LOS ANGELES, CA - OCTOBER 19: Dave Warden, a bud tender at Private Organic Therapy (P.O.T.), a non-profit co-operative medical marijuana dispensary, displays various types of marijuana available to patients on October 19, 2009 in Los Angeles, California. Attorney General Eric Holder announced new guidelines today for federal prosecutors in states where the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes is allowed under state law. Federal prosecutors will no longer trump the state with raids on the southern California dispensaries as they had been doing, but Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley recently began a crackdown campaign that will include raids against the facilities. Cooley maintains that virtually all marijuana dispensaries are in violation of the law because they profit from their product. The city of LA has been slow to come to agreement on how to regulate its 800 to 1,000 dispensaries. Californians voted to allow sick people with referrals from doctors to consume cannabis with the passage of state ballot Proposition 215 in 1996 and a total of 14 states now allow the medicinal use of marijuana. (Photo by David McNew/Getty Images)

Mortgage Underwriters’ hands are tied in using income from something the Federal Government considers illegal. Yet new regulations from DC require that lenders verify and borrowers ability to pay before giving them a mortgage. For example, Washington State had nearly …

FAQ – Can I use income from marijuana sales to qualify for a mortgage? Read more »

According to research of the foreclosures during the past 7 years, chief among the cited reasons were lack of down payment, undisclosed debt by the buyers, reduced credit requirements, and unstable income. In response to greater accountability to Washington lenders …

What is a My Community Mortgage? Read more »

Supply of Inventory With only 3.5 months’ supply of inventory (MSI) in January and buyers snapping up the good homes as quickly as they were added to the market, most of the first two months of the year were filled …

Wake County Real Estate Trends Q1 2014 Read more »

  7 Questions Every Borrower SHOULD ask a Loan Officer That could save you thousands on your next mortgage #1 How long have you been a mortgage lender? Just as experience with your lawyer, CPa and doctor matters, so does …

Seven Questions to Ask any Loan Officer Read more »

With all the new jobs being created in Raleigh-Cary with companies such as Red Hat, Citrix and MetLife just to name a few of the bigger names, it’s probably no surprise that there are a lot of people moving to …

Three Reasons to Rent in Raleigh-Cary Read more »

In quite a few areas of the Triangle, houses are going under contract within 1-2 days of hitting the market and most of them have multiple offers on them. The inventory crunch is shaping up to be the same or worse than last year because rates seem to be rising and homeowners are still hesitant to put their homes on the market. As a result, the builders are having a field day. They can’t build them fast enough! – Justin Burleson – Raleigh-Cary Area Real Estate Broker

The 2014 Income Limits for the very popular no money down USDA Single Family Guaranteed Loan Program were published on February 12, 2014.  The Guaranteed Underwriting System and the Income Eligibility calculator in the Eligibility website have been updated to …

USDA has updated its Income Limits for Raleigh-Cary 2014! Read more »

One of the booming  cottage industries that has emerged from the Great Recession is credit repair companies. Most are by the same people who flew the sub prime mortgage industry into the ground lying to home buyers about their ability …

How to DIY Credit Repair Tips Read more »

First Time Home Buyers in Raleigh / Wake County no longer have to be under 80% of Adjusted Median Income to take advantage of this $8,000 Down Payment Assistance Program.

if you are a first time home buyer shopping for a home in Raleigh say between $100,000 and $149,999 and in April found that your low ball offers weren’t being accepted, it’s because it ISN’T A BUYERS MARKET IN RALEIGH in that price range.