San Jose Short Sale Agent: Silicon Valley Foreclosure Prevention Specialists

Villa Cortina Homeowners, we have buyers who are looking to purchase 2 bedroom 2 baths units in this complex.

We would like to hear from you if you can do a regular sale.

Even if you are underwater and would like help getting out from under the  property so you can move forwards, we can help you, so please contact us.

Steve Mun Group
www.stevemungroup.com
650-605-3188

There is enough information floating out there for everyone to know that foreclosure can be devastating with many negative repercussions in our lives.  Most who are in this situation will have to endure numerous adversities:

1. Having your foreclosure show up on public records for 10 years
2. Having to declare your foreclosures on all future loan applications
3. Deficiency claim exposure to the lenders for their loss
4. Dramatic decrease in your credit score
5. Being unable to qualify for a new home purchase for a minimum of 5 years

Besides these misfortunes, there is now another very troubling consequence which is especially onerous in these difficult times when people are looking for jobs.  In California where the unemployment rate is still above 11%, people seeking jobs need any advantage they can muster up to gain an edge over other job seekers.  If they had to endure foreclosures, it seems now the cards are further stacked against them.  It’s bad enough that a person would have lost their home to foreclosure, now that unfortunate circumstance may prevent them from getting a job.  Here is another reason to choose Short Sales over Foreclosure for homeowner who are having trouble paying their mortgages.

We’ve been told by our researchers at CDPE for a couple of years now that employers were using foreclosure records to eliminate candidates, but the attached video and article puts some hard data behind the warning.   According to the video, it seems 60% of employers are now pulling credit reports on all employment candidates and using the information in their screening and hiring decisions.

Can Bad Credit Keep You From Getting a Job_ – CBS News
In California, Governor Brown just recently signed AB 22 which prohibits employers from using credit reports in their decisions to hire employees, with some exceptions as mentioned in the video.   It states:

“New Labor Code section 1024.5 limits when private and public sector employers, except for financial institutions, lawfully can use consumer credit reports in connection with hiring and personnel decisions. Specifically, employers are permitted to use consumer credit reports only if the individual is applying for or works (or will work) in the following positions:

• a managerial position (as the term elsewhere is defined by California law);
• a position in the State Department of Justice;
• a sworn peace officer or law enforcement position;
• a position for which the employer is required by law to consider credit history information;
• a position that affords regular access to bank or credit card account information, Social Security numbers, or dates of birth, provided, however, that the access to this information does not merely involve routine solicitation and processing of credit card applications in a retail establishment;
• a position where the individual is or will be a named signatory on the bank or credit card account of the employer and/or authorized to transfer money or authorized to enter into financial contracts on the employer’s behalf;
• a position that affords access to confidential or proprietary information; or
• a position that affords regular access during the workday to the employer’s, a customer’s or a client’s cash totaling at least $10,000.”

It  seems there are a lot of  jobs that fall into these exception categories, as any type of customer service or  financial institution jobs or law enforcement jobs or any managerial positions  would seem to fall within the scope.  During these difficult economic times, interviewing prospects would probably would want to eliminate  any obstacle which would prevent them from getting on the short lists of candidates being considered for positions.  Having a foreclosure show up on your credit report and the employer questioning your integrity or reliability would certainly not be helpful in getting on that short list.

For those of you who follow this blog, I thank you for reading.   I have come across an amazing free offer that I feel compelled to share with you.  50 Gigs of space in the cloud for life.   You may have heard about the 2 Gigs of free space or 5 Gigs of free space from Apple or Amazon, but www.box.net  beats them all by offering an amazing 50 Gigs of cloud storage.  That’s a $50 option from Amazon and $100 option from Apple. 

This is a limited time offer.  If you have an iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch, you can activate an account using iOS 5 and get 50 Gigs.  Even if you don’t know how you will use it now, it makes sense to grab the offer before it expires and then figure out how you will use it later.  It can be a photo album or a movie collection in the cloud.

I’ve been using it to backup my client files over the net and it works like a charm.   I can use iPad, my android smartphone and my laptop and have access to all of the same files.  If you are familiar with Dropbox, it is similar in concept, except obviously with 25x more capacity.  GRAB IT WHILE IT IS AVAILABLE.

You can read about the promotion below.

http://www.crn.com/news/cloud/231900862/box-net-one-ups-apple-icloud-with-50-gb-free-cloud-storage.htm?itc=refresh

If you sell a lot of Common Interest Developments (CID) or condos and townhomes like me, then you and the seller feel violated every time you are required to order the HOA document package from the HOA.  They have absolute control over you because the HOA is the only entity which can certify and reproduce these documents.  You are not able to sell a condo or a townhome unless these documents are provided to the prospective buyers.

I have not heard about $1,000 bundled fees, but I have never seen a $75 HOA documentation fee either, it is always $300 or $350 from my experience.  This is my opinion, but running documents through a high speed double sided copying machine, does not warrant a $350 up-front fee and 10 days to produce these documents.  I have heard repeated complaints from sellers who have to fork over these charges and receive a bundle often consisting mostly of HOA newsletters and meeting minutes of association meetings along with the requisite insurance and financial documents about the health of the HOA.  Most people do not seem to object to having to pay the HOA to reproduce needed documents, but they do seem to object to paying so much money once they see what they received; thereby challenging the assertions that the feels were “reasonable” charges to actually reproduce said documents.  The law also will create a form which will detail what is required and how much it will cost to obtain said documents.

Governor Brown Signs Bill Preventing Gouging of Condominium/Townhome Buyers

The CALIFORNIA ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS^® (C.A.R.) applauds Gov. Jerry Brown for signing AB 771, a bill that prevents home buyers in a common interest development (CID), such as a condominium or townhome, from being charged excess document fees.

Homeowner associations (HOAs) are required to provide specific documents to prospective purchasers of homes in a CID — a form of real estate ownership in which each homeowner has an exclusive interest in a unit and a shared interest in the common area property. In addition to the standard residential property disclosures, purchasers of a unit within a CID must receive basic information about the structure, operation and management of the HOA that operates the CID.

Current law requires that this information come from the HOA and prohibits it from charging fees in excess of what is “reasonable,” not to exceed the actual cost of processing and producing these documents. HOAs generally have provided the documents for approximately $75 to $250. Increasingly, HOAs have been delegating document preparations to third party vendors or contractors who, under a 2007 court decision, are exempt from this fee limitation. This delegation of responsibility by HOAs sometimes resulted in home purchasers being forced to pay additional fees, as much as $1,000, for other documents which were “bundled” with the required documents.

Assembly Bill 771 (Betsy Butler, D-Torrance) addresses this situation by specifying that only fees for the required documents may be charged when such documents are provided, effectively prohibiting any “bundling” of fees for other documents with these fees. The bill also creates a new form detailing which documents are required, and requires the provider to disclose the fees that will be charged for the documents before they are provided. The seller of a CID must complete this form and transmit it to the prospective purchaser along with the required documents. This will eliminate any uncertainty for the prospective purchaser as to exactly which documents are being provided and the precise fees being charged for those documents.

Leading the way…^® in California real estate for more than 100 years, the CALIFORNIA ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS^® (www.car.org) is one of the largest state trade organizations in the United States, with more than 160,000 members dedicated to the advancement of professionalism in real estate. C.A.R. is headquartered inLos Angeles.

CALIFORNIAASSOCIATION OF REALTORS^®
Lotus Lou, 213-739-8304

If you follow this blog, you know one thing I really hate are frauds against people facing distress.  Nothing worse, in my opinon, than taking advantage of people who are desperate because they are about to lose their homes.  It’s targeting one of the most vulnerable segment of society in order to make a few bucks.  Those fraudsters are the worst scum in my opinion.

I found a blog by a Realtor named Monique Bryher in Southern California who writes about various California Real Estate Frauds, it is called Califorinia Real Estate Fraud Report.  I found it to be an excellent place to learn about the fraud of the day, if you will.  I wanted to take a moment to talk about it because it is well orgranized by topic and because you can also receive a weekly report about the fraud du jour.

The best way to avoid being victimized is to be educated about scams.

http://www.californiarealestatefraudreport.com/

Check it out.

My numbers are 48, 99.25 and 1.  What am I talking about?   Let me explain.

I was asked to find a listing agent for a friend who lives in the LA area.  As I am in the business, he thought I would have a better chance of finding him a good listing agent, rather than filtering through the tons of marketing material he receives which didn’t give him much information on determining how effective an agent was at selling homes.  He wanted to cut through the fluff.

I must agree, trying to find a good agent on the web and even calling managers of brokerages to ask for referrals of top producing agents in their respective offices did not seem to work out well for me either.  I guess I am seeing the struggles that the consumers have in finding specific and useful information about real estate agents out there.  As practitioners in our local areas, we all sort of take it for granted we know the power players in the area.  What we need to provide more of is hard data and less hyperbole about what good real estate agents we all are.  It is precisely these types of data that consumers need to make informed decisions.  And consumers, ask for performance data, you have to do your own due diligence to find the right agent to represent you.  At the end of the day, it is your decision and you must choose wisely.

What really puzzled me was why managers would give me names of agents who were not their top producing agents and who did not have the extensive listing experience when those two specifics qualities were what I requested.   I asked for people who were top producing listing agents and ones who had a good inventory of listings in or around my friend’s neighborhood.

Of the several names I was given, when I went to their websites and other resources to check up before I made contact, I discovered several were “new agents” with no listing inventory at all and others who were supposed “top producers” really did not have much volume of business in the past couple of years.  I was not trying to embarrass anyone, but I had asked for specific type of agents, but on several occasions, I was given  candidates that did not match the requests.   And the term “Top Producer” is obviously used very loosely out there because everyone claimed to be in that category.

Of the others who did carry the inventory and the volume that I had requested, when I asked for their average DOM (days on market) and list/close price ratio, only one was able to give me straight a straight answer.  Others gave me double talk and said they did not know the exact numbers, and would get back to me.  These were supposed to be top produces in their respective offices, yet they did not know their stats?   I’m pretty certain most top producers in a real estate office know their sales stats inside and out; or at least these two that most realtors discuss in their listing presentations.  It may be different in LA, but here in Silicon Valley, where we are over-represented by engineers, data reign supreme, so we need to know our numbers.

What are my numbers?  48 days is my average Days On Market (DOM);  99.25% is my average list/sale price ratio and #1 was my office ranking in 2010 at Keller Williams Cupertino.  I am proud of my stats because I worked very hard at them over the years and I certainly know them and am willing to share.  So all those self professed “Top Producers” out there, let’s use data to support our claims.  What are your numbers?

If you watch or read the National news or National papers, everyone seems to be pronouncing the death of the Real Estate market once again.  There is talk of the double dip and even triple dip (who knows what that means) doom is everywhere.

But Real Estate trend cannot be reported from New York City; real estate markets have and always will be neighborhood specific.  The activity in the Bay Area and Silicon Valley are quite different than other places in the nation.   The demand for homes is quite good here, true, the demand may not be as good as it was during the top of the market in 2004, 2005 and 2006, but we are doing quite well in terms of demand compared to other areas.

The report below shows that of the top 10 cities, 5 are in California and 3 of those cities are in the Bay Area and our own San Jose represents the Silicon Valley. If we drilled down further, we will find other areas in Santa Clara County where homes are selling in less than two months on average.

Http Www Realtor Org Rmodaily Nsf Pages News 2011052502

With more and more properties on the MLS being a distressed property and for those buyers utilizing an FHA loan, who may find themselves making an offer on a property that may need some TLC, they can utilize a companion loan called the FHA 203K.

Typically, the FHA borrower may not have sufficient funds set aside to deal with repairs, hence this program is available for those specific needs.

Here is an excellent post by a fellow blogger and Mortgage Broker, Bill Ladewig,  discussing the multiple uses of the  FHA 203K loan.  A great product

SM

Rebuild this home with a FHA 203(k)

One loan finances the purchase and improvements. The FHA 203k includes the cost of rebuild, rehabilitation or home improvement in a purchase or refinance loan.  .

The 203(k) is a great marketing tool for real estate agents that provides added value.

While it is a great tool to rehabilitate trashed REOs it also can be used to upgrade homes.

The primary criteria are: the improvement is a permanent part of the real estate and the improved home’s value must be comparable to similar homes in the neighborhood.

There are many uses for the 203(k)

• Rebuild
• Rehabilitate
• Remodel kitchens and bathrooms or…
• Add Rooms
• Move homes to new lots. •
  • 203k cannot be funded until home is permanently secured to new foundation.
• Start with an existing bare foundation and build a new home.

Underwriting guidelines for borrower are the same a regular FHA

• Must be owner occupied
• There are no borrower income limits.
• No purchase price restrictions
• Subject to local FHA loan limits.
• Borrower’s minimum investment is 3.5%

FHA 203k are not overly complicated.

The final loan amount will be 96.50% of the purchase price and cost of repairs plus a contingency pad

The purchase contract is written based upon the purchase price.  I suggest, to avoid seller confusion, the purchase offer loan amount to be 96.50% of the purchase price with a notation the loan amount will be increased based upon repair costs.

Once the offer is accepted repair bids are prepared by licensed and bonded contractors.  If the bids are over $35,000 a FHA 203k inspector must review the property and bids; below $35,000 no FHA inspector is required.

• Purchase price plus construction costs CANNOT exceed the value of comparable homes in the area.
• The contractor must understand the bid must be accurate because there will not be any additional money available.

After the construction bid is accepted, it along with the purchase contract is sent to the FHA appraiser.

The time to complete a FHA 203k is dependent on the time required to prepare the construction bid.  Once the construction bid is accepted the time to close is the same as a regular FHA loan.

Education is Consumer’s Only Real Protection.

• What You Should Know About APR
• How To Shop for Mortgage Rates.
• Beware of Misleading Lender Advertising
• Education is the best consumer protection
• Rates and Point Relationship Explained

Bill Ladewig

800.664.7283 (SAVE)

Bill@YourFhaGuru.com

Website

2010  was an excellent year for the Steve Mun Group (SMG).  We helped a lot of clients and many of them were distressed homeowners fighting foreclosures in our capacity as San Jose Short Sale Agents.  We are grateful that were able to play a small  role in fighting foreclosures here in Silicon Valley.

If you need a top producing, award winning team to help you fight foreclosure, we will be honored to serve your needs.