Erin Attardi's Blog

2 bedroom, 1 bath, 938sf fixer with attic loft in a great Carmichael location! Updated kitchen, attic loft area, huge backyard, gated driveway access. Offered at $129,000 subject to lender approval of short sale. Sorry, cash offers only please.

Adorable 3 bed, 2 bath, 1,127sf Natomas home on .12ac! You will love the light and bright open layout, high ceilings, gourmet kitchen, attached 2-car garage, large backyard, and shed / outbuilding for extra storage! Offered at $117,000, subject to lender approval of short sale. For more photos and additional detail, please visit http://www.2929candidodrive.com/.

The California Association of Realtors is sponsoring SB 1178. This legislation seeks to extend "anti-deficiency protections" to homeowners who have refinanced "purchase money" loans and are now facing foreclosure. Today the state senate passed this legislation by a vote of 30-4.

Generally speaking, a loan taken on a residential property at the time of purchase is subject to provisions that afford a homeowner protection against personal liability for the difference between the value of a foreclosed property, and the original amount owed on the mortgage to the lender.

A loan that is refinanced generally does not afford a homeowner the same protection, and can be subject to "recourse" from their mortgage lender for the loss the lender suffers on that loan.

Still not law yet, but this was an important step...

I got a call today from a very nice man who had found an older posting on my blog from last year regarding filing an appeal application with the Sacramento County Assessor's office to request a reduction in his property tax assessment based on declining home values.

For clarity, the Sacramento County Assessor's office is NOT yet accepting appeal applications for fiscal year 2010-2011 until the revised valuations are released next month, in July. This timeline is slightly different than last year...don't forget, we are in the middle of an election cycle. Ken Stieger is retiring, and Kathleen Kelleher (current assistant Sacramento County Assessor) is seeking election to his seat.

Every year I get questions from many confused Sacramento tax payers regarding the property tax assessment appeal process. PLEASE BE AWARE - there are many scams regarding fee-based "services" that promise to lower your tax assessment...do not fall victim to one of these scams! When the new values are released in July, they will reflect the value of the house as of January 2010....several months ago. I promise I will post information regarding how to request an appeal of your property tax assessment when it becomes available!

This year I finally meet the qualifications to run for a 2-year position on the Sacramento Association of REALTORS® Board of Directors. I have been serving on various committees at SAR for the last 3 years, and have been honored by SAR for my contributions, and the Nominating Committee felt I might be a good fit to serve on the Board. So I am running...and so are eight others (a total of nine), for six open positions.

So in this contested race, I will be campaigning over the next couple months until all the votes are counted in early August.

While the intended audience for my campaign website is REALTOR® members of SAR (since they are the folks who actually vote), if you are curious to view it - visit http://www.vote4erin.com/. Feel free to 'Become a Fan' of the site if you want to see how my campaign progresses. I have some pretty neat-o campaign stuff that will posted there in the coming weeks.

I really hope that the SAR membership sees I have made many valuable contributions to the association (in addition to many my contributions to the California Association of REALTORS®), and elects me to serve. I am very excited at the opportunity to be able to serve the membership at a much higher level. So wish me luck!

Adorable 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom, 1,173sf (per assessor) home within close proximity to Tahoe Park! You will love the spacious layout, separate living and family rooms, updated kitchen, freshly painted interior. Backyard is a gardener's dream with lush roses, planter beds, and a separate garden area, a gazebo, and shed/outbuilding. NOT a short sale or foreclosure! Offered at $159,000 - Don't wait! For more photos and detail, visit http://www.3420-65thStreet.com.

Adorable Arden Manor 3 bed, 1 bath, 1,081sf home-lovingly maintained and owned by the same family for 58 years! You will appreciate the fresh paint, newer composition roof, central heat & air, updated bathroom, newer carpet and tile throughout. Serene backyard is perfect for the gardening enthusiast! Traditional seller - NOT a short sale or bank foreclosure! Offered at $159,000. For more photos and detail, please visit http://www.3209WemberleyDrive.com.

When the State of California lawmakers passed SB 401 and sent it to Governor Schwarzenegger's desk for signature, I immediately started calling my MANY past closed short sale sellers from last year, and 2010 to date. What is SB 401? It is legislation that cancels the State of California taxation of forgiven mortgage debt...meaning many short sale sellers just got a BIG break!

In a nutshell (and completely over-simplified), if a homeowner does a short sale and owes $300,000, and the NET proceeds from the sale that a bank will accept in a short sale equal $200,000, the seller of the property receives a 1099 from the bank for $100,000 (the amount of the "forgiven" debt).

More than one of my clients started crying...tears of joy. One had just done her taxes, and faced an $8,000 State of California tax bill. She confirmed with her CPA after our conversation that not only will that tax forgiven, but she would actually receive a small refund. That was music to my ears.

Now I am no CPA (and I do NOT give tax advice), however I do know that several of my past, present, and future short sale seller clients will benefit from the cancellation of the state taxation for forgiven mortgage debt.

Basically, the State of California was slow to enact this legislation to extend the cancellation of state taxation of the forgiven mortgage debt...the federal government enacted legislation back in 2007 that is valid through the end of 2012. This state legislation supposedly matches the timelines of the federal legislation.

Not EVERY short sale seller will qualify for this...please consult a qualified professional who can evaluate your situation.

The State of California is in a financial pickle, and it looks like legislators are trying to get a little creative to generate new sources of income to balance the budget...

There is a bill, introduced by Assembly member Juan Arambula of Fresno, that seeks to eliminate the state tax benefits of the 1031 Exchange. In very simplistic terms (I'm not a CPA and do not give tax advice) a 1031 Exchange is a tax deferment mechanism for real estate transactions. An investment property owner can sell an investment property and purchase another of 'like kind', and essentially defer taxation of any capital gains (or losses)...so taxpayers do not have to pay a big old tax bill.

AB 2640 eliminates the tax law conformity with federal 1031 Exchanges. In other words, if this bill were to pass, these tax deferred exchanges would still be possible for a taxpayer's federal taxation, but they would not be recognized for tax deferred treatment for California state tax purposes. UGH...call your legislator if you feel it is important to maintain the ability for investment property owners to maintain the ability to do this sort of transaction!

I spoke to Jim Wasserman of the Sacramento Bee briefly on Wednesday regarding the new Federal HAFA (Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternatives) Program that takes affect on Monday, April 5th. He used a few of my quotes for an article that appeared in today's SacBee about Short Sales.

The premise of the HAFA Program is good idea and all (to streamline the short sale process and provide financial incentives to lenders and sellers/borrowers for doing short sales)...and like the HAMP Program for loan modifications, I think that the implementation by the loan servicer participants, and overall effectiveness of HAFA will be slow and probably a bit clumbsy to gain any real momentum. I do not think the financial incentives offered to these servicers will be any major carrot for compliance with the program...

Apparently, all the of the loan servicers that are (voluntarily) participating in HAMP will be required to (voluntarily) participate in HAFA as well. There are many loan servicers that are working with the HAMP Program already - many of the major ones include Aurora Loan Services, American Home Mortgage Servicing, Bank of America (formerly Countrywide), JP Morgan Chase, CitiMortgage, GMAC, HomEq, Litton Loan Servicing, National City Bank (aka, PNC), OneWest Bank (formerly Indymac), US Bank, Wachovia, and Wells Fargo...there are several other small banks and credit unions on board.

I have spoken to many of the loss mitigation reps at all of the loan servicers I am doing short sales with (literally, reps from that entire list above), and most have never even heard of HAFA. Wells Fargo's loss mitigation department seems to aware of HAFA though, and seems to be restructuring itself a bit to get ready...but again, I think the roll-out will take a long while....and as I am quoted in the SacBee article, Wachovia has the smoothest short sale process out there already. Time will tell!

I received a call today from a very nice lady who is planning to move to the Sacramento area, and wants to rent in the Land Park area prior to purchasing a home there. She was full of questions about the neighborhood, schools, parks, shopping, etc...and then she among other things, she asked "Oh - and how do I know for sure if my potential landlord is facing foreclosure?"

In the State of California, tenants are entitled to certain rights in the event they are renting a foreclosed property (thanks to 2008's SB 1137), but who really wants to go through that? The last thing most renters want is to be evicted from a house if the seller goes into default and is foreclosed, or to be forced to show the property to prospective buyers if the seller opts for a short sale.

Well...aside from asking the property owner directly? There is a resource that I use often myself to see if a Notice of Default or Notice of Trustee Sale has been filed in Sacramento County. Luckily, the Sacramento County Clerk-Recorder's office has an online database called e-ROSI (Electronic Recorder Online System Index). e-ROSI provides on-line public access to Sacramento County's Index of Recorded Documents from 1965 to current. Unfortunately, you will not be able to see the actual recorded document online, but you will be able to identify the existence of certain documents, and can always obtain more information by visiting the Sacramento County Clerk-Recorder's office downtown at 600 8th Street.

You will need the name of the property owner, and the year of the filing (for example, John Smith, and 2009 or 2010). The e-ROSI website is located at http://erosi.saccounty.net/. Of course this resource is not completely fool-proof...it is possible that a property owner can be delinquent (past due) with the mortgage payments without a recorded NOD or NOTS, though one may be filed in the near future.

I have gotten at least a dozen emails with questions from buyers over the last week about the new State of California Home Buyer Tax Credit.

So yes, you probably saw on the news that Governor Schwarzenegger signed AB 183, allocating approximately $200 million for home buyer tax credits. The bill allocates $100 million for qualified first-time home buyers of existing (resale, previously occupied) homes, and $100 million for purchasers of new construction (previously unoccupied) homes. Again, the definition of a first time buyer is one that has not owned a home in the last 3 years.

The State of California tax credit is equal to the lesser of 5 percent of the purchase price or $10,000, taken in equal installments over three consecutive years. In english - if you purchased a $165,000 home, you would be eligible for a tax credit of $8,250 ($165,000 x 5% = $8,250, which is less than $10,000). If you purchase a $265,000 home, you would be eligible for a tax credit of $10,000 ($265,000 x 5% = $13,250, however the tax credit is capped at $10,000).

The eligible taxpayer who closes escrow on a qualified principal residence between May 1, 2010 and December, 31, 2010, or who closes escrow on a qualified principal residence on and after December 31, 2010 and before August 1, 2011, pursuant to an enforceable contract executed on or before December 31, 2010, will be able to take the allowed tax credits. Of course - these time periods assume that the state allocated funds will not be depleted...AND, purchasers will be required to live in the home as their principal residence for at least two years or forfeit the credit (aka, you would have to repay it to the state). AND, you must submit an application for the tax credit...the state of California does take reservations...so don't wait for tax season. No joke!

So....hopefully that clears up most of the questions folks have. As always - please get tax advice from a qualified professional like a CPA. Shoot me an email if you need a referral to a good one.

Yes, it is for my sixth installment of Erin's Sacramento Short Sale Experiment! I am sure ya'll are just on the edge of your seats to find out just what has transpired in the world of short sales in our Sacramento metro area since the last time? I am anxious to see if 2010 continues to bring a high volume of active short sale listings, and more importantly, more closed short sales. For those of you not following along at home, or perhaps if you are reading this for the first time, my short sale experiment is tracking a few different Sacramento zip codes to see what how the short sale activity increases or decreases over time as compared with traditional resale listings (where there is a seller with equity in a "normal transaction") and to bank-owned resale transactions. My hypothesis at the start of this experiment: the number of short sales will grow over time, as will their dominance in our greater Sacramento marketplace (overall percentage of listings). I have continued to list more short sale properties, and thus far I think my hypothesis has been proven to be true. Let's see how this new data compares to the "control data" for the experiment and also to last installment...

95624 is the section of Elk Grove closest to Hwy 99. As of right this second according to MLS, there are a total of 342 active listings there. 246/342 listings are short sales. The median price in that zip code in February 2010 was $235,000 according to Trendgraphix (a decrease over last installment). The result vs. the control data? Control data was 68.6% of all active listings in 95624 were short sales, vs. 75.1% last installment, vs. 71.9% this month. INCREASE over the control data, and a decrease over last installment. Number of 2009 closed short sales - 245. YTD closed in 2010 - 56.

95610 is a section of Citrus Heights. As of right this second according to MLS, there are a total of 175 active listings there. 112/175 listings are short sales. The median price in that zip code in February 2010 was $171,000 according to Trendgraphix (a significant decrease over last installment). The result vs. the control data? Control data was 60.3% of all active listings in 95610 were short sales, vs. 68.2% last installment, vs. 64.0% this month. INCREASE over the control data, and a decrease over last installment. Number of 2009 closed short sales - 85. YTD closed in 2010 - 16.

95826 is a section of Rosemont and College Greens. As of right this second according to MLS, there are a total of 136 active listings there. 70/136 listings are short sales. The median price in that zip code in February 2009 was also $170,000 according to Trendgraphix (a decrease from last installment). The result vs. the control data? Control data was 62.2% of all active listings in 95826 were short sales, vs. 59.5% last installment, vs. 51.5% this month = BIG DECREASE over the control data. Number of 2009 closed short sales - 65. YTD closed in 2010 - 20.

95864 is a section of Sierra Oaks, Arden Park, and Arden Manor. As of right this second according to MLS, there are a total of 165 active listings there. 49/165 listings are short sales. The median price in that zip code in February 2010 was $214,000 according to Trendgraphix (a big decrease over last installment). The result vs. the control data? Control data was 17.0% of all active listings in 95864 were short sales, vs. 29.3% last installment, vs. 29.7% this month. INCREASE over the control data and last month. Number of 2009 closed short sales - 18. YTD closed in 2010 - 5.

95818 is a section of Midtown, Land Park, and Curtis Park. As of right this second according to MLS, there are a total of 77 active listings there. 13/77 listings are short sales. The median price in that zip code in February 2010 was $330,000 according to Trendgraphix (big decrease over last installment). The result vs. the control data? Control data was 16.0% of all active listings in 95818 were short sales, vs. 25.9% last installment, vs. 16.9% this month. INCREASE over the control data, and a slight increase over the last installment. Number of 2009 closed short sales - 15. YTD closed in 2010 - 4.

95819 is a section of East Sacramento. As of right this second according to MLS, there are a total of 71 active listings there. 15/71 listings are short sales. The median price in that zip code in February 2010 was $339,000 according to Trendgraphix (a increase over last installment). The result vs. the control data? Control data was 19.7% of all active listings in 95819 were short sales, vs. 21.1% last month, vs. 21.1 this month. INCREASE over the control data, but a no change over last installment. Number of 2009 closed short sales - 11. YTD closed in 2010 - 0.

So in summary - of the six Sacramento area zip codes I am tracking for my experiment, 5 of them experienced a decrease in the number of active short sale listings from last installment, while 5 experienced an increase over the control data...interesting. Unfortunately, I do not think that this incremental decrease from last installment will continue as a ongoing trend. My phone definitely keeps ringing and I continue to receive emails - I am fielding lots of inquiries from homeowners looking for more information and insight from my short sale experience...buyers too are really curious about the short sale process since they are encountering so many short sale listings in our marketplace. Also (you will be aware of this if you follow me on Twitter or Facebook), I closed many of my own short sale listings since the last installment of Erin's Sacramento Short Sale Experiment....and I have been the top listing agent in my office for two months in a row (January & February). Until next time!

Erin's Sacramento Short Sale Experiment, Part I
Erin's Sacramento Short Sale Experiment, Part II
Erin's Sacramento Short Sale Experiment, Part III
Erin's Sacramento Short Sale Experiment, Part IV
Erin's Sacramento Short Sale Experiment, Part V

If you follow me on Facebook or Twitter, you will know that last week I ordered a new bicycle! It arrived pretty quickly on Thursday, and I have been out toodling around on it a lot since then. My neighborhood is truly a serene, beautiful place from the vantage point of a bicycle. I do not usually give testimonials for places I visit or purchase things at, but I want to give some kudos to the folks at City Bicycle Works. I visited several bicycle shops as I was contemplating my purchase. At one point, I walked into one with my mind made up as to which bike I wanted, and the employees at this particular bike shop (which shall remain nameless) were so rude that I left empty-handed. When I finally visited City Bicycle Works, the bike guy (his name was Gordon) was SO nice and helpful, it was a no-brainer that I should make my purchase there.

Amazing Carmichael Barrett Hill 4 bed, 3 bath, 2,218sf home! You will fall in love with the stylish decor, separate living and family rooms, vaulted ceilings, kitchen with LOTS of cabinet/counter space, large master suite with fireplace and sitting area, luxurious master bathroom, 3-car garage, and serene backyard with deck and patio. Don't wait! Offered at $349,000, subject to lender approval of short sale. For more photos and additional detail, please visit http://www.6314PerrinWay.com.

If you read my blog post about my little vacation from last week, you will know that I closed a buyer transaction in Garden of the Gods. I wanted to share a little success story about how this transaction came to be, but wanted to wait until after the close of escrow as to not jinx the outcome!

If you are a Sacramento area home buyer, you will know that certain price ranges and certain neighborhoods are extremely competitive - often with properties getting multiple competing offers. My buyer clients were planning to relocate from the bay area to Sacramento, and specifically wanted to live in the Garden of the Gods neighborhood. Unfortunately, at the time they were looking (this was in January), there were only 4 active listings in Garden of the Gods. They wanted to buy sooner rather than later, as they were first time home buyers - and they wanted to take advantage of Federal Home Buyer Tax Credit that is available if they were in contract by April 30th, and closed by June 30th, 2010.

So I put on my thinking cap...

I went into MLS and looked up past listings - ones that did not sell for one reason or another, and were eventually withdrawn or expired. I found a property that had been on the market last summer that seemed to be exactly what my buyer clients were looking for. It was not a foreclosure, and not a short sale either! I called the former listing agent and asked if those sellers were still interested in selling the house. YES of course, she said, and they were planning to re-list it later in the spring. I arranged a showing of the house for the last weekend in January. The house was not on the market.

We toured it, and my buyer clients LOVED the house. We immediately went back to my office and wrote an offer. The sellers then countered, and my buyers accepted the seller's counter offer.

SO.....my buyer clients were able to purchase a great home that fit their needs that was not on the market, in a neighborhood with very little listing inventory, in a non-competitive situation. Given the current brisk, competitive state of the market in that neighborhood and in that price range, what could be better than that? A win-win for everyone involved!

The bottom line - get creative! There are ways to circumvent the market conditions. The buyer's agent will have to do a little more work in order to make this happen, but if you have a Realtor that is not savvy enough to do this, or not willing to go the extra step, you may be working with the wrong Realtor.

Stunning newer 3 bed, 2 bath, 1,545sf Antelope Winncrest Home - Calypso model! You will love the open layout, gourmet kitchen with granite counters and GE Profile appliances, pre-wired for surround sound, plantation shutters and tile and upgraded carpet flooring! The backyard is truly a showpiece-professionally landscaped with flagstone patio, trex deck, pergola and more! Don't wait! Offered at $215,000, subject to lender approval of short sale. For more photos and additional detail, visit http://7656BoardwalkWay.com.

Stunning 3 bed, 2 bath, 1,904sf Arden ranch-style home has been lovingly and meticulously cared for by its owner. You will fall in love the stamped concrete driveway, the renovated kitchen with newer tile flooring, corian countertops, and crown moulding, the large inside utility/laundry room with incredible storage and custom cabinetry, the cozy living room with built-in shelving and gas log fireplace, the amazing light and bright family room with surround sound and a wall of ceiling-to-floor dual pane windows and sliding doors, the large covered patio perfect for outdoor entertaining, built-in fountain with sitting area, the manicured lawn with planter beds, and the outdoor Tuff Shed for extra storage. HVAC and roof replaced in 1999, water heater replaced in 2006, updated copper plumbing in 2008 - and much more (please ask listing agent for detailed list). Offered at $299,900, NOT a short sale / foreclosure. For more photos and detail, please visit http://2032richmondstreet.com/.