Ranch for sale

In a few weeks I will be putting an awesome ranch on the market. It's 22.45 acres in Altadena. It has a 3 bedroom home on it, a few barns, a riding ring.....basically an equestrian estate property that couldn't be closer to the city.

Got appraisal issues?

These days with the HVCC that Congress requires, there are a lot of appraisal issues. Here's a doozey: I'm representing a buyer of a 4,000 sqft 5 Bed Spanish home on a 21,000 sqft view lot in LA, purchasing it for a great deal: $875,000. The buyers lender, a huge lender, ordered the appraisal. They sent a guy from Corona, and he didn't know the area, and submitted his appraisal at $774,000. The loan officer and I looked at the 6 comparables: 5 were 3 bed comps, 5 were more than 20% smaller, the appraiser miscalculated the size of the lot by over 50%, and the appraiser used a comp on a street well known for collapsing hillside homes. I could go on and on. Now we have to ask permission from the appraiser to re-evaluate, and they can ignore us if they want. What else can we do? My client can cancel, can try to negotiate with the seller (unlikely since the seller will probably accuse us of working in bad faith), or my client can start from scratch with a completely new lender, pay for another $500 appraisal, and hope they don't assign another %&$@#!

The Fed really has some influence

Nationwide sales of "used homes" plunged 17% in December 2009. It was the largest monthly drop in 40 years of record keeping. Why? The Fed didn't extend the their free money bailout tax credit until the last minute, pushing people to complete their sales earlier. A lot like the cash for clunkers program, and where are we at with that now?

Out of control January

I've been so busy, too busy to blog. Lots of great properties coming up. Been busy with all the preliminary things that need to be done: layouts, staging, professional photoshoots, termite inspections, paperwork and more paperwork.

I went after an expired listing in my neighborhood, a listing that another agent had for 6 months and couldn't sell. I listed it, did my "thing", and got multiple offers, including an all cash offer in 6 days and opened escrow last week. Here is the property: www.1194NorthHolliston.com My seller is incredibly happy with the price, as I am.

HOA's....a little interesting info.

Over one third of all homes in California are in some kind of common interest development ("CID"), and the number is growing. Almost all new developments are in CIDs. Often referred to as HOA (Homeowners Associations). Some CIDs aren't residential at all, such as some office buildings and industrial parks. There are 4 types, but if you want to know what type, don't look at the building, look at the paperwork. There is what's called an "own-your-own", which is the simplest and oldest, but you don't get a deed. These are tough to finance, if at all. Second is a Stock Cooperative where the association holed title to the entire property. These are rare also. Most common is a Condominium, where you own the airspace, but also get a deed, and are normally easy to finance. Last is a PUD (Planned Urban Development), which are normally, but not always, tract housing. When looking at a new home, you should ask what kind of CID it is, it can affect your financing, your control, the value, and your sanity.

Wachovia approval

I just got approved to fast-track anyone that has a home they want to sell that has a Wachovia loan (s) higher than the market value. If the home is in LA County, is your personal residence, has a balance higher than the value of the home plus closing costs, then I can fast-tract, within 45 days, a short sale. I can also negotiate up to $8,500 bonus to the seller upon close of escrow. No promises, the bonus is on a case-by-case scenario. The information needed from the seller is minimal, the contact I have at the bank is direct and one-stop, and they will negotiate a non-recourse deal where you don't have to pay back the loss, and not pay taxes on the loss. I think that a big investor bought a big pool of Wachovia loans when the bank went under and wants to cash out, this is the only reason I can think that would prod a bank to offer this to me. Interested, let me know. Not interested in selling, then you should have me help you get your loan modified. This is probably about the easiest bank to work with out there.

Report: Home Prices Likely to Hit Bottom in March

Report: Home Prices Likely to Hit Bottom in March Home prices in 45 of the largest housing markets are expected to fall another 4.2 percent before they hit bottom in March, according to First American CoreLogic’s LoanPerformance Home Price Index.By October 2010, prices are expected to be heading upward again by about 1 percent compared to 2009.The report warned that this progress could be jeopardized by an increasingly large “shadow inventory” of homes owned by banks but not yet on the market. The problem is particularly acute in Michigan and Ohio cities, the report said. It projected a 12.7 percent further decline in values in Detroit, an 11.4 percent decline in most of the rest of southeast Michigan, and a 6.3 percent fall in Cleveland.The report expects the strongest recoveries next year in California cities. These include:
San Francisco, up 5.7 percent
Los Angeles, 5 percent
San Diego, 4.7 percent
Sacramento, 4.6 percent
Source: Inman
In Pasadena, on a price-per-squarefoot basis, we hit bottom in mid 2010, in all areas except the Northwest quadrant. Source: iTech MLS.