What’s a Short Sale?

A San Mateo Short Sale house doesn’t refer to how long it takes for the house to sell. The name is misleading.  Any unfortunate buyer or seller involved in one can tell you that.

Short Sale refers to the fact that the bank is going to be short money. The house is going to sell for less than the bank is owed.

Why Do Short Sales Take So Long?

It’s pretty typical to see a short sale house on the market for a long time – and I mean a long time.  Some Daly City houses have been on the market for over a year.

But why do Short Sales take so long? Well, it’s a long story – just kidding.  They take a long time because there are a lot of people involved – a lot more than a regular home sale. There are processes and procedures that have to be followed. And they’re not simple.

Just like any home sale there’s a seller.  This seller happens to be the investor who gave the loan.  And like any seller would be they’re not happy about the situation.

Want A Deal On A San Mateo Short Sale?

So does everybody else. Inventory has dropped steadily and multiple offers abound.  Still want to buy or sell a short sale?  Make sure you hire an agent who knows what they’re doing and be sure to get a bottle of Pepto Bismol.

Thanks for reading the San Mateo Real Estate Blog

Vicki Moore, Realtor
Certified Short Sale Expert
Alain Pinel Realtors, specializing in San Mateo, CA Real Estate.
Buying? Selling? Need real estate help?
Contact me at 650.888.9268 or Vicki[@]CallVicki.com.

2325 Armada Way, San Mateo

• 2 bedrooms
• 2 and 1 half remodeled bathrooms
• wood burning fireplace
• super-sized private patio
• inside laundry
• attached garage

Everything’s done for you:designer paint colors, bamboo floors, neutral tile, new baseboard and crown molding. Fireplace with decorator mantle. Soaring ceilings and skylights keep it light & bright.

Inside LAUNDRY!

Master bedroom has a ton of closet and a deck too!

Two full baths plus the half bath downstairs have all been gorgeously remodeled with great colors, new fixtures, vanities and granite.

Extra large and perfectly private patio to relax or BBQ with friends and family.

One of just a few units with an attached garage.  Shopping is close by and so is Highway 92.

Mariner’s Island

Mariner’s Island has it all: restaurants, shopping, running and biking trails, pretty landscape – and it’s all super conveniently located to get to bio tech and high tech central.

Search townhomes and condos for sale  in Mariner’s Island

For more information on this townhome for sale in Mariner’s Island,
San Mateo please contact:

Vicki Moore, Realtor
Alain Pinel Realtors
650.888.9268 or Vicki[@]CallVicki.com.

San Mateo’s Median Home Price $755,000

With November’s median home price in San Mateo at $755,000 and the home prices higher here than most places in the US, people are always asking me where first time home buyers get the money.

My standard answer is everywhere and anywhere.  The National Association of Realtors has the breakdown.

National Association of Realtors Reports:

61% of first time home buyers used savings; 22% got a gift from friends or family – 6% got a loan from them; 6% dipped into what’s left of their 401(k); 6%sold stocks or bonds.

First time home buyers also became a little more miserly by making financial sacrifices to purchase a home: 39% cut spending on luxury items, 38% cut back on entertainment and 30% cut spending on clothes.

Thanks for reading the San Mateo Real Estate Blog.
I love questions and comments. So please leave one!
Vicki Moore, Realtor
Alain Pinel Realtors, specializing in San Mateo, CA Real Estate.
Need real estate help?
Contact me at 650.888.9268 or Vicki[@]CallVicki.com.

Congratulations!

You just bought a house.  But did you know that you also may have bought the garbage bill?

Think Short Sale

The garbage bill – if there is one – goes with the house.  So you’re buying a house – the sellers have had financial problems – and they haven’t paid the garbage bill for a while.  Or the family is selling the house for grandma who passed away.  The garbage bill got lost in the mix of a hundred other things to do.

Guess Who Gets to Pay the Bill?

You do.  So call the garbage company before you get the keys to make sure you don’t get a stinky surprise after you move in.

photo credit

Thanks for reading the San Mateo Real Estate Blog.
I love questions and comments. So please leave one!
Vicki Moore, Realtor
Alain Pinel Realtors, specializing in San Mateo, CA Real Estate.
Need real estate help?
Contact me at 650.888.9268 or Vicki[@]CallVicki.com.

Mortgage Protection Program Extended

To help provide first-time home buyers with peace of mind when purchasing a home, the C.A.R. Housing Affordability Fund (C.A.R.H.A.F.) is offering a new mortgage protection program to first-time home buyers.

Just In Case You Get Laid Off

Through the Housing Affordability Fund’s Mortgage Protection Program, first-time home buyers who lose their jobs due to layoffs may be eligible to receive up to $1,500 per month for up to six months to help make their mortgage payments. A qualified co-buyer also can participate in the program, for a monthly benefit of $750 per month for up to six months.

More Benefits

Program benefits also include coverage for accidental disability and a $10,000 death benefit. C.A.R.’s Housing Affordability Fund is dedicating $1 million toward its Mortgage Protection Program this year, and estimates that up to 3,000 families will benefit from the program throughout 2009.

How To

To qualify for the Mortgage Protection Program, applicants must:
. Be a first-time home buyer – someone who has not owned a home in the last three years
. Open escrow April 2, 2009, or later, and close on or before Dec. 31, 2009 Mortgage Protection Program (MPP) extended through December 2010. To date, more than 1,700 first-time home buyers already have been approved for the program.
. Use a California REALTOR® in the transaction
. Purchase the property in California
. Be a W-2 employee (cannot be self-employed or military personnel)

Contact Your Realtor

First-time home buyers must request an application for the H.A.F. Mortgage Protection Program from their REALTOR®.

Thanks for reading the San Mateo Real Estate Blog.
I love questions and comments. So please leave one!
Vicki Moore, Realtor
Alain Pinel Realtors, specializing in San Mateo, CA Real Estate.
Need real estate help?
Contact me at 650.888.9268 or Vicki[@]CallVicki.com.

Two weeks after writing Loan Modification is Big Business Govenor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed Senate Bill 94 into law.

It is now illegal for loan modification servicers to charge fees in advance.  The legislation took effect immediately.  California law now prohibits any person, including real estate licensees and attorneys, from demanding or collecting an advance fee from a consumer for loan modification.

Fees collected prior to October 11, 2009 are not affected. Advance fees collected after October 11, 2009 must be fully refunded.

Thanks for reading the San Mateo Real Estate Blog.
I love comments. So please leave one!
Vicki Moore, Realtor
Alain Pinel Realtors, specializing in San Mateo, CA Real Estate.
Need real estate help?
Contact me at 650.888.9268 or Vicki[@]CallVicki.com.
Pictures of San Mateo County

Oracle, Redwood Shores

I Don’t Get It

Well, you can but why would you want to? At the risk of irritating you, I’m going to get real here. If you want to buy a house and you know there are many other people who are interested in that very same house – in other words, there will be multiple offers – why would you ask if I think that submitting an offer 5% under the asking price will get you the house?

Hot Hot Hot

I keep saying…the first-time buyer market in San Mateo County is hot! Is anybody listening?

Same Ol’ Story

I try to educate my clients. I try – really I do. I show them houses. I show them statistics. I show them the history of the market. I tell them – oh wait!

But we have to learn by experience – our own experience. And home buyers want to submit their offer. And that’s fine – for a while. But I don’t want to bash my head against the wall too many times. At some point you have to read the writing on the wall.

Ain’t Gonna Happen

You and the rest of the world has waited for the bottom of the market. Now that we’ve hit bottom and are bouncing back everyone’s out there trying to buy at the same time. Add in the $8000 credit and you’ve got a frenzy on your hands.

Here To Stay?

Is the market going to stay that way? I don’t know. Is it worth the risk of waiting to see what happens? Up to you. I don’t think so – if you plan to buy for the long term.

I Told You So

If you touch the stove you’re going to get burned. If you do that with your eyes they’re going to stay that way. Don’t take candy from strangers. And if you wait too long interest rates and home prices will rise, the 8k credit will be gone, and you’ll be out of luck. It’s inevitable.

But you didn’t listen to your mother – I didn’t.  Thought I had it all figured out – so why should you listen to me?

Thanks for reading the San Mateo Real Estate Blog.
I love comments. So please leave one!
Vicki Moore, Realtor
Alain Pinel Realtors, specializing in San Mateo, CA Real Estate.
Need real estate help?
Contact me at 650.888.9268 or Vicki[@]CallVicki.com.
Pictures of San Mateo County

Award Winning Photo by Victor Bezrukov

The Meaning

A short sale is called that because the bank is going to be short money on the sale. In other words, they’re not going to get all the money back they loaned on the house.

The Truth

It definitely doesn’t mean the process is short because that is so far from the way it actually is that the term “short sale” is almost funny. If selling bank owned and short sale houses wasn’t such an awful, horrible, frustrating, and annoying process it might be funny, that is.

The Consumer

The buyers and sellers are caught in the middle. They’re expecting us, the Realtors, to get the job done – and rightly so. We the Realtors expect the bank to get the job done – and rightly so except that they have so many files on their desks that the consumer is just a number – a file number, a loan number.

The Million Dollar Q

The other day a wonderful client said, “Is there anything I can do to make this process go faster?” From your mouth to their ears! No, there isn’t. If there was we’d be doing it. We’re now in their world – the black hole where time warps; days pass, phone calls don’t get returned, voice mails are full, people get frustrated. It’s all part of the process.

Comic Relief

Kris Berg, a San Diego Realtor, is one of the funniest people I know. Her wit and wisdom are known and appreciated in the real estate community for always being right on the button.

Her movie – I have no idea how she did it – wraps this whole post into a few minutes of the funniest and most accurate portrayal of what life is like in the world of REOs. In fact, if it wasn’t for some comic relief once in a while we’d all be crying – or in the crazy house – or both.

Thanks for reading the San Mateo Real Estate Blog.
I love comments. So please leave one!
Vicki Moore, Realtor
Alain Pinel Realtors, specializing in San Mateo, CA Real Estate.
Need real estate help?
Contact me at 650.888.9268 or Vicki[@]CallVicki.com.
Pictures of San Mateo County

photo credit

Time’s Running Out

Time to get in on the first time buyer credit of up to $8000 is running out – and fast.

The credit is available to December 1st – with restrictions: You have to own the house by then.

Let’s count…once your offer has been accepted it’ll take at least 30 days – without complications – and in this market there are none of those – to get the keys. You’ve got six to seven weeks to find a house, write an offer, get it accepted. Whew!

The Market Reacts

San Mateo County’s market is showing that time’s running out. If you’re in the 500k +/- first time buyer price range – like a whole lot of other people – inventory is lowwwww.

Let’s look at the cities where we’d find entry level prices:

It’s Time

As the time ticks by, more buyers will jump in tightening inventory even more. If you’ve been on the fence about what to do, it’s time to make a decision.

CAR Can Too

If  Hyundai, Sears, Home Depot, Target, Lowes, and others can provide the “lose your job” incentive so can the California Association of Realtors.

To help provide first-time home buyers with peace of mind when purchasing a home, the CALIFORNIA ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS Housing Affordability Fund (C.A.R.H.A.F.) is offering a free supplemental insurance product for qualified first-time home buyers.  Through the Mortgage Protection Program (C.A.R.H.A.F. MPP), first-time home buyers who lose their jobs due to layoffs may be eligible to receive up to $1,500 per month, for six months, to help make their mortgage payments. Qualified co-buyers can receive $750 per month.

For more info speak to your Realtor.