Bank Owned Homes- a couple of good ones

I see bank owned houses every day. Scores of them in a month. I don't show them to you unless the have some redeeming quality. So, check these out:

In this case, this home caught my eye because I think of this neighborhood as Northridge. This is due to the fact that the Northridge border is at Devonshire, and this home is north of that. It's in that area south of the 118 but west of Balboa, but this island of land is Granada Hills. So call it "Northridge adjacent". The other thing that caught my eye was that this is a single family home for under $500k in Granada Hills. It's priced at $399,900! As with all bank owned homes, this one has problems. There's issues inside and out; the yard the paint, the roof, and the pool are all in a state of disrepair. I like to estimate high because it turns out closer to reality for a first pass. I figure 15k to make the pool right. It needs the whole filter pump and heater thing. Plus a minimum of an acid wash but probably replaster and spruce up the deck surround and coping, maybe with some brick ribbons. Another 5-6k for paint, 10k for the roof, 8 k for infrastructure (electrical, HVAC, Hot water heater) 20 k for bathrooms and floors, 6 k for the kitchen appliances, another 6k for materials like granite. what's that come to? $71,000. Add 20% for contingencies. Because your crew always finds some issue you hadn't budgeted on. So, that's a budget of 85,000 +/-. With the cost of the property ( say no competition, because this place is SO bad)of 350,000. Add Landscaping. 6 k. That brings your all-in to $441,000. Will it flip at this price? Sure, but factor in holding costs and commissions and you are getting your profit margin dangerously thin. So it goes. If you're an end user, this makes sense. Borrow hard money to get it all done, then refi. THAT works!

This one caught my eye because I know the neighborhood; it's way out in the tulies of Moorpark, off the 118 west of the 23.It's the last outpost of civilization. After this neighborhood is the serious farmland of Ventura County that stretches all the way to West Ventura and inland off the 126 to Santa Paula, Fillmore, and Piru. But they are new-ish homes that run 4-5 BR and 3-4 Baths and are over 3,000 square feet.

What do you get in exchange for living 40 minutes past Calabasas? A Huge house at a great price! This one is 5 bedrooms, 4 baths, with almost 3200 square feet. And like the home in Northridge -adjacent, this one needs some huge work undertakings. It DOES NEED MOLD MITIGATION which scares the bejeesus out of many people, but it's simple to do for the pros. 20k. And a new Roof 15k. New Floors and Paint. 15k. Landscape/tree trimming. 10k. The price here is what really caught my eye. $553,400, which works out to $173.37 a foot!!! You can't build it for cheaper than that. If you're a flipper, there's not enough upside there for the trouble; comps run high 500s low 600s. For an owner, you could come out ahead. So, feeling brave?



I have lots of experience negotiating with banks, let me put that to work for YOU.

(805) 907-5211

Deducting Mortgage Interest: not so fast!

Here's a Tax question for you: Husband and wife purchase a home. They get the money from Hubby's mom, who is loaded, and execute a note secured by the house. It's payable interest only for 30 years. Is the interest paid on the note secured by the home deductible? Of course, right? Not so fast. Recently a tax court ruled AGAINST homebuyers in this situation. Know why? Well, IRS publication #936 specifically stated the criteria for interest on a home mortgage to be deductible. Quoting:

Secured Debt


You can deduct your home mortgage interest only if your mortgage is a secured debt. A secured debt is one in which you sign an instrument (such as a mortgage, deed of trust, or land contract) that:

Makes your ownership in a qualified home security for payment of the debt,

Provides, in case of default, that your home could satisfy the debt, and

Is recorded or is otherwise perfected under any state or local law that applies.

It's that third one that is important. VERY IMPORTANT. In the case above, mom had not bothered to have the note RECORDED in the county where the home was located. So the interest deduction could not be taken.

Always make sure your mortgage note is recorded, especially if you got the money from family instead of a traditional source.

Working with me and my team of professionals will get your home sold quickly at the highest price. And when you buy you'll be secure in the knowledge we have set you up for maximum success when dealing with Taxes.

SELLING YOUR HOME FAST

I have a great track record when I list a home. Generally speaking, the home sells within 36 hours. Why? Well, I have a really good handle on the market. It's my job to know this stuff, and I do. The only time I list a home that it doesn't sell is when the seller does not listen to my advice. First, be aware everyone thinks their home is the best one on the street. It's even worse with Realtors. I can't explain this, but just be aware your home's extra 1000 sq. ft. lot size is not going to swing things one way or another. If you want to sell your home fast at the highest possible price, listen to me. I'm here to help. Just remember I do this for a living, and you don't. So here's the factors I use to arrive at the sell quick price:

1. The Comps. If we all got the price we wanted for our homes, without considering the rest of the market, what a wonderful world it would be. But here in the real world, ‘Comps’ is just industry shorthand for sales data on similar homes near yours which were recently listed and/or sold (“comparable” listings and sales). Moreover, this info is directly used to justify your purchase price to your lender. This is hard info, not sentiment. It wipes away all the "look at my beautiful roses" talk from the equation. I can provide you with your home’s comps; also, check them out by searching your address and general area for homes similar to yours. This can be done on Google. While you should view the actual sales prices (vs. list prices) of comps that have recently closed escrow as very informative and influential for your pricing decision, the list prices of homes that are lagging on the market can also help educate you about what price points buyers in your area see as too high.

2. DOM [Days on Market]. The MLS will provide with the comps and the listings you find here online should also contain information about how long the various listings in your market have been on the market. You can use this information - or your agent do the math for you - to get a gauge on what the average DOM, or Days on Market, is in your neighborhood. This empowers you to look at the comps with more nuance and to use them more strategically to influence your own pricing decision; you will ideally want to price your home in line with properties that went pending and/or sold in a time frame at or shorter than the average time homes in your area stay on the market. On a micro level, always , always price your home less than anything in the neighborhood; you don't want to be the pioneer trying to get the record price. These are generalities, and there ARE exceptions. The homes that have lingered on much longer than that may be overpriced and may even require a list price reduction to sell; and that’s a club you don’t want to join.

3. List price vs. sale price. Here, LP stands for ‘list price’ and ‘SP’ stands for ‘sale price or ‘sold price.’ This comparison - sometimes expressed in a ratio, other times in terms of how many percentage points the sale price was over or under the asking price - gets at the difference, if any, between what sellers are asking for homes in your area vs. what buyers in your area are willing and able to pay. When homes are selling for more than the asking price as a pattern or average, this usually suggests that your market is more of a seller’s market or that multiple offers are commonplace. And the opposite is often true - when homes typically sell for less than the list price, it indicates that buyers may have superior negotiating power.

Do the math and to understand its implications for your own pricing decisions, as they are not always completely obvious. For example, an agent might be able to point out patterns you don’t automatically see, like the increasingly common one in which well-staged, vacant homes that are listed at a slight discount are the ones that typically sell for significantly over asking.

4. Competition Level. How many homes are competing with yours for the hearts, minds and wallets of qualified buyers? How has the number of competing homes on the market trended over time, recently? Many areas have reported an ongoing decline in competition - less supply is good for sellers, but you need to know what’s going on in your area; don’t try to apply national headlines to your local, personal real estate decisions. This is frequently common in this day of Zillow and Trulia. Not everything there is germane to your specific location.
As you work to understand competition levels and their impact on your pricing, here’s what not to do:
•Don’t just look up and down the street, or in your subdivision - also look at similar homes in nearby neighborhoods or even nearby towns that a buyer who likes what your home might also target.

•And don’t just look at quantity - look at the quality, or nature of the competing listings. Is the competition mostly comprised of ‘regular’ equity sales, short sales or foreclosures/REOs? If you’re a regular sale in a sea of foreclosures, your price competition might be steep, but there may be other advantages of your listing that can offset that, to a degree.
So, what should you do? Get your agent to help you understand the competition level and the trends in number of listings on the market in recent months. Then, crash some of the competing listings’ Open Houses to scope out their condition and collect the rest of the intel listed here, before factoring it into your pricing decisions.


5. Timing. If your neighborhood’s award-winning school district or abundant colleges drive much of the buyer demand, you might be able to ask or get more for your home in June than in October, once the school year is in full swing. If you live where it snows, listing it while it’s easy for buyers to get around might pay off, literally. There are a number of area-specific timing considerations that you may need to calculate into setting your just-right list price. Chances are good that you know what they are where you live, but your agent may have some novel insight on the matter, as well. Universally, most homes sell between March and July.

6. Motivation Levels. How motivated are you? Are you just testing out the market to see if you can hit a target number, or do you need to have escrow closed by a particular date to make your life and job plans run smoothly? What is your primary motivation? Price, timing, closure, making sure your home passes into caring hands or just getting rid of a home or a mortgage that no longer serves you?
And how motivated are buyers in your area? From insights like: •Average number of days on market •Average list price vs. sale price •Trends in comparable sales - their number and sales prices •Trends in interest rates •Trends in competition levels •And insights like where you are in the seasonal changes that impact buyers in your area

You can work with your listing agent to gauge whether buyers are so motivated that they will not be deterred by a premium list price, or whether you’ll need to use a discount or value-based price to churn up motivation in a market of fence-sitting buyers.


7. Agent and Market Feedback. So, you came up with a list price that you thought was ‘just-right,’ but you’ve had little or no Open House traffic or private showings. Or you got lots of showings, but no offers - or nothing but lowballs, anyway. It’s not too late to get to the ‘just-right’ list price for your home; in fact, time is of the essence if you want to take advantage of the swelling levels of buyer interest and activity that has sprung this Spring. In many scenarios where a home lags on the market, the list price was set or maintained against the express advice of the listing agent, who urged the seller to list it lower. Or maybe you and your agent agreed on pricing early on, but they’ve been asking you for a price reduction for months now. If you trust your listing agent, and they have a strong background for getting homes in your area sold on today’s market, then it behooves you to at least take their pricing advice seriously, whether or not you follow it to the letter.

If you need more data before you make the understandably scary move of cutting your list price, ask your agent to ask for feedback from the brokers and agents who have shown the property or attended Open Houses - or even to run the property past their own colleagues at their office or marketing meetings. Once you have this input - listen to it and factor it in, along with the other factors. Sometimes it's some simple fix instead of taking a hit of $5,000 or more. Call me with any questions or for an honest opinion of the value of your home. (805) 907-5211

NOT IN THE MLS!

I found this house today that is not in the MLS yet. Pat of the bonus you get as my readership is when I find things like this, I'll tell you about them.
please excuse this photo; I only had Google maps available!
This home is freshly redone , a 3 Bedroom 2 Bath "MODEL PERFECT" home , with a great POOL and SPA, great patio, ...this is the California dream right here! It's in the Oakbrook Development and will be listing in the $ 580,000 price range! If you have been looking in TO , call me and I can show you this gem any time. First Come First Served!

Seattle’s micro-housing boom offers an affordable alternative

I Love Seattle. I don't know why I didn't follow through on my dreams in the 80's of moving there. Probably because the kids didn't understand and would not leave their friends, which at the time were the most important aspect of their young lives. Many notable trends emerged from Seattle. Among them is Micro housing. The Seattle Times have featured several young architects leading this trend for several years now. This article is just the latest.
At last count, 780 micro-housing units were cleared for occupancy in Seattle, with another 1,598 units in the pipeline. No other American city comes close.


THE SMELL of garlic rises from the frying pan as two women in flannel pajama pants and beige slippers sauté shrimp and noodles on a range top in a shared kitchen just inside the main entrance to the apartment building.

As they cook, a steady stream of sneaker-clad tenants, some walking dogs, stride down the hall toward the elevator. They barely glance into the kitchen despite the pungent aromas and the conversation taking place around the square, steel table that dominates the room.

The women make fast work of the cooking, then quickly clean up and head back to their apartment to study over steaming bowls of noodles. “They’re the only ones I’ve seen use the kitchen, but then, I really don’t use the physical space that much,’’ says Jesse Yem, 21, a psychology major at Seattle University who has lived here for five months. “I come here to sleep, and that’s about it.’’

Footprint 1806, a micro-apartment building on 23rd Avenue, has 61 sleeping rooms and common kitchens. (Benjamin Benschneider / The Seattle Times)
In fact, he’s home now only because he got a rare break between school and work as a part-time IT assistant, and returned to take a shower. His typical routine: “I get home from work, relax a little bit, go to sleep, wake up and go to class.” His meals usually consist of ramen, bagels or all manner of sandwich. Yem, whose thick black hair hangs over sleepy eyes, occupies one of the 92 micro-units at Alder Flats, a clean, modern, seven-story complex that occupies a city block between 10th and 11th streets on the edge of First Hill, a few blocks from Seattle U, where old multifamily housing once sat. It’s Yem’s first venture in solo living, and he’s still adjusting to the silence and the cost of living: $1,000 for 200 square feet, utilities and Wi-Fi included. It’s a lot for a small space, but in pure dollar terms, it’s a deal, he says. Other complexes nearby rent for hundreds more, don’t include utilities and usually rent to people with established credit or rental histories. “I’m perfectly fine with my apartment,’’ says Yem. “It’s not outrageous compared to other places on the hill.”

In a year or two, he’ll probably be living with his girlfriend or starting a new job, he says. But, for now, his tiny piece of the city is home, just as it is for thousands of others living in small apartments and even smaller rooms off and on the grid throughout the city. Their desire to live alone in the most dense and urban parts of the city, and their willingness to trade space for amenities, represents a seismic shift in the way people live in Seattle.

TINY APARTMENTS are hardly a new thing, but they’ve attracted attention and controversy here because developers have been building them at a quick clip — sometimes over the objections of neighbors — and filling them quickly with people seeking rents that match their circumstances and mobile lifestyles. The first of the breed, an aPodment development on 23rd Avenue East, opened in 2009 with 46 dormlike sleeping rooms with common kitchens. It was the brainchild of the late Bellevue developer Jim Potter, who found a loophole in Seattle’s building regulations. At the time, the city allowed up to eight unrelated people to live in one “dwelling” with a shared kitchen. The code didn’t say the rooms had to be tied together as a single unit, so Potter built a cross between an apartment building and a boardinghouse, where someone could rent a sleeping room as small as 100 square feet with a private bath and share a kitchen with up to seven others renters. A micro-housing building spree ensued that gave Seattle more such units than any city in the country. At last count, 782 micro-housing units were cleared for occupancy in Seattle, with another 1,598 units in the pipeline. No other American city comes close. Once the pipeline is cleared, though, no future Potter-style hybrids will be allowed: The city changed the rules in October after neighbors railed against the projects. Congregate housing — group housing arrangements such as dorms and senior housing that use common areas — is still allowed.

But in the future, micro-housing will mean efficiency apartments of at least 220 square feet, each with its own bath and kitchen. Potter’s idea lives on elsewhere. His former partner, Cathy Reines, now of Koz Development of Portland, says her company has plans to expand the concept nationwide. Reines, speaking at a recent conference, says micro-housing evolved from the early town-home-style developments that featured sleeping rooms of 150 to 180 square feet with shared bathrooms and small shared kitchens, to the more modern buildings with larger units.
Architect Jay Janette was at ground zero for Potter’s first micro-housing project, and has designed 21 micro-housing projects in Seattle, Redmond and Kirkland. “I didn’t realize it was going to take off like a rocket,’’ he says of his first project with Potter. We’re seated at a conference table in the modest storefront office of Janette Architecture Planning Design, a residential architectural firm located below the Kickin’ Boot in Ballard.

It’s an open space that feels larger than its footprint thanks to south-facing floor-to-ceiling windows, and a floor plan that places employees in close quarters, their desks pushed together in groups. Janette lives in a two-bedroom bungalow in Ballard with his wife and their three children, so personally and professionally, he’s steeped in the challenges of living small. “People need to be able to bathe; they need to be able to sleep; they need to be able to be safe; they need to be able to have personalized space, something they can call their own,’’ Janette says. “People also need community.” Janette designed the initial projects with students in mind. He was surprised when young professionals and even older adults started moving in. The tenants, he says, “don’t spend a lot of time at home. They go to work, go out and spend time with their friends. They go out to eat, and then go home and do it again. . . . And because of the location, they can live in the city, and the city is an extension of how they live and where they live.”

Janette says two factors are critical to micro-housing: light and height. Earlier designs tended to be tall and skinny to accommodate higher ceilings and capture sunlight; more recent designs include atriums that bring light inside. Micro-living requires a ruthless eye for economy. “What the micros have taught me is that there are a lot of people out there who don’t have as much stuff as I do and don’t need that stuff,” Janette says. “I mean, think about how much of your living space just goes to storage. Footprint (a micro-housing developer) has this great tagline: ‘It’s just what you need.’ ” MORE

And now a word from our sponsors

Here at Coldwell Banker we have lots of listings coming on line which may interest you. I'm posting my favorites from today's broker tour:



2203 Fernleaf, in the Sunset Hills area just above Sunset Hills Country Club

This is a really great home, and it's SINGLE STORY.

Of course it's got a great floorplan and a kitchen done to the nines that opens to a family room and is adjoined by a breakfast room.

Another great feature is vaulted ceilings. This Living room is glassed in and is on the other side of the dining room which lends a formal air and sense of privacy.

the master really takes advantage of the high ceilings and features glass doors out to the yard, which adjoins dedicated open space.

The master bath features a large glass shower with a jetted tub. This is a great home and is featured at $799,000! That's a killer deal. If you need a long escrow you've found it: The seller wants to rent back until July. CALL ME to see this and other wonderful homes

Bluetooth Garage Door Opener!

OK, folks. It's coming right down the highway at you. Your phone will do/does everything. Especially remote controls. Thanks to RealtyBizNews for the nuts and bolts of this article.

Its time you turn your phone into more than just a phone/CandyCrush game console! Mentioned below are some of the currently available DIY or off-the-shelf solutions in the market to help you control your garage door remotely.

1. Controlling Your Garage Door With Samsung HM1100 Bluetooth Headset

THIS ONE IS FOR EXPERIENCED HACKERS ONLY To begin with, you are required to have a Samsung HM1100 Bluetooth Headset or you can purchase one from a suitable vendor. Next, break open the earpiece on the Headset and solder any one of the earpiece wires to a transistor’s base pin. Also solder the black and red wires to the other pins of the transistor. Now connect the red and black wires to your garage door openers. Here you will be making use of your Bluetooth headset’s audio amplifier for sending signals to your garage door opener. There’s a dedicated app on Android specially to make this process much simpler.

GarageMate is the app that is trusted by hundreds as the most secure garage door opener. It can be installed effortlessly within 2 minutes and guarantees to keep trespassers at bay. In case someone else is also using the same app, they will not be able to access your garage without your permission. The app is compatible with Liftmaster, Wayne-Dalton, Chamberlain, Somfy, AccessMaster and all other garage openers build in last 30 years.

2. Making Use Of Hiq Automation Iopener

The HiQ Automation iOpener is developed by Steve Szymke and Joshua Gramlich. The device is a small box, which can be attached with your current garage door opener within minutes and can then be paired with your smartphone via Bluetooth. HiQ iOpener allows you to set a 16-digit security code to ensure that no one else can gain illicit entry into your garage.

3. Tap It Open

There’s another app in the market that efficiently takes advantage of the Bluetooth technology and helps you manage your garage door from your smartphone. An easy to install app, it is fairly loaded with security features and provides you with the freedom to access a garage door at your convenience – Tap it Open works efficiently well on all android powered smart phones. The app takes full advantage of Bluetooth security and supports smart phones password protection feature too. Tap it Open provides you the opportunity to forget worrying about anyone stealing your garage door opener. IPhone versions are also available. These application work best for residential and commercial garage doors.

4. Daisy Bluetooth Multi-Thing Controller

For this you are required to have a Daisy Bluetooth Multi-Thing Controller. With Bluetooth Multi-Thing Control Kit you get USB power adapter, USB Cable, Bluetooth breakout board and free android software to interact with your smart phone. You do not require any soldering here. The controller contains screw terminals and control switches on the board. So, there you have it! What are you waiting for? Your garage door is often the face for your home. For maximum curb appeal, make sure it looks good and runs well.

Back after a short leave

I just could not get my old information to work to access this blog, so I blew it off. But since eblogger has merged with Google, I got in using googleplus!

My company has merged with Coldwell Banker and ironically I'm back at the same Coldwell Banker Office I worked for in the 90s. Very deja vu.