Tina To's Real Estate Blog

Mr Sing Dao Contest 2011

Recently I encouraged my son Gene to enter the Mr Sing Tao Contest 2011.  At first, he had no idea of what it was and after he googled it, his comment was this was really si-si.  Anyway, he noticed my response and how happy I was picturing him enter into the competition and agreed to try.

I remembered one famous Hong Kong actor once said at the Prize Award Ceremony,” if I were the winner, the competition was very fair, if not, it was not.”  I 100% agreed to this point of view.  Who won as the Mr Sing Dao was very subjective to the judges but who won the Mr Physical, however, was very objective.  Gene has been working out everyday for the past few years in preparation for his “fighter dream” and this led him to get his first award of Mr Physical.  He had completed the 3 different physical trial and had been the champion on the first two, lifting the most up within 30 seconds the heavy ball and jumped the most times on the heavy rope in 30 seconds (I had counted for him, of course).  I was so happy that he enjoyed it and I enjoyed it.

It had taken up a lot of time for rehearsal etc. but I would say this was also a very positive experience.  He told me that he did not have stage fright or maybe he had conquered that.  He is also the final 3 competitors in the talent competition.  He performed playing drum but did not perform well enough.  Maybe the set up time was too short (1 minute allowed for setting up the whole drum set) and Gene had to move his stool in the middle of the performance.  Anyway, according to his knowledge, all competitors would only win one prize and since he already won the Mr Physical, he could not be Mr Talent.

Mr Sing Dao, 2011 Nathan Ng

The Mr. Sing Tao came out to be the guy who posted the not so good looking picture in the newspaper (not photogenic, maybe).  However, I knew that he had prepared well and had been very thoughtful.  He gave one dozen roses to the audience during the cat walk and had answered the question tactfully and humorously (has the ability to entertain the audience which is the essence of this kind of competition).  I also have to praise Mr Talent, Grant Lim.  He had joined the Mr Sing Dao Contest 2010 but still came back to try the second time.  He must have a lot of confidence in himself.  I like this “not giving up” attitude.

Mr Talent, Grant Lim

On the whole, I would say this is a fair competition as I totally have no relationship with Sing Tao Newspaper or Sing Tao Radio Chanel.

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The tuition fee for overseas student at the public or private universities could range 3 to 10 times of the local students with American identity.  However, if these overseas student gain  their local identity by becoming an investor immigrant, the fee they saved for those 4 years tuition could be as much as their minimum investment amount which is $500,000 easily.  Worth it or not?

Let us take a look.  The immigration attorneys typically will charge 10% of the total investment which maybe justified as they have to follow up with the process for up to 3 year long.  However, looking at the current real estate market, many properties had fallen to the 2000 level.  Again this have to be dependent on the location.

Lafayette is a  prestigous district that is only half an hour drive from UC Berkeley.  The medium price of Lafayette has dropped 23% from the year of 2006.  In the year 2006, the medium price is $16,141,000 and in the year 2011, the medium price is $1,240,000 and the lowest possible sold price is $820,000 which is never possible to find in the year 2006.

Overseas investors:  maybe this is your golden chance to invest in America NOW.

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

Hello my dear readers, please answer the following questions without peeking the answers first.

1.  Short Sale means the selling price is shorter than the seller’s loan amount, yes or no?

2.  Short Sale takes a longer time to process because it involves more than the seller’s decision, yes or no?

3.  Short Sale requires seller’s lender’s approval and this decision usually means the Bank, yes or no?

4.  The sold price of Short Sale property is lower than the fair market value, yes or no?

5.  Fair market value means the selling price of similar properties sold in similar locations within 3 months, yes or no?

6.  The parties involve in the Short Sale are: sellers, listing agents, buyers, buyer’s agents, seller’s lending institution, yes or no?

Do you get all yes?  So did I before I attended the Short Sales Seminar hosted by Chinese Real Estate Associationof America (CREAA) and presented by Elena Celestine of Bank of America today.

The answer to question no. 3 is no because while most people think that the seller’s bank has the major power to decide whether to approve the short sale transaction, in reality, the bank is only a third party who carry out the instructions from the investors behind the loan.   This also explain the complex communication path.  The listing agent has to negotiate with the “loan mitigation department” of the bank but the assigned negotiator is usually only a middle person and has to pass the information  to the investors.  Therefore, this is an extremely complex negotiation and it is more than what ordinary people think in the communication path.

The answer to question no.4 is yes and no.  Technically all sellers will not want their properties sold below fair market price and so do the seller’s lender.  However, market price is very dynamic and is determined by many factors.  Therefore, not only short sale properties, but all properties can be sold at market price, below market price or above market price.  Basically short sale properties and real estate own properties will involve more than one formal appraisals – one from the seller’s lender and one from the buyer’s lender.

The answer to question 6 is no because at least one more party will be involved, that is the investors.

1. yes    2. yes    3. no    4. yes or no    5. yes    6. no

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It is too easy to feel blue, down, discouraged and think in a negative way.  Whenever this is going to happen to me, I will turn myself to my “Happy Diary” .  I would brainstorm everything that I should feel happy about and write them down.

Here are a few things that I can easily think of.  Let me give you an example of today.

1.  It is a sunny day with clear sky, blue sky, white cloud.

2.  I have more clothes that I need whenever I open my closet, how rich am I.

3.  My kids are growing and they are healthy.

4.  I spare some time practice “Tai Chi”.

5.  I really look at least 10 years younger and I feel at least 20 years younger.

How about you?  What is your today’s happy diary?

I am a “happy” real estate agent who can help you move into a happy home.  Please feel free to visit or contact me.

Thank you for checking in.

If you have a child at 8th grade like I do, you should be busy helping your child to enter his appropriate high school.  Most parents like myself have already got some help from the school counsellor or teachers or administrators of your child’s current school.  Having made a mistake with my elder son in choosing his high school, this time, I am spending more time to do my research.  Usually we (my son and I) can check schools through 3 ways:

1.  To check the websites of different schools

2.  To go to the school Open House

3.  Shadowing – shadowing means let your child shadow one student of the high school and join all the daily school regular activities including attending classes, go to recess, taking lunch etc.

There are basically 3 types of schools that all parents should consider.

1.  Public school – in San Francisco, Lowell High School ranks academically way higher than all other public school and will only consider straight A students application in their first round of “lottery” and then open to the second round of lottery which will include students from ALL – basically giving chance to those “handicapped” financially, academically, socially, racially.   There are also other highly favored public school boosted by their good academic results or other specialties.  For example, School of the Arts hold a very high Arts standard requirement beside academic results.  All candidates has to passed their board of examiners to study their chosen Arts area.  If your child plays piano very well and choose piano as their arts subject, then your child has to play one prepared piece (by memory) and then another piece by sight but was given by the examiner with no advance preparations allowed.  I have more insight of School of the Arts because my elder boy is graduated from there last year.

2.  Charter Schools – Charter Schools are public schools but have an independent administrative power to run their school in their own ways.  It is like an experimental school and usually starts from a small one.  For example, my younger boy’s current school , Rooftop, can also be considered as a Charter but it is named as alternative.  It is different from other public school in many ways.  First, the size is very small.  Each grade only has 60 students and at kindergarten and elementary level, each class has 20 students.  The students come from every where throughout San Francisco.  In addition to “standard” academic subjects, there are gardening, sensory motors and many different arts which usually integrated into the academic subject as well.  Rooftop originally starts from the roof only.  The recent Hot charter school is Gateway High School.  This year, Gateway also introduce its middle school.  However, if you are interested please check www.gatewayhigh.org.

3.  Private school

Each student can apply separately public school, charter school and private school.  In this way, your child will have at least 3 choices.  For me and my son we are still in the process of investigating different public and charter schools.  We have opted out private school for financial reasons.  Although there are scholarships or grants could be applied for students who like to attend private schools, I would not like my son to feel inferior.  By looking at the questionaires of the private schools and also Gateway High School, I feel that my son is not applying school, instead he is more like applying a very important job in the adult world.  The way both Toby and I interpretate the question is how can Toby and I contribute to Gateway so they may consider accept Toby.  What is good about Toby so that Gateway should take him as his student.  It sounds so ridiculous.  Also I do not believe the so called “lottery system”.  Lottery is just an excuse for the school to turn down one particular student’s application.

Schools play an extremely important role in the house price when the enrollment is giving priority to local residents but this had been slightly changed in the past few years.  I am a full time real estate agent and truly understand how the parent feel and will do for their children.  If you have any questions regarding schools or real estate, please contact me so that we can discuss.

Thank you for checking in.

Tina To

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What is APR, why it is different from the interest rate that my loan agent/bank representative disclosed to me?

Almost all the time APR is higher than the actual interest rate that the loan agent quote you.  APR is actually a sophisticated jargon that the Bank wants to intimidate/scare you?  Just joking.

Let me demonstrate how APR comes up and you will understand.

If I say I loan you $100 and you pay 5% interest so your interest payment is $5

But what if you pay $5 interest but I am giving you $90 because $10 is your closing cost, then now your interest rate will be: 90 divided by 5 x 100% = 5.5%

This is exactly how the bank calculate your APR.  But then you say I even pay points to lower my interest rate and how come my APR is even higher?  It is because then your closing cost is higher.  Instead of $10 closing cost, maybe now you are paying $20 closing cost so your interest rate is still 5% but your APR will be 6.25%.

Thank you for checking in.  I am a real estate agent specialized in San Francisco and Peninsular area and will be happy to help you buy or sell your house.

Last week I made use of free family pass again to go to Cartoon Arts Museum which is located at Mission and 2nd Street.  The standard charge for adult is $8 and for kid is $6.  It shows a good cartoon history and have a good deal of collection.  However, there is nothing hands on and not really too fascinating for the young kids.

However, it is free.  So have you tried yet?  If you live in San Francisco, go to any public library and see what is still available for the free activity that you can enjoy with your family within this week.

Go to http://www.sfkids.org/checkoutSF for detailed information.

Thank you for checking in with my blog.

I am a real estate agent who specified in San Francisco and Peninsular area.  I would like to share as much as I can all the interesting local information with you.

“Oh , we are experiencing the worst depression!”  ARE WE? ? ?

If you are Jewish and aged over 50, your parents may had been ran away from the Nazi Camp or forced to run away from homes.  If you came from China and aged over 50, you should have experienced the Cultural Revolution.  The point is if you asked those people, which period is worse, now or then?  What is your hinge?

Yes, we have a high unemployment rate.  Yes, a lot of people lost their homes because of foreclosure.  Yes, the government is keep on cutting budgets.  Yes, our economic growth is a negative figure or close to zero.   But how many years have our ancestors live a “simple” life before the Industrial Revolution kicked in?  Could we call those years the worst?  Would our ancestors said so?

During the 1929 depression, a lot of people hid themselves in the theaters and enjoyed the extra low ticket fee.  A lot of family actually felt those were the time they felt the closest as parents were jobless and had plenty of time with their children.  Can we still enjoy some of those side “benefits” today?

So, cheer up.  This is not the end of the world.  We are not at our worst period and so will not be tomorrow.

Thank you for checking in with my blog.  By the way, if you are thinking of making use this golden chance of low house price, low interest rate in San Francisco or Peninsular, feel free to contact me.  I have over 20 years experience helping people acquire their first home.

最近當我去借書時，無意間發現三藩市居民可以憑有效圖書証去取一個免費旅遊紙，圖書館職員會告訴你有什麼參加的單位尚有位讓你一家人（二位大人，四位低於１８歲小朋友）一起免費去的勝地。地點包括有：免費船河﹑科學館等。。詳細情形請上以下網頁www.SFPL.org/checkoutSF

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.