Yes you can buy a home in Arizona with $0 down and little out-of-pocket expense.

$0 down home loan + foreclosure pricing + historically low mortgage rates = a win-win formula for any Arizona homebuyer.

Below this weeks video is one of our foreclosure homes in Queen Creek/San Tan Valley area just listed for $89,900. This home is just one example of a foreclosure home availabe right now that qualifies for the USDA $0 Down Home Loan program.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=DjOHYX6k5AI

We're sorry, but we couldn't find MLS # 4439663 in our database. This property may be a new listing or possibly taken off the market. Please check back again.

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Let’s face it, as easy as it may seem to just walk away from a home, the haunt of a foreclosure goes on for years to come, affecting credit and even employment, in some cases. Many people are not aware that foreclosure even can affect their security clearance levels and future employment.

Foreclosure is certainly not the best option, particularly with the advent of HAFA.

Obviously, foreclosure can’t always be avoided, but knowing your options before going into an “ostrich mode” would well be worth the time invested, particularly in light of HAFA, which will even provide relocation assistance money and eliminate the hovering concern of a deficiency judgment when a short payoff has been accepted.

Personally, I’m so adamant about informing the public about their options, I’ve setup a “Home Rescue Network™” at www.AzSPO.com to provide Phoenix area homeowners who owe more on their homes than they are worth (or are behind on their payments) a comprehensive list of their options to avoid foreclosure and a quick questionnaire to help them determine if they are eligible for the new government programs available.

With our National network of top agents around the country, we’re able to refer homeowners to the experts in their area to further educate and help them rescue their homes from the black hole of foreclosure.

Homeowners or Agents who would like more information can email me at RescueTeam(AT)AzSPO.com.

I believe HAFA will help simplify and streamline the use of Phoenix area short sales and the deeds-in-lieu of foreclosure options with the use of the top features HAFA possesses, including:

1.Providing financial incentives to borrowers, servicers AND investors
2.Requiring servicers to release borrowers from future liability for the debt (no deficiency judgments)
3.Using standard processes, documents and timeframes to help streamline and standardize the normally daunting short sale process
4.Complementing HAMP by providing workable alternatives to homeowners who are HAMP eligible
5.Eliminating the need for additional analysis on eligibility by utilizing financial and hardship information collected in conjunction with HAMP
6.Allowing the homeowner to receive pre-approved short payoff terms prior to the property being listed

With more than 11 million homeowners in negative equity positions on their mortgages (that’s roughly 24 percent of all properties with a mortgage), I look forward to seeing what HAFA will be able to do to help borrowers avoid foreclosure and how the goals of HAFA to standardize the process flow, minimize the performance timelines and standardize documentation of short sales will play out.

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Mortgage rates dropped to the lowest level on record for the fifth time in six weeks, making home-buying and refinancing the most attractive in decades for those who can get loans.

Freddie Mac says the average rate for 30-year fixed loans this week was 4.54 percent, down from 4.56 last week. That’s the lowest since Freddie Mac began tracking rates in 1971.  The last time home loan rates were lower was during the 1950s, when most mortgages lasted just 20 or 25 years. 

The rate on the 15-year fixed loan dropped to 4 percent, down from 4.03 percent last week and the lowest on record.

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Negotiations with bank owned foreclosure homes must be a win-win for all parties involved to create a successful offer that’s going to be accepted. It just can’t be one-sided all in favor of the one side of the transaction.

I’ve seen countless offers with legalese a mile long that could have been stated in a few sentences, but every possible concern in the world, even ones that weren’t concerns were addressed. This scares bank owned foreclosure home sellers away many times when compared to a simple straightforward offer.

As far as bank owned properties, it would be good advice to agents to not waste their time with “lowball” offers. A blind squirrel finds an acorn once in awhile, I get that, but if you’re set on making low unrealistic offers by faxing one page letter of intents (LOI) to purchase with follow up purchase contracts to follow on acceptance of the LOI, at least let some DOM (days on market) occur before attacking. No seller is going to be “Johnny on the spot” to accept an extremely low offer without some DOM tenure under its belt.

One of the creative ways I’ve seen some of the cash buyers come in with offers lately is with full price earnest money offers. In other words, if the price is $50,000, they put down $50,000 as earnest money. All things being equal, which offer would you choose between one with $500 earnest and $50,000.

Kind of a no-brainer, isn’t it? Or is it?

I’ve seen these get accepted only to fall out in the inspection period, as most of these type of offers  on foreclosures are from investors, some of whom haven’t even seen the property. It is a good way to tie-up the property, so some bank owned sellers have now countered with waiving the inspection periods, or making a portion of the earnest money non-refundable to test the commitment levels.

No one has time to be strung along.

We all don’t have full cash earnest monies to invest, but I will say that if you want to sway the seller, one of the biggies is large earnest money. All things being equal, they’re choosing the larger earnest money offers because of the higher level of commitment or perceived strength of the offer. Let’s face it, $10,000 versus $500 will turn anyone’s head, I’m sure you’d agree.

Shameless plug: I’m finishing up a compilation of great bank owned negotiating strategies in my latest report entitled, “REO Offer Negotiating Secrets Revealed,” which will be released in about 30 days or so to a limited audience.

It will be jam-packed with great field tested insights on how to get your offers on foreclosures accepted — even when competing in multiple offer situations. My team and I have personally used several of the strategies very successfully to beat out other buyers over and over again.

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Moving into a new home (foreclosure or otherwise) can be an exciting time and also sometimes seem a bit overwhelming with everything there is to do. The best way to settle into your new home is to reduce the stress by creating a simple move-in checklist to follow. Our team of Arizona-Phoenix area foreclosure specialists take great pride in helping the foreclosure home search and transaction process go as smooth as possible and we wanted to provide some tips that will also help post-closing after you purchase a foreclosure home.

1. First thing is to re-key the property. You probably already signed an agreement with bank agreeing to do so ASAP and it may even be charged on your final HUD settlement statement. 

2. If you haven’t done so already, change your address with the post office. 
 
3. Transfer utility connections to your name as soon as you move in to your new home. Depending on your area, you usually have a set amount of time to transfer the account into your name before your service is suspended.  
 
4. Save all the papers associated with your new home. This includes all contracts, cancelled checks, sales receipts, owner’s manuals, and home warranty documents. Make sure that you read your entire product and home warranty documents to ensure you know what to do in case something goes wrong.
 
5. Keep track of your moving expenses since they can sometimes be tax deductible.

6. Locate and contact your local DMV to change your driver’s license and vehicle information. 

7. Notify friends and family that you have moved.

 8. Find local Arizona information on schools, libraries, community activities, and local businesses through your local chamber of commerce website. 

9. If necessary, find a new doctor and dentist around your home. Don’t forget to provide them with your medical history records. In case of an emergency, it also doesn’t hurt to locate the nearest hospital in your area. Follow these links to search for providers in your area.
 
10. If you have 401K plans with previous employers, be sure to notify the plan administrator that you have moved. 

11. Register to vote in your new community.

12. Schedule the cleaning before you move your belongings in. Even though some Arizona foreclosure homes are in pristine move-in ready condition they have probably been vacant for quite awhile and need a good sprucing up.

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‘ASK JOE’ PHOENIX AZ HOME VLOG QUESTION FORM

Please fill out the quick and easy form below with your real estate related question you’d like answered. We will review the questions and respond to as many as possible next week on the Ask Joe Vlog and/or via e-mail as soon as possible.