homesmillbrae.com » Contingencies

Regular folks transform into cash buyers to compete in hot housing market

Sat, 29 Jun 2013 14:16:58 +0000

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“Cash is king” is an all-too-true cliche in today’s Bay Area real estate market, where all-cash offers can beat out those with mortgages, even when the financed offers are higher. That’s motivating some folks — even fairly regular people who don’t have Silicon Valley mega-bucks — to go the extra mile to be able to make cash offers.

Whether it’s borrowing from relatives, taking out a home equity loan, tapping retirement funds, or a combination, having that cash in hand can vault a buyer to the front of the line. For a detailed look at how some ordinary people took extraordinary steps to become cash buyers, click here.

“It’s an oft-told tale right now,” said Stuart Maus, an agent with Red Oak Realty in the East Bay. “The market is super-competitive. A cash buyer can afford to lay up a little bit, knowing that the terms of all cash and the ability to have a short close may counter a slightly higher offer with a longer escrow period. A buyer with all cash can sharpen their pencil and come in more aggressively with price.”

Consider 3361 Victor in Oakland’s Redwood Heights neighborhood (pictured above). The modernist home closed in late April for $820,000, 19 percent over asking.

“The winning buyer paid all cash with no loan or appraisal contingencies and a three-day inspection period,” said Aman Daro of Red Oak Realty (Red Oak’s Deidre Joyner was the listing agent). “There were three offers. The highest offer had inspection, appraisal and loan contingencies, so the listing agent got the lower, all-cash offer to up their price and the sellers accepted it.”

Shana Negin and her husband, who both work as technology creatives, got financial help from her parents for an Oakland home, in which all four of them put their names on the deed.

“They wanted to put some of their retirement investments into something stable and also wanted to help us out,” she said. “Even though we have a pretty decent income, we were never going to have an opportunity to buy a house without that kind of help,” she said. “In a broader picture, people’s parents have been helping them throughout history. If this is a trend, people are just returning back to the way it was.”

Even people who buy with all cash may very well want to get a mortgage afterwards so they can pay back the source of the funds or simply have more liquidity. There are a number of issues cash buyers should consider in structuring their purchase to make sure that their cash-out refinance will go smoothly. For advice from mortgage pros on this, click here.

“A responsible buyer will not only have their cash lined up for the purchase, but will have a plan for how to manage ownership of the property in the year ahead,” said Dianne Crosby, senior vice president of RPM Mortgage in Orinda.

Carolyn Said is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. For news and insights on Bay Area real estate, follow her on Twitter: @csaid

Article source: http://blog.sfgate.com/ontheblock/2013/06/07/regular-folks-transform-into-cash-buyers-to-compete-in-hot-housing-market/

San Francisco Real Estate Market is Competitive, Strong and Increasingly …

Wed, 03 Apr 2013 20:17:22 +0000

San Francisco, CA (PRWEB) April 03, 2013

The housing market in San Francisco is leading the country in growth with a large demand for housing and a limited supply of inventory. Latest statistics from San Francisco Association of Realtors are showing February year-over-year single-family home inventory dropped by 38 percent while condo inventory dropped 33.3 percent for the same period. In any seller’s market, buyers work hard to be more appealing in making an offer. This begins with an increase in offer price, changes to financing parameters, and occasionally, waiving contingencies in extremely competitive markets, such as San Francisco.

Contingency-free offers bring risks. This is especially true in a city where many of the homes are older. People are not requiring the same inspections, repairs and other safeguards put in place to protect the home buyer. The calculated risk can pay off for some buyers but others, whose financing requires these contingencies, end up losing in the multiple offer situations.

“Cash is still king. More buyers are not only submitting offers well over list price, typically in the 10 -20% range, but the market place is seeing an increase in contingency-free offers,” says Dahle. “This has made the buying environment even more competitive. What are the risks for the buyer with financing versus cash buyer and how does one mitigate those risks? Especially when the offer involves limiting or ditching the safeguards of contingencies? It’s called calculated risk. Each property is different.”

Only the most informed real estate professionals can guide you through the ups and downs of the San Francisco Bay Area real estate market, and Kirk Dahle has been doing just that for buyers and sellers for several years. A relentless advocate for his clients, Kirk is constantly networking with real estate professionals to find the best listings and to bring a property to market. Contact Kirk directly at sfkirk(at)gmail(dot)com or call 415.203.8638.

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2013/4/prweb10586144.htm

Article source: http://www.digitaljournal.com/pr/1165943

The incredible soaring Bay Area home prices

Thu, 28 Mar 2013 01:02:22 +0000

Tuesday’s SP/Case-Shiller report underscored the rapid run-up in Bay Area home prices, showing that the San Francisco metro area — Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, San Francisco and San Mateo counties — saw home prices surge 17.5% in January compared to a year ago. That outpaced the national run-up of 8.1 % and was second only to Phoenix.

For a detailed analysis of the numbers and what they mean for the Bay Area, click here.

Bidding wars and multiple offers are the new norm here.

Here’s a look at a San Jose house listed for $1,075,000 that sold for $1,120,000. Redfin agent Ashley Rabello said she had four offers within the first day of listing. The winning offer had no contingencies, a large percentage down, and was significantly higher than the asking price.

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Heavy action at all price points is new — and another harbinger of recovery.

“During the boom and bust, the lower-priced houses had the biggest percentage price increases and then the biggest percentage collapse,” said David Blitzer, chair of the index committee for SP/Dow Jones. That’s because the most-outrageous lending practices — subprime loans, liar loans, no money down — were more concentrated in the low end.

Case-Shiller tracks homes at three price tiers — low (under $383,942), middle ($383,9422 to $681,776) and high (over $681,776). “Until the boom, the three moved together; during the downturn, they spread apart,” Blitzer said. “Now they’re moving in sync again; it’s a sign the market is coming back to normal, behaving a lot less bizarrely than it did before.”

Carolyn Said is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. For insights and news on the real estate market, follow her on Twitter: @csaid

Article source: http://blog.sfgate.com/ontheblock/2013/03/27/the-incredible-soaring-bay-area-home-prices/

Bay Area home sales, prices up in August

Sat, 15 Sep 2012 11:04:45 +0000

Propelled by cheap mortgages, an improving economy and strong buyer demand, home sales in the Bay Area recorded their best August in six years as prices continued to surge, according to a real estate report released Friday.

In the nine-county region, 8,579 homes were sold, up 14.2 percent from August 2011, according to DataQuick, a real estate service in San Diego. The median price paid was $410,000, up 10.8 percent from last year. It was the fifth consecutive month in which the median rose significantly compared with a year earlier.

It was the best August sales volume in six years, since before the real estate bubble burst and the credit market collapsed, according to DataQuick.

“The market is gradually moving toward normalcy,” said Andrew LePage, a DataQuick analyst. “It’s a slow, modest recovery that depends heavily on the health of the economy and how lenders manage the remaining distress.”

Tight inventory continues to push up prices, as buyers hoping to lock in record-low interest rates vie for a limited supply of homes for sale.

Akil Murali, 27, a Symantec product manager who has been house-hunting in San Francisco and the Peninsula, exemplifies the challenges faced by many buyers.

“I made quite a number of offers where there was a lot of competition and the properties went well above asking,” he said. “I lost out and never even got an opportunity to make a counteroffer. Recently I made an offer $60,000 above asking, but (lost out to) all-cash buyers who removed all financial contingencies, making them more attractive to the seller.”

‘Things are crazy’

Murali finally has a contract on a two-bedroom home in Foster City, where a previous offer fell through when the buyer didn’t qualify for a mortgage.

“Things are crazy,” said his real estate agent, Regina Puzon, Peninsula team lead agent for Redfin. “Some homes are getting 20 or 30 offers. I have a lot of clients upping their down payments and removing all contingencies to get their offers accepted.”

She and other agents said that many sellers are underpricing their homes to spur bidding wars – a tactic that was prevalent in real estate’s boom days. By contrast, “during the downturn, people were pricing houses for what they thought they would go for,” said Sandy Patel-Hilfery of Pacific Union International in Montclair.

There are also signs that inventory may be increasing, she said. “This week alone there were 50 new, good listings in Berkeley, Piedmont and the nicer parts of Oakland,” she said. “Ordinarily, I would have expected 30 new listings of nicer houses at this time of year. The agents are jazzed because everyone has buyers who are chomping at the bit.”

Homeowners who were sidelined by the downturn may be starting to list their homes for sale as the market recovers. “Sellers are finally catching on to the fact that there are buyers coming out in droves,” Patel-Hilfery said.

Regaining equity

As values slowly rise, some homeowners who were underwater are regaining equity, another reason they may now be willing to sell. Nationwide, 1.3 million homeowners who had been underwater returned to positive equity this year, research firm CoreLogic said this week. In the Bay Area, about 27,000 homeowners returned to positive equity.

The 10.8 percent rise in the Bay Area’s median price in August is in part a reflection of a different mix of homes on the market – more higher-priced homes and fewer bargain-basement foreclosures, LePage said. Sales of homes over $500,000 were up 23 percent versus last year while sales of those under $300,000 were down 6 percent from a year ago.

Bank-owned foreclosures accounted for 14.9 percent of resales in August – down from 25.7 percent a year ago and approaching the historic monthly average of 10 percent. Foreclosure sales peaked at 52 percent of resales in February 2009. Short sales – homes sold for less than the balance due on the mortgage – accounted for 18.9 percent of resales, slightly up from 18.1 percent a year ago.

Fragile equilibrium

The market’s fragile equilibrium could be upset by such factors as a deluge of bank-owned foreclosures or a downturn in the economy, LePage said. But foreclosure activity is clearly slowing, although millions of homeowners nationwide continue to struggle.

Last year, lenders repossessed California homes at an average of almost 14,000 a month, said Sean O’Toole, founder and CEO of ForeclosureRadar.com. Through August of this year, the statewide pace plummeted by one-third, to an average of just under 9,000 foreclosures a month. Mortgage delinquencies also are falling compared with a year ago, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association, which implies that foreclosures will continue to decline.

And mortgage interest rates, already hovering near historic lows of 3.55 percent on a 30-year fixed-rate loan, are likely to remain super-affordable, thanks to the Federal Reserve’s plan to buy billions of dollars of mortgage-backed securities announced Thursday.

Bouncing back in a big way

8,579

Bay Area homes sold in August

14.2%

Change from August 2011

$410,000

Median price in August

10.8%

Change from August 2011

Carolyn Said is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: csaid@sfchronicle.com

Article source: http://www.sfgate.com/realestate/article/Bay-Area-home-sales-prices-up-in-August-3867301.php

Number of homes on market down as prices pick up

Sun, 03 Jun 2012 11:56:39 +0000

After several months of house-hunting in and around Cupertino, Sury and Suhasini Balasubramanian became disheartened.

“We were outbid quite a few times,” said Sury Balasubramanian. “They were all-cash deals with no contingencies, way over our budget.”

They decided to get aggressive.

“We realized that our budget of $600,000 would not cut the mustard,” he said. They found a three-bedroom Sunnyvale townhome listed at $649,000 and beat out 14 other buyers with a $725,000 bid.

Their experience is the story of the day in the Bay Area real estate market, especially in the tech-fueled swath from San Francisco to San Jose.

Buyers are battling over tight inventory, with for-sale homes in such short supply that they sell up to twice as fast as a year ago and draw multiple offers. In many areas, asking prices and sale prices are up significantly from this time last year.

The combination signals a shift to stability for the once-plummeting housing sector, experts say.

“The market has clearly turned,” said Christopher Thornberg, principal at Beacon Economics. “The question is: How high a bounce? Will it be a basketball or a bowling ball? The answer is more on the bowling ball end. While things have clearly (improved), it’s not like the problems are finished.”

Price per square foot

Asking price per square foot – a metric that captures the most current market snapshot while controlling for a change in the mix of properties being sold – rose in 105 out of 239 Bay Area ZIP codes analyzed in April compared with a year ago, with many of those areas in the South Bay and Peninsula, according to real estate information service Zillow. (Data were not available for some ZIPs.)

“There is more growth in listing prices in that area than elsewhere in the Bay Area,” said Stan Humphries, Zillow chief economist. “A desire to live close to the major technology companies is definitely helping those markets.”

Zillow shows that properties in towns such as Palo Alto, Los Altos, Mountain View, Cupertino, Sunnyvale, San Jose and Santa Clara are selling at above asking price.

Realtors specializing in Silicon Valley said the change is tangible.

“Over the past year, we have seen the market start to accelerate,” said Eric Boyenga of Intero Real Estate in Cupertino. “We could feel that job growth was happening when we started getting relocation calls almost every day.”

That revved up even more this year, said his wife, Janelle Boyenga, also with Intero.

“The light switch went on in mid-January, when (tech workers) realized, ‘Omigosh, Nasdaq stock prices are going up, the economy is doing well – we’d better jump into the housing market.’ We’re seeing hundreds of people going through open houses on the weekends; they’re like rock concerts.”

Asking prices are also up farther afield in suburbs both pricey (Corte Madera, San Anselmo, Moraga) and modest (Concord, Discovery Bay), according to Zillow.

“We’re seeing growth that’s organic, not stimulated” by government home-buyer tax credits, Humphries said. “We expect a lot more to spread throughout the San Francisco metro area, which will help stabilize prices.”

Inventory is the other “real-time” real estate metric – lower inventory signals a recovering market. It is down significantly in every Bay Area county this year as demand outpaces supply. Some have fewer than half as many houses for sale as a year ago, according to multiple listing service data provided by Realtor.com.

Besides a surge in demand, there are several factors on the sellers’ side. Many homeowners are staying put, waiting to put their houses on the market until they’re sure that prices are on an upswing. Many others are underwater, so they cannot sell without taking a loss. At the same time, the pace of foreclosures has slowed in response to government programs.

Quicker sales

Article source: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/06/02/MNJ11OMMVC.DTL

San Francisco Real Estate Agent Paige Gienger of Coldwell Banker Gives 6 Tips …

Thu, 22 Sep 2011 00:02:07 +0000

San Francisco Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage Realtor Paige Gienger shares advice on making the process of buying a home easier and quicker.

San Francisco, CA (PRWEB) September 21, 2011

After well over a decade of helping people buy and sell houses, San Francisco Realtor Paige Gienger has learned the ins and outs of the process. She offers 6 tips for homebuyers on what to expect and how to make the process easier.

1) No pain, no gain: Stress, anxiety and uncertainty are undoubtedly emotions buyers feel during the home buying process. The decisions buyers make are impacted by these emotions. Gienger says homebuyers can minimize their pain by using an expert.

“Nothing worth having comes easy-including the American Dream,” says Gienger. “But having an expert on your side will give you a big advantage. They will provide you with information and guidance to address your concerns and help you make wise moves.”

2) Don’t try to time the market: Timing the market is hard to do, because there are just too many variables. Interest rates, home prices, amount of inventory on the market, and world events all change frequently, and have an impact on a home’s value.

“You’ll drive yourself crazy trying to guess market trends. Buy when the time is right for you. Don’t follow the crowd or your friends’ timelines; your lifestyle and life’s events will point to the right time for your home purchase,” Gienger recommends.

3) Know when to compromise: “Unless you build it yourself, there will not be a ‘perfect’ home that meets all your criteria. Your Realtor can help you understand which amenities may be worth compromising on, and which conditions may impact future value and sellability,” says Gienger.

4) Take advantage of the Realtor’s expertise: Agents are paid to educate buyers on the market and values, draft the contract and terms, coordinate inspections and contingencies, address title and state code compliances, and handle any surprises that arise. The agent’s full-time dedication to the transaction will lead to a successful purchase.

5) Know the neighborhood you plan to buy in: Consider the traffic patterns, crime rates, schools, and access to services people utilize in their daily lives, such as dry cleaners, hardware, coffee shops and grocery stores.

“Unless you’re moving right down the street, how will you know the important neighborhood nuances and how they will affect your lifestyle?” asks Gienger. She recommends people ask their Realtor, because he or she has access to many resources about local neighborhoods.

6) The Internet does not replace reality: A home is not the same as an airline seat; buying it online is not going to work. Noise, area construction, and other factors do not carry into carefully staged photos. Only walking the property and home will reveal what is truly there. Buyers can save valuable time and effort by having a full-time agent do the walking for them. Agents also have leads on homes that are not yet open to the public market, listing services or the Internet.

“During a perceived buyer’s market, property owners often choose to list and sell homes ‘off market,’ Gienger notes. “Don’t miss out on professional Realtor’s insider knowledge and the dream home you never knew was for sale.”

Gienger recently helped first-time homebuyers Jaime and Benji purchase a Bernal Heights home. She walked them through the whole process, sharing advice, guidance and expertise.

“There is no substitute for trust when it comes to the relationship one has with a real estate agent. We trusted Paige completely, because she generously spent her time with us, taught us about homes and the market, and guided our decisions intelligently and strategically. Our first experience with buying a house could not have been more positive!” said the happy home buyers.

For more information about buying a home, or any of Paige Gienger’s other services, please visit her on the web at www.ontherightpaige.com, or call her at 415-336-0205.

About Paige Gienger

Born and raised in Mountain View and Los Altos, San Francisco real estate agent Paige Gienger is a proud life-long resident of the Bay Area and is familiar with all of San Francisco’s desirable residential neighborhoods. Gienger is a San Francisco homeowner and 21-year resident with concern and commitment to the community she serves.

Within the Gienger Family, real estate expertise comes naturally. Her mother is a top producing Coldwell Banker Agent. Working in her mother’s thriving business, she rapidly acquired inside knowledge and proven actions for sales success.

Gienger’s personable and professional style is the winning combination that has earned her a stellar reputation during her twelve years of helping clients buy and sell homes. Gienger’s personal philosophy is that customer service and satisfaction always comes first. She ensures an enjoyable real estate experience by incorporating her intimate knowledge of Bay Area communities and attention to detail while navigating through current San Francisco real estate market hurdles.

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For the original version on PRWeb visit: www.prweb.com/releases/prwebsell-houses/San-Francisco/prweb8815049.htm

Article source: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2011/09/21/prweb8815049.DTL