Live in Lakeforest

FREE OUTBACK STEAKHOUSE OPEN HOUSE LUNCH ON SATURDAY, MAY 12TH AT 12PM SHARP.

GRAND OPENING OPEN HOUSE  at 25256 Baja Mar in Lake Forest-

THIS HOME WILL SELL AFTER THE WEEKEND.

This Saturday, I will be holding a Grand Opening Open House from 12-4pm on a beautiful Dual Master Suites Townhome with a huge backyard in a beautiful community of Lake Forest. 

What would be better than owning a home where you drive past beautiful lakes, forests & mountain views before pulling into your own garage each day?…locking in all of this AND an ‘Off Peachwood’ address!  You will love the setting of this highly desirable Cape Cod-style Hillview community. This large 2-bedroom, (Dual Masters) 2-1/2 bath, 1317SF, 2-car direct access garage townhome feels like a SFR! Kitchen has granite counters & breakfast nook.  Formal dining area has French doors that lead to expansive backyard patio – one of the larger yards in the community!  

Living room has vaulted ceiling, plantation shutters romantic fireplace. Upgrades include Berber carpeting, large travertine-like tile & wide-planked real hardwood floors, Your family & pets will love being surrounded by community and recreational parks, pool, tennis and creek-side walking/horse trails. Irvine Spectrum, local shopping and eateries are minutes away.  It just doesn’t get any better.  Ranged priced at $275,000 to $300,000.  With the calls I am already getting on it, I predict it will sell at the top of the range.

If you know someone for this home, have them drive by it (they can even walk around the back to see the yard) and then call my partner, Tom  Testerman at 949 422-4497 right away.  I will be tied up for a few days.  He will get them on track to have the best chance at this home.

SHORT SALES: TOP 10 MYTHS DEBUNKED!

2012 is the year of the short sale. Less experienced agents make the mistake of believing these myths:  Here are the Top 10 Myths – Debunked!  To get information specific to your situation, give me a call.

Myth #1: The homeowner must fall behind on mortgage payments in order to qualify for a short sale.  

Debunked:  Years ago this may have been true, but not in 2012.  

• A financial hardship must exist, such as the ARM (Adjustable Rate Mortgage) increasing in monthly payments. 
• Loss of job or income.  
• Health or medical issues.
• Extraordinary loss in home value (which may be considered a hardship).

Myth #2: Banks would rather foreclose on a property than approve a short sale.  

Debunked:  Many still believe this myth to be true, but more accurately, banks would prefer not to foreclose on a property due to the $50-70k it may cost the bank per transaction. Banks lose less money on a short sale than on a foreclosure.  

Note: In California, some lenders may pay owners as much as $25,000 to opt for a short sale. 

Myth #3: Homeowners must be pre-approved by their lender to be eligible for a short sale.

Debunked:  Absolutely not true. By and large, most lenders will consider short sale offers. However, each lender may have unique and specific processes to follow, from listing the home to the acceptance of a short sale. Bypassing any part of this process may result the sale not closing, so be sure to follow each lenders’ processes closely. 

Myth #4: Short sales never close.  

Debunked:  Obviously not true. In some areas of the U.S., nearly 50% of all closings are considered to be “distressed” properties, meaning REOs and short sales. 

Myth #5: Short sales take months (and months) to close.  

Debunked:  The short sale processes must be learned. Once mastered, it may not be uncommon to close a short sale in 30 days.  However, certain idiosyncrasies may slow the process and each lender presents their own unique set of specific challenges. No two short sale transactions are identical. 

Myth #6: Damage to the homeowner’s credit standing is comparable in a short sale and a foreclosure.  

Debunked:  In many cases, credit repercussions and deficiency protections are more damaging with a foreclosure. Short sale transactions can often lead to faster financial recovery for the homeowner and should be carefully considered.

Note: If the homeowner missed no mortgage payments, they may be eligible to finance the purchase of a home immediately following a short sale transaction.  

Myth #7: Following a short sale, the homeowner will be ineligible to purchase another property for the next 5-7 years.  

Debunked:  Not true. Using conventional lending guidelines, some consumers may obtain a Fannie Mae backed mortgage a short 24 months after the close of their short sale. 

Myth #8: After a short sale transaction, the homeowner will receive a 1099 and be forced to declare the loss as income.

Debunked: The owner may indeed receive a 1099, but due to the 2007 Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act, among other considerations, the homeowner may not owe any taxes on their transaction.*

Note: This Act is due to expire at the end of 2012.

Myth #9: The lender will sue the homeowner after the close of a short sale (or foreclosure, or deed in lieu of foreclosure) for the deficiency.

Debunked: California has certain anti-deficiency protections in place for short sales and foreclosures, depending on the circumstances.*

Myth #10: As an agent, I don’t need additional training to learn all of the ins and outs of the short sale process. And if I wait long enough, the market will recover so I may not need to deal with short sales at all.

Debunked: How long are you willing to wait? Based on the most recent housing reports, home values are still falling. Hopefully, 2012 will see the bottom of the housing market but price recovery may continue to take some time.

How the Serenity Prayer Applies To Selling a Home

You may believe that selling your home is impossible in today’s market. You may feel powerless to the process. What could YOU possibly do to turn this housing market around? There is no doubt that today’s real estate market is extremely difficult to navigate. However, we want you to know that thousands of homes sold yesterday, thousands will sell today and thousands will sell each and every day from now until the end of the year.

It is totally within your power to guarantee that your house will sell even in the current market.

“How?”, you ask. Let’s look at the simplicity of the famous Serenity Prayer and apply it to selling a home in today’s real estate market.

“Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference.”

Accept the things you cannot change

The two main reasons that the housing prices have softened:

http://www.kcmblog.com/2012/02/22/how-the-serenity-prayer-applies-to-selling-a-house/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+KeepingCurrentMatters+%28The+KCM+Blog%29

Dreams Finally Come True When Buyers Sign Up For Jenean Hill’s Exclusive Representation

“Housing Crisis to End in 2012 as Banks Loosen Credit Standards”

Capital Economics expects the housing crisis to end this year, according to a report released Tuesday. One of the reasons: loosening credit.

The analytics firm notes the average credit score required to attain a mortgage loan is 700. While this is higher than scores required prior to the crisis, it is constant with requirements one year ago.

Additionally, a Fed Senior Loan Officer Survey found credit requirements in the fourth quarter were consistent with the past three quarters.

However, other market indicators point not just to a stabilization of mortgage lending standards, but also a loosening of credit availability.

Banks are now lending amounts up to 3.5 times borrower earnings. This is up from a low during the crisis of 3.2 times borrower earnings.

http://www.dsnews.com/articles/housing-crisis-to-end-in-2012-as-banks-loosen-credit-standards-2012-01-24?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

We are in about the third week of the buyers coming back to the market.  I have visited multiple real estate offices in the last week to hear each office talking about what is happening in their city.  The stories are all the same.  Buyers are back and are not only eating up all of the standard sales, they are standing in line and writinig offers on Short Sales.  I had over 80 people at my last short sale grand opening and sold it in 4 hours. 

What should you do?  First of all, don’t be ‘doing it’ on your own.  Sign up to work with the best agent to represent you and treat you like a full-time job.  I just had  buyers I met 6 months ago at an open house call me up and ‘hire’ me.  After 3 weeks of looking all over Orange County, we wrote an offer the day the home came on the market.  We paid just over asking price and beat out all of the other offers.  They sent me a nice letter of their experience.  I will post it soon.   It is time to buy NOW before the sellers starting demanding more from their buyers.

O.C. REAL ESTATE FRAUD – L.A. Times Article, “REALTORS team with D.A. to fight fraud”

L. A. Times, February 08, 2012|By Don Jergler

Editor’s Note: This is the first in a series on the Real Estate Fraud Advisory Board and the Orange County District Attorney’s fraud unit.  I have served along with 2 other Orange County Association of REALTORS Director Associates on this Advisory Board since its inception 3 years ago.

If you’re in real estate and you’re in Elizabeth Henderson’s sites, you are probably on the wrong side of the law and you should know there’s a whole community of real estate experts helping her try to catch and punish you.

Henderson, an assistant district attorney and head of the major fraud unit in the Orange County District Attorney’s office, has behind her the Real Estate Fraud Advisory Board.

Henderson and the board meet every three months at the D.A.’s office to talk about new scams that may be going on out there, and how to better catch perpetrators of real estate-related fraud.

The D.A.’s real estate fraud unit, which has two attorneys and three investigators who work full time in the area of real estate fraud, has 37 active cases in which charges have been filed. Since it was launched in 2009, the unit has amassed 49 felony convictions, many of which have received assistance or real estate expertise from the advisory board.

There are roughly 20 people on the board, which is organized by the D.A.’s office.

In the last few years, the board and the unit have been increasingly busy, as the downturn of real estate has “brought a ton of schemes,” Henderson said.

Loan modification fraud, and short-sale schemes are chief among the scams they’re seeing, she added.

One trend that’s becoming more commonplace is flopping. Unlike flipping, flopping is purchasing foreclosed properties at the lowest possible rate, then selling them a higher rate and collecting the difference.

Such sophisticated scams take place in a landscape of growing complexities in the real estate market, as more and more people are forced to look at loan modifications, short sales and other means to stave off foreclosures. That’s where the expertise of the advisory board, also referred to as a “task force,” comes in, Henderson said.

“The task force has been really good,” she said, adding, “We’re not real estate experts.”

Beside Realtors, the task force has mortgage professionals, and professionals who specialize in helping out distressed homeowners as advisors.

“They give us input as to what the issues are that are facing them in the real estate community,” Henderson said. “They’re kind of our eyes and ears on the street.”

Wally Malesh, with Keller Williams in Mission Viejo, and a member of the task force for more than two years, said he’s gratified with his work on the task force.

“We’re people who are very, very involved in our community and our industry, and people on the committee are working to making it a little bit better,” Malesh said.

He added, “There’s a couple of places where you see fraud kind of at its worst.”

People who don’t have great credit, the elderly and those who don’t speak English as a primary language are favored victims of real estate fraud predators, he said.

Even properties themselves have become targets as of late.

“Today’s concern is all of the distressed properties,” he said.

According to Malesh, the task force has increasingly seen a growing problem in which people pick a vacant property and move in, eventually claiming to have ownership of property. The crime is often carried further, when these people run advertisements in the paper showcasing the home for rent, then they charge and collect the rent on a property that was likely foreclosed upon by the bank and has sat empty and unattended, Malesh said.

Task force member Jenean Hill, with First Team Real Estate in Lake Forest, has personally seen how fraud can affect people.

No too long ago, a close friend of hers was scammed into investing in a condo project, in which the real estate agent took her money and sent her spiraling into financial ruin, she said.

“As a single gal, she worked very hard to purchase and pay off her home in San Juan Capistrano,” Hill said. “She took out a line of credit on it in order to invest with a real estate agent on a condo conversion project in Corona del Mar.”

The agent worked for a real estate broker who had operated under 11 different business names in the past four years, according to Hill, who said the D.A. has taken on the case.

“He embezzled her money from the account that was established to build the condo conversion project,” she said. “This resulted in the loss of her life’s savings, her excellent credit ruined, and her home that was once paid for is now headed for foreclosure.”

She added, “Although much of the Orange County District Attorney’s fraud cases are much larger and involve multiple counts and victims, their help with this case touched me on a personal level. Our own friends and family members can become victims of fraud.”

Jenean Hill’s friend’s story in the OC Register, Jan., 26th, 2010

ZERO LEFT IN LAKE FOREST on the MLS!…., but I have 2 Standard Sale “Pocket Listings” in the mid 200K’s.

Would you believe that there are ZERO 1001+ sq. ft. 2-bed, 2-bath homes with a garage in the entire city of Lake Forest that are Standard Sales?  That is right.  When they come on the market, they fly off!   Did you also know that rents are going up, up up?  That is right as well.   Let me tell you about 2 upcoming listings that I know about.  Both are tenant occupied and the tenants would like to stay, if you want them to:

1) Lower level approx 1050 sq. ft. 2-bed, 2-bath Tierra Vista property with dual master suites at opposite ends of the condo.  It has a wide yard with french door access  from bedrooms.  New appliances, pottery barn-looking dining room/kitchen fixtures and faucets.  2-tone decorator paint. One year old Karastan carpets in the bedrooms and ceramic tile in the common areas.  Laundry room and direct access garage and one assigned parking space.  The tenant pays $1700/month and is on a month to month and would like to stay.  Some of these same units across the street were kept as apartments, not condos and they rent for $1900 to 2,200+/month. Low dues of $262/mo with no mello roos.  Rents are VERY strong right now so it is very hard for buyers to find a place.  Good time to be a landlord.  The tenant has expressed interest in buying it because the love their home so much.  They cannot qualify and would have to get family members to buy it.  Price is $265-275K.  Investor 25% down total payment would be in the $1500′s/mo while 5% down buyers can buy it for “same as rent”

2)  Serrano Woods 2-bedroom, 1242 sq.ft. townhome that has 1-1/2 baths. The couple would like to sell their own home and rent it back.  They hope some time in the next few years to move out of state if they gets jobs in their new area.  They have lived there many years and have upgraded the home.  Kitchen and bath remodels, composite (granite type) counters and center island. Ceramic tile in kitchen and baths.  There is a small back yard that connects to their direct access garage.  This home comes with the Sun & Sail Club across the street  with HOA dues in the 280′s/month.  (Youtube ‘Jenean Hill 4′ to see more about living in lake forest). You can go on a sunset cruise on your own kayak if you lived here or if you are the landlord and did not convey the membership.  Market rent is about $1700-$1800 which they would be able to pay to stay in their own home.  Price would be about $250,000. Investor 25% down would probably be a total cost somewhere in the $1400′s/month.  5% down buyers can buy it for “same as rent”.  (Photo is that of a model match that I sold last year for $275K)

 The first one will go quickest as I am starting to tell people about it.  Please call ASAP if you are interested in buying these NON-distressed properties that you can close escrow on and enjoy all year long.

Highly Upgraded Dual Masters – Own for same as Rent with only 5% down.

OUTBACK STEAKHOUSE LIGHT LUNCH 12:00pm SHARP on Saturday, January 21st.  What would be better than owning a home where you drive past beautiful lakes, forests & mountain views before pulling into your garage each day? It would be locking in all of this AND an ‘Off Peachwood’ address for about $200k!  This stunning & highly upgraded 2-bedroom, 2-bathroom, end unit has dual master suites, & a direct-access garage. Upgrades include Gourmet, granite/stainless kitchen, 2-tone decorator paint, scraped ceilings, gleaming wood laminate floors, new appliances/ window coverings/ lighting & bathroom fixtures. This model occupies half of the upstairs of this building and feels like your own Park Avenue loft! All living space is on second level. No living space below except garage. Complex just rehabbed months ago and looks like a million bucks! You’ll love the lifestyle here. Morning swims at the pool just across the street or relaxing away the day’s cares in the sparkling spa. Just a short stroll to parks, creeks, trails and shopping and minutes to Irvine Spectrum. If you can not live in an upper unit, and need a back yard in the $200K’s, call me.  I have 2 pocket listings that are standard sales.

With about $15K to $16K total cost to close (5% down plus closing costs), you can own this home for a ‘feels-like’ payment in the $1400-1500′s per month if you are currently renting now.  You have to see it to believe it. 

Open House Saturday, January 21st from 12-4pm – 25185 Oak Canyon, Lake Forest, CA 92630.  Lunch at noon “while supplies last”!

To see 24 more photos, click here: http://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/25185-Oak-Canyon-Ln_Lake-Forest_CA_92630_M17122-19637

Like what you see?  Call lender/partner, Tom Testerman at 949 422-4497 for your loan approval.  He will be at the open house, but the line might be kind of long.

First Team highlights my client’s story on video and in the Orange County Register every weekend for the month of January.