A. The Legislative findings and declarations state that the recent troubled real estate market has resulted in a concentration of the majority of homes available for resale within the hand of foreclosing lenders and has dramatically changed the market dynamics affecting ordinary home buyers. The act declares that the potential for unfairness occasioned by the resale of large numbers of foreclosed home requires that protections against abused be made effective immediately.

Q. What is the Buyer’s Choice Act?

A. The Buyers’ Choice Act is a new law that prohibits a seller who acquired property as a foreclosure sale from requiring a buyer to purchase title and escrow services from a company chosen by the seller as a condition to receiving offers or selling the property. It was enacted by Assembly Bill 957 (Galgiani).

 Q. When does the Buyer’s Choice Act become law? 

A. Yes, provided that a written notice of the right to make an independent selection of those services is first given by the seller to the buyer.

A. The law covers title insurance and escrow services.

A. Yes. A seller who violates the new law is liable to the buyer for three times all charges made for the title insurance or escrow service. In addition, a seller who violates the law is also considered to have violated their licensing law.

A. No. A transaction cannot be invalidated solely because of the failure to comply with the law.

Q. Does the Act continue indefinitely? 

A. The Act is only effective until January 1, 2015 unless it is extended by the Legislature.

This home has been remodeled with custom cherry cabinets in the kitchen and Brazilian hardwood flooring throughout the downstairs. 4 bedrooms, 2.5 baths. Private backyard. Walking distance to our historic downtown.

Contact us to see this terrific home.

Lawmakers realize that improving turn around time on these kinds of transactions will only benefit the market place as a whole.

Here is the latest news for the Senate on short sale legislation:

Recently enacted Senate Bill 306 does not require lenders to review short sale requests from sellers and their agents within 21 days.  The new California law, which addresses certain escrow procedures, has been mischaracterized by some practitioners as landmark legislation calling for a 21-day turnaround for short sale approvals.

The new law inserts a short payoff amount request into the existing payoff demand law which generally requires a lender to respond to a request for a payoff demand statement within 21 days from when it is requested, typically by escrow.  The new law essentially requires, after a short sale has already been approved, for the lender to respond to a request for a short-pay demand statement within 21 days.  The lender’s response to escrow can be a short-pay demand statement or even, depending on the circumstances, a written statement electing not to proceed with the proposed transaction.

Another provision of SB 306 may also cause confusion.  In practice, a lender may approve a short sale subject to its review of a closing statement prepared by escrow, but the lender does not review that closing statement promptly.  Under the new law, if a lender fails to approve the closing statement within four days, the closing statement shall be deemed approved, but only if it is “not clearly contrary to the terms of the short-pay agreement or the short-pay demand statement provided to the escrowholder.”  The new law does not bind a lender to a short payoff amount in an offer that the lender has not approved.

Senate Bill 306 contains other technical changes in real estate related laws, such as, but not limited to, the following:

• Expanding the existing requirement for a lender to contact certain borrowers to explore options for avoiding foreclosure at least 30 days before filing a notice of default, to include not only owner-occupied residences, but also owner-occupied residential property with two-to-four dwelling units.
• Extending the existing requirement for a lender to record a notice of sale from 14 to 20 days before a trustee’s sale.  This provision does not change existing law requiring a lender to wait at least 20 days after mailing a notice of sale before conducting a trustee’s sale.

This new law comes into effect on January 1, 2010. 

Click here to read the text of Senate Bill 306.

 (Information provided by the California Association of Realtors.)

Click here to read about how short sales work.

Questions about short sales? Contact us. We are currently working with several clients who are selling their homes and are in a “short pay” sitaution. We can help you too!

Click here to tour this home.

Open house on Sunday, 10/4, from 1-4pm.

• 4 bedrooms
• 2.5 baths
• Updated kitchen and baths.
• Brazillian cherry hardwood flooring

Open House on Saturday, 10/3 and Sunday, 10/4 from 1pm to 4pm.

Pleasanton Real Estate Market Update for August 2009

Sales Activity Is Very Strong

August 2009 Pleasanton Single Family Home Sales are up 48% from August 2008.

 The charts below show the sales activity for Pleasanton single family homes since January 1^st, 2009.

Starting in April 2009, the average monthly sales activity is 71 homes per month.

As you can see, homes sales doubled in the 2^nd quarter of 2009 and posted the strongest quarterly sales activity since the 2^nd quarter of 2007. 

Inventory Is On Steady Downward Trend

The inventory of single family homes for sale has dropped 37% since August of 2008.

The chart below shows the inventory level at the end of each month for Pleasanton single family homes since January 2009.

With the pace of sales for August 2009 at 77 homes, the unsold inventory index stands at 2.2 months of inventory.  This is the amount of time it would take to sell through the current inventory of 169 homes.  This number is considered to be very low.                                                               

Commentary

With the high sales activity and low inventory levels, it would be tempting to call this a sellers’ market.  However there is no evidence of any improvement on pricing levels. The median sales price for August 2009 of $706,500 for Pleasanton is down 3.22% from $730,000 for August of 2008.  Of the 126 homes currently reported as “pending” or under contract 52 of the 126 are either short sale properties or REO properties.  Short sale properties are homes being sold by the current owner where the home’s value is less than the amount owed.  The owner attempts to negotiate with the bank to accept less than the amount owed in order to avoid foreclosure.  REO properties are homes being sold by the bank that has taken a property through a foreclosure process.  The 52 properties represent 41%of all the current “pendings”. In other words 4 out of every 10 sales currently under contract represent a distress sale.  

No one knows what lies ahead, but looking at the current supply of homes for sale there is some bright news.  Of the 167 homes currently for sale as of 9/14/2009, only 11(or 6.5%) and 3(or 1.8%) are distress sales for a total of 14 or 8.3% of the total of 167. An abundance of distressed properties in a market can bring values down. For now, Pleasanton has a very limited number of distress sales and that has kept property values from free falling as much as we have seen in communities like Brentwood and Hayward.

Overall satisfaction was determined by examining three factors for the home-buying experience: agent (47%); office (28%); and package of additional services (25%) according to the J.D. Power and Associates 2009 Home Buyer/Seller Study^SM now in its second year.

Click here to read the results of the entire study.

Then contact us and find out why so many buyers are choosing to work with us. Homes sales are significantly up in Pleasanton and mortgage rates continue to remain low. If you are considering buying a home in Pleasanton or the Tri-Valley area contact us for a complimentary consultation. We’ll answer all your questions and help you formulate a strategy for success.

In order to be eligible for the tax credit, the purchase of your home must be completed and escrow closed by November 30. Simply entering into a contract to purchase a home by December 1st will NOT enable you to take advantage of the credit. The time it takes from entering into a purchase contract to closing escrow can vary from 30 to 45 days, to 60 days or longer. Therefore, if you’re serious about taking advantage of this tax credit, the time to act is now!

Click here to read an article about the tax credit.

With mortgage rates holding steady and lots of great homes on the market in Pleasanton, Dublin, Livermore and beyond, it’s a terrific time to buy.

Contact us today to discuss your buying goals or to take a look at available homes.

At $599,000, this Pleasanton home is priced to sell. Ideal location, within walking distance to historic downtown and all its amenities, including Farmer’s Market, Concerts in the Park, and Wednesday Street Fairs.

Contact us to see this property or to request additional information.

Just listed! 4525 Mirano Court.Beautifully upgraded townhome in the Italian inspired Sorrento community in Dublin Ranch, with almost 2800 square feet of living space. 

Gourmet kitchen with cherry cabinets and granite counters, upstairs and downstairs master suites, nine foot ceilings, four patios, full size garage, and so much more!

Click here for more information.

Open House on Sunday, 8/30 from 2pm-5pm.