For most people, buying a home or condominium is the largest purchase they will likely make in their lives. When purchasing a home, do your homework the same as you would when buying any large item. If you buy a large appliance, you would check different stores on prices and to see who may be having a sale. You would compare prices, warranties and other related charges before making your decision where to buy. The same principal applies when you buy a home. Shop for lenders.

The Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae) is the largest backer of mortgage credit in our nation. Recently, Fannie set new rules and guidelines that would let homeowners refinance their mortgages to pay off student loans. The new guidelines expand a program that was introduced last year with a personal finance company called Social Finance commonly known as SoFi. Fannie Mae said the resulting policy will be easier for borrowers to apply, and may result in a lower

When you refinance a mortgage, you are paying off one loan and replacing it with a new loan. If you’re thinking of refinancing, begin with asking why you want to refinance? Are you thinking of saving money or solving a bad situation or condition? There are several reasons to refinance such as replacing an adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) to a fixed-rate mortgage, tapping into your home’s equity to make repairs or renovations, to buy another home, to consolidate/payoff other hi

The 2018 rankings are in for the “Best Places to Live in the U.S. in 2018”. Colorado Springs Colorado jumped up several numbers to hold the #2 spot in the nation and Denver won the #3 spot! Denver held the number #2 spot during 2017, and #1 spot during 2016. This year, Denver gave up their #2 spot to Colorado Springs. This year’s rankings, done by U.S. News, factors in the population growth, job market, crime, cost of living, quality of education, access to health care and mu

Wells Fargo is in trouble again. The bank has suffered numerous setbacks facing lawsuits in the past couple of years. This week, Wells Fargo was fined $8 million in what the bank calls a ‘computer glitch’ the bank had incurred. Last week the bank agreed to pay a $2.09 billion fine for issuing mortgage loans knowing the loans contained incorrect and erroneous information. Between April 2010 and October 2015, the bank disclosed a computer glitch had caused approximately 625 cus

The housing affordability in the U.S. is measured by the amount of the average monthly mortgage payment. During the first quarter (January, February and March) of 2018, there was an increase of 5% in the monthly mortgage payments. Analysts are predicting the average will rise another 10% to 15 % by the end of this year. These statistics are based on a national average and not the local average. Many local markets, such as Colorado are predicted to have higher numbers of affor

During the first half of 2018 there was a 15% decline in foreclosure filings nationwide. Foreclosure filings are properties that had a default notice, a scheduled auction, or bank repossession. There were a total of 362,275 foreclosure filings, a far cry from the 1.6 million foreclosure filings eight years ago in the first half of 2010. Even though the overall, nationwide number of foreclosure starts had decreased, there was an increase in foreclosure activity in 88 of 219 me

The Great Recession of 2008 was the largest financial disaster in over 100 years in our nation. One of the biggest culprits causing the crisis was the existence of subprime mortgages. Sub-prime mortgages were home loans given to borrowers who had bad credit and put very little or no money down when acquiring the loans. These home loans were given out like candy to whoever wanted one. The subprime practice ended during the housing crash that helped cause hundreds of thousands

The housing market began early this year- two months before the usual spring ‘opening’. The spring market has been heating up each day as the demand is high even though interest rates are slowly rising. The inventory remains very low. In an analysis that used 10 million mortgage application records from the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council’s Home Mortgage Disclosure Act 2017, it was found that one in every ten mortgage applicants had been denied. The data wa

A new, comprehensive report is showing a dramatic change of face in the home buying market. This analysis is reporting that throughout the U.S., three specific groups of people are now buying the most homes. Those groups are: 1) women, 2) people without children and, 3) older people. These three groups are essentially dominating the real estate market in 2018. One generation ago, during the early 1980’s, only 18.9% of women were homebuyers. In 2017, women made up 46.4% of the

House flipping is becoming a thing of the past. The economy is growing, more people are working, foreclosures and vacant home inventory is low. The housing market has rebounded. Profits from home flipping continue to decline with a decreasing inventory of distressed properties available to flip. During the third quarter of 2017, nationwide, there were 48,685 properties that were flipped by 38,928 investors. This equates to 1.251 flips per investor, the lowest ratio since the

Congratulations to Gantenbein Law Firm Denver, Colorado attorney Keith Gantenbein Jr. who was again, recognized as Super Lawyers, Rising Stars for 2018. For Keith, this is his fourth consecutive year as a Super Lawyer, Rising Star. Mr. Gantenbein is nationally recognized for his work in Real Estate Law, which also includes Foreclosures Defense and HOA Law. Mr. Gantenbein worked extensively last few years with the Colorado Supreme Court to pass updated Rules of Civil Procedure

Millions of companies in the U.S. were started from an idea and a bit of a dream. These businesses typically began with two or more people sharing the same dream. Today, there are almost 30 million small businesses in the U.S., employing almost half (47.8%) of U.S. workers. In 2017, more new businesses were formed than in the past 4 years and women-owned businesses were at their highest level in 40 years. Colorado ranked number 1 in the nation for “Labor Supply”. Even the mos

According to numerous polls taken in Colorado, housing affordability is the largest issue facing Coloradans today.  The affordable housing crisis is not just limited to Denver and other large cities, but is now a statewide problem. In a recent survey, communities stated housing and real estate was their biggest issue, followed by the economy and then crime-drugs-violence. Throughout the state, in households earning less than $50,000 per year, 35% of their budget pays for hous

If you should inherit real estate property in Colorado, you will also inherit any ‘baggage’ that may be attached to it. Once you have received any inherited property, it’s always a good idea to seek an experienced attorney who will determine the legal disposition of the property, the status of the mortgage, the title and verify if there are any liens or judgments filed against the property. Gantenbein Law Firm’s accomplished real estate, tax and estate attorneys all have the

Your Estate Plan may consist of a Last Will and Testament, Trust, Power of Attorney and other important documents that need a tune-up from time to time. Not just because your life may have changed, but outside events can affect what’s in your estate plan as well. One recent outside event is the new tax reform that Congress passed at the end of December. Did the tax reform, or new estate tax limits affect or alter your estate plan? It’s the beginning of the year and time to th

Overall, in this new year, it is predicted the housing market will continue to bounce back as it has been for the past year. In November 2017, existing home sales escalated to a rate that hasn’t been seen in the past 10 years and reaching an 11-year high. The existing home sales totaled 5.81 million that amounted to an increase of 5.6% from the month before. The inventory of homes decreased 7.2% to 1.67 million that is 9.7% lower than it was in November 2016. It’s also predic

Many properties in Colorado are used as a second home or a vacation home. These owners often rent these properties for part or all of each year to help cover expenses and provide additional income. When owners or investors buy a property that is under the jurisdiction of a Homeowner’s Association (HOA), they were given a set of Covenants, Conditions & Restrictions (CC&Rs) that outline all the rules and ‘laws’ of the community. The buyers agreed to follow the rules and restric

On December 8, 2017, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) made changes to its authentication system. This is the system that verifies tax returns that mortgage applicants provide. The system is known as the Income Verification Express System (IVES) and is in place to make sure tax returns aren’t fraudulent. Within five days of the changes, on December 13, mortgage groups were finding problems with the new system. Other groups said problems with the changes began almost immediat

When you own a small business and are thinking of selling a portion of your business to investors, you’ll want to know everything there is before making any kind of a commitment. Established companies and almost all start-up companies think about raising business capital at some time and will turn to the possibility of taking on investors. There are many reasons to sell a percentage of your business, but generally, businesses sell in order to raise capital to help bridge the