As a real estate agent, I want a loan officer who is knowledgeable, ethical, and who cares about the transaction going as smoothly as possible.  A person who will keep my clients’ best interest foremost in their thinking at all times.  Someone who is persistent and will ‘go the extra mile’ to work through any obstacles that may arise.

I want a professional who is available and responsive.  If I need an amended approval or a question answered over the weekend, I want to know I’ll be able to reach them or a qualified assistant to help me out. 

But first and foremost, I want to work with someone who considers me as a member of their TEAM — who returns my calls and keeps me in the loop — updating me as the process progresses, so everyone knows what is going on and so there are no surprises at closing.

I suggest that, as a buyer, you look not only at interest rates and fees but also at how responsive the loan officer is to your particular needs — first of all does he or she invite your questions, then do they actually take the time to explain and educate you (rather than a “don’t worry, you don’t need to understand, just trust me” attitude)?  Do they speak in a manner that is understandable to you?  Are they willing to be flexible and accommodate your schedule?  Do they give you the guidance needed to provide them what they need?  Will they make themselves readily available by your preferred method of communication (whether phone or email) to respond to concerns that come up following the initial meeting? 

Transaction managing a loan process involves much more than determining your creditworthiness and verifying your income.  A loan officer needs also to understand the home purchasing process and the unique requirements of various sellers  — whether the  seller is a bank that has already foreclosed, a homeowner who is moving toward foreclosure (and who requires cooperation from their lender), a seller who simply wants to minimize any costs associated with selling or the seller who just wants it done as quickly as possible — each demand different strategies, all require close tracking of the  transaction process and the attentiveness to troubleshoot  any possible difficulties before they have become problems. 

I suggest using a loan officer who friends or family have successfully used or a professional your agent recommends rather than someone chosen from the Sunday paper simply because they offer “the best rate”.  Rates and terms will change over the course of your house hunting, but the ability of a loan agent to be responsive and truly helpful will be consistently required throughout the transaction.

Graton is also in an ideal central location for enjoying the diverse pleasures of Sonoma County living — a short drive to the redwoods, the ocean, and the seafood houses of Bodega Bay, it is surrounded by an abundance of world class wineries. First-rate live entertainment is a hop-skip away to the 6th Street Playhouse, the Wells Fargo Center, and the Summer Repertory Theater, all in Santa Rosa, or to the Cinnabar Theater in Petaluma, with many established and some experimental community theaters and music venues scattered throughout the area. Graton is also not far from downtown Healdsburg’s fine dining and shopping, Santa Rosa’s multiple malls, the Petaluma outlet mall, and is close to the heart of the Russian River resort area in Guerneville — home of the annual Stump Town Parade, the Blues and Jazz Festival, and Sonoma County’s Gay Pride Parade.

Graton is a place for folks who love their privacy as well as community — rednecks, yuppies, good ol’ boys and sassy gals, political neophytes and aging 60’s activists, communal gardeners, solitary working artists, craftspeople and Makers, collaborators, housekeepers, day laborers, retirees and entrepreneurs — all live here in harmony. Graton has two Buddhist centers and a Christian elementary school.  Downtown Graton is home to several long standing businesses — two award winning dining establishments which attract customers from countywide and beyond (Willow Wood and Under Wood, owned by the same people and located directly across the street from each other — why not, if nothing succeeds like success!?), Mexico Lindo (love the chicken flautas), Mr Ryder’s (an antique store, named after a dog)  and the Graton Gallery, a top-quality local artists’ showplace.   A block south of main street is a unique art gallery, Funeria, open primarily by appointment, the first in the nation devoted entirely to funerary art.  It is housed in the Atelier One, a studio/office complex, home to a variety of designers and artists, created from a defunct cannery building.  A biking/walking/horse trail runs along the western side of town which you can take a few miles in one direction or the other to either Forestville or Sebastopol.

Housing is a hodgepodge assortment of about 500 homes within a mile radius of the ‘downtown core’ with about 1000 people living in them. Of these less than 40 homes have sold over the last 3 years — at a median price (if you leave out the two condos and the one 1.1 million dollar sale) of $497,599 .  Graton is not known for its  hip or folksy vintage architecture, though it has some of each. Most homes built prior to the 70’s are extremely modest and, except for a few built before the 1920’s, not particularly architecturally interesting. The majority of housing was built 1970 – 2000.

Local builder Orrin Thiessen and a few other forward-looking souls did an admirable job of renovating the block-and-a-half long downtown in the late 1990’s, recapturing some of the character of its early 1900’s origins’.  But people don’t move to Graton for the aesthetics of the built environment. Graton’s unique claim to fame is first and foremost, Place. As the old real estate adage tells us: long term value derives from ‘location, location, location’.

People love the live-and-let-live social environment and the absolutely fabulous weather. In my opinion Graton’s climate is the best in the county: not too wet and not too dry, not too windy, not too hot and not too cold. Sitting just west of the Laguna de Santa Rosa and just east of Atascadero Creek, on ancient Pomo and Miwok settlement grounds; to me it seems a sacred spot, an energy center rivaling Sedona in its ability to support an experience of well-being and peace.

What else can I say? It is a little piece of paradise.
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It’s my intent for this to be the first of many opinion pieces on the delightful qualities of the many small communities scattered across the countryside and within the larger towns of Sonoma County. I welcome you to contribute yours.

So, just slightly over half of all sales would be classified as “normal”— presumably sold by a seller under no duress.  However in this economic climate, making such a statement is not really an accurate representation.  The truth of the matter being that many normal sellers were not doing so under happy circumstances.  Especially those in the higher price range, who sold for much less than they’d paid — but, because they’d made large down payments when purchasing, the proceeds exceeded the amount owed, or they paid “out of pocket” to make up the difference, so these were not reported as short sales. 

The Up Side: For buyers this has created some tremendous opportunities for purchasing a property at a huge discount.  For normal sale sellers — since they can deliver detailed disclosures (which an REO sale does not offer) and can control the sale closing date (which a short sale seller cannot do) — they have an advantage.  If a seller prices their property commensurate with today’s market, makes a reasonable effort to present the property at its best, and makes it easy to show — oddly enough, though this is often referred to as a buyer’s market’,  they can expect to generate multiple offers and look forward to working with a very appreciative buyer.   

Many buyers are disenchanted with the uncertainties of  the short sale process or  the exaggerated “buyer beware” character of an REO purchase, so they’ll pay above distressed property comparables for the benefit of purchasing from an owner-seller who takes pride in their property and who is capable of controlling the timing of the transaction. 

The Future: I do not expect the ratio of distressed to normal property sales to change much in 2011.  However, if lenders devise more efficient systems for processing distressed sales, we may see some lessening of the perceived benefit offered by normal sellers, making their unique product offering less meaningful to buyers and putting downward pressure on the pricing of these properties.

If you’re considering buying through a short sale process please visit my Unique Service for Short Sale Buyers page.  If you’re interested in purchasing a foreclosure property please visit Unique Service for Foreclosure Buyers.

 Want more info?  Email or give me a call — this is my life, this is the stuff I deal with everyday, I enjoy  sharing my knowledge.

Of these, the most career-shifting was a teaser presentation, called “Tech Double Shot”, which lead to my enrolling in the National Association of Realtors e-Pro Technology Program — Web 2.0 and Social Media — and becoming certified as an e-PRO Internet Professional.

AND, they didn’t even take into account the many classes I took elsewhere.  That I also completed two, two-days each, Build It Green courses to become certified as an Advanced Green Building Professional, plus six all-day and 3 half-day PG&E sponsored energy conservation training classes — on topics ranging from air sealing and insulating to retrofitting crawlspaces to incentives and rebates available for implementing green building practices.

OR that I also attended monthly Build It Green guild meetings, plus an all-day and a half-day Leadership Sustainability conference, made two visits to the first Passive House being built in California while under construction, and attended probably a dozen other green and social media related events.

AND, that as a Certified Distressed Property Expert I also participated in monthly webinars covering the latest  news on short sales and alternatives available for folks caught in the trap of house payments they can no longer afford.

Why do I devote so much time to these endeavors? We live in a rapidly changing society, where “business as usual” — no matter how high quality one’s service has been in the past — is often not adequate to meet the needs of today’s real estate client. In response I’ve made it my business to educate and arm myself with skills required by this new and continually shifting marketplace.

I also pledge to continue my dedication to learning — to providing my clients with the service they should expect and demand from a well compensated real estate professional. But at the same time I know that I will never know everything that may be required in every circumstance. Therefore, of equal importance is the time I spend getting to know and checking the references of other professionals and specialists — so, when my clients need assistance that is outside the realm of my expertise, I know who to ASK.

The course provided guidelines for existing home ‘whole house performance’ retrofits, as well as new construction and multi-family property energy upgrades— all with an emphasize on having an overall master plan in place before beginning any actual work.  Also included was information on how to qualify for reimbursement for the cost of this planning process, referred to as a charrette, in which representatives from the various building specialties meet to develop a common vision and strategy.

I predict that energy efficiency, temperature comfort, and air quality will become increasingly more significant in establishing property value in the future.  Fullfilling whole house or building performance measures as specified for third party certification will likely play an important role in this. So whether you’re considering doing such work on a home you already own or on one you have yet to purchase I encourage you to educate yourself on the rating systems and to take advantage of the incentives and funding available for completing work that matches these standards.

I’d gladly send you a pdf copy of the power point presentation, which also includes appliance rebate data and a quite comprehensive list of websites for further information — just give me a call or send me an email.  And if you’d like to know more about what I know in general about energy retrofit work I’d be happy to talk with you.  Since becoming an EcoGreen agent in 2008 I’ve continued educating myself on all things related to greening the built environment, I completed the training to become both a Certified Green Building Professional and an Advanced Certified Green Building Professional, and regularly attend Build It Green’s monthly guild meeting to keep tabs on the latest controversies and techniques while getting to know who are the commited building and design professionals.

The second class I took last week, “Financing Energy Upgrades and Renewables”, was taught by Rick Williams, a mortgage broker who is a founding member of Energy First and a Green Building Professional. This was sponsored by the California Building Performance Contractors Association and consisted of a 1 hour webinar directed specifically at contractors for the purpose of aiding them in helping potential retrofit clients to find funding sources. This course offered an extremely comprehensive overview of all possible funding — except PACE (the Property Assessment Clean Energy program), which has pretty much died off everywhere except here in Sonoma County — where it is called SCEIP (Sonoma County Energy Independence Proram) and has morphed into a slightly altered form — which I can tell you more about that if you are interested.

Rather than attempting to summarize here what he offered, I suggest visiting his site at http://ecoenergyloan.com. The class that I attended is listed under Webinars, dated 12/8/10. I have not used his services, but have worked with many loan brokers over the years and trust my ability to recognize the makings of quality service and good value. From listening to him and reading his bio he strikes me as a very genuine person who is working at practicing right livelihood; if you should contact him and discover this to not be true please let me know.

I can also direct you to local lenders who provide many of the same programs. Unfortunately none I’m aware of has put together anything as comprehensive as this — compiling all of this energy retrofit loan information in readily accessible form and making it available all in one spot.

I have not conducted any formal systematic comparisons to arrive at these selections. I have no special arrangement with the listing agents to promote these listings and I did not specifically query them for any details to arrive at my opinion. What appears under the Best Buys? heading are simply properties which caused me to say to myself “Wow, this looks like a great deal, I wish I had a buyer right at this moment to match up with this property”.

I bring these to your attention so that if you or some one you know are sitting on the fence waiting for that ‘great deal’ to come along, that you might be inspired to take action and to give me the opportunity to talk with you about the ins and outs of ’good deal’ making.

As with the majority of great buys in today’s market, these typically are not move-in ready or are suffering from the buyer enthusiasm dampening effect of having been on the market for much too long (usually due to having started out at price that was much too high).  Or some, now owned by a lender who has foreclosed, are simply priced low in an effort to generate a quick sale; and, to the surprise of some buyers, may actually end up selling for much more than is initially asked, due to competitive bidding.

This first Best Buy is a country property located in western Sonoma county, on Occidental Road, between Sebastopol/Graton and Occidental. It’s been foreclosed on and is being sold by the bank (so its buyer will not have the benefit of an individual seller’s disclosure). It sits in the middle of three quarters of an acre, is south facing and surrounded by redwood trees which are at some distance from the house, so that it still gets plenty of sun. First impressions are that it is in quite good condition with a remodeled kitchen and bath, fresh paint, and new windows – though they haven’t yet been completely trimmed out on the inside.  The tax records indicate that it was built in 1944 and that it has 1400 square feet with four bedrooms and one bath — these last two pieces of data provide a tip as to why it might be priced at only $382,000.

There are two bedrooms and one bath downstairs. Upstairs is one large room, running the full width of the house. It has been freshly painted and has new unfinished pine boards installed as the finish ceiling with a partially completed bathroom area at one end.  If there ever was a fourth bedroom upstairs it has been eliminated. Having noticed this discrepancy between the bedroom and bath count on the tax records and what actually exists, plus other obvious remodeling work, I checked Sonoma County (PRMD) Permit and Resource Management Department’s history to find out if any permits had been taken out for this work, I discovered nothing in the online records.

So. I suspect that this property is priced as it is partially to offset the fact that its new owner will be taking on some challenges including rectifying unpermitted work, which may even include some compromising structural modifications (tearing out walls without adding reinforcement it seldom acceptable).  On the other hand it is a positive possibility for a bedroom to have been eliminated to create the master bedroom and bath suite rather having added a bedroom — which can easily violate septic system constraints and be impossible to legalize.

Is this still a good buy? It could be, and would be definitely worth considering for someone looking for an affordable country property with basically ‘good bones’.  It would be especially well-suited for a contractor or experienced do-it-yourselfer who is capable of doing the work themselves and who also has a temperament for dealing with county regulators. It might also be a good buy for the buyer who can afford to hire someone to do the work — provided it does not turn out to be so extensive that the discounted price is eaten up by permit fees and retrofit expenses.

Whether it turns out to actually be a Best Buy depends largely on factors that are as yet unknown.  It attributes – charm, setting, location, lot size, extensive updating – and its list price are certainly attractive, making it worthy of further investigation by anyone who might be good match.

But just to gain the right to conduct further investigations requires an accepted offer. So how does a possible candidate get a foot in the door if there turns out to be competitive bidding? By having the resources and documentation verifying those resources immediately available and by having an agent who is capable of writing a strong offer along with a convincing cover letter that clearly communicates that buyer’s suitability for this unique property.

There are few homes and a lot of competition in Sonoma County for properties that match the criteria he recommends: 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, first-time-buyer homes with simple architectural features, in basically middle-class neighborhood with at least a $100K spread between the buy-sell price, which when completed can sell for 10%-20% above the surrounding market. But with diligent persistence deals can still be found — though it may take a lot of kissing frogs to find a prince — going for really funky properties and making low-ball offers on those no one else seems to want before you find a deal that clicks. And for this to work, most importantly, you must have the funds to buy a basically unlendable property (as far as conventional lenders are concerned) and the team in place to follow through on the work.

Dave laid out a very well thought through business model and action plan that I’m sure anyone doing flipping could learn from and which I’d be happy to discuss with you. And, though his goals won’t suit most people, his practical insights on budgeting, construction practices, products and materials choice will be of value to more typical home buyers/owners who are considering how best to invest in a home so as to optimize its future resale value.

Whether your interest is in greening the built in environment or simply cutting down on energy usage, for more details and some inspiration check out the article Energy-Wise House Flipper in Home Energy magazine and visit Dave’s website http://greenearthequites.com. For an agent to assist you on your home buying journey give me a call.

Contingent is a customary phase in all normal real estate sales transactions — however when the property is a Short Sale, Contingent takes on a whole new meaning. The Contingent phase is the period of time between when an offer is accepted by a seller and when contingencies are removed. Contingencies are terms specified in the offer that requiring buyer approval or specific events which must occur before the contract becomes binding. The purpose of the contingency phase is typically to allow buyers an opportunity to review and investigate all seller disclosures, perform any inspections of their own, and have an appraisal completed. Usually this involves a time period of 17 -30 days — longer periods being more common for country properties where well and septic inspections may be needed or for a property in such condition that more than usual research is required to determine if it is actually desirable. This time period can also be extended during the process to allow a seller to perform some corrective work that was negotiated between the parties following inspections and ends upon buyers’ confirmation of the work being satisfactorily completed.

However, in a short sale situation this contingency period is often prolonged while waiting to find out whether or not the lender will actually allow the seller to complete a sale under the price and terms agreed upon with the buyer. Multiple Listing Services require that the confidential remarks section of the listing inform agents when a property is a short sale and that actual acceptance is subject to lender approval, but beyond this statement it can be anyone’s guess as to the significance of this in regards to any particular property.

Any number of factors that are beyond a seller’s control can contribute to lengthy delays in a short sale process. When there is more than one lender involved, the one in second position may try to hijack the process in an attempt to get some compensation for their cooperation. Loss of paperwork by the lenders’ processors seems to be unbelievably common. And most disconcerting of all –the primary lender may come back to the seller after much lengthy discussion and time consuming shuffling of paperwork with an agreement to allow the sale to proceed but only if the seller agrees to some continuing liability for the difference between the sale price and what is actually owed, which will likely cause the seller to decide to abandon ship and let the property be foreclosed on.
Another hindrance — since buyers are usually not inclined to incur costs for inspections until they are sure of having a deal, buyer’s inspections typically won’t even begin until after the lender and the sellers have agreed to terms — so the buyer often doesn’t even know whether the property is in acceptable condition until far into the process and after finally delving further may ultimately decide to walk away after much time has already elapsed. So, when a short sale property changes to Contingent status this is not necessarily an indication that the offer is likely to proceed to Pending anytime soon.

Not the norm, but a sobering reality — an agent recently reported at the one of the weekly realtor meetings I attend that she’d just closed a challenging short sale — after 534 days!! Bottom line: When considering whether or not to make an offer on a particular short sale property it is very important to look beyond price — identify the lender and learn what their reputation is for efficiency in processing these transactions, to take into account how knowledgeable the listing agent is about the process and to consider how effective he/she will likely be at shepherding the process forward, find out what if any contact has been made with the lender and the history of any negotiations that have already occurred — to get an idea of how likely it is that an accepted offer will close at the price suggested in the listing and how long it might take.

As you might imagine, the last few years have been rather chaotic for real estate professionals — requiring major adjustments in our knowledge base, how we deliver services, and the role we play and how we perform during a transaction. Yet time tested principles remain basic to a successful outcome for our clients — investigation leading to truly meaningful and relevant information and evaluations made with the assistance of a knowledgeable professional are still crucial to successful decision-making.

So welcome. It is an interesting time to be involved in the world of real estate buying and selling. I hope you’ll enjoy and benefit from reading my upcoming articles. I’ll be posting responses to clients’ questions that I think might interest others besides them, offering localized data and market insights, and sharing some of the joy I experience just from living in Sonoma County.

Speaking of value predictions: in coming years I think we’ll see decreasing consumer demand overall for large square footage trophy houses and an increasing demand for home design that supports function and utility — that serves the actual day to day life activities of its occupants.  As conspicuous consumption becomes less admirable and as energy and resource efficiency becomes more valued, homes that are more energy efficient, which take advantage of natural heating and cooling cycles, will triumph in the marketplace and homes that incorporate massive spaces which serve little everyday purpose will loss popularity and therefore market value. In fact, I believe that this has already begun to happen.  I see compact and efficient floor plans constructed with architectural details embracing basic functionality in form frequently winning out over grandiose mini-mansions with pointless non-load bearing Grecian columns and Romanesque archways.