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We left summer behind yesterday and arrived in Anchorage where they have been experiencing a wet and cool summer.  At least it is nice to get away from the smoke for a few days.  We are here for a family wedding and a trip to Homer to visit Michael’s daughter Kevyn and her husband Dave.

We have a good team to cover for me while we are away and I have my phone and email so hopefully we can get some work done and have some fun with family here too.   

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I have been feeling the softness in the Sacramento real estate market for the past few weeks. My first indication things were slowing down is when I had to put one of my short sale listings back on the market after the buyer backed out just as the lender approved the transaction. This house on Roseville Street in Roseville is very cute, priced right and after we had it in contract had to turn away Realtors and potential buyers. I thought this would be a snap to get another offer, especially since the short sale negotiations are virtually done. We have now had it back on the market for a few weeks and not a single offer has come through. This is a house that earlier this spring had multiple offers and tons of interest in. 

If you are interested in learning… Read Full Post

I have watched this show in the past and always think, where do they get these people, I would never do that! Well that was before yesterday when I got an email from the show’s producer asking me to consider being on the show. Evidently they are looking for a “wife” who is also a Realtor and they found my website, www.jalone.com. I thought for sure Michael and Mikie would have fit and not want me to do it. I was wrong; Mikie really wants to do it. I think he likes the idea of him being on TV. Michael was a bit less enthusiastic but encouraged me to at least talk to the producer. He thinks I would make a great participant but could see me having a meltdown if they sent me to house that was dirty or had reptile pets. He thought it would be good exposure… Read Full Post

If you read the headline in the Sacramento Bee this morning, “Home Sales up for 2nd month” it might give you a feeling that our real estate market is doing pretty well after almost three years of slumping. Don’t get me wrong, I am feeling optimistic about eventually getting back to a balanced real estate market but when you get behind some of the numbers it is pretty clear we have a ways to go. Compared to a year ago, there were over 47 percent more sales of existing homes in Sacramento County during May than a year ago and up 154 sales from April to 1,827 closed escrows. This is a significant increase but for Placer County the news was not as positive. Sales or existing homes in Placer was down 24 percent from last May to 473 sales and this number was… Read Full Post

Where did Father’s Day weekend go? At our house it seemed so go by very quickly and here we are starting another busy week. I may be starting to feel the pressure of getting ready to go on vacation but it seems the Sacramento real estate market is showing no signs of slowing down. We have continued to see a activity in the Sacramento short sale market as we picked up two new listings last week and as important, successfully finalized two short sale lender negotiations. Once we get the lender to accept the short sale proposal the purchase of the homes can start the normal closing process. I always enjoy having transactions complete but there is some extra satisfaction when they are short sales.   Check out our new listings from last week. Robin… Read Full Post

Many lenders have dedicated staff to deal with short sales and some appear to have developed a process that works for them. Where the problem occurs is the volume of requests for short sales. It overwhelms the negotiators and others who deal with borrowers and Realtors who are requesting short sale consideration. Yesterday, we were talking to a negotiator for a lender who when we asked her to call us back with some additional information she didn’t have, said, “I have over 200 people just like you that want me to call them, just send me a new closing statement with the amount I want or this can go to foreclosure.” 

Lenders are doing themselves a disservice by not staffing up these departments and allowing the negotiators to think before they act. The cost… Read Full Post

The trend is clear; we are not going to be seeing the normal buildup of inventory of homes in the Sacramento real estate market this year. Normally starting in late February or early March the number of homes coming on the market is faster than sales so inventory of available homes increases until August. Going into the spring, inventory was already high but instead of increasing it has actually declined.   As of June 9, according to HousingTracker, there were 14,670 homes on the market in the Sacramento area. This level of inventory is down 4.2 percent in the past three months and down 11.5 percent from six months ago. Again this is particularly noteworthy that the decline is happening during a time of year when we would expect to see inventory… Read Full Post

Approximately 183,000 at-risk homeowners were provided loan workouts in April, 23,000 more than in March, according to a new report from HOPE NOW, a private sector alliance of mortgage servicers, counselors, and investors working to prevent home foreclosures across the country. The April numbers represent the highest number of workouts provided through HOPE NOW since the program was launched in July 2007, according to the alliance.

"These numbers clearly demonstrate that we are succeeding at helping homeowners avoid foreclosure and stay in their homes," said HOPE NOW Executive Director Faith Schwartz. "Foreclosure benefits no one: the borrower, community, lender, and investor all lose. HOPE NOW has every incentive to help troubled homeowners hold on to…

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