Michael Roberts' Blog -San Jose Homes, Real Estate and Houses for Sale

This must be a symptom of low supply and the fear the bottom has passed.

The median price of a home sold in the county rose 9.9 percent compared to a year ago to $494,400 in November, according to MDA Dataquick, the second straight month of year-to-year increases.

The number of homes sold also rose 47.2 percent to 1,649 in Santa Clara County.

“The latest stats show just how much the Bay Area market has changed in a year,” said John Walsh, MDA DataQuick president.

The question I hear most is…”Has the market bottomed out?”

If this price trend continues for another quarter I will answer Read the rest of this entry »

The spanking Fannie Mae is suffering has become intolerable.

The rumor several banks have agreed to streamline short sales is true and will certainly make the spanking a light one.  How do I know?  When I inquired why my calls were not being returned, for a few days in October, contacts at BofA told me they were being trained for a new program to expedite… Read the rest of this entry »

Nearly everyone wants to do this so, Why don’t you?

The purchase of a fixer-upper house is often a catch-22 situation, because the bank won’t lend the money to buy the house until the repairs are complete, and the repairs can’t be done until the house has been purchased. Fixing up your new house is a costly idea in Los Gatos, San Jose and the whole Bay Area, really.

HUD’s 203(k) program can help you overcome this cost obstacle by enabling you to purchase or refinance a property plus the cost of making the repairs and improvements in one mortgage.

Dian Hymer of Inman News suggests “design your offer with a 60 day close and a 45 day finance contingency.”

Read the rest of this entry »

The following homes in Los Gatos reported as closed (sold) this past week.  Congratulations to the new homeowners and the community they will certainly enjoy!

15400 VIA PALOMINO Single Family  4 bed(s) /3|1 bath(s)23,482 sq ft     Monte Sereno $2,395,000

16242 AZALEA WY Single Family  3 bed(s) /2|0 bath(s) 8,000 sq ft Los Gatos   $1,229,000

102 HOLLYCREST DR Single Family 3 bed(s) /2|0 bath(s) 7,070 sq ft  Los Gatos  $799,000

14225 LORA DR #102 Condominium 2 bed(s) /1|0 bath(s)     2,242 sq ft Los Gatos $345,000

These homes all sold for below their asking price from  High reduction of -9% for Lora Drive and low price reduction of 3% for Azelea Way.  Home sellers and agents in Los Gatos and surrounding areas should take heed of the substantial reductions made this week.    The days on market or CDOM are more relevant factors in pricing homes today than we have seen in the past few years.

This article  (here) is evidence our market is doing better than average.

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. Read the rest of this entry »

According to the following article it seems it may become the rule rather than the exception.   This always reminds me that a short sale is the only way to go.

Read this article to learn about the possible new trend.

New FHA lender short sale guidelines

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.

Do you remember that commercial?  Was it a Mr. Goodwrench add?   We now know we payed them then and bailed them out this year!  Payed both times.   Ugh!

Pay now or Pay Later?  That is the question in our mortgage market now…not  Shakespearean,  but profound considering….Should you jump?

Mortgage rates eased for the fourth consecutive week, hitting historic lows well below 5 percent this week, Freddie Mac said in releasing the results of its latest Freddie Mac Reports.

Rates on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages averaged 4.78 percent with an average 0.7 point for the week ending Nov. 25, down from 4.83 percent last week and 5.97 percent a year ago.

This is what we have been expecting and will lead to higher rates as the market change cycles.  Not to mention the 1.25T  the Federal Reserve is spending to buy mortgage backed securities from Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae.

The program is going to continue through March 2010 which makes you wonder…Why are they delaying the inevitable?   The program was supposed to be finished up at the end of this year.   The answer is:  To keep the rates low.   Thank you for that.  What happens when the rates increase?

The Mortgage Bankers Association last month projected that 30-year fixed-rate mortgages will hit 5.4 percent next year, 6 percent in 2011, and 6.3 percent in 2012.   Inflation?

I would suggest buyers take this seriously.  Would you rather pay rate to a mortgage bank or a few thousand hard dollars now?

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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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Image via Wikipedia

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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