Real Estate Blog

The real estate auctions that happened before 2005 were more of trustee sales that took place in front of the house being auctioned. If you were to participate in those auctions, you would surely get a great deal, but there were drawbacks as well. If you won the bid with the highest amount then you were required to pay cash in full. Also you were not given an opportunity to inspect the house. Ther...

Do you own a home which has negative equity and are wondering how this occurred? The answer is simple. Negative equity occurs when you purchase a home using a home loan and the home prices begin to decline due to economic slowdown. The home value now decreases below the value principally on mortgage. This condition is called negative equity. It can be calculated by taking the value of the home, le...

Certified Distressed Property Expert- Linda Hess

LINDA HESS of GREATWEST GMAC REAL ESTATE, 2235 Douglas Blvd.#520, Roseville, Ca. has earned the prestigious Certified Distressed Property Expert (CDPE) designation, having completed extensive training in foreclosure avoidance and short sales. This is invaluable expertise to offer at a time when the area is ravaged by “distressed” homes in ...

Real Estate - A Great Long Term Investment

GreatWest GMAC Real Estate professionals know real estate is a good long-term investment. Although home values have stalled or experienced decline in recent years, longer snapshots in time have proved real estate to be a fantastic investment.

Let’s consider one scenario provided by a real estate professional. If someone were fortunate e...

Troubled homeowners wrestle with loan holders

By Kevin G. Hall

http://www.sacbee.com/business/story/2111186.html?storylink=pd

WASHINGTON – Nearly three years into the deepest U.S. housing slump in generations, lenders are modifying only a small number of problem mortgages, and rising foreclosures are restraining the economy’s recovery.

The Obama administr...

Construction: New land deals seen

By Jim Wasserman
jwasserman@sacbee.com

http://www.sacbee.com/business/story/2080102.html?storylink=pd

The real estate market isn’t cured yet, but several indicators suggest that it is beginning that long, slow and greatly anticipated climb out of intensive care.

If so – and if the patterns continue – the market here ...

July 22 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. home prices had the smallest annual drop in 10 months, signaling the free fall of property values is abating in the three-year housing slump at the center of a global recession.

Prices declined 5.6 percent in May from a year earlier and rose 0.9 from April, the Federal Housing Finance Agency in Washington said today. Economists expected a 0.2 percent drop for ...

Home Front: How assessor slashes property values

By Jim Wasserman
jwasserman@sacbee.com

http://www.sacbee.com/business/story/2014910.html

This week the Sacramento County Assessor’s Office – and more like it across the great foreclosure belts of California – chopped property values again on nearly everything built in the housing boom.

The value slash...

Repo business soars as Sacramento area home sales slump

By Jim Wasserman
jwasserman@sacbee.com

http://www.sacbee.com/topstories/story/2002300.html

At the beginning, Alejandro Maybuena lost the Sacramento house he bought in April 2005 for $350,000. At the end, in early 2009, Kim Gish bought it for $109,000.

Stories like this have happened more than 40,000 ...

Small banks start feeling financial stress

By Charles Piller
cpiller@sacbee.com


http://www.sacbee.com/topstories/story/2000836.html

At first, the Sacramento region’s small, business-oriented community banks appeared to have sidestepped the plight of banking titans that staggered under the burden of home mortgage defaults. Now some are showing signs of st...

Foreclosure filings up sharply over last year

http://www.sacbee.com/business/story/1933547.html

Lenders made a daily average of 203 foreclosure filings against struggling borrowers in El Dorado, Placer, Sacramento and Yolo counties in the past year, according to Santa Ana-based real estate tracker First American CoreLogic.

Borrowers in the region received 74,348 notices,...

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s new rules are raising appraisal costs, critics say

http://www.latimes.com/classified/realestate/news/la-fi-harney17-2009may17,0,5903005.story

The rules, intended to improve the accuracy of home valuations, push most large lenders to use third-party appraisal management companies.


Reporting from Washington -- How about this scenario...

Home Front: First-time buyers reap reward of median price in Sacramento County

Jim Wasserman
jwasserman@sacbee.com

http://www.sacbee.com/business/story/1863568.html

For all the pain and trouble associated with this housing bust, one thing is clear: It’s getting better and better for first-time buyers.

And few places beat Sacramento, according to a ne...

Zillow: Many in area owe more than home is worth

http://www.sacbee.com/business/story/1837044.html

Home values in El Dorado, Placer, Sacramento and Yolo counties dropped by $7.3 billion in the first three months of 2009 and have lost $40 billion in the past year, according to online real estate evaluator Zillow.com.

The Seattle firm estimates that 35.4 percent of homeown...

Questions and Answers Surrounding Short Sales

As homeowners grapple with declining home values, and in some instances, mortgage payments that have dramatically increased, GreatWest GMAC Real Estate professionals are increasingly be queried about Short Sales.

Often a seller will become concerned because they are unable to make house payments, but do still have an ability to make ...

As homeowners grapple with declining home values, and in some instances, mortgage payments that have dramatically increased, GreatWest GMAC Real Estate professionals are increasingly be queried about Short Sales.

Often a seller will become concerned because they are unable to make house payments, but do still have an ability to make all or part payment of the negative equity. They may hop...

Don’t believe me when I say now is a good time to be in the real estate business? Check out this article from the Wall Street Journal:

The Wall Street Journal, June Fletcher (03/27/2009)

The housing market is looking healthier. Here are six reasons why now is the time to jump into the market.

1. Uncle Sam is willing to help. First-time buyers (defined as anyone w...

Submitted by Harry Hass, Associate Broker
I just attended the 11th Public hearing input meeting for the State Water Resource Board (SWRCB) where the bureaucrats are warning us of more government regulations coming down the pipe for Onsite Wastewater Treatment Systems (OWTS), better known as private septic systems.

I was born and raised in California and love this state. Here in Humbo...

Submitted by Harry Hass, Associate Broker
I just attended the 11th Public hearing input meeting for the State Water Resource Board (SWRCB) where the bureaucrats are warning us of more government regulations coming down the pipe for Onsite Wastewater Treatment Systems (OWTS), better known as private septic systems.

I was born and raised in California and love this state. Here in Humbo...

News accountings confirm what GreatWest GMAC Real Estate Professionals, and many other real estate agents and brokers know.

According to MSNBC, Homeowners and Sellers, continue to struggle to "get real" with their home values. Despite continual media accounts disclosing the dismal housing situation and reports demonstrating plunging home values, some owners and home sellers, hang onto i...

Recently a GreatWest GMAC Real Estate professional was lamenting about a couple "For Sale" signs on a home in her community. It had previously been a well kept home, but now appeared more ragged around the edges.

A real estate "For Sale" sign was hanging from the traditional post planted on the front lawn. But a smaller sign hung around the neck (or bow) of "The Unforgiven" - a large bo...

Now more than ever before, Sellers are asking GreatWest GMAC Real Estate professionals, “How can I sell my home for the BEST PRICE, in the SHORTEST AMOUNT OF TIME, with the MOST FAVORABLE TERMS?”

It is imperative that the home be PRICED RIGHT. . .from the start!
There are many things that affect the value of a home, and in today’s market it’s even more important to be sure...

Now more than ever before, Sellers are asking GreatWest GMAC Real Estate professionals, “How can I sell my home for the BEST PRICE, in the SHORTEST AMOUNT OF TIME, with the MOST FAVORABLE TERMS?”

It is imperative that the home be PRICED RIGHT. . .from the start!
There are many things that affect the value of a home, and in today’s market it’s even more important to be sure...

As homeowners grapple with declining home values, and in some instances, mortgage payments that have dramatically increased, GreatWest GMAC Real Estate professionals are increasingly be queried about Short Sales.

Often a seller will become concerned because they are unable to make house payments, but do still have an ability to make all or part payment of the negative equity. They may ho...

Is your home or property one which has sat on the market month after month? Are you pulling your hair out trying to explore the elusive reason your home continues to remain unsold?

Well, the answer may not be as puzzling as you think. Professionals at Great West GMAC Real Estate know the natural laws of the market are usually quite predictable. And a little analysis should reveal the t...

Will it be faster than smoke through a keyhole?
Housing recoveries are often rapid.

There is no question we are in a cool down of the real estate market here in the Greater Sacramento area, but let me explain to you what I think makes this cool down, or correction, so different than the melt down we experienced in the early 1990s.

In the late 1980s and throughout much of 1990...

Swanepoel speaks out

RISMEDIA, August 13, 2007–The public media this past week headlined the apparent surprise “mortgage meltdown” as many reported the filing for bankruptcy protection by the nation’s 10th-largest residential financer; American Home Mortgage Investment Corp., Melville, New York. Real estate, contradictory to its glamorous profile a year or two ago, was again headlined but...