Each month Prudential California Realty publishes Market Trend Reports for San Diego. We find that both people considering the purchase of a home and likewise those considering listing their home for sale, want information that they can use to help make the buying or selling decisions. This is a good source of information regarding trends in the Real Estate market. This report is also provided for the upscale market.
As goofy as these guys can sometimes be, this one makes a lot of sense to me.
http://tbwsdailyshow.com/2011/05/04/department-of-justice-sues-major-bank-for...Where to Go During an Earthquake
Remember that stuff about hiding under a table or standing in a doorway? Well, forget it! This is a real eye opener. It could save your life someday.
EXTRACT FROM DOUG COPP'S ARTICLE ON 'THE TRIANGLE OF LIFE'
My name is Doug Copp I am the Rescue Chief and Disaster Manager of the American Rescue Team International (ARTI ), the world's most experienced rescue team. The information in this article will save lives in an earthquake.
I have crawled inside 875 collapsed buildings, worked with rescue teams from 60 countries, founded rescue teams in several countries, and I am a member of many rescue teams from many countries. I was the United Nations expert in Disaster Mitigation for two years, and have worked at every major disaster in the world since 1985, except for simultaneous disasters.
The first building I ever crawled inside of was a school in Mexico City during the 1985 earthquake. Every child was under its desk. Every child was crushed to the thickness of their bones. They could have survived by lying down next to their desks in the aisles. It was obscene -- unnecessary.
Simply stated, when buildings collapse, the weight of the ceilings falling upon the objects or furniture inside crushes these objects, leaving a space or void next to them - NOT under them. This space is what I call the 'triangle of life'. The larger the object, the stronger, the less it will compact. The less the object compacts, the larger the void, the greater the probability that the person who is using this void for safety will not be injured. The next time you watch collapsed buildings, on television, count the 'triangles' you see formed. They are everywhere. It is the most common shape, you will see, in a collapsed building.
TIPS FOR EARTHQUAKE SAFETY
1) Most everyone who simply 'ducks and covers' when building collapse are crushed to death. People who get under objects, like desks or cars, are crushed.
2) Cats, dogs and babies often naturally curl up in the fetal position. You should too in an earthquake. It is a natural safety/survival instinct. You can survive in a smaller void. Get next to an object, next to a sofa, next to a bed, next to a large bulky object that will compress slightly but leave a void next to it.
3) Wooden buildings are the safest type of construction to be in during an earthquake. Wood is flexible and moves with the force of the earthquake. If the wooden building does collapse, large survival voids are created. Also, the wooden building has less concentrated, crushing weight. Brick buildings will break into individual bricks. Bricks will cause many injuries but less squashed bodies than concrete slabs.
4) If you are in bed during the night and an earthquake occurs, simply roll off the bed. A safe void will exist around the bed. Hotels can achieve a much greater survival rate in earthquakes, simply by posting a sign on the back of the door of every room telling occupants to lie down on the floor, next to the bottom of the bed during an earthquake.
5) If an earthquake happens and you cannot easily escape by getting out the door or window, then lie down and curl up in the fetal position next to a sofa, or large chair.
6) Most everyone who gets under a doorway when buildings collapse is killed. How? If you stand under a doorway and the doorjamb falls forward or backward you will be crushed by the ceiling above. If the door jam falls sideways you will be cut in half by the doorway. In either case, you will be killed!
7) Never go to the stairs. The stairs have a different 'moment of frequency' (they swing separately from the main part of the building). The stairs and remainder of the building continuously bump into each other until structural failure of the stairs takes place. The people who get on stairs before they fail are chopped up by the stair treads - horribly mutilated. Even if the building doesn't collapse, stay away from the stairs. The stairs are a likely part of the building to be damaged. Even if the stairs are not collapsed by the earthquake, they may collapse later when overloaded by fleeing people. They should always be checked for safety, even when the rest of the building is not damaged.
8) Get near the outer walls of buildings or outside of them if possible - it is much better to be near the outside of the building rather than the interior. The farther inside you are from the outside perimeter of the building the greater the probability that your escape route will be blocked.
9) People inside of their vehicles are crushed when the road above falls in an earthquake and crushes their vehicles; which is exactly what happened with the slabs between the decks of the Nimitz Freeway. The victims of the San Francisco earthquake all stayed inside of their vehicles. They were all killed. They could have easily survived by getting out and sitting or lying next to their vehicles. Everyone killed would have survived if they had been able to get out of their cars and sit or lie next to them. All the crushed cars had voids 3 feet high next to them, except for the cars that had columns fall directly across them.
10) I discovered, while crawling inside of collapsed newspaper offices and other offices with a lot of paper, that paper does not compact. Large voids are found surrounding stacks of paper.
Spread the word and save someone's life...
Nooshin Khosh
Everyday we see opportunities for investment in real estate. And at the same time we meet people who want to invest but do not have the necessary cash available to take advantage of the opportunities.
Have you considered using the cash available to you in your retirement account?
Under certain circumstances this can be done with out taxation or penalties, just like buying or selling shares of stock in your account.
First of all let's make it very clear that we are not financial advisors. We are not recommending that people participate in this investment option. And most of all, we strongly recommend that everyone seek advice from licensed professionals. We are only presenting an option for people to investigate and decide for themselves.
Nationwide there are billions if not trillions of dollars invested in individual retirement accounts like an IRA or 401(k). It appears that most of this money is invested in the public market and that over time it has garnered a decent income and growth. Did you know that there are many more investment options than most of us do not know about? I have done some reading on the web and have come across a couple of examples of how to move money into real estate investments. Many people think that to buy a rental house using their retirement account they must first withdraw the money, pay the income tax and applicable penalties and then use what is left to buy the property. Instead if they get good advice and proper direction it appears that they can use the funds in their retirement account to buy the property and hold it with in the retirement account and just another investment.
Here are a couple of web sites that present the whole program. We selected them randomly and do not recommend any one of them. They are in no particular order.
If this is something of interest to you, please contact us. We can help you with Residential Real Estate, Commercial Real Estate, Apartment Complexes, Retail Real Estate, Industrial Real Estate, and more.
The New Year has unfortunately not brought about the end to real estate and mortgage
relief scams. While a deep recession continues to affect the national and California economies, the business for swindlers is very good. They continue to sell false hope to and prey on vulnerable and unsophisticated consumers, and the bad players far outnumber those of us in the government who prosecute them. They advertise and cast their nets widely, using the Internet, newspapers, magazines, mail pieces, and radio and television,
This alert is written to remind you to be continually cautious and vigilant, and to give you
some important tools and red “warning” flags so that you do not fall victim to real estate
and home loan relief scammers.
The California Department of Real Estate (DRE) has issued prior topical warnings and
alerts to consumers about the rise of fraud in connection with pre-foreclosure and
foreclosure-related rescue, forbearance and forgiveness services, including loan
modifications, forensic loan audits, and short sales.
This is very informative, pass it on so others do not fall victim to the scams
New CAR index tracks homes under contract
By Inman News
Inman News™
February 23, 2011
Pending home sales were up 13.6 percent in California from December to January, with distressed properties accounting for more than half of pending transactions, according to a new index compiled by the California Association of REALTORS®.
CAR's pending home sales index surveys more than 70 REALTOR® associations and multiple listing services, and uses 2008 sales levels as a benchmark. An index reading of 100 is equal to the average level of sales contract activity in 2008.The index climbed to 93.6 in January, up from 82.4 in December but down 2 percent from a year ago, CAR said, noting that pending sales typically rise after seasonal slowdowns in November and December.
"January's pending sales should be reflected in higher existing sales activity in February and March and serve as a precursor to the spring home buying season," CAR President Beth Peerce said in a statement.
Distressed properties -- short sales and bank-owned (REO) properties -- accounted for 54 percent of pending sales statewide, up from 50 percent in December but down from 56 percent a year ago.
Distressed properties accounted for 70 percent or more of all sales in Kern, Sacramento, Riverside, San Bernardino and Solano counties.
| County/Region | January 2010 | December 2010 | January 2011 |
| California | 56% | 50% | 54% |
| San Diego | 34% | 28% | 33% |
| Marin | 37% | 34% | 43% |
| Orange | 41% | 38% | 43% |
| San Luis Obispo | 49% | 46% | 47% |
| Los Angeles | 54% | 50% | 54% |
| Mendocino | 49% | 57% | 55% |
| Napa | 68% | 54% | 59% |
| Sonoma | 54% | 55% | 61% |
| Kern | 69% | 71% | 70% |
| Sacramento | 68% | 66% | 73% |
| Riverside | 78% | 67% | 73% |
| San Bernardino | 76% | 72% | 74% |
| Solano | 76% | 74% | 81% |
Source: California Association of REALTORS®
REO properties accounted for 32 percent of pending sales, up from 30 percent in January but down from 37 percent a year ago, CAR said.
Short sales, which accounted for 19 percent of pending sales in January 2010 and 20 percent of sales in December, represented 22 percent of last month's pending sales.
CAR also released a chart illustrating the price stratification between conventional, short sale and REO properties.
Looking at all sales of single-family homes that closed escrow in January, the median price was $278,900 -- down 8.6 percent from a revised $305,020 in December and down 2 percent from a year ago.
But at $265,500, the median price for short sales closing escrow in January was 28 percent less than the $367,150 median price for "conventional" properties. The median price for REO properties, at $198,000, was 46 percent less.
original url http://lowes.inman.com/inmaninf/lowes/news/137860
Recently we made a deal that we thought would be impossible. Our client (buyer) just finished his residency last spring and wanted to purchase a residence, now. His income is all 1099 (vs. W-2) and as I have already written, he has been working for only 6 short months. Most Real Estate Agents would walk away from this buyer as financing is usually impossible.
There are a few lenders out there with "Doctor" programs and in most cases those work well. However, sometimes the borrower does not fall with in the extremely difinitive guidelines. We went searching and came up with a program from a very large lender (it's a bank). This bank makes loans to "Professionals" and does not securitize the paper and sell it in the secondary market, thus they do not have to qualify these borrowers based on the HUD guidelines. Because they hold the loan "In-House", they can make their own rules.
With out going into the details of this particular buyer's profile we must suffice it to say that he did not qualify for any of the common "Doctor" programs. As I have all too often discovered, most buyers do not qualify for those "Specialty" programs, so this buyer was no different.
If you are a Physician (Resident or Practicing), Attorney, Dentist, Oral Surgeon, CPA, an officer of a publicly traded company (COE, CFO, CIO, or COO), please contact me. I may be able to help.
Here are a couple of hi-lights of the program: 5% down, must be purchasing your primary residence, no mortgage insurance requirement, student loans may not count against debt-to-income rations.
I am not a lender so I am not in a position to know or understand all of the details, but as a Realtor I can help you buy.
Nick Taylor
Prudential California Realty
760-710-7234
DRE#01823394
You've probably seen the pitches on TV and the Internet or found them stuffed in your mail: official-looking communications complete with logos and letterheads that look vaguely like those used by the Treasury, Internal Revenue Service and other federal agencies.
They are instead criminal enterprises posing as do-gooders who promise to get you out of the mortgage jam you're in. They claim they can persuade your lender to cut your monthly payments, forgive all penalties, slash your interest rate and even get your loan balance reduced. If your lender won't cooperate, they say they'll perform "forensic audits" on your mortgage and convince a court that your entire loan transaction should be canceled because of technical mistakes in the paperwork.
Under these rules, companies that offer mortgage relief will have to contact your lender or servicer and give you a written proposal describing the key changes to your mortgage terms that the note holder is willing to make before any money can be collected in advance.
Modification companies also will be required to make clear that they have no connection with any government agencies or program, and that you're free to reject any offer from the lender, with no requirement to pay a fee.
The rule also prohibits modification firms from using one of their most commonplace and destructive ploys: They can no longer instruct clients to stop communicating with their lender or servicer. Many scammers not only urge unwary consumers to let them handle all negotiations but also direct them to stop sending in payments — or worse, to send all payments to the modification company. Typically that has the effect of rendering any modification with the lender or servicer even less likely.
The FTC estimates that bogus modification companies have stolen millions from unwary homeowners in the last two years. Ironically, there's been a huge increase in the number of abusive schemes in the wake of the federal government's efforts to create legitimate foreclosure relief programs. The FTC has brought more than 30 cases against these operations, but the agency has had no way to control the pervasive advance-fee requirements that are so costly to consumers.
Now, when that portion of the new rule takes effect Jan. 31, the FTC will be able to proceed against any firm that collects upfront fees without obtaining the required written proposals at no charge from lenders. It will be a litmus test: If a firm seeks to charge you anything or collects money upfront, it will be in violation of federal law and subject to harsh civil penalties.
The only exception will be for lawyers, who typically require retainers before they begin negotiating on a client's behalf. They will be permitted to collect retainer fees for modification efforts but only if they deposit the money into "client trust accounts" under state bar regulations. Lawyers who charge advance fees also must be licensed by state authorities and be in compliance with state laws and regulations governing professional conduct.
Joel Winston, the FTC's associate director of financial practices and a lawyer himself, said in an interview that "a disappointingly high percentage of fraudsters [in FTC loan modification cases] have been lawyers — they're just fraudsters with law degrees."
Nonetheless, Winston said, the agency recognizes that "legitimate practitioners" can play a valuable role in negotiating modifications for consumers, and the FTC doesn't want to cut this off by banning upfront retainer payments outright.
Distributed by Washington Post Writers Group.
Copyright © 2010, Los Angeles Times
