About Gilroy's Eagle Ridge

Eagle Ridge Realty is proud to annonce the addition of Nicki Kuzn, REALTOR.

Nicki is a resident of Eagle Ridge in Gilroy, CA, 95020.

You may contact Nicki for all your housing needs at nkuzn@EagleRidgeRealty.net

If you are buying a home in Eagle Ridge or selling your home in Eagle Ridge, Nicki will provide you with expert guidance, skill, and courtesy. Visit us on the web: EAGLE RIDGE REALTY

To all:
Nicki Kuzn has returned to Eagle Ridge Realty, located in Gilroy, CA.

Nicki is an agent with two years experience, and was top propducer for our firm a couple of years ago. She has decided to return, and we are delighted! Nicki can be reached via email at nkuzn@EagleRidgeRealty.net

Nicki is also a resident of Eagle Ridge, and knows the area very well.

Welcome back Nicki!

EAGLE RIDGE REALTY
"Our Performance Will Move You!"
(408) 846-8284

Visit us on the web:
EAGLE RIDGE REALTY

EAGLE RIDGE NEIGHBORHOOD

HOA Defined:
Homeowners Association - A homeowner association is comprised of two or more homeowners who belong to a membership organization for the maintenance of commonly owned real estate and improvements. It can range from a simple duplex up to a huge development with thousands of homes, condominiums and townhouses that maintain marinas, golf courses and other extensive facilities (often improvements like a tennis court or swimming pool for the development where the house is located).

I am writing this because as a Real Estate professional, and a Real Estate instructor, I often hear comments about HOAs. There is probably more misinformation out there than true information.
Homeowner's Associations are used for two or more dwellings, of which they are defined (meaning incorporated, or structured, as) either a Condominium, Planned Unit Development (PUD), or a Cooperative (Co-op).

A townhouse describes a type of structure, usually they have the living area on the ground floor, and the bedrooms upstairs. I often hear Realtors talk about condo and Townhomes as two different things (i.e. "it is not a Condo, but a town home") when there is no legal entity called "Townhome" or "Townhouse".

Anyway, Eagle Ridge is a PUD, meaning that each homeowner automatically "owns" (by ownership, it mean they have the right to USE, but not POSSESS, commonly owned land which is owned by the HOA) a fractional interest in the property controlled by the HOA. IT also means that there are CCRs in place, which are recorded with the County Recorder, thereby giving notice to the whole world. What is important here are two matters:

1) Any individual homeowner can enforce the CCRs against another homeowner. For instance, if a homeowner in the same development is 1/2 mile away from where you live, and parks their RV in front of their house (violating HOA rules, the CCRs), the non-adjacent homeowner has the right to file a complaint to get the RV removed, even though it does not directly affect their property (but affects the community) as they are not adjacent to the violater's property.
2) The fact that the residence (could be a commercial property, by the way, such as an office condo) is under a HOA, it must be disclosed to the buyer within the time frame specified under the contract (CA law). If a buyer is or was unaware of the fact that the HOA was in effect, they may withdraw from the contract and receive their deposit back, if they cancel under that provision of the contract.

What people and society have discovered, is that homes with these "restrictive covenants" in place generally maintain their value better than communities without them. Yes, there are monthly or quarterly dues to pay, but they far outweigh the detriment to the neighborhood that may occur...

I will write more about this in my next writing. If you have any questions, pleas e feel free to call at the number
below. Incidentally, the Dept. of Real Estate added a class called "Homeowners Associations" to its list of approved electives to for a Brokers License. I believe I am the only Broker, perhaps agent, in the entire South County to have taken this class!

Life is good in Eagle Ridge!
Gary Frimann
Broker / Owner
Eagle Ridge Realty
"Our Performance Will Move You!"
(408) 846-8284
EAGLE RIDGE REALTY
Eagle Ridge Neighborhood

Mortgage Fraud has affected Eagle Ridge BIG TIME, and I mean in a huge way. Today, there are still 20 homes here that have been given a notice of default, and they are not even up for sale yet. It appears that mortgage fraud was used to acquire these homes, hoping for a quick profit, or perhaps easy money. Eagle Ridge is a great place to invest in, for YOUR OWN RESIDENCE, but not for investment property, meaning holding a property to rent, as rents will not cover your outward cash flow. Eagle Ridge is mostly Owner occupied, but there were some who bought to flip. Huge loan balances, and now they want to just alk away. The good news is that the properties are being maintained very well, except for one, but that one just sold. It also means there are a lot of homes priced below market, so now is a good time to buy (thanks to low interest rates). It's sad, as I live here, and have seen my property value decrease, but I'm not worried about that so much as I am in it for the long haul.

My basic premise as far as real estate investment goes is that money is made over time, not overnight. Period.

Historically, the data shows that. The cost of building new, with an ever decreasing supply of buildable land, will constantly make housing more expensive. Couple that with the rising wages (when is the last time you saw minimum wages go down?) one sees that housing, a basic need, will most certainly always increase in value.
All real estate is local, based on the local, regional economy, and here in Silicon Valley we seem to constantly reinvent ourselves and are on the leading edge of whatever drives the economy, which in this time period is technology. So, I am not concerned about a flattening of the market or actually losing money on my home. Basically, I am confident. Why? Because people like nice weather. People from all over the world. Silicon Valley is the research capital of all things technological, and people from all over the world want to live here. High paying jobs, good weather, plenty of places to go for recreation make a wonderful combination for a place to call home.

Back to mortgage fraud... I think I have identified what I call "Patient Zero" which is the term used by the medical community to identify the one flight attendant who brought aids to America. I have noticed one loan agent who I believe is directly responsible for at least, in my opinion, 5 homes in foreclosure in Eagle Ridge.
Currently, they have two homes under a Notice of Default at the time of this writing. Will they go to jail? Who knows? The D.A. is aggressively pursuing the fraud cases, and I hope the lenders aggressively follow suit. The penalty for mortgage fraud is 30 years in jail with a one million dollar fine. It has happened all over the country, and people are going to jail and it will get worse before it gets better.

As a Broker, I am often called upon to do a "BPO" which is a Broker's Price Opinion for various lenders who have one of their loans in default. Recently, while checking comps on a non-performing loan, I noticed that the owners in default actually had TWO homes in default. Peeling away the onion, what I was using for a comp enabled me to discover that the owner of the house in default had another one in default, and both houses were purchased within 28 days of each other. How did this happen? Absent further evidence, I would assume they used the same loan application for both houses... It really was that simple. The First house did not show up on the credit report because the loan was too new. Now, if it did, usually an agent made up a bogus rental agreement showing a high rent being paid which covered the debt service, coupled with a stated income loan, and viola-perfect recipe for mortgage fraud. Plus, the fact that nowadays one can have automatic payments made to the lender, how does the lender know that the person is occupying the house as their primary residence??? All it takes is a small correction in the market, perhaps a vacancy for more than a month and the borrower is upside down. BAM. Foreclosure time.

Interest rates were at historical lows, for this generation's lifetime. (To see a chart, go to my website and click on the link on the front page: Signature Homes & Estates . Now, is really a good time to buy, if fraud had not put so many homes on the market, driving the prices down...

Gary Frimann
Broker / Owner
Signature Homes & Estate
Eagle Ridge Realty
(408) 846-8284
Eagle Ridge Realty
Signature Homes & Estates