All posts by jd

Real estate broker, civil engineer and general contractor.
nevada county fair

Nevada County Fairgrounds Foundation Makes Donation to Fairgrounds

 

Ed Scofield, President of the Nevada County Fairgrounds Foundation, presents a $30,000 check to Fairgrounds CEO Sandy Woods. With the elimination of state funding to the Fairgrounds, the Foundation plays an increasingly critical role in supporting the Fairgrounds, especially with infrastructure projects.
Ed Scofield, President of the Nevada County Fairgrounds Foundation, presents a $30,000 check to Fairgrounds CEO Sandy Woods. With the elimination of state funding to the Fairgrounds, the Foundation plays an increasingly critical role in supporting the Fairgrounds, especially with infrastructure projects.

By Wendy Oaks
Foundation makes donation to Fairgrounds to help repair damages caused during recent storms

Thanks to a successful fundraising year, the Nevada County Fairgrounds Foundation recently made a donation of $30,000 to the Nevada County Fairgrounds to help pay for underground electrical repairs and two transformer replacements, which became necessary after the recent snow and rain storms. In addition to the transformers, the repairs will include new electrical wiring for providing primary power to a majority of the buildings on the Fairgrounds, including the RV Park, Tall Pines Nursery and the Main Street Building – all of which are used year-round by the Fairgrounds and the community.

“We are so thankful to our Foundation for providing the funds to complete this unanticipated, but necessary, repair to the Fairgrounds infrastructure,” said Sandy Woods, CEO of the Nevada County Fairgrounds. “While these types of unforeseen repairs can be costly, they serve to improve our Fairgrounds and prepare the grounds for continued community use. With the elimination of state funding, the Foundation plays an increasingly critical role in supporting the Fairgrounds and ensuring the Fairgrounds’ continued success.”

The Nevada County Fairgrounds Foundation was established in 2005 to fulfill its mission of supporting and improving the community’s Fairgrounds. In addition to the recent donation to the Fairgrounds for capital improvements, the Foundation helped fund the building of the Whitney Pavilion that is used by the livestock community during the Fair, and also purchased additional property adjacent to the Fairgrounds on McCourtney Road.

For more information about the Fairgrounds Foundation, or to become a Foundation member, contact the Fairgrounds office at 273-6217 or visit the Foundation’s website at http://NevadaCountyFair.com/Foundation.

 

Wendy Oaks
Publicist, Nevada County Fairgrounds
(530) 273-6217

wsoaks@gmail.com

 

 

Real Estate

Miss a Mortgage Payment, Your Credit Score is Drastically Affected

 

Missed mortgage payments, short sales, and foreclosures can all drastically bring down a credit score.

Lenders use credit scores to measure how well a person handles debt. Credit scores range from 300 to 850, with 650 and below considered poor credit. A mortgage makes up a big part of a person’s credit score and often is the most important part of a person’s credit profile.

And just missing a single mortgage payment by 30 days can ruin a credit score, say FICO and VantageScore, which have studied the impact mortgages can have on credit scores. For borrowers, that can be nearly as destructive as a foreclosure to a credit score, according to the companies.

On the other hand, loan modifications, which is when lenders approve new loan terms, have a “very, very minimal” impact to credit scores, possibly dropping the borrower’s score by 10 or 15 points, Sarah Davies, the senior vice president for analytics at VantageScore, told The New York Times.

A good credit score is important not just for financing home purchases, but employers increasingly check credit as well as landlords when seeking rentals. Also, poor credit scores can also mean higher costs on car loans and credit cards.

How a Credit Score Is Affected

FICO evaluated three various scenarios of mortgage holders — a borrower with a great credit score (780), a borrower with good credit (720), and a poor credit borrower (680) — in a study it conducted last month. Here’s the impact FICO found:

? 30 days late on a mortgage payment: The 780 credit score borrower has her credit score fall to 670-690. The 720 credit score borrower has his fall to 630-650. The 680 credit score borrower falls to 600-620.
? Short sale, deed in lieu of foreclosure, or settlement, assuming the balance has been wiped out: The 780 credit score borrower falls to 655-675; the 720 credit score falls to 605-625; and the 680 credit score drops to 610-630.
? Foreclosure, or short sale with a deficiency balance owed: The 780 credit score drops to 620-640; the 720 credit score falls to 570-590; and the 680 credit score decreases to 575-595.

Source: “Fallout From a Poor Credit Score,” The New York Times (April 24, 2011)

 

For all your real estate needs, call or email

John J. O’Dell
Real Estate Broker
O’Dell Realty
(530) 263-1091

Real Estate

Appraisal, Are You Getting Your Money’s Worth?

Photo courtesy of Red Clay Media

Despite Federal Reserve regulations that took effect April 1 requiring lenders to pay appraisers fair fees, many appraisers say they are still offered $200 to $250 by lenders for work billed to consumers at $450 or more.

  • Last year’s Dodd-Frank financial reform law mandated that appraisers receive fees that are “customary and reasonable” for their local market areas, yet the Appraisal Institute says that is not happening.
  • While a portion of the difference between what consumers are billed and appraisers are paid goes to the management companies that connect lenders with local appraisers and take a percentage for their services, often times lenders make a profit from the appraisal as well.
  • Home buyers should care about this for several reasons.  For starters, accurate appraisals are a concern for consumers, as appraisals can be deal-breakers if the appraisal comes in too low. When performed competently, appraisals can be accurate measures of the equity in a home when the homeowner refinances or seeks a second mortgage.
  • Most experienced independent appraisers refuse to work for $200 to $250 because they can’t pay their overhead at that rate, leading less-experienced appraisers, who sometimes travel long distances and are unfamiliar with the area, to conduct the appraisal, which can lead to inaccurate, appraisals.
  • The Appraisal Institute is seeking to persuade the Federal Reserve to tighten its regulations, which created a loophole for lenders and management companies that wanted to keep paying low fees to appraisers.  In the meantime, consumers should demand transparency, asking how the appraisal fee was distributed and why.

Read the full story

For all your real estate needs call or email

John J. O’Dell
Real Estate Broker
O’Dell Realty
(530) 263-1091
Email jodell@nevadacounty.com

DRE# 00669941

Real Estate

Why Do Banks Call Them Short Sales? They Should Be Called Long Sales!

By John J. O’Dell

I wonder why banks call short sales, short sales?  Of course, what they mean by a short sale is that they are agreeing to sell a house for less than the mortgage they hold on the property. After that, short sale means you will complete a sale within a period of three months to one year, maybe.

I’ve had two short sales going since November 2010.  Last week, one of them gave the go ahead to proceed. Now remember, my buyer has been waiting about five months. So they can wait as long as they want, but they want the buyer to close the deal within 30 days.  Of course, they don’t sign the purchase contract, they just tell you go for it! They send you a one sided contract with their very own terms. You ever notice banks make their own rules?

My other “short sale”, started at the same time. Well, seems like the bank lost all the paper work. So they said they were not going to go ahead with the sale.

It’s a good thing my client has a very lady like scream. So the short sale is back on again.

The process is simple, (not) you submit tons of paper work.  Then they assign a negotiator who emails you and tells you to upload all the documents you have already uploaded for the second time. (like I said, that’s the same  documents that I uploaded in November and they lost)

So I don’t know how long I will have to wait for this second short sale, but I’ll let you know, in the meantime don’t hold your breath. I want you around to read my blogs.

 

John is a real estate broker
General Contractor and civil engineer
You may reach John at Email jodell@nevadacounty.com

Business

A Website is No Longer a Luxury, Its a Necessity

Of course, if you never designed a website, you may need to get professional help, this is an actual website
Of course, if you never designed a website, you may need to get professional help, (this is picture of an actual website)

Picture from Design Reviver, The Best and Worse Web Design

by Lisa J. Lehr

In an earlier post, I talked about the importance of auto responders: those little automated messages that your website visitors get when they opt in to (i.e., put their name and e-mail address in the boxes) your website. In doing some outreach to local businesses recently, however, I discovered that not only does the average local business not have an auto responder series…they don’t even have a website!

Grass Valley-area businesses, the 21st century is calling: you need a website.

These days, getting a website up and running is not a major project that you need to budget thousands of dollars for. You have many options with a range of prices and skill requirements. Check out XSitePro, FrontPage, Dreamweaver, and Godaddy’s Website Tonight. You can even set up your website as a blog using WordPress and choosing from their many free themes; you also have the choice of installing the blog directly on the domain name and forgoing the “Wordpress” extension. If you can’t (or don’t have time to) do this yourself, hire a teenager or someone from Elance.com.

Once you decide which way to go, the important thing is not flashy graphics or the latest technological bells and whistles, but good content. You’ll need plenty of informative material that establishes you as an expert in your niche. Besides making you look like a genius, free content has the desirable effect of making people feel indebted to you. End result: when they need your product or service, they come to you, not your competition.

Articles, down loadable free reports…free content takes many forms. And don’t forget the opt-in—that’s how you stay in touch with your prospective customers and maintain that top-of-mind awareness. [link back to article on ARs]

Now, how many Grass Valley-area business owners reading this will decide that this is the final piece of convincing evidence they needed to put up a website? And how many of them are your competition?

Lisa J. Lehr is a writer and copywriter living in Grass Valley. She can help you promote your business with a full range of online and offline marketing pieces. A member of Empire Toastmasters, she’s available to speak to your business or professional group. Visit her website www.justrightcopy.com for more information, opt in for the message series, and receive a free Marketing Guide.

—
Lisa J. Lehr
I write words that make you money–just ask me how.
www.justrightcopy.com
Visit my website and sign up for my fr~ee marketing tips.
New! No~cost Marketing Guide now available at my website.

Real Estate

Confidence in Value of Homeownership Persists Through Bust

Source: LA Times

Despite the decline in home prices, 81 percent of U.S. adults believe buying a home is the best long-term investment a person can make, according to a national survey by the Pew Research Center.

  • Home ownership topped the list of long-term financial goals for Americans, according to the study.  Respondents rated home ownership, as well as living comfortably in retirement, as more important than sending children to college or leaving offspring an inheritance.
  • “Owning a home is really a part of the American dream, and that is just part of the American psyche and something that people aspire to,” according to one of the study’s authors.
  • Although the vast majority of adults surveyed are in favor of owning a home, the public’s faith in real estate has somewhat declined compared with the last time a comparable survey asked people about the wisdom of investing in real estate.  In the Pew Research Center survey, 37 percent of respondents said they “strongly agree” that home ownership is the best investment a person can make, while 44 percent said they “somewhat agree.”  The same question was asked by a CBS News/New York Times survey in 1981, and at that time, 49 percent “strongly agreed,” and 35 percent “somewhat agreed.”
  • While home prices have entered a renewed decline after showing some improvements last year, many economists believe that the worst of the housing crisis is probably over, which could help explain the resiliency in Americans’ optimism.
  • Homeowners in the survey were more positive about the financial wisdom of owning a home than were renters.  Among renters, the desire for homeownership remains strong.  According to the survey’s findings, 24 percent of renters surveyed said they rent out of choice and 81 percent said they would like to buy.

Read the full story

For all your real estate needs, call or email:

John J. O’Dell
Real Estate Broker
O’Dell Realty
(530) 263-1091
Email jodell@nevadacounty.com

Real Estate

60 Minutes: Mortgage Paperwork Mess, Bank Servicers Committing Fraud

I had heard about this “robo” signing. But here exposed by 60 Minutes is the story of how they did it. Its simply amazing that the banks and Wall Street created the recession that we are in, but they continue their shoddy practice without regulation even today! Banks can’t find their paper work, so why not fake it and sign anybodies name on the fake paper work. If you or I did that, we would be in jail in a heartbeat, but not the banks. The banks create whatever they need to suit their purpose.

How about punishment, do you think any of the CEO’s of any of these banks are going to jail? What do you think?

For all your real estate needs call or write:

John J. O’Dell
Real Estate Broker
O’Dell Realty
(530) 263-1091
Email John at jodell@nevadacounty.com