ForSaleByOwner.com founder needs Realtor to sell his home...for $150,000 more!

For those of you who might be considering For Sale By Owner.

(Excerpts from a Wall Street Journal article 8/3/11. Thanks to KCM for the heads up)

A founder of a website dedicated to direct sales of homes by their owners has sold his two-bedroom apartment in Chelsea for $2.15 million -- with the help of a real-estate broker and a standard 6% commission.

Colby Sambrotto, a founder and former chief operating officer of ForSalebyOwner.com, a large website for owner sales, spent six months trying to sell his condominium himself through online listings and classified ads, before turning over the listing of the 2,000-square-foot apartment to a broker at Bond New York in November.

The broker, Jesse Buckler, said he told Mr. Sambrotto the apartment in the Lion's Head building on West 19th Street near Sixth Avenue was priced too low and wasn't drawing the right buyers.

By May, it went into contract, he said, after attracting multiple offers. It closed in the last few days for $150,000 more than the original asking price.

"At first he wouldn't let me increase the price," Mr. Buckler said. "I told him I know what I am doing -- the market is picking up."

Looking to move his family to the suburbs, Sambrotto said he carefully staged his apartment for sale himself, and put it on the market. But after using a mix of websites to publicize his apartment, he said he had only "middling success" and switched to a broker because many buyers were so reliant on brokers.

Matt Brown, director of business development for ForSaleByOwner.com, said selling without a broker "is definitely not for everybody. In the high-end market the sellers might not have the time to dedicate to selling" their homes themselves, he said.

Bruno Ricciotti, a founder and principal broker at Bond, had a different perspective. "FSBOs are a significant source of leads for us," he said, since brokers are trained to use the owner listings to sign up new customers.

After looking for houses across the region, Mr. Sambrotto said he and his wife had decided to stay in the city, and to buy a second home on the East End of Long Island.

Thinking of Painting? Here are some tips.

• To calculate how much paint you need, multiply height by length of wall, divide by 250 (average amount of square feet covered per gallon) to determine how many gallons of paint you need.


• Wash walls with soft sponge dipped in water with a little dish soap added to it.


• Wash wood with a soft cloth dipped in 70 proof rubbing alcohol. Test to be sure it doesn't harm the finish.


• Put toothpicks in any nail holes you want to keep for hanging items once the job is done. Fill the balance of the holes with spackle.


• Add 4 drops of vanilla extract to a quart of latex or 1 tablespoon to a gallon of paint to help cut the odor of latex. If the paint is white or ivory, use one drop of lemon extract per gallon.


• Use chapstick on the inside of glass around the edges to help in removing the paint when painting next to the glass.


• If you apply rubber cement to the hinges on doors, when paint gets on them, it is easy to remove it.


• You can use plastic wrap around knobs etc. to protect from paint.


• Spray face, arms, hands with Pam cooking spray to make cleanup easier.


• Add 1/2 cup fabric softener to a gallon of water to clean brushes or rollers of latex paint. Simply dip the brush or roller into the mixtures and the paint will magically come off settling in the bottom of the container. It is a good idea to clean your brush every two hours or so to make cleanup easier.


• Slide your paint tray into a heavy-duty plastic trash bag. Press the bag into the corners and use tape to hold in place. When the job is finished, simply turn the bag inside out and toss it in the garbage.


• To seal the edges of your tape and keep paint from "bleeding" underneath it, take a tapered plastic tool and quickly run it along the edge. This heats up the waxy tape and helps it to seal, thus keeping the paint from seeping under it.

First-Time Home Buyer Tax Credit

Here is a good informational page about the tax credit.

http://www.federalhousingtaxcredit.com/

Check it out.

Making Home Affordable Program - From US Dept of the Treasury

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY

Washington

March 4, 2009

Making Home Affordable

Summary of Guidelines

Making Home Affordable will offer assistance to as many as 7 to 9 million homeowners, making their mortgages more affordable and helping to prevent the destructive impact of foreclosures on families, communities and the national economy.

The Home Affordable Refinance program will be available to 4 to 5 million homeowners who have a solid payment history on an existing mortgage owned by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. Normally, these borrowers would be unable to refinance because their homes have lost value, pushing their current loan-to-value ratios above 80%. Under the Home Affordable Refinance program, many of them will now be eligible to refinance their loan to take advantage of today’s lower mortgage rates or to refinance an adjustable-rate mortgage into a more stable mortgage, such as a 30-year fixed rate loan.

GSE lenders and servicers already have much of the borrower’s information on file, so documentation requirements are not likely to be burdensome. In addition, in some cases an appraisal will not be necessary. This flexibility will make the refinance quicker and less costly for both borrowers and lenders. The Home Affordable Refinance program ends in June 2010.
The Home Affordable Modification program will help up to 3 to 4 million at-risk homeowners avoid foreclosure by reducing monthly mortgage payments. Working with the banking and credit union regulators, the FHA, the VA, the USDA and the Federal Housing Finance Agency, the Treasury Department today announced program guidelines that are expected to become standard industry practice in pursuing affordable and sustainable mortgage modifications. This program will work in tandem with an expanded and improved Hope for Homeowners program.
With the information now available, servicers can begin immediately to modify eligible mortgages under the Modification program so that at-risk borrowers can better afford their payments. The detailed guidelines (separate document) provide information on the following:

Eligibility and Verification

•Loans originated on or before January 1, 2009.
•First-lien loans on owner-occupied properties with unpaid principal balance up to $729,750. Higher limits allowed for owner-occupied properties with 2-4 units.
•All borrowers must fully document income, including signed IRS 4506-T, two most recent pay stubs, and most recent tax return, and must sign an affidavit of financial hardship.
•Property owner occupancy status will be verified through borrower credit report and other documentation; no investor-owned, vacant, or condemned properties.
•Incentives to lenders and servicers to modify at risk borrowers who have not yet missed payments when the servicer determines that the borrower is at imminent risk of default.
•Modifications can start from now until December 31, 2012; loans can be modified only once under the program.

Loan Modification Terms and Procedures

•Participating servicers are required to service all eligible loans under the rules of the program unless explicitly prohibited by contract; servicers are required to use reasonable efforts to obtain waivers of limits on participation.
• Participating loan servicers will be required to use a net present value (NPV) test on each loan that is at risk of imminent default or at least 60 days delinquent. The NPV test will compare the net present value of cash flows with modification and without modification. If the test is positive
– meaning that the net present value of expected cash flow is greater in the modification scenario – the servicer must modify absent fraud or a contract prohibition.
• Parameters of the NPV test are spelled out in the guidelines, including acceptable discount rates, property valuation methodologies, home price appreciation assumptions, foreclosure costs and timelines, and borrower cure and redefault rate assumptions.
• Servicers will follow a specified sequence of steps in order to reduce the monthly payment to no more than 31% of gross monthly income (DTI).
• The modification sequence requires first reducing the interest rate (subject to a rate floor of 2%), then if necessary extending the term or amortization of the loan up to a maximum of 40 years, and then if necessary forbearing principal. Principal forgiveness or a Hope for Homeowners refinancing are acceptable alternatives.
• The monthly payment includes principal, interest, taxes, insurance, flood insurance, homeowner’s association and/or condominium fees. Monthly income includes wages, salary, overtime, fees, commissions, tips, social security, pensions, and all other income.
• Servicers must enter into the program agreements with Treasury's financial agent on or before December 31, 2009.

Payments to Servicers, Lenders, and Responsible Borrowers

•The program will share with the lender/investor the cost of reductions in monthly payments from 38% DTI to 31% DTI.
•Servicers that modify loans according to the guidelines will receive an up-front fee of $1,000 for each modification, plus "pay for success" fees on still-performing loans of $1,000 per year.
•Homeowners who make their payments on time are eligible for up to $1,000 of principal reduction payments each year for up to five years.
•The program will provide one-time bonus incentive payments of $1,500 to lender/investors and $500 to servicers for modifications made while a borrower is still current on mortgage payments.
•The program will include incentives for extinguishing second liens on loans modified under this program.
•No payments will be made under the program to the lender/investor, servicer, or borrower unless and until the servicer has first entered into the program agreements with Treasury’s financial agent.
•Similar incentives will be paid for Hope for Homeowner refinances.

Transparency and Accountability

•Measures to prevent and detect fraud, such as documentation and audit requirements, will be central to the program.
•Servicers will be required to collect, maintain and transmit records for verification and compliance review, including borrower eligibility, underwriting, incentive payments, property verification, and other documentation.
•Freddie Mac will audit compliance.

Drew named Dad of the Month!

I was named Dad of the Month on the Dad's World Website - Check it out at http://dadsworld.com/dad-of-the-month/March2009-dotm.html

Buy in '09; Get '08 Federal Tax Credit

In case you weren't aware, the federal tax credit for new home purchasers can be claimed by eligible home buyers on their '08 tax returns, even though they are making the purchase in '09. This is one of several provisions that might help spur home sales this year, since people can get their credit much quicker than waiting to file their '09 returns next year. For more information on the tax credit provisions, go to www.federalhousingtaxcredit.com

An ounce of prevention

Measures to improve the safeguards in our homes and to reduce the possibility of water intrusion are all within reach.

Top Dozen Safety Suggestions
1) Make sure furnaces, fireplaces, wood-burning stoves, space heaters, and gas appliances are vented properly and inspected annually.
2) Regularly check smoke alarms – One per floor at a minimum and near sleeping areas. Have fire extinguishers in more than one area of your house.
3) Plan an escape route and make sure the windows and locks are operable.
4) Do not overload extension cords or use them improperly such as in garage door openers.
5) Please check your own chargers (cell phones, cameras, IPods) to make sure they are not over-heating. Apparently there are businesses that are importing chargers and batteries that are not UL approved, but marked as such, which are starting fires such as in our case.
6) Consider installing a CO2 detector. Only run generators outside, never in a “ventilated” open garage.
7) Use Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter (GFCI) plugs in kitchen and bathrooms near water service.
8) Adjust water temperature below 120 F to prevent scalding.
9) Consider installing safety handrails on staircases and in bathing areas, especially when seniors live in the home.
10) Repair lifting concrete cracks that could pose a tripping hazard and remove slippery moss from sidewalk areas.
11) Trim dead branches from trees that are close to your roof and parking areas.
12) Keep your gutters clean and drains clear of debris to prevent water from draining into your crawl space, or other areas that would cause damage to your property or your neighbors. Now that the earth is saturated from winter rains, it will flow more easily from one property to the next.

For a comprehensive list of additional steps you can take to prevent injuries in the home, go to http://www.homesafetycouncil.org/index.aspx