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

I have included 95124 in today’s, Los Gatos Real Estate sales numbers, to give a general sense of the area and surrounding community in a more broad sense.

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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You’ve heard the phrase ‘a prescription for failure’.   ‘Bad Medicine’ maybe?  Usually we attribute a ‘prescription’ in terms that we are fairly certain to feel better soon.

A short sale transaction tends to leave everyone a little queasy.   No matter how well it is executed by your attorney or Realtor it all started with a little cold.   You have already taken a big dose of medicine just to come to terms with the idea of selling your home.  Now you need a good prescription following a better diagnosis.

After hiring a Realtor to make a diagnosis, be sure there are going to be relapses…lots of little relapses.  Lately, I have seen some that must have felt a little like the H1N1 virus.  The common relapses are multiple lenders, the HELOC problem, the dreaded HOA variables and the always troubling impatient buyer!

Too often ‘experts’ who tell you “everything will be fine”, fail to notice your home is in a neighborhood that has a managing HOA.   Easy enough to remember when it is a Condominium or Town Home community however, many Single Family Home neighborhoods are now ‘managed’ by an HOA.   This is where the cold becomes the dreaded Swine Flu.  In San Jose, nearly every neighborhood built in the last 10 years has some kind of HOA.

What’s the best medicine to protect you from the ‘Swine Flu Short Sale’?  First, be sure to hire an expert with experience that can be verified. This person will be able to diagnose your Short Sale and prescribe the best medicine.  I like to provide contact information of my recently satisfied clients as evidence of my prescribing qualifications.

A few things you will need to know:

1. How much is the HOA going to charge us to transfer the property?

2. Can they transfer?   Has the Builder and HOA agreed to terms of transfer?

3. Are you behind in dues payments?

4. If you are behind, what fees are accruing …daily, weekly or monthly?

5. Is the second loan a HELOC?

6. What are the chances of paying on a Promissory Note after the sale?

These are all unpleasant relapses and the prescription for each can be a negotiated factor if addressed early.  Like ‘an apple a day’ or taking your vitamins can keep you healthy, knowing these ahead of time could prevent a deadly relapse.  If not addressed they will ruin the chances for your approval of Short Sale.  Remember this the sale price approved will not change…Do you know what your second loan is?  Can a Default Judgment be filed?

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How about shopping online..ONLY…online?   Not likely, but Google has a fun new tool that will definitely keep you staring at your Laptop longer.

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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Have you noticed?   Most markets are experiencing a price stabilization, however there are price reductions being made even as late as October.    43% of homes listed in 27 major markets saw price reductions of  $24,781 dollars.

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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During repairs users were restricted to cross the dam using a small cordoned off crossing that was not only unsightly, but down right dangerous at times.  Bikers who forgot they had brakes would jam down that part of the trail with reckless abandon.  Actually,  not unlike other parts of the steeper trails.   I can’t blame them – what fun to have the wind hitting you in the face at 40mph without leaving a measurable carbon footprint!

I know you have probably noticed that Lexington has been nearly dry for several months over the last year. Many locals have been nervous and the  talk of ‘drought’ has been escalated.    Can we just get some rain!  Well, after I run.

A safer trail,  a repaired dam and, hopefully,  the disappearance of  some nagging knee discomfort will allow me to monitor the rising water line during my trail run!  I hope to see you out there.

NBC The Dam Gushes

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650,000

That number represents 20% of eligible homeowners at least 60 days behind in their payments, according to the Treasury report. This is up from 16% a month earlier.

Despite the progress, housing counselors say the number of people falling into foreclosure vastly exceeds the ranks getting assistance. The number of filings hit a record high of 937,840 in the third quarter, according to RealtyTrac, an online marketer of foreclosed homes. That’s a 5% increase from the second quarter and a 23% jump over the third quarter of 2008.

The $75 billion Obama plan is “lagging behind the massive number of foreclosures that continue to pile up,” said John Taylor, head of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition.

But administration officials have said that the program, which was projected to help up to 4 million homeowners, is on track.  On Track?  Which track?  Becsude, if it”s the ‘railroad’ track..we are in REAL trouble.

The above excerpt is from CNNMoney‘s reporting and I have to say I don’t believe the Loan Mod scammers are going to go away soon enough for this to get markedly different anytime soon.

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pic via pibillwarner.files

The Governor of California, Arnold Shwartzenegger recently signed legislation to stop scammers from taking the money of troubled Homeowners and consumers who are looking to mitigate the damage the California economy is wreaking on them.

The California Bar Journal posted the names of some of the culprits and the results of their investigation from the task force created last March.  In this article it makes it clear that Safe Haven may be the most prolific violator of citizens rights.

I wouldn’t profess to be an expert in the world of Loan Modifications and forbearance’s however,  I believe my 16 year old son could do a better job!   What is it with these creeps!

A law is something creeps will simply find a way around.  This may not be the absolute end.

Do you know anyone who has been victimized by a scammer?  Together we can reduce their effectiveness.