Barbara McMurry's Posts ↓

When I saw the headline on the Microsoft Small business/ Microsoft at Work BlogI was sure I knew what they would say.  Undoubtedly they would blast the PDAers who are texting while they drive.  Surely they would comment on folks who sit in classes (mine sometimes) and read messages and answer.  What about talking on the phone in a restaurant, at the Dr’s office, phones that ring in church?  Turns out the etiquette for wireless devices is different.  Be concise, they tell us.  Don’t send really long text messages-works for me.  Follow up.  Not all quick messages are remembered so send another email later.  My favorite is, “Don’t compose and converse at the same time.”  Those are words to live by.  Here are my words to live by.  Put the phone down and go outside.  It is a summertime thing.

And the Living is Easy.  We have been bombarded with the news of high oil prices as it impacts our summer plans.  There are so many wonderful things to do right here in Central Virginia-won’t take much gas to get the “fam”there and back. 

Our family likes to hike Old Rag Mountain in Madison County, Virginia.  Parking is off of Rt. 600 near Nethers, Virginia.  It is a challenging hike but worth it when you see the views from the top.  Another route is to approach from the Berry Hollow Parking Area near Whiteoak Canyon.  Take 231 South past the turn for Nethers then South to Route 670 near Banco.  Turn right at Syria then left on 600.  The hike is along the Barry Hollow Fire Trail and then goes up to the top;  you can avoid a “rock scramble” by going this way.

Where do you like to hike?  Let me know.

Hats off to a neat post by Jim Duncan on his blog Real Central VA.  Jim is a local real estate agent who tells about riding his bike from his office to an appointment.  As he said, “I saved gas, burned a few calories, and hopefully led by example.”  We know Jim isn’t going to take clients out on his bicycle but what a great idea for errands and “in-town”.

My own attempt (really small) is to walk from my office on Westfield Road to all of the meetings at the Charlottesville Area Association of REALTORS building on Hillsdale. 

Way to go Jim-good job.

I get so much Spam-Most of which goes directly to the spam folder and I never see it-  I thought that I was immune. 

Free Bug Eliminator Software!

Are there corrupt files lurking inside your computer just waiting to cause harmful destruction?

How would you know?

Don’t let the peaceful operation of your PC (maybe it’s not that peaceful!) give you a false sense of security — you’d be simply astonished at the number of unnecessary files cluttering up and bogging down your computer right this instant!

Not sure why this caught my eye-but it did.  I go for long periods of time feeling “safe” and then this comes along and rocks my little computer world.  Which software is the best?  Your thoughts.

The mid-year NAR -National Association of REALTORS

 meetings in Washington DC were as informative as ever.  The best meeting I attended was the committee on Risk Reduction.  Their panel discussion on Short Sales was terrific. Short Sales happen when the sales price of a property does not cover the amount of money the seller owes the lenders.

Real estate practitioners continue to struggle between representing sellers who want and deserve confidentiality about their finances vs. the needs of the buyers to know the offer they make will be reviewed and approved, or not, by the lenders.  Buyers are caught in delayed closings -or worse- are waiting to hear back from an offer that is finally rejected.  Real estate agents are in the crossfire trying to represent the clients and get paid.  One thing made loads of sense to me; Virginia should use Short Sale addendas to disclose and inform.  The form in use in Arizona looked pretty good. More later.

The negotiating is over and an agreement to buy/sell a piece of property seems set?  What are the last minute issues around your real estate settlement?

Has the loan commitment been received? 

Even if the buyer has a loan commitment, the current loan climate makes us as agents for buyers and sellers cautious until the final underwriting has taken place.  It is possible that a transaction with a loan commitment could still fall apart.  What is a loan commitment? 

The lender has received an application from the borrower and has done a credit check, evaluated income and debt ratios, and has received an appraisal report showing the value of the property will secure the amount of money for the borrower ’s transaction.

There are often last minute questions and requests from lenders-even after the appraisal and commitment.  It is in the final underwriting or reviewing of all of the loan application documents that sometimes causes delay. The lenders look long and hard before making loans today. What is your defense?  Work with good people; agents and lenders, and ask lots of questions. 

Senate panel agrees to housing relief billA compromise between ranking members in the Senate Banking Committee helped advance a housing rescue bill to the floor of the U.S. Senate yesterday. President Bush has backed off of earlier veto threats, citing progress made on this bill, intended to help the ailing housing market and impose tougher standards on Government Sponsored Enterprises Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The bill is expected to pass the full Senate. To read the full report:

In an earlier Post we decribed this bill as it came out of the House Committee.

In an earlier post I talked about not feeling as professional in a home office, probably because working in a bath robe feels pretty relaxed to me-I did say we were ok as long as view phones aren’t in general use.  That, of course, was meant to be tongue in cheek; but can you believe it-there actually, factually is a prototype “smell phone”.  Unless this was another April Fools joke, NPR did a piece about the new technology which allows one to send smells over the cell phone.  They were quick to point out there are “spam filters” for undesireable downloads.  The example the journalist gave was of vacationers sending home the “scent from the ocean”.  Not sure about that-I may have to wait and “see”.  What’s next?

 The current loan situation became up close and personal for me when I read a response from Karol. She wrote about about her current sub-prime loan: ”had no idea what my broker, title company did, nor appraiser, I’m no cheat and knew less than I thought about what I was doing, and sometimes you trust people. who would think that these people would do this to you?”  While Karol knows that this program may not help her who would be helped?

What could the FHA relief bill mean for struggling homeowners?  This bill provides FHA guarantees to lenders.  The lender’s in turn make up to 90% loans to the present value. 

“For a homeowner to get a new FHA-backed loan, the holder of the current mortgage would have to accept a loss and take a payment totaling no more than 85 percent of the home’s value.

The government would also get a share of profits if the homeowner sold the house in the future and would have to pay the lenders only if homeowners defaulted on FHA-backed mortgages. The Financial Services committee estimates that 1 to 2 percent of the new loans would default, costing the government between $3 billion and $6 billion.” 

 Karol says her family will be OK and they will repay their debt-what should borrowers do to make sure they are getting the best loan for their situation? 

Though still a long way from becoming the law of the land, the House of Representatives moved an FHA relief bill out of committee.  The bill in its current form would guarantee $300 Billion with a B in new mortgages by Government Sponsored Enterprise approved private lenders.   The house Financial Services Committee passed the bill with the full House voting this week.  This may be a relief and alternative to homeowners who are about to lose their homes to foreclosure. As committee chairman Rep. Barney Frank said, “There are people who made loans that should not have been made; there are some people that were wrong to take the loans out, some wrong to make the loans.  If nothing happens the economy suffers.”

What could this mean for struggling homeowners?  This bill provides FHA guarantees to lenders.  The lender’s in turn make up to 90% loans to the present value. Perhaps this will become an option for troubled loans.

Our central Virginia market is not overwhelmed with foreclosure but as Percy Montague,IV said in his POST, A Tale of Two Markets, if you are the homeowner suffering-then one bad loan is one too many.