Sandra Williams

Getting a deal to closing isn't always an easy task.Today with short sales and REOs - bank owned properties - it isn't like the good old days. Everything doesn't fall into beautifully into place. There aren't eager sellers to pretty up the homes, plant colorful flowers out front and make sure the place smells delicious.

In Southern California-Temecula/Murrieta - we are just thrilled that the banks are paying to turn on the water and pay for yard service! The people that are trying to short sale their homes have neither the money or the inclination to stage their homes. It is so hard to know you are leaving your home under not great circumstances.

All of this add up to buyers that want the great prices that this economy afford but need extra babysitting from agents to help them see the great potential in the homes they are buying. Especially the long time lag on the short sales are very stressful. That is when you see what kind of agent you have.

You need an agent that can think like a nervous buyer.You need your hand held every step of the way, with all of the steps explained and reexplained. After all of the stress of the sale is over, many of your agents disappear. They seems to only to be able to put their energy into one or two things at a time. That is only the beginning of what you need your agent for. You should be able to call them any time to ask about Home Warranty, taxes, neighbors, carpet cleaners, bee removers, painters, roofers-----and so on and so on.

If they are interacting with you, you can be kept up to date about property values in the area. It is very nerve wracking to have more and more home go up for sale on a street you just invested in---

It is very important for me to be the kind of agent that a buyer can depend on AFTER the sale. How about you --- ?

Is the glass half full or half empty? We have all known people that are eternal pessimist that will never see anything but the half empty glass---even in the best of times in the Real Estate market. You know the type, the sellers that weren't happy with "just" a two hundred thousand profit, in the good old days, because "I'm not giving away this home---do you think I'm that stupid?" They conveniently forgot that they pulled out a hundred thousand for personal use and now they were still going to get $200,000 on top of that!

Now our homes here in Temecula and Murrieta are no longer piggy banks but homes again. There isn't the stress of wondering when you should take the next huge step into a larger home that is going to up the stress even more. Also now is the time for buyers to get into a great home at an "affordable" price and interest rate----better than we will ever see again in our lifetimes.

With the tax breaks for first time home buyers, I feel like finally the glass is beginning to look like it might be getting half full!

Wow! This has been a wild time here in Southern California. We have seen real estate hit magnificent highs and plummet to about half of their top values. We have more than our share of "bank owned" homes in our market---in fact, they make up most of our market right now.

Here in Temecula/Murrieta - one hour north of San Diego - we are a town - city - with a middle to upper-middle population. When I talk to people, I have realized that these aren't the "dead beats" that were caught in "sub-prime" loans. There are basically two stories here. First there are the home owners that used their home as a "Bank Account" that allowed them to have "extras"----boats, pools, hardscape, RVs---that their income didn't provide for. One day they they went to the bank and realized that they were overdrawn and they had to pay back the "overdraft". The other half just have had their income cut -- many because they were in some aspect of the real estate business - or have lost jobs! These are good, good people - smart people that can't can't make house payments, or any other payments, without a paycheck.

Normally in this kind of situation, people just sell their homes, and move to another area where they can find jobs---but this is not normal times! Homeowners are upside-down in their homes and businesses are cutting back across the board. But this too will pass and someday all of this will seem like a bad memory that has changed all of us.