You Are Invited to Attend

“The Home Buyer Experience”

Attend this Special Event to Learn the 7 Critical Concepts You Need to Know Before Buying Your Home…Especially in Today’s New Economy.

Expect to Learn:

• How to Prepare to Purchase a Foreclosure, REO, or Short Sale
• The True Power of The Mortgage and Property Tax Deductions
• Exciting Options for Home Buyer Financing o Credit Improvement Strategies…Whether Your Score is 620 or 720
• Key Indicators to Identify a ‘Great Deal’
• How to Time the Market and Know Exactly When YOU Should Buy
• Identify Your Non-Negotiables In Buying Your Home

When: Thursday, October 8th @ 6:30pm Reserve Your Seat NOW!

www.HomeBuyerExperience.com

Wachovia Bank has officially rolled out their Fast Track Short Sale Program in Southern California! The manager of the Short Sale Department spent a good deal of time in my office recently to talk about the merits of this program. The program applies to homeowners who are upside-down on their mortgage and have some type of personal hardship. A hardship can be due to job loss, loss of income, divorce, death, health matters, or a loan that's about to adjust whereby the homeowner can no longer afford the payments.

Wachovia is processing short sales for the loans they service as well as World Savings loans, and Wells Fargo Jumbo loans.

It seems that other banks are following suit; Bank of A...

With full understanding that real estate is actually made up of 'micro-markets', it's valuable to understand the national trends.

They speak volumes for the overall direction the market is headed.

Take a watch of the following video on the real estate market and pay special attention to the discussion about foreclosures and what they mean to you, specifically.

I was recently referred to American Foreclosure Specialists as a resource for homeowners that I meet with that are not ready to complete a Short Sale of their property.

AFS offers a range of options to distressed homeowners in the way of workout programs - from reinstatement, repayment plans, loan modification restructuring, forebearance plans,and short sales.

Stop Foreclosure On Your Home

This segment on last night's NBC 11 o'clock news really stirred me up.

The whole conversation about Loan Modifications is so controversial and confusing these days.

It's very difficult to know who to trust.

Please promise me that if you need a referral to a reputable resource that can help you determine if a loan mod is feasible, you'll call me before you venture out on your own. Click here to watch the segment

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I am boggled by the high production value of Suze's video. She is certainly as passionate about helping homeowners avoid foreclosure as I am.

Ok, here's your quick Home Buyers Tip of the week! Enjoy... :)

As my efforts to help homeowners avoid foreclosure has ramped up during the past 6 months, I seem to hear this question more and more often.

As a real estate agent, it's not my role to advise a homeowner whether or not to stop making a mortgage payment.

There are simply too many implications, and by and large, a homeowner in distress needs to understand the legal, tax and credit impact of such a decision.

That's why me and my trusted professional allies have created the Town Hall Meeting for Homeowners, where we bring together a panel of experts in bankruptcy, real estate tax, loan modifications, credit, and short sales (that would be me).

I discovered Richard Geller's video and found...

Hey guys, Take a look at the walk through of this great investment property that's available on a short sale... Better hurry and grab it while you can!

I came home after a really long day today, and checked my Yahoo email inbox, only to find this from my dear sister, Judy.

I laughed so hard, so I had to share it.

This happens to be one of my all-time favorite music videos.

But clearly, this baby is a much better dancer than me!

Enjoy.

When I work with sellers, especially first-time sellers, it’s important to review closing or settlement costs early.

Particularly nowadays, when equity is skinny, non-existent, or even worse, the property is underwater.

At least for short sale sellers, the transaction closing costs become expenses to the lender that get calculated as part of their net settlement. But in traditional sales, sellers really need to get their heads around the expenses involved in selling their home early on in the process.

As I shared in an earlier post about homebuyer closing costs, in every transaction, buyer and seller can negotiate "who pays what", but once the contract is signed, instructions cannot b...

1. DO NOT send multiple offers to the bank. If you put yourself in the bank's shoes, what would you do if you got 4,5, 6 or 10 offers on your property? You might be inclined to wait to see if you get more at higher prices. The loss mitigation departments (the dept. that handles short sales) at every single bank are extremely disorganized and they most surely cannot keep track of multiple offers. If a real estate agent recommends that you sign multiple offers, they are causing you to do an unethical act. Bottom line: it’s your job as the seller to select one offer to accept. With the help of your agent, you’ll choose the one that has the highest likelihood of getting your short sale approv...

So, I had been desirous to learn more about composting.

Now that I have a vibrant vegetable and herb garden at my house in Santa Monica, I thought that composting just made green sense. I've been telling everyone I know about how much fun it is to grow my own vegetables.

My pal Steve told me about The Can-O-Worms composter from Abundant Earth. The composter is simple to set up and yields what is supposed to be the best and richest compost tea available. I'm getting mine set up this weekend. More later!

There's just nothing better than spending a breezy Sunday afternoon with friends in the summer having a picnic on the lawn and listening to world-class jazz talent live!

This is what you are in for if you want to attend the free concerts being hosted by the City of Santa Monica Cultural Affairs Division at City Hall.

This being the 4th Annual Celebration of "Jazz on the Lawn", you can expect crowds, so plan to get there early and grab your spot on the grass.

The concerts will run every Sunday in August from 5pm-7pm, except the first week (Aug. 2nd), which is why I'm writing you now and not last week.

So, if you love jazz, then you will definitely want to plan your calendar in Au...

Through my latest affiliation with PartnerFirst.Org, I have learned the 'Magic Bullet' to determining if a short sale is viable for a homeowner that's struggling to make their mortgage payments and/or if a loan modification may be a better option.

The company is called National Mortgage Consumer Counseling (NMCC).

Their tag line: "Helping Homeowners Take Control" is very appropos.

For a whopping $60, they will offer an in-depth review and analysis of a sellers profile in order to provide a determination to the degree of difficulty in completing a pre-foreclosure.

By having homeowners complete the 'scrubbing' process with NMCC, we will know exactly what the best steps are to help the h...

As I continue to work with first-time homebuyers, I find one particular question that comes up time and time again: What are closing costs?

Okay, this is great content for a real estate blog post. Of course, in every transaction, buyer and seller can negotiate "who pays what", but once the contract is signed, instructions cannot be changed unless agreed upon by both parties in writing.

Hopefully, I can give you a simple-to-understand explanation of what items are typically included in a buyer's closing costs. Escrow fees and title fees: generally each party pays their own escrow fees.

Escrow fees in Los Angeles right now are typically a $250 base, plus $1.75-$2 per one thousand dolla...

Attention first-time homebuyers and investors looking to take advantage of the current market conditions:

All Hope Is NOT Lost!

It’s true that homes in the popular price-point that qualify for conforming loan amounts are being grabbed up more quickly than Cheerios to a 1 year-old, DO NOT give up! Trust me when I say that more opportunities are on their way.

I hate to think about all the distressed homeowners out there that I have been speaking to that REALLY want to save their homes.

The banks are a mess. That’s the truth.

They are holding onto massive numbers of assets because they cannot process the files quickly enough to get the bad assets off their books. Moreover, they are in n...

I'll be blogging about this more as time goes on, but wanted to share some important news about a Town Hall Meeting I will be part of.

If you know anyone who is struggling with their mortgage payment, please let them know about this important event.

Join me and Access Loss Mitigation for an important and informative Community Town Hall Meeting at the Santa Monica Public Library on August 19, 2009 from 6:30pm to 8:30pm to learn all about loss mitigation solutions and alternatives to foreclosure including loan modifications and short sales.

At this free homeowner workshop, I will be part of a panel of industry-leading experts, including professionals in fields of accounting, law, real es...

Sorry for the short notice. I just found out about this myself. But it sounded so fun, I had to let my World know about it.

It's the First Annual Venice Beach Rides for the Community --- Classic & Eco Car, Truck, Motorcycle and Bicycle Showcase. Get this...they're closing down Rose Avenue -- a major thoroughfare for beachgoers ---for 6 blocks, from Lincoln to 6th Ave. This was all Oscar's idea. Oscar is the owner of Venice Beach Wines.

He is the consummate entrepreneur, and I love him to death. Oscar put his event planning experience to work, gathered sponsors like Whole Foods Market & Al & Ed's Autosound and created a MASSIVE fundraiser to benefit Venice Community Housing Corporat...

I think it's fun when people share their lives and let you into their world, if even for a moment. That is what I'm doing today... :) I just love gardening and I wanted to share just a very quick video clip with you today for fun! So here goes... Enjoy!