How To Find Distressed Property For Sale In Phoenix

March 7, 2014 By Nathan Mitchell

We provide you, the home buyer, the tools you need to find a distressed property for sale in the Phoenix metro area.

Many home buyers may not know that they can look specifically for a distressed property for sale.

Many home buyers may not even know what a distressed property is.

What is a distressed property?

A distressed property is typically a home that is sold under some sort of duress.

That means that the seller may not necessarily want to sell the home. The home owner, to some degree, is being forced to sell their home.

In many cases, such as with bank owned homes, the seller may not even want to own the home in the first place. The bank may have had to take the home back through a foreclosure process and now they must dispose of it.

Why worry about a distressed property for sale?

If you are in the market to purchase a home, then finding out whether or not a home is a distressed property could be very important to you.

For example, if the home in question is a short sale, it’s beneficial to know that because if you decide to purchase the home, you need to know that it may take several months (or more) to negotiate that short sale with the seller’s lender.

That’s not to mention that it might be possible to pick up the home at a discount, because of such a long wait time.

Now you can recognize when a home is a distressed property.

In your search for a home, you may run across a distressed property for sale and not even know it. So, to help you recognize what properties are distressed, here is a list of names that are very often used:

Short sale
Pre-foreclosure
Bank owned
Foreclosure
REO
Real estate owned
Lender owned
HUD Owned
Fannie Mae owned
Homepath owned
Freddie Mac owned

Finding a distressed property for sale.

Here is how we recommend finding a distressed property for sale:

Find the zip codes that have distressed properties, with our Distressed Property Reports.
Use our Multiple Listing Service search tool to quickly find which distressed properties you are interested in.

Below is a step by step how to so you can quickly find a distressed property for sale.

Zero Down Move In? The .5% FHA Down Payment Program

March 5, 2014 By Nathan Mitchell

Buy your home for darn near zero down.

The new .5% FHA down payment program has recently been rolled out to home buyers by many lenders. It is a spin off of the well known 3.5% FHA down payment program that has been effectively used for many years.

The old 3.5% FHA down payment program:

A home buyer can purchase a home with only 3.5% of the purchase price as a down payment – With a $200,000 purchase price as a buyer, you can come in with as little as $7,000 ($200,000 x 3.5%) for a down payment.

With the new .5% FHA down payment program:

A home buyer will only need to come to the closing table with .5% of the purchase price – With the same $200,000 purchase price, you come in with as little as $1,000 ($200,000 x .5%) for a down payment.

What happens to the other 3% with this new loan program?

Unfortunately, the 3% doesn’t just disappear!

3% of your down payment is financed into a 2nd mortgage.

The 2nd mortgage:

The 2nd mortgage is up to 3% of the purchase price.
The mortgage is a fully amortized loan over 15 years.
The interest rate on the 2nd mortgage is 8.25%.

The 1st mortgage details:

The maximum loan amount for the 1st mortgage is 96.5% of the purchase price.
Typically the mortgage is a fixed rate amortized over 30 years.

Who is eligible for the .5% FHA down payment program?

There are terms and restrictions to the program and here are some details:

Owner occupied purchases only.
You must have a minimum FICO score of 600.
$71,185 income limitation for Maricopa and Pinal Counties.
This program is not limited to first time home buyers.
A HUD approved home buyer education required.

Wait! There’s more…

There’s even more that a home buyer can do to get into their new home for as low out of pocket as possible. Just like the 3.5% down payment program, you can receive gift funds from family to cover any closing or down payment costs you still might have. In addition to that, as a buyer, you can negotiate with the seller of your new home to contribute up to 6% of the purchase price to your closing costs and down payment.

You can receive up to a maximum of 6% of the purchase price – $200,000 purchase price x 6% seller contribution = $12,000.

Buy your home for close to zero down.

When you take a look at all of the different options at your disposal to save, it’s very easy to see that you can purchase a home with with very little in out of pocket costs.

Now go out there and find your home!

Phoenix Distressed Property Report

March 4, 2014 By Nathan Mitchell

We keep you up to date on distressed properties here in Phoenix, Arizona. Click on the links below to access the most recent Phoenix distressed property reports available in the Valley.

Use the interactive maps in the report to find the zip codes with distressed properties, then use our Multiple Listing Service search tool to search like an agent to find your home.

Access the Phoenix Distressed Property Reports:

Video: 7 Tips For Searching The Arizona Multiple Listing Service

March 1, 2014 By Nathan Mitchell

Search the Arizona Multiple Listing Service.

We help home buyers and sellers. It is our passion. Today, we help you learn how to use the Multiple Listing Service -a.k.a. the MLS. If you are buying or selling a home, this is your live link to the most up to date home sale information available. You now have the power to get the information you need, when you need it, on homes for sale in the Valley.

Your video tutorial

We have come up with a tutorial series dedicated to teaching you how to take advantage of the most advanced home search tool for the Multiple Listing Service.

You are going to learn how to search the Arizona Multiple Listing Service. With our MLS search tool you will be more efficient and have more knowledge about the Arizona real estate market than the average home buyer.

The 7 things you will learn:

How to get to your your MLS search tool quickly and efficiently.
How to use the address or MLS number of a potential home to quickly receive your needed information.
How to find the homes that you want, based on the items that are most important to you.
How to quickly recognize where your potential home is located.
How to find detailed information on each home for sale.
How to see the interior of each home for sale.
How to save your home search so that you can come back and view at a later date or time.

Click on the player below to begin:

To see this video on YouTube, click here .

Ready for more?

Click here to learn how to save and view your favorite homes when you find them.

Look for our upcoming Multiple Listing Service search tutorials, including:

Advanced Multiple Listing Service search tools and criteria.
Searching for homes for sale on your mobile device.

We are always here to answer your questions, so please ask in the form below.

Fannie Mae First Look For Home Buyers

February 20, 2014 By Nathan Mitchell

Fannie Mae First Look

If you are a home buyer and you’ve been doing any amount of home research on the web, you have probably run in to the term – Fannie Mae First Look.

A Common Challenge For Home Buyers In The Valley

Real estate investors, especially here in Phoenix, tend to have very deep pockets and pay with cash. What that means to you, the home buyer is that a real estate investor can typically afford to offer more than a home for sale might be listed for.

Time and time again, especially with bank owned properties, big investors beat out owner occupant home buyers in the bidding process, because owner occupants tend to buy homes with financing and can’t overbid on and complete the purchase of a property without coming in with cash to make up the difference if the appraisal comes in low .

That is just one challenge in competing with a real estate investor.

Enter Fannie Mae’s First Look Home Buying Period

The First Look buying period is truly a blessing for owner-occupant home buyers. In a nutshell, the Fannie Mae First Look home buying program allows owner occupants to make offers on their Homepath home of choice, without the worry of competition from investors.

How The First Look Program Works

Take a look at the example below of a property that is available (as of today) on Homepath.com.

The top red arrow is pointing toward the list price of the home – $284,900. The red arrow on the bottom is pointing to how many days are left (the countdown clock) in the Fannie Mae FirstLook period for that specific home. As you can see there are 17 days left for the owner occupant home buying period.

Potential home buyers have 20 days to make an offer during the Fannie Mae First Look program. This time period has been recently extended from 15 days.

It’s That Simple.

Just contact your real estate agent and make an offer!

Restrictions Apply, Of Course.

There are certain requirements that buyers must meet in order to qualify to purchase a Fannie Mae home during the First Look period. The first, of course, is the home buyer must be an owner occupant and will make the home their primary residence.

The potential home buyer will also need to occupy the home within 60 days of purchasing the property. The buyer will need to agree to live in the home for at least one year and will be required to sign an addendum to the real estate purchase contract stating they will abide by that. The addendum will also outline the consequences of not following these guidelines.

The Fannie Mae First Look program is a great tool for the typical home buyer to have at their disposal. Be sure to keep an eye out for Fannie Mae’s Homepath properties and alert your real estate agent that you would like to include them in your home search.

Closing Cost Assistance By Fannie Mae

February 19, 2014 By Nathan Mitchell

Closing cost assistance is a welcome incentive for home buyers as we begin to approach a more balanced real estate market here in Phoenix, Arizona.

Update: 3.5% Closing Cost Assistance Deadline Has Been Extended To April 30th, 2014.

Fannie Mae Offers Closing Cost Assistance.

Fannie Mae will be offering to pay for buyers’ closing costs to encourage potential home buyers to purchase their Homepath® properties. Fannie Mae homes for sale are also referred to as bank owned properties or REOs.

The closing cost assistance offered to home buyers will be 3.5% of the purchase price and the program is available in the state of Arizona, as well as 26 other states.

As a quick example, on the purchase of a $200,000 home, you will receive $7,000 ($200,000 x 3.5%) towards your closing costs .

Time Is Limited (Really).

There is a short window of opportunity for their closing cost assistance program. As a home buyer, you must make an offer on one of Fannie Mae’s homes during their FirstLook™ period between February 14, 2014 and March 31, 2014. The home must close on or before May 31, 2014.

Making an offer on a Fannie Mae Homepath home is very simple. Once you have located the home that you would like to make an offer on, just contact your real estate agent and they will do the work for you.

The First Look™ Period Is Extended.

Fannie Mae has also announced that they will be extending their FirstLook buying period from 15 to 20 days.

According to their announcement, Fannie Mae’s goal is to “…sell as many HomePath properties as possible to owner-occupants who will stabilize neighborhoods and help the housing recovery.”

This is a great opportunity for home buyers to limit their out of pocket costs when purchasing a home. If you would like more information on Fannie Mae’s closing cost assistance program or their bank owned properties for sale here in Phoenix, please feel free to fill out the form below.

Real Estate Statistics February 2014 – Phoenix

February 11, 2014 By Nathan Mitchell

Real Estate Statistics February 2014

Phoenix, Arizona

Home Sales For Phoenix, Arizona February 2014

New Inventory – Resale Homes

Total Inventory – Resale Homes

Active Inventory vs. UCB (Homes Under Contract)

Months Supply Of Inventory

New List Prices

Sales Prices

Real Estate Statistics February 2014

Sales Price Forecast

Pending Foreclosures

Distressed Sales

Average Days On Market

Click here to see the report in it’s entirety.

Football Is Over, Time To Get Back To Business.

With January at a close, we see some similarities and differences with the more recent historical real estate sales data. The winter months (Dec, Jan, Feb) are almost always our slowest months across the board in regards to real estate sales here in Arizona. That has held true for this winter.

Monthly Home Sales Are Down.

Monthly home sales here in the Phoenix Metro area have dipped to 4,797 units for the month of January, which is roughly a 17% drop year over year and nearly a 20% drop month over month.

The drop in monthly home sales indicates a weakening of demand. Meanwhile, we’re starting to see a rise in new listings (inventory) on a monthly basis. We have seen a rise in resale home inventory by 11% year over year and nearly 80% month to month, bringing our total real estate inventory to 28,464 units.

Our Supply Of Home Inventory Is Increasing.

When we take the drop in monthly sales and increasing inventory into consideration, we start to see our months supply of home inventory increase. Most real estate professionals will tell you that the closer we get to 6 months worth of inventory, the closer we get towards a buyers market. As you can see from the above graphic (Months Supply of Inventory), we have 5.93 months of real estate inventory here in Phoenix.

We are at a balance of the market, if we’re not already in a buyer’s market.

Good News For Buyers.

This is excellent news for home buyers here in Phoenix, Arizona, as more inventory means more choices. Less demand also means that there is less competition than the average buyer has experienced over the past several years. That means less offers per home listed – not as many multiple offer situations (on a single home for sale) as we’ve seen in the recent past.

What does this mean for sellers? Take a look at the new list price graphic:

Time For a Reality Check?

What we’re seeing now, with the jump in new listing inventory is the possibility that these new home sellers are not quite in tune with what the market is up to. Less demand for homes and rising home inventory, typically are not a good mix. Home sellers will need to come to terms with the reality of less home buying demand and price their homes accordingly, to be able to get their homes sold at the best price and in a reasonable amount of time.

We are just barely starting 2014 and the real estate market seems to be making a shift. There is nothing that we can do, except watch to see how this year plays out. Be sure to stop back frequently to stay informed on the direction of our market.

We are always here to answer your questions, so please ask in the form below.

Real Estate Statistics January 2014 – Phoenix

January 21, 2014 By Nathan Mitchell

January 2014 Real Estate Statistics

Phoenix Arizona

Monthly Homes Sales for Phoenix, Arizona January 2014

New Inventory Resale Homes

Total Inventory

Active Inventory vs. UCB (Homes Under Contract)

Months Supply Of Inventory

New List Prices

Sales Prices

Sales Price Forecast

Foreclosures Pending

Distressed Sales

Average Days On Market

November 2013 Real Estate Statistics – Phoenix

December 8, 2013 By Nathan Mitchell

November 2013 Real Estate Statistics – Phoenix

See October 2013 Real Estate Statistics Here

Monthly Home Sales for Phoenix, Arizona November 2013

New Inventory (New Listings)

Total Inventory

Active Home Listings

Months Supply of Inventory

New List Prices

Sale Prices

Foreclosures Pending

Distressed Sales

Average Days on Market

Click Here to see the market report in it’s entirety.

Phoenix Rentals – Statistics November 2013

November 6, 2013 By Nathan Mitchell

Phoenix Rentals – Statistics November 2013

Compiled data from the Arizona Regional Multiple Listing Service. The median lease price is $1095, the average is $1,263. The average days on market is 44. The Rent Check Quotient™ is derived by dividing the number of leases per month by the number of closed sales, as reported in the Arizona Regional MLS monthly sales report.

See the report in it’s entirety here.

Phoenix Rentals – Statistics November 2013 – Average Closed Leases

Closed Rental Units Per Month

As is typical this time of year, we’re starting to see some softening in the market. If history is a good indicator, we should start to see more movement and closed units starting February 2014.

Find out what your investment property is worth. Click here.

What is a distressed property?

Why worry about a distressed property for sale?

Now you can recognize when a home is a distressed property.

Finding a distressed property for sale.

Buy your home for darn near zero down.

The old 3.5% FHA down payment program:

With the new .5% FHA down payment program:

What happens to the other 3% with this new loan program?

The 2nd mortgage:

The 1st mortgage details:

Who is eligible for the .5% FHA down payment program?

Wait! There’s more…

Buy your home for close to zero down.

Access the Phoenix Distressed Property Reports:

Search the Arizona Multiple Listing Service.

Your video tutorial

The 7 things you will learn:

Click on the player below to begin:

Ready for more?

Fannie Mae First Look

A Common Challenge For Home Buyers In The Valley

Enter Fannie Mae’s First Look Home Buying Period

How The First Look Program Works

It’s That Simple.

Restrictions Apply, Of Course.

Update: 3.5% Closing Cost Assistance Deadline Has Been Extended To April 30th, 2014.

Fannie Mae Offers Closing Cost Assistance.

Time Is Limited (Really).

The First Look™ Period Is Extended.

Fannie Mae Closing Costs

Real Estate Statistics February 2014

Phoenix, Arizona

Home Sales For Phoenix, Arizona February 2014

New Inventory – Resale Homes

Total Inventory – Resale Homes

Active Inventory vs. UCB (Homes Under Contract)

Months Supply Of Inventory

New List Prices

Sales Prices

Real Estate Statistics February 2014

Sales Price Forecast

Pending Foreclosures

Distressed Sales

Average Days On Market

January 2014 Real Estate Statistics

Phoenix Arizona

Monthly Homes Sales for Phoenix, Arizona January 2014

New Inventory Resale Homes

Total Inventory

Active Inventory vs. UCB (Homes Under Contract)

Months Supply Of Inventory

New List Prices

Sales Prices

Sales Price Forecast

Foreclosures Pending

Distressed Sales

Average Days On Market

November 2013 Real Estate Statistics – Phoenix

Monthly Home Sales for Phoenix, Arizona November 2013

New Inventory (New Listings)

Total Inventory

Active Home Listings

Months Supply of Inventory

New List Prices

Sale Prices

Foreclosures Pending

Distressed Sales

Average Days on Market

Phoenix Rentals – Statistics November 2013

Phoenix Rentals – Statistics November 2013 – Average Closed Leases

Closed Rental Units Per Month

The Latest Listings