The “short sale” begins when the seller has trouble of making mortgage payments and the potential sale price is less than the mortgage amount. The seller or their agent approaches the lender asking if the banks or lenders are willing to settle for less if and when a purchase contract is signed. There are good tips for sellers.

1. Select an experienced agents have done short sales. It is not like the normal sale. The seller needs to understand that the bank is the REAL decision maker. If gatekeepers listened your case, you have are much chance to close.

2. Seller prepares to disclose:

The sellers must disclose and produce all liens on the property, taxes (income tax, property tax…), back taxes, HOA dues, financial statements, letter of hardship, proof of income, proof of potential income, proof of future income, etc.

3. Make sure the buyer’s loan and down payment is place.

Short sales can drag on for months. Some of the buyers could buy it now may not do it later. If the buyer has a hard time getting a loan, it could cost the sale and become more expensive. Some lenders could charge $100 per day of delaying fee till closing.

4. Make sure you and your agent get to see all bank documents.

5. Work with a detailed minded title officer. It could make all the difference in the world.

6. The Best scenario of escrow duration is 27 days, but it many last 30-45 days even 2 and three months long.

Thank for SILVAR realtors: Donna Dawson-Schwartz, Neal Schwartz and Scott Fleming to contribute to the valuable short sale information.

The biggest financial news from yesterday and today is Fannie Mai and Freddie Mac takeover by government. In another words that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have been placed into “conservatorship” and will be overseen by the Federal Housing Finance Agency. This takeover means that the government will temporarily run Fannie and Freddie until they are able to recover. As a consumer you may wonder what is going to do with me?

I found an excellent video made by California Association of realtors. I like share this video with you: ” Fannie and Freddie: Why they matter to you “ You may click the link to see and hear this video.

Today I received a call from a home owner, he said “ I want to sell my north Sunnyvale home and move to the south Sunnyvale. This year my home price tanked! The price has dropped at least 17% from 2007. How can I move up?”

I told him:” The homes from more desirable areas go up faster in good times and go down slower in bad times. On the other end. The areas are not so desirable,they go up slower in good times and go down faster in bad times. No matter what tomorrow holds the gap in prices will

Today I received a call from a home owner, he said “ I want to sell my north Sunnyvale home and move to the south part of Sunnyvale. This year my home price tanked! The price has dropped at least 17% from 2007. How can I move up?”

I told him:”The homes from more desirable areas go up faster in good times and go down slower in bad times. On the other end. The areas are not so desirable,they go up slower in good times and go down faster in bad times. No matter what tomorrow holds the gap in prices will

always continue to grow. Since you still own your home. You may use that value to buy in the best neighborhood that you can afford. If you have a reasonable down payment, you can still buy in a good neighborhood, but maybe not the one you really want. I think that you could move into Cumberland Elementary or Cherry Chase elementary areas. Those neighborhoods offer the best of the Sunnyvale elementary school district and Homestead high school.

July 26th to July 27 9 AM to 3 PM the Goodwill of Silicon Valley and Electronoic recyclers International are hosting a FREE Electronic E-Waste Event today and tomorrow. The E-waste contain hazardous lead and mercury, and these toxic substances eventually leak and contaminate landfills. It is illegal to dispose of e-waste in the trash.

The location will be the following two locations:

Almaden Goodwill Mountain View Goodwill

3069 Almaden Expressway SJ, CA 408 265-5692 855 E. El Camino Real MountainView, CA 650-969-3382

If you need more information please contact 1866-861-4883

“Short sale” becomes a buzz word nowadays but what is that?

According to About.com the short sale is

A short sale occurs when a property is sold and the lender agrees to accept a discounted payoff, meaning the lender will release the lien that is secured to the property upon receipt of less money than is actually owed.

For example: In 2004 said Lisa bought a townhouse in Campbell for $344Kwhen the market is up in either 2005 and 2006. Liza taps into her equality. She borrowed $425K from the home. Something happened she cannot make the payment. The lender filed the notice of default and the lender requests she to pay. Lisa sells her home on the market for sale as $380K. The lender receives less then what was loaned out.

There are a few steps to short sale a home:

1). Contact lenders: To find the exactly what you need to get out the loan and home.

2). Do everything the lenders needs:

That the owner need to provide a personal financial hardship letter, proof of income and assets, Preliminary Net sheet etc.

3).The accepted offer. You have to hire the realtor to sell the home.

4). Submit the offer to the lender and wait for the lender to accept this offer.

The whole process could take up to 2 to 3 months to finish a short because backlog the lender and or asset managers to handle the demands. In the beginning of 2008 the success rate of short sale was about 12%. Now it went up to 40% because the handlers are more experience to do so.

Silicon Valley Single Family Inventory Report as July 1^st 2008 by Kathy Gamch – Chicago Title

# listings Pendings #Active %Pending # short pending #active short sale

Evergreen 516 108 408 21% 50 220

Alum Rock 1000 183 817 18% 71 441

Berryessa 377 101 276 27% 45 104

Milpitas 199 52 147 26% 15 52

Santa Clara 274 70 204 26% 15 42

Central SJ 418 76 342 18% 28 93

Willow Glen 277 67 210 24% 9 20

South SJ 557 140 417 25% 54 248

Blossom Vy 385 90 295 23% 38 103

Almaden Vy 141 34 107 24% 2 9

Cambrian 261 59 202 23% 12 47

Campbell 216 56 160 26% 10 18

Los Gatos 197 44 153 22% 1 5

Los Gatos Mt 79 3 76 4% 0 3

Saratoga 145 28 117 19% 1 1

Cupertino 159 55 104 35% 0 1

Sunnyvale 239 82 157 34% 22 35

Mt View 92 35 57 38% 0 2

LA Hills 87 23 64 26% 1 1

Los Altos 47 8 41 16% 0 1

Palo Alto 110 46 64 42% 0 0

The city of Palo Alto has 110 listings of homes for sale, 46 homes are pending, 64 homes are active, 42% of the homes are in pending. We can see the following has the best real estate market: Palo Alto, Mountain View, Cupertino, Sunnyvale.The Berryessa, Milpitas, Campbell, Los Altos Hill and South San Jose is above the same still in the sellers market. The rest of cities as Los Gatos, Mountain is hardest to sell only 4% listings are pending.

The top of short sales listings are located at the 5 areas of San Jose Alum Rock, South San Jose, Evergreen, Blossom Valley, Berryessa, Central S J.

I found a 3 bedrooms 2 baths home for 1203 sqft home with lot 5978 sqft at901 Gerard way San Jose was closed for $620K August 1 2006 now at the market as the bank owned property since June 24 2008 only asking $310,000.

If you jump the conclusion that the Silicon Valley homes dropped 50% then you are totally wrong.

If you jump the conclusion that the Silicon Valley homes dropped 50% then you are totally wrong. Just look at another home at 10674 GRAPNEL  PL CUPERTINO, CA 95014 was closed 11/27/06 for $1.252 Millions. The owner put on the market April this year for $1.399 Millions. No offer is received for 2 months. As June 20 the asking price dropped to 1.15Million then the owner received 12 offers and sold for much over asking price.

The real estate market really depends on the location of the homes. Some area the prices went up and some area value goes down significantly. You may wonder how come some homes price can goes up and the other goes down.

This Cupertino homes is at the best Cupertino schools area ( Monta Vista High ). The homes at the better neighborhood preserved the value.

This morning Corey Folsom, property Inspector, inspected a Pebble Beach home I just sold. He  gave me  some reading material. I found this article is extremely important for the home sellers. He listed 15 items to prepare a home for the inspection:

1. Secure or remove unruly pets for the time of the inspection.

2. Create clear access to attic, crawlspace, heating , garage and electrical panels.

3. If the house is vacant, make sure that the utilities are on, including water, electric, gas, water heater, furnace, A/C and all electrical breakers.

4. Don’t do cheap, quick repairs. You may raise questions that could unfairly cause concern to inspectors and buyers.

5. Remove grade or mulch from contact with the siding (6″ inches or more).

6. Remove lumber and firewood from contact with the house.

7. Replace any burned out light bulbs.

8. Clean debris from gutters.

9. Divert all water away from the house; downspouts, A/C condensate drain, Grade should slope away from the structure, even under decking.

10. Trim vegetation back from the foundation, roof, siding and chimney.

11. Have the chimney, fireplace or woodstove cleaned and provide the buyer with a copy of the cleaning record.

12. Paint all weathered exterior wood and caulk around trim, chimney, windows and doors.

13. Install metal chimney cap if it is missing.

14. Replace IIVAC filter.

15. Install GFCI outlets at all bath, kitchen and exterior locations.

Clutter-free interiors allow potential home buyers to see all of the home can offer — resulting in a shorter sales and a higher selling price. The fewer items there are in a home, the easier it is for a home shopper to visualize the space of their own.  I pick up some good declutter tips from the PODS. Over 80 % real estate agents agree with de-clutter homes helps the sells but only 30% of the listing agents were actually de-clutter their listings.  Some sellers are serious about selling you should go over with your home to de-clutter them.

Offer these easy decluttering tips to home owners:

1. If an item hasn’t been used in three months, box it up and take it offsite.

2. Limit items in closets and drawers to make them seem more spacious.

3. Remove excess and or worn furniture to create more room. The old files, books and memorabilia should be stored away from the house. You could rent the a mini storage to store them.

4. Remove excess and or worn furniture to create more room.

5. Pack away off-season clothes. Buyers value storage. Don’t just stash items in the basement or the garage - take them offsite.

6. Remove excess items from decks, driveways and the yard, including kids toys and pool supplies

7. Park away additonal car or cars you don’t drive often.

Don’t foget to maintain the de-cluttered home during the home is on the market to sell.

      I found this article is very interesting from the RE/MAX Time on line that a Hall of Fame member and a platinum agent Paul Pastore, with RE/MAX Elite in Chandler, Ariz. , he has become the master of the Top 10 lists (sorry, Mr. Letterman).

  1. Be casual, not serious, about selling.
A sage once quipped, “Money is only important when you don’t want something enough.” Real estate expert R.L. Brown said that if half of the 58,000 sellers in

2. Price it wrong.
A home properly priced is half sold. No amount of full-color ads, glossy fliers, multiple photos, virtual tours, agent luncheons, Goodyear blimps or pom-pom girls will compensate for a wrong, timid retail price.

3. Ignore your agent.
Attorneys believe if you represent yourself, you have a fool for a client. Doctors don’t self-diagnose. Professionals use professionals. Even though many people believe they’re experts on raising kids and real estate, full-time, career pros usually know what’s best. Listen to them very carefully.

 4. Micromanage the marketing.
If you sold cookware in college, carts in California, or carpeting in

6. Let Fido loose.
I recently entered a house and had two frisky, friendly black Labs run up to sniff me. Unfortunately, I had light-gray dress slacks on that day. Both wet stains lasted for hours. Until that day I didn’t realize dogs enjoyed chewing the tassels on expensive loafers.

7. Talk to the buyers.
Life gets lonely at times. Why not ask the buyers where they grew up? Or how much they qualify for. Tell them about the vacant rental next door. Maybe they could babysit next weekend! Why not share war stories, horror movies or meatloaf recipes?

8. Sell personal items.
Wow, maybe the buyers want to buy the patio furniture or rotary lawnmower. You have only four more boxes of Girl Scout cookies to sell. Why not ask for a donation for the March of Dimes, the Humane Society, the local PBS station? Remember the saying, “loose lips sink ships.”

9. Discount that smell.
My house doesn’t smell of pets, baby diapers, curry powder, garlic, fried fish, coconut incense, cigars, manure, mulch, dairy farms or low tide. The buyer must be confusing my castle with a tract home.

10. Dismiss feedback.
What do buyers know anyway? They can’t possibly mind my barbed wire fence, heavy-duty rebar, backyard bomb shelter, airport runway views, lights from the power plant, hum from the high-voltage lines, railroad tremors, scorpion skeletons, termite mud tubes and pet snakes. What are they thinking?

Now you know how to do to get the home sell.