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

This Video (below) is proof many homeowners in all areas are at risk of scammers, including San Jose homeowners.  When you ask for help selling your San Jose House, remember, if it sounds too good to be true..Then it probably is!

There are no ‘Magic Wand’ solutions if you find yourself against the wall with your mortgage.  Using common sense and a applying pragmatic approach is still the best and most effective way to determine whether you should sell your Los Gatos home or buy a smaller more affordable house in San Jose.

A good rule of thumb is to obtain 3 professional opinions and weigh them one against the other.   The first solution may not be the only solution and… Watch This Video!

Wow!  These are my 3 picks of the weekend for Los Gatos Homes for sale.  New Home Buyers will find they have all the best things to offer.

Some lucky folks are going to be new homeowners in Los Gatos!

Great prices and locations are just the beginning.   17250 Pine St.Los Gatos is a short sale,  I know,  Yuk.  Not really!  Look what the fundamentals look like…

Schools: Great!  Location: Great!  Price: Amazing!

Use ‘the proper strategy and be prepared for a few bumps’ is the bargain hunters code. One may be a foreclosure one a short sale, however what would expect a bargain to look like?

Los Gatos is a tough area to find affordable homes and these 3 are a step in the right direction. Preparing for an opportunity equates to good luck, right?

The 2nd homes for sale in Los Gatos is 15175 El Gato and the 3rd house for sale in Los Gatos that I see as a great first time buyer pick is 228 Calle Marquerita.

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 »

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 »

The fundamental reason homes do not sell in a timely manner is due to misplacing it in the market.   Pricing!  No one is willing to pay more than something is worth… everyone knows that.  Still, I am often befuddled to find so many agents list a home for more than market price?   It’s called ‘buying the listing’.

Buying the listing is when an agent will do anything to stick a sign in your flower bed, including listing at a higher price just to get you to sign on the dotted line.  I call it,  sticking it to you.  That’s exactly what it is when you consider the fact that your home will see little exposure, sit on the market longer and end up selling for less than you expected.  It happens every time!

Elizabeth Weintraub writes “…Maybe the first agent knows there will be two other agents competing for the listing, so the first agent names an astronomical figure. The second agent, upon hearing the first agent’s price, beats it. The third agent comes in higher yet.”

This is all based on the fact you have already implemented the basic tips to sell your home.

Are you thinking “but, if a buyer offers less than we are asking we can’t negotiate”?  If your home is priced right you will have several buyers considering an offer.  This presents a problem for the buyers, a level of uncertainty that you will even consider their low offer.  Hence, the offers that come will be more in line with the market.  Less serious buyers will go fishing elsewhere and not waste your time.

This salesman ‘buy the listing’ tactic only leads to more work than is necessary. I had a similar experience of my own when I recently sold my personal residence.  I don’t use ‘buy the listing’ tactics but, market conditions led to the same result.    The market was falling and I had to lower my price two times to catch a buyer.  It was like chasing the market downhill.  If I had known the banking system was going to experience such failures I would have listed at the eventual selling price from the onset to avoid the trouble.

In reality, the chance a home will sell in the first few weeks is far greater when it is priced correctly and prepared well.  Sounds intuitive enough, Right?   Go look at some homes for sale and see how little thought is given to home preparation.   This is especially important when considering a short sale.   The sooner you can yield a willing buyer the sooner you can move the time consuming process forward.

Showhomes, a national franchised home stager staged Tracy Truitt’s listing and it sold in eight days.   Tracey said…“I had an almost full price offer within a week of Showhomes’ staging, and a 25% higher offer than the two offers that had come in previously to the home being staged,” Truitt says.

I found keeping my house prepared well, clean and neat, was tiresome after just a couple of weeks.  I am a terrible merry maid.  If I had to deal with a Realtor I would have lost my mind!  I know can do better than some..look at what  these people did.

Each time I made a price adjustment more people called and disrupted breakfast, dinner and quiet family time.  It was unnerving more than once.  Buyers  sense  desperation when you drop your price and lower offers will follow.

You can guard against this by simply stepping outside your bubble and looking at the competition in an unbiased fashion.  This means you will have to forget all the trouble and expense you suffered when you updated and improved your home.  A buyer’s eye only sees your home compared to other like properties that are available.  You must do the same. No one cares if Aunt Clara helped you cook your first Turkey there.

Is this boring yet?

Wake up!  Do a Walk Score or a Megans Law search for your home? How about a Crime Report review?   I will bet my favorite tie that buyers considering your home are.  Think like a buyer!

Following your internet searches and open house viewings you can reasonably determine what your home should sell for. This will afford you the knowledge and understanding to say no to –salespeople-.  Half hearted buyers will resist the urge to make low ball offers and serious buyers will make their highest and best offers.

Would you be interested in learning what buyers complain about most?  If so, please comment and I will provide a definitive list and some ideas to overcome them.

Tips on Appraisals

One in Four Homes Lowered Price

Why do agents take over priced listings

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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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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.

via Getty Images

Short Sales with Countrywide B of A WaMu JPMorgan Chase are going to become more relevant in the coming year. I just got off the phone with Bof A regarding a short sale I am working to a close.  Word has it the short sale departments, at many mortgage lenders, are expanding and preparing for a bumpy 2-3 years.

UPDATE: 12/09 Changes are being implemented, on-line submission is one interesting change.

It may change the outlook in the foreclosure market as these institutions become more aware of their losses with REO’s.  It is obvious they are learning that the Short Sale option is the better answer.

This B of A employee was quite talkative and shared a few things we all need to know.  Fannie Mae (the government agency)  is causing the most trouble for everyone.   I  do not want to absolve all short sale departments from some responsibility here, yet.   Similar to trying to open a bank safe without a combo the banks have seen massive delays and required information changes coming from Fannie Mae in the form of more…..’forms’.

Have you ever been flustered by those pesky government forms?  You may be sympathetic to the bank….I am not!  I want to call a department speak to a ‘person’ and get the business done…Do you agree?

I have read tons of material from people who claim to have the golden key to helping people with short sales.  The problem is that each and every bank and each and every home/seller is different.  There is no one golden key.

Short Sale departments receive over 100000 faxes a day and most of the specialists have  well over a thousand files each.  Hire more specialists ever occur to anyone?  Each person considering a short sale option has very different financial needs, assets and goals.  Not to mention, different mortgage companies.

It is important to know where and how to make your short sale more visible with the mortgage servicer and understand how people work.  Hiring a short sale professional is strongly recommended one with experience and a temperament to fit.

Do banks lie?  Yes and No. The contact numbers are constantly changed, staff is moved around and responsibilities are adjusted all the time from the client bank (the one who hired the servicer i.e. Wells Fargo).  The client bank delegates directives to the servicer to create guidelines used to gain their short sale approval.  Changing the rules of the game.  Is that lying?

This link takes you to my FOX News Interview broadcast Video

Being prepared for these guideline changes, before they are implemented,  will reduce the anxiety in this very frustrating process.  Your chosen professional should have a strategy to employ.

When you are willing to change, bend, search, use good practices and LISTEN the ordeal will come to an acceptable close.

Find a professional to represent you, employ them and prepare for a few bumps.

Hold on turbulence are ahead as change is sometimes not easy.  I am preparing everyday for the next bump.   I have my seatbelt drawn tight.

Update 12/22/2009 New FHA lender rules for short sales

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