Jim Patton - Realtor , CDPE, SFR Stanislaus County Short Sale Specialist

Football is over - Now it's time for my Favorite Season - PLAY BALL!

Now that football season is over it's time to start looking forward to my favorite season of the year. It's almost time for the "Boys of Summer" to head out to either Arizona or Florida for Spring Training. I'm talking about BASEBALL, my favorite time of the year. In less than two weeks pitchers and catchers will be reporting to spring training. That means that before too long I will be heading out to the ball park for some fun in the sun.

This past weekend was the San Francisco Giants "Fanfest". While I am NOT a San Francisco Giants fan I am still a baseball fan. This was a great opportunity to get into the baseball mood. Me and 36,000 other baseball fans showed up at AT&T park on Saturday morning to actually get out on the field, see the players, get some autographs and have a cold beer and a hot dog. My little group consisted of my girlfriend Kelly and her 17 year old daughter and one of her friends. The two girls are both huge San Francisco Giants Fan. Myself I am a life long fan of the Oakland Athletics.

While the girls headed straight down to the field, Kelly and I took a seat about 7 rows behind home plate, directly in front of the stage where the players were being introduced and interviewed. They were being interviewed by the local sports radio station KNBR. This is probably the only time I will be able to sit in these seats so I enjoyed them all day. The weather was perfect, mid 60's and sunny in San Francisco in February!

The two biggest cheers of the day were when Tim Lincecum and Buster Posey came out. They both are like rock stars in San Francisco. Since Buster missed most of last season after a devastating injury during a play at the plate it was good to see him back in uniform. Probably the next biggest cheer was for the Skipper himself Bruce Bochey.

Sitting out in the sun at AT&T park with the beautiful views of The City and the water was a perfect day off. I now am ready for some baseball. I usually make it to a couple major league games each year and several single A Modesto Nuts games each year. I look forward to the start of the season when everyone is even and players and fans alike have visions of the world series in their heads. So pass me a hot dog and a cold be and ... PLAY BALL!

Stanislaus County Home Sales for January 2012 - MODESTO

The sales figures for Modesto California for January 2012 are in. The totals below are for single family homes sold in Modesto.

Total Sales - 171 (209 sold in January 2011)

Bank owned Sales - 64 which was 37% of all sales.

Short Sales - 47 which was 27% of all sales

Overall, distressed sales (Bank owned and short sales) made up 64% of all sales.

The lowest price home sold in Modesto during January 2012 was $35,000.

The highest price home sold in Modesto during January 2012 was $525,000

The median home price in Modesto during January 2012 was $120,000

The average days on the market was 60.

As you can see the volume of home sales in Modesto in January 2012 was lower than last year. Distressed sales are still the majority of sales. We are seeing a few more "traditional sales" and more investors are getting into the market.

If you are thinking about buying a home in Modesto now is a great time. Prices are better than they have been in a long time and interest rates are at all time lows. There are currently 449 homes for sale in Modesto listed from $32,960 up to $1,790,000. Give me a call at 209-633-2839 and I can help you find the right house for you. You can also search for Modesto Homes for sale here too.

Home sales for Modesto Ca December 2011

Home sales for Modesto Ca November 2011

Home sales for Modesto Ca October 2011

Home sales for Modesto Ca September 2011

Stanislaus County Home Sales for January 2012 -TURLOCK -

The sales figures for Turlock California for January 2012 are in. The totals below are for single family homes sold in Turlock.

Total Sales - 47 (60 Homes sold in January 2011)

Bank owned Sales - 19 which was 40% of all sales.

Short Sales - 17 which was 36% of all sales

Overall, distressed sales (Bank owned and short sales) made up 76% of all sales.

The lowest price home sold in Turlock during January 2012 was $20,200.

The highest price home sold in Turlock during January 2012 was $390,000

The median home price in Turlock during January 2012 was $156,900

The average days on the market was 93.

As you can see the volume of home sales in Turlock in January 2012 was well below last year, but the inventory is also lower than last year. Distressed sales are still the majority of sales. We are seeing a few more "traditional sales" and more investors are getting into the market.

If you are thinking about buying a home in Turlock now is a great time. Prices are better than they have been in a long time and interest rates are at all time lows. There are currently 122 homes for sale in Turlock listed from $64,900 up to $3,399,000. Give me a call at 209-633-2839 and I can help you find the right house for you. You can also search for Turlock Homes for sale here too.

Turlock Home Sales December 2011

Turlock Home Sales November 2011

Turlock Home Sales October 2011

Turlock Home Sales September 2011

Stanislaus County Short Sales - January 2012 Sales Stats

The sales numbers are in for Stanislaus County Sales for the month of January 2012. Sales of single family homes are down slightly this year and Distressed properties (Bank owned and Short Sales) are still dominating the market.

Here are the January 2011 and January 2012 Sales Stats for single family homes:

Total Sales January 2012: 414 sold * 40% (165) Bank Owned * 30% (125) Short Sales 70% of sales were distressed properties

Total Sales January 2011: 513 sold * 58% (300) Bank Owned * 21% (106) Short Sales 79% of sales were distressed properties

The total number of homes sold in January 2012 dropped from January 2011 and the percentage of Distressed Properties dropped slightly. We have seen a few more traditional sales start to come on the market and also we are seeing more investors buying homes on the court house steps and then reselling them. The percentage of Short Sales rose dramatically in January 2012 and the percentage of Bank Owned sales dropped by almost half. But I still think the bottom line is that Stanislaus County Short Sales and Bank Owned homes are not going away any time soon.

With 7 out of 10 single family home sales in Stanislaus County being distressed sales if you are thinking about buying you need an agent that has experience with Distressed Properties. A Stanislaus County Short Sale transaction and a Stanislaus County Bank Owned home sale are not the same thing. You need someone that is experienced with both. Someone that has experienced both short sales and bank owned sales from both sides of the transaction, as the listing agent and as the buyers agent. Some one that knows how to negotiate through the process from beginning to end.

I have that experience. I have represented the banks in listing Bank Owned homes and represented buyers of bank owned homes. I have represented the sellers of Stanislaus County Short Sales and represented buyers of Stanislaus County Short Sales.

If you want more information on Stanislaus County Short Sales as a Call me today at 209-633-2839. If you want to search Stanislaus County Listings be sure to visit my website.

Stanislaus County Home Sales December 2011

Stanislaus County Home Sales November 2011

Stanislaus County Home Sales October 2011

Stanislaus County Home Sales September 2011

Stanislaus County Home Sales August 2011

Stanislaus County Home Sales July 2011

Stanislaus County Home Sales June 2011

A big Thank You to Citibank for reading my blog!!!

Last week I ranted blogged about a difficult short sale I am having with Citimortgage. That was my "Glad this is not my typical Stanislaus County Short Sale" post. I wrote about how I was not getting any response from Citi on my short sale approval. It turns out that someone at Citimortgage was reading my blog post.

On Wednesday 1/25/12 I received a call (sorry I missed it) and a voice mail from a Mr. Michael Cardace with Citi. He does online service and advocacy for all of Citibank's brands. He also runs a website for the Citimortgage Team called Homeownersupport.com. He stated that he had come across my blog on the Activerain network. He said it looked like that I "had a less than satisfying experience" with Citi on my short sale. He asked to me to give him a call so we could talk about the short sale.

I tried calling him back the following morning but got his voice mail a couple of times. (I was worried that it was more of the same) I also sent him an email later in the day explaining the situation in detail. I got back an email from him a few minutes latter saying that I could expect a call from Citi on Friday.

On Friday morning I received a call from Ray at the Citibank Executive office. He said that he had "reached out" to the negotiator on the file. Amazingly a couple of hours later I received a fax from Citi. It was the short sale approval. A couple of minutes later I also received a call from the negotiator (the one I was starting to believe didn't actually exist) stating that he had sent me the short sale approval letter.

So finally after more than two months of nothing from Citi, in just two days I got the short sale approval. I want to publicly thank the two gentlemen that stepped up and got things moving for me. You gentlemen made my sellers, the buyers and two agents very happy today. As I stated in my previous post, this is not what I typically expect from Citibank when doing a short sale. Usually when I am dealing with the banks on short sales the people that I come into contact with are polite and professional and on the ball. But every once in a while things need to be shaken up.