Feb/25/12 @ 9am-12pm

Guest Speaker: Shawn Parr

Buyer and Seller Beware: Only prepared buyers and sellers should enter into transactions involving distressed properties. Short sales, pre-foreclosures and foreclosures are fraught with potential missteps and ramifications that are normally not found in an already stressful situation ~ the buying or selling of a home. Banks have become more aggressive toward buyers, sellers and their representative. Learning all sides of a transaction is paramount when negotiating, especially when the banks have loss mitigation departments that are overwhelmed and/or ill prepared.

Real Estate Shawn Parr is a specialist in lending, escrow, title and bank controlled properties. Pat is a Certified Residential Broker and a contributor to the Saturday Q & A column Market Wise in the San Jose Mercury News.

Be a Savvy Consumer and Learn the Particulars:

• Loan Modifications vs Short Sales

• Short-Sales vs Foreclosures

• Pre-Foreclosure & Foreclosures

• Debt Relief Tax Consequences

• Banks Demanding Loss Repayment

• Agent Contracts vs Bank Contracts

• Dealing with Multiple Lenders

Click Here to Enroll on the De Anza College Website:

Saturday ~ 1 Session ~ 9am to 12pm

Course Fee: $39.00

Location: De Anza College, G Building, Room G-4

Project Sentinel’s dispute resolution services are centered in our Sunnyvale office. This office provides counseling to both tenants and landlords as well as rent mediation and dispute resolution services for the cities of Campbell, Cupertino, Los Gatos, Milpitas, Mountain View, Santa Clara, and Sunnyvale. The Sunnyvale office is also the HUD counseling center, overseeing first time homebuyer, mortgage default and tenant assistance for Santa Clara and San Mateo counties. The office is open from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. and from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Friday.

Project Sentinel Sunnyvale Office
298 S. Sunnyvale Avenue, Suite 209
Sunnyvale, CA 94086
Martin Eichner, Director
Phone (408) 720-9888
Toll Free (888) 331-3332
Fax (408) 720-0810
mediate4us@housing.org

Q: Our listing agent has tried unsuccessfully to negotiate the short-sale of our home as promised. He has repeatedly tried to work with our lenders with very little headway. The buyers we had in contract gave up waiting and pulled their offer. We have decided to cancel our listing agreement and hire an agent touting short-sale experience. But, our current agent refuses to cooperate, sighting all the work I have put into this. We don’t want to lose another month with our current listing agent and perhaps risk a foreclosure as well. How do we part company with this agent and the firm he represents?

A: You’re in luck. A new rule under the federal Mortgage Assistance Relief Services (MARS), allows sellers who are in your predicament to cancel the listing. This is due to your agent claiming as part of his service that he will negotiate with your lenders on your behalf to solidify and avoid foreclosure. Conversely, the MARS rule does not apply if this agent simply performed the normal duties of a listing agent and left you or your real estate attorney to deal with the lenders while avoiding foreclosure.

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Market Wise Column

Send questions to: SiliconValleyBroker@gmail.com

Q:  We hired a top real estate agent to sell our home. Yet, his assistant is the one helping us most of the time. Sometime another “assistant” will call us to convey information. Our adult daughter is furious that the agent she recommended to us has turned over the day-to-day activities, including Open Houses to others. We were told it’s common to have the top-producing agent reappear once we have an offer in hand. How prudent is this team approach?

A: The most successful teams communicate all day long about each one of their Buyers and/or Sellers. The problems arise when the “top” agent is kept in the dark about his clients. This business model is so he or she can focus on prospecting for new business, or, in your case, sales and negotiating for existing clients.

Were you were told about this team effort upfront? If not, it’s time, together with your daughter that you had a sit-down with the agent you hired. If the team approach is what you signed up for, ask that unlicensed assistant be restricted to non-sales and marketing activities, especially, conversations with you about your listing.

The other concern is that the most experienced agent might not promote your listing via conversations with the public or their representatives upon an inquiry. That duty is delegated to his or her staff. When that happens, the chances of a strong offer, let alone any offer are greatly diminished.

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Do you have a question for the new real estate Q&A Market Wise column in the SJMN? If so, please email them to: SiliconValleyBroker@gmail.com

The TDS (Transfer Disclosure Form) form has been revised to include check-box in Section IIA for a seller to disclose whether the property has water-conserving plumbing fixtures (low-flow toilets, shower heads, and faucets). The revised TDS also clarifies in Section IIB that, by January 1, 2017, a single family residence built on or before January 1, 1994 must generally be equipped with water-conserving plumbing fixtures. If, however, the single-family residence is altered or improved on or after January 1, 2014, the water-conserving plumbing fixtures must be a condition of final permit approval.
Senate Bill 837(codified as Cal. Civil Code § 1102.6) (effective January 1, 2012).

Q:  I moved into my new home last week and the Sellers’ Agent key-safe, FOR SALE signs, brochure box, fliers and display, etc., are still here.  The Listing Agent said she would stop by to take a picture with a SOLD sign on the lawn post.  Since my Buyer’s Agent is of no help, what should we do?

A:  I’ve spoken to many Managers and Brokers about this all too common and foolhardy problem.  Yet, they don’t see it that way, they want the FOR SALE sign on the house lawn or condo window as long as they can get away with it.  Instead of ordering the marketing material removed upon the escrow sign-off, the Buyer walk-though or even funding of the loan, they wait until they are paid.  By then, it’s too late, most buyers would deem this as an affront and stack the junk on the side of their new property.

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E-mail your residential real estate questions to Pat at:   SiliconValleyBroker@gmail.com

Pat Kapowich. Broker/Owner
ABR, CRS, GRI & SRES

Q:  After 18 months of a home search, my husband and I want to switch Agents.  We have written lots of offers that he was unable to get accepted.  He is a nice person but it seems that Sellers and their Agents easily mold him into their way of thinking. Recently, after having submitted an offer the previous day, we visited the property with our agent for a second look.  The Listing Agent, who works for the same large reputable firm, suspiciously joined us, and suggested we lower our offer by $50,000. Instead, we should apply that money in the form cash, to buy all the sellers’ furniture, which would be unknown to the Short-Selling Banks.  This way the Sellers would decide to work with us over competing Buyers and forward our offer to the banks for the Short Sale approval process.   My wife and I were slacked-jawed to listen to this proposal, especially since our Agent kept nodding his head, smiling and then announcing to us it was a “good way for you two to get into a house.” We did not sign a Buyer-Broker Agreement; so it is our understanding that we have no financial obligation to this Agent.  What is the best way to communicate we are moving-on while retrieving our large deposit check that is held in his real estate office?

A:  We, as Agents, are mandated to log a deposit check into the office as soon as possible.  When an offer is accepted, the office staff will log the check out and forward it to the designated escrow company that is handling the transaction.  If the offer is rejected, the check is promptly returned to the buyer(s).   The Agent should not handle the deposit check once his or her brokerage receives it.  It would be prudent for you to contact the front desk of his office and ask for the check to be returned.   Regardless, you need to call or write this Agent and inform him you are in fact, moving-on.  If you are also working with his Loan Officer, you should make a clean break and hire a new Agent and Loan Officer. Sadly, what you heard was not surprising.  Real Estate Attorneys and FBI Agents remind us that tough times create a new set of scams.  Colluding licensed Agents and Loan Officers who can and will drive creative ways to default federally insured banks while their Buyers or Sellers clients ride along as accomplices.  You’ve witnessed the segment of our industry that can’t compete with an incorruptible professional, or honestly sell and/or negotiate their way out of a paper bag.   The opposite jaw-dropping experience is to observe the results generated by an expert employing a deft skill-set as he/she plays by the rules.   1-8-12

E-mail your residential real estate questions to Pat at: SiliconValleyBroker@gmail.com

Pat Kapowich. Broker/Owner ABR, CRS, GRI & SRES (408) 245-7700

Feb/25/12 @ 9am-12pm

Guest Speaker: Shawn Parr

Buyer and Seller Beware: Only prepared buyers and sellers should enter into transactions involving distressed properties. Short sales, pre-foreclosures and foreclosures are fraught with potential missteps and ramifications that are normally not found in an already stressful situation ~ the buying or selling of a home. Banks have become more aggressive toward buyers, sellers and their representative. Learning all sides of a transaction is paramount when negotiating, especially when the banks have loss mitigation departments that are overwhelmed and/or ill prepared.

Real Estate Shawn Parr is a specialist in lending, escrow, title and bank controlled properties. Pat is a Certified Residential Broker and a contributor to the Saturday Q & A column Market Wise in the San Jose Mercury News.

Be a Savvy Consumer and Learn the Particulars:

• Loan Modifications vs Short Sales

• Short-Sales vs Foreclosures

• Pre-Foreclosure & Foreclosures

• Debt Relief Tax Consequences

• Banks Demanding Loss Repayment

• Agent Contracts vs Bank Contracts

• Dealing with Multiple Lenders

Click Here to Enroll on the De Anza College Website:

Location: De Anza College, G Building, Room G-4