Brentwood California Real Estate Market Reality

Overall the Brentwood California real estate market for single family homes continues to remain strong. The condominium market is becoming somewhat flooded with inventory

Here is my latest analysis of Brentwood real estate:

Single Family Homes in Brentwood

July 2010 sales total: 20

Current Pending Sales: 36

Active Listings: 129

Distressed Single Family Property Watch in Brentwood, CA:

There is 1 single family home Bank-Owned/REOs for sale in Brentwood

There are 6 single family Short Sales for sale in Brentwood

This represents that 5% of the Brentwood single family home real estate market is distressed properties for sale.

Active S...

I’m still on my Short Sale Soap Box

Then there's the short sale BPO (Broker Price Opinion) process. The banks are of the belief that an out-of-area real estate agent who is willing to consume hours of their time to drive 60 miles to take photos, develop a market analysis that declares market value and turn their report around in 24 hours for 50 bucks is a better choice than hiring a certified appraiser BECAUSE IT'S CHEAPER THAN ORDERING AN APPRAISAL.

I’ve made it a point to show up for every BPO on my short sales to provide the BPO agent with good comparables, a summary narrative analysis, and a live commentary of the known matters that affect value of the subject property. In many case...

Ah...the World of Short Sales is fraught with problems. As I write this, I think to myself: THIS IS AN UNDERSTATEMENT! We aren't just running into problems with the banks, we're running into what could be described as OUR WORST NIGHTMARES!

Lenders are defying logic and denying short sales where the seller is demonstratedly distressed and in a severe financial hardship...can you say...Government incentives mean more to the banks than giving homeowners trying to get on with their lives a break?

Then there’s the fact that Junior (2nd) lienholders are blocking short sales by requiring a greater contribution than the 1st is willing to offer...silly 2nd...don't you know you'll end up with...

Santa Monica California Real Estate Market Reality

The Santa Monica California real estate market continues to remain strong.

 Here is my latest analysis of Santa Monica real estate:

 Single Family Homes in Santa Monica 

• July 2010 sales total: 23
• Current Pending Sales: 48
• Active Listings: 114

Distressed Single Family Property Watch in Santa Monica, CA:

There are 2 single family home Bank-Owned/REOs for sale in Santa Monica

There are 3 single family Short Sales for sale in Santa Monica

This represents that 4.5% of the Santa Monica single family home real estate market is distressed properties for sale.

Active Single Family Homes for Sale in Santa Monica by price range:

Unde...

Just listed this wonderful Santa Monica home for sale! The first open house will be Sunday, July 25th from 2-5pm. Come one, come all!

When one of the largest banks in the country, Wells Fargo, announces this type of cut in jobs, it's time to stop and think about what this means. To me, it can only mean that we are not out of the fog of an economic downturn. The 'double-dip' that all economists have been predicting over the last month or so is most likely a reality.

I, for one, intend to make lemonade from this lemon! As a real estate, I am dedicated to helping people who are affected by a bad economy when it comes to making solid decisions about what to do with a real estate asset that is upside down in value and the owner is struggling through I life/financial situation that precludes them from keeping up with mortgag...

Being that the real estate climate is what it is these days, it would seem that lenders would be begging for short sales. If you ask: “why would a lender consider a short sale where they receive less than they are owed?”, I’m here to tell you there is a huge and obvious reason…they will lose more if they foreclose. A foreclosure can cost a lender an extra $40,000-$60,000 in attorney fees, trustee fees, holding costs and maintenance expense on every foreclosed property.

I won’t lie to you and tell you that short sales are easy. In fact, my experience is that they are anything but easy. It’s a very dynamic process with lost of moving parts and the lenders keep changing the rules as we go a...

If you are one of the hundreds of thousands of homeowners that are trying to decide whether it’s better to do a short sale on your property versus throwing in the towel and letting the bank foreclose on you, I hope you make the decision to at least pursue a short sale before you let the bank do the dirty deed of foreclosure.

From a credit standpoint, a foreclosure will ding your credit somewhere between 150 and 300 points. The foreclosure will stay on your credit history for 5-7 years. Whereas a short sale will affect your credit based on the number of months you are behind. The typical reporting to the credit bureaus is to the effect that your ‘debt was settled for less than the amount ...

On April 14^th, there was a big announcement by Fannie Mae in an effort to support overall market stability and to certainly reinforce the importance of borrowers to work with their lenders when they have difficulty repaying their mortgage. Fannie Mae has updated several policies that pertain specifically to the future eligibility of borrowers to obtain a new mortgage loan after a short sale. Fannie Mae has also updated the requirements for determining that borrowers have re-established their credit after a significant derogatory credit event. You can read about how these changes affect you if you are pursuing a short sale by clicking here.

"Home Seizures By Bank Set Records" was the title of the article published on MSN just the other day. It's really worth the read if you want to fully understand what's happening in the real estate world. This morning, I had my head in the market stats for the 10 primary areas of Los Angeles that I serve: Santa Monica, Venice, Marina de Rey, West Los Angeles, Brentwood, Westwood/Century City, Cheviot Hills, Culver City, Mar Vista and discovered that the number of foreclosures and short sales on the market has risen almost 15% in March over February.

Foreclousre is bad business for the banks. It was also evident from looking at the recent Notice of Default filings for the Westside of Los A...

Welcome to a World of suffering and punishment. That’s the current state of the real estate industry as it relates to short sales – it’s hell out there! In most US cities, “traditional” real estate is all but extinct. The number of short sales and bank-owned/REO listings rose over 10 percent on the Westside of Los Angeles last month alone. More an more homeowners are experiencing some form of financial hardship – job loss, loss of income, divorce, medical problems, adjustable mortgages.

Never ever before in the entire history of real estate have we encountered such uncertainty and such challenges. Homeowners are losing their homes at record pace and we’ve recently witnessed the fall of s...

Just on November 30th, 2009, the Treasury Dept. released the forms and guidelines for the new Home Affordable Foreclosure Althernatives Program (HAFA). This program is expected to be a huge leap forward to help homeowners who are unable to retain their home under the Home Affordable Program (HAMP).

HAFA was created to streamline and simplify the use of short sales and deeds-in-liu of foreclosure by tweaking the process that the banks currently employ.

Just to highlight HAFA...

- It is designed to complement HAMP by providing althernatives for homeowners who qualify for HAMP, but are still unable to keep their home. Why is this important? Well, almost 65% of the loan modifications compl...

As my short sale inventory increases, I'm finding it absolutely essential to be able to explain the short sale process in a way that help distressed homeowners feel comfortable and confident in the process. As I always, say: "there's nothing short about a short sale". Although every short sale is a unique transaction, the average short sale is taking about 4-6 months before we receive approval from the banks. Then, the buyer is offered 30-45 days to close escrow. There are many steps in the short sale process, so let me offer an overview here:

Homeowner Defaults on Payments
By and large, it's only once a homeowner has actually missed at least one payment, do they begin to seek good advice...

I’m gratified to report that late this afternoon, our Gpvermpr Schwarzenegger signed Assembly Bill 183, the Homebuyer Tax Credit legislation, into law. This is the result of the California Association of Realtors' efforts in Sacramento over the past several weeks .

AB 183 will provide $200 million for home buyer tax credits, allocating $100 million for qualified first-time home buyers of existing homes and $100 million for purchasers of new, or previously unoccupied, homes. The eligible taxpayer who purchases a qualified personal residence on and after May 1, 2010, and on or before Dec. 31, 2010, or who purchases a qualified principal residence on and after Dec. 31, 2010, and before Aug....

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...