Welcome To The Elbowroom

This is the 48th Edition of The Elbowroom, A Guide for Buying Your First Home. This monthly newsletter is dedicated to informing the first time home buyer on relevant facts in today's marketplace.

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"I learned a lot more from you than I would have expected to in one evening and a few newsletters." - Seminar Attendee, 2009

Answer to the Question

What is a short sale? What is involved with buying a short sale?

Four years ago, short sales were a rarity. Today, in some neighborhoods, they make up the majority of what is on the market. What has changed in four years? There's been a huge learning curve, but at the very least, we've learned what questions to ask and which answers we need to hear. There is one constant - 95% of short sales are difficult, but you should know what short sales are and what's involved. You can then decide whether they are good or bad for your particular situation. There are strong positives for the short sale buyer, but often, the negatives outweigh those upsides. So in defining short sales, let’s start with these bullet points:

• The home owner owes more to the bank than what the home is worth.
• Instead of letting the bank take over the home (foreclosure), the home owner will try and sell it as a ‘short sale’, the ‘short’ meaning the bank (if the bank agrees) will be receiving less than what is owed.
• The homeowner still owns the home during the short sale process, but the bank makes the final decision on the sale terms.

Ok, so now you know the basics. Here’s the ‘why’:

• Usually a seller attempts a short sale because the home owner has fallen on bad times, usually the loss of a job.
• If the homeowner lets the home go into foreclosure (bank takes over home from the seller), the hit against their credit report is much worse than if they sold it as a short sale.
• Banks don’t want to take over the property, it's very expensive for a bank to take possession of a home.

• Too many liens on the property, can't get everyone to agree - needs to go into foreclosure. Waited 6 months for this answer.
• Person handling the file at the bank quits her job, now the file is with someone who now has 2X the amount of short sale files that they had before and they have to train the new person when that person is hired.
• BPO is bad, broker is out of area. Bank wants too much money for the house. Waited 5 months for this information.
• Condo associations. How much is owed and what are they willing to accept? Buyer paid out of pocket for past due assessments (they didn't have to, they could have walked away, but the deal was still good enough).
• Everything goes smooth and the day of the closing during the walk-through all the appliances are gone - the sellers stole them out of the house.

"Reason has always existed, but not always in a reasonable form." - Herbert Rappaport

StartingPoint Realty on House Hunters

Part 1 Part 2

Affordability Calculator - CNN Money

Harris Going FHA

Harris Bank has officially announced that they are now handling FHA loans. We’ve been in contact with several Harris loan officers and all of them are very excited to offer this loan program. Here’s a link to the portion of their site that talks about FHA loans.

Current Interest Rates

From Wells Fargo ,as of 8/19/10:

• 30 Year FHA - 4.25%
• 30 Year Conventional - 4.25% (must meet top rated guidelines)
• 5/1 ARM FHA - 3.125%
• 5/1 ARM Conventional - 3.125%

"He attacked everything in life with a mix of extraordinary genius and naive incompetence, and it was often difficult to tell which was which." - Douglas Adams

How To Avoid Moving Scams

"And remember, no matter where you go, there you are." - Earl Mac Rauch

Chicago Park Feature - Portage Park

• Location - Actual Address is 4100 N Long, a decorative entrance is located at Irving Park (4000 N) and Central (5200W).
• Size - 36.5 Acres
• Features - One Olympic size pool, one smaller heated pool, six tennis courts, two playgrounds, a slab for in-line skating, a bike path, a nature walk, five baseball fields, two combination football / soccer fields, and two field houses.
• Websites: Portage Park and Wiki's page for Portage Park.

• Condos and Townhomes under $350,000 - 11 sold, 51 active, 5 under contract, average sale price = $135,309
• Single Family Homes under $450,000 - 67 sold, 86 active, 31 under contract, average sales price $230,273
• Two to Four Flats under $450,000 - 26 sold, 50 active, 10 under contract, average sales price $221,230

Battery Back Up Systems for Basements

• www.BasementWatchDog.com
• www.Sump-Pump-Info.com

"America believes in education: the average professor earns more money in a year than a professional athlete earns in a whole week." - Evan Esar

Appraisal Issue Video

"I have learned to use the word 'impossible' with the greatest caution." - Wernher von Braun

Awesome Customer

Free First Home Buyer Seminars

Featured Listing - 2209 N Kimball, Chicago

Movie Review - Inception

Sometimes great movies are like one hit wonders. I’ve seen some movies and have sworn by the director only to be disappointed by their later films. I saw Momento, one of Christopher Nolan’s earlier films, a few years ago. It was good, but not a standout - not a hit on the radio. For me, it was The Dark Knight. It’s one of the few superhero movies that I believe you don’t need to be an action or superhero fan to enjoy. It was more cerebral and intense than most any other movie that’s come out in the past 20 years - Batman or not. Was that to be Nolan’s one hit wonder? I didn’t think so, the movie was too good.

Still, I was open for failure in my prediction that Inception would be great. In my opinion though, I was dead on. Inception is a great movie. It takes you for a ride and things move so fast, you can’t catch it all. I was reminded of Syriana, a movie where confusion was almost a character in the film, and if you tried to figure it all out, you hated it. I think Inception is not quite that deliberate in it's attempt to throw off it's audience. But if you try to know everything that's going on, you won't enjoy it as much.

To write about the plot of the movie and how it unfolds (sometimes literally) would take a novel. But the basics surround the idea that one can enter someone else's dreams. If you can enter someones's mind, and manipulate it a certain way, can you find out something the dreamer doesn't want you, or anyone else, to know? Or, the bigger question becomes, can you influence someone to actually do something in the future? Cobb, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, is the one that knows how to get this done. But as you would suspect, there are so many dark sides to this talent, he's on the run from a few outside, as well as inside, demons. He's entered the private world of dream intrusion and he's given a chance to grab a piece of his life back. But he'll need to dig deep into the psyche of a subject's mind to do what he needs to do, and the only other time he's done that, it shattered his life.

Cobb's team is well cast with Arthur, played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ariande, played by Ellen Page, Eames, played by Tom Hardy, Yusuf, played by Dileep Rao and he gets a little help from Miles, played by the legend Michael Caine. I saw Joseph Gordon-Levitt on SNL about a year ago and was amazed at how talented he was. This guy can do it all, and here he's Cobb's right hand man - but his real value is keeping Cobb in-check and focused. But to me, it was Tom Hardy who was the surprise supporting actor in this movie. Watch his name, you'll see it again. Too much ability crossed with charisma for that guy not to grab his own leading roles soon. This team is assembled to penetrate the subconscious of an individual and convince him he must take action - a different action than what he has set out to do. To perform that act correctly, is called Inception.

Sounds simple? Well, tag on Cobb's baggage and you have one hot mess. His wife, Mal, played by Academy Award winning actress Marion Cotillard, keeps popping in throughout the movie - along with his kids. But there always seems to be a disconnect, and there's a reason why. Even if I wanted to explain it to you, I couldn't. But it intertwines perfectly inside the plot, at least I think so. Some have argued against that conclusion. I can understand it as Inception is like fibers in a cable; there's a whole lot of twisting and turning going but everything moves forward, although some parts not as much as others. Again, just go with it. Like Momento, this movie is truly unique. I stood up clapped at the end of the movie, I haven't done that since I saw E.T. in the theatre. I was 9 years old.

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