Green Real Estate Appraiser

Creative Ways to Buy A House

Posted on September 16, 2013 | Leave a comment

Kevin and Patti Silva needed to buy a house – fast.

Along with their two children, three dogs and a cat, they had sold their house in Atlanta and were all packed, with the moving truck scheduled for late May, ready to move to the Bay Area for a job transfer.

When conventional house hunting with a real estate agent didn’t work out, Kevin Silva placed a detailed Craigslist ad describing their target neighborhood, price and house size. He netted five responses, one of which led to making a deal to buy a San Anselmo house directly from the owner.

Want to know what the value of the home you are thinking of purchasing is. Contact the real estate appraisers at www.scappraisals.com for your home value and real estate appraisal questions.

While having all the stars and planets align so perfectly is rare, the Silvas’ story illustrates how many house hunters are coloring outside the lines to land a place in the overheated real estate market. Whether it be cold-calling homeowners with offers or placing ads in search of potential houses for sale, being creative is key, experts say.

Of course, the top strategy is both the simplest and the hardest – pay way over asking, in all cash.

Short of that, there are a variety of ways prospective buyers can find a house as well as rise to the top of the offer pile:

Placing an ad: Swooping in with an offer before a home is officially posted for sale is a top tactic, and it worked for the Silvas.

After being consistently outbid, they considered renting, but that market was too competitive. “I realized unless we got really aggressive, we would end up in my parents’ basement in San Mateo with the kids, the dogs, the cat and a really unhappy wife,” Kevin Silva said. In the end, a simple online ad labeled “Wanted to buy: House in San Anselmo or Fairfax” did the trick. A $1 million budget undoubtedly helped. He got one response from a man who, like Silva, was of Portuguese ancestry. They quickly bonded on the phone. Silva visited the three-bedroom house and liked it, and returned with a real estate agent friend who advised him that $1 million was a reasonable price. Attorneys helped draw up the paperwork in an amicable deal.

Disclaimer: for information and entertainment purposes only

Changes May Allow Many Back in the Housing Market

Posted on September 13, 2013 | Leave a comment

Policy changes by two of the biggest players in the mortgage market could open doors to home purchases this fall by thousands of people who were hard hit by the housing bust and who thought they’d have to wait for years before owning again.

Fannie Mae, the federally controlled mortgage investor, has come up with a “fix” designed to help large numbers of consumers whose short sales were misidentified as foreclosures by the national credit bureaus. Under previous rules, short-sellers would have to wait for up to seven years before becoming eligible for a new mortgage to buy a house. Under the revised plan, they may be able to qualify for a mortgage in as little as two years. Homeowners who are foreclosed upon generally must still wait for up to seven years before becoming eligible again to finance a house through Fannie. Industry estimates suggest that more than 2 million short-sellers might be affected by credit bureaus’ inaccurate descriptions of their transactions.

Meanwhile, the Federal Housing Administration has announced a new program allowing borrowers whose previous mortgage troubles were caused by “extenuating circumstances” beyond their control to obtain new mortgages in as little as a year after losing their homes instead of the current three years. They will need to show that their delinquency problem was caused by a 20 percent or greater drop in income that continued for at least six months, and that they are now “back to work,” paying their bills on time and earning enough to qualify for a new FHA-insured mortgage.

Big Changes Coming for Utility Customers

Posted on September 11, 2013 | 1 comment

California will overhaul the way most utility customers are billed for home electricity and lift current caps on the amount of renewable energy and rooftop solar installations, under legislation that cleared its last major hurdle on Monday.

Approval of Assembly Bill 327 by the state Senate opens the way for the California Public Utilities Commission to rewrite landmark consumer protections and energy conservation measures enacted during the state’s 2000-01 energy crisis.

Gov. Jerry Brown is expected to sign the bill after the State Assembly reviews an updated version. The Senate vote was 33-5.

The state’s three investor-owned electric utilities, including San Diego Gas & Electric, argued that current rules have thrust rising utility costs disproportionally upon large consumers of home electricity, gradually undermining effective funding of the power distribution grid. Amid months of bargaining among industry and consumer groups, negotiations were broadened to address a simmering standoff over incentives and sunset provisions for rooftop solar that loomed over the rapid growth of the industry.

The bill advancing Monday would extend until July 2017 the current equation for so-called net metering, which allows utility customers to credit energy production against consumption with some additional credits. By mid-2017, utility regulators are required to establish new terms and conditions for rooftop solar — dubbed “Net Metering 2.0” by industry watchers.

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Tagged sdg&e, upcoming costs, utility bills