Rama Mehra Certified Pre Foreclosure Specialist

The Housing market in San Ramon has heated up so much that I think its time for me to pack up for the year and go for an extended vacation !!!!!! There are so many cash buyers writing offers well over asking price, how does anyone really compete?? I just wrote an offer on a property in Windemere that came on the market for a ridiculous price of $623,000. After writing $110,000 over asking, my buyer still got beat out by a all cash buyer who paid a lot more for the same house.

It is difficult for the buyers to comprehend what happened to the market ! For me too buyers, and this is great news for sellers. Unfortunately for many buyers who check comparables and make their offers based on that, are being outpaced by the pace of the markets recovering climb. The banks are not slowly showing Contra Costa county as a stable market on appraisals but they are still not giving full value for the homes. Hence buyers are coming in with the difference in the price an dthat is why all cash offers are getting priority over all others. I just Listed and Sold 165 Landsdowne Loop in Windemere for $499,000 and sold it for $545,000 in 2 days, and with 9 offers ! Where does this leave our FHA buyers?? I am now beginning to see listing agents writing in confidential remarks that FHA buyers are not welcome... quite outrageous but considering tough appraisal guidelines with FHA loans, it becomes extremely difficult to claim the value the sellers want.

Some homes, specifically short sales, are now closing and here is detailed information of closed sales from July 1st 2009 in Windemere, San Ramon

This new day and age in the history of America brings forth a new disease alongside the H1N1 virus- LOUSY APPRAISALS, short for 4 letter words that I cannot use on this forum. And dealing with the worst in the business, Bank Of America- I am today openly accusing them for using Landsafe and their hand in glove deal to screw over appraisals. These damn banks want the disease to spread and want to hold values artificially under the water.Give me one good reason why an appraiser will not use a higher priced active comp ON THE SAME STREET but use a lower priced active comp 1 mile away??????????? Do they have their head up their.........????? Large banks using cheap appraisers who will drive out 50 miles out of their area of business to give values on areas they probably have never seen in their lives

I am sipping my cup of tea in the morning and watching the news and the media( let me not start on them or I will surely tear my hair out) and Wall Street is reacting favorably to the news that July home sales jumped to a 2 year high. Selling homes everyday, we know how few homes there are on the market and how multiple offers are driving prices up. heck, I just sold one on a listing side with no appraisal contingency !! I don't think we have even one month of inventory in Contra Costa county and yet the banks are calling us a declining market?????????? Give me the explanation? Why and How?? This administration has tried to correct some problems but at the same time created morphed monsters that have taken on new identities.

WHo is regulating the banks and their appraisers? I called the appraisers boss to complain that he came in for 15 minutes, stayed outside for 10 minutes and only 5 min on the inside and came in 20K under value???? The boss tells me he cannot talk to me, I threatened that I would make a compliant against Landsafe with the department of RE appraisers and his attitude clearly indicated that he did not give a damn.... where should I go?? WHo should I complain to?? The last time Bank Of America did this to me on a deal 1 month ago, my buyer had to come in with a difference of 20K. Oh Oh and I forgot to tell you that it was a BofA property on short sale with their BPO coming in higher than their appraisal for the buyer !!!!!!!
This industry is inundated with goons, asses, thieves and smooth talking liars who are raping the public openly and I say the administration is equally responsible for the garbage being funnelled down the pipeline for us to tackle. We do have choices- as an industry that gets hit all the time, we realtors should raise hell on a national platform or drown in the garbage that piles upon us. Because if we are in a profession of assisting people with the largest purcchases of their lives, then we should have a say in making reforms. Please BANKS stop being the jerks that you are- ALWAYS

I am reeling from an email attack from a reader a few minutes ago. She accuses me that she has been reading my blog and I have given wrong information on my blog for 2 years. I have not even been on activerain for a year!! Why is it that I am being skinned on email because of the downturn in the market? Did I cause the downturn?

All the time I have been blogging,it is reporting what is happening in the market. Infact, it was after reading my blog and getting unofficial input from me, one of the new home community reduced their price and sold out in 3 weeks ! The reader tells me that State or Federal regulators should shut down real estate agents like myself for misleading people !! I am just reporting from the trenches and telling people what is happening.Right now, the market is so hot in Windemere, so am I going to get my behind kicked for saying so?? It may come down again, but can I predict? NO. None of us can. We only make short term predictions based on the current scenario.

I am not angry but perplexed at the rudeness, anger and absolute loathing from this person's email... I have met such wonderful people from this blogging platform, sold homes to people who connected with my thoughts and have formed solid bonds with my readers.

This person can bad mouth me and treat me like garbage on email, but in my mind, I have not done a disservice to anyone. I have probably been as honest and open as I could. Is there anyone else too who wants to slam me?? And all this because I sent an email out giving statistics on the current market- they were created with hard data and not something I conjured up with my imagination...

The week begins with a 5 month saga nearing an end. My buyer, who has been seeing homes for almost a year with me, is seeing the light at the end of dark tunnel called Short sales.Want to know the scoop on how interesting our lives are as Realtors? Read on..

My buyers met me last year at an open house in August and came referred to me by a past client. They had very specific needs- they needed to find a house in their "budget", the house had to be compliant with Vaastu and also had to be compatible with his personal birth astrological chart.Now, I thought the invincible gal that I am, I will be able to do it. What a fool I was at the hands of my ego !! It was a challenge I could not pass and I embarked on the journey that I want to see my clients find the perfect home.

The buyer brought his priest with him on viewings and in February this year, we found 2 houses that matched their needs. Phew, I thought it was going to be over soon.Both turned out to be short sales !! One one of them the listing agent was extremely nice, polite and professional. The other one turned out to be a verbally abusive agent, totally unprofessional and a jackal. Guess which house was my buyers absolute favorite? The one with the nasty agent. This agent did not submit my offer to the bank till 3 months later and if I honestly start giving you the actual verbatim story, it will dumbfound you to the extent of her incompetence.Nevertheless, we waited for both deals to reach some conclusion, so we could move on with our lives.

The nasty agent's deal did not happen and after being in contract with me for over 4 months, she decided that my buyer would have to pay the seller "money under the table" to close the deal.All hell broke loose on my end and the net result has been an official complaint with the DRE against her.I want to see her license revoked.

The second home was going through till we got a jolt. The appraisal came in 45K lower than the offer that was approved. Lo behold, we are back to the drawing board.We even scramble our way to top management at the bank to get the price lowered, contested the appraisal but to no avail. Upper management with the second lien holder said, they want a certain net or else let it go into foreclosure. First lien holder says go to hell because we are getting paid in full.And the agents are stuck in the middle scratching their heads on how to make this deal happen...

Here is the end of the story. The listing agent and I are tired of waiting. I really want my clients to move into a house and we are both walking away with $1500 each for commissions. A sacrifice we both made for putting our client's out of their misery.I wonder if we will both get a Thank you note!

Now my question is to consumers who slam us day after day, say we make easy money, and just treat our profession with utter disrespect--- would you show homes for for a year and then walk away with money that does not even pay your gas bills ???

This disdain that we face every day in our lives, is like an splash of acid in the face.There are many agents like myself, who work tirelessly for our clients, be it sellers or buyers. When someone talks to me like with disrespect and treats me like I am just trying to push a sale to make easy money, I kid you not- I will not tolerate that nonsense at all.And I speak for my fraternity. We all work too hard and deserve respect. The consumer should have the discerning eyes to figure out who is the right sales person they want to work with and stop making generalised judgements.

The new hot deal for the day is this REO that just came on the market


Often, we find insights by watching pricing trends within the quartile segments.Prices have settled at a price plateau across the board. Prices in all four quartiles are basically mixed.

Look for a persistent shift(up or down) in the Market Action Index before prices move from these current levels. The market plateau is seen across the price and value. The price per square foot and median list price have both been reasonably stagnant. Watch the Market Action Index for persistent changes as a leading indicator before the market moves from these levels.

Inventory has been falling in recent weeks. Note that declining inventory alone does not signal a strengthening market. Look to the Market Action Index and Days on Market trends to gauge whether buyer interest is changing with the available supply.

The SAN RAMON market is currently in the Buyer's Market zone (below 30), though not strongly so. The 90-day Market Action Index stands this week at 24 so buyers should expect find reasonable levels of selection. Home sales have been exceeding new inventory for several weeks.

Since this is a Buyer’s market prices are not yet moving higher as excess inventory is consumed. However, the as supply and demand trends continue, the market moves into the Seller’s zone, and we are likely to see upward pressure on pricing.

Get more Weekly trends report for San Ramon
List of Foreclosures in Pleasanton
List of Foreclosures in San Ramon
List of Foreclosures in Danville
List of Foreclosures in Dublin
Foreclosures, get the latest property alerts