Welcome to the "Z" Team! Douglas and Bud Zeller

Affordable home prices and historically low interest rates have created an ideal situation for many qualified first-time home buyers to purchase a house. Despite this opportunity, some buyers may be overconfident and make mistakes during the home-buying process.

KEEP THIS IN MIND

• Some first-time buyers are unaware of the vast amount of paperwork and negotiations that go into purchasing a home. As a result, buyers may think they can save money by forgoing the use of a REALTOR®. However, managing the nuances of offers, inspections, financing, and other pivotal steps when buying a home often causes confusion and anxiety for buyers. Working with a REALTOR®–who is obligated to put the buyer’s best interests first–will help to alleviate buyer concerns during this process.

• Online mortgage calculators can help buyers estimate the amount of house they can afford, but calculators should not be the sole source for mortgage-approval information. Buyers are advised to meet with a mortgage broker or banker prior to beginning the home search to help determine the loan amount for which they are most likely to be approved.

• Although there is a large selection of homes available for sale, home buyers should not assume they can make low offers or unreasonable demands. Even in hard-hit housing markets, homes in desirable neighborhoods are receiving multiple offers.

To read the full story, please click here: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703579804575441472748516734.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_sections_realestate       

From faxing on-the-go to creating property “reminder” tours, several new applications for smartphones aim to help improve your efficiency while away from your office and impress clients.

James Dwiggins, chief strategy officer with Realty World Northern California and Nevada, provided dozens of mobile application and Web site ideas to attendees at Inman News’ Agent Reboot on Wednesday in San Diego. Agent Reboot is a series of one-day conferences nationwide that highlight the latest marketing and technology trends.

Among some of the apps Dwiggins highlighted included:

1. Gist: Pull together all your contacts from your address book, inboxes, and social networks to access all in one place. The app also pulls in your contacts’ status updates from their social networking pages, blog posts, and news to create an up-to-date business profile for all of your contacts. iPhone and Android. Free.

2. RECalc: Figure monthly payments, interest rates, and loan amounts with this mortgage calculator app. It also allows you to add in annual property tax and home owners’ insurance to give a snapshot to your clients about what they can expect to pay. iPhone. $1.99. For Android users, try Karl’s Mortgage Calculator. Free.

3. Expensify: Keep tabs on your expenses and get rid of the hoards of paper receipts. Take a photo of paper receipts with your phone’s camera and the receipts will be stored online digitally. This app also allows you an easier way to keep track of your mileage when driving clients around for tax purposes later on. iPad, iPhone, Blackberry, Android, Palm, PC, and Mac. Two accounts are free, $5 per account after.

4. Mobile Phax: Take a photo of any letter-sized document or page and this app will allow you to then send it as a PDF to any e-mail address. You can also send the document directly to a fax machine using eFax, fax(.com), send2fax, and other compatible fax programs. iPhone and Blackberry. $4.99 (plus packs available for additional monthly faxes).

5. Tour Narrator: Capture your customers feedback while they tour homes by using your phone to snap photos, take notes, and record audio. The information you gather can then be used to create a sales presentation that can be converted into a PDF with a URL that you can later send to clients. They’ll be able to browse through the properties and see the notes, photos, and listen to the audio as reminders of what they liked and disliked about the homes they toured. iPhone. $1.99.

6. Realtor.com: Access millions of listings with photos and property details, open house information, and map searches. You can also share listings via social networks. iPhone. Free.

7. Vlingo: Talk to your phone and tell it what to do. You can send text messages and e-mails by speaking your message. The phone will transcribe it to text and send, offeringa safer way to text and e-mail while driving. iPhone, Android, and Blackberry. $10.

Also, read about the Center for REALTOR® Technology’s new iPhone app, PlaceTags, and additional information about mobile real estate apps.

–By Melissa Dittmann Tracey for REALTOR® Magazine online

The Federal Reserve Board is proposing enhanced consumer protections and disclosures for home mortgage transactions.  Changes proposed include significant changes to Regulation Z (Truth in Lending).  The latest proposal would:

Improve the disclosures consumers receive for reverse mortgages and impose rules for reverse-mortgage advertising to ensure advertisements contain accurate and balanced information;

Prohibit certain unfair practices in the sale of financial products with reverse mortgages; 

Improve the disclosures that explain a consumer’s right to rescind certain mortgage transactions and clarify the responsibilities of the creditor if a consumer exercises the right; and

Ensure that consumers receive new disclosures when the parties agree to modify the key terms of an existing closed-end mortgage loan.  

The comment period ends 90 days after publication of the proposal in the Federal Register, which is expected shortly.

More info. http://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/press/bcreg/20100816e.htm

Is your home dressed to sell?

Staging the interior.

Clear all unnecessary objects from furniture throughout the house. Keep decorative objects on the furniture restricted to groups of 1, 3, or 5 items. In general, a sparsely decorated home helps the buyer mentally ‘move in’ with their own things.

Rearrange or remove some of the furniture in your home, if necessary. Many times home owners have too much furniture in a room. When it comes to selling your home, thin out overcrowded rooms to make the rooms appear larger.

 Clear all unnecessary objects from the kitchen countertops. If it hasn’t been used for three months…put it away! Clear refrigerator fronts of messages, magnets, pictures, etc.

 In the bathroom, remove any unnecessary items from the countertops, tub, shower stall and commode top. Keep only the most necessary cosmetics, brushes, perfumes, etc., in one small group on the counter. Coordinate towels in one or two colors only.

 Take down, reduce, or rearrange pictures and objects on walls. Patch and paint all walls, if necessary.

 Review the house interior, room by room, and:

1. Paint any room needing paint.

2. Clean carpet and draperies that need it.

3. Clean windows.

 If you need room to store extra possessions use the garage or rent a storage unit.

 Leave on certain lights during the day (your agent will show you which ones). During showings turn on ALL lights and lamps.

Staging the exterior.

Go around the perimeter of the house and move all garbage cans, discarded wood scraps, extra building materials, etc., to the garage or, if applicable, take them to the dump.

Check gutters and roof for dry rot and moss. Make sure they are swept & cleaned.

 Look at all plants. Plants are like children…they grow so fast. Prune bushes and trees. Keep plants from blocking windows: “You can’t sell a house if you can’t see it!”

 Remove any dead plants, weed all planting areas and put down fresh mulching material.

 Keep your lawn freshly cut, edged and fertilized during the growing season.

 Clear patios or decks of all small items, such as little planters, flower pots, charcoal, barbeques, toys, etc.

 Check the condition of the paint on your home, especially the trim and the front door. The first

impression, or ‘curb appeal,’ is very important.

Try to look at your house “through a buyer’s eyes,” as though you’ve never seen it before. This exercise will help you see what needs to be done. Any time and money invested on these items will usually bring you the return of more money and a quicker sale.  For additional staging ideas or if you are in the market for a professional home stager, give us a call, we would be glad  to help.

Despite massive amounts of taxpayer bailout money being spent on modifying delinquent loans, the inventory of lender foreclosed homes, called REOs, has been increasing. Currently there are 166 REOs listings in El Dorado County. El Dorado Hills has 25 REOs listed in the MLS, Cameron Park/Shingle Springs 29, Placerville/Diamond Springs/El Dorado 29 and there are 33 REO listed above Camino. The other 50 REO listings are scattered around the county from Fairplay to Georgetown.

REO sales make up one of every four county home sales. That’s not surprising when comparing prices of REO and non-REO properties. The average selling price of a county REO home is $253,000 while non-REOs sales average $397,000. REO sales typically take 49 days to attract an offer which is usually at or slightly above the listed price. The non-REOs home will typically take 79 days to and attract offers at 95 percent of the current listed price.

There is some evidence the number of new loan defaults is decreasing. Notices of Default, the first step in the foreclosure process, edged up slightly from May to June but according to ForeclosureRadar, decreased 45 percent from June of 2009.  That’s a good signal the worst is probably over. If so, it’s about time. The excessive number of foreclosures has decimated property values and erodes confidence in the housing market.     

Information provided by Ken Calhoon, Broker, Placerville, CA.

Part of the financial reform bill signed into law by President Obama includes the creation of a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which will write new rules and monitor problems and abuses in areas such as residential real estate settlements, credit scores, “truth in lending,” and equal credit opportunity. 

KEEP THIS IN MIND

• Before the Bureau can begin implementing new laws to assist consumers, the president must nominate a director for the Bureau and the Senate must confirm the nominee. While this may take time, mortgage industry leaders say some of the core changes promised by the legislation either already are in effect or should be soon.

• Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner has until Sept. 19 to designate a transfer date when key legal and regulator authorities shift from agencies such as the Federal Trade Commission and the Dept. of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), to the new consumer bureau. Once that takes place, the Bureau will begin implementing the new laws.

• One of the earliest and most widely anticipated changes expected to take effect impact home appraisals. By law, the agency must create new interim rules on appraisal accuracy and independence to replace the Home Valuation Code of Conduct (HVCC) rules imposed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in 2009. Many in the real estate industry, as well as home buyers and sellers, report HVCC standards led to low home valuations that, in some instances, derailed home sales transactions.

• A national hotline system also will be developed that will allow aggrieved mortgage borrowers and others to issue complaints and alert the Bureau to unfair and deceptive practices.

• Rules requiring mortgage loan officers to verify mortgage applicants possess the ability to repay the loans they’re seeking also is high on the list.

To read the full story, please click here:

http://www.latimes.com/business/realestate/la-fi-0801-harney-20100801,0,821975.story   

In the absence of the federal home buyers tax credit, sales of existing, single-family homes in California declined 4.2 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 492,000 units in June compared with the same period a year ago, according to the California Association of Realtors (C.A.R.) June sales and price report.  The median price of an existing home in California rose 13.6 percent to $350,911.

“Buyers who scrambled to close escrow in May to take advantage of federal and state tax credits before they expired impacted the number of homes sold last month,” said C.A.R. President Steve Goddard. “Although we expect sales to be lower in the second half of the year because of the absence of the government stimulus, they should remain above the long-run average and be significantly higher than the trough in 2007, when sales bottomed out.

“Although the tax credits are no longer available, it’s important to keep in mind that home prices are substantially below their peaks and interest rates remain at historic lows, making this a very affordable time for many first-time buyers to purchase a home of their own,” he said.

C.A.R.’s Unsold Inventory Index (UII) also rose to 4.8 months in June from 4.2 months in June 2009, but still remains lower than the long-run average of a 7.1-month supply of unsold inventory.

More information at: http://www.car.org/newsstand/newsreleases/junereport/

200 homes closing escrow last month in El Dorado County. 67 were bank owned REOs and 46 were short sales. It was a record number of monthly sales for both categories. The number of monthly short sales has doubled since last year. Lenders are more receptive to negotiating a discounted payoff of their mortgage rather than foreclosing on the property. Both sellers and their agents are capitalizing on this opportunity. Of the 1,400 homes currently listed for sale, 400 are short sales; 200 without offers and 200 with pending offers waiting for the lender’s approval. REOs account for 157 active listings.

Although no shortage of REOs and short sales, the demand is driving sale prices above the listing price. Last month the $355,000 average selling price of a typical short sale and the $295,000 average selling price for an REO exceeded their average listing price by 101 percent. Multiple offers are common. In contrast, the average selling price of a non-REO, non-short sale home was $425,000, which was 94 percent of their listed price.

Discounting the inflated monthly sales numbers, attributed to one time tax credits, the most significant market change this summer is the number of sellers attempting to sell their home through a short sale process.  At best, negotiating a short sale with the ultimate decision maker, the lender, is a frustrating time-consuming process that can go sideways for a variety of reasons. Currently, more than one of every four listings is marketed as a short sale.

Other information and data for the Placerville, El Dorado County, California areas is available at www.sierraproperties.com

Securing Debt Relief Through Using Debt Settlements?

Credit cards sometimes termed as the plastic money are the finest inventions in the financial world. This product is protected and offers the option of trouble free transaction mode for the owners. Individuals make use of plastic money as they consider it as the finest substitute for cash. This makes them careless about the usage and they carry on using the same. This triggers a situation where the loaner feels entrapped in dues and high rates of interest augments the pain.

Many people are facing this trouble lately. However, many are completely unaware of the trouble that a plastic can bring with it. Most people carry on using the credit card and their unpaid bill amounts keep increasing. At certain stage the amount against the plastic becomes impossible to pay off. As a consequence the monthly repayments remain unpaid as the social and financial state does not allow him to pay the bills off.

Repaying the arrears means cutting down on their necessary expenditures. This spells the threat of bankruptcy for many. This is exactly the time to begin searching for some efficient procedure that would help you repay your mounting arrears in a easy and smooth process. It becomes necessary to reduce credit card interest so that the burden is relaxed to some extent. But it is not an easy process as the firms issuing plastic money are not kind enough to reduce credit card interest and help you out. The debt settlement firms are best in this regard to assist you in the reduction process.

It is essential to maintain a good credit report to get loans in future if you ever have the requirement for it. If your credit rating is not well, none of the lenders or lending institutions will provide you with loans during real crisis as they know that there is threat of not getting the money back. This, again, provides and enhances the requirement of debt settlement as this procedure helps to maintain the credit rating as well as eradication of outstanding faster. In fact, bad credit report can result in not getting any employment as well.

Being in enormous debt, avail the professionals of debt settlement firms. They will in fact help you to reduce credit card interest. They will bargain with the lenders and assist you to reduce 50% of the remaining credit and thus you can quickly eliminate the total burden. Securing debt relief through the procedure is trouble free and smooth. Ensure the legitimacy of the firm and eradicate burden smoothly.

Congress passed a bill this week extending the deadline to close escrow and qualify for the federal home buyers tax credit. President Obama is expected to sign the bill extending the deadline to Sept. 30, 2010, instead of its original June 30 deadline.

KEEP THIS IN MIND!

• The bill extends the deadline to close escrow for home buyers who entered into a home purchase contract by the April 30 deadline. First-time buyers may be eligible to receive up to $8,000 and qualified existing homeowners may receive up to $6,500 if the home buyer closes escrow by Sept. 30.

• Home buyers entering into sales contracts May 1 or later are not eligible for the federal tax credit, but they may qualify for the California home buyer tax credit.

• The CALIFORNIA ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® (C.A.R.) and the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® worked closely with members of Congress to extend the deadline. Estimates from NAR show nearly 180,000 home buyers nationwide would have missed out on the tax credit if the deadline was not extended, including nearly 17,700 home buyers in California.

• Many of the home buyers who would have missed out on the tax credit are in the midst of purchasing a short sale or foreclosure, which generally take longer to close due to the amount of paperwork involved in the transaction.

To read the full story, please click here:

http://money.cnn.com/2010/06/30/news/economy/homebuyer_tax_credit/index.htm