All I want to do is buy a house!

There was a time not long ago when it seemed as simple as a desire to buy a house. Sure you still had to apply for a loan, but that seemed to be a breeze, even it the person didn't have "it" all together, e.g., many lenders "bent" the rules a little here and a lot there -- remember? Well, now with all that has happened with all this mortgage mess, the foreclosures, the "underwater" homes, essential, the bursting of the proverbial housing bubble, this has done a 180 degree turn, and to buy a house nowadays you have to be ready to show the lender "the money," literally.

I have had to explain the procedures time and again to buyers who keep reminding me that this isn't the way they did it just a few years ago. The odd thing about these constant reminders is that people who bought a few years back seem to have grown used to just having the paperwork to sign, and are a bit miffed by the simple suggestion that they need to provide proof of just about everything. "Why do I have to do that?" came back a question from a reluctant buyer not long ago. Well, the rules to buy a house have gone back to the "normal" way it once was. In other words, you have to show the bank all that you say, and then, you have to be able to prove as much, e.g., where is your money for the down payment, why you have so many inquiries on your otherwise perfect (780 fico) credit report, or why your salary checks (stubs) have any discrepancy -- oh, and let's not forget that your w-2's and 1040's have to be "audited" too!

These requirements are nothing new. As a matter of fact many of these same requirements were in place before, albeit relaxed because everyone wanted to make a deal, and the deal-makers (the lenders), wanted the loans to pass certain audits to be able to package them into mortgage-backed securities that someone else (investors) would be buying/investing in. Well, that pool of investors virtually dried up, and now the only game in town is a pseudo-governmental secondary market, and this one is checking all the paperwork, and making sure the "i's" are dotted and the "t's" crossed -- literally.

So, you want to buy a house? The best thing you could do, as a buyer, is to be ready, willing and ABLE. And this means having the money in the bank -- you ought to have at a minimum a 3.5% of the purchase price for the down payment (for FHA program), plus another 3% of the same purchase price for the expected closing costs. Sure you will be able to negotiate many things, and in some cases "Homepath" sales, you might even get your closing costs paid (credited), and some bonuses if you close during some of their promotional periods. But, don't be too surprised if you have to have everything "squeaky clean" in regards to how you provide your details and the paperwork to support it.

Buying a house isn't any more complicated than it once was, it is now more rigidly reviewed, so, be prepared to give as much as the lender wants, wait as long as the lender takes, and work with all that is put on you to do. You want their money to buy; you now have to play by their new rules. The flip side is that you'll get fantastic values and the best interest rates available for mortgages. So, don't fret, just grin and bear it, oh, and put it in perspective – you’ll buy the house you can afford and enjoy for years to come!

Latinos Were The Hardest Hit in the Real Estate Meltdown.

Recently there has been a bevy of reports about the continuing real estate and mortgage crisis. Many may conclude that the word “crisis” probably no longer applies, especially because of the rescue programs the government instituted to shore up the economy. But wait a minute, one thing rescuing the economy through aid to “Wall Street” – helping the largest banks, e.g., Bank of America, Wells Fargo, J.P. Morgan, Chase, etc., it is quite another to impact “Main Street,” where you and I live, more so, if English, if it is spoken at all, is spoken as a second language, creating the breeding grounds for the resulting abuses against Latinos.

Latinos in California, represent about 36 percent of the population, and for the period between 2004 and 2008, at the height of the real estate buying frenzy, received nearly 30 percent of the originated ("higher-rate") home loans. However, Latinos also fell victim to foreclosures at a higher rate than most – nearly 47 percent of these households faced foreclosure!

According to a report from the Centers for Responsible Lending, 48.2 percent of the total homes in foreclosure in California from 2006 to 2009 were of Latino homeowners, and nearly 35 percent of these were concentrated in the state's Central Valley, the area between Sacramento and San Joaquin counties.

Obviously, there is a big problem here, and one that has no quick solution. The wave of foreclosures is forecasted to continue, and alas, with these findings confirming the inequities of the way houses were sold and the alarming concentration of the abuses of any one segment of the population, it is paramount that meaningful change take place to prevent a recurrence of such abuses.

Dealing with these ongoing trends in real estate, it is important to help Latinos understand where they stand, if they are to get out of their immediate predicament in the best fashion, particularly because they continue to be victimized only now through mortgage rescue schemes. It is important that anyone who wants to buy a house be better informed and, perhaps, required to take some primer on the way houses are bought and loans underwritten – in their native tongue, if need be, to avoid a recurrence of both the conditions leading to these types of events or facilitate such abuses.

Likewise, the real estate professional must be more than just a salesperson to an unsuspecting customer, s/he should be an advocate of fair dealings to all buyers, regardless of their heritage or surname, in this way, we all will benefit and find that the repeat and referral business we'll derive from doing so will be of a happier sort instead of the sorry one that foreclosure represents for all.

The not so merry merry-go-round of real estate.

I was chatting with a would-be buyer for about the 200th time about the "why" or the "how come" of this or that, mostly having to do with the inordinate delays we've experienced with a "standard" home purchase. You see, his brother told him he could buy a house relatively simply two years after he declared bankruptcy, but of course, he didn't tell him all the hoops he'd have to jump through to get the right financing.

Well, as luck might have it, this last discussion lead to his throwing up his arms and saying, enough is enough. "I want to cancel the deal!" And so it went, another eight months worth of showing, driving up and down the area, making at least 25 bids on as many houses and working with several lenders to make this happen. In the end, what did I have to show for it? Absolutely nothing!

The most frustrating part, if we're looking at the financial side, is that it wound up costing quite a bit when you factor time and gas, and tolls and all the other sundry things that go into making the typical real estate deal happen these days.

Regrets, if any, are the challenges that we have to overcome on your average transaction these days. You see, the last escrow I had with these folks, and there were a total of four all together over that period of time, was going as well as might be expected with a "short sale", but when the FHA appraiser came to do their appraisal, they wound up doing a home inspection on top of that! When did appraisers become inspectors, I asked, and the curt answer was, that FHA required them to note anything that the house exhibited that was a health and safety issue. Of course, that makes perfect sense, but tell it to a buyer who now blames you for the five month delay, the extra fees it cost him for the appraisal, the loss of time off work to go and come, and on, and on...

You can see what I mean when I say, the not so merry merry-go-round of real estate. Oh, there's another call, "... you say you want to buy a house? and that you're a first time buyer? and that you have little or not money? and that you want the best..." Oh well, until we figure out how to sell without the real people, don't expect that you get paid for anything other than solving peoples housing problems -- right?

Go out and make it a great day, oh, and remember to smile!