In a surprise decision, FHA waived the 90 day rule for FHA loan customers to be able to buy a flipped home.  Prior to this decision, FHA buyers were left out of the market for homes that have been rehabbed and put on the market.
Best to you,
Mark and Kari Shea
Real Estate Experts Serving San Diego […]

As the economy recovers, markets will stabilize but the old ‘normal’ will not return.  A new normal will prevail when the housing market recovers, according to a report released by the Urban Land Institute.
Good reading,
Mark and Kari Shea
Real Estate Experts Serving San Diego County
Specialists in Investment Properties, Foreclosures, Short Sales,
Development Opportunities & Traditional Real […]

This morning the Commerce Department released news that pending sales of existing homes rose for the third month in a row in April.  When you consider that the 6 months of pent up REO inventory has not hit the market, this is exceptional news.
Best to you all,
Mark and Kari Shea
San Diego Real Estate Experts
Foreclosure, […]

Many real estate agents today have an on-line presence.  One of the largest questions that remains for consumers is how to separate help from hype.  Here is a basic framework we have found to address this issue:

Does the agent have a website?
Does the website have useful information?
Does the agent blog?
If so, what do they publish?

Consumers […]

The US Census Bureau released some statistics in the last week related to the trend of people moving.   Here is what it stated:

The residential “mover rate” is the lowest ever since the Bureau started tracking the information in 1948.
The number of people who changed residences dropped by 3.5 million from 2008 to 2007.
Renters are 5 […]

The traditional Real Estate “brick & mortar” brokers (Prudential, Coldwell Banker, Remax, Keller Williams, etc) have been feeling the pain of the last two years.  With less agents and less business to support their large infrastructure, their balance sheets have taken a major hit.
However, the number 1 reason for the decline of the brick & […]

There is a lot of press in the last week about signs of recovery for the national real estate market.  On a local level in San Diego, the signs have been showing themselves for the last few months in a variety of ways:

 Home prices declined 1% from February to March where it declined 2.1% from […]

The Real Estate Sales numbers were released for San Diego County for March 2009 today and they showed a solid improvement over the February numbers.  See below for details on trends from JAN to MAR 09:
Sales of Single Family Residence
JAN 09 = 1,563
FEB 09 = 1,573 =   0.6% Increase
MAR 09 = 1,919 = 18.0% Increase
Sales […]

The state of California released a $10,000 new home tax credit in mid-February this year.  Since March 1st, one-third of the $100M appropriated had been applied for by new home buyers.  An important fact is a buyer must have an active escrow on a new home in order to apply.
The California Builders Industry Association stated […]

There is a lot of buzz about Loan Modifications and what people can expect.  Here are the basics:
1. Expect them to take 60 to 90 days to receive a Yes or No answer.
2. It is generally better to work directly with your lender than a fee based service.
3. Know that only 5% to 10% of […]