Nelya Calev

Every part of the world is different, so these tips will certainly not apply to all cultures. I happen to be from Central Asia, so these customs will certainly apply to that area. Iran and the Middle East have similar customs and many of these apply to Russians as well.

When entering a house, remove your shoes

When we first bought our house, a salesman from a security company came in with boots. As we stared at his boots on our beautiful new hardwood floors he noticed that and responded - "don't worry, I wiped them first". We did not buy anything. Note that most people provide slippers for guests in the entry. For us real estate agents, this is probably obvious.

If you are male, always shake the hands of other men in the room upon entering and leaving

I still have to tell my husband to do this. Not doing so is a mark of disrespect and considered rude.

If you cannot make it to an event, call to say you are not coming

Most people from my country come very late to events, but if they say they'll be there they come. If they cannot make it they call. I have noticed that when many people are invited, Americans will often say they are coming and then never show up. This is extremely rude, as in my culture it is custom to not serve the food until all guests are accounted for.

If you are a man, when dealing with a foreign couple do not speak too much directly to the wife

Most likely, the wife is truly the decision maker, but may not say very much. She will listen carefully to what you say to her husband, but addressing her directly too often will be considered rude by both the husband and the wife.

When food is served, try to eat at least a little bit

Not trying the food is considered very rude since a lot of time was likely spent preparing it.

As many of you know, I myself was not born in this country. I emigrated here at the age of nineteen from Tajikistan. I now of course am an American citizen, but I still empathize with immigrants. Still, I find myself rather disgusted at a trend that I am seeing. I offer to specific cases I know of.

Case 1

Igor buys a home in 2005. He has $70,000 to put down, but still makes too little to buy the type of home he wants. An agent from his country approaches him and says he'll get him the home he wants.

They quickly find a nice home selling for $350,000. He applies for a loan and has no problems. What he doesn't know (because he does not know English and has to trust his agent to explain what he is signing) is that he has a negative interest loan. In addition, to qualify for his loan the agent and mortgage broker colluded to list his salary at $6,600 per month instead of the $2700 he actually makes.

After several years, he figures out about the negative equity loan. After two years, the interest rate skyrockets past 9% and he cannot refinance his home. His reaction is to stop paying. He also drives to Olympia (capital of WA state) and complains about the agent and mortgage broker (by now he has figured out what they did).

For a year and a half he does not pay his mortgage. His home goes into foreclosure, but to try to prevent it the bank offers to lower his loan amount to 2%. He considers it, but now the mortgage is $390,000. (100k more than original loan amount) The home has fallen to the original sales price and he feels it is not worth owning the home any longer. He rejects the bank's offer and lets the bank foreclose on his home, figuring he will just rent for the next several years or return to his home country.

Case 2

A Canadian couple have been working here for the past several years, but plan to move to Canada in a year. They decide to sell their home so they place it on the market.

The home is not a short sale as they still have equity in it. However, they still want to make a small profit from the home so they price it about 5% more than what it is worth.

They speak to their attorney about what they should do and his advice is to be firm with the price. It is not in their interest to have to bring anything to the table.

They stop making payments on the home with the idea that one of two things will happen.

1) Someone will buy the home and they will make a small profit.

2) No one will buy the home and the bank will foreclose it. By that time they will return to Canada and their credit score will not follow them there. They will then buy a property in Canada.

What do you think?

As many of your know, I primarily sell bank owned homes. Part of my job is working with the previous owners to vacate the homes, and I hear my share of stories. However, I have noticed these stories changing.

For the first homes, I can honestly say that I had absolutely no sympathy. These were the type of people someone could say that it was not all bad that they lost their homes.

Along with an increasing number of foreclosures here, I have noticed a sharp change here. Most of the people I now meet are ordinary people. They are nice and friendly but have made poor financial decisions in their lives. They are often clueless that they have now lost their homes and it is difficult to explain to them that they have no recourse. They have lost their homes and must now vacate the premises.

There are numerous causes. Several of them are results of a divorce. The husband leaves and the wife can no longer make the payments. Other cases are people just spent more than what they could afford and when the ARM period ended and the interest rate increased, they could no longer afford to make payments. Others were making more money before but are now making far less.

It is difficult to lose a house, but it is also a financial decision that must be weighed very heavily. When making these decisions one must be absolutely sure he/she can afford the payments. They also needed to fully understand what an ARM loan truly is.

There is a tendency here to spend and spend and spend and the feeling that a lot of debt is good. What is happening with the foreclosure market right now is an adjustment. While it has never been advisable to spend beyond your means, the penalties for doing so now are far more severe.

Once in awhile I receive a good laugh from a property visit. I'm sure all of us have these days. I suspected that the property was going to be interesting. It was recently sold as a short sale, then flipped and placed on the market with the same agent that listed it originally.

First it is rather odd in today's market to flip a property, but I digress there. I had a buyer interested in it, so we took a look.

In the description for the property, it mentioned that the lot was huge enough for horses. I don't know about you, but an 8,000 square foot lot is pretty darned small for horses. This was not your sprawling Bridle Trails lot but your standard suburban lot near the city.

My buyer was not interested in horses at all, but did get a kick out of the description. When he saw the unfenced back yard he exclaimed "oh no! my horse will get away!"

Another funny aspect was the kitchen. I have seen many remodels and am in the process of doing my own, but never have I seen someone combine appliances literally from the 1950's (and we're not talking about the fashionable ones) combined with granite slab. Why would you do that!

While looking a the kitchen, I noticed something below me and was surprised to find the kitchen island! It could not have been more than two feet tall. It was a great step stool, but not functional as an island.

The entire property was similarly entertaining. Perhaps someday someone will buy it, but it definitely looks like this flipper will wind up in the negative.