Category Archives: Real Estate

What, I was Just Having a Drink?

February 24, 2009 jd 1 Comment

You might have heard of the real estate agent in Hillsboro, Oregon who used his lock box key to enter into homes and burglarize them. A homeowner returning from a business trip, walked into his house to find Michael Troy Messmer drinking a White Russian. It seemed obvious that Messmer had been in his liquor cabinet.

The homeowner asked Messmer what he was doing and Messmer replys, “I’m a Realtor” with that, him and his girlfriend walk out with a box full of the homeowner’s personal property worth about $260. That was on February 1.

On February 5, this genius was found to have taken some minor items, toiletry and liqueur from a Cornelius home. The items were worth about $250. In both cases, he used his lock box key to enter the homes.

Of course Messner was caught in short order. This is because every time a Realtor uses his lock box key to open a lock box, (where the key to enter the house is located), a code is entered into the lock box leaving behind the agent’s name and the time that the house was entered. It’s too bad that in every profession there is always somebody who is dishonest. Not only was this guy dishonest, but I think he makes the grade for the dumbest criminal of the year.

I don’t know if they do a background check on real estate agents in Oregon, but in California every licensed real estate agent and broker has to have background check prior to obtaining their license, giving assurances that people with criminal records do not get a license.

For Some, Foreclosed Homes Equals Gold.

February 23, 2009 jd 1 Comment

gold

Foreclosed homes are a buying opportunity if you have the cash. For some investors, speculators and first time home buyers are thinking big and finding opportunities in plummeting home prices. A gold lining in the Golden State’s housing crash.

According to the The News

“For many young couples, plummeting prices and near record-low interest rates make it possible to own a home in California for the first time.

Investors and real estate speculators, meanwhile, can snap up foreclosed properties on the cheap to sell during the next boom in California’s boom and bust real estate cycle, a boom they believe is inevitable and possibly not far off”

“This is a buying opportunity of our lifetime,” said Bruce Norris, who heads an investment group that expects to purchase 100 homes in Southern California.”

The article mentions the group buying a home for $55,000 that originally was worth $360,000 at the top of the market, putting $30,000 into it for repairs and renting it $1,200 a month. I would say that’s a fantastic investment.

I know an investor who bought homes during the last real estate downturn. He bought thirteen homes and turned them all into rentals. When his company told him three years ago that they were moving to Texas and if he wanted a job, he would have to move there. He’s still here, doing well living off of the income from his rentals and building a new home in Lake Tahoe.

Yes, now is the time to buy, if you have a secure job or money to invest, if you want an investment that has proven time and again that you can become wealthy buying real estate.

Real Estate

Facing Foreclosure, Hire an Attorney?

February 20, 2009 jd 1 Comment

The Golden Rule, He who has the gold Rules

Hiring an attorney is usually the last thing I tell a client to do. It’s expensive and normally you can work things out with the party in question if both sides are willing to talk and negotiate.

However, the more I hear from friends and clients, it seems that the only way to get a bank or mortgage company to listen to you is to hire an attorney.

I just heard two more stories of people approaching their bank and was told, you’re making the payments, we don’t want to talk to you until you quit making your payments. In another case, the person tried for two months to modify their loan and finally gave up.

However, the person then hired an attorney and the bank immediately started modifying the loan. I don’t get it, why force a home owner who is under stress to spend an additional $1,500 to $5,000 to get their attention.

In spite of article I recently read, the banks are not cooperating. The article went on to say that a client hired an attorney to represent them and the bank insisted on having a three way conversation with the bank, the client and the attorney. The bank said there was no need for legal representation; they would do all the work for free. Right, maybe you just need to hit the banks over the head to get their attention.

Real Estate

Angel & I on Real Estate

February 19, 2009 jd 2 Comments

Angel, she hates to have her picture taken.

If Angel and I could talk to each other, the conversation might go something like this.

Angel to me, why are people so upset because the government might save their neighbors house who is facing foreclosure. After all, they’re saying I make my payments on time, I don’t want or need a government handout, why should they get one?

Well, Angel, it’s not that simple. I remember when I took a law class, the instructor (who was an attorney) said, there is right and wrong, then there’s the law. Now I say, in these times there is right and wrong and then there is real estate. Real estate needs help now, and it may not be exactly the right or wrong way to do it, but something has to be done.

Helping our neighbor to avoid foreclosure helps all of us. It keeps housing inventory from increasing, it helps prevent our home values from dropping and it keeps the neighborhood from deteriorating. There are vast neighborhoods that have just fallen apart, one home after another being foreclose on, vandals tearing the house apart, or homeowners selling parts of their home before they move. (See my previous blog “Rip off a House, Go to Jail”)

Now some people have further said, what kind of an example are we giving our children? Are we teaching them that if they get in trouble the government will bail them out. I don’t think so; I think you need to educate your children as to the realities of the times. Sometimes, government just has to get involved for the good of the Nation.

What do you think Angel? I think that makes a lot of sense, can I have a cookie now?

Real Estate

President Obama’s Help For Homeowners

February 18, 2009 jd

: The White House

President Obama will be in Phoenix today, to unveil his “Homeowner Affordability and Stability Plan” to help bring relief to homeowners and bring some order to the housing market.

A portion of his blog reads:

“The President’s strategy for economic recovery is a stool with several legs, as he’s said, and one of them is solving the foreclosure crisis.

“We must stem the spread of foreclosures and falling home values for all Americans, and do everything we can to help responsible homeowners stay in their homes,” he said yesterday as he signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act into law

To read the full text and explanation of what is proposed read the White House Blog at The Briefing Room

Real Estate

Nevada County Sales January 2009

February 17, 2009 jd

1sold

I’m comparing the month of January 2008 to the month of January 2009. It is not really a good comparison in some ways, as a large sale can skew the results. But it is a brief snap shot of what’s happening. As the year goes, by, I’ll start comparing the combined months of the year. For example, the next blog will be a comparison of January and February and so on.

Residential sales for the month of January 2009 increased five percent over January 2008. The average sales price declined eighteen percent from an average sales price of $449,358 to $370,351 from 2008 to 2009. However, in January of 2008 there was one sale of $1,950,000 which really skews the average sales price. Taking that out of the equation, the average sales price for January 2008 drops to an average sales price of $372,155 which is about what the sales price is this year.

Average days on the market remained almost the same, 140 days in 2008 compared to 138 days in 2009. To make a long story short, sales in January of this year compared to sales in January of last year are about the same.

Let’s see how the rest of the year goes. I believe the market is picking up and I expect there is going to be a lot of help from the Federal Government in the coming months. A lot of investors are jumping into the market realizing that this is a great time to buy.

Real Estate

Rip off a House, go to Jail

February 12, 2009 jd

Just as we get a high when we purchase a new home, it must be an equal low when you are losing your home to foreclosure and for some people it brings out their dark side.

For example, browsing on the Internet, I read where someone was having a “Demolition Sale” on their soon-to-be foreclosed home. According to the article anything and everything in the house was for sale!

Here’s another one from a house that once sold for $630,000 that was published on Voice of Sandiego.org

“The kitchen cabinets were gone from the yellow, 1960s-era four-bedroom, two-bathroom house. So were ceiling fans, blinds, light switches, outlet covers, interior doors, closet doors, the toilet, a vanity, the stove and marble counters. The kitchen walls had jagged lines of marble tile, marking the perimeter where the cabinets once were. Gaps showed in the paint, inside and out, the job stopped in mid-refurbishment. The former owner had stripped the house and taken nearly everything with her.”

According to an article from the California Association of Realtor®

“The report said, in summary, damages intentionally caused by the mortgage holder can be subject to criminal and civil penalties. In fact, removal of fixtures valued more than $100 constitutes a felony in the State of California and can result in a state prison sentence for a year or more.

“Even fixtures totaling less than $100 can result in a misdemeanor and could include county jail up to one year and/or a fine up to $1,000.”

The problem of course is that the foreclosed owner of the house has no assets. So pursuing them would not get the banks any money. However, I think they should pursue them. Why? Because twenty percent of the people foreclosed on do just that, rip the house apart. This hurts you and I, because it reduces the value of the home when it goes back on the market and it lowers the value of your home and everyone else’s too.

Real Estate

Property Tax Assessment Another Scam

February 6, 2009 jd

warning-signw3

Now we have a company in Los Angles taking peoples money for something they can do with a simple call to their local tax assessors office. An official looking letter from a firm calling themselves Property Tax Assessment, with a PO Box wants you to send them $179.00 by February 27, 2009 for them to do what you can do with a simple call.

If you don’t send them the money by the 27^th you will have to pay them an additional $30.00. Wow, how to word a scam letter to the hilt! In a specific example, one letter which I read states they can save the home owner $1,005.22. Notice the twenty two cents. Now they must have done some kind of research to come up with that close a figure, don’t you think?

But wait, in the letter they state “upon receipt of your service fee, Property Tax Reassessment will thoroughly review your individual property value” Now just a minute, if you send a letter out with a value to the penny, didn’t you do some research before you sent the letter?

Here’s an excerpt from the Examiner which also has a copy of the front and back of the form if you hadn’t gotten one of these scam letters and want to see what it looks like.

“The cunning company takes advantage of the fact that parcel numbers are a matter of public record to create a devious come on that may not be illegal but is certainly deceptive.

You can choose to pay someone to help you with your property tax assessment appeal, but why would you if it’s free? Trickery could induce you to pony up.

The single-page, double-sided mailing (front) (back) from “Property Tax Reassessment, P.O. Box 25519, Los Angeles, CA 90025” comes with the home owner’s address, the correct parcel number and a claim that the property may be over assessed”

When you get mailings like this, report it to your assessor, tax collector and your local district attorney. Offers to reduce your property tax with a fee attached is a warning sign, so call the county officials and do not respond to the letter.

Real Estate

Only a $500,000 Salary?

February 6, 2009 jd

John Thain after leaving Bank of America

Geez, I can’t get by with $500,000 if I have to run a big corporation like GM, or Bank of America into bankruptcy, woops, I mean run these companies!

Here is what some of the CEO‘s of these large companies made as they ran their companies into the ground according to The New Times

First a little update.

“Executives at companies that have already received money from the Treasury Department would not have to make any changes. But analysts and administration officials are bracing for a huge wave of new losses, largely because of the deepening recession, and many companies that have already received federal money may well be coming back”

Crucial details remained unclear on Tuesday night, including whether the restrictions would apply to all companies that receive money under the so-called Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, or whether they would apply only to the “exceptional” companies that were being rescued from collapse.”

The Times went on to list some executives from severely troubled companies and their current salaries.

The chief executive of Bank of America Kenneth D. Lewis, , took home more than $20 million in 2007. Of that, $5.75 million was in salary and bonuses.

Vikram Pandit, who became chief executive of Citigroup in December of 2007 and previously held other senior positions at the bank, made $3.1 million.

The chief executive of General Motors, Richard Wagoner, made $14.4 million, much of it in stock, options and other non-cash benefits. He earned a $1.6 million salary.

Then there’s John Thain CEO of Merrill Lynch who gave billions of dollars to his employees just before his company went under and was taken over by Bank of America. He spent 1.2 million remodeling his office including a $1,450 parchment waste basket.

Darn, at $500,000 a year, the top dogs will not be able to buy parchment waste baskets for $1,450. How about they use a paper bag from the grocery store instead, that’s parchment, sort of.

By the way, in 2004, Bill Gates of Microsoft received a pay raise and with bonus made $901,667. The rest of his wealth came from the company making money and receiving his wealth from stock growth and dividends. What a concept, company makes money, CEO makes money.

Real Estate

Now What? Who Owns This House?

February 4, 2009 jd 2 Comments

So what do you think about people renting out a home that is not theirs? Seems like one way to make money in this economy if you’re looking for free room and board at the local jail house.

Yet this is what happened in West Natomas, in a gated neighborhood that has million dollar homes and such neighbors as the owners of the Sacramento Kings, former Kings star Mike Bibby and other such people with fame and money.

At issue is a 3,361 square foot, 4 bedroom, 3.5 bathroom home that has been vacant for some time. Police investigating the case found that the home had been purchased at auction last Thursday by Aurora Loan Services Inc. of Littleton, Colo, and that Aurora did not know who Phillis Powers was or why someone was living in their home.

However, when police approached the people living in the house, the couple produced a contract allowing them to rent the home for $1,500 a month. The contract had the name of Sacramento real estate broker Phillis Powers. (Hopefully she wouldn’t be a broker much longer.)

To make matters more bizarre, there were two printed signs in the front window claiming the home was the “Private Property of sovereign Woman of republic of California” and that federal and state employees could not access the property.

The sign also mentioned “freeman” which may be a reference to the radical anti-government group that gained fame in 1996 during an 81 day standoff with federal authorities in Montana.

So now, along with everything else that’s happening, we have to watch out for scammers renting homes that they don’t own. Don’t tell the politicians in Sacramento about this, they might use this technique to balance the budget.

For some more of this bizarre story
Sacramento Bee