It looks like the second part of May brought out more Buyers. When I did the mid-month statistics, it looked like we may not break 500 Pendings for the month. As of a few minutes ago, we were at 541.

But along with the Pending Sales increasing over last month, so have New Listings. We are already over 900 new lisitngs which will add to the already high level of inventory. Price changes also had a sharp increase which is what happened last May when we started seeing the correction in prices.

I will be running all the reports and updating the www.SloWatch.com graph late tonite or tomorrow.

Ryan's Mortgage Blog:
Hello Everyone....I am very excited to say I am finally back from the Bay Area. As for the market...interest rates are still a bit shaky depending on the lender. While conforming rates rose a little since I last noted, non-conforming/jumbo rates actually stayed the same or even dropped slightly.

For this blog I thought I would post "The Life of a Loan". This is just an example, not all steps are always followed in this order so don't worry if your process doesn't go exactly in this order.

1 - Fill out and sign the loan application.
2 - If applicable, supply all supporting documentation.
3 - If applicable give credit and appraisal fees to loan partner (check made out to 3rd party).
4 - Credit Report is ordered
Appraisal is ordered
Escrow is opened and check is requested
Preliminary Title Report
5 - Loan Approval - All conditions will be gathered from borrower and submitted to lender for approval.
6 - Conditions approved and accepted by lender.
7 - Loan Documents will be ordered and submitted to escrow for signature. Clients and Realtors are called.
8 - Estimated closing costs ordered from escrow for review to ensure expectations are met.
9 - Loan Docs are received by escrow company and borrower is notified to set-up a signing time and location.
10 - Docs are signed and sent to lender to set-up closing.
11 - Funds needed to complete the transaction must be in escrow four days prior to closing.
12 - Loan is funded.

If you have any mortgage questions or comments contact me at RBaker@PeregrineLending.com

"Every day, decisions about which homes to see — and which to skip — are made based on what a buyer sees online."

The LA Times had an article in Sunday's paper about how important the photography of a home is. Read the article here

When Realtors around the country were asked how their market was doing on a message board, here are some of the replies:

"Tampa Bay is down, down, and further down-one of the Florida markets which has suffered substantially. Market is down by about 35% compared to last year."

"Buyers have been waiting for prices to drop. Now that builders are cutting the costs, the buyers are back. Same thing probably will happen when re-sale prices drop to acceptable levels. Seller's, be smart. Price to market conditions; not to a CMA. Market conditions are the here and now. CMA's reflect market conditions as old as the sales used to create them."

(Virginia) "There’s no sign of a recovery here. Inventory is soaring and the buyers are sitting on the sidelines. Something will have to change the current climate in order for a turnaround to start. "

"I have had a really good year, I do not think our area eastern shore of MD has gotten hit with the slump like a lot of other areas. I am doing more ads, but thebuyers are coming."

"According to today's (5/26/07) Chicago Tribune, the Chicago Metro area had a 16% decrease in the number of homes sold in April. Prices in the resale market have come down. Homes in Naperville that are over $500,000 are taking over 115 days to sell...with multiple reductions. 4 bedroom homes under $400,000 are moving at a faster pace. You still need a CLEAN, staged home with some seller incentives to get it sold."

"Now we have a huge inventory of pre-owned homes. For example in a small area I specialize in which is New Tampa and Wesley Chapel there are 263 homes avail able in just the 1,800 - 2,000 square foot range. This includes some of the builders inventory, but most are pre-owned. When I look at these homes, many of them are priced 20% or even 30% higher than the builders are offering them for. Out of the 263 homes available there are less than 50 that have any chance to sell within a decent amount of time. With this much competition only the very best priced, well kept homes will sell. We still have quite a supply of buyers, but it is not what we are used to over the last few years."

"Austin Texas is, and seems to have always been, the exact opposite of the national real estate trend. Our market, inmany areas, is doing really well. There are some areas that the resalemarket is in competition with the new home market, but that is always a challenge."

"Phoenix is slow. Great for buyers. Not so great for sellers. Lotsa homes on the market. I think 50,000. Harder for resale to sell. Competing with builders, they give good deals. Competing with short sales, lenders give good deals. Plus, with what’s happened with sub-prime, it’s harder to get loans. So, fewer buyers. "

"I am in Utah and our market is hanging in there. We have about 5000 home on the market in Salt Lake County and are selling about 1300 a month. Being at about a 3.84 months supply of inventory, we are still considered to be in a seller's market. "

"It is a very opportunistic market in Scottsdale AZ, due to the large supply of inventory (approximately 52,000 listings)currently on the market. Sellers are finally lowering their prices. Buyers normally sitting on the sidelines are entering the market, creating the gap between sellers and buyers to narrow. "

I had a good chat yesteday with the Business Editor for the Tribune about the market. She quoted me in today's paper. Check it out!

When I heard a few weeks ago that the state was going to cut some of the water delivery to some local cities, I really started to wonder why cities around here don't build desalination plants. In the latest New Times, they have an informative article about this topic.

http://www.newtimesslo.com/index.php?p=showarticle&id=2491

Here's a paragraph from it that mentions Cambria's wait list for water meters:

"As part of Cambria's "buildout reduction plan," a desalination plant would generate only enough potable water to supply the needs of existing Cambria residents, plus those on the water supply waitlist, for a total of 4,650 connections."

I guess that means if a lot isn't on the wait list, there is little chance someone will be able to build on that lot for a very long time.

Thai food is one of my favorites!

I tried the remodeled Thai Palace restaurant in downtown SLO the other day (it's the one next to the Court St plaza where Woodstocks used to be years ago). I was never impressed by the food here but read that they changed the menu. It's owned by the same people that have Thai Basil in Paso Robles which I really like.

Well, I must say the food was fantastic. I went for lunch which is the best time to go to Thai restaurants because of the lunch specials. The soup was good and the entree was great.

So, here are my favorite Thai restaurants at this time:

South County: Thai Kitchen (in the village of Arroyo Grande)
SLO: Thai Palace
North County: Thai Basil, Paso Robles
North Coast: (no favorite. I've tried the two in Los Osos/Baywood Park and haven't been impressed)

A Ground Base Interceptor is scheduled to lift off from Vandenburg between 7-11 AM tomorrow. It will try to intercept a mock warhead being launched from Alaska.

I saw an interesting segment on KSBY news tonite about Megan's Law. They reported that only about 65% of registered sex offenders are listed on the Megan's Law website the public sees. There is another site for law enforcement to use which lists all registered sex offenders.

It's the season to look for Cal Poly housing so I ran a Sold report on activity (single family and Multi-family) in the neighborhoods around Cal P0ly. It's in the Just Sold section.

I generated the report using a new feature in our MLS system which lets me define areas on a map using a polygon tool. Pretty cool!

I've blogged about this before but it was a long time ago. This topic is also being discussed on a Realtor message board I participate in so I thought I'd mention it again here.

It used to be that a Realtor could cancel a listing on the MLS, then relist it. This would create a new MLS Listing # and start the Days On Market (DOM) over again.

Over a year ago, the Central Coast MLS added a Cumulative Days on Market (CDOM) in addition to the Days on Market. If a property has been listed with any Realtor in the last 90 days (I think it's 90 days), then the Days on Market for that listing period is added to the CDOM. So even if you switch Brokerages, the CDOM will reflect the amount of time the home was on the market with the other Brokerage (or Brokerages).

Now that homes are staying on the market longer, CDOM will give you a property's "real" days on market.

Based on the discussion on the Realtor message board, there still are a lot of areas around the country that don't have a Cumulative Days on Market in their MLS system.

BTW, the reporting tool I use on my Just Sold reports only lists the DOM. They don't give me a choice to display the CDOM.

I was surfing some other agent websites tonite (checking out the competition) and saw this description on a link:

Home Validation

Haven't heard of anyone needing that before. Oops! I think they meant Valuation....

Unfortunately, it appears not every Realtor wants their clients to see home statistics. This has forced me to move some of my informational reports behind a username/login. The good news is this will allow me to provide even more info to my clients.

If you go to the Just Sold reports section, you'll see the link to request a login.

I also updated the reports with latest Solds.

http://www.slocountyhomes.com/just_sold.htm

(if you don't see the link to request a login, hit "refresh" on your browser)

My downtown SLO condo listing had a price reduction to $339,900. See info here:
www.680chorro.com

I ran across this site which details an unhappy dealing with a Realtor.

http://www.whyweichertsucks.com/theStory.html

Some comments:

Make sure you understand that when you sign a listing agreement and put how long the listing agreement goes for, you are contractually bound to that Broker unless you have a cancellation clause. The listing agreement and other forms Realtors use in a transaction can be modified or added to before you sign them. Some people think that all you can do is change dates or other items where there is a place to fill something in but that's not the case. These forms are created by the California Association of Realtors by their lawyers to try to help with real estate transactions and be fair to both sides of the transaction (and keep people out of court, including the Realtors). But, if you wanted to put conditions that had to be met (like certain advertising of your home), you can add that to the agreement and give the Broker the option of signing the agreement or not. This will make it clear what you expect and then have the right to terminate the listing agreement if they aren't provided. If there are promises made in the listing presentation, just get those in writing and make them part of the listing agreement, with consequences if they are not met.

As for open houses, these are a way for agents to generate Buyer leads. Very few homes are sold via Open Houses but I would classify them in the category of things that "can't hurt". Larger Brokerages have plenty of agents looking for business so if you list with one of these and want Open Houses, the Listing Agent shouldn't have a problem getting an agent to host it as frequently as you want. In fact, my Brokerage pays for the Open House ads in the weekend paper as a way to help agents get business and encourage agents to host Open Houses.

Just keep a perspective on what sells homes. These days, having a good Internet exposure for your home is twenty times more important than Open Houses.

I received a flyer in my mailbox at my office from All Star Home Repairs & Electric. It's owned by Shawn Maldonado who is a contractor. According to the flyer, they do all sorts of work including:

- dry rot and termite repair
- non-conforming correction
- water heater straps/water heaters
- drywall and stucco repairs
- electrical and plumbing repairs
- roof and gutter repair
- junk removal

I've never used All Star so this is not a recommendation. I'm blogging about All Star since it's sometimes hard to find someone to fix something that comes up during an Escrow or when you are getting a home ready to go on the market.

His phone number is- 489-3416 (office) 709-4848 (cell)

Ryan's Mortgage Blog:
I am still up in the Bay Area attending meetings and seminars and thought I would share some useful info that I just read from our company's "Guide to Mortgage Planing". It is regarding escrow and typical things that may affect the ability to close a loan successfully and on time. From the time the Loan process begins and escrow closes, a borrower's information is collected at different intervals. Below is a list of 10 things you should avoid doing before escrow closes:
1. Change employers or quit your job
2. Borrow money from any source
3. Go on vacation...making you unavailable to the lender
4. Get marries, divorces, or go on maternity leave
5. Sell major assets
6. Shift credit card debt from one creditor to another
7. Transfer funds from one account to another
8. Open a new bank account or make large deposits
9. Apply for new credit (no credit checks should occur during the loan process)
10. Purchase a car or shop for a car

If any of these items take place or you plan to have happen during escrow, immediately contact your mortgage consultant. I am trying to see if I can get a PDF version of this informative handbook so I can post it on my website and email it to interested people. I can be reached at 805-540-0866, or RBaker@PeregrineLending.com.

I could probably see this video 1000 times and I'd have the same emotions I did the first time I saw it...

http://my.break.com/media/view.aspx?ContentID=291579

I just talked to a Realtor who shared a story with me about an unethical person doing business in our area. The Realtor provided a service to his client and identified a property that the client wanted to buy. He wrote up the offer and wanted to get the pre-approval letter from the client's mortgage broker to submit with the offer (to stengthen the offer which is a good move). He called the mortgage broker but he didn't get a return call. He tried the next day and still no response which he thought was strange. He then talked to his client and found out that the Mortgage Broker (who also has a real estate license) told his client that he could get a better interest rate if he wrote the offer for him. This is a lie since the only thing the Mortgage Broker can do is charge less on the closing costs, which he plans to make up by making the commission on the property sale.

I don't know any other way to describe this other than theft. This mortgage broker just has a real estate license and is not a REALTOR so they aren't bound by the REALTOR Code of Ethics.

It's people like this that give the industry a bad name.

When I pass the Starlite Cafe on the freeway when going through SLO (it's the one on the frontage road by the Los Osos Valley Rd offramp), I wonder why I have no desire to go try it. Especially since I eat out all the time and always looking for new restaurant choices. Well, it looks like I'm not the only one as it's up for sale. They said they plan to keep the doors open until the end of the year.

In an article in the trib today the owners point to the traffic problem and intersection construction on Los Osos Valley Road but I don't think that's the reason why people didn't go. At least, that's not why I didn't go try it.

I hope the next restaurant that goes in has better luck. You can't beat the visibility you get from the 101.

Mid-month MLS Statistics Check

For the first 15 days of May, we've had:

395 New Listings
231 Pendings
563 Price Changes

Unless we get an increase in Pending Sales, this doesn't look good for home sellers.

Realtor.com has changed their default search so it sorts listings by number of photos. Listings with more photos display first. The problem with this is that you may not know this and not realize that there are other listings further down on the list that meet your criteria.

So, why do they do this??

Realtor.com is operated by a public company, Move Inc. They have a relationship with the National Association of Realtors to get listing data from local MLSs. Realtors are supposed to get a "free" listing on Realtor.com.

But, Move Inc. needs to make money to satisfy their shareholders so they try to get as much money as possible from Realtors from ads and other programs. One way is a listing enhancement service. With this service, the listing agent can add photos (up to 6) and put in their own description. Without this enhancement, only one photo is displayed.

By making the default search by number of photos, what Move Inc. is actually doing is displaying listings that Realtors have paid to enhance first. This forces Realtors to have to pay for enhancements or there is an increased chance that their "free" listing will never be seen.

If a Realtor that is listing your home says that Realtor.com is part of their Internet marketing strategy, ask if they enhance their listings. If they don't, then I wouldn't put too much value on this part of their service as a "free" listing has little chance of being seen if there are a lot of enhanced listings in the price category the Buyer is searching. Also, a Realtor can't just enhance one listing. They need to sign up for the enhancement service for a year and pay in advance. Depending on the number of listings they had the previous year, the enhancement service could cost over a thousand dollars.

Move Inc. just announced their latest quarterly revenue results and their stock dropped over 30%. There are already so many ads that you have to wade your way through when searching on their site but it looks like there may be even more in the future as Move Inc. tries to make more money from Realtor.com and Realtors.

I don't know what the future is for Realtor.com under Move Inc.'s control. Their priority appears not to be providing the best home search tool for Buyers as evident by the change in the way they are now sorting and displaying listings.

Frommer's just came out with their updated "Cities Ranked and Rated" book. According to the press release, they analyze more than 400 metro areas using dozens of variables including; economy and jobs, cost of living, climate, education, crime, health and healthcare, transportation, and leisure.

San Luis Obispo - Paso Robles was in the Top 10!

Here's the Top 10 most desirable places to live:

1. Gainesville, FL
2. Bellingham, WA
3. Portland-Vancouver-Beaverton OR-WA
4. Colorado Springs, CO
5. Ann Arbor, IM
6. Ogden-Clearfield, UT
7. Asheville, NC
8. Fort Collins-Loveland, CO
9. San Luis Obispo-Paso Robles, CA
10. Boise City-Nampa, ID

Modesto, CA was rated the least desirable place to live.

Postage Rates go up on Monday!

It seems like yesterday that we had our last postage increase but on Monday we have another. I'm still adding a 2 cent stamp to the 37 cent stamps I still have. On May 14th, a letter will now cost 41 cents to mail. Post cards will increase by 2 cents as well, up to 26 cents. I'm not sure how it works if you mail something on Sunday since there are no scheduled pick-ups on that day.

Sorry I haven't been blogging my normal amount lately. I also was up in the Bay Area for meetings early this week.

I did find something on the Trib's website that I hadn't seen before. It's the San Luis Obispo Police log and it looks like it reports the previous 24 hours of incidents.

See it here

Ryan's mortgage blog:
Sorry but I am going to have to make this a shorter than average blog. I am up in the Bay Area meeting with my new company and have limited access to a computer at night (Can't wait to get a new laptop). For the record, I would like to state how much I already miss San Luis Obispo after being in the Bay Area for two days...what a traffic nightmare. I actually got rear-ended, luckily no injuries :), on my way to my morning meeting. I also realized sitting in traffic in 90 degree weather watching garbage fly by on the side of the road is just not the same as driving highway 101 next to the Ocean in Pismo. The one thing I will say that is impressive up here is the Warrior fever (basketball reference).

Anyways, I am happy to report I will be attending several seminars over the next week while I am up here to gain some more knowledge in certain areas such as Short Sales and Construction Loans. As far as the market goes, the feds met today and left the key interest rate unchanged. In our monthly company meeting this morning, a majority of the loan officers agreed that they have been seeing more purchases than refinances (mostly in Northern California), which is a change from last year. People have been getting some great deals on houses with some great rates. Now is the time to look around and maybe buy that vacation home you have been waiting for :) . I do have limited email access over the next week so feel free to try me at RBaker@PeregrineLending.com.

I saw Spiderman 3 and I liked it. But, what caught my interest first was the preview for the upcoming Pirates movie. From the trailer, it looks like the filming they did out on our local Dunes is pretty prominent in the movie. The question is if someone going to bottle some sand and sell it on little keychains as official Pirate sand. With the popularity of the movie, I bet they'd sell.

Boy, was today a nice day! Nice to not have that wind we've had this past week. Here's a photo I took of my Golden Retriever, Chip, on one of the windy days last week. Yes, he has A LOT of fur.

If you like retrievers, you can click the above photo to get a larger one and then make it your Desktop background image (right click the large photo and you'll see the choice "Set as Background".

I finally got around to watching the real estate reality show "Bought and Sold" which premiered last Sunday. I don't know if any of you watched it but it was interesting for me since I was able to analyze (okay nit-pick) what the agents did.

There were 2 transactions covered in the show. One was a Buyers agent that had 2 clients she was showing property to. She showed the first couple a home and they made a full price offer on it. She then had another couple who were sitting in the lobby while the other couple was writing up the offer. She showed them some properties, including the house she just wrote an offer on. She did disclose to them that she did just make an offer for another client and if they were interested, she would need to get someone else in the office to write it up. What was noticeably different in the 2nd showing was the agent was not into it. While she was excited showing the first couple the home, what they showed on the program was she was just sitting back and not really saying much. The 2nd couple did want to make an offer and she got someone in her office to take the offer over the phone from the clients.

After they wrote the offer, the first agent (who still referred to the 2nd couple as "her" clients) asked the other agent if they wrote an offer which she said yes to. Boy, if I was the 2nd couple, I would not be happy that the tele-agent told an agent they they were competing for a house against ANYTHING! The first couple came in at $399,000 (asking price), the second couple came in at $409,000 but with a contingency on selling their property.

The program then showed the agent getting the call on who got the home, and it was the first couple. But, here's what was misleading. At the end of the program, they said the couple got the home for $415,000 (they had offered $399,000). They failed to include how many counter offers were made or what discussions the first agent had with the Listing Agent once she knew the other couple made an offer.

The other transaction followed a Listing Agent as he made a presentation to sell a mansion owned by one of Thomas Edison's family. This one was funny to me as he prepared fancy food and champagne to take to the Listing Presentation. He ended up getting the 3.7 Million dollar listing. All I heard from what he was going to do to market the home was to have opera singers and good food at an Open House.

I checked the Internet for the agent's name. His site didn't show up in Google but I did find the home on Realtor.com. There was just one photo. No listing enhancement. I guess his marketing services don't include anything much with the Internet or photography of this home.

The other thing I found interesting is that back in New Jersey, they still handwrite their contracts. When the first couple changed their minds and wanted to offer $399K instead of $395K, the camera showed that they just changed the amount by overwriting it with heavier ink on the contract. YIKES!

If you want to see some what goes on in a real estate office, this program is worth a look.

I found this article and think it's worth a look.... 7 Net-worth Killers

Happy Cinco De Mayo!!!

This is my 25th anniverary of my first date with my wife. It wasn't really an "official" date but extra credit for the Spanish class we were taking at Cal Poly (where I met her). We went to a mariachi concert at Cuesta College, then to Spikes afterwards for some potatoe skins.

We haven't gone to Spike's lately so that's where we're going tonite! I think I still have a beer card in my "memory box" but don't know if Spike's still does the thing where if you get all their beers, the give you a t-shirt. I never was a big beer drinker so my card was never more than half punched.

Here were the winners from last week's Rib Cook off in San Luis Obispo.

Judges chocies:
McLintocks beef rib
Mothers Tavern pork rib

Peoples choices:
Old Country Deli beef rib
McLintocks pork rib

Cal Poly Choice:
Mothers Tavern beef rib

As you can see, no clear winner so they all must be pretty good!

Ryan's Mortgage Blog:
I heard an idea on the news the other day that would help people that are almost in default on their loan because of late fees and missed payments. The idea was to encourage lenders to roll back late fees/missed payments to the end of the loan (add more payments to the life of the loan). It's apparent that once people get in a hole it's difficult to get out. Basically re-arrange their agreement (in other words refinance or restructure their loan) with the borrower which may help get them out of their hole by moving their debt and allowing to pay it off later and start fresh. Many of these foreclosures aren't because people lost their job or have no money; it is because they can't afford their rising payments from these bad/confusing/adjustable loans. It sounds like this would help all involved, both lenders and borrowers, but I am not sure how easy this would be to do (obviously every case would be different). A majority of lenders don't want to see a foreclosure happen because they lose all the profit they would have received from future interest, plus they end up having to pay fees and taxes associated with the home. Lenders actually try and call you when they think you are headed towards default and work out a plan with you. I wouldn't avoid their call because before you know it you may lose your home. As for the Lender's that don't care if they foreclose on your home, their reputation will catch up with them.
It would be nice if there was a government or industry standard program that was created to save people from going into default by refinancing/restructuring the "problem" loans. Some lenders really try and work with you but others may not. BUT you may be dealing with the same company who put you in the loan so how much could you actually trust them? If there is closing costs involved with getting you out of the "problem" loan they could be financed into the loan which shouldn't cause a big problem to the monthly payments. Some people don't look at the big picture when it comes to closing costs. Sure it stinks to have to refinance and go through all the paperwork and fees, but isn't that better than watching your credit score drop or even worse loosing your home? The ideal solution would be to prevent the problem before it happens. If you are in a loan that is about the adjust I suggest meeting with a mortgage broker to see what your options are. This is a free/no obligation service that could really benefit you. I would be glad to help you so feel free to contact me. I could also help explain what kind of loan you have if you aren't real sure. You could also try and negotiate with your current lender to refinance you into a better program, but do this before you start missing payments. Once you miss payments your credit score is going to tank which can cause massive problems. Sorry if this all sounds similar to some of my other blogs, but it is still a hot topic and I want to make sure people are aware of it. You can reach me at 805-540-0866 or RBaker@PeregrineLending.com

Zillow came out today with their analysis of home prices for the first quarter of 2007. They look at 46 Metropolitan areas in their study, which includes Santa Barbara-Lompoc-Santa Maria (but not San Luis Obispo).

Zillow says that the Santa Barbara-Santa Maria area had the 3rd biggest home value decline in the first quarter at 11.83%. The two areas with larger declines were in Florida.

You can see the Zillow reports here

A Relaxing Night at the Beach

Another wonderful night on the Central Coast. Full moon, ocean sounds, and man's best friend....can't get much better than this!

(I took this photo on Tuesday night while walking on Pismo Beach)

I updated the MLS statistics chart and the inventory table for individual cities. Some cities had a jump in inventory while most others were flat. The cities that had the biggest increases were San Luis Obispo, Grover Beach, Oceano, Los Osos, and Paso Robles. Morro Bay was the only city that had a noteable reduction of inventory.

See the updated info here:
http://www.slocountyhomes.com/slo_watch_home.htm

Beware of agents advertising "Search the ENTIRE MLS" on their website...they are lying to you.

The MLS Searches on Realtor websites is NOT the same listing database that Realtors have access to. The database for MLS searches on agent sites is a subset of the main MLS system. Brokers can opt to not include their listings in the MLS Searches found on agent websites. While most Brokers don't choose to "opt-out", some do. A Realtor is the only one that has access to the ENTIRE MLS database which requires a username/password (which we pay hefty quarterly fees to have).

Any Realtor that advertises that they have ALL listings available on their site is violating Department of Real Estate law, Realtor Code of Ethics, and the local MLS Rules and Regulations.