Real Estate and Real Life in the Wine Country

Have you read a California purchase agreement lately? Probably not, come to think of it, when a home owner decides to sell his house, part of the homework might be to ask your realtor for a sample contract, just to familiarize your self with the important stuff. Buyers should do the same. This agreement is a legally binding agreement once signed but all parties involved.

About 99% of buyers will make an offer with what we call contingencies… what was that? Yes, I call it the ‘buts’. I’d like to buy the house but: I need a mortgage and the house needs to qualify, I want to make sure the house doesn’t have serious flaws, I want to make sure I really want to live in that neighborhood, I want to….

The list if reasons can be different for everyone. Some of you might say, wait a second, you cannot have an endless list of ‘buts’. Basically the main ones are: Financing, Inspections and Title.

Financing: the house needs to appraise and the bank needs to agree.

Inspections: buyer can do any and all inspection as to satisfy himself as to the condition of the property. This covers a wide range if subjects, even the neighborhood is involved. That’s why the list is endless: depending on property and buyer. Everyone has different priorities.

Title: once the escrow is opened,  the title company provides a preliminary title report, stating the legal owners, the liens against the property, the easements etc etc. A problem with title can severely delay the sales process.

In our area, in general,  the contingency period is 17 days. This period gives a buyer the time to have all ‘contingencies’ taken care of. Should something seriously pop up you can either ask for an extension to do more inspections, ask for money to remedy the problem, sign of on the contingencies and move forward with the sale or decide that this is not your house and cancel the dale. You can say, when inspection period is up you have to really decide (what is that expression again?).

There is a lot more to say about the subject but this is the basics to remember about the ‘buts’.

Have a great Sunday!

Mirjam

Great news from the Sonoma County Permit & Resource Management department!

For a limited time, permits to legalize non-permitted construction will not be subject to civil penalties and investigative fees.

Projects eligible to participate are:

Residential buildings and accessory structures  •  Construction completed prior to July 13, 2010 • ‘Self-Disclosed” construction

Eligible permit applications must be received between August 1, 2010 and February 1, 2011.

Now is the time to safe money, permitted construction always results in higher value!

Mirjam

Today I am not going to talk about HAFA or distressed properties, no something else caught my eye in the CAR newsletter I received this week.

There is something special about owning an older home. Personally, I love older homes in older neighborhoods. For that reason, I love the MacDonald area. But older homes are built in a time when building rules and products where different and there are new laws to comply with when remodeling or perhaps selling a house.

Starting today, renovations that disturb lead-based paint in older residential dwellings and child-occupied facilities must generally comply with the Lead-Based Paint Renovation Rule of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Under the newly implemented rule, renovators of target housing built before 1978 must now be trained and EPA-certified to perform safe work practices to prevent lead contamination.  Additionally, renovators must deliver EPA’s lead renovation pamphlet to an occupant within 60 days before a project begins (and, if mailed, at least seven days before a project begins).  Renovators must also obtain the occupant’s signed acknowledgment of receipt or substitute documentation as specified.

The EPA issued this rule in 2008, but delayed implementation until now.  The rule generally applies to building contractors, handymen, residential landlords, property managers, and anyone else who is paid to perform renovations or to direct workers to perform renovations as specified.  The lead renovation rule does not apply to homeowners renovating the homes they live in.  However, sellers of target housing must, among other things, disclose to their buyers any known lead-based paint and lead-based paint hazards (C.A.R. Form FLD).

Should you decide to sell your older home and are going to repaint the house, you need to keep the above in mind.

Have a beautiful day!

Mirjam

For all of us in Sonoma County the name Clem Carinalli is a familiar name. Once a name of trust and reliability, now a name connected to scandal and swindle. This morning’s Pressdemocrat has an interesting article about the shock of the investors.

Interestingly, halfway in the articles, several investors did admit that they also have themselves to blame by not doing their due diligence as to the investments they were making.

Due diligence… related to Real Estate, many times used in the CAR purchase agreement we generally use and the disclosures being given to sellers and buyers.

It used to be ‘buyers beware’ and sellers/agents were not statutary obligated to disclose anything they know about a property and affects the desirability of a property. However… always and I mean always read your disclosures, if you don’t understand what you are reading, talk to your Realtor, Mortgage broker, Home Inspector, Pest Inspector, Escrow officer etc etc. Not only do you have the right to do so, you also owe it to yourself to do so. These professionals are there to help you. Sometimes they might ‘assume’ that you understand every document you sign and read, please don’t hesitate to ask, the only ‘dumb’  question is a question not asked.

For myself, I have included a copy of the purchase agreement as wel as some general disclosure documents in a Buyers Guide I put together for my buyer clients. Quite frankly I hope they take the time to read it and mark the items they don’t understand. I love working with people who like to educate themselves as to what they are doing.

   It is a beautiful autumn day in Sonoma County, enjoy it.

Mirjam

After a soggy Friday it turns out to be a sunny weekend. The perfect weather that we are used to in Sonoma County -aren’t we spoiled rotten and loving every minute of it?

Recently we had some pretty interesting articles in the Pressdemocrat -specifically one on Oct 12th 2007 - about the tremendous amounts of foreclosures… Yes, it’s better not to have any at all but let me put this into perspective:

Although they say foreclosure filings have tripled from last September to this September, we only have 272 Sonoma County homes in default or foreclosure. And they admit some might have been double counted due to multiple loans on the property.

Let’s put it in actual perspective. According to the article, that is one in 711 households, for a total of 193,392 households in Sonoma County. If my math is correct, that is .14% of the properties in Sonoma County… less than ¼ of 1%!!!
Let’s get real about our market and realize that this is a perfect market to buy and also to move up. (I will post more about this the coming weekd)

Of course, unless you are one of the 272 households…

Enjoy the rest of the weekend and should you decide to go home shopping: call us first for a list of excellent opportunities.

Mirjam

(707) 486-2638

 Last week I was on a Cruise with Holland America in Alaska and on our hike in Ketchikan we came by a very interesting little ‘fixer’.

Looking at the amount of moss on the roof it really brought home the amount of rainfall in Ketchikan every year, it’s a rain forest area. That gives a whole different meaning to mold….

This is only one of the reasons why it’s wise to hire a local Realtor when selling or buying. You need someone who is familiar with the area. For a seller, you want to have all the necessary disclosures taken care of and for buyers, you want to know everything that there is to know with regards to the desirability of  the property you are about to buy.

It’s easy to find homes for sale with all the information available, it’s easy to post a home on the internet. It is something else to stay current with local developments regarding the sales process, maybe a local ordinance, a change in required paperwork, a change in the contracts. Chris Iverson, a realtor in Palo Alto wrote an interesting article on the subject.

In Sonoma County, things are constanly changing. A recent change was in Graton, there is a sewer lateral that affects all home owners who are thinking about selling their property. Just so you know…

Have a great day!

Mirjam