Important: New financial guidelines for investors

Freddie Mac Cuts Maximum Number of Financed Properties

Freddie Mac recently announced guideline changes that will greatly affect residential real estate investors.
Beginning August 1st, 2008 the following changes will go into effect:
A borrower may not have more than four financed 1-4 unit properties, including the subject property.
For cash out refinances the borrower must own the property for at least six months prior to refinancing.
For a complete update on new Freddie Mac guideline changes go to:
http://www.freddiemac.com/sell/guide/bulletins/pdf/bll042208.pdf.

Hawaii Real Estate

So I am back from my extended vacation. Spent some time in Maui and Kauai. While I was there my husband and I poked around at real estate, of course. We were suprised to discover that much of the land is still purchased using a land lease. What is a land lease? Wikipedia says that a land lease is a type of financial arrangement in which the ground under a structure is leased, rather than sold to the builder, meaning that the land and the structure are owned independently. So in essence you are buying the structure and paying a mortgage on it, and also paying a monthly fee to lease the land. We saw this fee up around $1000/month. Wow! So that is how Queen Liliuokalani can afford her jewlery.