Friday July 30, 2010
Depending on your point of view, you can read a real estate market report and draw completely different conclusions than Joe Blow Realty down the street. Consumers find it difficult to understand the market because they don't whose opinion to trust. You can pretty much read a market report any which way you want.
Few real estate agents want to talk about how bad the market might be. They tend to gravitate toward the positive news in a market report and focus on that. For example, I read a Trendgraphix press release last week that my company puts out. The headline was "Pending Sales Rebound." The headline might be designed to make a reader conclude that the market is recovering.
Further on in the press release you learn that, in Sacramento, inventory jumped in June by 8% and sales declined by 3%. In fact, the per-square-foot price dropped 2% to $125.
Because I list a lot of homes all over the county, I am constantly preparing a CMA in dozens of areas for sellers. I see a different picture than most agents because my view is not concentrated on one specific neighborhood. I see active and pending sales prices that are lower than the last 3 months of comparable sales. That means prices are falling. So a 42% increase in pending sales doesn't mean diddly-squat. Pending sales increased in June over May last year, too.
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Wednesday July 28, 2010
Sellers have a very difficult time understanding why some buyers will write an offer on their
short sale without committing to buying that short sale. These buyers expect the seller to accept an offer, work to get short sale approval, and then the buyer will let the seller know whether the buyer intends to go into escrow.
This practice is utter nonsense, not to mention, writing multiple offers without the ability to close on each of those transactions could very well be against the law.
Some agents just don't know any better. I don't advise my buyers to adopt that practice. In fact, when I receive offers on my short sale listings, if a buyer won't put an earnest money deposit into escrow and promise not to write any more offers, I don't consider that buyer to be a buyer. Neither do my sellers. They consider that buyer to be a moron. And the buyer's agent who should know better is a doofus, too.
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Technorati tag: bogus short sale offers
Monday July 26, 2010
A strategic short sale can happen if the bank qualifies the property for a short sale without a hardship from the seller.
For years, banks have been insisting that sellers face some sort of hardship before the bank will grant the short sale. Not so anymore. If that sounds irrational or illogical to you, welcome to the club.
Strange as it might sound, some banks are not requiring a seller hardship; however, they do seem to want a story. That story can't be: I hate you, the value of my house has tanked and you owe me . . . read more about Short Sales Without a Hardship.
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Friday July 23, 2010
The
financial reform bill has its supporters and those who would like to drive icepicks through the hearts of our legislators. I, for one, am totally in love with the idea that a mortgage lender should actually qualify a borrower -- you know, verify the borrower's income, credit rating and employment. Just like the good old days before everything went to hell in a hand basket.
Not everybody agrees with this premise. And there are other parts of that financial bill that tick off people. One of the bigger changes that have mortgage brokers up in arms is the elimination of the YSP. How they ever got away with that practice for so long is beyond me. "Buuutt," mortgage brokers spit, "If borrowers were happy with the rate, what the hey?" Oh, stuff a sock in it.
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Technorati tag: financial reform bill
