Randy "Lazarus" McAtee - Owner/Broker Lazarus Realty, Fresno California

Saturday at Sunnyside High School. The event was sponsored by the Central California Cultural Society of India.

I was under the weather all last week with a cold or allergies and on Saturday I finally felt well enough to get out and do something so I browsed the Fresno Bee online and found the advertisement for the event.

See Photos Below

I will admit that when I read this: Music composition is done using a sixty-piece orchestra and is presented in full stereophonic sound. I took it to mean there was going to be a live orchestra. Wrong. Just a recording. But the dancing was stunning and offered LOTS of camera candy. BTW, I called ahead of time to be sure that photography would be allowed because anyone who likes to shoot these kind of events knows that it often IS NOT.

Afterwards my wife and I went to the North India Bar and Grill in Clovis for dinner (perhaps another blog?)

Here are two of my favorite captures from the event.

Captured with a Nikon D300 using a Nikon 70/200 2.8 lens

		Direct: Fax:	559.301.1647 559.438.7475
Website	Visit My Blog	email
1319 W Bullard #4 -- Fresno CA -- 93711
© Randy "Lazarus" McAtee

... and you thought this was just a podunk hick-town full of raisin farmers.

NOT!

According to the latest statistics released yesterday by the Department of Finance Fresno's population grew by 10,578 people in 2008. That was enough to bump the city up over Long Beach and make it the fifth largest City in the State with a total population of 495,913.

TOP 10 CITIES IN CALIFORNIA

California's 10 most populous cities as of Jan. 1, 2009, with percentage of growth since 2008:

1. Los Angeles, 4,065,585, 1.1%

2. San Diego, 1,353,993, 1.5%

3. San Jose, 1,006,892, 2.2%

4. San Francisco, 845,559, 1.2%

5. Fresno, 495,913, 2.2%

6. Long Beach, 492,682, 0.6%

7. Sacramento, 481,097, 1.4%

8. Oakland, 425,068, 1.4%

9. Santa Ana, 355,662, 1.2%

10. Anaheim, 348,467, 0.9%

Source: California Department of Finance

Stats show home sales picking up. In the last 24 hours we have 56 New Listings and 19 Back on the Market.

Thats 75 properties on the SELL SIDE

During that same 24 hour period we are showing 24 Contingents and 71 Pendings.

Thats 95 properties on the BUY SIDE.

That's a great balance of inventory because its CERTAIN that many of those Pending / Contingent sales will not close for one reason or another.

Speaking of CLOSINGS -- we had 39 CLOSED transactions.

So buyers are out there. Weather is nice. School is just about out. PEAK BUYING SEASON.

There are 70 price reductions and ZERO price increases in the last 24 hours. Translation: SELLERS CONTINUE TO SLASH PRICES TO ATTRACT BUYERS.

If you're reading this on my Active Rain Blog feel free to go to my other blog or my website to search the MLS.

		Direct: Fax:	559.301.1647 559.438.7475
Website	Visit My Blog	email
1319 W Bullard #4 -- Fresno CA -- 93711
© Randy "Lazarus" McAtee

Fresno California

When your purchasing a home there is a good chance that either your agent or the agent may hire a contractor to do work on the home prior to closing. Contractors in California (and probably most other states) don't need to be well capitalized in order to start up a business to begin with. They are only required to have to have $2500.00 in liquid assets, so its no surprise that so many of them go under, especially in this market.

So what do you if the contractor that was hired to do work on the home is no longer in business?

The single most important thing that you need is the contractor's license number. Hopefully the agent who hired the contractor verified the license was active and in good standing when the work was performed. This previous blog on the subject provides some good information on doing a license check.

Keep in mind that the bigger the contractor's license number the newer it is. For example my contractor's license was issued in 1989 and the number is 555829. When you see a number that begins with 8 you know its a more recent issue.

So let's assume that the contractor had a valid license when he performed the work. Let's say, for the purposes of discussion that the contractor did a 3 year roof certification and its year 2 and the roof springs a leak. Your client calls the contractor to come out and honor the certification (REPAIR THE LEAK). The number no longer works!

OUCH!

What do you do?

Go to the Contractor's State License Board website and do a license check on the contractor. It may be that they have changed their number, moved, or even changed their name. It's all quite possible that they have gone out of business.

When you look up the license you will see a page that looks like this:

There is some very important information on that page. Specifically the bonding information. Look at the "Effective Date" and the "Cancellation Date." Make sure that your work was done during the period that the license was Effective.

Every contractor in the state of California must have a bond in the amount of $12,500.00 in order to have their license activated.

Get the name of the bond holder and policy number.

Contact the bondholder and make a claim against the bond. If previously claims have not exhausted the $12,500.00 the amount of the bond you stand a good chance of getting money from the bonding agent. Bear in mind that the bonding agent doesn't like to part with the money so you may have to wrestle for it, but is probably the only means of satisfaction.

In the case of say a leaking roof, you would probably have to take care of the damage out of pocket and then make the claim for reimbursement.

Good Luck!

		Direct: Fax:	559.301.1647 559.438.7475
Website	Visit My Blog	email
1319 W Bullard #4 -- Fresno CA -- 93711
© Randy "Lazarus" McAtee

Was busy doing showings this afternoon in an area where sales have been brisk. The volume of REOs in this particular neighborhood has been so high that I noticed prices drop 10% in a matter of about 2 or 3 months. I noticed a lot of homes with non-mls lock boxes --- meaning that the homes are being foreclosed on and will be coming to market soon.

Looks like another wave of homes is set to hit the market soon. I spoke with my insurance agent today who told me there were 6 pages of NODs (Notice of Default) in the Fresno Bee this morning. The good news is that on some days I have noticed that the number or new listings (in a 24 hour period) is exceeding by the number of contingent and pending sales (in the same 24 hour period), which means inventory is getting sucked up fairly well.

BLEET = cross between a blog and tweet.