Active Home Inventory Getting Tighter in Fresno

With the start of 2013, I was hoping more sellers would be coming forward to list their homes. After all, prices are moving upwards. Most people don't realize, we have seen prices in Fresno county increase by about 8% from a year ago. The problem we have right now is low active inventory. I ran my "market barometer" search today, and found that their are only 798 active listings of single family homes, condo's and PUD's in the Fresno/Clovis area. Now of those 798, there are 112 "short sales" and 107 "Bank Owned" listings. That leaves a mere 579 "traditional" home sellers in the local Fresno marketplace.
This has put the inventory at less than a 1 1/2 months supply of homes. I've witnessed a steady decline in active inventory over the last 3 years. With approx 600 homes being sold per month, and slightly less than that being new listings, we have a declining active inventory.
The good news is that there is less foreclosure filings, and more traditional sellers coming forward to sell their homes. Everyone likes a traditional seller, because they are much easier to work with. The traditional seller will answer your offer in a few days, as opposed to the longer period experienced when working with banks and short sale lenders.
If you are thinking about selling, now is the time to get a good price and sell quickly. Clean, well priced homes are getting multiple offers in a short period of time, usually a few days or weeks, but not months.

Low Listing Inventory for Fresno Making it Tough For Buyers!

As of today, August 13, 2012, there are only 885 "active" listings in the Fresno MLS, for homes, condos and PUD's in the Fresno/Clovis areas. Of the 885 listings, 161 are short sales. So the actual homes that can be sold today is a mere 724 available listing. As you know, short sales take months to get approval and sometimes don't go through at all, so I don't count them as truly available properties. Also, of the 885 active listings, there are 110 "bank owned" REO listings.
This is an incredibly low amount of listing inventory! No wonder that buyers are having a hard time finding a good home to buy. I'm seeing multiple offers on nearly all listings that are clean and priced correctly. We actually need more like 2500 to 3000 listings to be a more balanced market with the number of buyers in the population of the Fresno, and Clovis communities.
This is having a positive effect on prices, as it is showing in the prices and values edging upward over the last year. The problem is we need listings. Anyone who is considering selling, must know that they can sell quickly at this time, and if they can find a suitable replacement property, they can reap the benefits of record low interest rates, such as 3.5% for a 30 year loan. It's just incredible the low rates we can get! .  Many homeowners that I talk to, would like to sell, but their property values have taken such a hit, that they are waiting for the values to increase. They are increasing but it's at a slow pace, maybe just a few percent higher than last year. I believe we have seen the bottom of the price decline, and values are slowly on the rise again.

10 Prime RE Markets for First-Time Buyers: Fresno, Calif.

I was recently interviewed along with my client and a Fresno loan agent, by Inman News, and the article was published. Fresno ranked 5th in the country for the most first time buyers and FHA financing. Click on the link below to read the article:

10 Prime RE Markets for First-Time Buyers: Fresno, Calif.

Fresno Real Estate Forecast 2012 Video by Joan Eaton

Low Pricing Generates A Frenzy of Highest and Best Offers

  In today's market it should be known, that many sellers, especially the resellers, or "flippers" that buy foreclosed homes, fix them up and resale for a profit, and also listing agents for bank owned REO properties have an interesting marketing technique whereas they list the property for a price under market value purposely, collect several offers from the buyers who are attracted by the price, then the sellers send out a multiple offer notice to buyers and asking them to make their "highest and best" offer. It is a fair practice, but it creates an artificial buying hysteria that takes. I tracked one well known reseller over the past year, and they had sold 300 properties in 2011, and the average sale price was $4000. higher than the average asking price. Very few of them sold for less than asking price and most of them sold for more than asking price, but the average was about $4000. higher. 
  So the lesson to learn here is that asking prices for most REO and "flipped" properties is just a starting point, and that buyers need to carefully study the comparable sales in the neighborhood to help in making the decision to bid higher than the asking price.

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.

Reflections on the 2010 Fresno Real Estate Market

It's been a tough year for most people in the 2010 Fresno real estate market. As an agent, I've worked mostly with buyers, and a few past client sellers. My sales numbers and income are down a bit, largely due to the frustrating process of working with banks and their REO inventory or loan processing for buyers. With so many bank owned REO properties out there, I don't have much choice but to work with them. The frustration comes from the offer and answer process. They take so long to give an answer to an offer. I made one offer that took 28 days for a reply and we were bidding $10,000 above their asking price! Most of the time it took 2 weeks to get an answer, and this is clearly too long. Short sales are another bad scenario. I reluctantly worked one buyer in a short sale that eventually fell thru. The listing agent promised "Oh I can close my short sale listings in 60 days!" What a crock that was! After 120 days, the short sale lender told us to start over! so out of total frustration the buyers decided to find another property to buy. As an agent, I just don't care to work the short sales, unless they can change the way they do business, and speed up the process, and until then I will only list and sell traditional type sales or bank owned property sales. For buyers, I feel sorry for them because getting a new home loan is like getting "raked over the coals" with having to justify income and credit scores. They make it tough to qualify for any type loan anymore. I am truly thankful for my past clients and referrals. I know that I am truly blessed with the leads I get from the internet. I have very high ranking on Google for many relative keywords, and this continually drives traffic and prospective buyer and seller leads to my website at http://www.fresnohomes.net/. , and for this, I am very grateful. I've had 3 nice sales this month of December, and that's going to make for a good start in 2011. I wish everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Loan Guidelines for the "Funds to Close" Buyers Take Note!

 Loan underwriting guidelines today require full documentation. This means that buyers have to document the source of all funds that are used in buying a home.
Funds are needed for the down payment, closing costs, and prepaid items. Conventional loans require buyers to also have 2 months of house payments (called reserves) in the bank after the close of escrow. FHA does not require the 2 months reserves, but if the buyers have reserves it will add strength to the loan file for approval.
Buyers need to provide bank statements for the most recent 2 months. Even if buyers are not going to use one of their accounts for funds to close, it is a good idea to provide statements for the acount because it will add strength to the loan file for approval.
Buyers liquid assets are checking, savings, stocks and money market acounts. They are liquid because they can be accessed quickly to use for funds to close. Non liquid asets like retirement or pension accounts may be used, but acess to the funds can take time and there may be penalties involved for withdrawing funds.
Any large depositis will require a written explanation from the buyers. The loan underwriter wants to verify that the deposits are not the result of the buyers getting a loan that will require the buyers to have a monthly payment. Any large withdrawls will require a written explanation for the underwriter to verify the buyers do not have an ongoing financial obligation.
If the bank statements have another name with the buyers names, it will require a written statement from the other person that gives the permission to the buyers to use funds in the account.
If "gift funds" are used, FHA allows gift funds for all of the down payment, closing costs and prepaids. In a conventional loan, the buyers have to have 5% of their own funds and the rest can be gift funds. A gift letter has to be signed by the donor and the buyers, and the donor has to provide proof of funds available to give to the buyers.

Agent's Visual Inspection Helps Buyers in Purchase Negotiations

  When I'm showing a home to a prospective buyer, I try to always point out the defects I can visually see, such as a worn roof, stained ceilings, peeling paint, missing fixtures, stained carpet,  and the like. These observations help the buyer in determining how to offer on a property. Many times, if these items are addressed in the terms of an offer initially, they can be negotiated for actual repairs or repair credits in the final contract.  When it comes to the bank owned sellers (REO), some will negotiate repairs, and others insist on strictly an as-is sale.   

Too Late For Tax Credit but Market Remains Steady

It may be too late to qualify for the $8000 federal tax credit, but the market remains active. We are seeing the inventory increasing right now, as more listings are coming on the market. We are currently just over 2000 active listings in the Fresno/Clovis area for homes and condos. At the start of the year, there were about 1600 active listings. The activity remains in the first time buyer and the low end of the pricing. Homes under $200,000 are seeing the most activity. I received a call this week from a reporter at channel 24 news, and she wanted to interview a home buyer while I was showing them properties. The reporter was trying to paint a picture of a declining market, and the stats do show less sales from a year ago for the Fresno area, but I wouldn't totally agree with her.

Watch my TV interview news article from 5/25/10.

California won't tax forgiven home debt - Sacramento Business, Housing Market News | Sacramento Bee#mi_rss=State Politics

California won't tax forgiven home debt - Sacramento Business, Housing Market News | Sacramento Bee#mi_rss=State Politics

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Seven Housing Tax Laws to Pay Attention To

NewsGeni.us - Article - Seven Housing Tax Laws to Pay Attention To

Active Listing Inventory Remains Low For Fresno Home Buyers!

The reason it's hard to find a home sometimes is because the inventory is low. Today I found that for all of Fresno and Clovis, residential homes and condos for sale, there was a total of 1758 active listings. This number includes the "short sales", of which there was 409 short sales. So really, there are 1349 active listings that can be  bought today. Most buyers do not want to endure the effort it takes to buy a short sale and that is understandable. 1349 listings is a low number for all of Fresno and Clovis. Of the 1349 active listings, 362 of them are "bank owned" REO's.

Those Who Wait Will Pay Thousands More This Spring!

Here's why:

1. The deadline for the Home Buyer Tax Credit is April 30th, 2010. This is $8000 for a new homebuyer and $6500 for current homebuyers moving up.
2. While rates are still at historic lows, the Federal Reserve Board has repeated in many published reports that they will not remain there forever.
3. On April 5th, the cost of required up-front mortgage insurance (UPMIP) for loans guaranteed by the FHA will increase from 1.75% to 2.25%. For a borrower purchasing a $200,000 home with an FHA loan, with a $7000 down payment, the up-front mortgage insurance will increase by $965. Up-front mortgage insurance is typically financed in the final loan amount, so the impact to a monthly payment will be minimal but overall, the increase is still borne by the borrower by the up-front and monthly.
4. Later this spring, if FHA's new regulations go into effect, "seller concessions" will more than likely be reduced from 6% to 3%. The reduction in these "seller concessions"can increase the amount of cash a buyer wil be required to pay at closing.

When you combine the lower rate with the tax credit, you see that the homebuyers stand to gain between $13,500 and $16,000 on a home in the mid $200K's price range. That is a huge incentive for homebuyers to act now, while the incentives still exist.

$100,000 Price Range is Red Hot in 2010 Fresno Real Estate Market!

I just listed this house in Fresno for $99,800 and WOW! was I amazed at all the action I am receiving. After 3 days I have 7 offers, and most are well above the asking price. Located at 2973 E. Norwich, the home is 3 bedrooms, 2 Baths and in clean condition. I wish I had many more in this price range right now. I have notified all offerors to make their "highest and best" offer. We have set a deadline for friday 2/5/2010 at 10AM as the deadline for offers. After that, we will review all offers and be making a decision before the weekend. To see more information about this home visit http://www.fresnohomes.net/ and click on "Featured Listings" for complete details on this great buy.