Tina To's Real Estate Blog

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Just turn on the “Printer” and here you go, the money that we need.  Is it just that simple?

How about cutting tax for the higher income group to trade for the extension of another year of unemployment payment? 

Recently, I called one of my potential buyer who ended up not buying because of unemployment.  She still had that much of downpayment handy but can no longer qualify for any loan.  She is an experienced dentist assistant and I do not expect less people will see a dentist because the economy is bad.  If you have serious toothache, no matter what, you will see a dentist.  But what about that periodic cleaning or minor toothache, can you go without it?  Oh yes.  So her boss has to cut cost and so do many other businesses.  Instead of hiring full time employee, many firms fired the permanent staff and replace them with the temporary staff.  Of course, no fringe benefits, no 401K, no medical insurance payment, these add up figures help.  Now what?  Why should the unemployed work the part time job, being deducted the hard earned money from their unemployment benefits?  So, it ends up while business people try to survive by cutting cost but the unemployment money take away their part time helpers.  18 months are long enough and now another year, no kidding.

My prospect actually turned down many part time jobs.  She did not want to work for nothing.  What I mean is the money she earn from the part time job will be deducted from her unemployment paid.  So she only look for permanent position and so are thousand of many others.

Thank you for checking in.

What do you think?  The latest figure is 64% of population can now afford to buy a house but not so many people are really buying.  Why?  Will tell you next time.

Tina To – agent with heart, serving San Francisco Bay Area

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

REO  is the short form for Real Estate Owned.  The real meaning is the lenders, usually the banks, have taken over the properties and are actually owners of the properties.  When the properties put up to the market for sale, the lenders/banks had already come up to an agree upon for sale price so usually if the buyers offer the asking price, it will be approved.  However, some lenders/banks will still listen to the sale experts marketing strategy, i.e. to ask for a ridiculously low price to encourage strong competition and thus beat up the sold price.  Anyway, the buyers involved usually can close the escrow within a reasonable time like a normal sale.

Short Sale means even after the sold price of the property is still too short to pay the mortgage.  In this case, the individuals are still owners of the properties and not the lenders.  However, since the homeowners cannot bring additional money to pay back to the bank/lenders, the sold price has to be approved by the lenders.  Since in this case, it is the homeowners who initiated to sell the property to avoid foreclosure, the lenders/banks involved had not yet came up to an agreed upon price prior to the property put for sale in the market, every offer has to be reviewed by the lenders/banks involved.  Thus it usually takes a much longer time for closing.

Going Green is not only a fashion but a MUST.  But everyone without asking knows the issue is always about money.

If I come to you today and say, “Hey, I will install the solar energy for your home and gaurantee you will save 25% in your energy bill for free, will you do it?”  I bet, everyone will say YES and find no reasons to object.

Now, the government of San Francisco has passed something SIMILAR, but of course, not exactly.  How about if I tell you after you install your solar energy roof etc, the money you save on your utility bill will be sufficient to pay back the loan you get from the government?

This is still in a very initial stage and nobody has applied the funding yet.  In short, anyone can go to www.greenfinancesf.org and apply online for “going Green on your home”.  The application fee is $300 and to hire an energy auditor to put up a proposal is “free” according to one of the approved auditor I talked to.  However, the audit process might take several hours and is not a simple clip broad type of inspection.  The current interest rate posted on the website said 7% and the paid back period will be spread according to the expected life span of the new instrunments such as solar panels of the roof (approximately 20 years) and the repayment is by paying the special tax portion of the property tax.  This 7% can also be treated by mortgage interest and claimed deductible from the ordinary income tax portion.

If you live in San Francisco and is interested in this kind of improvement to your homes, I urge you to go online and dig into more details or attend the public meeting.

You cannot control the length of your life, but you can “widen” it.

You cannot control the weather, but you can control how you feel. – Some people feel sad because it rains and they cannot go out.  Some people feel good because it rains and they can enjoy their home more.  Who are you?

You cannot change how you look (to certain extent) but you can always smile.

You cannot change others but you can change yourself.

You cannot predict tomorrow but you can make good use of today.

You cannot win everything but you can always try your very best.

Here is my client’s question:

I love the property but after I have spent $500 for the home inspection, I find out that I need to at least spend $30,000 in order to be able to move into it.  So I asked the seller to lower $30,000 so that I can reserve $30,000 from my downpayment to pay for the immediate repair.  But the seller refused to do so and I still like the property, what should I do?

If you were her, what would you do?

1.  Back out from the contract if there is no penalty incur.

2.  Ask less from the seller, instead of $30,000, ask for lowering of $15,000.

http://www.digital-currents.com/currentsnewsletter/20100304#pg3

Free local workshop starts today!

April 4th is Easter – to celebrate Jesus Chris come back to live.

April 5th is Ching Ming – to memorize the ancestors.

During Ching Ming, usually it is drizzle as if weeping for the loss of our ancestors.  Many cemetaries will hold a free prayer memorization party to their clients as to thank you for their business as well as to promote new business.  Funny thing is they respect different religions so hold different ceremonies.  They also provide free buffet.

Both my parents are buried at Cypress Lawn which is located at Colma City.  Like its name Colma is a place for people to fall in colma and death in some way resemble a never wake up sleep.  As we want to stay close to our parents, my siblings and myself had purchased the designated space around my parents.   Land for the dead is more precious than land for the live (real estate ).    The ”dead spot” , once taken, is rarely or never sold again because “previously occupied” tomb is not allowed to be sold.  For living persons, we are free to move and sell our house but not for the dead.  Also the price of the tomb appreciates way faster than that of live person’s.  For example, my parents’ tomb is $8000 but two years after, I bought the exact size similar location is already $17,000.  For Asian, it is a taboo  not to mention the word “dead” and to curse  another person we will say such a “dead head”.

As a real estate agent, I encountered many times potential buyers/investors like to throw me one looks like simple question or statement: INFORM ME WHEN IT IS A GOOD DEAL.

Wow, that is a big question.  What is a good deal?  I have a client who have rejected my good deal suggestions many times.  To many people, a good deal usually means after you put down 25% downpayment, you can get an annual return rate of 8% or higher on the money you invest.  But my client is very different.  She would only like to have the expenses break even with(i.e. equal)  the income.  Typical expenses of property may include: mortgage payment, tax & insurance, utilities, management fee.  Thus if the total rental income minus all these expenses still comes up with a positive figure, we call it a positive income or positive cash flow.  However, my client has a very high tax bracket and she does not care too much of her income because most of it goes to Uncle Sam (tax office). 

Another two very important factors to bear in mind are the potential of the income property and cost of maintenance.  If the property is newer and does not require any major repairs in the next 10 years and it is located at a upcoming area, it is considered good.  Some good indicators of the upcoming of a certain area are growth in  good schools, in jobs and in infrastructure (easy commute).

Since different people have different needs, a good deal to one person may not be so to another one.  Please feel free to contact me if you want a free anyalysis of your real property investment.

Have you ever experienced this?  You are taking vacation but you are still thinking of your work?  This is quite common for professionals who are sales related such as realtors.  However, this year, I managed to shut myself off completely from my work by which I call a complete rest.  I shut off my business phone, my emails, my websites and I would say do not even bother to turn on any computer.  In this way, you can let your body and mind completely rest and recharged.

When I came back to work, I found that many visitors had put comments on my blog but were spamed because I had not touched my blog during my vacation periods.  I truly apologized and wish all my supporters will continue to read my blog.

Thank you very much for all your support and I will try my very best to continue to write something that is meaningful to you.

Thank you very much.

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.