To Buy or not to Buy…

Posted on October 16, 2011 by Mirjam

Operation Twist is the economic policy from the FED:  at their last official meeting in August, the policy making committee decided to keep interest rates low until 2013 …

This is good news for buyers… There is a time window to benefit from low interest rates… Time to get once’s financial house in order…

Some might think that waiting to buy is a better option, they decide to stay on the sideline… Smart idea???

Well depending on your situation: if you rent a home you pay for someone else’s  mortgage. Why rent when you can buy? All the first time home buyers I have been working with recently end up paying less in mortgage than in rent…

Will home prices go down further? All Real Estate is local. While the higher end in Santa Rosa/Sonoma County is expected to loose some more value in the coming time, the lower prices homes have been fairly stable in the last years.

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But what if home prices are coming down a little further? You never know when the market has hit bottom until it goes up again. At that point there will be a lot more competition.In the mean time: you have to live somewhere, might as well pay your own mortgage and take advantage of the tax benefits when owning a home…

Bottom line: the current market in Sonoma is a great market for buyers: although the inventory is low, there are great homes coming on the market all the time. There is no such thing as the perfect home. But right now there is the luxury of not having to worry about interest rates going up dramatically.

Last note: in Netherlands most rental homes are owned by the government, our first home after we got married was government owned. Home ownership is becoming more common but not like in the USA. It’s called the American Dream for a reason.

Have a great weekend and enjoy harvest season in Sonoma County: the first weekend is the 13th Annual Wines and Food Affair

Mirjam

Posted in Buyers, Economy, Interest rates, Investing in Real Estate, RE by the numbers, RE Investing, Wine Tasting | Leave a comment

Title Insurance: a Scam?

Posted on September 25, 2011 by Mirjam

When you buy a home and use a mortgage you pay for at least 3 insurance policies: Home Owners Insurance, Home Owners Title Insurance and Lenders Title Insurance. For an average home in Sonoma County, Title Insurance is around $1,800 for both policies. That is a lot of Peet’s Latte’s or paint, or carpet… And if you pay cash for a home, you can opt not to buy Title Insurance. A smart decision?

Last week I had an interesting conversation with Stewart Title, thanks to Jessica Smith, our Title rep. BTW, this was in preparation a presentation for the YPN Morning Buzz group They shared some interesting facts about Title Insurance. Side note : Title Insurance came into place because of inadequate US land record laws. When we moved from Netherlands to California, some friends where making jokes about us moving to the Wild West. When Paul started talking it made me smile, had to think of that.

• When the economy is bad there are more scams with Title/ownership. – One ‘popular’ scam in the Sacramento area has to do with home owners in distress who are upside down, not able to pay their mortgage. There is a company that promises to ‘take care of it’. In order to do this they have to take title to the house ;) . This is how:  a ‘fake’ document is recorded, showing that a new private lender has taken over the mortgage. This ‘private lender’ receives the money at closing . The ‘real’ lender receives nothing and eventually will foreclose on the property… Think about the innocent buyer, busf_transamerica_.jpgying this property without Title Insurance… will loose that house. An innocent buyer buying the house with Title Insurance can go back to the Title Company for help…

• Every one knows the Trans America Building in San Francisco… Remember these beautiful Redwood trees next to it? Well that is because of an overlooked PG&E easement that was right underneath the footprint of the building. Apparently when about to start breaking ground, the company hired to do that knew about the PG&E easement and suggested it would not be smart to start digging because of the PG&E lines… Long story short:  The Title Company who had insured the property/loan had missed that easement, they ended up buying the strip of land that is now a small park and paid to have the PG&E easement go around the Trans America Building… Next time you walk to that park, realized that that was paid for by a local Title Company…

There were more interesting stories about easements, deeds and scams. Bottom line when you buy property, always pay for Title Insurance. Chances something goes wrong are not that high but when there is a problem, it is extremely expensive.

Have a great weekend, it’s grape harvest time in Sonoma County, a lot of wineries have great events this special time of year.

Mirjam

Posted in Buyers, Disclosures, Economy, Investing in Real Estate, Sellers, Short Sale, Sonoma County info, Visit WineCountry, Wine Tasting | Leave a comment

Insurance and Real Estate on Sale

Posted on September 11, 2011 by Mirjam

Right now it is common in Sonoma County to buy a property below the value of what it would cost to rebuild… OK let’s read this again: it is more expensive to build a home than to buy one that is already there…

This not only means that building new developments is not interesting for home builders. This also means that a buyer has to make sure that the home owners insurance chosen at time of purchase will cover the cost to rebuild. Quite often, buyers will go with the cheapest bidder. In the blur of the buying process: the inspections, the financing, the reports etc, Home Owners insurance is quite often an overlooked item. Any lender requires insurance coverage, however they may not always look at whether  the coverage is enough. Recently I worked with a buyer who thought he had a great quote for his insurance policy. It was so cheap that luckily the lender he worked with realized this and strongly ‘encouraged’ him to change this. That is by the way that I am very happy with the team of professionals I love to work with : Erin Temple (Vantreo Insurance – phone 303-2574) and Darren Seliga (Seliga Financial – phone 577-8737). But that is beside the point;)

Reason for this blog posting is not only the national disaster that happened in New York 10 years ago but also a recent experience as well as an article I came across in the Huffinton Post. This article is about insurance coverage and disasters.  Usually it is not a national disaster when your house burns down, but one needs coverage in both situations…

sale-left-red.pngI might as well confess: the insurance coverage we have on our house is not on my list of priorities, it was when we choose the insurance we have right now, but then I forget about it in the hurry of every day living. My insurance agent, the aforementioned Erin Temple, reviews each insurance policy every year, to not only see if we are eligible for new discounts but also asks whether we had any changes in our life that might affect our insurance program. If you do not have a pro active insurance agent, it might make sense to have a yearly reminder on your calendar to initiate that call yourself… Or call Erin…

Moral of the story: with the current historic low interest rates as well as homes being ON SALE it is a great time to buy. Do not let insurance coverage be the forgotten stepchild…

And the cheapest is not always the best… quite often it turns out to be the most expensive. Even people with a Dutch heritage realize this;)

Have a most wonderful rest of the day

Mirjam

Posted in Around the house, Buyers, Sellers | 3 Comments

Housing Shortage?

Posted on August 21, 2011 by Mirjam

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Posted in Buyers, RE by the numbers, Sellers | Leave a comment

Foreclosures… how are we doing in Sonoma County?

Posted on August 14, 2011 by Mirjam

Foreclosures… it might feel that every home sold must be a foreclosure. But all real estate is local and despite what you may think we have a pretty consistent real estate market in Sonoma County. About 50% of the sales are regular sales -YES- and the other 50% is sort of equally divided by REO (foreclosures) and Short Sales. In the stat below, the ‘sold bank’ also includes short sales. This is not totally correct since a short sale is not a bank owned sale, but that’s how this company, (Terradatum) decided to call it.

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And what does this mean for you?

That the market in Sonoma County is not as bad as you think it is, that it is a great time to sell and move up and most of all that it is a great time to make the move you have been wanting to do for so long. We do not have a whole lot of inventory, right now I would like to see about 500 more homes on the market in Sonoma County…

And as a bonus: THE MORTGAGE INTEREST RATES ARE STILL AT HISTORIC LOWS!!! This won’t last that long, take advantage of of. Should you need a referral to a great lender, just call me: 707-486-2638. Depending on your plans I have a few great people I work with and consistently do an excellent job.

Enjoy the weekend, it’s a great time to do that hike and enjoy the outdoors, Sonoma County is beautiful!

Mirjam

Posted in Sonoma County info | Leave a comment

Adverse possession… a home for $16?

Posted on July 31, 2011 by Mirjam

My dear friend Gini sent an interesting link to a video about a man claiming an abandoned home trying to acquire title through adverse possession. An interesting concept. In Netherlands, the adverse possession of property is called ‘Kraken‘ it started in the sixties in big cities as a protest against empty properties while there was a housing shortage. It still happens mainly in the cities. Right now it is still legal to move into a home that has been empty for more than a year. This however is not done with the goal of permanent possession. Usually the city gets involved, they can even decide to donate a property to a non profit organization.

Also California has laws as to adverse possession. It appears that the time for adverse possession is 5 years and there are quite a bit of stipulations before one can claim a property.  I am not an attorney and I would recommend to seek legal council before starting the process of adverse possession like paying taxes etc.  This is needed to eventually claim adverse possession. It is not the wild west anymore although sometimes it might feel like it ;) ))

For now, a surer way is to buy a house. Right now owning is cheaper than renting. If you count all the money you need to pay taxes on a property to claim adverse possession while you are still not sure whether an owner might claim the property, you might as well use this money to buy a property. Interest rates are at historic lows and there are still  great mortgage products available allowing you to buy with a minimal down payment. For instance, large parts of Sonoma County qualify for  USDA loans. I am currently working with a first time home buyer buying a small home with a nice yard in Windsor. He will be using a USDA loan, his total housing 21104547.jpgexpense will be around $1,100 a month, and that is before his tax write offs. This program has income limitations, it is great for first time home buyers. Darren Seliga with Seliga financial in Santa Rosa is very familiar with this loan product, you can call him at :707-577-8737.

Mirjam de Rijk

Posted in Buyers, Sellers, Short Sale, Sonoma County info | 2 Comments

Latest Short Sale News for California residents

Posted on July 22, 2011 by Mirjam

LATEST NEWS : A lot of home owners have 2 mortgages against their property, we call that a senior and a junior loan. These second loans may be a home equity line of credit or a regular loan. This second loan was always nasty to deal with, it survives a foreclosure and usually you still owe on it after closing. UNTIL NOW…

Earlier this week Governor Brown signed into law Senate Bill 458, prohibiting a deficiency after a short sale for one-to-four residential units, regardless of whether the lender is a senior or junior lienholder.  Effective immediately for transactions closing escrow from this day forward, both senior and junior lienholders cannot require a borrower to owe or pay for a deficiency in a short sale.  This law also prohibits any deficiency judgment to be requested or rendered for senior or junior liens after a short sale of one-to-four residential units.  Any purported waiver of this rule shall be void and against public policy.
Although a lender cannot require a borrower to pay any additional compensation in exchange for a short sale approval, the new law does not prohibit a borrower from voluntarily offering a monetary contribution to a lender in hopes of obtaining a short sale.  A lender is also permitted under the new law to negotiate for a contribution from someone other than the borrower, such as other lenders, agents, relatives, and the like.

This means that there still is quite a bit to negotiate with lenders involved in a short sale. The good news is: when all is said and done and the deal closes, it’s DONE!

Great news I wanted to share with you, please spread the news to your friends and family. A short sale is a dignified solution for a difficult situation.

Mirjam

Posted in Buyers, Sellers, Short Sale, Sonoma County info | 1 Comment

Short Sales… and how about Tax Liens?

Posted on July 10, 2011 by Mirjam

When a person/business does not pay taxes the IRS can put a lien on a house. A contractor can do the same by the way, it’s called a mechanic lien. When a homeowner wants to avoid a foreclosure and do a short sale, there is no money to pay for these put of the proceeds of the sale. The IRS understands this predicament and has a form one can request a release of a lien, this is form 14135. The form is not hard to fill out, it asks for an appraisal report and there needs to be anfvsshortsalesquare.gif offer on the property. There is also a news article on the CA Franchise Tax Board about the same subject: Partial Release of Lien for Short Sales.

So don’t let a tax lien against your property stop you from doing a short sale to avoid foreclosure. Apparently also banks are not unwilling to accommodate the release of the liens. If you need

On a general note: in unincorporated Sonoma County, the sales tax is 9%, this seems high but that’s all perspective, in Netherlands the sales tax is in general 19% and 6% for food, medication and plants/seeds. This is the sanederland-1-euro-170.gifme for all of Netherlands, there is no difference between cities/provinces AND it is part of the price displayed in the store. When we were traveling from Canada to USA years ago, I thought I was cheated on my change when I bought something…

You will smile when you read this but pretty much in all of Europe and also Canada, sales tax is part of the displayed price. Travel tip to keep in mind by the way ;)

When I have visitors coming from Europe who have never been here before, this is something I explain to them so they don’t have to feel ‘cheated’ on their change. And that the exception is gas, the price of gas includes the sales tax.

Have a most wonderful day.

Mirjam

Posted in Foreclosure, Sellers, Short Sale, Sonoma County info | Leave a comment

House For Sale – Your Privacy and Safety

Posted on July 4, 2011 by Mirjam

Some time ago I posted a blog about Google and your Privacy.

Selling a home means that a property becomes a showcase, strangers walk through and see how a person lives. Where I come from (northern part of 449_klein.jpgNetherlands), privacy is important. People don’t open up their homes that easy, homes used to have a room to visit with visitors (voorkamer or parlour). A front door opens into a hallway with a door towards the family room: someone at the front door cannot see inside the house. Funda.nl is a great website to check real estate in Netherlands by the way.

When selling a property, safety and privacy become more and more important. Reason for this blog posting:

Last week my dear friend Diana had a nightmare: the house she is currently renting is being sold. She was worried that some ‘weird’ Realtor would use the lockbox to come in at night. This is a valid concern. If you do not know about the  Lockbox system we use in Sonibox.jpgoma County, a reason to worry. What Diane did not know: the Supra Lockboxes that are used to give Realtors access can be programmed to have timed access. This means that Realtors showing a property only have access to the key in the Lockbox when they are within the times that are programmed in the Lockbox: usually between 9 am and 7 pm.I am not the listing agent for that property and when Diane told me about her nightmare, I realized that the Realtor hired by the owner (she rents the place) had not shared with her this valuable information. Now Diane can sleep again at night: the lockbox on her front door has a timed access, no ‘weird’ real estate agent can come in a odd hours.  Other interesting tidbit: the moment an agent shows one of my listings, within a few minutes I receive an email showing the time and the name of the agent showing the property.

Lesson learned: the next time I do share my extensive marketing plan with a person who wants to sell his/her house, I will put even more emphasis on this small but oh so important feature of the lockbox system we use here in Sonoma County.

Your safety and your privacy is important, especially when selling a property.

Mirjam

Posted in Buyers, Dutch stuff, Privacy and Safety, Sellers, Sonoma County info | Leave a comment

It’s the Law!!!

Posted on June 26, 2011 by Mirjam

When moving to a new country the first thing to deal with is the difference in the laws. Traffic law is usually the first one: when you rent a car and drive of the airport parking lot. Yours truly has come to find out that usually police officers don’t respond when you tell them you were not aware of the law that you didn’t adhere to. The response: it’s the law… its-the-law.jpg

Funny story: my  husband was pardoned the first time he visited CA: when he drove from SF Airport to Cupertino and a police officer stopped him and found out he came straight from Netherlands he was warned that speed limits in CA are lower than in  Netherlands and he could not drive that fast ;) )) he got of with a warning, promising he would drive slower ;) )… When we finally moved to CA we both had to get used to the speed limits here…

With that said: There is a new law that affects everyone who lives in a home in California. Per July 2011 every home in California needs to be equipped with a Carbon Monoxide detector. This is next to the smoke detector every house needs to have. carbon-monoxide-detector.jpg

Reason: The Carbon Monoxide Poisoning Prevention Act of 2010 signed into law last year. Locally in Sonoma County, not having one could result in a $200,00 fine. Here is a link to the article in our local new paper the PressDemocrat this week.

There are more and more laws to comply with when you buy and sell Real Estate. They are part of the many disclosures your receive. Both sellers and buyers are always advised to read all the paperwork carefully.

The local hardware store is a great source for these new Carbon Monoxide filters. Home Depot has instructions on their website on how to choose and instal one that is right for your home.

Have a great week,

Mirjam

Posted in Around the house, Buyers, Disclosures, Sellers | Leave a comment