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BY MARY FUNK, PRESIDENT, AND DAVID WALKER, SRAR

While many prospective home buyers are still waiting in hopes of catching the bottom, others are jumping into the residential real estate market feet first and, in a growing number of instances, they wind up competing with a swelling legion eager to capture a bargain.

At a recent meeting involving dozens of members of the Southland Regional Association of Realtors^®, all of the Realtors® said they had recently encountered home purchases where a handful of buyers presented competing purchase offers.

"It's happening in all price ranges and in all communities," one participant said.

Many of the properties have list prices that had been discounted from year ago levels, including a number of bank-owned houses that had been involved in foreclosure proceedings.

The activity level is no where near the frenzy of the seller's boom, the participants said, but offers are coming ion, near and, in some instances, above the already discounted list price.

The reports represented a significant shift in a market that had been paralyzed by buyers who had been glued to the proverbial procrastinator's fence. Buyers' hesitancy created endless work but no sales for Realtors®, who typically are not compensated until an escrow closes.

That lack of urgency now appears to be fading as more buyers enter the market at a time when government-sponsored programs appear to be setting the finance industry, thus making home loans more available and affordable - albeit at stricter qualifying guidelines which require proof of income and down payments.

Buyers who are entering the market believe they have a secure source of income, faith in the local economy and realize that waiting to catch the top or bottom of any real estate cycle is risky business, with success hinging on a large close of luck.

The recent increases in government-insured mortgage limits are expected to provide much-needed liquidity and stability to housing markets across the country.

That is especially true in California - a region with particularly expensive homes - where tens of thousands of families could be eligible this year to purchase or refinance their homes thanks to the recently approved Economic Stimulus Act.

The higher loan limit expands the pool of eligible borrowers, enabling more families to qualify for safe, affordable FHA-insured mortgage loans which can be as high as $729,750.

By focusing on 30-year, fixed-rate mortgages, FHA helps home owners avoid and escape the risks associated with exotic subprime mortgage products, which have resulted in rising default and foreclosure rates.

While still at historically low levels, rising sales suggest that the worst may be past and that more buyers believe that the time to buy is now.

Page printed from http://www.srar.com/members/rronline/9-1-Multipleoffers.php

Another piece of news which we thought would be interesting with the current Real Estate market in Southern California.

SoCal home sales climb in July, prices fall
Monday August 18, 7:44 pm ET
By Elliot Spagat, AP Business Writer

Research firm says Southern California home prices fall 31 percent in July, while sales climb

SAN DIEGO (AP) -- Southern California home sales surged to a 16-month high in July as prices kept falling and bargain-hunters snapped up foreclosed properties, a research firm said Monday.

A total of 20,329 homes and condos -- including new and existing models -- were sold during July in the six-county region, up 13.8 percent from July 2007 and up 16.7 percent from June, MDA DataQuick said.

It was the highest monthly tally since March 2007, when 21,856 homes were sold, and the first annual increase since September 2005, the firm said.

"What we're looking at is a fire sale of properties in newer affordable neighborhoods that were bought or refinanced near the price peak with lousy mortgages," said John Walsh, president of MDA DataQuick.

Sales were helped as the median price in the region dropped to $348,000 last month, down 31.1 percent from the market peak of $505,000 in July 2007 and down 2.2 percent from $355,000 in June.

Distress sales have yet to reach older, more expensive neighborhoods, Walsh said.

"It's too early to call it a turnaround, but it does indicate we're coming off the bottom," said MDA DataQuick analyst John Karevoll.

For nine of the previous 10 months, sales were at the lowest levels for that month since MDA DataQuick began keeping statistics in 1988.

July sales were briskest in less expensive, inland areas, especially involving homes built in the last seven or eight years, Karevoll said. Sales remained slow at prices above $450,000, he said.

Los Angeles was the only county to register a sales decline. Sales fell 3.2 percent to 6,592 homes, while prices plunged 26.9 percent to $400,000.

Foreclosures accounted for 43.6 percent of all resold properties in Southern California last month, up from 7.9 percent in July 2007 and a revised 41.8 percent in June. Foreclosures were at record highs and continue to be the dominant factor driving sales, MDA DataQuick said.

The trends were most evident in Riverside County, east of Los Angeles, one of Southern California's more affordable areas. Foreclosures accounted for 64.4 percent of sales of existing homes in the county last month. Sales of new and existing homes surged 48.6 percent from July 2007, while the median price fell 34.8 percent to $260,000.

Laura Flores, 27, became a first-time homeowner last month after paying $300,000 for a four-bedroom, foreclosed home in Ontario, east of Los Angeles. She had been living with her in-laws to save money.

Flores and her husband bid on the home the first day it hit the market, offering $10,000 above the asking price.

"It was the best one we had seen," she said. "All the others had no kitchens or bathrooms. Or the toilets were gone, or there were holes in the walls."

Doug Shepherd, who owns a Coldwell Banker office in Riverside with 40 brokers, said 90 percent of his sales last month were foreclosed homes, up from about half a year earlier. Most buyers were first-time homeowners.

"People can now afford the homes they couldn't have before," he said. "The houses are becoming affordable and interest rates are low. That's what's driving sales."

First Team Real Estate in Riverside sold about 40 homes in July, twice its total for July 2007, said branch manager Steve Orban. About two-thirds of sales last month were foreclosures or short sales -- when a house is sold for less than the amount owed on the mortgage -- compared to about 10 percent in July 2007.

The report covers sales in Los Angeles, Orange, San Diego, Riverside, San Bernardino and Ventura counties.

***I think this article is worth reading and being publishing in our blog.***

Hundreds of San Fernando Valley homes are selling as a growing number of buyers test the market

Home buyers continue to test the market and hundreds of homes sold throughout the San Fernando Valley during June with sales only slightly behind numbers posted a year ago, the Southland Regional Association of Realtors reported on Tuesday, July 29.

Realtors closed escrow on 671 single-family homes during June, off 19 sales or 2.8 percent below the 669 sales of June 2007. A total of 230 condominiums also changed owners last month, off 15 sales or 6.1 percent below last year’s 245 transactions.

“There is considerable activity out there with a growing number of buyers interested in the wide range of opportunities that this market presents,” said Mary Funk, president of the Southland Regional Association of Realtors.

“Prices are favorable and there are some fantastic buyer assistance programs available,” Funk said, “yet too often buyers make false assumptions about the market. Too often they fail to understand that real estate is very regional, very local, and that the market here is vastly better off than, for example, Riverside County and the Inland Empire which had far more new home sales and, as a result, many more foreclosures.”

Unlike those areas, the inventory of homes for sale throughout the San Fernando Valley favors local buyers only slightly, thus making it less likely that sellers – be they real sellers, banks selling foreclosures or short sales – will accept steep discounts in the resale price.

“Yes we have foreclosures and short sales locally and yes they are up dramatically from historically low levels,” said Jim Link, the Association’s chief executive officer, “but in real numbers we don’t have the vast unsold inventory of other harder-hit regions of the state.”

A total of 6,935 properties were listed for sale at the end of June, up 1.6 percent from a year ago, but down 2.0 percent from May.

At the current pace of sales, the inventory represents a 7.7-month supply, only slightly higher than the 5- to 6-month supply deemed to represent a balanced market.

For comparison, at the height of the recent sellers’ boom market the inventory frequently hovered at a less than 1-month supply. And, in the early 1990s, when a recession wracked the nation and California rebuilt its economy, the supply often soared above a 20-months, hitting a record 23-month inventory in January 1993 with total listings at nearly 15,000 in July of 1992 – double the number of properties on the market today.

Still, the impact of greater difficulty in qualifying for a loan, plus the presence of foreclosure – which are more complicated and take longer to conclude than traditional sales – have yielded fewer sales along with falling resale prices, Funk and Link said.

The median price of single-family homes sold last month was $431,000, down 34.2 percent from a year ago when the record high of $655,000 was set. The condo median price of $295,000 was off 26.2 percent. The condo record high of $415,000 was set in February 2006.

“Too many buyers see reports of falling prices make the false assumption an offer that might make sense elsewhere will fly locally, but that often is not the case,” Funk said. “They presume it is a desperate market and that people will sell way under market value, but sellers, especially banks, will still do an appraisal and will insist on market value.

“I know that people are hesitant, unsure where the economy is headed and they are wondering if prices will go even lower,” Funk said. “At the risk of trivializing the plight of some homeowners or offering a cliche, this truly is a good time to buy. Prices are good and there are some fantastic programs out there now or coming soon that will help buyers, especially those entering the market for the first time.”

Statistics support the notion that a growing number of people are entering the market.

Pending sales – a measure of future resale statistics – increased 20.6 percent from a year ago and were up slightly from May. There were 1,128 open escrows at the end of June, the third consecutive month that pending sales have increased and topped the 1,000 benchmark.

“We would have liked to have seen sales ahead of last year, but the difference is slight,” Link said. “The increase in pending sales gives us some optimism that the market has hit bottom and sales activity will grow stronger in coming months.”

Yet Link and Funk agreed that the market will achieve some measure of normalcy only when foreclosures and short pays have worked their way out of the system and the average consumer has renewed faith that lenders are secure and when they begin writing loans that make sense for home buyers.

“That is already happening,” Link said, “We believe the healing process is already well underway.”

The Southland Regional Association of Realtors® is a local trade association with more than 12,500 members serving the San Fernando and Santa Clarita valleys. SRAR is one of the largest local associations in the nation.

The wealth of information and tools available online has altered the dynamics of finding and buying properties. Follow these tips and make the most of the Web.

By Luke Mullins, U.S. News & World Report

With the worst housing slump in a generation slashing home prices across the country, the dynamics of the market have shifted squarely in favor of buyers. And, as the real-estate industry grows increasingly Web-savvy, house hunters can now scour through neighborhoods, inspect front porches and even peek inside bedrooms from the comfort of their desktops.

But while this surge of new information can help you find that perfect home, it can also — at times — make the whole process overwhelming.

Here are six ways to ensure that your online real-estate search is as efficient and effective as possible.

1. Know when to say when
There are plenty of ways to waste time on the Internet. When it comes to home buying, searching through properties you admire but can't afford tops the list. So before you grab for that mouse, contact a lender and get preapproved for a mortgage. That way you'll know exactly what you can afford.

"It's not difficult," says Elizabeth Deal, senior vice president of ICBA Mortgage, a subsidiary of the trade group Independent Community Bankers of America. After contacting a lender, prospective homebuyers will typically be asked to provide information about their income and debts, Deal says. (In some cases, lenders will want to see a credit report as well.) From that information, the lender will be able to issue a letter outlining the price range that the buyer can afford. The whole process can take as little as a half-hour, Deal says.

2. Find the right tools
Real-estate search engines are getting better and better. Pat Kitano, a cofounder of Domus Consulting Group, which works with real-estate brokerage firms on technology marketing strategies, calls Trulia.com "the most complete national site." Kitano also recommends Dothomes.com. Jay Thompson, of Thompson's Realty in Phoenix, suggests using Zillow.com or Realtor.com, the official site of the National Association of Realtors. (You may use our Interactive Search located here on our website.)

Realtor.com "has probably the most listings of any national site," Thompson says. "Just about anything that is on a local [multiple listing service] will be on Realtor.com." But rather than limit your search to national search engines, Thompson says, it's also a good idea to visit the Web sites of real-estate agents and brokers in the market you are considering.

3. … and put them in a belt
Instead of trying to pinpoint the one "best" search engine, homebuyers should put together a list of resources and use them in tandem. After all, no single search engine can provide a complete picture of the entire housing market. But by using several as a group, prospective homebuyers can get a much better look at the inventory. "A consumer has to go to multiple sites to figure out the whole landscape," Kitano says

4. Don't forget the indies
The majority of Internet search tools enable users to look through homes that are being sold through agents. But if you use those exclusively, you will miss the sizable chunk of homes being sold independently. "Agents list about 77 to 78 percent of the homes on the market, so there is another 22 to 23 percent of homes that 10 to 15 years ago people wouldn't be able to find," says Greg Healy, vice president of operations at ForSaleByOwner.com, which markets the homes of sellers who are looking to cut out the agent and save on commission. "Using sites that are not agent-related is really critical."

Joshua Dorkin, the founder and CEO of BiggerPockets.com, a real-estate networking and information site, says http://craigslist.org/ is a great way to find non-agent-affiliated listings that might not show up on mainstream real estate search engines. "It's the classified powerhouse of the world now," Dorkin says.

5. Be alert
Some online real-estate resources offer e-mail alerts or RSS feeds that provide instant notification of new listings and other information of interest to prospective homebuyers. Sign up! This is a great way to stay on top of the changing real-estate market as your home search progresses. "Rather than actually pulling the information from a particular source, you want that information pushed to you," says Douglas de Jager, cofounder of DotHomes. "It saves you time."

6. Find a good blog
Few resources allow homebuyers to take the pulse of the national and local markets like real-estate blogs. "Real-estate bloggers know in real time what is going on in the market," Kitano says.

Like anything else on the Internet, some blogs are better than others. Shop around. Use your favorite search engine to find a couple of blogs that cover real estate in the markets you are interested in, bookmark them and click through them every day. (Pay special attention to the blogs with the most comments and postings.)

By and large, the real-estate blogging community understands the dynamics of today's housing market in the way few others do. They've emerged as an important voice on housing issues and a wonderful resource for prospective homebuyers.

In today's increasingly automated society, it should come as no surprise that when you apply for a mortgage, your ability to pay can be reduced to a single number. All the years you've been paying your mortgage, car payments, and credit card bills can be analyzed, sliced, diced, spindled and mutilated into a single indicator of whether you're likely to meet your future obligations.

All three of the major credit reporting agencies (Equifax, Experian and TransUnion) use a slightly different system to arrive at a score. The best known is called the FICO score, based on a model developed by Fair Isaac and Company (hence the name) and used by Experian. Equifax's model is called BEACON, while TransUnion uses EMPIRICA. While each of the models considers a range of data available in your credit report, the primary factors are:

Each of these, and other items, are assigned a value and a weight. The results are added up and distilled into a single number. FICO scores range from 300 to 850, with higher being better. Typical home buyers likely find their scores falling between 600 and 850.

FICO scores are used for more than just determining whether or not you qualify for a mortgage. Higher scores indicate you are a better credit risk, and thus may qualify for a better mortgage rate.

What can you do about your FICO score? Unfortunately, not much. Since the score is based on a lifetime of credit history, it is difficult to make a significant change in the number with quick fixes. The most important thing is to know your FICO score and to ensure that your credit history is correct. Conveniently, Fair Isaac has created a web site (www.myFICO.com) that let's you do just that. For a reasonable fee, you can quickly get your FICO score from all three reporting agencies, along with your credit report. Also available is some helpful information and tools that help you analyze what actions might have the greatest impact on your FICO score. Each of the credit services offers similar services on their web sites: www.equifax.com, www.experian.com, and www.transunion.com.

Armed with this information, you will be a more informed consumer and better positioned to obtain the most favorable mortgage available to you.

Preparing Your House for Sale

One of the first things we will do before putting your house on the market is to prepare your house for sale. We want to show your house off in its best light to maximize your earning potential. We will tour your house with the eye of a buyer - what works, what doesn't work.