About San Leandro's The Broadmoor

Have you ever been on a roller coaster? Then you know the feeling of going up, and up, and up... and then there is a point when you realize you are about to experience one of the most basic laws of nature: what goes up, must come down! Yes, I am a Realtor and this analogy is very real in my business. Since 1985 I have experience a few of those turns... this one however, is by far the most long lasting, meanest and most destructive business periods I have ever seen in my profession

I believe most Realtors are on a survival mode right about now, here in sunny northern California, the inventory of homes is still way too high, the banks are not helping anybody, the home buyers are scared and those who can afford and qualify for a loan are waiting to see what happens next. Not a friendly atmosphere for a self employed person who earns a living helping people buy and sell real estate. Looking into the future, my nest egg has been reduced to a couple of twigs...

In the past at this time, I would be planning my next year, I will have set goals, and plans and objectives to reach within the next 12 months, how many listings I need to take, of those how many could sell and based on that, what type of budget I will have, then where and how to spend that money to generate the listings and so forth... Now there is only one goal: Survive!I have enough listings, but they are not selling!

When I look back at where I am now, and how I got here, I can see that a few steps I took many years ago were very good, others, not so good. Here are the lessons I learned during this recession:

• Keeping Some of Your Hard Earned Money Must Become a Priority. I always thought that you should have at leas a 4 to 6 months reserves. In this recession, we need about a year or more. I once read a book where the author insisted that everyone of us should pay ourselves first. That we should keep at least 10% of whatever we earn and put it aside and invest it and make it grow. It was a good book, but I did not follow its teachings, I should have. Bad Move # 1
  

• There is NO Safety in Numbers. Not too long ago, I sold one of my rental properties and took the money, met with my "Financial Adviser" and bought some stocks. I was supposed to be "Diversified and Invested" Everybody had stock holdings and was making money in the stock market. A couple of years after my initial investment, my stock holdings had lost about 53% of the original value. Following the herd for safety only works in the wild. Bad Move # 2
  

• Buy and Hold Real Estate. Early in my career, I did listen to a couple of seasoned Realtors and bought a few rental properties, they went up and up and up in value, and then down and down and down some more. When I look at them today, they are still worth more than when I bought them, and they are producing precious income at this time. Good Move # 1
  

• Listen to Your CPA and Build Liquid Reserves. This one is a lifeline that a business person should not live without. Every year, my CPA insisted that I invest on SEP and/or Roth IRA's, reluctantly, I did, not even knowing the difference between the two of them. Today, even paying a tax of about 12% on some, I can access that money within a couple of days. when you are on a survival mode, this is the difference between the life and the death of a self employed Realtor. Good Move # 2

• Know That Your Financial Friends Will Betray You. For a business person, good credit lines are the blood of the business, without them, you simply cannot survive. When the going was good, my friends at Bank Of America, American Express, and Visa amongst others, were very happy to provide unsolicited lines of credit, check books will arrive with 0% introductory rates on a new line of credit. My credit scores have always been high and I made all my payments on time. They still reduced the amount of credit and froze solid the lines of credit. Just at the time when their help was needed the most. Because of the lesson learned: Good Move # 3

• Do a Complete Inventory and An Appraisal of Your Business. Just writing this blog post, made me think inwards. I started analyzing how I conduct my real estate business. I need to know where I spend my time and money while selling real estate. I started to look in more details at all my financing, We actually got together with my wife and started writing down every single expense. I must confess, I was shocked to see how much we spend. Good Move # 4

This situation will change, and it can not get any worse than what it has been. I can see the dim light at the end of the tunnel. I have learned that I cannot write a check anymore without making a brief analysis: is this money well spent? Can I live without this item, or service? Could I save this money for a rainy day?

On the personal side, it comes down to economics, I truly enjoy and love what I do. I believe that what I have learned from this recession will make me stronger in better times. On the Professional side, however, I have felt the pain that some of my clients are experiencing, I have learned to be more compasionate specially when it comes to selling their short sales, I must work harder to help them ease that pain.

I also realized that uncooperative sellers and buyers are very expensive, if they do not know exactly what they want, and work with me to put together a feasible plan to achieve their real estate goals. If I can not afford to lose time and money, neither can they. I cannot be the answer to their prayers until I know exactly what the heck they are praying for!

Hello blog readers.

I recently came to the mindset that I needed to sell my San Leandro home and move back in with my mother and be her live-in caregiver. I had my house that was only two houses North of hers and it just made no sense to have two households to support and maintain.

So I put my house on the market. Being a Prudential California Realty Agent, it was the company's policy that agents do not sell their own homes. That policy is in place to avoid any conflict of interest claims and future lawsuits. I had no problems with that. So Nick Falconio and Jason Dwyer from my office took the listing.

My San Leandro home

We priced the house at $380,000 with the knowledge that it was priced to move and we expected multiple offers. We set the offer date for one week later, we had 5 offers ranging in the $420,000 neighborhood.

I picked the offer from a nice young couple, who wrote me a letter saying how much they loved the house. The letter meant a lot in the decision process for me since this was a home that had been in the family since 1930.

Everything was going fine with inspections. The appraisal process however, did not go as well. The appraisal company picked thanks to the new HVCC rules provided us with an appraiser from Union City 15-20 miles South of San Leandro. In his appraisal report he called my Normandy Tudor Storybook Cottage a "Ranch" style home. The appraisal valuation came back with a $375,000 value.

The buyer's agent quickly drafted an addendum thinking that was going to be the price I would settle for. They could not be more wrong. I was not going to allow this incompetent appraiser devalue my home to be valued as-if it were a post war tract ranch home in San Leandro's west side Washington Manor. If they wanted to pay Washington Manor prices they could live in Washington Manor.

We drafted an addendum to their addendum giving a $5,000 deduction in price. If they wanted the home they would have to come to the table with the difference. I was not going to be giving my family's home away.

GAME OVER

It was time to put the house back onto the market. It was Nick's idea to place the price at $410,000 to set the expectation to the buyers what I would be willing to settle with due to the previous multiple offers we had received. I did not think that it was a brilliant idea to have a price increase in this day and age, considering the current market.

For a home that had not been bought and sold over and over again, our section 1 pest and wood destroying organism report came in remarkably low at $7000. The house was in great shape for being 83 years old.

$410,000 and then $7,000 in credits would yield just around $403,000, which I considered good for the home.

The house then sat on the market with any activity. The first buyers and my agent had stolen my good marketing MOJO. I did a price reduction to $399,000 to get the house into the under $400,000 price bucket. The new price would be on the condition that the house would be sold as-is.

About a month later offers started to come in. Calls were made to interested parties and we were back at multiple offers again.

I did pick an offer for $390,000. My agent had over-looked my request for the as-is condition on the price reduction. The MLS information did not reflect as-is and the buyer was taking advantage of credits for this and credits for that. The buyer wanted me to buy her a new water heater. I had never taken a cold shower and that water heater may have been old but it was a true work horse. I was not going to buy this person a new water heater when we had already offered a home warranty for all the electromechanical items in the house, water heater included. The agents on both sides picked up the cost of the new water heater, I was still out the section 1 monies credited to the buyer. I was upset.

The deal finally closed and I had a new neighbor I was at the same time, happy for and also peeved at.

NOW TO PURCHASE A NEW INVESTMENT PROPERTY

In 1996 my dad and I took at trip back to Livonia, Indiana to research our family genealogy. I feel in love with the area. We had traveled from the Louisville Kentucky airport up into Southern Indiana. We based our stay out of a small motel in Salem, Indiana. Livonia, a small crossroads of a town was were my family came from and pioneered the area back in the 1840s.

We did not go any further West from Livonia. The next larger town was Paoli, Indiana. My dad was interested in following his great grandfather's 1864 Civil War Journal down to Atlanta, Georgia.

When I got back home I started to research the area around Livonia and found out more about Paoli and French Lick and West Baden.

West Baden had a massive hotel that had closed down operations in the 1929 stock market crash. Over the years the hotel had been used as a seminary college and also the Northwood Institute. In the 1980s the building was abandoned and left to decay. One part of it's outer wall actually collapsed at one point in time.

West Baden Springs Hotel

Bill Cook, a billionaire from Bloomington and the Indiana Landmarks Association came to the rescue of the property. They restored it in hopes of finding a buyer.

Illegal gambling, which had once been overlooked in the valley. 17 illegal casinos had been operated since the earliest resorts of the 1840s and operated right up until the 1940s. Col. Tom Taggart the Democratic Party chairman ruled roost from his French Lick Hotel. The powerful Taggart protected the gambling operations of the valley resort area.

Gambling was legalized in Indiana, 11 land-based casino locations were opened up. These casinos needed to be a Boat-in-a-moat nautical themed casinos in order to be legalized. A riverboat was planned for nearby Patoka Lake. The Army Corps of Engineers nixed the idea of a casino on Patoka Lake. The casino was cleared to be located back at the French Lick Springs Hotel.

The Cook Group and Blue Sky Gaming bought both the French Lick Hotel and the West Baden Springs Hotel. Restoration was done to the tune of over $300,000,000 for both hotels.

I had to go back and see Indiana 2010

Knowing I would be interested in possibly purchasing my replacement property in this area, i enlisted the help of real estate agent Bud Barley of the Brooks Galloway Agency.

I had studied their website and had looked at many properties. I was looking at a mansion down in the central area of West Baden which had at one time belonged to one of the owners of the original West Baden Springs Hotel, E.B. Rhodes.

One home that caught my eye was an 1810 colonial antebellum mansion on 5 acres on the outskirts of West Baden.

I booked a trip for my mother, myself and my nephew David. Mom came along because I was still afterall her caregiver. David came along because I wanted the next generation to know where our family had come from. We booked the trip, rental car and hotel rooms.

On the way into town, knowing the location of that mansion, we drove past the house. I loved it instanly as I saw it.

The next day, Brooks Galloway showed us some homes (Bud was out of town for family reasons). Some of the homes were good, some others not so much. The next day more homes, including the mansion. I liked it very very much.

The third day some additional homes. One of which was a new manufactured home on 28 acres. These home were nice but not what I wanted.

My thoughts are, I would have the property possibly run as a Bed & Breakfast Inn while I am out here in California taking care of mother. When the time comes (hopefully many years from now) I would go back and build a cottage on the B&B property for me.

We went back to the office to write up the offer. I was going to be paying cash. It was less than half of what my 2 bedroom california storybook style bungalow closed for.

My Indiana home.

I've been rattling off for a whille now. I am sure this has to be one of the longest Activerain blogging posts ever.

But by far, the most important document in the Short Sale Package is the sellers hardship letter. This document will be the very first one read by the Loss Mitigator. It will give this person an idea of what to look for in the package, or if is even worth his/her time to read it.

Banks are receiving short sales requests in record numbers, the rejection rate however is very high, in part due to the package not being complete. Lack of important documents to analyze the request is the cause of delays, and in most cases the difference between loosing the house to foreclosure or negotiating a short sale with the lender.

Most homeowners requesting a short sale approval of their loan, are shy about their situation, and this letter is not an easy one to write. As a professional Realtor, this is the step I emphasize the most because of its importance. I make sure they understand the fact that another human being is going to read that letter and make a decision almost on the spot. If they can clearly, and methodically take the reader through what happened to them and why they are asking for help, their chances are good.

In the hardship letter, sellers must reach for that emotional cord if they are to have any chances of getting their approval. These people have read thousands of letters and can easily spot the ones that carry no weight at all. The story of why this package is here, should be told by the sellers in a handwritten note.

This letter should only contain the true facts as they pertain to them, because everything said in that letter will be verified. The main culprits are: the loss of a job, a dissolution of marriage and medical reasons. Above all, do not blame the banks for getting you into this situation. A badly written letter could kill any chance of this package getting any attention at all from the lender no matter how true your hardship is.

Here are a few steps to help you get that letter out to your bank; Take these steps as paragraphs of your letter.

• Begin with a complete address of the lender, include telephone numbers, email address and fax numbers, it will be easier to follow up later.
• Your full names, the loan number and the complete address of the property, including social security numbers for proper identification
  
• Be specific and clear about your request: "we are hereby requesting that you approve this short sale" or a similar statement to help you get the point across.
  
• Describe what was the main cause of your hardship. Tell the story from the beginning, include dates, dollar amounts, places where you worked etc. remember that you must include documentation to back up your claims. Be clear, specific and above all, do not hide the truth or sugar-coat it.
• Tell them what steps you have taken to help yourself, how many job applications you have sent, what other possessions you have sold. Show that you have actually taken steps to help yourself and avoid this situation.
• Describe your present situation; are you looking for a job? is your income not sufficient to meet your obligations? are you on disability? Mention that you have considered filing for bankruptcy.
  
• End the letter with an invitation to the lender to call you if they need more information, or further explanations, include day and evening telephone numbers, and do not forget that everyone on the loan must sign and date the hardship letter in order of it to be valid and accepted.
  

The hardship letter should be handwritten, however, if your hand style is difficult to read, I recommend you have a copy typed verbatim, and attached to the original. Spend time on this one document! Back it up with supporting documentation and put the loan number on every single page you send to your bank. The most complete package you send, the better your chances of having a positive resolution to your request. Go ahead, give it your best try! Good Luck.

Hi there blog readers.

I just wanted to let you know that I will be placing my own home up for sale later this month. It has been interesting being on the side of the seller. I have spent countless hours prepping my home to get it ready for the sale.

It will be a good deal. I will have it priced to move quickly. It's a wonderful 2 bedroom 1 bath Normandy Storybook Style Tudor in San Leandro's "The Broadmoor" neighborhood on Superior Avenue. We are targeting the last week of January to have it hit the MLS.

Nick Falconio and Jason Dwyer will be representing me. Prudential California Realty's policy is that they will not allow agents to represent their own properties due to conflict of interest and E&O (Errors and Omission Insurance) issues.

Being a caregiver for my mother, it's time that I cash out and bank some money so that I can support her finanacially.

I am thinking of picking up a property in the beautiful farmlands of Southern Indiana for my retirement. I am looking at the mineral spring restort towns of French Lick or West Baden Springs.

I also want to remind you to enter the HGTV Dream Home contest for 2010. This year the home is located outside of Santa Fe New Mexico (No passports required as New Mexico is a state....ha ha) To enter just follow the link above and fill out the contest entry form on that page. Be sure to bookmark that page and enter every day.....GOOD LUCK

Having seen the three homes on San Leandro's Superior Avenue that create the elevation for the home on Hayward's Prospect Avenue home.

illustration #1

537, 527 and 521 as they are on San Leandro's Superior Avenue

illustration #2

As photographed the same three houses as diagrammed above

illustration #3

537, 527 and 521 as they would be combined together.

illustration #4

The above combination is then mirror imaged and then you get "The house on Prospect" in Hayward. illustration #5

As photographed, the house diagrammed in illustration #4

Recently,

I've noticed that two homes on Superior Avenue when joined together also create a common variation to the storybook style architecture theme. The home in this puzzle features a shed dormer style roof over the window of the second house. Most commonly a front facing gable replaces that shed roof.

illustration #6

573 and 565 Superior as they are located in San Leandro

illustration #7

illustration #8

The puzzle house combined here would result in the following look

Homes like this are common to El Cerrito, San Pablo, Kensington, Berkeley and Clarksburg California. Another example of this style is the Oakland Public Library in the Montclair District (shown below).

illustration #9 The Montclair Library

This type of house always has a catslide roof off to one side and a wing coming off of that. On the wing coming off the catslide their is usually a dormer facing the same direction as the main catslide gable.

Another Puzzle home.

Another home located in San Leandro's unincorporated Ashland Distrcit located on 170th is a combination of 537 (Mayor/builder Earl Derry's House) and a home on the 700 block of Bridge Road (Tom Derry's House). Google map both Bridge Road and 170th Avenue.

illustration #10

Above is the Tom Derry House.

When it's combined with the familiar image of the catslide version representing Earl Derry's House you get the house below located on 170th.

illustration #11

The puzzle house located on 170th in San Leandro's unicorporated Ashland District.