doors make a big difference for a little price. Also spending a littler extra on some quality kitchen taps will be eye-catching and smack of newness.

Ensure that you buy an electrically charged air freshener and keep at least one of these in operation right by the front door.



Sell House Quick

You have found your ideal retirement property – safe, secure, convenient and neighbourly. All you now need is to sell your old home – easy!

It should be but the process is rarely trouble free and never quick. A recent MORI survey said that transaction times in the UK now averaged over 6 months, among the slowest in Europe.

The problem revolves around the fact that, with some 80% of people owning their own home, most need to secure a sale on their present house before they can purchase a new one. As a result, even when you find your dream retirement home and a buyer for your present property there is invariably a chain of transactions which all need to be pulled together simultaneously.

However, for many situations, time is of the essence and deadlines have to be met. This can be for a variety of reasons, eg you may have found your “dream retirement home” but need to secure it quickly or, a builder may be offering huge incentives for a quick completion while you are constrained by the market to a later and uncertain timescale.

Selling to house buying companies is the only foolproof method of avoiding the stresses, delays and uncertainties of selling your present home in the open market. Most importantly it secures the property you want at the time you want it as they can synchronise our purchase of the current home with your new purchase. If the old home is worth more than your new one you may even manage to buy without the burden of a mortgage.

How can house buyers help?

In short, house buyers can buy your existing house, quickly and for cash, enabling you to secure your retirement property.

Some of their schemes have proven especially appropriate for people buying in the retirement sector as the combination of convenience, speed and the certainty of achieving the move they want in a cost effective way without continuing liability suits their needs precisely.

What are the benefits of using a house buying company?



You can guarantee the purchase of your new retirement property

We can complete the sale process quickly and to suit your timescales

You avoid estate agency fees

You avoid the stress and uncertainty of selling on the open market

You avoid having the stress and security issues of multiple viewings

Your next house, its cost and your moving timescale is guaranteed, enabling you to relax





Repossession

It’s been a very dull summer this year, not only in the form of the weather but also in the housing market. Indeed, there are very definite signs throughout the UK that the property market is beginning to stall. Many homeowners put their property on the market in May or June hoping to achieve the double whammy of selling quickly and avoiding the production of a Home Information Pack (HIP). But many of those properties are still waiting to attract a buyer and estate agents are now struggling to sell properties in weeks that previously sold within hours.

However, although bad for sellers, this news has now finally given a glimmer of hope for those wishing to get on the property ladder. “We’ve entered a buyer’s market,” says Lucian Cook, the director of residential research at Savills estate agents. He believes that sellers need to be more realistic about what their properties will sell for and how long it will take.

Supporting that belief, housing market analysts Hometrack point to the significant change in the length of time that properties are taking to sell compared to three months ago. That particular gap in Greater London has shifted from two to three weeks, while the wait in Wales is now three times longer at over nine and a half weeks. According to Hometrack director Richard Donnell, “the froth is coming off the market” and there is a definite downturn in the market in the East Midlands, the north-east and Wales.

However, as with every trend there is the exception that proves the rule, and in this case it is property for sale in Chelsea, London’s most expensive borough. Unlike the rest of the UK, property in Chelsea is still being snapped up by eager buyers, fuelling a 32% rise in house prices in the borough of Kensington and Chelsea over the last year. So despite what might be happening in the rest of the UK, if you’re looking for property to buy in Chelsea, expect to pay at least the seller’s asking price for quite some time to come. Kensington and Chelsea may be immune to the workings of the UK property market at the moment but it may just be lagging behind the general trend.

That trend identifies the beginning of June as the time when interest rate rises finally started to bite, resulting in homes being marketed at prices less than the previous two months, up to 10% lower in the £500,000 to £1.5 million range. Sellers are now expecting to negotiate lower prices than advertised and take longer to get a firm offer.

So is all this bad news for anyone wishing to sell property in the UK? Many experts point out that this is not a crash, but the start of a predicted minor ‘adjustment’. They expect a recovery in the second half of next year, but whether or not that will happen remains to be seen.



Sell and Rent Back

The UK Mortgage Market (May 2008)

 

In recent months, much has occurred in the mortgage market and with such a lot of press/media coverage, this summary may be helpful to people who wish to understand and ‘take stock’ of the current situation.

 

What is happening?

 

The UK Mortgage Market is presently operating in a manner that it is unlike any other within the past 30 years.

 

From a position of over-supply this time last year – with intense competition among lenders – both new and traditional – on criteria and on price – we’ve moved to a state of under-supply, tightening criteria, widening lender margins and, consequently, higher prices to the consumer.

 

Many lenders have even left the market – some large, some small. Others have withdrawn from new lending and are ‘sitting on their hands’. Even those with strong balance sheets funded by deposits and savings accounts are restricting their new lending in order not to damage their operations or overrun their funding budgets.

 

The most obvious consequences of this situation are a shortage of mortgage products, mortgage products being withdrawn at very short notice, mortgage products being re-priced upwards and generally more rigid lending criteria.

 

Why is this happening?

 

There are three key reasons for this happening:

 

Firstly, a lack of liquidity in the money markets – that is money that would have been available for banks to lend to each other. In the past (the distant past!) banks would have used their deposits – money in savings accounts – to fund mortgage and other lending. More recently, however, mortgage lending has increasingly been funded by money markets – borrowing from other banks – or from the sale of ‘packages’ of mortgages (Mortgage Backed Securities or MBS).

 

Unfortunately, because of the incidence of very high mortgage arrears within MBS packages and, particularly, those used to fund the American ‘sub-prime’ mortgage market, banks have had to write off huge sums – billions of dollars or Euro. It is estimated that 20% of lending for a number of years in the USA has been to the ‘sub prime’ market (the UK ‘sub prime’ market has been better controlled and has accounted for only some 7-8% of overall lending).

 

 

 

Major banks are now in a scramble to have less money market funding for mortgages and other loans and more funding for such lending by deposits – just like the ‘old’ days! And, if a bank has surplus cash e.g. from a mortgage that is being redeemed, it is not going to lend it to another bank that may have financial problems hidden away in its balance sheet. The interest rate at which banks lend to each (LIBOR) is much higher than the Bank of England base rate (3 month LIBOR is, at the time of writing, 5.8% compared to the BOE rate of 5%) and, generally over the last few years, 3 month LIBOR has been running at only 0.15% to 0.25% above the BOE rate.

 

In short, there is not much cash around to fund new mortgage lending!

 

The second key problem is, simply, confidence. Lenders fear that, as a result of all of the other problems in the market, house prices will fall and that mortgage loan performance – arrears – will worsen considerably. The consequence of this is the tightening up of lending criteria e.g. the disappearance of 100% mortgages – many lenders are now insisting that potential borrowers have a significant deposit. No lender wants to be the last one left in the market with wide-open lending criteria.

 

The third issue is that of the lenders’ mortgage processing capacity. Lenders’ administration systems can run into serious problems if too much volume is taken on too quickly and many have taken the decision to ‘cool it’ by adjusting criteria or price (or both). In some cases, lenders are no longer ‘open’ for new business.

 

Of course, the situation could become a self-fulfilling prophecy – house prices will fall because buyers cannot obtain mortgages to buy property. This possibility is certainly a serious concern.

 

When will things ‘return to normal’?

 

The short answer is that nobody knows! Indeed, it is quite possible that we won’t see a return to the sort of market that we had in 2006 and 2007 for many years. Arguably, the market then wasn’t normal either – there were plenty of aggressive new lenders with big aspirations who made the market compete on risky terms with little or no profit margin. Following their departure from the market, the remaining strong lenders are rebuilding a more appropriate approach to risk – taking lending criteria back to where we were several years ago.

 

The hope in the market is that, perhaps, a year or so after the ‘credit crunch’ started and when all of the banks have gone through a whole new reporting cycle, all of the bad news will be exposed and the write-downs and losses will be history – albeit it, recent history. To date, we are some nine months into the ‘credit crunch’ and, if the history of previous financial crises is a guide, we are more than halfway through the current squeeze.

 

 

 

 

If the confidence issue can be handled, we may see lenders becoming competitive again and with a return to larger lending appetites and willingness to grow.

 

Essentially, everything points to a slow and steady recovery; there will still be tough times ahead with the numbers of arrears/repossessions ticking upwards.

 

The Bank of England has made £50 billion available to banks via a ‘Special Liquidity Scheme’ and this is a deliberate move to free-up liquidity and confidence in the market; this has to be considered positive news.

 

Are there any reasons to be cheerful?

 

There are some positives in the current situation – fundamentally – the fact that the UK is not USA!

 

In the UK, employment is at record high levels (unlike the early 1990’s) providing a high demand for housing. At the same time, there are not enough new homes being built in the UK. The economic law of supply and demand means that the housing market is strongly underpinned and is unlikely to suffer a ‘crash’.

 

Overall new lending is clearly down but demand remains strong, in particular for ‘buy to let (the rental market is boosted at such times) and for re-mortgaging (rate switching, debt consolidation and capital-raising). The lending for house purchases is quiet and will remain so until confidence returns to the market.

 

In addition, interest rates are on the decline and some economists have predicted the possibility of BOE rate becoming as low as 3.5% to 4.0% next year.

 

Whether falls in BOE rate will be followed by falls in mortgage rates is far from certain – with sufficient cuts, the cost of borrowing should become cheaper and, perhaps, encourage more people back into the mortgage and housing market.

 

Mortgage brokers remain the most favoured route for consumers to obtain mortgages from lenders and the proportion of mortgages arranged by brokers has increased over several years as ‘shopping around’ has become more common. Customers need advice more than ever and independent brokers have a key role to play in this regard – in order to obtain the best possible deals for their clients and to protect their client-banks from other brokers or lenders hunting for good quality business.

 

 

Nigel Osgood on 01628 636360 ext. 257 nigel@afpmortgages.co.uk

 

www.afpmortgages.co.uk – Winners – ‘TOP UK MORTGAGE IFA 2007’ – The annual awards ceremony sponsored by Legal & General and Mortgage Solutions Magazine

 

Your home may be repossessed if you do not keep up repayments on your mortgage



Sell House Quick

Lot of people enjoy the profit of renting a home instead of owning one. Benefits such as not having to worry about major repairs and upgrades make it simple. Also since this is the responsibility of the landlord, only one concern comes up that all renters can agree upon that is unfavorable – a rent increase.

It is simply an raise in the amount of money that you have normally been accustomed to paying over a length of time. The laws that govern a rent increase vary from state to state, and your local housing authority can answer most questions. There are various factors at play when a rent

increase is about to occur, and these include “Notice of Rent Increase”, rent control, lease terms, an annual increase, rent increase negotiations and other such legal factors.

In most states a landlord most first give a timely written notice of their intention to raise the rent. This is usually done a few months before the expiration of the current lease agreement. This will allow the tenant enough time to decide if they are able to afford the increase, or whether they should make other living arrangements once their lease has expired.

Some states also have what is termed rent control. This allows the landlord to raise the rent without giving a prior notice to the tenant. Some unscrupulous landlords use this option to force tenants they do not like for whatever reason to move out of the rented property. While this is certainly not legal, it does occur quite often. If you feel that you have been the victim of this type of unlawful rent increase, it is wise to contact the proper authorities at once.

Generally, the lease agreement that you sign will obtain a clause concerning any changes in rent. This section of the agreement should be read and understood thoroughly before the agreement is signed. There is nothing quite like being surprised by a high rent increase at the end of a lease that you fully intended to renew!

If you are faced with a rising rental payment that you feel is not fair, first, try to talk things out with the landlord. They may waive the rent increase in return for your completing minor repairs and upkeep of the rented property like mowing the grass, replacing fixtures or seasonal cleaning of windows and gutters.

While no one likes to pay more for anything, the cost of living and the state of the economy sometimes dictate that we have to. Some landlords are in a position to offer a lease agreement that includes a clause stating that a rent increase will not occur for a period of 5 years or more. Finding a nice home to rent that comes with this type of agreement is a way to have peace of mind that a rent increase won’t happen in the near future, or at least not unexpectedly.



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