Most of you have not heard about this.  It is a new approach were a new lender negotiates on your behalf  with your current lender to pay less than the full amount for the pay off of the existing loan. This is not a loan re-modification. This is a new loan with new terms and lower balance.

This is an amazing concept, basically you get to buy your home again at the current market value.

For more information call Carmen Isais at Keller William’s Realty in Davis : 530.601.1003 or email: carmen@focusondavis.com

I’m not an e-Pro.

For those of you who don’t know what I’m talking about, an e-Pro is a real estate designation given after taking an approved course from NAR, the National Association of Real Estate. After paying some amount of money for said designation, and after looking over the course work, I quickly saw I had been had– and so was the public, if they cared much about this particular designation. In short, if I took and learned anything at all from the e-Pro course it would mean I wasn’t nearly qualified to market your property on the Internet. If you are interested as to why this is, read Real Estate Tomato’s, “e-Pro is a Tinfoil Badge”.

And if you want to see what I’m doing instead of studying to be an e-Pro, take a look at my list….

Top Ten Things I Do As a Realtor Instead of Studying for the e-Pro Designation

1. Posting via postletts and quickblog, New Listings every week  to Posterous, Craiglist, Sac News and Review and more.
2. Updating my Hyper Local Real Estate Blogs to showcase new listings and find my sellers buyers who, might be other’s agent’s clients, but visit my site regularly for updated information.
3. Exposing your home, should you sell with me, to Zillow, Trulia, Realtor.com, Facebook Marketplace and Craiglist audience– because these online venues are visited more often by home buyers than traditional print advertising.
4. Texting, facebooking, emailing, and twittering my clients to keep them abreast of any market changes in the quickest, cleanest communication method they are comfortable with and…
5. Oh yes, I actually still phone clients and even better, meet with them face-to-face.
6. Creating out-of-the-box virtual presentations of your home and embed them on mutiple sites from Vimeo to You Tube, From Blog posts to Facebook– NOT just MLS.
7. Networking online with literally hundreds of agents from San Francisco to Pollock Pines, From Sacramento to Los Angeles to expose your home to the largest market possible– NOT just Davis.
8. Holding your home open,  personally, because despite it all, there is no replacement for the face-to-face. And along those lines…
9. Networking offline with Realtors, Mortgage Brokers, CPA’s and other professionals making “keeping the deal together” much easier should things get rough– and they do.  An agent with good social skills and the ability to negotiate calmly is harder to find than you might imagine.
   
10. Keeping it real. Today’s market is a tough one. Seller’s might not want to hear that their property cannot sell at “X” price, and I know you can find an agent who will tell you exactly what you want to hear. But, I promise you, unless your agent is being straightforward and genuine– which includes sometimes delivering news you don’t want to hear– your home will be sitting on the market, unsold and most likely not even shown for months to come. So, I like to keep it real, using trends and data that I keep up with daily and are concrete.

In short, I’m busy using my advanced internet skill sets selling your home or finding you one to buy. If you’d like to reap the benefits of my work ethic, everyday stamina and dynamic tech-skills call me (530.601.1003), skype me (carmen.isais), twitter me, facebook me or otherwise contact me. I’m always connected.

Whether you are facing foreclosure or simply need to reduce your payment, Mortgage Outreach Services can help and there is no out of pocket costs to you.

If you’re a homeowner worried about how to pay your mortgage, we can help you understand what options are available and which is the best fit for you:

Refinance: Getting out of your old loan and into a new one can free you from the instability of an adjustable mortgage by putting you into a low-rate fixed mortgage. Rates are at all-time lows, and loans can be extended to as long as 40 years to keep payments low.

Loan Modification: Having your lender modify your loan can reduce your interest rate and payment. In some cases, a lender will modify your loan to reduce the amount of your mortgage balance.

Short Sale: For homeowners in areas where prices have fallen dramatically, the best option may be a short sale. In a short sale, the lender agrees to accept less than the full amount of the mortgage so the property can be sold at the current market price.

As a borrower and homeowner, you have options.  Start by making a Consultation Request or call Carmen Isais directly at 530.601.1003. Let’s meet… once we have some basic information about your situation, we can work together and help you exercise your options.

California imposes 90-day foreclosure moratorium
The Associated Press

SACRAMENTO, Calif.—California is imposing a 90-day moratorium on housing foreclosures under a new law that took effect mid June.
The law is expected to make lenders try harder to keep borrowers in their homes. Loan companies must prove they tried to modify the delinquent loans before they can begin foreclosing.

But supporters acknowledge the California Foreclosure Prevention Act won’t stop thousands of foreclosures from eventually happening. There have been more than 365,000 foreclosures in California since early 2007, with many more already scheduled.
The bill passed in February is similar to the Obama administration’s Making Home Affordable Program that began in March.
Both encourages lenders to cut interest rates or rewrite loans to affordable levels.”

You’ll see that this new law and “attempt” to help ailing homeowners leaves a lot of holes, and many lenders may find themselves exempt from complying. Remember, seek the services of a non-profit homeowner advocacy group to get help, such as:

• www.naca.com
• www.dontborrowtrouble.com
• www.acornhousing.org
• www.makinghomeaffordable.gov

Another option to foreclosure, and something I will be write more about in days to come, is the short re-finance. As another option, for short sale help, contact Carmen Isais, Real Estate professional with Coldwell Banker at 530.601.1003. Carmen offers short sale consultations for homeowners in Davis, Vacaville, Dixon, Winters, Woodland and the larger Sacramento-Metro area. If you have a home with little or equity

Why list your home with Coldwell Banker?

Originally uploaded by cisais123

It is one thing to hear about Coldwell Banker’s control of the local real estate market in Davis, CA (between 50 to 60 percent, as of late) . However, this little scene I came across on Saturday afternoon says it all.  A picture is worth a thousand words.

California Real Estate law is different, however. Here, Realtors have a fiduciary responsibility to their clients and this includes bringing them any and all offers a home. Despite this fact, I have personally seen Realtors sit a on offers for various reasons… namely they themselves are hoping for a better offer, or they are certain their client won’t accept the offer and don’t want to risk discouraging them by bringing less than stellar offers to the table.

As a matter of law and simple ethics, I always present all offers to my clients and let them make up their own mind. Being the bearer of bad news isn’t always easy, but sometimes, even a low offer is welcome of necessary, and followed through with.

To read more about how missing knowledge of offers can effect you as a buyer read Renee Porsi’s article directly. If you are selling a home in Davis, Winters, Woodland or Sacramento and you  have any questions about seller’s rights and the fiduciary responsibility owed them under California law, please do not hesitate in contacting me at 530.601.1003 or via email at carmen@focusondavis.com.

2004      $510,720

2005      $605,895

2006      $617,407

2007      $570,081

2008      $535,492

“For every 1,000 watts of power in a home that’s coming from PV (photovoltaic panels), it can add $20,000 to the resale value of your home.”

Chris Bartle of Green Key Real Estate was quoted,

“If you’re comparing [green building] to a super-cheap Home Depot remodel, then yeah, it’s more expensive,” he explains.  But if you’re comparing it to a high-end remodel with granite counter tops and things like that, then a lot of times it’s actually cheaper.”

The opening of  “Green” building supply companies is evidence of the increasing popularity of Green remodeling.   Davis has it’s own eco-friendly home improvement store called Casa Verde.  There are also recycling options for building materials.  Sacramento’s Habitat for Humanity has a building supply store called the ReStore offering surplus building supplies donated to the store and sold at discount prices.   Another web-site resource is www.thereusepeople.org.  They are a non-profit organization that provides environmentally responsible demolition services and sells reusable building materials.

If you would like more information on green building and learn about the “GreenPointed Rated” system, check out www.builditgreen.org

Determining a home’s were value requires some homework. Not only do we need to look at comparable sales in the neighborhood, we should also take into account other criteria that may effect the price. For instance proximity to freeways or busy streets, schools, bus lines, and shopping all influence the price of homes in the same neighborhood.  In the current Davis Real Estate Market, even a slightly better home on the same street as another home for sale might not sell as quickly or at all priced incorrectly.

Popular real estate wisdom says that the first three weeks of a listing are most important.   Around 30 days interest begins to fall. This is why it is important your real estate agent do their homework. Pricing a home well from the beginning is better than having to reduce the price later in the listing. Not only can you save yourself the frustration of having your home sit on the market month after month, in the long run my experience shows that homes priced accordingly actually sell for more than homes that were overpriced to begin with and were later reduced.

If you’re thinking of selling your Davis home, enlisting the help of Focus Realty Group will provide you with two Realtor opinions for the price of one. That being said, please know that all consultations are free, of course.  A meeting with me will provide you with a comparative market analysis, also known as a CMA. This will give you, the homeowner, with detailed information about the local real estate market. At this time we can also outline marketing strategies for your specific home and recommend a selling price.

Those first meetings and CMA preparation are all about information… certainly more information is a good thing.

With mortgage interest rates at a historical low, it is a good time to buy a house. What I see at Open Homes every weekend, are buyers… buyers that are active, prepared, and ready.

If the price is right, one of those buyers could be your.  But, to make that happen, you have to call me first.  Simply put,  I can help.  And I can get things done.

Carmen Isais
530.601.1003
carmen@focusondavis.com

Now, while there are many pieces of information that factor into the ultimate value of a home, one tool I use, and one that I can easily share with you today, is that of Recent Home Sales.

Recent home sales are a good indicator of what your home might go value at in the current market. And thanks to the internet, this information is easy to share with you, instantly.