Antonio & Alexia Cardenas "The Realtors In Motion" Remax In Motion

First time home buyers are looking at a market that shows no mercy, is highly competitive and does not reflect the conditions of a so-called "depressed real estate market." It is not easy to find a good house at the entry level without having to compete with other buyers, but with persistence, good preparation and the help of a professional local Realtor your chances of becoming a homeowner are better. Above all, be realistic, your very first house is not your "Dream House" but getting on the homeownership wagon will eventually get you there.

Many home buyers have decided to jump off the fence and buy their very first house; perhaps it was the drop on interest rates to historical lows, or maybe the number of perceived bargains offered by the banks and a high inventory of homes for sale, or the $8,000 offered as a tax incentive from the government. When all these factors are put together, you will think It's heaven and you will have the time of your life choosing the best possible home at the best possible price with an incredible low interest rate for the next 30 years... or is it?

This is not the true picture of what we are seeing today. It appears that the REO's or bank owned properties that flooded the market before and kept the inventory high due to their inability to dispose of those properties, have finally figure out how to sell them... by under pricing them! This strategy has been paying off for them very nicely. Buyers trying to outbid each other will push the price to the highest point the market can bear.

An underpriced REO home goes on the market and attracts a good number of home buyers who think that they finally found their dream home, or ideal investment. They quickly realize that they are not the only ones out looking at homes for sale. Here in the east shores of the San Francisco bay, in Alameda County, we are seen 40-50 and even 60 offers presented within days.

How can a home buyer compete and win this bidding war? By understanding how offers are viewed by the seller and being prepared to meet those requirements as much as possible. If you can pay all cash, there will be no financing contingencies or appraisals to wait for, and the escrow can close within days, but if that is not possible, follow these steps to strengthen your position and get your offer accepted;

•1. Do a complete loan application and bring every piece of paper requested by the lender

•2. Have the bank issue a complete pre-approval letter, signed by a real person

•3. Offer to pay more than the asking price if you can

•4. Put a large down payment if possible, this will help when your offer is compared to others

•5. Be prepared to take the house on an "as-is" condition and spell that out in the contract

•6. Reduce the inspection contingency from 17 to about 5-7 days only

•7. Reduce the close of escrow to less than 30 days if possible

Realize that the sellers don't care who buys their house, all they look for is to get the maximum amount of money they can, in the quickest amount of time with the least amount of inconvenience. They don't want to do any work, or wait too long to close the escrow or pay for anything extra.

Now that you finally decided to jump off the fence and get into the housing market and become a homeowner, you need to give this idea some time and dedication, as we get closer to the end of the $8,000 tax credit window of November 30 2009, there will be far more competition and you will need all the help you can get. Work closely with your chosen Realtor, don't go at it alone and be prepared to go see a house within minutes and possibly right an offer on the spot.

This market offers you a great opportunity to make the purchase of a lifetime... but others are also aware of these positive conditions and you will meet them when they compete with you... just when YOU think YOU found YOUR dream home. Happy House Hunting!

Antonio & Alexia Cardenas, "The Realtors In Motion" Professional Realtors, Amateur Balleroom Dance competitors. Serving Alameda & Contra Costa counties in the East Shores of the San Francisco Bay. Specially the cities of San Leandro, San Lorenzo, Hayward, Castro Valley and Oakland. Visit us at: www.ListedByAntonio.com (510) 326-4263. Call us, we'll come and TANGO with you.

The Home Valuation Code of Conduct (HVCC) Becomes effective on May 1st. 2009 and it will hurt home buyers, home sellers, real estate brokers, appraisers and lenders amongst others. Be aware, be prepared, be patient, and... don't talk to the appraiser!

The New York attorney general after concluding an investigation into Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae's appraisal practices along with several government agencies, decided to adopt new changes for appraisals in the mortgage industry. Loan brokers and lenders are no longer allowed to chose their appraiser, all relationships with them are almost illegal!

This is what the first paragraph of the newly enacted resolution says: Home Valuation Code of Conduct: No employee, director, officer, or agent of the lender, or any other third party acting as joint venture, partner, independent contractor, appraisal management company, or partner on behalf of the lender, shall influence or attempt to influence the development, reporting, result, or review of an appraisal through coercion, extortion, collusion, compensation, instruction, inducement, intimidation, bribery, or in any other manner including but not limited to:... Followed by 10 points and 11 subcategories of limitations as to what the lender can and cannot do when dealing with the appraisers. After all, appraisers were blamed for the current market conditions.

These new rules force lenders to go to a third party for their appraisals. They must now use and AMC (appraisal management company) forcing appraisers to join an unregulated AMC that will charge 50% or more of the appraisal fee for their services. It disallows the appraisers from engaging in any type of communication with mortgage brokers, Realtors, loan officers or anybody that may receive a commission upon funding of that loan. Seasoned, experience appraisers are forced to share their fees wiThu AMC's

The home buyer will probably have higher costs incurred as a result of this new rules, the delays in closing escrows now will go further because of funding delays from 30 to 45 to maybe 90 days. Lenders are not prepared or familiar enough to deal with these changes. Buyers will have to pay higher fees for the lock-in rates and the extensions and if they change lenders, they will have to get another appraisal! Home sellers will not be happy either, because for them, closing early might mean the difference between a normal sale, to a short sale to even foreclosure.

For us Realtors, we need to start counseling every client about these delays right from the moment we take the listing or write the contract for the buyer. Listing agents should be well prepared to meet the appraiser, have enough comparable sales if available. When additions have been done to the property, copies of finalized permits should be handled over at the same time, and follow up with the lender to make sure the package is complete when submitted for final approval.

As we approach the November 30th 2009 deadline cut for the $8,000 tax credit to first time homebuyers , these delays will cost a lot of people a lot of money. This is one regulation we did not need at this time, but we have to deal with it. Hopefully we get better oversight and more conservative lending in the future, but until that happen, sit down and buckle up because this is going to be a white knuckle ride if you are dealing with real estate appraisals.

Antonio & Alexia Cardenas, "The Realtors In Motion" Serving the wonderful cities of San Leandro, San Lorenzo, Castro Valley, Oakland, Hayward, Pleasanton and Dublin in the Alameda County, on the East Side of the San Francisco bay. Visit us at www.ListedByAntonio.com (510) 326-4263

What if you client ask you to write it? the seller can only accept ONE offer, what would be your contribution to this frenzy bidding? what about the other 59 Realtors? and their clients? At what point would you say, I am not going to be a part of this frenzy bidding. Apart from that, what type of an offer would you counsel your client to write in order to have a chance to be the highest bidder? What would happen if you go too high and then the appraisal does not measure up? What would happen then? who's fault is it that this one sale went out of control? How much time was spent here by would be home buyers and Realtors?

As I browsed this morning our MLS, looking for a house for a first time home buyer in Hayward, CA, I come across a very nice house in an average neighborhood slightly under-priced, (MLS # 40400913) It has been on the market for only 12 days, and I noticed the note from the listing agent "PLEASE NO MORE OFFERS, 60+ HAVE BEEN SUBMITTED, WAITING FOR A RESPONSE" My heart went out to this pour soul, I can imagine his fax machine spitting out offers at the tune of a minimum 17 pages per offer! 1,020 sheets of paper says my trusty calculator and then he/she will need about a day to sort them all out. And then fax that pile of paper to the bank. We are going to need another fax machine! The number of messages to be returned will need to be streamlined in a very unique way. Out of those 60 Realtors, there are bound to be some nasty calls about "What happened to my offer?"

This real estate market is showing us faces we have never seen before, this is early April 2009 in the San Francisco bay area, where according to the media prices have dropped, unemployment is high and nobody is buying... really? 59 out of these 60 buyers are disappointed and still without a house to buy.

There are some serious issues here. In the one hand the listing agent cannot put this house on the "Pending" side until an offer is accepted. On the other hand, the bank wants to see "any and all offers" so they can pick highest and best. Can a buyer sue you for NOT writing an offer on his behalf? Someone will have to take control of this mess and make the right call, choose the right offer, and hope the buyer does not flop before escrow closes, there will be a lot of people real mad if they have to run back up to that house to show it again and write another offer.

What would you do if a client ask you to write offer number 61? would you take the time to write it? If you were the listing agent, how would you handle such a mess. I truly want to know. I have been a Professional Realtor since 1985, I thought I had seen it all... I guess I haven't, enlighten me please. What would you do in both cases.

Antonio & Alexia Cardenas, "The Realtors In Motion" Selling the wonderful counties of Alameda and Contra Costa in the East Shores of the San Francisco Bay. Accepting Referrals to San Leandro, Castro Valley, San Lorenzo, Hayward, Pleasanton & Dublin. Visit us on line at www.ListedbyAntonio.com (510) 326-4263

The local real estate market is showing signs of life! Finally! we are sensing more activity at open houses and sales at all price points. It does appear that home buyers are more aware of what this market is offering to them right now and they are finally taking the plunge. The $8,000 credit to first time buyers is a big pull plus fix interest rates below 5% shown all over the news is a confirmation to them that this market is turning around and if they don't buy now, they could simply miss the boat entirely. Spring time is the PERFECT time to buy a house.

I predict that as we get closer to the November 30th deadline for the $8,000 tax credit there will be a rush of first time buyers trying to get into the market, but probably they will not find by then the number of properties available to chose from that we have right now.

Here in the wonderful east shores of the San Francisco Bay, in our quiet little town of San Leandro, CA, we are seen below the $300,000 level a tremendous amount of activity. We have encountered multiple offers regardless whether these listings are bank owned properties, short sales or simple common listings. We have not seen multiple offers on the same property for years, but now they are almost the rule. Within the last few weeks we have written 9 offers on behalf of several of our first time home buyers, and still cannot find them a house. These buyers are loosing to other buyers offering sometimes up to $40,000 above asking prices.

Behind the bad news about a recession, lay off numbers up and unemployment numbers rising, there is a very active real estate market happening right now in certain areas of the country, there are great bargains out there for first time buyers and first time investors, people are taking another look at real estate as the great investment that it truly is. Investors are out there competing directly with first time buyers, perhaps they see that the number of displaced families who lost they homes to foreclosures will turn into good long time renters, these people used to be home owners and will have to wait years before they can buy again, rents will be going up as the demand increases.

As a Professional Realtor I welcome with enthusiasm these positive news, I have seen in the last few years how bad financing destroyed the American dream, put people out on the streets, broke families apart and decimated my industry. The damage done to the trust and the credit worthiness of the individual will take years to heal. But for now I am very glad the long road to recovery at least appears to be within sight.

Antonio & Alexia Cardenas, "The Realtors In Motion" Serving the wonderful Counties of Alameda & Contra Costa Counties, specially the following cities: San Leandro, San Lorenzo, Castro Valley, Hayward, Oakland. Visit us on line at: www.listedbyAntonio.com (510) 326-4263

I believe that it is time for all of us to begin fighting back! Yes, we must fight for our jobs, our careers, our industry. We can no longer just sit and wait for better days. I would like to challenge everyone who reads this post to give us ONE idea that we all can use to spread the word to the general public that is really not as bad as it looks, help us get our economy back on track.

Can you think of something positive to do? to say? to write? and to publish?Can we all start printing newsletters with ONLY POSITIVE NEWS? I challenge EVERYONE to speak only good news about our real estate market for one week. ONE WEEK ONLY! I think that we could not only influence our audience, weather it be our family, friends, colleagues, and obviously home buyers and home sellers, but more important than that, we will start believing it ourselves! There are good news out there! Get out there on the streets, and chat about the good stuff with everybody who listens! Nobody in the press points this out, but here is a short list of what is GOOD RIGHT NOW:

• Interest rates are are one of the lowest points in years
• Prices are so low that first time investors could start their real estate portfolio
• The New Tax Break for First Time Buyers offers $8,000 back, some of them will get cash back!
• There are so many unemployed trades people that doing any renovation is cheaper than ever
• Home sales are higher than a year ago. Inventories are showing improvement
• Home buyers are purchasing their primary residence, which is good in the long run
• Fannie Mae is raising the number of financed properties for investors from 4 to 10
• The Federal Reserve ChairmanBen Bernanke says the recession will end in 2009 recovery in 2010

See some examples right here, take some ideas from there, find out more about them and give that information to others. Let's launch a strong COUNTER ATTACK! We must spread positive news, like if our Professional lives depended on it, because it does! This information is not only for Realtors, but everybody who's business is hurting, the contagious fear fueled by news of a recession prevents people who can spend some money from doing anything. If they stop going out for dinner, the restaurant lays of a worker who now has no job and might loose his house and that will be one more listing that the bank will have to deal with. That ONE house will be added to the inventory of homes for sale in your city. Multiply this dozens of times in your county and 100's in your state and you can see how it affects everybody.

How Much has this Market changed You? What Are You Doing Different? I challenge you to put on your thinking hat and tell us; What are you doing to help yourself? ourselves? our economy? Is there anything YOU, as an individual would like us to do? C'mon, you can think of at least one! We would love to hear it!

Antonio & Alexia Cardenas, "The Realtors In Motion" Alameda & Contra Costa Counties in CA. Proudly representing the beautiful San Francisco Bay Area Towns of: San Leandro, San Lorenzo, Oakland, Castro Valley and Hayward. Visit us on line at www.ListedByAntonio.com (510) 326-4263 Call us, we'll come and TANGO with you. Accepting Referrals 24/7