Monthly Archives for February 2010

The purchase of a house that needs repair is often a catch-22 situation, because the bank won’t lend the money to buy the house until the repairs are complete, and the repairs can’t be done until the house has been purchased. A new FHA-insured mortgage, called the 203(k) loan, permits homebuyers to finance an additional $35,000 […]

Warning: Confusing Acronyms Approaching Immediately. HAFA = Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternatives HAMP = Home Affordable Modification Program. On April 5, 2010, the U.S. government will implement a new program to help homeowners who qualify avoid foreclosure. Part of the Home Affordable Modification Program, HAFA helps homeowners who are unable to retain their home under HAMP […]

Grape Escape Tour in the Yamhill Valley Wine Country There is currently space available for an upcoming Grape Escape tour. Meet at Hotel Oregon in McMinnville at 12:45 pm on February 27. We’ll visit three nearby wineries, match food to wine at the wineries, and one of our escape artists will host the day. Cost […]

Doesn’t it feel like Spring is in the air? With all of this wonderful sunshine, maybe you’ve been spending more time outdoors and recently noticed moss growing rampantly on your roof. Perhaps you’ve been looking to Learn more about your options to tackle this. Perhaps you’ve already consulted with a roofing company for help and […]

This week we launched our new and improved website. We’ve added more features, design elements, articles and resources.  Striving to provide our clients and Yamhill County with comprehensive local real estate information, our website will be a continual work in progress with frequent updates and a growing library of articles. Most articles are written by […]

Are you a homeowner? If so, your house and its content are probably among your most prized possessions. Consequently, it is fundamental that you take steps to protect your property and the belongings contained within it. This can be done a multitude of ways where one is the most important (we’ll get into that soon), […]

Yesterday morning mortgage broker Venessa Ward of Pacific Residential Mortgage spoke to the Bella Casa Real Estate brokerage. She covered a lot of valuable information and I wanted to share some of the key points we learned from Venessa. Venessa provided this FHA loan scenario to illustrate how waiting to purchase will hit your pocketbook […]

This is the first post in a series about the FHA (Federal Housing Administration). In short, the FHA is an agency of the federal government that helps borrowers get amounts they qualify for, and assists lenders by reducing their risk in issuing loans. The FHA is the largest insurer of residential mortgages in the world, […]

The Fed has told us repeatedly that their massive purchasing program of Mortgage Backed Securities is just about over – and this translates to home loan rates rising in the near future. As you can see in the chart below, the amounts of Mortgage Backed Securities the Fed is purchasing are slowly dwindling, as the […]

This morning my family and I ventured to The Market in McMinnville. It was our first time…and it was so much FUN and exceeded my expectations. The layout is visitor-friendly. While full of vendors and variety, it didn’t feel claustrophobic and cramped. It was easy to walk around with a 2 year old and several […]