GRAND RAPIDS, MI – After securing $21.5 million worth of loans for three commercial properties in recent months, mortgage broker Cathy Bronkema says out-of-state real estate investors are coming back to Michigan and West Michigan.

Bronkema, who opened a Grand Rapids office for Cohen Financial in January, said she recently arranged a $10 million loan with a regional bank to help Franklin Partners LLC of Chicago acquire the Comerica Building at 99 Monroe Ave. NW.

Franklin Partners is in the process of upgrading the 27-year-old 12-story building by remodeling its street level façade and adding a workout area and conference rooms to the second floor. The new owners also are upgrading the building’s mechanical facilities

As a partner and executive vice president of Cohen Financial, Bronkema said she also arranged a $5 million loan with a local bank that allowed a Fargo, N.D. group to acquire the Ramada Plaza Hotel at 3333 28th Street in Kentwood.

Bronkema said she also arranged a $6.5 million refinance with a life insurance company for a Home Depot ground lease in Midland.

All transactions closed in the current quarter and all clients were out-of-state borrowers, she said.

The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) is extending the temporary waiver of its property anti-flipping rule through the end of 2012.

FHA rules typically prohibit insuring a mortgage on a home owned by the seller for less than 90 days. In 2010, however, the agency waived this regulation, and later extended the waiver through 2011.

The new extension announced late last week will permit buyers to continue to use FHA-insured financing to purchase HUD-owned and bank-owned properties, no matter how long the homeowner has held the title, through December 31, 2012.

FHA says the waiver will allow homes to resell as quickly as possible, helping to stabilize real estate prices and revitalize communities experiencing high foreclosure activity.

“This extension is intended to accelerate the resale of foreclosed properties in neighborhoods struggling to overcome the possible effects of abandonment and blight,” said Carol Galante, FHA’s Acting Commissioner. “FHAremains a critical source of mortgage financing and stability and we must make every effort that to promote recovery in every responsible way we can.”

In its May foreclosure newsletter, RealtyTrac named the top 10 places to buy foreclosures in 2012. The selected locations were out of the 100 largest metropolitan statistical areas based on population. The list was further narrowed according to markets with at least 200 foreclosure-related sales transactions in January 2012. Then, it was whittled down again to only include metros with foreclosure sales prices at least 30 percent below the average price of a non-foreclosure property.

The number one metro to buy a foreclosure in 2012 is Kansas City, Missouri, where the average foreclosure sales price is $73,257 compared to $101,710 a year ago. The average discount for foreclosures is 51 percent. Overall, foreclosures make up 29 percent of all sales in this metro. Citing data from the Kansas City Regional Association of Realtors, the newsletter stated home sales in Kansas City rose 14 percent in March from a year ago, and prices increased 3 percent from a year ago.

Boston earned the number two spot with an average foreclosure sales price of $195,672 compared to $203,606. The average discount is 49 percent, and 18 percent of sales are foreclosures. Boston also had the lowest unemployment rate on the list at 5.9 percent.

To avoid losing homes to foreclosure due to long response times for short sale transactions, three senators introduced legislation to speed up the short sale process.

Senators Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), Scott Brown (R-Massachusetts), and Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) proposed the bill addressing the issue of short sales timelines on February 17. A short sale is a real estate transaction where the homeowner sells the property for less than the unpaid balance with the lender’s approval.

“There are neighborhoods across the country full of empty homes and underwater owners that have legitimate offers, but unresponsive banks,” said Murkowski. “What we have here is a failure to communicate. Why don’t we make it easier for Americans trying to participate in the housing market, regardless of whether the answer is ‘yes,’ ‘no’ or ‘maybe?’”

The legislation, also known as the Prompt Notification of Short Sale Act, will require a written response from a lender no later than 75 days after receipt of the written request from the buyer.

The lender’s response to the buyer must specify acceptance, rejection, a counter offer, need for extension, and an estimation for when a decision will be reached.