[tomatoframe width="400" height="400"]http://www.flickr.com/slideShow/index.gne?group_id=&user_id=15148849@N04&set_id=72157623371514753&tags=1925BranchesWay[/tomatoframe]

I’ll add more detail here soon, but for now… Here’s a photo

If you are a first time home buyer, this tax credit would be in addition to the $8000 federal credit. Eligible properties include single family residences including condos, previously occupied homes that were listed for sale before May 11, 2009 and are still listed, and bank owned properties. The bill did not include investment properties.

The goal of this bill is obviously to provide an incentive to move current inventory and to get would be home buyers back in the game. If you, or anyone you know, are ready to purchase a home, Signature Lending Group would love an opportunity to earn your business and to help you take advantage of the new tax savings. We are more than willing to hold your hand throughout the entire process. Call us anytime at 678-387-5580.

1)  I have reviewed key components of Obama’s Stimulus Package – and nothing in the plan guarantees 4% mortgage interest rates the media keeps talking about.  In fact, as Fed Chairman Ben Bernacke alluded in his March 15th “60 Minutes” interview, the Fed’s long term plan is to raise rates as the economy shows signs of recovery.

2)  Lenders are continuing to tighten guidelines, which means:

       a)  Credit scores needed to qualify have increased significantly in the last 30 days.  I expect this trend to continue.

       b)  Many lenders are asking borrowers for larger down payments than in recent years.  Fortunately, Signature Lending Group is still offering programs with as little as 3.5% down on FHA loans. 

Again, my message here is that we are very likely entering the late stages of our “window of opportunity”.  If you or someone you know are wondering if the time is right to purchase a new home or refinance an existing one, please call me immediately.  I promise to give you the straight answers that will help you make the most of these chaotic economic times.

Chuck Walden, President

Signature Lending Group, Inc

678-387-5580

328 Sunnyside Ct, Lawrenceville, GA 30044

(Off Hwy 29 just N of Ronald Regan Pkwy)

Come take a look at this great bargain home with a completely upgraded kitchen and master bathroom.  4BR/2.5BA with master on the main located on a quiet cul-de-sac lot with a fenced backyard.

Recently reduced for quick sale at $150,000.

FMLS #3780259     Check out the online flyer with more photos and information.

From msnbc.com’s Jane Hodges:

Falling prices and rampant foreclosures are not the stuff of healthy housing markets. But to some real estate investors, the dismal market can signal that it is time to invest.

So what if cities like Phoenix and Las Vegas have regularly appeared on RealtyTrac’s list of top 10 foreclosure markets quarter after quarter? Or if the National Association of Realtors is reporting that more than one-third of all existing homes for sale in America are “distressed,” meaning they’re in foreclosure or approaching it?

To some investors, the persistent price declines and prolonged sales downturn signal something positive: The possibility of future profits.

Just ask Christopher Yates, president of CM Yates Real Estate Investment. Yates, who is based in Colorado, has invested in residential real estate since 2003. He bought a Las Vegas home for $226,000 in 2003 and sold it about a year later for $370,000, making a tidy profit. He’s avoided Las Vegas since 2005, but is now planning a return — by way of Phoenix, another hard-hit market.

“It’s time,” he says. “The Las Vegas area is really landlocked, and prices have to go back up eventually.”

A house in Las Vegas similar to the one he sold for $370,000 three years ago now fetches just $200,000, he says, happily. Because the rental market in Las Vegas is relatively healthy, it’s possible for him to buy a house like that now with a sizable cash down payment and operate it profitably as a rental. Had prices not fallen, this wouldn’t be possible.

Investing in these markets requires a strong stomach, and a lot of patience.

Investors wading back into these troubled markets say they are buying for cash flow rather than for the quick appreciation that was possible in frothier times. Investors who can get a fixed-rate loan and find tenants to pay rent steadily can afford to hang on for a long time until housing prices rebound.

“You don’t wait for the bottom of the market,” Yates says of sale prices in the markets he’s investigating. “You wait till it makes sense.”

Nationally, existing-home prices in September 2008 were 9 percent lower than a year earlier, according to the National Association of Realtors. Several recent reports have shown home sales activity rising as buyers are lured in by falling prices. Even if prices continue to fall, many investors say they can wait for the market to rebound as long as they can get cash flow from renters.

“I was one of the people criticizing the enormous amount of investor activity over the past three or four years,” says Andrew Jolley, a partner at Capsource in Henderson, Nev. “I think in some ways we’re now helping the market by purchasing inventory, but real recovery will have more to do with the credit market improving.”

At Capsource, Jolley and three partners have a portfolio of about 30 single-family homes in Las Vegas. They’re looking for more, and while there is competition, the seller is often a bank or lender, meaning foreclosure is already complete and investors can negotiate with an institutional owner rather than an individual seller.

“It’s difficult to call the bottom,” Jolley says. “But it certainly feels close. Inventory has declined, sales have risen. But pricing is still on the decline. When pricing stabilizes then we’ll know a turnaround is under way.”

Leonard Baron, a professor at San Diego State University, has made 60 offers in the suburbs of San Diego during the past six months. Some sellers refuse to negotiate, he says. But he expects to succeed in closing two purchases in the near future: A single-family home for $200,000 (down from $435,000 in 2005) and a condo for $95,000 (down from $175,000 in 2005).

He says he plans to “buy and hold” the properties he is buying, rather than try to renovate them and sell them quickly. Because prices have fallen so far, he can get rents that allow him to make money managing the property over time, rather than just hold and hope for appreciation as investors did during frothier times.

“The old rule was that you tried to get 1 percent of the purchase price per month in rent,” Baron says. “Those numbers haven’t been seen for a long time in San Diego. But they’re out there.”

In fact, Baron says he can make money off properties if he can fetch rents just 0.7 to 0.8 percent of the purchase price per month, of about $1,500 a month for a $200,000 home.

Garrett at the Controls

Today when we got to preschool, we discovered that the school would be closed for the day due to power issues.

And the energetic 4 year old needs to get out and do some things… today was rainy and cold…  So, we decided to run out to Discover Mills and wander around.  One of the things on the long list has been hitting the Slingshot Speedway to run some laps on their GIANT slot car track.  We have spectated on multiple occasions, and it was time to step up to the controls.

When Garrett saw the Lightning McQueen car… the decision was made.  We were going to race.  The price wasn’t bad, we got 5 minutes of racing for $3 each.  Of course the cars we selected were the slowest, but that also meant that we would have the best chance of making it around the track without a major catastrophe.

About Slingshot Speedway

Garrett did great.  His only mishap was Lightning losing his body shell after running into my wreckage.  And I created wreckage 3 times in the 5 minutes.  Twice in the same turn.  Obviously the Kurt Busch #2 car had an issue with that particular turn.  It was a little faster than the Lightning McQueen car… and that was just enough to get me into trouble.

There are plenty of other things to do at Discover Mills… I’ve even heard that people shop there.  In addition to the speedway some cool things that you might want to try are the carousel in the food court, the lego play table in Legoland, watching the crazy kids on bikes and skateboards in the Woodward Skatepark of Atlanta, catching a flick at the AMC 18 at Discover Mills, Dinner and a Joust at Medival Times… mini-golf, Jillian’s, Jump for Joy… ok, there are a LOT of things to do.

I know that I certainly don’t think of the mall as a place to go on a rainy day to keep a kid entertained, but it proved to be a great way to spend a couple of hours, and only a couple of bucks on a rainy cold day.

from LilburnDwellings.com

Time is money and money = time.

Thereʼs only one way to get houses sold in a todayʼs tough real estate market and that is to offer your home for sale with a qualified real estate agent (hopefully a Diamond Dwellings Agent).

Just put yourself in the buyerʼs shoes. If you were going to be searching for a new home today, how would you begin your search? Youʼd probably go straight to your computer and type something into Google or Yahoo or MSN to find houses.  Youʼd probably search for something like “Gwinnett Real Estate” or maybe youʼd search Realtor.com or Zillow.com (or one of the many other real estate portals).

Did you know that 82% of all persons who are looking for a home start their search on the internet. Of those, 93% look at homes with multiple photos first. That is why we place homes on over 100 international websites. The FSBO websites that are out there are hard to find, offer little information and typically cost a pretty penny to get a home “listed” on.

Hereʼs the point…
“Great Internet Marketing is the only way to sell your house today” Diamond Dwellings is a local Gwinnett real estate brokerage with BIG, global internet presence. If you want your home sold, please call us today!
Weʼll get it done fast. Weʼll get it done right. Weʼll just get it done.
For more information, please visit www.GwinnettDwellings.com