Tag Archives: Shawnee Home Buyers

Need to schedule a quick showing to have a shot at WINNING that hot new listing before it’s gone?

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The Jason Brown Group

See a HOT new listing and in a hurry to get in and see it before it’s gone? Tired of calling listing agents and waiting forever for a call back? Down on the home buying process because every house you call on has already gone under contract? Avoiding a significant delay in getting a showing scheduled can be the difference between losing and WINNING that new listing… It does not have to be that way!

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Instead of calling the listing agent, contact The Jason Brown Group and you’ll be assured of getting a quick response to work on scheduling a showing. Want to schedule to get in to see multiple homes? Attempting to schedule four showings with four listing agents could costs you four days of your time… And the likelihood of losing out on the HOT new listings… It does not have to be that way! With just a little planning, a Jason Brown Group buyer’s agents can schedule to get you into MANY homes all in a row.

All buyer’s agents with The Jason Brown Group are experienced agents and licensed in both Kansas and Missouri, so we can show you ANY active listings in the metro area. When working with one of our buyer’s agents, YOUR best interests will be represented throughout the real estate process, which is critical because you can bet the listing agent with the sign in the yard is representing the home SELLER’S best interests.

Having a buyer’s agent assist you costs you nothing because the buyer’s agent commission is already factored into the price you see on all listed homes. So contact The Jason Brown Group today to let us know the addresses or MLS numbers of the homes you’re wanting to see. We’ll get back with you quickly to work on scheduling showings…

Contact The Jason Brown Group to Schedule a Showing!

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Despite Tripling Of Gas And Bread Prices, Low Interest Rates Keep Kansas City Mortgage Payments Same As 20 Years Ago

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Checking The Pulse Of The Kansas City Real Estate Market

The stats below have been sitting on my desk for some time now and I just got around to looking them over. It was eye-opening and something I wanted to share it here. The stats compare recent prices to prices from about 20 years ago. Take a look and you’ll see how much bread, gasoline, vehicles and home prices have gone up. Then take in that mortgage interest rates have been cut in HALF — that critical detail has kept the average monthly mortgage payment virtually the SAME as two decades ago.

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Gas prices have nearly tripled… Car prices have doubled… Average home sale prices have nearly doubled… Despite all this, because mortgage rates are at historical lows, the average monthly mortgage payment is virtually UNCHANGED! The Johnson County Kansas real estate market has been stable for well more than a year. Add in that mortgage interest rates have nowhere to go but up and that makes this one of the best opportunities ever to buy a first home or make the move up that you’ve been delaying.


Posted by Jason Brown

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What’s Next? 20% Down Payments To Secure A Conventional Loan When Buying A Kansas City Home?

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Checking The Pulse Of The Kansas City Real Estate Market

QRM stands for Qualified Residential Mortgage (QRM) and it will change the way mortgage lending is done should the proposed loan regulations be put into effect. Only home buyers who make a 20% down payment would be considered a “Qualified Residential Mortgage”. Since 85% of home buyers today can NOT make a 20% down payment, we’re talking about changes that would have very serious consequences on most home buyers ability to secure a home loan. I’ve seen some estimate it could mean THREE percent higher interest rates for the 85% of home buyers who do not have a 20% down payment. This could definitely be the straw that breaks the camels back.


Higher interest rates would lead to buyers purchasing smaller homes and forcing many who want to buy a home to instead rent. All of this will put downward pressure on home prices at time when we’re looking for ways to promote a real estate recovery. Also consider that mortgage lenders would be required to hold (not sell off) 5% of the non-QRM loans. Again, that’s an estimated 85% of loans made today. Many lenders sell off ALL their loans, so requiring lenders to hold 5% of these loans will lead many lenders to stop making these types of loans. The fewer lenders there are in the market place, the worse off consumers will be.

If some of the estimates I’ve seen are correct, these proposed changed would have eliminated 1/3 of home buyers we’ve seen in recent years. Imagine what that would have done to our housing market.  Going forward, the buyers who would still buy a home under the new guidelines will surely have to buy much smaller homes. That would hang many moderate and upper bracket homeowners/home sellers out to dry… which is the last thing the housing market needs. Fortunately multiple powerful groups are fighting these proposed changes. The groups include AFL-CIO, NAR, SEIU, NAACP and NAHB, among many others.


Posted by Jason Brown

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Higher FHA Mortgage Payments For Kansas City Home Buyers Now In Effect

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Checking The Pulse Of The Kansas City Real Estate Market

The FHA changes we discussed back in February went into effect this week. This means higher mortgage insurance premiums on all FHA loans.  For example, Rick Woodruff with Metropolitan Mortgage explains this means a $33 higher monthly mortgage payment on a $163,000 home (with a 3.5% down payment). A Mortgage Insurance Premium (MIP) is the equivalent of Private Mortgage Insurance (PMI) seen on a typical conventional 15-year or 30-year fixed rate mortgage, where the borrower has less than 20% down payment (less than 20% equity in the home).

More than half of loans being provided today are FHA loans, so mortgage payments just got more expensive more a lot of potential home buyers. The increased fee is necessary to replenish the FHA’s cash reserves – so they can keep the FHA program afloat – and to meet the 2% minimum cash reserves that Congress mandates they have in cash on hand. This change only affects loans where the buyer goes under contract after today’s date. All buyers who went under contract yesterday or earlier and/or who already have a FHA loan in effect are unaffected by this change.


Posted by Jason A. Brown

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Remember When Kansas City Home Buyers Were Trusted On Their Stated Income Level?

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Checking The Pulse Of The Kansas City Real Estate Market

It’s hard to believe that stated income loans – a.k.a. liar loans – were a common lending practices just a few years ago.  A borrower who was between jobs could simply tell the lender they’re monthly income, accept a slightly higher interest rate, the lender wouldn’t verify the income and the buyer was on their way to closing. Amazing. But those days are gone and it’s become much more black and white to get a mortgage loan today. If you don’t have a 3.5% down payment, you better have VA loan eligibility or be talking to me about one of the special loan programs out there that require you to jump through hoops to get a loan.

You definitely need to have stable employment and decent credit scores. Think about this for a moment… I actually had a buyer with 800 credit scores and 50% down get harassed late in the process to provide additional documentation. He was self-employed and my first thought was, wouldn’t a bank WANT a buyer with 50% equity to default on the loan.  But it took just a moment to rationalize things and realize that banks don’t want any more REO properties on this books — even ones they’d make money on by taking back through the foreclosure process and selling later.

Posted by Jason A. Brown

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Is It Time For Kansas City Home Buyers To Get Off The Fence?

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Checking The Pulse Of The Kansas City Real Estate Market

At least one economist believes that “every major price index points to a housing market that has hit bottom”. If true, that would be music to Kansas City home seller’s ears. But it would also mean that prices would likely start trending up at that point. When they do – and they will eventually – then lookers who didn’t buy will have missed out on some great deals. Buying at the bottom of a down market is going to make a lot of people money but buying at the perfect time involves as much luck as skill, mainly because we’ll already be well into a recovery by the time it’s reported.

Even though it will take history to show us whether this was the perfect time to buy, indications are present that now could be the time to get off the fence. I pay close attention to the economists who study our real estate markets daily and to hear a reputable economist’s assessment that we’re now at the bottom of the real estate market is promising news. If more economists jump on board touting that we’re indeed at the bottom, it will be PAST home buyers who bought at the perfect time.

The above quote from William Wheaton, Professor of Economics and Real Estate at MIT in Boston Massachusetts certainly got my attention and Professor Wheaton further points out that home prices have stabilized in nearly every United States region and that median U.S. home price increased from $164,000 in February of 2010 to $182,600 in August of 2010 — which is a  HUGE 11% increase in just 6 months time!


Posted by Jason A. Brown

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