“Hi Gary. I’m selling my home and my agent told me that my buyer just got what she called ‘loan approved with conditions’. My agent said she doesn’t know exactly what that means and told me not to worry about it. What does that mean?”
***ANSWER:
Yours is a simple question. And if your agent doesn’t know […]
“How can I tell if the market is slowing down or speeding up?”
***ANSWER:
One way is by looking at changes in the “absorption rate”.
Absorption rate is defined as “the number of months (or weeks) it would take to sell the current inventory of homes at the present rate of sales.”
To determine the absorption rate, you […]
“Hi Gary. I want to be a smart buyer. I know that everyone selling a home wants the highest price. Any creative ideas on how to make my offer stronger w/o just raising the price?”
***ANSWER:
While top dollar is most sellers’ #1 priority, finding a well-qualified buyer is also important, especially now with all the turbulence […]
“I’m buying a home and there was only one smoke detector in the hallway. My contractor says that’s fine, but my agent says they have to be in the bedrooms. Which is correct?”
***ANSWER:
Per California law, the smoke detectors must be centrally located outside each “sleeping area” (sounds like a bedroom to me).
They only must be […]
“What’s causing all the foreclosures in San Diego?”
***ANSWER:
Last week I answered this question, attributing them to:
1. Subprime Loans
2. “Pay Option” ARMs
3. No-documentation loans
4. Zero-down
5. Mortgage Fraud
6. Increased Interest Rates
7. Lower Values
8. Difficult Short Sales
9. Tightened-up Financing
Upon reflection I left off at least four additional causes that dovetail with the first nine:
10. Negative Amortization Loans-
In exchange […]