Once you have written a contract on your Escondido real estate purchase and it has been accepted by the Escondido seller, your escrow should start.  Hopefully you have chosen to work with a full service escrow company like Pickford Escrow.  The following will describe what takes place during the four week escrow period based on a 30 day escrow period.

Week 1 – Opening Escrow on you Escondido home

• Escrow gets a copy of the fully executed purchase contract on your Escondido house.  Many times this includes counter offers.
• The Escondido buyer takes his deposit to escrow (usually within the first 3 days).
• The escrow company request lender information and/ or a pre-qual letter.  These can be provided by HomeServices Lending.
• Escrow opens a title order with the chosen title company.  Gary recommends California Title Company (CalTitle).
• Escrow request CC&R’s and payoff demands.
• Faxes escrow instructions to both Gary Harmon, your Escondido real estate agent, and the other Realtor.
• Sends out escrow packages to both the Escondido buyer and Escondido seller for completion.

Your Escondido Realtor, Gary Harmon will make sure the physical inspection, Disclosure Source natural hazard report, and pest control inspection are ordered.

Week 2 – Of your Escondido home escrow

• Gary Harmon, your top Escondido Realtor, will call escrow to make sure paperwork is being returned.
• The Escondido selling agent, will check to make sure the lender has the completed loan package.
• Make sure the credit report is in and the Escondido property appraisal is ordered.
• Title report and CC&R’s are sent to the Escondido buyer
• Check  to make sure termite inspection has been done and a copy forwarded to escrow.
• Check with Pickford Escrow to make sure payoff demands, HOA demands, and docs have been ordered.

Week 3 – Escrow on Escondido property continues

• You Escondido real estate agent checks with escrow to see what may still be outstanding. 
• Your Escondido Realtor follows up on outstanding items and checks loan status.
• Has the termite work on the Escondido real estate been finished?
• Have repairs been completed as specified in the Escondido home repair request?
• Order Escondido home protection plan from First American.

Final Week – Escondido home escrow

• Docs should now be back to escrow for a on  time closing
• Make an appointment with Escondido buyer to sign docs.  Also, let buyer know how much money to bring in.
• Go over any final items with your Escondido Realtor and transaction coordinator.
• All docs go back to the lender and escrow coordinates with lender to fund the Escondido buyer’s loan.
• When the loan funds, and documents record, your Escondido home escrow closes.  Your Escondido real estate agent will get you your key.

For more information on escrow, title, etc., contact Gary Harmon, your best Escondido Realtor.

A comparative market analysis helps you if you are thinking of either buying Escondido homes or selling an Escondido home.  You can’t get an accurate number of the value of your Escondido property by just looking at an Internet site like Zillo.  To get an accurate picture you need to have your Escondido Realtor do a personalized CMA for your particular need.  Your Realtor will dig deeper,  make numerous phone calls to other Realtors, rather than just look at the most recent sales prices in the multiple listing service.  He will evaluate how long each Escondido home has been on the market.  He will look at the motivation of the Escondido seller.  Your Escondido Realtor will check out the condition of the home and what type of sale took place.  Was it a short sale, REO, or regular sale?  All have an affect on the final sales price of the Escondido home.  As you can see the superficial comparison of Escondido homes and their sales will no longer do.  Such an approach could even be misleading.

Before you buy an Escondido home or sell Escondido real estate, get an accurate picture by contacting Gary Harmon, you top Escondido Realtor.

In the past few years, the way prospective Escondido home buyers find and purchase Escondido real

estate has changed. Forever gone are the days when Escondido buyers came to town, were attracted

to the Prudential California Realty sign and stopped into the local Prudential Realty office to see what

was available by going through the San Diego MLS book.  Also, gone is the practice of going through

the San Diego Union or North County Times newspaper ads each Sunday for the family looking to

purchase an Escondido home. Foot traffic, people seeing the Prudential yard sign, your Escondido

Realtor doing floor duty—all these things that use to produce buyer prospects for Escondido homes

for sale, are  not in the quantity they used to.

Escondido home buyers start their searches on the Internet.

Things have changed and the Escondido home buyer usually starts their Escondido real estate search

on the Internet.  Most start with a Google search.  Today’s Escondido home buyer is most likely to

simply sit down in front of a laptop, go to Google, type in “Escondido homes for sale,” Escondido real

estate,” or Escondido Realtor.  Your agents website or blog must appear on the first two pages of the

search results for the above terms that buyers are using.  If your Escondido Realtor is Gary Harmon,

his blog www.GaryHarmon.com will be on the first two pages for all the important search terms and

your home will be found.  Increase the chances of selling your Escondido real estate, contact Gary

Harmon.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac making reckless loans with low or no down payments have got us in one of the largest financial recessions in history.  Escondido sellers have definitely felt the pain.  Trillions are being spent to try to fix the problem, but is history just repeating itself in a different form.  This year FHA has been the financing resource that cash strapped Escondido buyers have looked to to buy Escondido real estate.  The problem in a nut-shell is that the buyers using FHA finaning have very little “skin in the game.”  These Escondido home buyers have been able to get loans with only 3.5% down.  The minute a Escondido home closes escrow the owner is already upside down if they needed to sell the home.  (It takes about 7.5% in commissions and cost to sell a home so if someone only put down 3%, they are already 4.5% in the hole when they close escrow.)   This just leads to less committment by buyers and more Escondido real estate foreclosures or short sales.  These problems cause the FHA financial problems.

An independent actuarial study has found that the FHA’s insurance fund reserves are far below where they should be and far below the congressionally mandated minimums.  Althought FHA won’t be going away, they must find ways to increase their reserves and to become more financially stable.

Higher Down Payments

One of the ways the FHA could improve their position is to require higher down payments than the current requirement of 3.5 %.    Fannie Mae’s chief credit officer in the 80′s who is now a mortgage industry consultant recommends 10%.    The new requirement will probably end up at closer to 5% which borders on more irresponsible lending.

Higher Mortgage Insurance

FHA currently charges 1.75% of the loan amount for mortgage insurance premiums.  These are paid through escrow and are paid upfront.  Most Escondido home buyers would just roll that into their loan.  In addition to the upfront mortgage insurance payment, FHA charges an annual premium, paid in monthly installments, of .5 to .55 percent depending on the down payment amount.  FHA is considering an upfront of 2% and and annual increase to .6 %. 

Cutting Escondido Home Seller Concessions

On of the attractive features of the FHA financing is that the agency has allowed seller concessions of up to 6% of the purchase price to go towards loan cost and closing cost.  Once again this encourages buyers to have little or no “skin in the game.”  Many in congress would like to see this decreased to around 2 %. 

Tighter Credit Standards

FHA is by far the easiest and most flexible player when evaluating a buyers creditworthiness.  It doesn’t even have a minimum FICO score requirement.  FHA is also more tolerant of Escondido buyers credit history than other lenders.  FHA tends to give everyone the benefit of the doubt.  For example, I just had a buyer that could not get a conventional loan even with 47% down and FHA approved the same buyer’s loan with only minimum down.

It is clear that the FHA needs to improve and tighten up its practices .  Is FHA going away? No!  If your are considering buying Escondido real estate in the near future and are thinking of going FHA, you might want to get that Escondido home purchased before the FHA changes and tightens the rules.