Livermore Real Estate

Listing Volume

The number of new homes coming onto the market showed a slight decrease, I would expect this to continue towards the end of the year.

Livermore Real Estate

Buyers Beware!

Agents try a new tactic!

Recently a new phenomenon has appeared in the local real estate market in the tri-valley.

Many homes in Livermore and homes for sale in Pleasanton are affected.

Several homes have come onto the market at very deep discounts. These are bank owned properties or “REO”s. The asking price is so low that it does not really reflect the true value of the home. For example, a property in Livermore bank owned and 2100 square feet was listed at an asking price of $330,000. The last home similar to it sold and closed for $550,000 one month ago. There currently exists two others similar on the market for the low $500,000s. By listing the property at an artificially low price, the bank and listing Agent aims to get a lot of excitement and activity immediately and encourage multiple offers. The house I give as an example generated over 20 offers in only 4 days on the market! The idea here is to have buyers ‘bid up’ the price by competing with one another!

There is nothing wrong with this of course nor is it unethical, but I do believe that innocent buyers who believe that they are seeing a great deal need to be counseled that their chance of being successful on purchasing one of these homes at these discounted prices even if they offer full or over asking price is unlikely, moreover they are sometimes being led into the competitive bidding war.

Take care before you make an offer to purchase. Make sure you see the last 2 months sales in the neighborhood of similar homes. We are still in a declining market but if something seems too good to be true, probably it is.

Livermore Real Estate

First Time Buyers get a credit.

First time buyers will receive a one time tax credit of up to $7500 if they purchase a home between now and June 2009. There are some limitations and the credit which counts against your tax bill may have to be repaid if the house is sold early. This will definitely help stimulate the market, if you area first time buyer you may want to act now…

Livermore Real Estate

The #1 Issue…

As I talk with homeowners I keep hearing the same story over and over…

“We cannot move because our home price has fallen, In fact we need to wait until prices go back up so we can move to a larger house!”

While it certainly is true that prices are down in Pleasanton and Livermore and that can definitely affect our equity and sales proceeds, I believe we need to look at the big picture. Historically housing is selling today at 2004 prices. This is true all over the country. If you sell today you will net a lot less than 2 years ago no doubt. What is also true and overlooked is that if you sell and at the same time buy a house today, you will pay a lot less than you would have 2 years ago! In fact when most potential sellers analyze their specific situation they can find that it is actually more affordable in real dollar terms to move today, than at anytime in the last 10 years!

For Example…

2005

Sell for $900,000 Buy for $1,500,000

Market price down 18% so now…

2008

Sell for $738,000 Buy for $1,230,000

A $100,000+ cost difference moving today.

This is just one example, and it leads me to believe that there is more of an emotional issue today regarding moving than there is a practical one.

Affordability index up!

Remember when newscasts published the falling ‘affordability index’, a measure of how many could afford to purchase an entry level home in the Bay Area? At one point this was considered to be in the low single digits. Recent statistics show this index for new homebuyers now stands at 44%! Theoretically 44% of the public can now afford an entry level home in the Bay Area. Surely looking forward this is great news for our industry, our kids and will have an impact on job growth.

From California Association of Realtors…

For release:
Tuesday, May 20, 2008

C.A.R. reports entry-level housing affordability rises 18 percentage points in first quarter

LOS ANGELES (May 20)—The percentage of households that could afford to buy
an entry-level home in California stood at 44 percent in the first quarter of 2008,
compared with 26 percent for the same period a year ago, according to a report
released today by the CALIFORNIA ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® (C.A.R.).

C.A.R.’s First-time Buyer Housing Affordability Index (FTB-HAI) measures the
percentage of households that can afford to purchase an entry-level home in
California. C.A.R. also reports first-time buyer indexes for regions and select
counties within the state. The Index is the most fundamental measure of housing
well-being for first-time buyers in the state.

Livermore Real Estate

Could it be..a glimmer of light?

Sales volume is up, and supply is down. For the last 3 months in a row in the Livermore Pleasanton area we have seen the trends indicate a small recovery.

60+ home sales in Livermore was a 20% increase from the month before and the unsold inventory dropped to 8+ months, down from 12 month supply in December 07.

Last week at an open house I had 16 groups through, potential buyers from as far away Walnut Creek and Morgan Hill, buyers poised to execute once their current property sells. The demand is building make no mistake. Falling prices have tenants and fence sitters thinking about buying again. If we are not at the bottom of the market then we must be fairly close and after all people do need somewhere to live.

Click on the tab at the top of the page and search for available homes in you price range and town. To get the most recent statistics for your town click the statistics tab on the right.

Livermore Real Estate

Commissions…Selling without an MLS!

Do you remember a few short summers ago when all the talk was of online Brokers who wanted access to local MLS info to advertise as their own, the purpose being to be able encourage buyers and sellers to use their discounted service? A result could have been a breakup of MLS services. I have just returned from the UK where Real Estate is sold as if we were in the 18th century. There is no online database of all homes for sale, as a result property is still dependent on trade newspaper advertising, although some offices now have their own websites listing their inventory.

In the UK there is no MLS. Each Estate agent (estate agents require no license in the UK) advertises their own listings only. Not only that, the estate agents are reluctant to show even their own listings, in fact you as a buyer are encouraged to contact the seller directly, unescorted and without qualification or screening!

Lawyers do the job that Realtors and title companies do in the USA and for a lot more money!

My point here is for critics of our industry who tout Realtors as being overpaid and the industry itself as lacking competition, look elsewhere, look at what the cost is to sell a home in the UK, to pay an estate agent plus an attorney often at an hourly rate and you will see that we are driven by the forces of perfect competition and the service provided and exposure that results, more than covers our fees.

Livermore Real Estate

Buyer sues Realtor for home price falling!

You read correctly!

As reported this morning on NBCs the today show, a buyer of a $1million+ property in Carlsbad California is suing the Remax agent who represented her and her husband because the value of their property has fallen.

Marty Umell claims her Realtor failed to disclose home prices in the neighborhood before she and her husband made an offer on their Southern California home and that her agent therefore is liable because they overpaid for their house.

The court will hear the case Monday, and this brings up the question, are Realtors liable for house prices falling?

Marty Ummel sues Remax.
The result of this lawsuit could have far reaching repercussions for the industry.

Do agents control the market? Should we be blamed if prices fall? Can we be held liable?

With the wealth of information on neighborhood homesales readily available today one would assume that any buyer would be exposed to an abundance of pricing and demographic information on any neighborhood they were interested in buying into.

The details of the story were not specified ie, when the house was purchased how old were the comparable sales, one of which sold for @$100,000 less 2 or 3 doors away from the subject property. It was also not clear the condition of the properties.

One thing is for sure that irrespective of the outcome, future transactions will contain another disclosure statement to be read and approved by all parties words to the effect

‘Buyers are aware that property values may increase or decrease at any time’.

NBC VIDEO

Livermore Real Estate

Beware Bogus Forms in the mail!

The County of Alameda recently published a warning to all homeowners. Recently there have been solicitations by mail from a private company in a very official looking format offering to file a homeowners exemption with the County for a fee.

This can be done at no charge by filling out a claim form and returning it to the County offices before February 15. File the form and you will save $70/year on your property tax bill. The Homeowners exemption is only for owner occupied property.

Call 510-272 3770 from 8;30 to 5p.m. weekdays.

Livermore Real Estate

What to do with Furniture when you sell…

A question I am asked frequently especially by folks moving out of town, downsizing or just wanting to leave furniture behind, what to do with it?

Here is my own experience. Last month my wife and I decided we had had enough of our large wooden sleigh bed, it was no longer in style and the head and bottom board made it difficult to make the bed (try lifting a king size mattress by yourself) . The solution? We dismantled the bed and took it to the home consignment store in San Ramon. The friendly staff there unloaded it for us and the ladies had it tagged and the paperwork drawn up in minutes.

They will take 40% of the sale, so what I say, they sold it and we just received our check which paid for the new comforter set my wife wanted.

So if you can transport your furniture to San Ramon, they will sell it for you quickly!

Much better than haggling with the buyer of your house over a dinette set and causing ill will. Never allow personal property to sour a Real Estate Purchase please!

You know the best part from a scotsmans point of view is that the consignment store is where we bought the bed used in the first place and we sold it after 8 years for about half of what we paid…not bad if I say so myself.

When sellers are getting ready to sell and if they could use some staging help, perhaps they need artwork, then the consignment store is the place to find almost new art pieces of  various sizes at reasonable prices. Often new home tracts empty their model home furnishings into consignment stores like this and so it can be a great place to find a deal!

Livermore Real Estate

“Now is the time to Buy”…Donald Trump

Last night on CNBC, Donald trump was featured on a question and answer show on Real Estate. The audience asked several key questions but the most important was on timing.

When asked if this year would be a good time to enter the market he replied definitely, reason being that a buyer can negotiate a very good price on property that they could not have done a year or two ago.

He added that 2008 should see the bottom of the market being reached and a gradual recovery in late 2008, early 2009.

For the full story.

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