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Jim Klinge
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Are you looking for an experienced agent to help you buy or sell a home? Contact Jim the Realtor!

Carlsbad
(760) 434-5000

Carmel Valley
(858) 560-7700
jim@jimklinge.com


Journal

Inventory Watch – Growth

The intensity of the frenzy is determined by inventory – which grew this week, signaling some slow down in the market:

The UNDER-$1,200,000 Market:

Date NSDCC Active Listings Avg. LP/sf DOM Avg SF
April 29
201
$384/sf
36
2,599sf
May 5
195
$381/sf
36
2,633sf
May 9
207
$387/sf
35
2,624sf
May 18
241
$397/sf
33
2,566sf

The OVER-$1,200,000 Market:

Date NSDCC Active Listings Avg. LP/sf DOM Avg SF
April 29
620
$806/sf
94
5,183sf
May 5
606
$806/sf
93
5,223sf
May 9
628
$808/sf
93
5,150sf
May 18
653
$807/sf
92
5,161sf

You can feel it on the street, but a slight slow down only means fewer offers in the bidding wars. We would need a few weeks of reversal before the momentum takes a hit.

Posted by on May 18, 2013 in How Hot?, Inventory | 2 comments

Short-Sale Fraud by Realtors

scam alertThese are the short-sale scams mentioned in yesterday’s comments that deserve their own post as a resource for people to use to protect themselves.  If you have seen other tricks, include them in the comments so we stay aware!

The most common packages:

1. The listing agent spoons his lowball short-sale listing to an investor to start the lender-approval process. Agent then finds the retail buyer, and once the investor closes at the lowball price, they sell it to retail buyer and pocket the difference. 

Once a SS investor chimed in here that this is legit because he discloses to the lender that he is buying for the purpose of immediate re-sale for profit. I’m not sure why a bank would agree to that, but we do know that some banks’ short-sale departments are so busy that they will approve sales just to move product, and may not care as much about getting top dollar.

2. The listing agent can’t close the lowball deal so he tacks on a five-figure processing fee or lien-release charge instead. The short-sale processor is complicit though usually paid by buyer so fiduciary conflict there too, though they will claim to be a neutral 3rd party.

3. The investor approcahes the listing agent and agrees to have the LA represent them on the purchase so agent makes 6%. But the investor gets to negotiate the deal with the bank, and they go in ultra-low with or without the agent’s knowledge. If the investor gets it approved, hooray, they put in the standard $15,000 flipper package and make $100,000+ by selling it to the retail buyer they find later. If not, the seller has to start over on a short-sale process before he gets foreclosed.

4. Listing agent appears to expose property to the open market, and fields several offers. Short-sale closes months later for far-under your offer price, and an insider represented the eventual buyer – usually an agent in the same office.

Tell-tale evidence, usually left all over the MLS:

A. The five-second listing, where once the listing is inputted, it is immediately marked pending or contingent.

B. List-price reductions after marked pending/contingent, usually several smaller reductions over months of time.

C. Listing office represents both buyer and seller (listing agent gets a buddy in the office to help diffuse the obvious).

D. None or one photo, or a few terrible photos meant to throw people off the trail.

E. We saw in the news the idea of ‘negative staging’ where they beat up the house prior to appraisal.

F. Widespread abuse of fiduciary duty being inflicted by new and experienced agents, many of whom work at big-name legitimate firms whose managers look the other way.

Posted by on May 17, 2013 in Fraud, Scams, Short Sales, Short Selling | 7 comments

Not So Fast

CoreLogic said that while the data point to continuing price appreciation, the overall national rate of home price increases is projected to decelerate in 2013 from 2012 levels. The CoreLogic Case-Shiller Indexes project a 2.5 percent home price increase in 2013, as the market dynamic shifts again in bubble/crash metro areas. While homes in these markets are still significantly undervalued, the strong investor demand for foreclosed properties, record levels of housing affordability and other demand factors that have driven recent double-digit price gains are unlikely to persist throughout the year.

Price appreciation is also expected to contribute to an increased supply of available homes as owners who have been locked into their current homes due to negative equity or were just unwilling to sell at existing prices begin to list their homes for sale.  This will tend to curtail the portion of price increases that have been fed by unmet demand.

Dr. Stiff tamped down concerns of another housing bubble. “Even if double-digit price appreciation were to continue in the former bubble metro areas, there is no reason to believe that new home price bubbles are forming. That’s because single-family homes in these markets are still very affordable, even after last year’s large price gains. Consider Phoenix, where home prices rose 27 percent since the market hit bottom in 2011, making it the strongest residential real estate market in the U.S. Yet, home prices there are still 45 percent below their 2006 peak,” Stiff continued.

http://www.mortgagenewsdaily.com/05162013_corelogic_case_shiller.asp

not everywhere

Posted by on May 17, 2013 in Frenzy, Market Conditions | 0 comments

$250 Million Fraud

This is a big one……watch out!

koenigREDDING, Calif. — A man accused of cheating North Coast residents out of hundreds of millions of dollars in what prosecutors characterized as one of the largest real estate Ponzi schemes in California history has been convicted by a Shasta County jury.

James Stanley Koenig, of Redding, shook his head and rubbed his forehead as the verdicts against him were read on Monday, the Record Searchlight of Redding reported (http://bit.ly/16zpZTZ).

Prosecutors said Koenig and two accomplices bilked 2,000 investors out of $250 million. Many of the victims were retirees who lost much of their life savings.

Koenig, 60, accused of being the architect of the Ponzi scheme, was convicted on 35 of 36 felony counts, including securities fraud and two counts of first-degree burglary. He faces about 50 years in prison and is scheduled to be sentenced on June 11.

Gary Armitage, 62, was sentenced to 10 years in prison earlier this year after pleading no contest to conspiracy to commit a crime, fraud and sale by false statement. Jeffrey Guidi pleaded guilty to lesser charges and avoided prison time.

Prosecutors said the three men sold real estate investments, promising low-risk returns. But many of the projects faltered or were never finished. Still, the men continued to raise money from investors, using it to pay off earlier investors, according to prosecutors.

Koenig did not disclose that the company had defaulted on loans for some of the properties in its portfolio and also did not disclose his 1986 federal fraud conviction, prosecutors said.

The men were arrested after a 17-month investigation.

Posted by on May 16, 2013 in Fraud, Scams | 1 comment

The Vandals

The Vandals formed in 1980 in Huntington Beach. The band quickly built a reputation in the LA and Orange County punk rock community which also included bands such as Bad Religion, Descendents, Black Flag, T.S.O.L., the Germs, X, Suicidal Tendencies, The Dickies, and Fullerton’s Social Distortion.

This clip includes footage of a typical mosh pit of the era (1:35). Hat tip Shira!

Posted by on May 15, 2013 in Wednesday Rock Blogging | 2 comments

Prop 13 Threshold to 55%?

Hat tip to DOB for sending this in:

howardjarvistheheroThe pro-tax politicians in the Legislature continue to threaten Prop. 13, homeowners and small businesses.

Today at least 7 bills that would directly undercut various provisions of Prop. 13 will be heard in committee. If approved, these bills could cost every property owner thousands of dollars.

There are seven bills pertaining to Proposition 13 that are up in the Senate Governance and Finance Committee.  Six of these bills directly undercut various provisions of Proposition 13.

The bills are: SCA 3, 4, 7, 8, 9 and 11.

THE FOLLOWING BILLS PLACE A BULLSEYE ON PROPOSITION 13 AND TAXPAYERS:

Senate Constitutional Amendment 3 (SCA 3), Mark Leno (D—San Francisco): Lowers the threshold for school district per-parcel property taxes from two-thirds to 55%. This is a direct assault on Proposition 13 because it makes it easier to increase property taxes above Proposition 13?s one percent cap.

Senate Constitutional Amendment 4 (SCA 4), Carol Liu (D—La Canada) and Senate Constitutional Amendment 8 (SCA 8), Ellen Corbett (D—San Leandro): Lowers the threshold for the imposition, extension or increase of local transportation special taxes from the Proposition 13-mandated two-thirds vote to 55%. Most transportation special tax increases consist of very regressive sales tax hikes. These add to the burden of California taxpayers who already pay the highest state sales tax in the nation.

Senate Constitutional Amendment 7 (SCA 7), Lois Wolk (D—Davis): Lowers the threshold from two-thirds to 55% in order to approve a bond to fund public library facilities. Lowering the threshold for school facilities to 55% has already resulted in billions of dollars of additional property tax payments that otherwise would not have been approved by voters.

Senate Constitutional Amendment 9 (SCA 9), Ellen Corbett (D—San Leandro): Lowers the threshold from two-thirds to 55% to increase special taxes to fund community and economic development projects.

Senate Constitutional Amendment 11 (SCA 11), Loni Hancock (D—Berkeley): Lowers the threshold to 55% to allow for voters representing ANY local government entity to approve a special tax for ANY purpose. This is far and away the broadest application, and thus the most egregious, of these constitutional amendments.

Assembly Constitutional Amendment 8 (ACA 8), Bob Blumenfield (D—Woodland Hills): Lowers the threshold to 55% for city and county voters to approve a local bond measure in order to fund emergency service facilities projects.

One supportive bill, Senate Constitutional Resolution 25 (sponsored by State Senator Mark Wyland, R—Escondido) is also up in the committee today and honors Proposition 13 on its upcoming 35th anniversary.

Stay tuned: Two additional bills, Assembly Constitutional Amendments 3 and 8 also diminish Proposition 13′s protections. These will head to hearing soon.

http://www.flashreport.org/blog/2013/05/15/alert-attacks-on-prop-13-take-center-stage-in-legislature-today/

Posted by on May 15, 2013 in Prop 13 | 11 comments