Foreclosure Investing: First Time Buying, and the Short Sale

Here's an interesting twist.

Yesterday I wrote about what might very well be the very best First Time Buyers Program in California. I got a call almost immediately from a reader who was a first time buyer and was looking at buying a short sale property in bay area.

Buying a short sale is an exercise in patience. From the Listing Agent's perspective it's often an exercise in frustration.

Once the offer is made, the numbers are submitted to the Lender and everyone waits for them to accept or deny. This often takes a considerable amount of time. The frustrated buyer often has a couple of other properties they are considering and in the meantime moves on to one of those instead. Pre-Approvals and interest rate locks go stale very quickly.

That brings us to CalHFA (the first time buyer program I mentioned). The absolute beauty of this program is that it moves slowly, (well that and it will do 100% financing plus cover a certain amount of closing costs). Normally that would be a bad thing. We want lightning quick approvals and locks right? Speed is a double edged sword. With the speed that quick approval comes with, it also means that rates can adjust, guidelines can change, equally quick. That's a bad thing if you are waiting on a short sale. I have seen entire deals fall out just because a simple little guideline changed making the buyer ineligible.

CalHFA rates change very slowly. While we saw rates for traditional programs change twice today for some lenders, CalHFA rates have not changed since August 9th! Not at all. That's no change in a month! Their guidelines change very slowly as well.

That leads me to believe that if you have not owned property in the last 3 years (that you have lived in), and you are looking to buy a Short Sale Property soon, this may be

The Very Best First Time Buyer Program For Short Sales Ever!

I mentioned on the previous post there's one catch. You need to work with a mortgage professional that is certified to complete these special programs. Unfortunately very few mortgage originators are certified for CalHFA loans.

I am - Just give me a call. (925) 288-9977 Ext. 104