Fresno Home Listing Inventory Low as Investors and First Timers Snatch Deals

  According to an MLS search I ran this morning, there are only 1587 active listings of single family homes and condos in the Fresno and Clovis area, and of these 476 are short sales, or roughly 30%.
This means there are really only about 1111 active listings that can be bought today. I don't count the short sales as truly available, because they require 3rd party approval before they can be sold, and it's typically a 4-8 month process.
  From my perspective, I see most of the action in the lower price ranges, especially the under $100,000. properties that are being snatched up by investors and first time buyers. Any properties that are really clean or need little work are getting multiple offers. The buyers I've been working with are asked to submit their highest and best offers and many times are exceeding the asking price in order to win the bid.
  The best advice I can give, is to have a strong pre-approval letter describing your financing and credit scores before you go house hunting. This is essential homework to do, in order to get a seller to consider your offer, especially in a multi offer situation. Most bank owned listing agents won't submit your offer to a seller without one.

Internet email Scam Buyer Ivo Akuma

  I receive emails regularly that I can easily identify as scams. We all receive them, the letter from the barrister from england who has money to deposit in your account etc, etc. They just need your account number and your info to deposit the millions to your account. Yeah right! Anyway, I recently got an email from someone named Ivo Akuma (from Japan), and his scam was a little bit more unusual as he was targeting real estate agents with a letter posing as a buyer, asking for listings to be sent to him between $500,000 and $1,200,000. and he would be paying all cash. So I thought this was possibly some type of scam, but I sent him a list of nice homes anyway. A couple days later he wrote back with his choice from the list of homes. He said draw up a contract and email it to him. He signed the contract using electronic signatures. Then I requested proof of funds and he sent me a bank statement that looked legit showing some $3 million in his account. OK, so far but then I requested a $5000 deposit, and he emailed saying he didn't want to use a title company for his money and that he preferred to us an attorney trust account. Then before we got much furthur, I decided to google the name "Ivo Akuma" and found a blog exposing this person's scam on other agents. Here is the link to the blog:

 http://zitrof.net/mr-ivo-akuma-real-estate-scam/


I think his next move would have been to access the attorney's trust account number to attempt draining the money out somehow. I hope this person gets caught!

FHA Loan Limits For Fresno Changing October 2011!

  Starting October 1st, the curent loan limits for FHA will be dropping.They are dropping by a significant amount, however it will likely have little affect on our market locally. Here are the new FHA loan limits:

                                       Now                                                     10/1/11

• Fresno               $381,250                                                 $281,750
• Madera             $425,000                                                  $271,050
• Tulare               $325,000                                                  $271,050
• Kings                $325,000                                                  271,050

If you are wanting to purchase a home above $280,000 with FHA financing, you better start looking to buy now. Remember, FHA financing has only a 3.5% down payment required to purchase.

April 2011 Fresno County Home Market Statistics

  There were 840 sales of residential properties this past April in Fresno County, with a median sales price of $134,900. and an average market time of 66 days on the market.

Of the 840 properties that sold in April, the breakdown is as follows:

REO's (bank owned)- total of 369 sales or (43.8%)

Short Sales-total of 136 sales or (16.2%)

Regular Sales-total of 335 or (40%)

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There are 2669 Active residential properties for sale in Fresno County at this time, and of those:

REO's-477 total, or 17.9%

Short Sales-757 total or 28.4%

Regular Sales- 1435 total, or 53.7%

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Average list price is $253,197

Median Price is $178,000

Average Days on Market (DOM) is 101

Home Search Made Easier with Fresno MLS Client Portal Tool

Are you frustrated with the home search process? Does it seem like every other listing is a short sale and you don't want them in your search results? Try using the client portal auto prospecting tool. Have your agent set up the "Client Portal" in the Fresno MLS, using all your individual search criteria. This is the only tool available that will filter out the short sales if you don't want them.  I try to use this tool with every client because it works so well. Most people want to buy a home, but don't want to wait the typical 4-8 months for a short sale to get approved. The client portal is your own web page that will keep track of all the listings that meet your criteria and it will notify you daily of changes in price, terms or status. You can manage the listings by moving them around in different folders, such as "newly matched", "saved", "rejected" or "agent recommended". The listings are updated in real time, so it is the most accurate tool we have going. If you have been pre-approved for financing, not working with an agent yet, and would like the client portal tool set up for you please contact me and I can set you up.

High Number of Fresno Foreclosures Due To High Unemployment

Fresno currently has a very high unemployment rate, probably in the neighborhood of 15-20%. This factor is what is now contributing to the high foreclosure rate, and growing inventory of bank owned properties for sale. As we all know, the housing bubble was created by the subprime loans and loose lending practices for home loans in the past bubble market. Now that most of those loans have either been foreclosed, or re-written, the inventory is now growing again with foreclosures caused by people losing their jobs. It's going to be a long haul to recovery, but I believe in real estate for the long term investment that it is. I realize that a home is more than just an investment.  A home is where you live and grow your family and cannot or should not be considered like a quick return investment as we did in the past. It will take years for our economy to rebound, but there are some great opportunities out there for both investor and home buyers alike. We have prices in Fresno that, with minimum down payment, you will pay less than rent. The median sale price in Fresno is around $152,000. and there are many homes available now in the $50-75,000 price range.