131 Millrich Dr.  this Los Gatos house sold for nearly 1% less than the asking and 411 Clearview Dr., a townhome, sold for nearly 5% over the listing price !

A reminder that ‘sweet spotting’ your asking price will always pay off.

The good news….neither property was a short sale.

2 Los Gatos Houses sold this week,

131 MILLRICH DR, Los Gatos 95030 (Los Gatos)Single Family Home 3 bed(s) Baths: 4|1 bath(s)   SqFt: 2,593  Lot: 9,100 sq ft

List Price: $1,449,000     Sold Price $1,332,000.00

______________________________________________________

411 CLEARVIEW DR, Los Gatos 95032 (Los Gatos)Townhouse  3 Beds, 2|1 Baths:  SqFt: 2,122 Lot: 2,220 sq ft

List Price: $749,000 Sale Price: $780,000

Assoc. Fee: $428

We see a crossroads ahead…one where the buyers in the Los Gatos Real Estate Market aren’t in the driver’s seat.    Could this mean the homes for sale are in a Seller’s market?

Remember…

Spring is coming and the end of the $8000 First time buyer’s credit is there waiting.   I wonder if will  lead to more vigorous sales?…bidding?

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

Last month BofA chose to work with REOtrans, a leading transaction vendor to the mortgage industry, to advance and streamline foreclosure solutions by reducing them all together.

They are working to move the short sale idea into the mainstream RE sale arena. This is great news no matter what side of the Real Estate market you find yourself standing in.

The traditional Short Sale process has led to immense frustration and outright anger, not only here in California, but throughout the nation for all parties involved. As a Real Estate professional, having to negotiate short sales on behalf of distressed homeowners, I have learned that many people charged with Short Sale approvals agree…the short sale process, as it is implemented now, is ridiculous even archaic.

B of A has been the penultimate banking institution in the United States for decades and it goes without saying their agreement to work with REOtrans is a window into Real Estate sales for the near term.

The strategy for B of A is to streamline this otherwise frustrating process of selling a home when it is worth far less than is owed. This agreement will affect in the market in two ways, one good, immediately and one not so over time.

The good side is simple…Distressed homeowners will sell their nonperforming asset and cut their losses. Similar to a stop loss order often used by stock market investors.  In Real Estate it does exactly the same thing. Availability of affordable homes will increase demand over time.  This action will increases supply and lead to more buyer opportunities.

Uh Oh!  Another bubble?  Maybe.

Over time, The “not so good” applies to the buyer’s market (the bubble?). When the affordable opportunities become more in demand and prices start the natural course of creeping up from the bottom. Supply and Demand!  We have seen some instances where this is already happening.

BofA understands they have lost Billions in their inability to mitigate all the losses the Countrywide purchase has bestowed upon them.  Who’s fault is that anyway?

I realized this almost 2 years ago.  A buyer found a home available that was a short sale (WaMu) and we offered $630K  and the short sale was not approved.  WaMu foreclosed on the owners and had to sell for a $180K a loss.  Terrible!

Diana Olick CNBC  Real Estate reporter exclaims…”What I have found is that the foreclosure process is so convoluted..”

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The Home Mortgage Preservation Program is now Turbocharged enough to help high Los Gatos mortgages hopefully.

In May the government stepped up the pace to modify mortgages to stave off the 10–12 million potential foreclosures looming on the horizon.   This was to be done first, by allowing homeowners to qualify for modifications on a temporary basis.  650,000 homeowners are now in that process.

However, only 2000 have been approved for modifications through the program.

Request Loan Modification .PDF

Chase Loan Mod Docs .PDF

GMAC Financial Statement .PDF

“We now must refocus our efforts on the conversion phase to ensure that borrowers and servicers know what their responsibilities are in converting trial modifications to permanent ones,” said Phyllis Caldwell, the newly appointed chief for the Treasury Department’s upstart Homeownership Preservation Office, in a statement released Monday.

The MakingHomeAffordable.gov Web site will include links to all required documents and an income verification checklist, as well as explanations of how the trial and conversion processes work. The Homeowner’s HOPE Hotline, at (888) 995-HOPE, will provide direct access to housing counselors

The temporary modification idea was meant to allow the homeowner time to submit documentation the lender would review to potentially grant an approval.   This has caused much anxiety on the part of the participants as evidenced in the following quote.

“Now it’s up to the banks to do their part to convert borrowers to permanent modifications,” said Michael Barr, an assistant Treasury secretary. “Servicers to date have not done a good enough job.”

We just don’t know what penalty the participating lender is facing if they do not comply with the pressure.   Without proof of substantial numbers of permanent modifications there is a real sense that this will just be another case of hot air.

This will lead to MORE foreclosures that may well have been prevented if the homeowner had time to seek out alternatives like a short sale or deed in lieu of foreclosure.

“If we don’t see a big increase in the permanent modification numbers, then there’s something seriously wrong with this program,” said Alan White, a law professor at Valparaiso University. “I can only assume the number is appallingly low.”

The Treasury Dept. began to publish reports naming those institutions that were lagging which proved to increase the numbers of temporary modifications from 235000 to 650000 by the end of July.

It is likely there will be another attempt to list their names if the number of permanent modifications does not rise soon!  Not quite Turbocharged.

There are new guidelines, now in place, that servicers are not going to like very much.

This is directly from the HMP press release …

Top servicers will be required to submit a schedule demonstrating their plans to reach a decision on each loan for which they have documentation and to communicate either a modification agreement or denial letter to those borrowers. Treasury/Fannie Mae “account liaisons” are being assigned to these servicers and will follow up daily as necessary to monitor progress against the servicer’s plan. Daily progress will be aggregated by the end of each business day and reported to the Administration.

If you or someone you know needs to get on board, forward this link to them. http://makinghomeaffordable.gov/index.html

Here they will find…

• Links to all of the required documents and an income verification checklist to help borrowers request a modification in four easy steps;
• Comprehensive information about how the trial phase works, what borrower responsibilities are to convert to a permanent modification, and a new instructional video which provides step by step instruction for borrowers;
• A toolkit for partner organizations to directly assist their constituents.

I think this is a mess that still needs cleaning up… and I am hear to watch ‘em.

Image via Wikipedia

5 New HomeOwners and 5 Successful Sellers makes for great news this past week.

220 BERSANO LN, Los Gatos 95030
$1,729,000 Beds: 4 bed(s) Baths: 3|0 bath(s)

17050 Wild WY, Los Gatos 95030
$1,485,000 Beds: 3 bed(s) Baths: 2|0 bath(s)

16345 LOS GATOS BL #49, Los Gatos 95032 (Los Gatos)
$510,000 Beds: 2 bed(s) Baths: 1|1 bath(s)

30800 LOMA CHIQUITA RD, Los Gatos Mtns 95033 (Los Gatos Mtns)
$159,000   Raw Land

14685 OKA RD #11, Los Gatos 95032 (Los Gatos)
$140,000 Beds: 3 bed(s) Baths: 2|0 bath(s) Mobile Home

There are 12 new Los Gatos listings for the week you can see these new listings using comprehensive search tool on my home page.

Date Range 11/1/2009 – 11/23/2009

Homes for sale  260

New Listings  66

Pending sales  55

Closed Sales This Week  2

Congratulations to 2  the new Buyers and Sellers that closed escrow this last week.

16345 LOS GATOS BL #49,
$510,000 Beds: 2 bed(s) Baths: 2 (1/1) bath(s) 1017 sq ft

115 WOOD RD, Los Gatos 95030
$2,900,000 Beds: 5 bed(s) Baths: 5 (4/1) bath(s)  4386 sq ft

Image by seier+seier+seier via Flickr

part 2

cont. – Start out on right foot. Trust begets trust. Only hire a Realtor you have every confidence is representing your best interests.  Be realistic and above all forthright.  Remember trust is earned.  The agent with the nice personality or “my friend’s friend”  isn’t the answer.   Every person who has been taken by a schiester says “…but they were such nice people.” Well, of course they were!  You wouldn’t give your money to an obvious ‘Vampire’ would you?

That darn Barry Madoff comes to mind.  Yuk!

Don’t run out and buy a box of  rope of garlic!

Note; refer to this list when considering who you should work with:

• Are they easy to contact?  Are their responses timely?
• Do they provide a list of past clients?
• Can I access a 3^rd party source where I can learn more about them?
• Do they possess the skills and principals required to work for me?
• Does their track record support their claims of success? …more

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Where is this going to take Real Estate?

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Great news has just been released by Real Estate information service DataQuick – Prices and sales are up in the  nine Bay Area counites !  Maybe not great news for twitchy buyers though.

Silicon Valley Business Journal reports -”The Bay Area’s housing market continued to ease back toward normalcy in October, as fewer distressed properties sold and $500,000-plus sales accounted for a greater share of transactions than a year ago.”

In Santa Clara County the median price in October was $500,000, up 4.8 percent from $477,000 in October 2008. Sales were up 27.9 percent to 1,944.  It has been like the woman assistant in magic show-disappearing.

In June I asked is this a spike in prices?

In addition to the Bay Area overall, three counties – Santa Clara, Marin and Sonoma – saw their median sale prices rise year-over-year last month. The last time that more than one county posted an annual gain in the median was November 2007. Also last month, Alameda, Santa Clara, San Francisco and the nine-county region overall posted single-digit annual gains in their median price paid for a specific home-type: resale single-family detached houses.

Barbara Corcoran ‘Today” Video “homes around the country”

Ok twitchy buyers… here’s a bone…Prices are still lower than they were in 2005.   Your friends may be unwilling to sell their homes,  since they bought at the sharp peak,  but there is an abundance of others to choose from.

How much longer do you think the housing market could withstand the price ‘depression’ in Silicon Valley?

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• 
  

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In Part 1 of the series “Is My Agent Lying to Me?” I shared with you that both Realtor and Seller/Buyer (SB) asked themselves if they were being lied to.  If you are a first time buyer you were probably wondering why would the Realtor question the honesty of the Buyer/Seller’?

Have you found the voice in your head keeps asking, with an annoying little spear in it’s hand, “Is my agent lying to me?”  What do you think the agent’s experience might be with S/B? If their experiences have lacked a large dose of trust…maybe your agent is asking….”Are my clients lying to me?”

Consider the time you bought your car or used dinette set from the guy on Craigslist.    If  you are like me you went in with your game face on and planned to pay as little as possible.  You made him an offer and he countered and back and forth it went.  It was hard, but you got the item(s) at your price.  Or did you pay his price?   I bet you never told the Seller what you were, really, willing to pay for it, Right?  Good!  He probably never told you what he was really willing to accept either.

After weeks and weeks maybe months and months you have looked at dozens maybe hundreds of homes and BAM!  There it is, the most perfect neighborhood, the lawn is so nicely manicured and the front door is painted your favorite color.  You walk in and the kitchen and ahhh, the kitchen.  It’s sunny and bright.  Perfect.  You want this house!  As soon as you sit down with your Realtor to make your offer a funny thing happens.  You get ’The Game Face’.  You tell your Realtor you are willing to pay price X for the home.

Your Realtor provides a Market Price Report or Comprehensive Market Analysis (CMA), call it what you want, and the “market” price is between X and Y.   Uh Oh!   Your Realtor thinks you aren’t paying more than X.    Meanwhile, the Purchase Offer is written, with your X price, and your Realtor submits the offer exclaiming to the Seller you will pay not a penny more.  This is the time when you need a large dose of  hope.   Problem is hope won’t buy the perfect house for you. 

Prepare to compromise and discuss your specific options.

Mary Weintraub, a leading Real Estate tipster and prolific blogger writes…”Nobody wants an agent who is going to order them around and bark demands, but it is perfectly acceptable for a client to be given all the options by an agent…”

Somewhere, in the vast darkness of unconscious reality, the trust issue has already raised it’s ugly head.  That CMA or Market Sales Report (MSR) your Realtor provided for you…the Seller probably has similar information.  You are about to experience the Deer in Headlights look!

Coming in Part 3 … How you can get what you want!

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I LOVE the video in this link…

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From Rismedia:

Other highlights of the brokerage’s monthly survey of price reduction data include:
-Miami-area (Ft. Lauderdale/Palm Beach) homeowners reduced list prices by the largest percentage at 15.7% or $40,000 on average
-Homeowners in Raleigh-Durham reduced prices by the smallest percentage at 4.6% or $11,000 on average
-Of the markets studied, those with the highest percentage of price-reduced homes are Jacksonville (50.9%), Orlando (50.1%) and Chicago (50.1%)
-Markets with the lowest percentage of price-reduced homes are Denver (31.1%), Los Angeles (33.6%), Sacramento (36.4%) and San Diego (35.7%)
-Markets where sellers have cut the most in absolute dollars are: San Diego ($54,000 median price reduction), Orange County, Calif. ($51, 000 median price reduction), San Francisco ($50,500 median price reduction) and Los Angeles ($43,000 median price reduction).
-As in September, Orange County had the highest median list price at $624,900. Jacksonville, Fla. has the lowest median list price at $172,000.

I love this video series…California from 1939

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