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As the year comes to a close you may be wondering what the foreclosure and short sale market looks like in Santa Clara County. In a word, things are pretty quiet. The numbers of sales are down. Here is what it looks like:

Closed sales from June 1,2012 to Dec 26, 2012:  

Bank owned: 579

Short Sales: 1743

Compared to the first 6 months of 2012:

Bank owned: 978

Short sales: 1603

Current Active Sales:

Bank Owned:  33

Short Sales: 76

Current Pending Sales:

Bank Owned: 54

Short Sales: 1044

As you can see there has been a large drop off in REO sales with a slight increase in short sales.

I expect a decrease in both short sales and foreclosures as Santa Clara home values increase, loan modifications increase, and the Homeoner's Bill of Rights takes effect in 2013. As prices increase fewer homeowners are underwater, and the need for short sales and foreclosures decrease. Also, the tax exemption of the debt forgiveness on short sales and foreclosures expires at the end of 2012. This will be a big incentive for homeowners to try to hold on until they are no longer underwater.

If you have any questions about Santa Clara County Short Sales or Foreclosures please feel free to contact me.

Marcy Moyer

Keller Williams Realty

www.marcymoyer.com

marcy@marcymoyer.com

D.R.E. 01191194

650-619-9285

Are you looking for a deal in a Short Sale or Bank Owned home in Santa Clara County? If so, don't bother. The inventory of distressed properties in the county is so low it is not worth doing a specific search for either a short sale or foreclosure. If one comes up in your general area search, go for it, but don't expect to get a deal, because there are so few of them.

Total number of single family homes for sale in Santa Clara County

1045 (historically low number)

Total number of short sales SFR For Sales in Santa Clara County:

65 or 6.2%

Total Number of SFR Foreclosures For Sale in Santa Clara County

18 or 1.7%

Total Number of Condos/Townhomes For Sale in Santa Clara County

233 (historically low number)

Total Number of Short Sale Condos For Sale In Santa Clara County

23 or 9.8%

Total Number of Bank Owned Condos For Sale in Santa Clara County

11 or 4%

Combined Single Family Homes and Condos/Townhomes for Sale in Santa Clara County

1278

Total Number of Single Family Homes and Condos/Townhomes for Sale That Are Short Sales or Bank Owned in Santa Clara County

117

Total Percentage of Short Sales and Bank Owned Homes and Condos/townhomes

In Santa Clara County

9.2%

As you can see the inventory of Santa Clara County Short Sales and Bank Owned properties that are currently for sale is less than 10%. This is not enough to bring the price of homes down in Santa Clara County, and not enough to allow for these homes to sell for less money than any other home in a similar location and condition. So, if one shows up in your search, be prepared for having to work harder to get through the offer and escrow process, but do not expect to to get a bargain.

If you have any questions about Short Sales or Bank Owned Homes in Santa Clara County please feel free to contact me.

Marcy Moyer

Keller Williams Realty

marcy@marcymoyer.com

650-619-9285

D.R.E. 01191194

Yesterday I got a call from a client I will never forget. She said "I was able to modify my loan, I can keep my Blossom Valley house, and you were the only one who believed I could do this, so thank you." This made me so incredibly happy.

So what happened was this client and her then husband were pregnant with their first child and ready to buy a home together. They found their dream home in Blossom Valley with my help, purchased it in 2006 with 10% down. In 2007 they had enough appreciation to take out a 2nd loan which they did. In 2010 they had just had their second baby, the home was $250,000 under water, and they split up. 

My client did not want to leave the house and try to find a home for herself, the two young children, and her 2 large dogs. She was determined to stay put, get her husband off title, and not disrupt her children any more than necessary. Her lawyer said short sell, her ex stopped helping to pay the mortgage, and her efforts to refinance went nowhere.

I encouraged her to keep trying and not move her children or her border collies from their dream home and lot.

After 2 years she got her principal reduced by 100K (thanks to First Horizon selling the loan to Nation Star who then was very co-operative in modifying her loan). Her ex signed a quick claim deed (don't know why, but he did), and she was able to pay off the second with savings, stock money, and cutting expenses.

So now she has her home, her kids are not disrupted, and with home prices appreciating she probably even has a good investment. 

While I always like to help out on Blossom Valley short sales, in this case I am much happier that I did not have to.

If you have any questions about short sales in San Mateo or Santa Clara County please feel free to contact me.

Marcy Moyer

Keller Williams Realty

www.marcymoyer.com

marcy@marcymoyer.com

650-619-9285

D.R.E.  01191194

It's time for the short sale/vs REO round-up for the first half of 2012. Today I will do the entire county, and then will break down the numbers by city.

So, in Santa Clara County from Jan 1, 2012 until June 30, 2012 there were:

1783 closed short sales

1099 closed bank owned home

Total sales during this time period were 8201

Total % Short Sales: 21.7

Total % REO Sales: 13.4%

Total Percentage Santa Clara County Distressed Properties: 35.1%

This is still a significant number in terms of percentages and at this percentage they are bound to have an effect on the overall market.

If you have any questions about short sales or foreclosures in San Santa Clara County please feel free to contact me.

Marcy Moyer

Keller Williams Realty

www.marcymoyer.com

marcy@marcymoyer.com

650-619-9285

DRE  01191194

Many homeowners who are having trouble paying their mortgages will stop opening their mail from the lender. It is understandable to feel, what is the point? I can't pay and nothing they say to me will change that. However, if your lender is Chase you may want to open that letter.

Chase is giving relocation assistance to some homeowners who are in default if they agree to short sell their home. The incentives can be anywhere from $2500 to $45,000. Not everyone will get this incentive, and there is no uniform way that these incentives will be offered. In other words, Chase is not saying why one borrower gets an incentive and another does not.

So if you get a letter from Chase, open it up. It may say you have won the lottery. You will need to find an experienced Sunnyvale short sale agent to help you sell your home, or Chase will give you the names of some who can help you. You then list your home as a short sale, accept an offer, have it approved by Chase, and at closing you get your relocation assistance.

It is a pretty good deal if you ask me, an experienced Sunnyvale Short Sale Agent.

If you have any questions about short sales in Santa Clara or San Mateo County please feel free to contact me.

Marcy Moyer

Keller Williams Realty

www.marcymoyer.com

marcy@marcymoyer.com

650-619-9285

D.R.E. 01191194

In Sunnyvale from Jan 1, 2012 until June 30, 2012 there were:

58 closed short sales

32 closed bank owned homes

Total sales during this time period were 447

Total % Short Sales: 12.9%

Total % REO Sales: 7.1%

Total Percentage  Sunnyvale Distressed Properties: 20%

20% of all Redwood City sales being distressed is enough to still have some effect on the overall market. However, as inventory is still so low unless these homes are truly physically distressed, which is more common with bank owned homes at this level, it probably will not have a long lived effect. It is interesting to see there are almost twice as many short sales as bank owned sales.

If you have any questions about short sales or foreclosures in San Mateo Clara County please feel free to contact me.

Marcy Moyer

Keller Williams Realty

www.marcymoyer.com

marcy@marcymoyer.com

650-619-9285

DRE  01191194

In Santa Clara from Jan 1, 2012 until June 30, 2012 there were:

97 closed short sales

47 closed bank owned homes

Total sales during this time period were 491

Total % Short Sales: 19.8%

Total % REO Sales: 9.6%

Total Percentage  Santa Clara Distressed Properties: 29.4%

29.4% of all Santa Clara sales being distressed is enough to have an effect on the overall market. However, as inventory is still so low, unless these homes are truly physically distressed, which is more common with bank owned homes at this level, most homes will not sell for much less than fair market value. There are twice as many short sales as foreclosures in this time period which is what we are seeing in many other cities. 

If you have any questions about short sales or foreclosures in Santa Clara County please feel free to contact me.

Marcy Moyer

Keller Williams Realty

www.marcymoyer.com

marcy@marcymoyer.com

650-619-9285

DRE  01191194

In Mountain View from Jan 1, 2012 until June 30, 2012 there were:

16 closed short sales

22 closed bank owned homes

Total sales during this time period were 349

Total % Short Sales: 4.58%

Total % REO Sales: 6 %

Total Percentage  Mountain View Distressed Properties: 10.58%

10.58% of all Mountain View sales being distressed is not enough to have a major effect on the overall market. Additionally, as inventory is still so low unless these homes are truly physically distressed, which is more common with bank owned homes at this level, it probably will not have much effect at all. Ther are so many employed people looking for homes near Google, Apple, and other high tech companies, that homes are getting multiple offers, selling at appreciating prices, and are almost always in high demand. It is interesting to see there are more foreclosures than short sales which we have not seen in other cities. 

If you have any questions about short sales or foreclosures in Santa Clara County please feel free to contact me.

Marcy Moyer

Keller Williams Realty

www.marcymoyer.com

marcy@marcymoyer.com

650-619-9285

DRE  01191194

In Los Altos from Jan 1, 2012 until June 30, 2012 there were:

3 closed short sales

3 closed bank owned homes

Total sales during this time period were 192

Total % Short Sales: 1.5%

Total % REO Sales: 1.5 %

Total Percentage  Los Altos Distressed Properties: 3%

Again, we have a high priced neighborhood and almost no distressed property sales. Values are appreciating and there are more pople trying to buy homes than there are homes available. Additionally, there is very little new contruction before the crash, so there is not a big group of people who bought into a large development and are now underwater.

If you have any questions about short sales or foreclosures in Santa Clara County please feel free to contact me.

Marcy Moyer

Keller Williams Realty

www.marcymoyer.com

marcy@marcymoyer.com

650-619-9285

DRE  01191194

Don't be an ostrich!

If you have an questions about short sales in The Silicon Valley please feel free to contact me.

Marcy Moyer

Keller Williams Realty

marcy@marcymoyer.com

www.marcymoyer.com

650-619-9285

D.R.E.  01191194

Blossom Valley is a hot bed of short sales. It is one of the neighborhoods in the Silicon Valley that has not gone back to the values of 2007-2008. So many of the homes for sale right now are being sold as short sales since the owners have negative equity in their homes.

There are currently 196 pending homes listed as short sales.

There are 286 pending sales of all types.

The percentage of total pending sales which are short sales is 68%.

This is pretty impressive, but the big question is how did this happen?

I have a few theories.

Blossom Valley had some remarkable levels of appreciation early in the century, especially between 2005-2007. There are a number of reasons.

1. Easy money

2. Easy access to downtown San Jose which had ambitious plans for redevelopment

3. Good schools. At one point there were sections of Blossom Valley where you could get a home in a school district with a high API for less than any other neighborhood in Silicon Valley.

4. High tech companies close by including IBM right in the neighborhood.

Then the market crashed, credit tightened, San Jose gave up their redevelopment plans, major employment areas kept moving north to Mountain View, Palo Alto, and San Francisco, and Blossom Valley values plummeted in 2008-2009.

We are on the way up again, but many homeowners are still underwater. The inventory is now quite low. There are only 61 homes for sale right now, and 13 are short sales, or 21%.

If you are a seller, your home will sell, and quickly. If you are a buyer, there is a lot of competition, but the values are there.

If you have any questions about buying or selling short sales in Santa Clara or San Mateo County please feel free to contact me.

Marcy Moyer

Keller Williams Realty

www.marcymoyer.com

marcy@marcymoyer.com

650-619-9285

Just got approval on another short sale in San Jose with Chase. They are getting to be one of my favorites!

This was not straight forward. Client lost his job and was not able to make payments. He tried a loan mod but did not qualify due to having too much in retirement account. Client is close to retiring.

Put condo on market and got 13 offers. The San Jose inventory for small affordable condos is quite low. Accepted an offer 30% over asking price, cash, with no appraisal contingency. Asking price was market value at the time of the listing. Last 2 sales in the complex were within 5K of listing price.

6 weeks later get approval from Chase but buyer, who was an investor, dropped out.

I start to worry because none of the other 12 offers were over 10% over list price and I am afraid Chase (or actually Freddie) will want more since first offer was so high.

Submit a back up offer for 10% over list price, cash with no contingencies. 4 weeks later get approval.

Everyone is happy!!!

So fortunately the first offer which was so high did not taint the the process, and since there was no foreclosure date set there was not a danger of losing the condo to a foreclosure. But this is a risk in short sales in the Silicon Valley. The inventory is low. There are many investors and first time buyers in the market competing with each other. Sometimes people make ridiculous offers which they later regret.

How do you know what is the best offer? Is it the highest, is it the owner who wants this home more than anything, is it the person who puts the most money in escrow, has the least contingencies?

This is a complicated question that deserves its own blog. But my best advice to sellers of short sales is start by picking an experienced agent who knows how to analyze offers from a short sale perspective. This is not the same as a traditonal sale perspective. And understand that sometimes things go south, so be prepared for some bumps in the road to finally get to the magic words:

Congratulations: You are off the hook!

If you have any questions about short sales in San Mateo or Santa Clara County please feel free to contact me.

Marcy Moyer

Keller Williams Realty

www.marcymoyer.com

marcy@marcymoyer.com

650-619-9285

D.R.E. 01191194

It's the beginning of the year so time for the round-up of last year's distressed property sales in Los Gatos. So here's what happened:

Single family and condo townhomes :

Total sales:  421

Short Sales: 42

REO:            24

Distressed sales as a percentage of total sales: 15.7%

Compare to 2010

Total sales:   489

Short Sales:   36

REO:            38

Distressed sales as a percentage of total sales:  15.1%

My conclusion:

The percentage of distressed properties in Los Gatos is virtually the same  between 2011 and 2010. Also a 15% distressed property sale percentage is absolutely probably not enough to affect values. What is interesting is the the number of short sales in 2011 went up as the number of REOs went down from 2010 as banks have been more wiiling to approve short sales.

If you have any questions about short sales or bank owned homes please feel free to contact me.

Marcy Moyer

Keller Williams Realty

www.marcymoyer.com

marcy@marcymoyer.com

650-619-9285

D.R.E.  01191194

It's the beginning of the year so time for the round-up of last year's distressed property sales in Milpitas. So here's what happened:

Single family and condo townhomes :

Total sales:  513

Short Sales: 150

REO:            112

Distressed sales as a percentage of total sales: 51.1%

Compare to 2010

Total sales:   535

Short Sales:   131

REO:            140

Distressed sales as a percentage of total sales:  50.1%

My conclusion:

The percentage of distressed properties in Milpitas is virtually the same  between 2011 and 2010. Also a 50% distressed property sale percentage is absolutely large enough to affect values. What is interesting is the the number of short sales in 2011 went up as the number of REOs went down from 2010 as banks have been more wiiling to approve short sales.

If you have any questions about short sales or bank owned homes please feel free to contact me.

Marcy Moyer

Keller Williams Realty

www.marcymoyer.com

marcy@marcymoyer.com

650-619-9285

D.R.E.  01191194

It's the end of the year so time for the round-up of distressed property sales in Mountain View. So here's what happened:

Single family and condo townhomes :

Total sales:  563

Short Sales: 62

REO:           34

Distressed sales as a percentage of total sales: 17%

Compare to 2010

Total sales:   572

Short Sales:   50

REO:            34

Distressed sales as a percentage of total sales:  15.5%

My conclusion:

The percentage of distressed properties in Mountain View is a higher in 2011, 17% as compared to 2010, 15.5% but the majority of these distressed properties are in the lower price range of Mountain View sales so are being purchased by investors and first time home buyers. West of El Camino is not seeing much distressed property activity.

If you have any questions about short sales or bank owned homes please feel free to contact me.

Marcy Moyer

Keller Williams Realty

www.marcymoyer.com

marcy@marcymoyer.com

650-619-9285

D.R.E.  01191194

I was starting to feel like the last player picked in dodge ball. The rejections were really hurting, especially since there was never any reason given. Just messages saying your supporting documents were rejected. Oh the pain!

I finally got a really nice B of A negotiator on the phone today who gave me a simple explanation, the buyer's proof of funds were downloaded as a web page instead of being a PDF of the originals, and the current policy is only original statements are accepted, no web page screen shots.

I guess I should not be surprised. Just yesterday I got an e-mail from PNC saying the same thing. They needed the original October bank statement, not the one that was downloaded from the internet. At least PNC did not tell me I was rejected.

So if you want to keep your ego in tact while doing a short sale with Bank of America or PNC, be sure and give your Santa Clara County short sale agent original bank statements (which you may need to order from your bank if you are paperless), or see if you can download something that does not say web page on the screen. And be sure and ask your agent to get original bank statements for the buyer's proof of funds. There may be other banks requiring that now as well, but these are my two latest encounters.

If you have any questions about buying or selling short sales in San Mateo or Santa Clara County please feel free to contact me.

Marcy Moyer

Keller Williams Realty

www.marcymoyer.com

marcy@marcymoyer.com

650-619-9285

D.R.E. 01191194

I just closed a Wells Fargo Short Sale that is not typical. It was a nice 3 bedroom townhome in North San Jose, close to Santa Clara. The owners were divorcing and neither could afford to buy the other one out or afford the property alone. This constitutes a hardship in most lender's minds. I have closed other Wells Fargo short sales with similar circumstances. The current owners had been able to pay the mortgage but they will not be able to in the near future because of an impending change of circumstance. These owners were current on their payments, and were hoping to sell short and then finalize their divorce.

So last fall I put the town home on the market, got a good offer, and submitted it to Wells Fargo. It was promptly denied. I was told that while this was not Wells Fargo policy, the particular investor on the loan (the person on entity who purchased the loan from Wells Fargo, and hired Wells to keep servicing the loan) had a policy of not allowing short sales unless the borrower was behind in their payments.

So, my clients stopped making payments for a few months and we put the home back on the market. We got another offer for the same price and 2 months later got an approval and closed escrow in 30 days. 

So here is what happened to the investor: They lost 5 months of payments of about $4000 a month, so $20,000 of missed payments for the same price of the home. Call me crazy, but that make no sense to me. Let me re-iterate:

THIS IS NOT THE GENERAL POLICY OF WELLS FARGO SHORT SALES.

So, if someone owed me money and I had the chance of recovering 70% of it, or 70% minus $20,000 I would go for the straight 70%. But maybe I am greedier than that investor.

If you have any questions about short sales in Santa Clara or San Mateo Counties please feel free to contact me.

Marcy Moyer

Keller Williams Realty

www.marcymoyer.com

marcy@marcymoyer.com

650-619-9285

D.R.E.  01191194

One of the best things that has happened to short sales in the last couple of years is the on line platform for processing a short sale. There are several platforms in use, but Equator is one of the more popular ones, and is the one used for Bank of America and Wells Fargo Short Sales. So, instead of your agent having to fax all the documents, usually several times, the short sale documents are uploaded as PDFs onto the Equator web site. In order to keep the process moving forward Equator will assign a task to be fulfilled by the agent, like uploading an offer or financial documents onto the website. Once the task is assigned they will give you a fixed number of days to upload the requested documents. This number of days is the same, no matter when the task is assigned. So if it isa 2 day task and it is assigned on a Friday, it is due Sunday, period.

So my latest Bank of America short sale assigned me the task of uploading the signed offer on Friday, with a due date of Sunday, which happens to be Christamas.

And that is why this Palo Alto short sale agent is cheerfully working Christmas Eve. 

Enjoy your holidays!

If you have any questions about buying or selling short sales in Santa Clara or San Mateo County please feel free to contact me!

Marcy Moyer

Keller Williams Realty

www.marcymoyer.com

marcy@marcymoyer.com

650-619-9285

D.R.E. 01191194

It's the end of the year so time for the round-up of distressed property sales in Redwood City. So here's what happened:

Single family and condo townhomes 2011:

Total sales:  553

Short Sales: 91

REO:           49

Distressed sales as a percentage of total sales: 25.3

Compare to 2010

Total sales:   600

Short Sales:   93

REO:            78

Distressed sales as a percentage of total sales:  28.5

My conclusion:

The percentage of distressed properties in Redwood City is a little lower in 2011, 25.3% as compared to 2010, 28,5%. This is dues to a 40% decrease in REO sales in 2011. It will be interesting to see if the rumored release of REO inventory actually happens, and increases the percentage in 2012, or if the econmy picks up and helps people afford their homes.

If you have any questions about short sales or bank owned homes please feel free to contact me.

Marcy Moyer

Keller Williams Realty

www.marcymoyer.com

marcy@marcymoyer.com

650-619-9285

D.R.E.  01191194

There are several different types of short sales that will approve your price and the seller's eligibility before you get an offer. If you do not qualify for one of those programs (like HAFA or Bank of America co-operative short sales) then you can try to do a traditional short sale.

In most traditional short sales after the seller signs an offer, his/her short sale real estate agent will send the offer and all of the seller's financial documents to the lender. This can be a time consuming process, and if the lender is still using faxes to gather information rather than online platforms, several weeks can be lost while the lender checks to make sure all the needed documents have been collected.

Chase has a policy which makes this portion of the short sale truly shorter. Once the seller signs the listing agreement the short sale realtor can send all of the documentation to Chase. Once an offer is received and signed, you will be weeks ahead of the game.

So, if you are short selling your home with Chase be sure and ask your short sale realtor to send in your documents right away and save time when you get that offer!

If you have any questions about buying or selling short sales in Santa Clara or San Mateo County please feel free to contact me.

Marcy Moyer

Keller Williams Realty

www.marcymoyer.com

marcy@marcymoyer.com

650-619-9285

D.R.E. 01191194