properties (28)

 

The first quarter of 2011 has net seen a lot of activity of distressed properties in Palo Alto.  Here’s the update:

 

1.     Sold foreclosures: 1 single family home  4 condos

2.     Active and pending foreclosures: 0

 

1.     Sold short sales:  1 condo

2.     Active and pending short sales:  5 single family homes and 1 condo

 

Total Homes sold in first quarter:  156 (combined single family homes and condos)

 

 

 

The percentage of distressed properties in Palo Alto is still very low compared to most of the country with almost no foreclosure activity.  However, there are a few short sales, and for those willing to wait out the escrow period they can be a good deal.

 

 

If you have any questions about Palo Alto short sales or Palo Alto foreclosures, please feel free to contact me.

 

Federal Government Disclaimer (MARS): 1. You may stop doing business with us at any time. You may accept or reject the offer of mortgage assistance we obtain from your lender [or servicer]. If you reject the offer, you do not have to pay us. If you accept the offer, you will have to pay us commission as agreed to in listing contract for our services.
2. Marcy Moyer of Keller Williams Realty is not associated with the government, and our service is not approved by the government or your lender; and 
3. Even if you accept this offer and use our service, your lender may not agree to change your loan.

 

Marcy Moyer

Keller Williams Realty

www.marcymoyer.com

marcy@marcymoyer.com

650-619-9285

D.R.E.  01191194

Marcy Moyer Keller Williams Realty Palo Alto, Ca. Specialist in Trust and Probate Sales

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NEW Changes to the HUD process

New HUD Process

I had the opportunity to attend a webinar for new HUD listing brokers and there are somechanges, I think HUD is improving their customer service and their system, Ihave been selling HUD homes since I started in real estate 5 years ago, alwaysfrom the buyer side and sometimes it was very frustrating, and I think some ofthe new changes will make things easier.

I think the most important change is the time allowed for home owners to purchase FHA uninsurablehomes, in reality it is harder for a home owner to do all the renovations, andsome either don’t qualify or don’t care much about a renovation loan. Now withthe new deadline, it makes more sense for investors to start bidding earlier.

Well here is an overview of the changes.

· Separatecontractors responsible for property management and marketing/sales.

· HUDHomestore.comis a one national site for everything.

· Commissions,minimum $2,500 divided equally between listing agent and buyer’s agent. Maximum6% commission also split equally for both listing and buyer’s agent.

· NewBroker Registration Process.

· Earnestmoney (made out to HUD) submitted with the contract.

· ElectronicLock Boxes.

HUD has divided the country in 4 contract area and every region is divided in a smaller set ofsubregions.

HUD register, (no only listing agents) brokers may advertise, and hold open houseson HUD properties, however they must gain approval from the Asset Manager.

For agents to bid and sell HUD homes, their broker has to be approved by HUD and have a NAIDnumber and also both broker and agents must be register with HUDHomestore.com.About this site it is one site for the entire country, purchasers will see whatbroker see, bringing more transparency to the transaction, Asset Manager willlist properties on a daily basis instead of once a week. Also this website isthe only place to submit a bid.

House insurable or Insurable with Escrow will have an Exclusive “Owner Occupant”period of 30 days, a 10 day biding period and if no offer is accepted then bidswill be reviewed daily for another 20 days only for owner occupant.

For Uninsurable Properties there will be a 5 day exclusive Owner Occupant period, after thatbidding will be open to all purchasers on a daily basis if an acceptable owneroccupant offer was not received.

Also agents have to make sure they have complete sales contract HUD form 9548 andcertification of broker form, Lead Base paint, Radon and Mold, MED, ExtensionPolicy, Home Inspection, Owner Occupied (if applicable) and local requireaddenda, together with a pre-qualification letter form a certified, licensedlender if sale contains a mortgage contingency. Agents have 48 hours to submitall those documents to HUD after bid acceptance

Earnest money will be held by HUD’s designated closing agent, and they will notify thebrokers who will closing agent will be once the contract is ratified.

Important Reminders

Never take or give a property key to anyone, absolutely no repairs prior to settlement,remember that all HUD homes are sold ASIS, do a pre-settlement inspection, alldocuments and contracts have to be submitted to HUD with in 2 business days.

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As of July 1, 2010 PNC REO is using offersubmission.com for buyer agent's to submit offers directly to asset manager, by passing the listing agents. I think this will bring more transparency to transactions. With this buyer's agents wont blame LA for not presenting offers, and they will be responsible to submit a complete offer. in the other hand the buyer must pay $300 at closing for the service. This will definitely expedite the offers and counteroffers, and will level the playing field for buyer and their agents. I will keep you posted how it works for me soon.



The good:


To the Listing Agent:

  • No more wasted time receiving, entering and submitting unacceptable offers on behalf of other agents
  • No more telephone calls from cooperating agents seeking status of offers.
  • Reduced paperwork
  • You will still see all of the offers received on your listings in real-time, and you will always know what offers have been accepted, rejected or countered.
  • Increased marketability of properties for faster sales and quicker commissions.
  • The only offer you ever need to deal with is an accepted offer.

To the Buyer’s Agent:

  • Agents receive an immediate confirmation that their offer has been received 7 days a week, 24 hours a day.
  • Agents receive notification of acceptance/rejection or a counter-offer by the next business day.
  • Buyer’s Agents negotiate online directly with a decision-maker for the selling financial institution.
  • Agents can include comments regarding the property or the buyer and be assured that the decision-maker considers them when evaluating the offer.
  • Agents download all of the required addendums themselves once an offer has been accepted. :


BUYER PAYS $300 FEE AT CLOSING


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In Awe With Bridge ASN

I think this may be only the 2nd or 3rd time that I have been compelled to write a blog....But, I must say, that I was completely impressed with the conference that Bridge ASN put on.

The first and foremost impression was the humbleness of Mr. Bobby Funk. What is the saying? You have 3-10 seconds to make a GOOD first impression... Well, he definitely did that and after actually talking with Mr. Funk, my first impression of him was confirmed!!

How often do you meet the CEO of an asset company??? I never have....Awesome!! Then there is Ms. Angelique...She took time out to probably meet and speak with every participant attending the conference. All supporting staff and CFO, etc. were all accessible throughout the ENTIRE two-day conference.

I was exposed to sheer "top dogs" (no disrespect). Ms. Shelly Kaye, thank you for accepting my application into member with Women In Default Services. I will see you in Las Vegas. Okay, then the icing on the cake.....I was invited and welcomed to sit next to and have lunch with Marla Webb. Marla is was a GREAT pleasure to meet you. You are such a beautiful person, inside and out!!.

Finally, to all of the new associates that I met, exchanged business cards with and soon to meet. We are blessed to have taken this leap of faith and partner ourselves with an awesome company!!

Jessee, thanks for always keeping all of REOPRO agents in the loop with current events and information.
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How to traverse the nightmare that is the Los Angeles Housing Department’s REAP Program

The other day a good friend of mine challenged me to write a journal. I have never been a person wholiked to write anything down, I figure, let’s just sit down and talk about it.Well after going through the process of pulling a few properties out of the LosAngeles City REAP Program, I decided that I would write about theexperience. Man oh man, what anexperience that was.

Let’s first discus what the REAP Program actually stands for. The REAP is a rent escrow account program that is administered by the Cityof Los Angeles Housing Department. Theonly way to even get put into the program is when your property, or theproperty you are representing, has had violations that were not taken care of. Once you have not complied with the demandsof the Housing Department (they do give you a chance) you are done. When theREAP Department starts collecting your rents and have placed a “cloud” on yourtitle, well now the real fun begins.

Where do I start? Let’s start with the day your nightmare began.

You wake up to a new REO listing, “YEAH”. It’s a multi-family dwelling located within Los Angeles City boundaries, “Oh no!” You check the Housing Department’s websiteand find out that the property has some issues and it is in the REAP Program.“Oh Boy! Now for the fun.” Oh, did Iforget to tell you that there is now a “Cloud” on the title, so forget abouttraditional financing options for your buyers. OK, now what do you tell theseller, (remember they have taken back the property and are now considered theowners, and guess what, they are responsible for the REAP and all of theproperties issues.) So you tell the Asset Manager the truth and they respond likeArnold from Different Strokes, “What you talkin’ bout Willis?” Thenthey snap back to reality, they either tell you to sell the property forcash. That’s so they don’t have to dealwith the title issues, but then you have to find an all cash buyer and/orsomeone who is going to deal with the REAP on their own (scary thought) or theyclear the title and get top dollar for the property.

So now let’s get the property out of the REAP Program and clear the title so you can sell your property. Now we have to deal with the Systematic Code Enforcement Program. Thisis pretty much where it all began for you. You have to get a copy of the previous violations and/or have theproperty re-inspected so that you can find out what the violations are. Thenyou fix the property and have it re-inspected by the Housing Inspector. Onceyou have cleared the Housing Inspector, you need to contact the OutreachContractor and have the property re-inspected by them. (Now understand thatmore than likely you have had a Building & Safety Inspection because youneed to get your permits signed off and you have had a Housing Department inspection,ok sorry I digressed for a moment, too many inspections). Ok the OutreachContractor has signed you off, now what? Make sure that all of the DWP bills on the property are paid, I mean allof them (and I don’t care who’s name they are in). The Housing Department alsohas an UMP Program (Utility Maintenance Program) that you must not be in; ifyou are then pay the bill. OK, now you have made sure that you don’t owe, DWPbut did you check to see if you owed the Housing Department any money? Well youneed to check that little bit of information. Ok, now we are cooking withgrease. You have paid the HousingDepartment bill and now they will clear you for removal from the REAP Program.Ok they refer the property to the City Council and recommend removal from theprogram. YEAH! well no , not yet. Oncethe property has gone through City Council and you have been cleared, you stillhave a few more steps to go. Now you have to wait, yes I said WAIT 30 daysuntil you can even ask the Housing Department if you owe them any moremoney. Yes, I said it; you may still owemore money. What you say, you just PAIDthe Housing Department. Well you will have to pay them again, yes again, tofinally remove your property from the REAP Program and remove the “Cloud” fromthe title. Once issued, this “Demand for Payment” is good for 30 days. You hadbetter get your loan funded within that 30 day window or pay the final demandamount, if you don’t, then there will be penalties and you will owe more money.But once paid, the Housing Department will remove the “Cloud” from the titleand you are REAP free. The moral of this story is if you own a multi-familydwelling within Los Angeles City Boundaries, “TAKE CARE OF YOUR PROPERTY,COMPLY WITH ANY AND ALL NOTICES FROM THE HOUSING DEPARTMENT AND KNOW THE RIGHTSOF A PROPERTY OWNER AND THE RIGHTS OF YOUR TENANTS.”

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www.ebrokerhouse.com user for appx 1 year now- what do I think? should you try it?

I have been using ebrokerhouse for about a year now based on my husband attending a CREOBA conference. He really liked the option of managing our offers since agents were sending them left and right to my email, his email, office offers email, fax, efax. They were coming out of everywhere and some were not even found. So we decided to go to an offer management system and the low cost of ebrokerhouse seemed attractive over the REOMaestro prices.

It worked well in our offer management system, we could view and respond to all agents, have our assistants notify the rejected offers quickly and input additional lender required information. We could now locate where all offers went. Locating lockbox combonations was made easier. And my bookkeeper had a great time managing the PGE and other billing. The customer service wasn't bad because they would call us to find out about our input. (I don't know if they ever applied it. )

BUT we found a few flaws: 1. You could not sort the property page. So if you entered a property 20 properties ago, you had to slowly go through all pages to locate it. 2. The weblink we listed on our mls for agents to submit offers often times was too lengthy that agents cut and pasted not enough of the link and took them to wrong pages and they would call and not know what to do. 3. Agents seemed to not understand the way to upload offers (this was most part on the other party for their passive approach to new technology) but that caused agents to call and be frustrated and send offers to all our emails or fax- again diminishing the point of having this offer management system.

Although the system helped us manage our pipeline, I really felt that it seemed archaic and lacked the 2010 technology to it. They definitely need to update the functions. But I am still an ebrokerhouse user - I think it's due to my passive approach to change too.

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What is an asset manager?

An asset manager can mean many things depending on what industry you refer to (and no, we’re not referring to your computer operating system’s asset manager in this blog post). Even in real estate, it can mean different things — someone who manages rental property can sometimes go by the title of asset manager.

For the purposes of buying and selling real estate (and the sub-plot of understanding foreclosures in the secondary market), an asset manager is neither someone who collects rent on a property or sorts out the different processes that Windows is running. An asset manager is the person that controls a bank’s REO listings and properties.

(And if you didn’t know, REO stands for Real Estate Owned — it’s the term given to properties that have gone through foreclosure, failed to sell for cash at the foreclosure auction, and reverted back to the lender.)

Now, why should you know what an asset manager is? More importantly, why should you find out who asset managers are?

Simple — they’re the people that you can negotiate with if you want to buy these properties. And because these properties come in such wildly varied states — some in good shape, some in bad; some in pricey neighborhoods, some in cheap homes; some are mansions, some are tract homes — getting in touch with an asset manager will help you zero in on the exact type of home you want, all while educating you on just what it would take to pry that home out of their hands.

How can you figure out who is an asset manager at particular bank or lender? Thanks to the internet, we’ve got a number of ways to determine these things. You can try searching on a professional networking site like LinkedIn or you can go with the more direct approach and use Jigsaw to figure out who holds that title at a specific bank.

Update: For clarification, please note that this post is designed to
help you learn who the major players are as you educate yourself on
the process. However, it's best to work with the REO agent whenever
you involve yourself in a potential transaction. Not only are REO
agents experts in bringing a deal to close, the asset managers will
probably thank you -- they're often juggling 200+ case files at once,
which means they've got a lot on their hands!

Search for foreclosure homes www.bestreohomes.com

The views published here are the opinions of the writer and are not a substitute for legal counsel.
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Low-End Sales Rocket in California

Once again misinformation hitting the media! What this article doesn't say is that inventory in California has decreased primarily due to lack of new foreclosures coming on the market. Like most REO brokers in California I have watched my inventory shrink month after month as moratoriums from various institutions have worked themselves through fruition. In addition the banks have been holding back inventory trying to change the Mark to Market valuation system. A quick look at the mls will tell you there is just nothing to sell at this point. Watch the reported inventory numbers for August. It should be off the charts.Michael HowardXcel Reowww.xcelreo.comwww.xcelinvestments.comMay 29, 2009With almost a 50% increase in year-over-year sales, the inventory of unsold existing single-family homes for sale in California has been cut in half, from a 9.8 months' supply in April 2008 to 4.6 months' supply this April, the state's Realtors reported. However, while sales were up 49.2% to a seasonally adjusted rate of 540,360 — the eighth straight month above the 500,000 level — the median price of houses sold in the month declined by more than a third, largely because the majority of sales were at the low-end of the market. "Inventory levels for homes in the under $500,000 segment shrank to nearly three months in April, compared with almost 10 months a year ago, while unsold inventory in the more than $1 million segment rose to approximately 17 months, compared with roughly 10 months in April 2008," says California Association of Realtors President James Liptak. "The dramatic difference in inventory exemplifies how the low end of the market is attracting more first-time buyers and investors, creating a shortage of distressed properties for sale." The median price of existing homes sold in the month was $256,700, a 36.5 percent decrease from the revised $404,470 a year ago. But it was 1.4% greater than March's $253,040 median price. CAR's figures are based on data collected from more than 90 local Realtor associations statewide.
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