Dan Polimino

http://www.coloradodreamhouse.com/index.php/news/ In this week’s market update Fuller Sotheby’s Real Estate Agent Dan Polimino tells us that buyers coming from the East or West coast are in for a shock when buying a home in Colorado. Colorado is one of the first states to experience the recovery in the housing market and as such buyers from the east and west coast are surprised they are having a tough time getting 30, 40 and 50% off the sale price. Colorado is not California or Florida when it comes to real estate so buyers better have a different mindset. To find out more about why the housing market is better in Colorado, watch Dan Polimino and this week’s market update.

A cash-in refinance is when the new mortgage is smaller than the existing mortgage and the homeowner brings cash to the closing table. In contrast, a cash out refinance is where the old mortgage is less than the amount of the new mortgage and the borrower receives cash back. Freddie Mac has estimated that almost one third of its mortgages today are cash-in refinances.

The strategy is to make your mortgage work harder for you. Savvy borrowers are doing this to: 1) eliminate mortgage insurance, 2) avoid the higher rates on jumbo loans, or 3) a loan to value issue will not allow them to payoff the old loan in full.

Like any refinance, you and your mortgage professional should do the math. With a $300,000 mortgage, the pure interest rate savings would be about $275 per month. Do not look solely at the change in the monthly payment as you might be adding on to the life of the loan. I have seen my clients continue to make the same payment to payoff their mortgage faster, put the savings into retirement or savings accounts, or payoff those evil credit cards.

As always you should consider how long you intend to stay in the house to make sure you recapture any costs and still have adequate liquidity. Utilizing cash from a CD or savings account that is paying 1% to eliminate a much higher interest rate is a safe way to improve your financial situation.

As always, interested in your thoughts.

Best, Chip

Chip Allen

Crestline Mortgage Bankers

A Division of Universal Lending Corp

Direct: 303.947.2109

Fax: 303.987.0676

Loanchip@hotmail.com

Your Lender for Life!

When people you care about need a mortgage,

for purchase or refinance, please do not keep me a secret.

A year ago, I wrote that “there has never been a bigger gap between a buyer and seller than what we seeing in the current market place.” I wish I could report that a year later, the gap has closed significantly, but it hasn’t. In some respects, it even got worse because in the lower price ranges, it has become a sellers’ market and they are looking to turn the tables on buyers.

I am not sure what it is; maybe the strain of the economy keeps everyone in a foul mood but it seems that one transaction after another pits the buyer against the seller in an adversarial war. The simple fact is that the seller distrusts and doesn’t like the buyer, and the buyer distrusts and doesn’t like the seller. As the agent, we are stuck in the middle, attempting to be the peace maker or referee between the two sides. Let’s just assume for a moment that we can get a buyer and seller together on price and it’s under contract. One would think that the acrimony would end there, but really, it’s just the beginning.

Next comes the inspection where they argue, haggle over inspection items or even the wordings of the inspection objection. My all-time favorite is a fight between the buyer and seller about matching sink stoppers in the master bath. Discussions, emails, and endless phone calls on why there are not two garage door openers or fights over $200 dollars. Why? So the buyer or seller can say or feel like they won the battle and other guy lost.

This is not about winning and losing and or how much you can stick it to the other guy. I am not naïve. I understand that we are living in an opportunistic time period, but is it possible to do it with civility, respect, and without all the acrimony?

I was talking to some of fellow colleague in preparation for this topic to find out if they were experience the same enormous discord between their buyers and sellers. Everyone to a man and woman said yes, but some told me not write this column because it would go through one ear and out the other. Maybe they are right and no one will pay attention to this column and it will be business as usual. I hope not.

Dan Polimino is a Realtor with Fuller Sotheby’s International Realty. He can be reached at DPolimino@fullerproperties.com and www.coloradodreamhouse.com/denverpost