Fremont Real Estate Blog

We hope you will find the following snapshot of local Real Estate inventory interesting. The table represents aggregated values based on MLS data for the specified date. If you know someone who is considering buying or selling a home, please give us a call. We will provide professional & courteous service along with knowledgeable guidance through the process. -Sunil Sethi / Steven Fong SUNIL SETHI REAL ESTATE Realtor, Broker, President, MBA We're Helping Families Find Homes Associated with Great Schools. We can help you Buy or Sell your next Home. Sunil (510) 388-2436 Steven (510) 673-6509 Fax (510) 431-9046 DRE # 01173766 DRE #01729474

Fannie Mae is implementing a new rule on unacceptable properties. A property foreclosed upon is ineligible for Fannie Mae Financing until the redemption period is over. Fortunately, most foreclosures in California are non-judical and therefore have no redemption period. Click here for more on California's Redemption period . TBWS alert where I learned about this Watch Video

California Senate Approves Foreclosure Protection When Servicer Errs The California Senate has approved a new foreclosure bill and sent it to the Assembly for review. It lays out two major provisions intended to deter lax behavior on the part of servicers and prevent avoidable foreclosures in the state. The legislation would provide a means of recourse to homeowners whose homes were lost to foreclosure due to serious servicer errors, and it would prohibit servicers from starting the foreclosure process until a homeowner has received a final decision on their modification.

Pending Home Sales Surge for Third Consecutive Month In a reflection of the broad impact of the homebuyer tax credit and favorable housing affordability conditions, April marked the third consecutive month that pending homes sales have risen, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported Wednesday. NAR's pending sales index, which is based on contracts signed during the month, climbed 6 percent compared to March and soared 22.4 percent from April of last year, as buyers rushed to sign contracts before the April 30 deadline of the extended and expanded homebuyer tax credit.

Maybe you can get both the federal and New Califoria home purchase credit. read the blog at WSJ http://blogs.wsj.com/developments/2010/03/24/californias-tax-credit-will-home-buyers-stampede-for-18000/ full bill on new California Tax Credit http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/09-10/bill/asm/ab_0151-0200/ab_183_bill_20100322_enrolled.html and tomorrow by 5pm FTB is expected to post Q&A on the bill.

We received this rejection advice on an REO listing we submitted an offer on. I'm sharing it with you, because it's good advice. -sunil You had submitted an offer for the property located at: xxxx xxxxxxx DRIVE, UNION CITY Unfortunately, your offer was not accepted. The Seller has accepted another offer to go pending with as of this morning. Please watch MLS, just in case it happens to fall out of Escrow, and you can re-submit if your Buyers are still interested at that time. FYI: The Seller accepts an offer that they feel is the strongest and does not always choose to counter all offers. In many case, especially when dealing with such a large amount of offers received, they will simply choose the strongest offer from the start. Also be sure your offer is complete when submitting it, which may not have been your case, but that can also impact your offer from being accepted or being delayed in submitting. If they chose another offer over yours, even if it had a lower ...

Sunil Sethi | SUNIL SETHI REAL ESTATE | 510-200-0505 358 Lafayette Ave., Fremont, CA Cute Little Detached in South Haywrd. Union City Schools. Clean and ready to occupy. 3BR/2BA Single Family House offered at $275,000 Year Built 1950 Sq Footage 1,226 Bedrooms 3 Bathrooms 2 full, 0 partial Floors 1 Parking 1 Car garage Lot Size 5,000 sqft HOA/Maint $0 per month DESCRIPTION Regular Sale - Not REO/Short sale. New Paint inside and out. master bath nicely remodeled. Great floor plan and spacious backyard for your organic garden. Forced air heating, young roof and water heater. OH Sat/Sun 1-4pm Jan30-31. see additional photos below PROPERTY FEATURES - Central heat - Hardwood floor - Family room - Living room - Dining room - Stove/Oven - Washer - Dryer - Laundry area - garage - Balcony, Deck, or Patio - Yard ADDITIONAL PHOTOS Front View ...

Musical adaptation of two prominent economic theories. Keynes is theory is what President obama is applying to get us out of this recession, and Hayek is saying this will just lead to other problems down the road. Entertaining video.

I was thinking after the holidays, the lenders might lose their soft heart or patience with various plans to keep home owners in their home. As I've mentioned before if we don't start seeing more inventory this quarter, I don't see why it'll change later for buyers. On a positive for buyers, I did see two examples of short sales attempted and rejected by the lender. One of which should be going to sale today. There are still a lot of buyers, who’d like to buy while mortgage interest rates are low. The Obama administration needs to let the natural foreclosure cycle happen and let buyers into homes who can afford to make the payments on their mortgages. An example of a property that should have been foreclosed on months earler: There was one up for sale today in Southwycke Ter., Fremont. The home is vacant, and by the looks has been vacant for a long time. The roof is leaking and the water has caused mold to set in. The home is being neglected and should have been forecl...

In this article CNBC discusses how big banks ask agents and borrowers to commit fraud by not informing the 1st lien holder of payments being made to the 2nd lien holder outside of escrow.  Here's the link to the article: Big Banks Accused of Short Sale Fraud - CNBC I personal experienced this twice. Once with National City as the 2nd lien holder. T he bank representative (Sharon) suggested that either I or the borrower wire money to them a day prior to close and they would "ok " the transaction. I asked her, wouldn’t it be fraud if it wasn’t on the HUD-1, she said it was legal and thta they did this all the time. I told if she could get her corporate attorney to write a letter saying it’s legal, we’d consider it. Never got the letter. The seller and I agreed to not participate and let the 1 st lien holder foreclose on the property. The second time I experienced this was was on a short sale with Wells Fargo as the servicer for both the 1st and 2nd loans. Again the ...

Sellers who over price are forced to due price reductions. I was touring with a buyer yesterday and viewed a property that had come on the market the same time as my listing of 35586 Rockland Ct, Fremont . Well all the visitors that had seen this other listing said it didn’t show well and was overpriced. So its no surprise that, that property still has no buyer. Had the property been cleaned, given a new paint job and the major broken item repaired it would have been in escrow like my property, and selling for more than asking. According to a study by Zip Realty homes did fewer price drops in November vs. October. During this period national average list prices declined. I’ve found that if you price according to current sales, and present the house in its best light, you will sell the home, in 15 days or less and for a price higher than recent comps. More about the price reduction article here: http://www.dsnews.com/articles/fewer-home-sellers-are-cutting-prices-ziprealty-2009-12-08...

Fannie Mae believes that owner occupants should get 1 st chance at buying a foreclosed property. Though I believe that owner occupants manage a proerpty better in general, I also believe the highest bidder is the best buyer, and if a cash investor is the highest bidder, than let them buy. Read more here: http://www.dsnews.com/articles/fannie-mae-introduces-first-look-initiative-2009-11-25 -sunil SUNIL SETHI REAL ESTATE My Bio: http://sunilsethi.com/about_me.htm Personal: http://www.sunilsethi.com LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/fremontrealtor CA DRE#: 01173766

Tell me something I don’t already know and have been telling buyers for a while now. The tight inventory can only do one thing, cause prices to go up. The Obama administration needs to realize they need to increase the supply of homes, get the people out of home who can’t afford them, and get those who can afford them into the homes. http://www.dsnews.com/articles/existing-home-sales-record-another-big-gain-as-inventories-shrink-2009-11-23 -sunil SUNIL SETHI REAL ESTATE My Bio: http://sunilsethi.com/about_me.htm Personal: http://www.sunilsethi.com LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/fremontrealtor CA DRE#: 01173766

Notices of Default in high-end zip codes are running higher than lower priced neighborhoods. More here: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/11/08/MNMC1ABRBC.DTL&feed=rss.business -sunil SUNIL SETHI REAL ESTATE Sunil Sethi / Broker, President, REALTOR, MBA, CPA / SUNIL SETHI REAL ESTATE 38750 Paseo Padre Pwky Suite B3 / Fremont, CA 94538 Main 510 388 2436 / Fax 510 431 9046 My Bio: http://sunilsethi.com/about_me.htm Personal: http://www.sunilsethi.com My blog: http://fremontrealestate.blogspot.com/ LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/fremontrealtor CA DRE#: 01173766

I just wrote about this and now hearing the same from others. Homeowners Predict a Full Recovery in Next Six Months: Zillow Homeowners in the United States were more optimistic about the future of the housing market last quarter than they have been in 18 months, according to the Zillow Q3 Homeowner Confidence Survey. The study shows that 41 percent believe their home's value will increase in the next six months, while another 43 percent say values will remain unchanged. -sunil SUNIL SETHI REAL ESTATE Sunil Sethi / Broker, President, REALTOR, MBA, CPA / SUNIL SETHI REAL ESTATE 38750 Paseo Padre Pwky Suite B3 / Fremont, CA 94538 Main 510 388 2436 / Fax 510 431 9046 My Bio: http://sunilsethi.com/about_me.htm Personal: http://www.sunilsethi.com My blog: http://fremontrealestate.blogspot.com/ LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/fremontrealtor CA DRE#: 01173766

I went to a UCLA alumni event last night. Professor Stuart Gabriel with the Anderson Forecast spoke about the economy. Though I respect the Professor Stuart Gabriel and believe he has a good understanding of the statistics and some of the policies that are inane. I disagree with his overly negative outlook. I’m having the best year in real estate ever. Everyone of my listings is getting multiple offers and selling for about recent 6mth highs. When I’m buying whether here in the bay area or in Riverside County, I’m competing against 10-30 other bidders. I’m very bullish about 2010 and beyond. During the go-go housing bubble. I was always the guy telling people are you sure you want to do this, but today I’m very confident that tomorrow will be better and that housing is on the upswing. I really wish the Obama administration would stop interfering with the free market and to let the invisible hand do what it does best. I do heartily agree with Professor Stuart Gabriel that the governmen...

I don’t understand it. Everywhere I go in shopping, I see full parking lots, restaurants with long lines and movie theatres full. It must be with all those people not paying their mortgage, or maybe things are turning around here in California faster than the rest of the nation. I still truly believe we’d get past this housing correction faster if the government would let the market self correct. There are more buyers than available properties to buy. I received 8 offers on listing at 35586 Rockland Ct. last night. Read more about the rise in delinquencies here: http://www.dsnews.com/articles/mortgage-delinquencies-still-rising-transunion-reports-2009-11-17 -sunil SUNIL SETHI REAL ESTATE Sunil Sethi / Broker, President, REALTOR, MBA, CPA / SUNIL SETHI REAL ESTATE 38750 Paseo Padre Pwky Suite B3 / Fremont, CA 94538 Main 510 388 2436 / Fax 510 431 9046 My Bio: http://sunilsethi.com/about_me.htm LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/fremontrealtor CA DRE#: 01173766

http://www.dsnews.com/articles/delinquencies-foreclosures-at-record-highs-with-shadow-inventories-looming-lps-report-2009-11-10   There’s a been a lot of talk since May of this year of banks supposedly holding onto REO (bank owned properties), and of them selectively releasing this inventory to somehow control pricing. I think that’s a bunch of crap. These bankers are generally risk averse, and would dump their inventory prior to another bank dumping theirs. However I do see that the number of properties auctions that are postponed exceeds what would be considered normal. Probably more than 90% of auctions are postponed. Why? Well after discussions with Senior Vice Presidents of Wells Fargo and attorneys and others involved in short sale negotiations, at the California Association of Realtors (CAR) Show about 4 weeks ago, I learned it’s because the Obama administration has encouraged (coerced) the banks to try to make a loan modification work. My guess is ...

With the California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger , signing into law today AB 957, homebuyer’s can no longer be railroaded by banks, on which escrow and title company will be used to complete a transaction. Any bank that so bullies these terms could find themselves facing triple damages. I love it. I'm looking forward to helping my clients these bad boys. Next they need to do something about these 14 page addendums that banks give you on any REO purchase. It's total bullshit that they can get away with rewriting the entire contract and call it an addendum. REALTORS are not lawyers so technically you should be employing a lawyer to read through the 14 page addendum, but no one does, since no one wants to pay th emoney Banks should be forced to either use one standard contract per state, or to use the contract prevalent for the county. Any deivation is an unnecessary burden to the buyer. For more about AB957 read here . For commonly asked questions surrounding AB 957, please se...

I've had two clients ask me about the Tsunami of impending foreclosures today. So let's look at the numbers as the stand today. If you compare REOs (currently for sale foreclosed on), auctions, the ratio is about 2:1 or a 100% increase. And Pre-foreclosures are running twice the auction rate. So the supply will increase. However now compare supply to the current burn rate. If you think of pending sales as the rate at which supply is being eaten on a monthly basis, demand is greater than future supply. The only market that may have an oversupply is Newark. These numbers are not perfect since Foreclosure Radar doesn’t capture every pre-foreclosure. Also Pending Sales includes Short Sales which can last for more than 30 days, so consumption is exaggerated, and I'm not factoring in the supply of regular sales in the market. If you've been shopping however, you know there are more buyers than properties that suit their needs. I'm not concerned about the "much talked...