In this series of video’s we explain how to find a home. While this may seem obvious and easy to most, it is by far the most important aspect of purchasing a home and if not performed correctly can lead to frustration and waisted money.
Video 1: Your Motivation
This video will lead you through process which will help determine your motivation for buying. Without the proper motivation you may waist a lot of time and energy.
Video 2: The Loan PreApproval
The loan preapproval is key to looking for a home. Unless you are paying all cash it is imperative that you go through this process so that we are actually looking at homes that fit your financial parameters.
Video 3: Determining your criteria for a home
Here is where you actually decide what you want, in detail, so that the home search can be refined to look at only homes that fit your needs.
Video 4: Your Financial Package
When looking at homes and preparing to write an offer it is vitally important that your “Financial Package” be understood.
Video 5: Mental Preparation
During the home buying process there may be times where frustration sets in. This video will make you aware of some of the pitfalls that may be experienced while searching and how to mentally deal with them.
Video 6: How to properly look at homes
Without a clear plan the home searching process can easily be derailed. This video teaching you how to stay on track and maintain focus on what you really want.
Well that’s it for section 1 of “How to Find, Secure, and Close on Property” Section 2 will teach you o the proper way to formulate an offer.
The following link will take you to section 2 of this series. Securing your home.
The residential real estate market in San Ramon has changed dramatically over the past year. We are now seeing some signs that the downward trend for inventory is beginning to reverse with more homes coming on the market. The following video discusses the current market and provides a recommendation for those home owners who may be considering selling their home.
The following information is intended to introduce a new Video Series we have produced to help buyers in this market. The series is titled “How to Find, Secure, and Close on properties”. The reason we feel that this video is so important is that we are seeing some serious mistakes being made which are costing buyers their valuable time, causing frustration, and actually costing them money:
One of the things we are seeing some buyers do in this market is what I call “Chasing a Phantom Home”. This is when a buyer knows that they want to buy a home but has not clearly defined what they are looking for. Basically just looking until something feels right. We address this issue in Section 1 of our series. Conversely we are able to help many buyers by insuring that they are completely prepared for the process thus eliminating the costly search process and saving them alot of time and in many cases alot of money.
Due to our current market conditions and the fact that many of the buyer incentive programs will be going away within a month or two, such as the First Time Home Buyer Tax Credit and the Feds policy of purchasing Mortgage Backed Securities, we feel that it is a perfect time to release this very valuable series of videos.
The following Oakland Tribune article reports on a drop in mortgage rates for 30 year fixed rate mortgages to under 5%. This drop is in spite of the recent Federal Reserve Board policy change for trading Mortgage Backed Securities. By trading Mortgage Backed Securities The Fed has helped to keep interest rates low but will end this policy on march 31 of this year. Most experts expect interest rates rise throughout the remainder of the year. This may make it more expensive to buy real estate in Danville, San Ramon, Alamo, and the entire Bay Area.
In the following video I discuss the current Danville Real Estate market as of Feb. 17, 2010. We have seen the market move from a pure buyers market to a sellers market over the last year. In addition we are seeing fewer Foreclosures than expected and more Short sales. Take a look at the following video and feel free to share this link with anyone you know interested in the Danville Real Estate Market.
In the following video I discuss the current San Ramon Real Estate Market. Specifically I focus on the current statistics for single family detached homes. We have seen the market stabilize in terms of inventory absorption rate but are still finding many short sale homes. Take a look and feel free to pass this link along to anyone you know who is interested in the San Ramon market.
In a recent San Francisco Chronicle article it was reported that CitiBank will be establishing a pilot program which will allow homeowners to stay in their homes for up to 6 months after they deed the home back to the bank. The article quotes a statistic that 1 in 3 homes have mortgages more than the home’s value. This is an attempt to reduce the overall cost of foreclosure for those homeowners who don’t qualify for a Loan Modification or short sale. The program will be tested on 1000 homeowners in the Mid West. There will no immediate effect on Danville Real Estate, San Ramon Real estate, or Alamo Real Estate but if it is successful may provide an alternative to some homeowners.
Since my late blog regarding Danville Real estate performance we have seen the inventory absorption rate drop from 5 weeks to 4 weeks.
The drop in absorption rate is consistent with a trend that we are seeing throughout the Bay Area. There have been some news articles predicting fewer sales beginning in the second quarter of this year, and I agree that it is possible given the right conditions. However, the wild card in this whole market recovery rests with the banks and how they will handle the mountain of distressed mortgages. There is a lot of talk regarding a more streamlined short sale process while others are holding on to a large scale sell off of foreclosures.
In Danville there currently are 95 active listings for single family detached homes. The average list price for these homes is $1,295,298 with the highest priced listing at $3,995,000 and the lowest at $520,000. The average price per square foot is at $434 and the average days on market of 101. There are 93 Pending sales which have a average list price of $880,214. The highest priced pending sale is listed at $3,200,000 and the lowest at $475,000. The average price per square foot for the pending sales is $332 and the average days on market of 57. There have been 7 closed sales so far in the month of February. The average sales price is at $872,285 with the highest priced sale being at $1,085,000 and the lowest at $750,000. The average price per square foot for these sales is at $268 and the average days on market at 20.
I am interested in the following San Jose Mercury News Article because it points out a situation that may be more wishful thinking than fact. The article discusses a hope of New Home builders thatBaby Boomers will sell their existing homes and will be scaling down. I’m not sure if I have a strong opinion on this built I was intrigued because it really seems like a huge gamble. With the recent economic condition I have seen many homeowners decide to cut-back on purchases and in fact make “Life Style” decision about spending that may become permanent. For Danville real estate,San Ramon real estate, and Alamo real estate we have a good climate so the need to move to a warmer area is not relevant. Also, people of the Bay Boomer generation are of Grandparent age. So this decreases the likelihood of a person selling moving away from their families.
We have seen many home purchases fall by the way side over the last year as a result of an “Anti-Flipping” rule that the FHA initiated. The attached article from the Los Angeles Times reports the recent FHA change in this rule. This rule prohibited an FHA loan on any home that has changed hands within a 90 day window. On a practical level we were seeing investors buy distressed property on the ‘Court House Steps’ at auction. They would then refurbish the home and attempt a sale. An uproar ensued when you had a willing buyer and willing seller being stymied by this 90 day rule. In Danville,San Ramon, and Alamo this rule did not come into play very often. But we did see it often in the east county cities of Antioch, Brentwood, Pittsburgh…
Take a look at the article and let me know your thoughts.
