Sweet Home MN | Site Wide Activity

Alec Grebis wrote a new blog post: Watch Alec on Kare 11 Talking About Minnesota Housing First Time Buyer Loans

Sat, 04 Sep 2010 05:00:08 -0500

Alec Grebis wrote a new blog post: Watch Alec on Kare 11 Talking About Minnesota Housing First Time Buyer Loans Here is the clip from when co-host Alec Grebis was interviewed by Scott Goldberg on KARE 11 TV on 9/3/2010 talking about Minnesota Housing and the special loans for to help first time home buyers afford better homes without increasing their monthly payments. In the interview he talked about the drop in the the Minnesota Housing interest [...]

Comments: 0

Alec Grebis wrote a new blog post: Should You Refinance Now?

Fri, 03 Sep 2010 20:00:26 -0500

Alec Grebis wrote a new blog post: Should You Refinance Now? There are a host of different things that come into deciding whether or not you should refinance. But, deciding if it makes sense in your individual situation can be tough without some outside guidance. Answer as many of the questions below as you can, and we'll get back to you with our opinion of whether or [...]

Comments: 0

Alec Grebis wrote a new blog post: MN Housing drops rate to 3.75% for Qualified First Time Home Buyers

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 16:34:41 -0500

Alec Grebis wrote a new blog post: MN Housing drops rate to 3.75% for Qualified First Time Home Buyers Would you like to buy $10,000 more home and not have a bigger monthly payment? One of our partners here at Sweet Home Minnesota just did something really great. Minnesota Housing , the State of Minnesota's affordable lending program for first time buyers, just announced a massive drop in their interest rates. Qualified first time buyers for MMP--the Minnesota Mortgage Program using [...]

Comments: 0

Alec Grebis wrote a new blog post: 2037 Home Sweet Home, a look ahead by the StarTribune.com

Sun, 29 Aug 2010 16:43:50 -0500

Alec Grebis wrote a new blog post: 2037 Home Sweet Home, a look ahead by the StarTribune.com This morning I was pouring over the online version of the StarTribune, flipping through the articles on housing. I'll try to do this most weeks before the show, to prepare myself for some of the questions that our audience will bring up. Usually these articles spur the thoughts of listeners and they'll come to us looking [...]

Comments: 0

Alec Grebis wrote a new blog post: Listen to Previous Shows

Sat, 28 Aug 2010 11:12:37 -0500

Alec Grebis wrote a new blog post: Listen to Previous Shows Missed a show? Want to hear something again? You can listen to several months worth of shows on our official show page at the website for My Talk 107.1.

Comments: 0

Alec Grebis wrote a new blog post: New Zero Down Home Loan in MN

Sat, 14 Aug 2010 04:17:40 -0500

Alec Grebis wrote a new blog post: New Zero Down Home Loan in MN On this past week's show(8/8/10) our guest, Mike Haley with Minnesota Housing , announced a new zero down payment loan that is scheduled to be launched next week (8/16/10). The new loan is called Affordable Advantage and is being done in partnership with Fannie Mae. This will be the first zero down home loan available in the Twin Cities outside of a [...]

Comments: 0

Alec Grebis wrote a new blog post: See Alec on KARE 11 News

Fri, 06 Aug 2010 17:10:58 -0500

Alec Grebis wrote a new blog post: See Alec on KARE 11 News I just finished an interview with KARE 11 for their 6:00 news (8/6/10). The focus of the story is on how it can be difficult for even well qualified people to get approved for mortgage right now because of appraisal issues and tighter scrunity. Here is a link to the story now that it has run on [...]

Comments: 0

Alec Grebis wrote a new blog post: The Not So Big House Concept

Sun, 01 Aug 2010 17:11:49 -0500

Alec Grebis wrote a new blog post: The Not So Big House Concept On last week's show (7.25.10) we talked a fair amount about making home improvements that would have a higher impact when you went to resell your home. One of the things we emphasized is that adding square footage that requires adding to your foundation almost never pays off. The expense of that foundation work really is [...]

Comments: 0

Alec Grebis wrote a new blog post: OMG 10 Crazy Houses

Mon, 26 Jul 2010 04:52:16 -0500

Alec Grebis wrote a new blog post: OMG 10 Crazy Houses Check out these ten crazy houses. MSN has a video posted of the 10 strangest houses in the world. Follow this link to the video . The homes include a house made out of bottles in Ukraine, the mobile-bike home in China, and all other sorts of crazy ideas and building materials. So, this begs the question. What [...]

Comments: 0

Alec Grebis wrote a new blog post: When to Refinance Home Loans

Sun, 18 Jul 2010 16:50:21 -0500

Alec Grebis wrote a new blog post: When to Refinance Home Loans When does it make sense for Minnesota home owners to refinance their home loans? This is a real common question I receive each week from listeners of Sweet Home Minnesota . The answer, as with all things in life, is that it depends. But, here's a real simple breakdown for what you can look for right now. ( Follow [...]

Comments: 0

Alec Grebis wrote a new blog post: Strategic Getaway? Not So Fast Says Fannie Mae

Tue, 06 Jul 2010 03:54:35 -0500

Alec Grebis wrote a new blog post: Strategic Getaway? Not So Fast Says Fannie Mae A Strategic Default is when someone can afford to make their mortgage payment but still chooses to walk away from the home because of their negative equity position. Usually they call their Get-a-way a "business decision" just like a bank would make and move on without too much moral hand-wringing. The concept of Strategic Defaults has continued to gain [...]

Comments: 0

Alec Grebis wrote a new blog post: Market Update for Week of June 28th

Tue, 06 Jul 2010 03:05:16 -0500

Alec Grebis wrote a new blog post: Market Update for Week of June 28th Since we didn't go live on the air for the 4th of July show I wanted to post some market number updates on the site for all you die hard housing statistic junkies (hopefully there's only a few of you). It's pretty much "song remains the same" as we drifted into the end of June and [...]

Comments: 0

Alec Grebis commented on the blog post Basics Details of Fix Up Fund Loan

Tue, 06 Jul 2010 02:25:40 -0500

Alec Grebis commented on the blog post Basics Details of Fix Up Fund Loan Normally it would be AGI which would leave you out of luck unless there was some reason to discount that AGI figure.

Comments: 0

Alec Grebis wrote a new blog post: Closing Date Deadline Extended for Tax Credit Buyers

Tue, 06 Jul 2010 02:23:19 -0500

Alec Grebis wrote a new blog post: Closing Date Deadline Extended for Tax Credit Buyers This article first appeared on http://www.TheMortgageScoop.com On Wednesday, June 30th the Senate passed a bill to extend the closing date deadline until September 30th for buyers eligible under the tax credit program. This bill matched up with a version passed through the House the previous day. No New Buyers Qualify This extension didn't make it possible for any [...]

Comments: 0

Alec Grebis wrote a new blog post: Bi-Weekly Payment Benefits

Sun, 27 Jun 2010 17:00:17 -0500

Alec Grebis wrote a new blog post: Bi-Weekly Payment Benefits We get a number of people each month asking about whether they should do a bi-weekly mortgage payment. Over my 15 years in the mortgage business, it seems like the answer changes based on the economy. The Basics A Bi-Weekly mortgage or a bi-weekly payment means that instead of making monthly payments you make payments every two [...]

Comments: 0

Alec Grebis commented on the blog post Get Money to Fix Up Your Home Even if You Are Upside Down

Wed, 26 May 2010 22:02:45 -0500

Alec Grebis commented on the blog post Get Money to Fix Up Your Home Even if You Are Upside Down Well, maybe. The loan can go up to 110% of the tax value + 50% of the improvements that are going to be done. So, if your tax value is $200k and you owe $220k you would be at that 110% figure. But if you were wanting to put in $10,000 of improvements and had [...]

Comments: 0

Alec Grebis commented on the blog post Big News for First Time Buyers in Twin Cities | MN

Wed, 26 May 2010 21:59:49 -0500

Alec Grebis commented on the blog post Big News for First Time Buyers in Twin Cities | MN She should start by applying at my website http://www.MNHomeLoan.com. Then I can review her credit for free and let her know where she stands. The key for credit is they want to see 3 trade lines that you have been making payments on for a minimum of 3 years. So, if she has multiple student [...]

Comments: 0

Alec Grebis commented on the blog post How Long After a Short Sale Before I Can Buy a Home Again?

Wed, 26 May 2010 21:55:39 -0500

Alec Grebis commented on the blog post How Long After a Short Sale Before I Can Buy a Home Again? Right now for a FHA loan you need to have 3 years since a foreclosure before you can be eligible to buy with a mortgage again. For a Conventional mortgage it depends on a combination of things like credit scores and down payment. But, to use a smaller down payment (say 5% down) you would [...]

Comments: 0

Alec Grebis wrote a new blog post: Get Lists of First Time Home Buyer Loans and Down Payment Assistance

Fri, 30 Apr 2010 04:00:42 -0500

Alec Grebis wrote a new blog post: Get Lists of First Time Home Buyer Loans and Down Payment Assistance Attention first time home buyers in Minnesota. We have something you will want to see. We have obtained an updated list of all the special first time buyer programs available in the Twin Cities. There are fifteen of them, including several from Minnesota Housing, whose products we have used and endorsed for many years. As you may know, [...]

Comments: 0

Alec Grebis wrote a new blog post: How Long After a Short Sale Before I Can Buy a Home Again?

Sat, 24 Apr 2010 21:10:50 -0500

Alec Grebis wrote a new blog post: How Long After a Short Sale Before I Can Buy a Home Again? How long after a short sale does someone have to wait before they can buy a home again? This is the million dollar question in Minnesota for today's real estate market. There has been a lot of misinformation and misunderstanding about the answer to this question. On April 14, 2010 the mortgage giant Fannie Mae announced [...]

Comments: 0