This year’s Garden Tour will be an event you won’t want to miss! The Clairemont Garden Tour boasts an amazing set of gardens handpicked by the Clairemont Town Council Board of Directors.
Bay Park San Diego
Finding a Pot of Gold at the end of the rainbow could lead to multiple homes around the world, however, living in Southern California is the best place to invest for your primary residence.
Buying a Home In San Diego NOW!
Today’s article is on how to buy a home in San Diego. I want to talk about what’s going on in the market today if you’re looking to buy a home you should definitely consider going aggressive to start . The market is turning to a sellers market that means there are more buyers than there are Sellers. Average inventory is about six months and right now we’re at 1 1/2 months of inventory in San Diego.
San Diego Real Estate Market
The San Diego Real Estate Market is turning around. The supply and demand situation from the last few years has reversed itself. There was a lot of inventory before and it was definitely a buyer’s market. Buyers could low ball and purchase a property because there were so many properties on the market.
Clairemont Garden Tour 2012
This year I was so proud to be able to sponsor The 16th Annual Clairemont Garden Tour! The Clairemont Town 
Council hosted the event partnering with the SDGE Energy Innovation Center, 4760 Clairemont Mesa Blvd. This year, in addition to the tour, there was an expo which started a new tradition in the community event. Several members of the Clairemont Town Council and Clairemont San Diego Community members, made the event possible. People generously donated thousands of hours of hard work and sponsors donated money.
The Clairemont Town Council’s purpose consists of civic, commercial, educational and intercultural activities. They also promote the welfare of the community of Clairemont San Diego. The Town Council strives to provide a forum for discussion of community issues and actually take stands on these issues. When necessary they communicate the community views to the appropriate organizations. The Town Council meets every first Thursday of the month from 7pm to 9pm. Come out to learn more about Clairemont and the events that shape the community. The meetings are held at Clairemont High School in the school cafeteria located at 4158 Ute St. San Diego 92117. Visit www.clairemontonline.com for more info on the town council.
The Clairemont Town Council’s Garden Tour is a fund raising event. Ideally it would be the number one choice
among spring garden events while highlighting the communities of Clairemont, Bay Park and Bay Ho. The gardens and have been designed by landscape architects, artists, master gardeners and garden enthusiasts you can tour the gardens at your own leisure and linger as long as you want. You will be amazed because there is a variety of gardens and so many beautiful gems! I like to say Clairemont is San Diego’s best kept secret because the homes are absolutely gorgeous and many have views and rim the canyons.
The expo had informative workshop as well as the Kid zone with hands-on activities and exhibitions. There was a trade show with educational opportunities from around the community. Kurt of Kitchen 4140 was doing a garden to tabletop cooking demonstration. Some things that were taught at the expo were how to go green at your home and business. How you can design of garden that is beautiful and saves water and also how to compost which is great! There were exhibits on gardening, saving energy, conserving water and discovering resources in our backyard.
Many exhibitors were organizations dedicated to helping the environment, wildlife, oceans and more. The Kids Zone featured hands on activities and the importance of going green.
This year was reportedly the BEST Clairemont Garden Tour ever! Next year I will be ready to sign up and help out. I hope everyone will take the time to come to Clairemont San Diego and smell the roses. It is truly a rare gem and what I believe to be San Diego’s best kept secret!
Nice Santee Homes
Santee Homes are great because Santee is about 15-25 minutes outside of San Diego. In Santee you can still find a beautiful home, remodeled with a pool for under $400,000.00.
HAFA Video
If you are facing foreclosure and want to try a Short Sale before it’s too late you might want to see if you qualify for a HAFA Short Sale.
San Diego’s Unique!
Recently I have come in contact with a lot of buyers from other states. If you are from another area San Diego property may seem a little outrageous. Your money might go half as far as it would in say, GA. The things that you must take into account are:
1) Rent is higher in SD
2) When the market does come back the opportunity to appreciate in value is greater
3) Home ownership is actually affordable now, by San Diego’s standards
4) People want to live here
5) The weather is amazing 85% of the time
If you are still not convinced I say come out and see for yourself. I fell in love with San Diego and can’t see myself moving anywhere else. There are so many amazing opportunities for business out here. Be careful about what you hear and read about the market also. Many times reports are referring to National Averages individual markets vary from state to state. In San Diego markets vary from neighborhood to neighborhood!
Closing Escrow on Time
Closing escrow on time is so important and rare these days. There are several moving parts in a real estate transaction and many times sellers are counting on receiving their funds on a schedule.
In a recent transaction I was involved in a man had $300,000 cash sitting in the bank. He was getting a loan for about $175,000 on a home priced at $395,000.00. The lender had pushed the debt to income ratio out as far as possible so he could finance every possible penny and not use more than $230,000.00 cash.
Every thing was going great until the lender realized it was in a flood zone. This made it a condition of the loan to have a flood insurance policy on the property. The policy turned out to be about $1,200.00 a year which threw his Debt to income ratio off just enough to make a $35 credit card purchase cause the file to be suspended. When you are a couple weeks away from closing escrow getting the file suspended is no fun! We had to wait for the $35 payment to clear and then the lender had to order another credit supplement. It looked like things were going to be fine and we would close a day late and then a $45 credit charge from 2 months prior appeared out of no where! Suddenly instead of funding the lender needed another credit supplement! 5 days after the supposed close of escrow we are waiting for a credit supplement and the loan to fund.
The sellers moved out of the house the day before the original closing date and headed to Northern California. They are waiting for the money to get their new life started. The buyer is waiting to get his keys, change the locks and move in. Everyone’s in limbo while we wait for the loan to fund. Limbo is no fun unless Mai Tais, pina coladas, a tropical island and a bamboo stick are involved.
In conclusion I have learned a powerful lesson that I want to share with my readers:
* Never have your lender push the loan amount to the very limit
* Always leave a little extra room for something to come up
* Do not charge ANYTHING until after you close, even then ask your lender when it would be OK to use your credit cards again
* Anything that can go wrong probably will go wrong in escrow
Looks like we’re closing tomorrow ***sigh***
Buyers Looking for Short Sales
Today I want to talk about the short sale process. Many buyers want to look at short sales because they are really good deals what I tell them is you must wait anywhere from 2 to 12 month when you bidding on a short sale you make the offer and the seller signs off on it and then it goes to the bank for approval. You are asking the bank to take less for the property and then the mortgage on the property. this can be a long and grueling process. The lender will send someone out to do a BPO, broker price opinion, and they will come up with an valuation on the property. The bank will sometimes take 10% less than what the BPO is. The problem with short sales are there never guaranteed in many cases that property is sold on the courthouse steps without the listing agent even knowing about it this can be very frustrating for buyers I tell my buyers if they would like to look for a short sale, they should put in Multiple offers because there are never any guarantees.
One thing you can do it the BPO comes back high and there is deferred maintenance on a house is have a contractor go in and do a bid on the property. The contractors bid will have the price/ cost of repairs. The items that the house needs to be safe and comfortable for a buyer. After you get this contractors bed you can submit that to the bank and negotiate with them further on the price. Next you wait, that’s the problem was short sales they sometimes take a really long time.
Your chances are greater if the there is only one lender and if the short sale has been approved. An approved short sale is one where the bank has decided it will take a certain price. In these situations the bank is ready to accept an offer and the process will move much faster.
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Foreclosures VS Shortsales in San Diego
Judicial foreclosures are processed through the courts. It starts when the lender files a complaint. The complaint tells what the debt is. It will then be served to the homeowner. Now the homeowner gets a chance to be heard by the court. If the court finds the debt valid they will issue a judgment for the full amount owed plus the cost of the foreclosure. After the judgment is entered a writ is issued authorizing a Sheriffs sale. A sheriff’s sale is an open auction meaning anyone can attend. In a sheriffs sale the cash must be paid at the time of the sale or a large deposit can be made with the balance due later that day or up to 30 days later. The property is sold to the highest bidder and the court confirms the sale. Next a sheriffs’ deed is prepared and delivered. When that deed is recorded the auction winner becomes the new owner. These are not typically done in California
Non judicial San Diego foreclosures do not involve the courts. The foreclosure requirements are set by state statutes. They begin with the homeowner not making payments. The first missed payment is technically the default but the process usually does not start until 3 payments are missed. At this point the homeowner can cure the default with payment, or do a loss mitigation. If this does not happen the beneficiary will instruct the trustee to foreclose on the property. The home owner will receive a notice of default and that default will be recorded. The owner can still cure the default. If it is not paid up the owner will then receive a notice of sale and that notice will be recorded, posted and published in legal publications.
A foreclosure stays on a borrower’s credit for 7 years and it could be several years before they will qualify for a home loan with a decent interest rate. It will do damage to the credit score and the borrower will not qualify for good interest rates on any major credit purchases or credit cards. If a prospective employee runs a credit check they may even be denied a job.
A short sale is when an owner owes more for a property than it is worth. They usually experience a financial hardship and have difficulty making the monthly payments. A short sale packet must be submitted to the bank. The owner then lists the property with an agent. When the agent receives an offer the owner must accept it and then it goes to the bank for approval. The bank will have a BPO, Broker price opinion, which is an opinion of value done by an agent. Once they have an idea of what the property is worth they will try to negotiate the sale close to that number. The listing agent will provide a listing history which will also help the bank make a decision.
In a short sale I am negotiating now the banks BPO came back $20,000.00 Higher than my buyers offer price. We had a Contractor go out and do a bid on the deferred maintenance items and structural issues. The bid came back at $45,000.00 Now we are waiting to have the bank renegotiate the BPO and accept the offer. This is a nice technique you can use when negotiating a short sale with the banks.
A short sale can be negotiated even before a borrower misses a payment which is much better on the credit score. A short sale may lower your credit score 50- 130 points where a foreclosure could lower it 105-160 points. Loan applications do not ask about a short sale. You can say you sold your house. You may be able to postpone the foreclosure of your house while you negotiate a short sale. With a short sale you may qualify for another home purchase within 2 years. A short sale is a great alternative to foreclosure.
Sellers Don’t Take Low Offers Personal
This blog is for the sellers out there. I know it can be emotionally draining to home. With the market down so much from where it was just a few short years ago you could be having difficulty coming to terms with the fair market value of your home now. Ideally if you need to sell, you can wait till January. The fact that things will slow down for the holidays could make your home look less desirable if it sits on the market for an extra month.
When you do offer your home for sale make sure you price is right. If it is priced high the chances that it sells quick goes down. Clear out your clutter. Create a space buyers can visualize their own items in. If the home is empty stage it slightly. Staging is a good way to make a place look better. It can be in expensive also. Wait till you see what a difference a painting on a wall and a few plants can do for an empty home!
Short Sale Time Frames
Short Sales can take 2-12 months. The last 5 I have been involved in took less then 4 months. If you are planning to bid on a short sale you must be patient.