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Anyone who knows anything about the Fresno Ca real estate market knows that we have substantial supply of lender owner properties for sale. Here is one listed by Lazarus Realty that just had a substantial price reduction. The ask price was 118,500 and was recently reduced by the lender to $95,900.

If you would like to preview this home or make an offer on it - Call me @ 559-301-1647

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So, I just mentioned in my last blog an offer made 5 or 6 weeks ago on a Short Sale and said I had still not heard back from the agent, well this afternoon I did. The home is/was (havent looked to see current status) listed as an ” APPROVED SHORT SALE” at $119,000 According to the agent this mean that she had an “approval” from the lender that if she brought an offer at the listed ask price it would be approved by the lender. Well, that sounds promising. Unfortunately, my buyer’s offer was under the ask of 119k but apparently it would not have mattered.

Here is what I was told this afternoon. The agent received multiple offers on the property. Some of the offers were over the ask and went as high as $135k so now the bank is countering back to all the bidders at $160k (or give us your highest and your best). This is complete bullshit and should not be allowed to take place by NAR. The listing agents on these properties don’t really give a rats ass; they will lay down and take it in the rear from the lenders all day long. The buyer’s agents shouldn’t tolerate it either. If, in fact, the lender had indicated that they would sell at the price listed by the selling agent then they should sell at the listed price, or the highest and best offer above the listed price..

The broker who listed it is from ANOTHER county. I just reported the matter to FAR and advised them to boot the broker and her business off the Fresno MLS.

[update - FAR tells me the broker didnt pay her MLS dues so she got the boot - good!]

If you’re a buyer, I would strongly urge you to forget about bidding on a Short Sale. Find a competitively priced REO and go for it.

Oh - by the way - remember this REO I mentioned. The agent has recently lowered the price $10,000 but his Marketing Remarks still say: ” 3 bed/2 bath in established neighborhood. Great starter home or investment” ——— SIGH!

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…and their agents.

In a previous blog I gave an example of an offer that I made on behalf of an investor on a Short Sale. It was an ALL CASH OFFER that was rejected by the lender. A few months later after the home went through foreclosure the home was listed at LESS THAN THE CASH OFFER and probably went into escrow for substantially less than the list price. About 5 weeks ago I made another offer on a Short Sale and to date have not received an answer back from the agent. Other agents I have spoken with have the same stories.

Once again, as a reminder, out of the HUNDREDS of Short Sale listings in the Fresno MLS last year there were only 46 closings.

I say all of this as a preface to a news article I just read titled:

according to the article lenders are saying they will let strapped sellers know whether or not they are approved for help within 45 days. Well I’ll believe it when I see it.

Personally, I would discourage ANYONE from even bothering to with a short sale. Simply too much hassle and scant prospects of producing fruitful results.

And if you happen to be reading this blog because you’re considering a Short Sale and your plan is to sell your home to a relative at a huge discount to what you paid so you can buy it back cheaper: FORGET ABOUT IT! It doesnt work. But hey, dont listen to me - besides because I’m certain you wont have a problem finding a Realtor® who is willing to try and get such a deal done.

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Help beautify Fresno by purchasing a home with a green pool through Lazarus Realty. I will *pay for the cost of draining, cleaning and refilling the pool. When complete you will have a sparkling BLUE pool.

Did you know that Fresno has over 1000 **GREEN POOLS and that these green pools are a breeding ground for mosquitoes, and a single green pool can infect an area within a quarter mile and that the mosquitoes may carry the West Nile virus? With the weather warming up green pools will only get greener because algae blooms in sunlight.

The majority of these homes are vacant and/or REO (properties that have gone through foreclosure and now belong to the bank)

If you are unfortunate enough to have one of these homes in your neighborhood you might want to report it to the Fresno Mosquito Control District and they will go out and test the pool for larva and if it has mosquito larva they will treat it. I called them and the person I spoke with said some homeowners pools are going green because they just dont have the money right now to take care of them. If you happen to be in that unfortunate situation you can grab a bucket and go down there and they will fill it with minnows for free.

If you are interested in purchasing a Foreclosed home in Fresno call me today: Lazarus @ 559-301-1647

SEARCH THE FRESNO MLS

________________________

* (some restrictions apply) I called four pool cleaning services in the yellow pages and only one had a live person on the other end: All Brite. Erica at All Brite told me that this service generally runs between $400 to $800. I will either credit $400.00 of my commission to buyer at close of escrow or pay up to a maximum of $800.00 for the service. Agents of Lazarus Realty are not bound to this offer - only mwau - the broker

**(source: KMJ)

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Today I attended a California Association of Realtors S.W.A.T class. SWAT stands for:

Special Weapons and Tactics - to survive a down market.

The morning session was mostly a review of the stats that have been compiled by C.A.R presented by someone with a marketing/economics degree. It was the opinion of the speaker that the stats show that the market has hit a bottom in California. Based upon what I heard and saw I cant argue with the figures - whether or not this is A bottom or THE BOTTOM only time will tell. The reason I say this is that while the speaker was going over the numbers I was reading today’s news and this article Citigroup, Wells Fargo May Loan Less After Downgrades raises some concern that there could be further tightening of the credit market esp if there are more losses reported in the banking sector tied to home lending.

If the banks tighten up — we could see things get worse.  If the credit markets stabilize, I think the real estate market will improve and we could come out of the woods.  I am hoping for the latter.

Two things I gleaned from the morning session:

1. So many Foreclosures, Short Sales, and REOs have come onto the market that the lenders have had to create “loss mitigation teams” to handle them.  These loss mitigators have never really done this before because nothing like this has ever happened in our generation so these guys that the Sellers and  Realtors are dealing don’t necessarily have all the answers.  They have been slow to move but as the market has deteriorated they have begun to come around.
2. The cheese is moving.  Meaning the money to be made today isnt where it was yesterday.  We need to “follow the cheese”.

One of the speakers said that if we wanted to service the short sales and foreclosures we need to put “SHORT SALE EXPERT” on our cards and websites.   Well, what do you expect, this is one of the few industries where people study on line for 6 weeks, take a test, then call themselves PROFESSIONALS.  (ok — remember Lazarus - this is not the way to win friends and influence people in this industry)

After lunch we given a good review of the foreclosure and short sale process.  I found this part more interesting and I we really only scratched the surface.

If you are interested in purchasing a foreclosure, pre-foreclosure, short sale, or REO property in Fresno  Call me today:  559-301-1647

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For those of you who are following the real estate market nationwide I am sure you already read today’s Associated Press news story about the real estate market which announced that sales of existing homes rose in February - which also happened to be the month that home priced dropped the furthest. It appears that as prices decline buyers are willing to move off the sidelines.

Here is a recent article on the local market citing industry professionals who believe the Fresno real estate market has bottomed.

The market is still very unhealthy and we have a lot of foreclosure, short sale, and REO inventory to absorb. Let’s hope and pray that out economy can get back on track soon.

Want to purchase a foreclosure, shortsale, or REO property in Fresno? Call me, I can help.
Lazarus @ 559.301.1647

just dont ask me if the market has hit bottom - because I don’t know. 

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Ok… I’m asking myself, what’s the deal?  Is the devil is turning my idle digits into his tools because the market is so slow ? I’m looking over the New Listings on the MLS today and I find myself being hyper-critical of what I see.

For example:

MLS# 309350  –  A 3 bedroom 2/5 bath home 1764 sq. ft. listed today for $349,000.

This is an nice area and I happen to live in this zip code so I know that the turnover of homes in 93711 is relatively low. For comparison, I look at the last 4 homes that have sold with 1/4 mile of this home in the last 6 months and the average list price is $177 per sq. ft. This new listing though is priced at nearly $198 per sq. ft and I can tell you folks, from looking at the pictures, there isn’t anything special about it. I looked at a home of similar size (MLS #295759) that sold for $322,00 and it was REALLY nice,  had dual pane windows and swimming pool. In fact, it was home I previewed one Sunday and mentioned on previous blog.

The listing agent states: “Seller said appraisal appraised for $450,000 a couple of years ago & sq ft approx 2,000 sq ft.”

I say:

WHO CARES WHAT THE HOME APPRAISED FOR A COUPLE OF YEARS AGO?  What is the home worth today? What will it appraise for today? I don’t think there is a chance in hell that this home would appraise for the ask price today.

As for the discrepancy in sq. ft. between the tax records and the what the seller says : where did those extra sq. ft. come from?

And you don’t say “appraisal appraised” together in the same sentence. No wonder we entertained with game shows like ARE YOU SMARTER THAN A FIFTH GRADER?

Don’t get me wrong folks, I want all the homes in my zip code (esp the ones close to mine) to sell for top dollar. I just don’t see it happening here and wonder what the listing agent is thinking. Oh, and apparently, even if you do put an offer in at the list price, its a SHORT SALE subject to bank approval.

Unfortunately, I’m just warming up  This one really takes the cake: MLS#309302

This is a 4 bedroom 3.5 bath -4516 sq. ft.- home at 4478 N College Ave listed for - are you sitting down? - $1,350,000.    YIKES!!!!

What is that agent thinking? I did a CMA and went out an entire mile in every direction from that home and the highest price home I came up with that SOLD was an absolutely beautiful home on 4903 N. Van Ness that went for $725,000.

If I was the listing agent pricing a home like that I would be afraid that someone might go after me for FRAUD! Based upon the numbers if that house fetched the same price per square foot as the one on Van Ness the home would be priced somewhere around $840,00 BUT — and this is a big BUT — the home on Van Ness appears to be much, MUCH nicer than this home in every way. HOW ARE THEY COMING UP WITH THESE NUMBERS??? Is the managing broker actually reviewing the agents listings (like they are supposed to) and APPROVING them?

Alright, enuf said. This is NOT the way to make friends in this business!

Need help buying of selling a home in Fresno? Call me: Lazarus @ 559-301-1647

(Somebody please call me and put me to work so I wont have idle time on my hands for useless blogs like this.)

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I just took a quick look at the first 20 of the NEW LISTINGS that came on the market in the last 24 hours and 8 of the 20 (40%) were either Foreclosures or REOs (bank owned). Unfortunatley most of these properties are not priced to sell.  

I’m sure the banks that own these properties figure that investors are going to come in with low-ball offers, so if you are wanting to make an offer on a foreclosure, pre-foreclosure, or REO, give me a call and let’s put an aggressive offer together.

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