Hawaii homes

Are you into social networking? I'm slowly learning about the subject to increase my online presence to homebuyers and sellers.

Recently, a friend from another island sent me an invite to join Tagged.com. It seemed innocent enough, like joining Facebook or MySpace.

I followed the link and went through the lengthy signup. It had lots of options that I wasn't interested in. Despite that, I kept going. The site requested my phone number. I tried skipping that portion but it seemed that I had to include my number and receive a text message with a PIN to continue. In a moment of poor judgement I did continue with the account signup.

After signing up, I learned that another friend of mine was a member of Tagged (that makes two). I thought that was cool and looked at my two friends' profiles. Not much there but their names and a pic or two.

Then the bad stuff started happening. First I noticed that the innocent looking accounts and photos displayed on the Tagged website when I signed up were replaced with naughty looking 20-something year old females. They had account names like "Horny1". More annoying were the text messages sent to my phone. The messages came almost daily.

Text messages were something like this:

"Ludacris' pool house destroyed by a fire".

"Jay Z to perform in Detroit".

First, I have never listened to their music and am not the least bit interested.

Second, my cellphone plan charges me for each text message. It was very annoying to be paying for a useless text message.

I went back to the Tagged website and disabled all messaging options. It didn't include a box for discontinuing text messages but I hoped it would work. The next day I received another useless text message.

Going back to the Tagged website, I looked for a "contact us" link and didn't find one. So I cancelled my account. A box appeared asking why I was cancelling and I mentioned the text messages. Despite cancelling the account, the text messages continued.

I called my cellular provider, Verizon and asked them for help. The representative told me to reply to a text with the word "Stop". I did so and quickly received a response saying I was unsubscribed to the text service.

The representative also told me, sites like Tagged usually charge a monthly subscription fee for the text messages! You mean I actually have to pay for this headache? Yes. He said a typical bill is $10 per month. I must have missed that when I clicked the Terms of Service box without reading the terms.

Verizon has an option where any text service that tries to send you a message is automatically blocked. Instead, the customer receives a text from Verizon asking if he/she elects to receive the premium messages, knowing the there will be a fee. I said "Yes" to that! No more junk text messages for me!

I had a good listing, a house in Honolulu with separate entries and kitchens. This property was going into foreclosure and we were trying to get an offer acceptable to the bank.

Our first round resulted in a best offer of $550,000. We submitted it to the bank and their response was "no". The owners had purchased the home for approximately $800,000 in early 2007 with zero down financing. The bank wasn't willing to take such a big loss.

With continued effort we brought in several other offers. The best was around $675,000. We went to the bank and they said they would put it through their normal 30-45 day review period. Meanwhile, we continued advertising the house. We received other offers but this looked like it would be the highest.

After 30 days or so, the bank called me and said they need a loan preapproval letter TODAY. The next scheduled auction was the following day. After waiting 30 days, the demanded loan preapproval without prior notice. This was disturbing. We contacted the lender. Apparently, the prospective buyer was in escrow to sell another property and the funds from that sale were needed for loan preapproval. The lender was playing it safe and said they could not issue the loan preapproval on such short notice. I contacted the bank and they said okay, the house would be auctioned tomorrow.

I was concerned but not worried. Having gone through these procedures in the past, I expected the auction to be postponed. This time I was wrong. The auction was held as scheduled. Due to poor advertisement by the bank, there was only one bidder.

The bidding started and the sole bidder won the property for $530,000! I asked myself, why did the bank turn down multiple offers in the $550,000+ range and not give the buyer a chance with an offer in the neighborhood of $675,000? I don't know but I was certainly unhappy.

Within days, the auction winner contacted me. He knew me because he had submitted a bid early on. I learned some interesting things from him.

- He did not know the house would be auctioned that day. He had just been going to the auction and waiting to see if the house would be put on the block. That shows how poor a job the bank did of providing public notice of the sale. They shot themselves in the foot and probably could have gotten more money at the auction.

- The auction winner had problems with his lender. As I understand it, his lender would not fund the loan because of issues with title. The property was still deeded to the people who were foreclosed upon, but it was sold by the bank. The auction winner ended up borrowing money from his associates to pay the full purchase price.

- He told me he wasn't "in love" with the house and was still willing to sell it to the buyers that were in escrow.

I spoke with the agent representing the buyer and she said the buyer still wanted the house. However, when the buyer found out what the auction winner paid for the house, she wanted a big discount on the price. The auction winner said "no". He had to put up cash and would sell it for a little less than what we had been in escrow for. The buyer was distraught, felt ripped off and gave up on the deal. The auction winner rented out the property.

Lessons learned:

1) You CAN get a deal at a foreclosure auction.

2) If you don't have cash or cannot borrow cash quickly, forget about it.

3) Banks are unreasonable in short sales. Get used to it.

Aloha, Mike

Selling homes in Honolulu

Yesterday my broker did two things that impressed me a lot!

1) An unrepresented potential buyer saw my listing on a website. The buyer called the office, asking if he could see the property. My broker called me up and told me to call the unrepresented buyer.

Many brokers might claim the unrepresented buyer as their customer, or maybe assign another agent to the buyer. On the other hand, my broker sent this customer to me with no strings attached!

2) Mortgage interest rates have fallen significantly in the last couple of weeks since the Fed takeover of Fannie and Freddie. I decided to call around and check to see if it's time to refinance.

My broker offered me a competitive refinance package and he is not making a profit on it! He's doing it out of appreciation for my work.

I like working for this company. They pay a generous commission split too! If you're in the real estate business, consider working with us. If you're a real estate buyer or seller, know that our company has integrity.

Aloha, Mike Bates

Broker: Henry Hwang

Savvy Realty & Loans

1860 Ala Moana Blvd #115

Honolulu, HI 96816

Phone: (808) 926-3700

Website: www.savvygroup.com

I'm excited about some events happening this month:

- 30-year mortgage rates have declined to around 5.75% after the Fannie May / Freddie Mac takeover.

- Oil prices are down to $91 today (9/16/08) after reaching a high of $147 in July.

- Home prices are down, providing opportunities for buyers.

- Home sales volume is starting to pickup in the worst hit areas, such as California and Florida.

Not everthing is good these days. American International Group (AIG) is desperately trying to raise capital. Yesterday, Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy and Merrill Lynch was acquired by Bank of America.

We're in uncertain times, just like after 9/11/01. Remember what happened to the housing market and financial markets in the years following? This could be the time to buy low (and sell high later!)

Mike Bates

Kailua realtor

The labor day weekend was a good one for surfing!  The waves on the south shore had 1-3 foot faces with a few larger sets.  These weren't north shore sized waves, but they were great for us weekend surfers.

We normally surf in Waikiki and at Diamond Head.  My wife's brother lives near Ala Moana and surfs there regularly.  We talked about surfing the other day and he said to checkout Ala Moana Beach Park for a change.

Ala Moana surf breaks are far from shore.  Surfers paddle out to the reef, then walk along a sandbar to where the waves are breaking and climb back on their boards.  Alternatively, surfers can walk to Magic Island and then jump off the rocks into the water.  That can be dangerous if a wave pushes the surfer back into the rocks. 

Where the waves are breaking, the water is shallow and there's reef underneath. For these reasons, Ala Moana is not an ideal spot for beginners. 

We have a new waterproof camera and it was put to the test this weekend.  Here are some photos from Saturday and Sunday.

The Surfers:

#1 - Ken (my brother) drops in on a wave as Mike (that's me) paddles out.

#2 - Mike and Diko (my wife) catch a wave.

#3 - Ken catches a wave.

#4 - Willy sticks his tongue out for the camera.

#5 - Diko shreds!

#6 - Greg on his longboard.

When I was into triathlon training I used to think surfing was just playing around.  Then my wife and I started surfing regularly and I realized it's a great workout!  Paddling to catch waves, then paddling back out after a ride get the arms pretty tired.

For those not into surfing, Hawaii has lots of other outdoor activities to keep us healthy.  The climate is great for running, bike riding, hiking and walking.

For more information about living in Hawaii and Hawaii homes, please send me an e-mail or call (808) 551-2663.

Aloha,

Mike Bates