Have you been shying away from older fixers, hoping to buy a newer or remodeled home?
With the thin inventory, it might be wise to consider expanding your target.
Here’s one on a quiet culdesac with no fees that wouldn’t take much to revive:
Update – this went pending a few days later.
The main point of the article published in Realtor magazine was to spotlight how shady, fraudulent dealings by realtors are bad for the market. Specifically, I’m talking about when listing agents sell a new listing to their own buyer before inputting it onto the MLS.
Realtor fraud is bad for business, yet nobody talks about it. Shady shenanigans are allowed to exist, and in some circles they are encouraged, for one reason – to pad the wallets of agents. When you see some of the finest realtors in town doing it, you know you got a problem:
I usually don’t direct any blog material towards agents – can the regular bubbleinfo audience can be patient while I try to make a difference? Thanks.
From NAR’s Realtor Magazine:
It’s widely agreed that foreclosures and REO properties devastate nearby home values and impede the housing recovery. But we don’t hear similar complaints about short sales. How do the two categories compare where housing prices and a healthy real estate market are concerned?
Here’s my take on their differences:
– Seller motivation issues. Properties listed as short sales are often occupied by home owners who aren’t concerned with getting top dollar. Instead, their motivation may be to extend their “free rent” program or get out of their financial obligation to pay off a mortgage. Consequently, they often don’t fix up their house to sell it and may be less than cooperative about showings. On the other hand, REO listings are vacant properties and have a lockbox for easy access.
– Delays. Short sales require that home owners submit their financials to the bank every month—and if they don’t, the sale stalls. The delays and uncertainties make these listings very difficult to sell. In contrast, it takes a week or so to get a REO listing into escrow, with deals closing in about 30 to 45 days, whereas short-sale approvals these days take 30 to 60 days. To be fair, this is an improvement over a few years ago when it could take six to 12 months or more to hear from a lender.
– Pricing. Short-sale agents often price their listings aggressively low to compensate for the difficulty in selling. They hope that a lower price will draw buyers interested in a bargain. REO listings, on the other hand, are appraised by neutral third parties and priced for retail sale by the asset managers, who have a fiduciary duty to their investors to maximize return. So-called “bank deals” are largely a myth—asset managers don’t determine retail value and then knock off 10 percent or more. And if they do inadvertently price a property too low, their selling strategy enables every buyer to make an offer within the first few days. When that happens, the sales price can be bid up to retail—or even higher.
– Buyer preference. Buyers shy away from short sales because of their uncertain, murky reputations. Because of lower demand, they sell for a lower price. But there is a high demand for REOs because bank-owned properties enjoy the reputation that they are underpriced, even though they have been selling well for years.
– Fraud potential. Short sales are fertile ground for fraud. These properties, priced to sell by the listing agents, are sometimes shopped around exclusively to a small group of buyers already known by those agents. Deals that are made “prior to listing input,” and sold at an untested price without open-market exposure, are unethical in my view—and if district attorneys were to investigate, those transactions might appear fraudulent. Now, those listing agents might claim that if the bank approves the sale, then who cares? However, the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®’ Code of Ethics states that NAR members are to treat all parties honestly. It is not honest to send your short-sale package to the lender for approval and claim that you exposed the property to the open market if you haven’t actually done that. By comparison, REO asset managers insist on open-market exposure to ensure the best possible sales price.
As an industry, we should acknowledge that REOs offer a better way to sell homes and improve the housing market than short sales—for consumers and practitioners. Vacating houses, sprucing them up, putting a lockbox on them, and exposing them to the open market for a period of time is how you can sell distressed properties for the best price.
Jim Klinge has been selling homes since 1984 and is broker-owner of Klinge Realty, a company of eight agents with headquarters in Carlsbad, Calif. He and his renegade blog, bubbleinfo.com, have been featured on ABC News Nightline, CNBC TV, and Reason.tv, as well as in The Wall Street Journal, Businessweek, Grant’s Interest Rate Observer, and the Los Angeles Times.
Thanks to booty juice for sending this in from bloomberg.com:
A week after Christine Lynch listed her house in the Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles for $3.625 million, she had seven offers. Within 10 days, a deal was reached for the five-bedroom, six-bathroom home — and for $225,000 more than she asked.
“My first reaction was, ‘Wow, I guess we’re really doing this,’” Lynch, 55, said in an interview. The all-cash transaction was completed on April 23. “I was really surprised by this level of interest and how quickly it sold,” she said.
Bidding wars are breaking out for luxury homes in such wealthy Los Angeles enclaves as Brentwood, Beverly Hills and Bel Air as an increasing number of buyers bet on rising home prices and investors return to the market. Even properties in need of extensive renovation are being fought over by shoppers who expect to resell them for more after a remodel or rebuild.
“The percentage of people who think prices are only going to go up is the greatest I have ever seen in my career,” said Syd Leibovitch, president of Rodeo Realty Inc. in Beverly Hills.
Sales of Beverly Hills homes priced at $2 million and higher climbed 11 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier to 39, according to DataQuick, a San Diego-based provider of property information. In Brentwood, whose residents include actress and singer Julie Andrews, they increased 56 percent to 25, and in Malibu they gained 64 percent to 23.
You may have seen this in yesterday’s UT:
Spring home sales in San Diego County continued to heat up in April, DataQuick figures released Wednesday showed.
The county recorded 3,559 sales last month, the highest home-sale tally for an April since 2006, when 3,974 homes were sold. April’s count is almost 10 percent higher than March’s and 8.6 percent higher than April 2011.
March-to-April sales gains in San Diego County are not uncommon, but the growth this year has bested sales gains in 2011 and 2010.
Prices also rose locally. The median amount paid for a home in San Diego was $329,500, up 2.8 percent from March and up 2.4 percent from a year ago.
The UT reported that sales and prices increased last month. Will it continue?
Here are the April and May detached sales in North San Diego County’s coastal region:
| Year | April Sales | April $/sf | May Sales | May $/sf |
| 2008 | ||||
| 2009 | ||||
| 2010 | ||||
| 2011 | ||||
| 2012 |
Obviously we have two weeks’ worth of closings left in May, but because most escrows close towards the end of the month, it looks like we might be in for a big surge.
All we need are 171 more closings this month to reach 300 sales in May – and there are 184 houses marked contingent, and 481 pendings (with 174 of those marked pending prior to April 15th). And how about that pricing, around $400/sf?
A rarity here – a super custom 5,083sf house built in 2008 on 2.21 acres for only $819,000!
CALABASAS, Calif. – Adding to its foreclosure prevention initiatives, Bank of America has launched a nationwide program that offers delinquent mortgage customers increased assistance with relocation expenses – between $2,500 and $30,000 – at the completion of a qualifying short sale.
“Bank of America is committed to providing alternatives to foreclosure whenever possible,” said Bob Hora, home transition services executive for Bank of America. “This program can help customers make a planned transition from ownership when home retention options have been exhausted or they have made a decision not to keep the home.”
The short sale relocation assistance program builds on the bank’s already robust short sale initiatives, which led to 200,000 completed short sales in the last two years and another 30,000 in the first quarter of 2012. This program is based on a similar incentive offer that Bank of America tested in Florida last year.
To qualify for the enhanced relocation assistance payments under the new program, the seller must work proactively with the bank to obtain a preapproved sales price prior to submitting a purchase offer to the bank. A short sale must be initiated by the end of this year and close by September 26, 2013, to be eligible for the payment. Qualifying short sales that have already been started but have not closed may be eligible for the relocation assistance.
The amount of assistance provided under the new program will be determined on a case-by-case basis using a calculation that includes the value of the home, amount owed and other considerations.
Initially, the program will be offered on mortgages that are owned and serviced by Bank of America.
While available nationally, Bank of America anticipates greatest response to the program will come from borrowers in California, Nevada, Arizona, Florida and other states hardest hit by the economic downturn and falling property values.
Customers who believe they may be eligible for Bank of America’s short sale relocation assistance program may contact program specialists at 877.459.2852.
To help homeowners understand the short sale process and other foreclosure avoidance programs, Bank of America encourages them to visit the Home Transition Services website at www.bankofamerica.com/hometransition.
From Reuters:
When Jennifer Anderson’s family could no longer afford their mortgage and lost their home, she expected many years to pass before they would again become property owners.
But less than two years later, in March, they purchased a $297,000 house outside Phoenix, Arizona, after qualifying for a loan backed by the U.S. government.
They joined a small but growing number of Americans who are making a surprisingly quick return to homeownership after defaulting on their loans or being forced into short sales that cost their banks money.
“We didn’t really expect it,” said Anderson, 40. “We were resigned to the fact that we were going to be in a rental property for a while.”
Financial problems arose after she lost her job as a customer service representative for a health insurance company and her husband’s hours at an automaker were cut. To make matters worse, they used up her retirement savings trying to keep their home.
Data is not available, but interviews with more than 30 lenders, builders, Realtors and consumers suggest that a growing number of Americans are getting back into the housing market, even though they went through a foreclosure, bankruptcy or short sale in recent years.
“Most are not ashamed or bashful about what happened because so many people were forced into that reality in the last six years,” says Graham Epperson, vice president of sales in Arizona for the PulteGroup, a leading U.S. homebuilder.
A client had Rock It Surfaces handle their kitchen-counter needs, and were very satisfied. One of the best aspects is the ease of getting an accurate quote – you take in your diagram with measurements, select your favorite granite slab from the yard, and walk out with the actual quote to complete the job, start-to-finish.
Having consolidated the estimating, fabricating, and installation into a one-stop shop enables Rock It to produce a quality product for a reasonable price – most kitchens can be done for less than $5,000. Their website is a great resource: www.rockyourhome.com
Located in an exclusive Whistler, B.C. neighborhood halfway up a mountainside, this house was designed for a client from London, England who enjoyed the timber structures characteristic of the typical Whistler Chalet but wanted something unique that would capture the ambience without the cookie cutter organization and aesthetic.
Are you looking for an experienced agent to help you buy or sell a home?
Contact Jim the Realtor!
CA DRE #01527365, CA DRE #00873197
