After working hard for a few weeks with my investor client, she finally decided to make an offer on a Bank Owned property at Pleasanton, California. As my routine practice, I provided her with the home profile, the recent sold comparables and she made a full price offer. Since I always urge my clients to put an inspection contingencies (this is almost a must for my clients) and upon acceptance of the offer, the listing agent called me and emailed me the inspection reports on file. The house happened to have been shifted previously (may be at 1989′s earthquake) according to the home report. The foundation is intact and the termite is very minimum, only a few hundred dollars, and the price seemed to be the lowest in the area in respect to the conditions of the house. In order to help my clients to make a reasonable decision, I asked the listing agent to provide an environmental report and he agreed and ordered it right away. From the report, we found out the house was located within one mile of the fault zone and there was a nearby dam and during any rainy storm and in case the dam broke, this house may be washed away. The worst part is the house was grounded to aweak sediments (soil deposited by the surrounding running river).
The listing agent told me that this house used to receive $2500 per month as rental and it seemed to be very attractive to my client. After I do the research on the rent price, my find out also supports this rental price. My client wants to buy a house at a good location but the usual problem is the rental income often times not in a good proportion of the house price. What I mean is it could still be negative income for an investor even with a down payment of 35%. For this property, my client will put 70% down payment and she can have a good positive income.
Here comes my dilemma: If I tell my client to proceed with the purchase, she will listen and I will earn my commission income. However, if I myself were the investor, I would back out from this transaction. Of course, I would love to close this transaction but in view of three very important factors: fault, dam, river sediments, my client seriously considered my point of view and backed out from the offer. Now, I need to work from square 1 again but my conscience feels at ease.
I think every real estate agent should hold up this ethnical standard. What do you think?
Your opinions are very important to me.
Please feel free to put a comment or email me at justynato@sbcglobal.net.
三藩市市長提出若干個希望三藩市將現有公屋建項其中一項是將訪古區現有的785公屋單位礦展為1700個。地點：北面Mclaren公園東為Hahn街，南為Velasco街，西為Brookdale街。
政府期望幫助貧民從公屋居住開始搬上可負擔房屋，現實是當貧民住上便宜房屋后，很少思進取，正如我的一位屋主朋友說：“他的租客投訴因租金太便宜，至令 多年不想買屋，你們有何意見呢？”
在最近舉行的鄰居意見大會中，很多現公屋居民都認為在空地上設果園是不實際的，他們擔保所有花果將一一被偷去。一區的房價主要並不決定於天氣，房屋質素，設施，而主要決定於該居罪案率，而公屋往往是罪案率最高之一的地區，你同意嗎？
Last weekend I attended the 2nd community meeting on the workshop of HOPE SF. The Mercy Housing California (MHC) is proposing to build 1400 to 1700 units of public housing at Visitacion Valley.
The current Sunnydale 785 existing units will be replaced and additonal units will be added on.
The site is bound by MacLaren Park on the north, Hahn Street on the east, Velasco Avenue on the south and SF Unified School District property and Brookdale Avenue on the west.
The Vision of the HOPE SF program is to “Rebuild our most distressed public housing sites, while increasing affordable housing and ownership opportunities, and improving the quality of life for existing residents and the surrounding communities.”
It is very ideal for the govenment to help the poor to secure their initial homes and hoping they can move up to their private housing one day. In reality, many people are reluctant to work hard and want to keep on enjoying their exisiting welfares. In fact, one seller told me that at one time her tenants blamed her by renting the unit too cheap to them and so they lost their motivation to buy their own homes and did not gain wealth by acquiring real properties. Could this also true to the residents who live in public housing?
During our discussion in implementing many issues on this project, a lot of currently living in Sunnydale public housing indicated it would not be feasible to put an open orchid in the area because they gaurantee all the fruits will be gone. Safety is also another key issue. One key factor about the price of a particular location is safety. Basically it is not the weather, the quality of the building or the facilities, they are the issues of people who live there. Who lives there and why the crime rate is often higher at public housing area?
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Many homeowners always face a dilemma whether they should continue to pay their mortgage or not paying it so as to draw lender’s attention to their loan modification request. As many homeowners are now marginal payers who can barely afford to pay their mortgages while they feel completely unfair that their counterparts can enjoy a 50% discount on the same house they own with a 30% discount on the interest rate, they surely want to be treated the same. In the meantime, they are afraid that if they are behind the payment, their credit will be ruined so they will not be able to get a better loan.
In order to be successful in negotiating a better loan, the homeowners have to do several things. First, they have to ask why should the lenders talk to them if they are current with their mortgage payments and seemingly is not yet a problem while these bank representatives are alreadyoverloaded with their work. The trick is the homeowners need to be honest with their situations and pay whatever they can afford. These partial payment will stand out enough to draw lender’s attention to response to their loan modification request.
Secondly, the homeowners has to show their sincerity of paying the workable mortgage by showing clearly their monthly income and expenses backing up with required documents such as past 2 years tax return, latest 2 months paystub, latest 2 months bank statements, hardship letter explaining why they should be allowed to pay a lower payment.
Each bank/lender has their own way of evaluation of homeowner’s situation but common sense always count. If you think the lenders working with you will benefit them more, they probably will approve the loan modification.
Here are some loan modification reasons that I have heard:
1. I lost my job.
2. My working hours had been significantly cut.
3. I was pregnant and could not work the whole year round.
4. I have a new baby borned and have to contribute most of my previously working hours to take care of my baby.
5. I lost my pet and have a temporarily nervous break down and cannot go back to work.
6. My parents are sick and I have to take care of them and lost a lot of working hours.
7. Somebody stole my credit cards and I was too late to stop the payments.
8. I had a tumor and was in hospital for a long time.
9. My relatives had come to join my family and my groceries bill has expanded a lot.
10. My insurance company refused to pay my home repair bills.
11. I was in a lawsuit and spent all my money to hire lawyers.
Can you add more?
It seems scarely for many old-fashioned realtors that now internet has posted tons of information to potential /consumers that realtors are actually not needed. True or False?
Not necessary, it is just like when homebuyers can see videos, pictures, virtual tours of different properties, none of these can replace the actual visit of the property itself. As this is said, no internet can really replace the service of the professional realtors. It may sound easy to get a real estate license but not to be a professional real estate consultant. Yes, the role of realtors had changed a lot. It is not merely helping the buyers to find their ideal home or the sellers to get their properties sold but also help them to solve a lot of their problems and provide answers to their questions. A good realtor can really guide along their clients and remove their anxieties that today’s technology cannot do.
Many smart real estate agents like to use multiple counter offer whenthe first offer comes in. What it can serve is to save the seller an offer but in the meantime looking for a better offer. However, wrhat if there is no other offer comes in, can the buyer prosecute the listing agent or the seller committed fraud? The answer is Yes and No.
The answer could be yes if the second offer comes in and the offer is actually represented by the listing agent.
The answer is no if the second offer come in represented by another agent and with a better price or terms.
Recently, my client referred me her best friend Mary who is a first time homebuyer. She purchased her home in 2005 at Visitacion Valley, San Francisco with negative amortization loan. As most people know it means that her loan is getting bigger and bigger as more interests are added on the principal. In 2007, she successfully refinanced her home home into a 30 years fixed rate loan with stated income program. However, stated really means stated and the income is exaggerated or the income had not actually reported to the IRS. Economy changed, jobs lost and Mary could not afford to pay. Sounds familiar. Will this mean Mary should not try to seek help from the loan modification program because they may investigate her original loan and prosecute her fraud in the first place?
Not necessary. As Mary is still staying at her only home with 5 more family members and she used to have excellent credits and had tried her best to pay mortgage in full and on time until 2 months ago. She should still try to get a lower interest rate loan with a longer repayment period so that she can afford. When economy gets better, she and her other family members can get back to work.
I am currently helping her to fill up all the form and make a income and expense balance sheet to the lenders and the result may come up in a few weeks. If you are interested in this story, follow my blog.
I love this one and hope you can enjoy too.
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Being a member of Visitacion Valley Planning Alliance, I have been invited to attend many local neighborhood meetings. On October 11, 2009, we were caught again in surprise of the topic brought up about the possibility of using the current Bayland for usage as High Speed Rail terminal. High Speed Rail had been launched for a long time in Europe but never in the United States and with voter approval of the high-speed train bond in November, 2008, construction is likely to begin as early as 2011. Although a lot of homebuyers may not pay too much attention on the high speed rail disclosure, this project is expected to be completed in 2030.
Due to scarcity of vacant land, south-eastern corner of San Francisco namely Bayview, Visitacion Valley area is expected to develop thousands of home. For example, 6000 homes on 63 acres of the Bayview Hunter’s Point project and currently the first phase had been finished and is selling on the market. Below market rate one bedroom condo can be purchased as low as $15,000. While current Candlestick Park will be redeveloped leaving 45 acres of land for new homes. Good news is the notorious Schledge Lock site is finally being cleaned and the local residents just started to feel a bit happy about the situation. Now comes the High Speed Rail!
Government officials claimed since high speed rail can run 200 miles per hour, the travelling time between San Francisco and San Jose will only be half an hour. The government expects to spend about $980 million and will creat 43,200 jobs. But put the terminal here, park the 12 high speed train here, do all the maintenance in our neighborhood? Could that mean lowering our home value due to the negative environmental impact?
If you are interested in this topic and would like to get more information, go to www.cahighspeedrail.org
