Here is a selection of recent posts by Shokoofeh Nowbakht:
REOs, Short Sales, or Regular Sales?
I met a lady today at the Tanforan Mall. She says, “My husband wants to buy a house but only if it’s REO.” I asked why, she says because he believes he gets a great deal and that he can also bargain and offer less if it’s foreclosed. He believes that short sales and regular sales are not good real estate investments. She said that her husband doesn’t want to look at anything but foreclosed properties.
Is this how the public thinks? But, how about short sales? And what about those regular sales? As one of my colleagues says, “Regular sales, are really the short sales these days!” Isn’t that the fact? What, in your opinion, is a regular sale in today’s real estate market?
Shokoofeh Nowbakht
www.shokoo.com
Short Sale, A Great Option!
I have talked to many home owners who are late on their mortgage payments, who are struggling to pay even their everyday expenses. Some have not paid their mortgage in over 6 months. Unfortunately, this is happening more often these days. My advice is, of course, try to modify your loan and save your home. Homeowners have to qualify for the modified loan plan. What if they can’t? What if they can’t even make the mortgage payments on the new lower interest rate? So, why not try to short sale the house? Lenders are becoming more understanding of the short sale situations. They are easier to deal with and get an approval on a short sale. Homeowners will have less effect on their credit score if they do a short sale rather than go through bankruptcy or foreclosure. A realtor will be able to assist homeowners with the short sale process.
Good Luck!
Shokoofeh Nowbakht, Realtor
Prudential California Realty
www.shokoo.com
To Mod or Not to Mod?
I just found out that a friend of mine tried to modify her loan early this year. She contacted a law firm in Southern California, paid few thousand dollars and nothing has happened yet. She was told to stop making mortgage payments on her first and second loans. after 10 months in default, she has received a NOD or Notice of Default. She is now scared and worried that she’ll loose her house. She is now very confused and doesn’t know if she should continue with the loan modification process. She is also thinking about borrowing some money from family and paying all her unpaid mortgages, late fees as well as her property tax so that she can reinstate her loans and save her house.
How HIGH do I go?
I was talking to a colleague today. She said she had a disappointing day yesterday. I asked her what had happened. She explained that her client made an offer on a property. Of course there were multiple offers and their offer was already, what my friend believes, over the market value. The seller which is a bank, or perhaps the listing agent counters the top 2 offers for their highest and best offer. My friend doesn’t want her client to buy this property for more than what it’s worth. But, on the other hand she doesn’t want her client to loose another house to multiple offers, either. She said that she would feel guilty no matter what the outcome. “I know the house will not appraise,” she said. My advice was that she explains everything to her clients and let them make a decision.
It seems like the inventory is low and some listing agents take advantage of the situation and list the properties below market value. This becomes very difficult for the buyers. How high should they offer? How can a regular buyer who is using a conventional loan compete with an investor who is buying properties all cash and waiving all inspections and financing contingencies? Read more
How Many Offers before I’m a Home Owner?
Recently, it seems like buyers are writing several offers on multiple properties simultaneously before they can ratify one. One of my clients has 3 offers on short sale properties. He asked me yesterday to show him two more properties. There is no certainty that he ratifies any of the offers. Good thing is that he is not giving up and in fact, he is certain that one of these days he will own a house. Is this a numbers game? How many offers do you have to write before you actually ratify one and become a home owner? What has been your experience lately?
Here’s the story of how I became a home owner … I bought my house about 9 years ago. I looked at properties for about a month, found a house and made an offer. I got countered to give my best and highest offer because there were 2 other offers. I came back with my best offer which was $25,000 over asking. Luckily, I wrote the winning offer. The point is that I only wrote ONE offer and I became a home owner.
Shokoofeh Nowbakht http://www.shokoo.com/
How much higher do I offer?
About one & a half year ago, often I was asked “How much lower can I offer?” It seems like those days are gone. Last week I wrote 3 offers for 3 of my clients. And yes, you guessed right, I was asked every single time, “how much higher do I offer?” Real Estate market has clearly changed, I’d say, since 2 months ago. Many properties receive multiple offers after only a short number of days on the market. Most offers are over the asking price. One of my clients offered $530,000 on property listed for $499,000, and his turned out to be one of the 14 rejected offers. From my experience and what I hear from my colleagues, offers may need to be over 10% of the list price to be considered a strong offer. What has been your experience recently?
Evaluation of Rental Property
How do you evaluate a rental property?
There are many formulas to calculate different income ratios, various expenses and taxes you incur as a landlord. The first thing you should pay close attention to is the existing leases. Find out the current rents, the remaining lease terms and the annual increase in rents for every unit. It is very important to determine how these rents compare to the rents for similar properties in the area? Read more
Home Buying is a Team Work
Just wanted to share an experience. One of my clients is getting a VA loan to purchase a house. Even though it has been taking longer than we had originally anticipated, it has genuinely been a teamwork all the way through. Buying a house requires all players to work together so that everyone wins at the end. The game started with my client choosing a great mortgage officer and getting preapproved. We then found a house he liked and made a good offer. My client offered the asking price. Did I mention Read more
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