Mejgan Koenig liked this post
Do you need to miss a mortgage payment to qualify for a short sale? Wouldn’t the lender rather foreclose on your property rather than approve a short sale?
Watch and find out the answers!
Got the FHA Blues? Try a Low Down Payment Conventional Loan
March 1, 2012 By
The new office. #babiesofinstagram
February 29, 2012 By
“Houses Are Even Better Than Stocks”
February 27, 2012 By
“I’d buy up ‘Millions’ of Single-Family Homes If I Could” – Warren Buffett, Monday morning 2/27/2012.
Check out the video from CNBC. It’s a 22 minute clip, so if you’re interested in the blurb about the housing market, fast forward to the 5-minute mark.
Warren Buffett says along with equities, single-family homes are a very attractive investment right now.
Appearing live on CNBC’s Squawk Box, Buffett tells Becky Quick he’d buy up “millions” of single family homes if it were practical to do so.
If held for a long period of time and purchased at low rates, Buffett says houses are even better than stocks. He advises buyers to take out a 30-year mortgage and refinance if rates go down.
The whole CNBC article can be found here.
What can you take away from his advice? Well, I think it is pretty straightforward.
It’s time to take advantage of these 3 current market fundamentals:
- the crushed real-estate market
- the crushed interest rates
- the crushed sentiment of buyers.
In my opinion, however, we’re already coming off the bottom floor of real estate prices. So there’s no real reason for any further delay!
If you want to take advantage of this ‘Perfect Storm’ of home buying,
contact me today to discuss your options and best strategy (click here!).
Little toes. Little feet.
February 20, 2012 By
Rarely Available REO Townhouse in Union City Near BART
February 18, 2012 By
Rarely Available Tri-Level townhouse at the Pacific Terrace Development. It’s right across from the BART station in Union City. This property is listed as a Bank-Owned REO.
Listing Price: 398,500
Address: 35117 11th Street
City: Union City
State: CA
ZIP: 94587
Address: 35117 11th Street
City: Union City
State: CA
ZIP: 94587
MLS # (if any): 40561707
Square Feet: 1,675
Bedrooms: 3
Bathrooms: 2.5
Garage: 2
Square Feet: 1,675
Bedrooms: 3
Bathrooms: 2.5
Garage: 2
REO Property in Livermore, Sunset West Neighborhood – Quick Video
February 16, 2012 By
Mejgan Koenig liked this post
Listing Price: 385000
Address: 1254 Murdell Lane
City: Livermore
State: CA
ZIP: 94550
Address: 1254 Murdell Lane
City: Livermore
State: CA
ZIP: 94550
MLS # (if any): 40561176
Square Feet: 1438
Bedrooms: 4
Bathrooms: 2
Garage: 2
Square Feet: 1438
Bedrooms: 4
Bathrooms: 2
Garage: 2
Just Say NO To Faxing. E-Sign!
February 10, 2012 By
48 Years.
Yup, that’s how long we’ve had the venerable and indispensable modern commercialized version of the fax machine at our disposal. That’s long enough.
It’s 2012.
There are MUCH more efficient ways of transmitting documents. Email is a universal way of sending documents these days. Just a few years ago, however, it did require you to possess a 40lb desktop computer with an internet connection.
But now, almost everyone I know has a smartphone that allows you to send and receive emails anywhere in the world. At home, work, school, the mountains, the beach, just to name a few (can you come up with a few more creative places??).
Ok.
So transmitting documents is a no-brainer. The problem now is signing and returning a document. That’s a wee bit more difficult…until now. Welcome to DocuSign Ink. They’ve just released their mobile apps for Android, iPhone and iPad. They literally just released this app last week (February 2, 2012). I have to say, I’m quite impressed.
DocuSign has been around for a number of years with some great products. However, the problem has been the lack of ease for end-users (clients) to sign documents. It generally required the use of an actual computer (perish the thought!), and then after a painful and slow process, you could actually coax digital signatures out of recipients. But not any more. DocuSign Ink is a FREE app, no subscriptions, no ‘pay per signature.’ It’s just ridiculously simple. Give it a shot and download the app!
Now that you’ve got the app, it’s time to find a home and write up a contract together! Without all that messy paper work.
However, if you’re just not thrilled about all this DocuSign sweetness, you can always resort to your PDF annotation app of choice on your mobile device. If you’re a iPad or iPhone user, I can only strongly recommend PDF Expert. This app totally rocks. Not only can you sign PDF documents, you can fill out forms, annotate documents with highlighters, draw shapes, strike-through words, re-organize pages (including inserting and deleting pages). This list goes on…
Honestly, I don’t work for or get any referrals from these two companies. I just dig what they’re doing.
I love it when tech ‘simply works.’ 
Syndicate. Zestimate. IDX Participate.
February 7, 2012 By
Take a good look at this graphic.
It illustrates a simple point:
If you hire California Pacific Brokers to list and sell your home, not only will your home be marketed and advertised here, it will be blasted out to the ends of the earth (IDX).
Pretty good deal, eh?
I think so.
Amazingly, an increasing amount of real estate brokerages are pulling the plug on the syndication of ‘their’ listings. Apparently, they desire to be the sole gate-keepers of this data: the sellers’ home details.
There is quite a bit of politicking going around on this subject right now. However, my basic sense, is that it doesn’t quite serve the very people to whom these listings actually serve: the sellers.
It’s true, many of these listing aggregators jumble up information and skew real world facts and figures in favor of formulas and factoids (zillow, trulia, etc…). However, they do serve up a googolplex of information; and that’s what people seem to be in search of. Three cheers for the information age! The cat’s out of the bag now…can’t put it back in.
Bottom line: if you want your home marketed to the greatest extent possible, syndicated out to a ridiculous quantity of websites conceivable and exposed to the largest audience available, you’ve come to the right place!
Buying a Foreclosure at the Court House? Here’s What You’ll Need:
January 31, 2012 By
In a word: CASH.
Heading to the court house to buy the home of your dreams (or perhaps just a good solid investment)? Then here are a few tips to get you started.
To bid you need to qualify, which means you will be required to show the auctioneer identification, and cash or cashiers checks sufficient to cover the FULL AMOUNT you wish to bid. Yup, that’s allot of cash, but this endeavor is not for the faint of heart.
Most investors take cashiers checks made out to themselves. If you are not the winning bidder, you can easily redeposit the funds, and if you are the winning bidder, you can endorse the check over to the trustee.
Question: How do I know what properties are going up for auction? What is the opening bid amount?
The information is public, but can be a bit difficult to obtain. To get started, you can do a search right here on my PreForeclosure and Auction search page.
The lender gets to make the first bid, which is called the opening bid. Some now also refer to it as the drop bid, because lenders now often substantially discount the opening bid from the amount owed. The lender / trustee is under no legal obligation to announce the opening bid in advance of the sale.
They typically release the opening bid the day before or the morning of the sale. Sometimes the opening bid is not announced until the sale starts. The research team at ForeclosureRadar works diligently to post opening bids as quickly as possible. The information provided on my PreForeclosure and Auction search page comes from this valuable resource.
Want to see what happens at an auction? Check these video’s out:
Foreclosure Auction on the county courthouse steps
Here’s my take: Buying a property at the county courthouse steps is best left to the professionals.
Don’t get me wrong, buying a home at discounted price is a great thing. There are numerous other aspects of the process that can potentially wreck your financial well-being.
For example:
- What is the true condition of the home?
- Who currently occupies the home? the previous owner? or tenant? or squatters??
- What is the condition of title? is it clear or clouded? are there any other outstanding liens?
- There is no refund! No inspection period. It’s a take it or leave it scenario.
A safe bet for budding investors and home buyers, is to simply buy a bank-owned home. This is known as an REO. These have already been through the foreclosure process, all liens wiped out, clear title is generally guaranteed and insured. The bonus: You get an inspection period, your deposit is refundable for a certain period of time, you can finance the purchase (instead of relying on cash only).
Here are few REO properties in the local area:
Showing properties
1 - 15 of 55.
See more REO Random Bay Area Properties .
(all data current as of
5/19/2012)
-
$409,900 : 34262 BARNFIELD PL, FREMONT3 beds, 2 full baths
-
$550,000 : 3066 Crystal Creek Dr, San Jose4 beds, 2 full, 1 part baths
-
$649,000 : 4117 CRISFIELD LN, PLEASANTON3 beds, 2 full baths
-
$539,900 : 2524 Glen Ian Ct, San Jose5 beds, 3 full baths
-
$417,500 : 172 Carnegie Dr, Milpitas4 beds, 2 full baths
-
$354,900 : 14142 TRINIDAD RD, SAN LEANDRO4 beds, 2 full baths
-
$500,000 : 363 N Rengstorff Av #8, Mountain View2 beds, 2 full, 1 part baths
-
$407,970 : 1239 Trumpeter Pl, San Jose2 beds, 2 full, 1 part baths
-
$380,000 : 7860 HAZELNUT DR, NEWARK4 beds, 2 full baths
-
$398,900 : 1613 Hermocilla Wy, San Jose4 beds, 2 full, 1 part baths
-
$529,900 : 560 Bellwood Dr, Santa Clara4 beds, 2 full baths
-
$550,000 : 18937 MADISON AVE, CASTRO VALLEY4 beds, 2 full baths
-
$419,900 : 19551 FOREST AVE, CASTRO VALLEY2 beds, 1 full, 1 part baths
-
$590,000 : 1080 SILVER MAPLE LN, HAYWARD4 beds, 3 full baths
-
$434,000 : 5845 SUNROSE AVE, NEWARK4 beds, 2 full, 1 part baths
Listing information deemed reliable but not guaranteed. Read full disclaimer.
