CREIG SAYS...

Dear Friend:

Practice, Practice, Practice. I know it's an old line, but it bears repeating as we gear up to watch the two best teams compete in the Super Bowl this weekend. How do you get to the top of your game? How do you take your place center stage in any profession or life's ambition? Practice, practice, practice. You must first fine-tune your techniques, hone your skills, master your talents and study the subtle nuances to ensure that you not only succeed, but you also stand out for your commitment to excellence.

Over the last two months, we've seen real estate offices shut down, scale back, or struggle to hang on. Failure has never, EVER been an option for me or my team. Practice, Passion, Persistence, Patience and Perspective: these are the qualities that embody The Northrop Team and keep us on top. But what is important to understand is how these 5 principals of greatness benefit YOU, our clients. From practice, we have learned to develop good habits and strong skills that make us your best advocate in negotiations. From passion, we find ourselves living and working with purpose, joy and a love for what we do. Our persistence ensures that we are still in the race long after the going gets tough. Perspective allows us to look at each challenge and see opportunity. And from your first consultation to the settlement of your home, our patience gives buyers and sellers valuable peace of mind. As always, I am here to answer any questions and I hope these emails keep you updated on our industry changes.

(Be sure to watch out for the Northrop Team commercials before, during, and after the Super Bowl on Fox 45!)

Creig Northrop
President

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ATTENTION HOMEOWNERS!

IMPORTANT NOTE ON HOMESTEAD TAX CREDIT: Property owners will receive an assessment notice containing a Homestead Tax Credit Application for the first time this year beginning January 1, 2008. This one-time application must be submitted in order to insure that the credit is granted only on eligible properties and not on properties that are rented or used as vacation homes. For commonly asked questions and to file an application on-line visit the Maryland State Department of Assessments and Taxation website http://www.dat.state.md.us/sdatweb/Homestead_app.htm or mail the paper form in the postage paid envelope included in the assessment notice. Homeowners not reassessed until 2009 or 2010 can wait until then to submit a Homestead Tax Credit application.

FED ANNOUNCES ANOTHER RATE CUT: The Fed announced another rate cut of ˝ %, which comes on the heels of the 3/4% emergency cut announced last Tuesday. To reiterate, this will reduce the Prime Rate, which in turn will lower the rate we will pay on our home equity lines of credit, credit cards and car loans. We have seen a nice drop in our long term fixed rates over the last two weeks but with the volatility we advise clients to lock into a rate sooner rather than later.

Congress is also working on a "Stimulus Package" which is expected to pass within the next couple of weeks. There is the potential for the legislation to have quite an impact on the Real Estate industry as one of the key details relates to raising the conforming loan limit considerably higher than the current $417K. This will allow Fannie and Freddie to purchase loans above the $417K amount (some estimates $650,000…other estimates $725,000). Since jumbo pricing and guidelines have taken such a beating over the last 6 months, this should help a lot more borrowers get into homes they otherwise would not have been able to afford due to the higher rates and stricter guidelines.

Realtors Have Changed Lender Recommendation Practices in Recent Months, New Study Finds

The dramatic turmoil in the mortgage market in recent months has prompted a significant number of real estate agents to rethink which lenders they recommend to home buyers. And increasingly, agents appear to favor lenders owned by their own brokerage firm over large national lenders.

These are several of the major findings emerging from a just-completed national survey of real estate agents. The study, sponsored by Inside Mortgage Finance and based on a survey conducted by Campbell Communications in early December, questioned real estate agents about how the ongoing mortgage crisis has impacted the home purchase market. It also asked agents to rate individual lenders on their performance in the current liquidity-challenged mortgage lending environment.

Significantly, realty agents reported that more than one-third of home purchase transactions over the last three months have either been postponed or failed. A hefty 13 percent failed for mortgage-related reasons, according to respondents.

The new study highlights the problems the real estate sales industry is having adjusting to a mortgage market that is very much in transition. Not surprisingly, real estate agents attributed a sharp jump in mortgage-related problems with home sale transactions to both a tightening of underwriting standards and elimination of many previously popular mortgage programs.

One agent complained about "lenders who don't know what they are doing" and "wasting time trying to get approval on a loan product that the borrower will not qualify for anyway." Another agent noted that some transactions fell through because "loan programs disintegrated during the closing week," leaving borrowers to start over with other lenders and other programs.
When asked for the specific reasons behind mortgage-related home sale transaction failures, respondents identified "credit score too low to qualify" as the biggest problem by far, followed by "insufficient income to qualify" and "insufficient down payment."

Long & Foster Companies is among the local brokerages offering preferred in-house lenders. The Northrop Team can introduce you to a Prosperity Mortgage loan officer in the same office who can prequalify you giving you peace of mind as you search for a home. The credit market can change overnight, leaving fewer options available to borrowers attempting to qualify for a mortgage loan or refinance. Need help crunching the numbers? Want to get pre-approved today? Call Michelle Mathews of Prosperity Mortgage at 443.535.9701 or visit www.homeloans.com/michelle-mathews. Activity is picking up. Open houses are humming. The selection of homes to choose from is huge. Buy now while mortgage rates are near their 30-year lows.

Your #1 Resource for Maryland Real Estate – www.northropteam.com

If you haven't been to our website recently, it is time to take a closer look at www.northropteam.com. We've add an interactive map search, faster servers so you can navigate quickly, a new blog, and more community content to make our website your one-stop-shop for Maryland real estate.

Not only do we offer over 85,000 listings published by our local MLS, our website offers The Northrop Team Resource Center which is jam-packed with in-depth community information, aerial photos, staging tips, mortgage calculators, and answers to our most frequently asked real estate questions.


Constantly on the go? Search for homes from your internet-capable cell phone or BlackBerry by logging on to http://mobile.northropteam.com !

And that's not all! We're always adding new features for our users, so bookmark http://www.northropteam.com and check back frequently!

Important Events This Month!