Category

Buyers

Dec 12
0

Foreclosures… How is our market?

By | Buyers, Economy, Foreclosure, Sellers, Short Sale, Sonoma County info, Visit WineCountry | One Comment

Only articles with spectacular-read bad news- titles sell. Quite often the perception is that every home sold is a foreclosure or a shortsale.  Our MLS keeps track of this and guess what??? In 2010 in Sonoma County,  about 50% of all the sold properties were distressed. While that is still not the way we like it to be, it brings perspective. Other fact to share: we already have a pretty stable real estate market in the last 3 years. Prices have remained fairly stable and it looks like it will stay that way. The higher end might come down some more, but the lower end of the market has been pretty much the same in the last 3 years, as a matter of fact, it has gone up a little bit. Numbers to follow.

Other myth: buying a distressed property is a better deal. While that is true in some situations, a foreclosed property is appraised as to the market value and then put on the market by the bank. And as to short sales: when a seller accepts your short sale offer, the bank needs to approve the loss and guess what? They have the property appraised to make sure it is sold at market value. So with this in mind, a regular sale might up being a ‘better deal’

Coming on the market in JC area in a few weeks fro now: it is a foreclosed property, we are waiting for the valuation -price-. This means that 2 local realtors will do a market

 Foreclosure in JC area

analysis and give the bank their opinion of the market value of the house. I will keep you posted.

2010 is not finished yet, the stats for 2010 will follow in the coming weeks. There are quite a few agents who do not sell distressed properties. Yours truly has specialized in foreclosure alternatives so 80% of the homes I sell are distressed/short sales.

Fun restaurant to try in Santa Rosa: Starks Steakhouse. Great bar area, great ambiance.

Mirjam

Nov 28
0

I want to buy your house! But…

By | Buyers, Disclosures, Economy, Mortgage, Sellers, Sonoma County info | One Comment

Ahh the ‘buts’ or the contingencies. As a proud home seller, you received the offer and if everything goes well, you’ll close escrow  in 30 days…

99.9% of all offers are made with contingencies: Inspection contingencies and loan contingencies are the usual mile stones. While inspection contingencies are easy to negotiate, the loan contingency can be a very different story. About 5 years ago, acquiring a mortgage loan was a very easy process and just about anyone could qualify. Today, with more than 1 in 7 mortgages 60 delinquent or worse, banks have begun to tighten lending qualification requirements, making the simple loan approval a thing of the past.

What this means to buyers and sellers is a potentially longer escrow process with more challenges and hurdles to jump through along the way. Many buyers schedule the moving truck and pack their bags, only to come to a sudden and screeching halts days before closing due to additional pre closing lender conditions related to income, credit and appraisal. New last minute lender conditions have become especially prevalent with conforming loan amounts over $417,000 and Jumbo loan amounts over $655,000. Ironically in my personal experience, traditionally difficult FHA loans have become easier and quicker to close.

In our area, just about everything happens on the day of closing.  The loan gets funded on the eve of closing, the escrow closes/records, the sellers moved out and buyers move in. While that has been the traditional picture, sellers might consider a different strategy. One option to consider is to deliver possession to the buyers 1 or 2 weeks after close of escrow. This means that the seller has more latitude in coordinating their packing and moving process, with less pressure to vacate the day of the sale. While this may not be the ideal situation for all buyers and sellers, it does lessen the potential stress that could occur if there were any last minute lending or funding issues that delayed the closing date.

Of course, the above applies to a regular sale, in case of a short sale, the majority of the home owners have stopped paying their mortgage anyway so in their case it would mean that they can stay in a home ‘for free’ longer.

To keep everything in perspective, the above are just hurdles in the sales process, things to expect and opportunities to find good solutions for all parties. In the grand scheme these are minor.

Mirjam

Sep 24
0

Your credit score, how do you improve it?

By | Buyers, Economy, Sellers, Sonoma County info, Visit WineCountry | No Comments

We all live our lives and don’t think to much about our credit score, however it is important to have a good credit score and it is important to keep track of it for many reasons: when you want to buy real property, make sure you are not a victim of identity theft and many more… Something we just need to do, if your credit is ruined, there is no easy fix to increase it. But there are things you can do to stay on top and to start with in case your credit score is ‘not that great’:

1. Pull your reports online — get them for free, no strings attached, at the government-authorized website AnnualCreditReport.com. This doesn’t get you your actual FICO scores, but it does get you the content of your report.

Look for errors that could be lowering your score: accounts that don’t belong to you, balances that are actually lower than reported, old debts that are paid off that should have been removed entirely (seven years for credit cards, 10 years for bankruptcies).

2. Consider reopening accounts you thought were open but have been closed because you haven’t used them in so long — it will help boost your utilization ratio, one element of your credit score that is dependent on how much available credit you have.

3. Pay down some debt. This both decreases your debt-to-income ratio (36 percent is the goal, including the proposed mortgage payment) and increases your credit score, if you do it right (see the next tip).

4. Don’t close any accounts. Instead, spread your debt out. The ideal utilization ratio is about 20-30 percent of your available credit overall, and on any given account. Closing accounts reduces the amount of credit that is available to you, so it makes it look like you’re closer to being maxed out.

So if you have one card that’s near its max and several others that have zero balances and you’re trying boost your score a bit, quickly, consider balance transfers to spread our your debt more evenly, aiming for 20-30 percent of the available credit on each card.

5. Use your credit regularly — and pay it on time, every time. FICO scores are not simply about making sure you have no debt. They are meant to be a measure that shows that you have a history of responsibly using and managing and repaying your debt.

6. Finally, if you are thinking to buy property in the coming years: check in with your mortgage broker. Have the broker pull your report and score, as the report she pulls is the one she’ll have to go by in the final analysis. If you’re really close to a score level that would empower you to qualify for a lower rate, the mortgage broker can actually run a credit diagnostic on your score and generate some recommendations for which actions you could take to raise your score by the needed few points.

None of these tips will get someone with a 500 credit score to a 700 (other than a massive debt reduction program). But if you’re trying to get a little boost to get you over a credit score hump, these can be potent and save you beaucoup bucks in interest.

And… don’t forget to smell the roses, grape crush is starting, many wineries have events going on in the coming time. Fall colors are beautiful!

Mirjam

Sep 11
0

Open House!

By | Buyers, Sellers, Visit WineCountry, Windsor, Wine Tasting, Winery with picnic place | 10 Comments

It used to be that doing an open house wasn’t that effective for selling a home. A few years ago the numbers showed that less than 0.5% of the houses was sold as result of an open house.

But the market is constantly changing and recently I have been noticing a shift. Buyers go to open houses to look at them without their agents and homes do get sold that way. I am wondering what the current percentage is, I haven’t seen any research from the NAR yet, if it comes out, I will keep you posted.

And this weekend I will do an open house at 7922 Fox Hollow Place in Windsor CA. Great property, it burned down in 1992 and was rebuilt and the owner put about $80,000 in upgrades in the house. This is for sure not a distressed property, if you know someone looking for a home that is ready to go, no worries about maintenance, here it is.

Also this weekend, lot’s of fun at the Francis Coppola winery in Geyserville . Harvest has begun, and they are celebrating with a weekend of winery events. The festivities kick off today  with Festival Vendemmia, our annual Wine Family Harvest Party, and continue on Sunday with an Italian Street Fair (11am-2pm), Kid’s Grape Stomp (12-2pm), and a live performance by BROTHERCAT (4-7pm).

Have a great weekend,

Mirjam