Straightforward and intuitive… this website is for anyone buying or selling homes and real estate in Davis, Woodland, Winters or anywhere in Yolo County, California.

Explore! Ask Real Estate or community specific questions. More than powerful tools and valuable information for Buyers and Sellers,  Carmen Isais with Keller Williams Real Estate hopes to give you insight in information about Davis, CA and its surrounding communities… Not the usual Davis Real Estate news, but a preview of the community.

When you are ready, let me, Carmen Isais, and my dynamic team help you through your real estate transaction. Questions? Comments? Ready to go? Call me at 530.601.1003.

Looking Forward, Carmen Isais

Enjoy 5 acres in the country just 3 miles from Woodland & minutes from I5 & I505. Light & open this home has been renovated with new paint, fixtures, appliances, wood floors, & Richlite counter tops. Enjoy outdoor living with a large partially covered patio, swimming pool, & landscaped paths with roses, fruit trees, & herbs. Newer roof, HVAC, well pump, plumbing, & septic. Oversized 2-car garage, dog runs, livestock/horse barn, & partial basement.

Schedule a private showing today. Call Carmen 530.601.1003.

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 Coldwell Banker: 530.601.1003 or email: carmen@focusondavis.com

• Old-fashioned basics are more important than ever. The safest way to purchase a home is to put down 20 percent on a fixed-rate, 30-year (or less) mortgage.
• Don’t become overconfident about income growth. Even though buyers in their 20s and 30s will likely see their incomes grow more quickly than previous generations, it is important to act sensibly when borrowing.
• Anyone contemplating adding children to the family should calculate whether they could live on one income because having both halves of a couple work may turn out to be impractical.
• Include a maintenance budget. Even new homes need upkeep and repairs.
• Buyers who can’t afford their dream home now should opt for a starter home where they can save money each month for what they really want.
• Consider a property that can be expanded and improved down the road when money is available.
• No two buyers are the same, but they should all feel confident with the loan they enter into, no matter the size of the mortgage.

\Source: The New York Times, Ron Lieber (09/12/2009)

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