5 Tips for Renting a Home in San Diego
September 22nd, 2008 Categories: Real Estate News, San Diego Communities, San Diego Real Estate
by Roberta Murphy
Great San Diego Rental
Renting a home in the San Diego area can be a real challenge–especially if you are new to the area. Most likely, you are seeking a home near employment, and may also be concerned about local schools and neighborhood safety.
Here are some tips for finding that perfect San Diego rental.
1. Whether you are searching for a San Diego home from afar, or are doing so locally, there is much you can do online and by phone. For starters, I would check out San Diego communities and neighborhoods at City-Data where you can check prices, crime statistics and area demographics
2. Generally, the safest way to locate a potential home to rent is to do so through a Realtor or licensed property management company. These professionals are in a position to check ownership and to make sure the home is not is some state of foreclosure. Use Craig’s List and classified ads at your own risk. If you do find a property to lease through one of these advertising sources, you may still want to call a San Diego Realtor and ask if he or she can volunteer to check ownership records for you (and please remember this helpful real estate professional when you decide to buy:-)
3. Before signing a lease, make sure the lessor is the owner of record. There have been many cases where crooks offer leases on vacant homes, take the deposit and rental money–and run. Additionally, you will want to make sure the home in not in some state of foreclosure in San Diego. You could end up relocating again–and sooner than you wish.
4. Once you have found your San Diego rental, you should definitely acquire rental insurance for your belongings. Fewer than half of all tenants bother doing this, and leave themselves at risk for great loss in the event of fire, flood, theft–or someone tripping over a stool in your kitchen and suing you. These policies are relatively inexpensive and are likely available through your auto insurance carrier.
5. Take photos of the interior prior to move in, and be sure to note in writing to the Lessor or leasing agent any defects to the property. This will help protect your security deposit when moving out.
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Homes in North County San Diego: How Affordable?
September 15th, 2008 Categories: Luxury Homes, Market Trends, Rancho Santa Fe, San Diego Real Estate
We are working with more first time San Diego home buyers than ever before. We’re also finding bargains for second home buyers, as well as beach properties for some clever investors who have been waiting in the wings
The loaded question: Which areas offer the best deals for single family homes in San Diego real estate?
The answer is as broad as the question.
There are real estate deals to be found everywhere in San Diego County.
This article, though, deals with San Diego’s highly-desired North County real estate, which covers everything from Del Mar and Rancho Santa Fe north through Solana Beach, Carmel Valley, Encinitas, Carlsbad, Oceanside–and east to San Marcos, Vista, Bonsall, Fallbrook, Escondido, Rancho Bernardo, Valley Center, Ramona, Poway, Rancho Penasquitos, and Pauma Valley.
For August, 2008 there were two real estate sales in Rancho Santa Fe, with a median sales price of $3,262,500. This may be the highest median sales price for all San Diego real estate, but Rancho Santa Fe also has one of the longest median times on market with 131 days.
Vista (92083) offers the most affordable real estate in North County San Diego with an August median price of $256,000–and one of the shorter market times at 43 days. With 18 sales in the 92083 zip code, prices there are also down 34 percent from August of last year. With these numbers, 46 percent of San Diego County households could afford to buy a home in Vista–compared to just 23 percent in August, 2007.
Other affordable markets include Escondido, where median prices have dropped between 29 (92026) and 55 (92029) percent since a year ago, depending upon zip code. In the 92029 example, only 4 percent of San Diego’s buyers could have afforded a home there in August 2007. Today, 23 pecent could lafford to buy the median priced home of $409,000.
The only city in North County San Diego to hold absolutely stable in real estate affordability year over year is Del Mar. Only 2 percent of San Diego’s population could afford to buy a home in Del Mar a year ago, and that same percentage holds steady for today. With 5 sales in August, 2008, Del Mar has a median sales price of $1,560,000.
If you would like a full summary report for North County San Diego real estate sales statistics, please feel free to email me: Roberta@SanDiegoPreviews.com or give me a call at 760-402-9101 or 877-818-8197.
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Weasels in the Chicken Coop?
September 13th, 2008 Categories: Mortgage News, Real Estate News, San Diego Foreclosures, San Diego Real Estate
As a San Diego Realtor, I am very frustrated at the number of non-responsive and phantom agents representing San Diego foreclosures, REO’s and bank-owned homes. I wonder why on earth lenders would choose such inept real estate representation to list their properties.
I also wonder about the wisdom of placing weasels as keepers of the chicken coop.
We have close friends who have moved in and out of real estate investments very profitably over the past few years—and it is/was not unusual for them to be holding several properties at once. Good friends they are, but they never took our advice about mortgage financing.
Instead, they always used some loan hack who never returned phone calls, was late on all commitments, but somehow managed to get the loan funded—several days late. According to our friends, he could “get any loan funded.”
And he did.
This hack, they tell us, has relocated from the Los Angeles area to San Diego and is now one of those non-responsive real estate phantoms who list foreclosures.
It’s deja vu all over again.
It absolutely baffles me that the very folk who helped create this real estate implosion are now being rewarded by the lenders they duped. I am amazed at the number of listing agents who are also former loan brokers–and wonder how this came to be.
And like Brian Brady and other concerned real estate professionals, I believe that separate licensing should be required of mortgage originators and real estate agents—and that banks and lenders should be vetting their foreclosure representatives more closely.
Far too often, in my opinion, these foreclosure listings are being placed with those who helped put the real estate industry into the tailspin it is today.
More and more, I believe our industry needs to tighten licensing requirements—and offer stiffer penalties for those who knowingly place clients in harm’s way. Consider the licensing requirements for selling stocks and bonds—and the SEC penalties given for misrepresentation.
Does real estate, the most significant investment in most people’s lives, deserve any less-qualified representation?
I think not.
A version of this article originally appeared in the HomeGain Real Estate Blog.
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Revisiting An Appeal for Credit Amnesty
September 8th, 2008 Categories: Real Estate News, San Diego Communities, San Diego Foreclosures, San Diego Real Estate
by Roberta Murphy
I wrote this article a year ago for Luxury Home Digest, and thought it might be time to revisit the idea (see below)–especially since this past weekend’s announcement that the Feds are rescuing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
If those organizations get a reprieve (at the expense of common stockholders and the American taxpayer), why not San Diego’s battered homeowners?
Since publication of this original article, home values in the San Diego real estate market have plummeted (some neighborhoods more than others, of course). And just a couple of months ago, San Diego’s City Attorney Michael Aguirre grandstanded pushed to make San Diego a foreclosure sanctuary, and has sued Bank of America, trying to stop them from exercising that right.
Instead, some wonder, why not provide some protection to homeowners who have fallen victim to short sales and foreclosures in San Diego?
The original article:
There is a tsunami of wrecked credit that has only begun to hit the credit reporting bureaus.
Many of the victims are those whose FICO and credit scores have been demolished by short sales and foreclosures. With the short sales, or short pays as they are sometimes called, the mortgage lender has agreed to accept less than what is owed on the home–and where more is owed on the home than what it is worth. In the case of foreclosure, the home is auctioned off for non-payment. In both scenarios, credit scores of the former homeowners are generally ruined, which will likely prohibit them from purchasing another home anytime in the near future–or perhaps for years to come.
Many will argue against the idea, but perhaps it is time to consider credit amnesty for those who have lost their homes to foreclosure and short sales. Sure, there were those homeowners who were greedy, who used their homes as ATM machines, who foolishly thought the crazed real estate market would continue forever–or at least until they managed to sell at the top of the market.
We have even met a few of those people. They are among the legions who followed real estate flipping shows and late night television gurus. They followed the promises of big and easy money.
But most of the defaulted clients we counsel have a history of home ownership, pay their bills on time, and were lured into mortgage financing that was so easy to obtain and which offered irresistible terms. Most relied on the counsel of a loan broker or real estate agent (often one person who wore both hats), who assured them of the wisdom of such loans.
It was a diabolical match: Gullible and sometimes greedy homeowners paired with greedy and sometimes crooked mortgage and real estate professionals.
The finger pointing can go on for years, but very soon there will be tens of thousands of people who will no longer be able to purchase homes. Add these numbers to the huge pool of buyers who are already afraid to enter the burgeoning real estate market and we have an economic problem of near-Biblical proportions.
I’m not sure how the details of a credit amnesty plan might work (and the devil always lurks in the details), but something need to be done quickly to help bolster buyer capability in this market. To disenfranchise such a large group of home buyers will only magnify the expanding real estate market glut and lengthen its recovery.
And as with any amnesty plan, there will be a percentage of borderline criminals who are more deserving of jail than being forgiven.
But with tougher mortgage loan underwriting, better oversight and raising the bar on real estate and mortgage lending professional standards, the rotten borrowers would be weeded out. This would also encourage the discouraged to stay current with their other debt obligations instead of giving up entirely on their FICO scores and future home buying opportunities.
It might be a solution that could help our markets recover–and credit amnesty just might offer hope to the hopeless. Might not the rewards outweigh the costs?
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Bobcats Take Possession of Southern California Home
September 7th, 2008 Categories: San Diego Foreclosures, San Diego Market Trends, San Diego Real Estate
San Diego real estate hasn’t quite gone to the dogs–yet (though some inland neighborhoods may be coming close).
But Riverside County’s real estate market is another animal entirely.
It seems a family of bobcats has moved into a vacant and foreclosed Lake Elsinore home, according to blogger Peter Viles with L.A. Land Blog (Los Angeles Times). Viles quotes LA Times David Kelly:
(Lake Elsinore) Neighbors first noticed the feline squatters Aug. 27 hanging out on a side wall of the empty house in the Tuscany Hills development…. The foreclosed home is one of several on the block. Its lawn is brown but still being watered by the sprinklers. The house sits right up against barren, chaparral-covered hills.
At least two adult bobcats and perhaps a litter of young ones appear to be occupying the house. Residents have mixed emotions about their new neighbors.
Human locals don’t appear very upset over their new neighbors, and some even appear to delight in their presence. Some of the funny comments from readers, though, are a hoot:
They could have easily qualified for a loan last year….now they just squat.
There are still some fat cats benefiting from the real estate market.
They could have easily qualified for a loan last year. Now they just squat.
This will be one REO with a bonus for the lender.
Cats on a bank-owned roof: Bobcats claim foreclosed house | L.A. Land | Los Angeles Times
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