Sacramenot Short Sales

We are beginning to see short sale junior lenders flexing their muscle. A year ago you could count on the junior lender to pretty much roll over and take whatever allowance the senior lender allotted to them for their lien release. Now, they are holding out for more money and most are asking for the borrower to sign a letter saying they will remain responsible for any shortfall amount.

Trying to help struggling Sacramento homeowners avoid foreclosure by modification of their mortgage or a short sale is more difficult than it should be. Every time the government comes up with a program or an incentive the lenders quickly figure out how to get the money without helping the borrower and essentially avoiding the primary objective of the program, which is to help the homeowner.

We are continuing to do our best to help homeowners avoid foreclosure but it is taking more time, energy and all of our experience to make it work. If you or someone you know is having trouble making their monthly mortgage have them call us soon if they are behind in their payments.

Consolidation

I have decided to consolidate my blogging and concentrate on my primary blog, Keep it Real in Sacramento.

Thank you for reading this blog and I hope you will continue to read about my real estate business at Keep it Real in Sacramento.

It is always fun to get away for a few days and even better when you return and appreciate home. Last week we traveled to Elizabethtown, Kentucky to visit Michael’s son Mark and his family. I enjoyed spending time with them and seeing Kentucky.

I heard about the terrible ice storm they had this past winter but until I saw the devastation it caused I didn’t understand the impact. Kentucky is trees; almost every road is cut through a forest of trees or rolling green hills surrounded by trees. Almost every one of those trees was damaged. Now you see broken limbs jutting out in odd directions or piled high on the ground. The cleanup is going to take a long time and the effects will be seen for many years to come.

We did do some work on the Bourbon Trail and I enjoyed that but they need to learn from California wineries how to do tastings! I am not much of a bourbon drinker so was interested in learning what I tasted and why I enjoyed one more than another. Hard to do when you drive for 30 minutes and get one sip.

The real estate market where I was in Northern Kentucky or “Kentuckyanna” is doing alright. They didn’t have the huge run-up in the early 2000’s so have not seen the kind of large price declines we have had here in the Sacramento area. Interestingly, people there seem to take a longer view of real estate and their home values. They are not as concerned about the value today, because they, on average, live in the same house longer than we do in California.

Should you walk away?

If your home is worth less than you owe, the payments are killing you and have a lender who refuses to help what will happen if you walk away? Walking away is letting the bank foreclose, giving them the keys or avoiding a foreclosure by doing a short sale. If you do one of these things how bad will it be for you? Will you get sued by your bank? Will you ever be able to get credit again? How much will Uncle Sam and the IRS want from you? It may not be as bad as you imagine. Check out my weekly column, “What are the consequences of walking away?” over at Rocklin & Roseville Today and find out.

Other Items: Happy St. Patrick’s Day! I hope you have the luck of the Irish today and all year long!

I have been reading reports about a new California bill that may require banks to wait longer before foreclosing on mortgage obligations. Last year it was taking some banks up to 9 months before they even started the foreclosure process. Today they are responding much faster to delinquent loans so this bill may be helpful to Sacramento homeowners who want to qualify for a loan modification, refinance program or who want to avoid foreclosure by doing a short sale. Check back in the next day or so and I will provide more information.

Using Twitter to stay in touch

I have been using twitter for almost 2 years now and it is one of the social networking tools I enjoy the most. It is a flow of short messages from members all around the world and allows users to follow others and read what they have to say as the day progresses. You can carry on conversations, ask questions, get directions and always find someone who can cheer you up. As of today I am following 2,257 users and have 2,102 followers. Some of my twitter colleagues are news organizations such as the Sacramento Bee, CNN and Sacramento Traffic Alerts. You can find and follow a wide range of celebrities such as Madonna and Britney Spears and even get updates from Barack Obama. Most users are just like me, everyday people who do their jobs and enjoy the internet and staying in touch. There is a growing number of spamers using twitter but they are easily controlled.

I recently used twitter to ask some of my “followers,” who are real estate agents; about their local markets and found some similarities with what is happening in our Sacramento area market. Check out my column today at Rocklin & Roseville Today, “Tweeting Real Estate News” to see what I learned.

If you are not familiar with Twitter check it out at www.twitter.com. If you end up joining the thousands of other who are using twitter, follow me at twitter.com/JulieJ and I will follow you back.

Nothing new in Sacramento or Roseville

I started to blog about some of the November results for our local Sacramento real estate market and quickly became bored. For anyone who reads a newspaper or listens to the news there is nothing new to report. Generally sales are up, median prices and average price per square foot are down. About the only thing of much interest is the number of default filings have dropped, but may be the result of a new state law requiring lenders to contact homeowners who are delinquent on the payments, then wait 30 days before filing a default notice.
As we move into 2009 the inventory of homes for sale has continued the slow decline from the highs we experienced in the summer of 2007 when it was reported by HousingTracker that there were over 18,000 homes for sale in what they define as the Sacramento area. Even with the increased number of foreclosures the inventory of homes has continued to decline and as of mid-December stood at 12,628 down almost 23 percent from a year ago and down 5.9 percent in the past month.
As we move into the spring selling season I would expect to see the decline in homes on the market slow or even increase. There are still way too many houses on the market for the number of buyers but the good news is we are headed in the right direction to achieve a balanced market and some price stability.
If you are interested in more specific numbers about the Sacramento, Roseville or other local communities send me an email to juliej@jalone.com and I would be happy to answer.

Lenders with a heart?

Today I conclude my series of articles answering the question, is now the right time to buy a home in Sacramento? Today’s final article is, “Do you know what you want in a home?” and can be seen over at Rocklin & Roseville Today in my real estate column. If you missed the previous articles and would like to read the entire series you can find it on my personal website.

This is a short holiday weekend and we have continued to be busy with Sacramento short sales. Most lenders, other than Countrywide, seem to have a pretty good process and appear to be working at getting as many closed before the end of the year. Countrywide seems confused and disorganized compared to other lenders and the impression we get is that they just don’t care if the house goes to foreclosure. Bank of America better start paying attention and get the bleeding stopped or we will be seeing yet another bank bailout.

Speaking of foreclosures the folks at ING Direct, a large internet based lender, have warmed the cockles of our hearts this week by announcing they would suspend all evictions through January 15th, “in the spirit of the holidays.” They are going to toss them out after Christmas rather than before, once again proving there are big hearts in the mortgage lending business.

Are you financially prepared for home ownership?

I just posted my third of a five part series dealing with the question, “Is it the right time to buy a home in Sacramento?” The article is posted over at Rocklin & Roseville Today as part of my real estate column, “Is it the right time – are you financially prepared to be a homeowner.” If you want to read the entire series you can find all five articles on my personal website.
Just being out and about today has to make you feel good. Here we are in the second half of November and the sun is out, the sky is blue and it is warm. What more could you ask for.

In the real estate business, we have been busy. I spent all day Friday out with a great new buyer. His company is looking for a home or multi-family unit where his employees can live while they are working on several projects here in the Sacramento area. We saw some interesting properties and went to a few neighborhoods I hope to never see again. In addition, our Short Sale negotiator has been having some success with a few lenders and getting short sales approved.

See Keep in Real in Sacramento for article links.

Working with the lenders is a difficult and long task. Unfortunately they appear to view us as the enemy rather than someone helping them avoid a larger loss. After you get them approved there is nothing more frustrating than having the buyer bail. This happened last week on one of our Sacramento listings. If you or someone you know is looking for a great investment or starter home, this property on 73rd Street is a great deal and the bank is ready to go!

Staying Busy with Roseville Real Estate

It very nice to see a break in the warm weather and even to get a bit of rain but I am happy to see we will be getting some nice warm days this week as we move deeper into October.

Over at MagnumOne Realty we had a strong past week with some new listings and some nice escrow closings. One of the joys of this business is to complete a sale for my clients and this past week it was fun to see my customers from the southern part of the state move into their new home here in Roseville.

Even with bailout legislation we are still anticipating seeing the Sacramento area foreclosures continuing to be a significant part of our local real estate market. This means we will continue to help clients avoid foreclosure by representing them on short sales in Sacramento. I will be adding three new short sale listings during the next week.

Our team is getting very good at working with the lenders to get these short sales completed but there is nothing easy about the process. One of our short sales is being caused by the seller being transferred out of state to maintain employment. For some bizarre reason their lender, who has the completed short sale package we prepared, sent the loan to HOPE where they specialize in finding a way to keep the homeowner in their homes by restructuring the loan. When they have to move to keep a job, this is not exactly what they need and could cause a delay of up to two weeks in getting an answer to our short sale request. Even when you call the lenders as often as we do to keep the process on track, some still find ways to “drop the ball.”

Now Serving Sutter, Yuba and Colusa Counties

Check it out! We have officially opened an office in Plumas Lake with Stephanie McLaughlin to better serve clients in Sutter, Yuba and Colusa counties. Stephanie has now been with us for a few months and is ready to take the next step in building her business and expanding the MagnumOne Realty brand in these counties. We are continuing to provide individual customized services to buyer and seller ranging from those looking to buy their first home all the way to working with sellers who are trying to avoid foreclosure. We are pretty excited about this new development and if any of you know anyone thinking about buying or selling in our Northern serving area please let them know about Stephanie and our new office. Here is the MagnumOne Press Release that was sent out today.

Other News: We have our second guest article from Louise Buford of Partners Mortgage who is a certified loan specialist in FHA, CalPERS, CalFHA, VA and 203k FHA programs. With so much interest in FHA loans I asked her to write about what the FHA is and why you should consider this type of loan. I hope to have this published tomorrow on our news page.