• Current Residential Inventory Available 766
• Last years inventory 10/2008 - 1078
• Inventory is down 29% from last year

• Residential Sales closed in the past 30 days - 78
• Homes sold October 2008 - 73
• Number of year to date closed residential sales - 681
• Number of year to date closed residential sales 561 for the same period in 2008 +21.3%

• Current Pending sales 154
• 39 of these are Bank owned 25%
• That means 75% are not bank owned!

• Bank Owned Homes 46 make up only 6% of the inventory available in Big Bear
• That means 94% of the homes available in Big Bear are not Bank Owned!
• 261 of the 681 sold this year were bank owned 38%
• 77 of the 561 sold last year were bank owned 13.7%

What does all of this mean?

• There are less homes to choose from currently than there were a year ago.
• More homes have sold this year than last year for the same period.
• With 154 pending sales and 681 closed sales this year, more homes will be sold in Big Bear this year than last year (669)
• Big Bear does not have a high percentage of bank owned properties available, but what is available is selling faster than other homes sold by traditional sellers.

The Home Inspection has always been pivotal point when buying a home in Big Bear Lake, CA. The importance of this fairly inexpensive inspection has become even more important with the influx of the bank owned, REO properties. When you buy a home in the Big Bear valley from a home owner, you normally get a set of disclosures. But, when you buy a bank owned, REO home in Big Bear, you get very few, if any disclosure regarding the property. This makes it even more important for buyer to do his investigations and to get a home inspection.

So, what do you do when the buyer doesn't want to spend the money for the home inspection? Here in Big Bear, the home inspection is not a required inspection, so how do you encourage the buyer to spend the money and get the inspection? Perhaps the story that I'm about to tell you will help.

I am currently involved in an escrow with a buyer who didn't want to spend the money for the home inspection. After explaining the importance of getting this inspection, especially as he was buying a bank owned, REO property, he still said no. That was ok, but I told him that I would need him to sign something stating that I had advised him to get the home inspection and he refused. The thought of having to sign this paper was more than he was willing to do, so he agreed to come back up to Big Bear and do the inspection. He is now very happy that he took the day off and came to Big Bear!

While the buyer was working with the Home inspector, I took a look at the plot map. The way that the manufactured home sat on the lot compared to the other homes didn't look right to me so I started looking into it. It wasn't long before I discovered that half of the house sat on the next door neighbors land. Had I not noticed this problem and the escrow had closed, the problems that this would have created would have been unimaginable.

Needless to say, the buyer is disappointed that this deal won't go together. But he is very happy that we found the problem while he still had time to back out of the deal without losing his deposit. None of this would have happened had we not done a home inspection.

I have been out of the office for over a week, laid up with health issues but was able to go in and work for a few hours yesterday. I was just finishing up and getting ready to head home when I checked one last correspondence. What I learned at that point made me the happiest Realtor in Big Bear. I had just learned that one of the Short Sales that I've worked so hard on was approved! Now, normally this would make me happy as it means another escrow, but this one has some special significance. Here is why.

About four months ago, I received an email from a lady who I had never met stating that she had heard that I was the best person to help her sell her house as a short sale in Big Bear Lake, CA. I emailed her back and asked for a phone number so that I could interview her as too determine ifshe qualified for a Short Sale. We spoke at great length and after listening to her hardship and the answers to so many of my questions, I was convinced that she more than qualified for the short sale. She came in to my office to sign the paperwork. She was very open with me in telling me that all she needed from me was the house to be on the market for 90 days and at that point she would deed the property back to the bank in lieu of foreclosure. After she left, my heart went out to her and her situation and I was determined that I would get her house sold and help her avoid the foreclosure.

I priced the house based off of it's value and in just a short time, I had an offer that was about $10,000.00 below what I was asking for it. As I had the short sale package all together, I send the offer in tho the lender. In most short sales that I've done, you send the short sale package in and then you wait. You have no one person to speak with until it has been assigned to the negotiator, so you call the coustomer service number and someone reads you the notes from the file. That didn't happen in this case!

In less than five days after sending in the complete Short Sale package, I received a phone call from someone at the bank telling me that she would be my contact. I was given her direct phone line and email and every time that I called, she was there and able to help me. To make a long story short, we were unable to put the first deal together as the value placed on this Big Bear home was greater than the offer and the buyer would not come up. The bank was willing to foreclose on this property before it would sell the place for $5000.00 under value! This is a great example that you are not going to steal the house from the bank by trying to buy a short sale. The banks are not going to sell the homes below their value.

The good thing about this house is I had back up offers, so when the first one failed, I simply started over with the next in line. When that buyer bailed out, I turned to offer number 3. Offer number 3 was submitted and within ten working days, I had an acceptance. It took me 138 days to sell this Big Bear home, but that's OK because I got it sold.

Yesterday I had the honor of calling my client and telling her that we had the bank approval and that she was not going to have to deed the house back to the bank or face foreclosure. Needless to say, she was thrilled to find out that we sold the house for her.

The help is out there for the distressed home owner in Big Bear Lake, CA as long as you don't wait until the last minute to ask for it. Once you know that you're in trouble, give me a call and let's see if I can help you with the same success as I was able to give to this client.

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Steve Hirschler

Associate, The Tim Wood Group

Coldwell Banker Mountain Gallery

42153 Big Bear Blvd.

P.O. BOX 6820

Big Bear Lake, CA 92315

stevehirschler@gmail.com

909 866-3481 EXT. 217 CELL 909 725-5889

Fax 909 866-3531

http://www.stevesellsbigbear.com

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