Hello blog readers. I recently came to the mindset that I needed to sell my San Leandro home and move back in with my mother and be her live-in caregiver.  I had my house that was only two houses North of hers and it just made no sense to have two households to support and maintain. So I put my house on the market.  Being a Prudential California Realty Agent, it was the company's policy that agents do not sell their own homes.  That policy is in place to avoid any conflict of interest claims and future lawsuits.  I had no problems with that.   So Nick Falconio and Jason Dwyer from my office took the listing.               My San Leandro home     We priced the house at $380,000 with the knowledge that it was priced to move and we expected multiple offers.  We set the offer date for one w... 07/08/2010

Most lawsuits in real estate transactions, are the result of buyers feeling that the seller did not tell them all they knew about the house, before they bought it. Most home sellers have no idea how easy it is to land in court with their home buyer. A few steps outlined here can help, if followed properly. When selling a home, by law, the home sellers have a very serious obligation of disclosing in writing to the home buyer any and all defects that they know about the property. Buyers look at a problem that was hidden from them as cheating them, once they get legal counsel, the nightmare begins, not only does the seller gets sued, most of the time, everybody that was involved on the transaction gets named as co-conspirator. In court, the attorneys for the buyer will paint this picture o... 05/27/2010

        The Fannie Mae HomePath Loan is for homes currently owned by Fannie Mae. The biggest draw to this type of financing is that there is no appraisal required since Fannie Mae already owns the property and has set the sales price. Also to the buyers advantage is the fact that many of these homes are priced under market value, so purchasing such a property gives the buyer built-in equity immediately! You can find current listings in your area at www.homepath.com Currently there are 3 active HomePath listings in San Leandro, CA and 1 property "coming soon."  There are 8 properties under contract. The home prices range from $104,900 to $399,500.  Purchases closed before May 1, 2010 will receive a 3.5% incentive from FannieMae for closing costs. With no appraisal required Diversified M... 04/14/2010

But by far, the most important document in the Short Sale Package is the sellers hardship letter. This document will be the very first one read by the Loss Mitigator. It will give this person an idea of what to look for in the package, or if is even worth his/her time to read it. Banks are receiving short sales requests in record numbers, the rejection rate however is very high, in part due to the package not being complete. Lack of important documents to analyze the request is the cause of delays, and in most cases the difference between loosing the house to foreclosure or negotiating a short sale with the lender. Most homeowners requesting a short sale approval of their loan, are shy about their situation,  and this letter is not an easy one to write. As a professional Realtor, this i... 04/13/2010

Losing the family home is perhaps one of the most devastating experiences that any family or individual can endure. After all, Home Ownership is a cornerstone of the American way of life, it is promoted, encouraged, protected and cherished. People who have lost their home, say that a foreclosure is demeaning, degrading and even embarrassing. But how do you avoid a foreclosure?    There are a few steps that you could take to avoid losing the home. If it looks like you are headed into foreclosure, you must spring into action and make foreclosure prevention your main goal. Doing nothing is by far the worse plan of all. The following list should help guide you through this experience. 1.      Take Action and Be Proactive. When the first sign of trouble appears, be proactive and do not allow... 04/05/2010

 During a recent listing presentation, I met the beautiful grandaughter of the octogenarian homeowner willing and ready to help grandmother with the delicate issues of selling the home. A young, smart, beautiful professional teacher, she was in town for a few days with the purpose of helping grandma with the move, and she brought her newborn baby girl with her.    After the customary "Cooks' Tour" of the house, we sat down in the living room where grandma was, to go over the paper work, schedule open houses, hours of brokers tours, when and how the house will be shown, etc. But the baby started crying, so the mother excuse herself and went to tend to her daughter, she come back a few minutes later with a small blanket covering the baby, she was breastfeeding her, and sat a bit tilted aw... 04/01/2010

Could this possibly happen? Are Short Sales now becoming Long Sales? In this case the escrow closed, buyer moved into his new home and 30 days after that, he received a visit from a Realtor who told him to move out because the bank had acquired the property via a trustee sale. Once escrow has closed, the issues of the prior owner cannot affect the new buyer of the property. After all, a title insurance company is responsible for the transfer of a clear title to the new owner, and the only lien should be the new mortgage that the buyer acquired in order to buy the property. Every property sold with any type of financing is required to have title insurance. In a typical transaction when a borrower stops making payments, a Notice of default (NOD) is recorded 90 days after missing the first... 03/15/2010

Sooner or later, we will have to make a decision about selling the family home. Our next to last real estate move.! How do we know when is the right time? Where do we go and for what reasons? How much would that cost? Would you have enough money to last you? Would the family take care of you? What if there is... nobody? If there was ever a step that needed very careful evaluation, this is it!As a Professional Realtor, I have seen first hand the successful moves of those who plan everything carefully, check every item on the list twice, and then execute their plan to perfection. I have also witnessed the nightmare of those who waited too long, and then reluctant family members or close friends are asked to come and help. The emotional and physical tool it takes to make the last real esta... 03/10/2010

  There are many ways to get rid of a bad habit. My aunt Carmen however, found a way to interfere with someones funeral to bury her demons. This technique might not work for everybody, but here is the story just in case someone wants to try it. While rushing to get home today, I was stopped "dead on the road" so-to-speak by... a funeral parade. It reminded me of an important funeral that gets talked about in almost all of my family reunions. My aunt Carmen (her real name) is one of those women who can get almost everything right in life except a good man. An attractive 40 something, twice divorce, active person, Carmen one day announced to the family that she had finally found the right man, she was in love... again. Welcome Alfonzo (His real name.) And after they met they had the most ... 02/21/2010

This cry for help came in from one of my clients via a voice mail message. Owning a rental property provides great tax breaks and potentially good financial returns, but also exposes the individual to major legal liabilities. This individual was in a lot of trouble and needed to take a quick lesson in Landlord 101. Based on my experience, I  put together the following list of 7 basic aspects for my new investor-client to study, and to help him become a good law-abiding landlord and a savvy investor. Educate yourself about your duties, responsibilities and liabilities of a landlord. It is a business in which ignorance is NOT a defensible argument. If you have to go to court to either collect your rents, evict somebody, or even worse; being sued by one of your tenants, you better know you... 02/16/2010

Funds from a bond measure that passed in 2008 by East Bay Regional Park District voters is finally arriving for the city of San Leandro. This small town in the middle of the San Francisco bay will improve it's Walkability Level hence improving its home values. A new report by CEO's for Cities, a national network of urban leaders, reveals that homes in so-called walkable neighborhoods may be more valuable than homes in car-dependent ones. According to the report, Walking the Walk: How Walkability Raises Housing Values in U.S. Cities, found that higher levels of walkability, as determined by a walk score, were directly linked to higher home values. Walk scores are calculated based on a home's proximity to community amenities such as schools, retail shops, parks, libraries, banks and resta... 01/25/2010

Home buyers applying for a loan should be prepared to be screened, x-ray-ed, frisked, sworn, read their Miranda Rights and hooked to a lie detector before their loan is approved no matter how well qualified they think they are. A loan approval for a well qualified home buyer used to be almost like a formality but not anymore, due to the mortgage meltdown of the last few years, we have seen a dramatic change in the way home loans are underwritten.  Going from the infamous liars loans, I mean "Stated Income" to now "Full Documentation" for every single loan has had a tremendous impact on the real estate industry because it reduces the already small pool of potential home buyers. But, is there anything that the applicant for a home loan can do to smooth the process and to stand a fair chan... 01/16/2010

A Sunday afternoon Open House Tour can give the serious home buyer the right information about the neighborhood the buyer is interested in. There are many benefits to opening a house for sale on a Sunday afternoon. It saves having to make an appointment to see it and it makes it convenient for everybody in the family to come together to tour properties, the seller benefits by having more people see the house in one afternoon instead of individual appointments. Home buyers unfortunately miss a great opportunity to gather information that can help them accomplish their goal of buying the best home available for the best price at the most convenient time in the right neighborhood. Most of the time they dismiss the help offered by the Realtor hosting the Open House and are reluctant to prov... 01/13/2010

Hi there blog readers. I just wanted to let you know that I will be placing my own home up for sale later this month.  It has been interesting being on the side of the seller.   I have spent countless hours prepping my home to get it ready for the sale. It will be a good deal.  I will have it priced to move quickly.  It's a wonderful 2 bedroom 1 bath Normandy  Storybook Style Tudor in San Leandro's "The Broadmoor" neighborhood on Superior Avenue.  We are targeting the last week of January to have it hit the MLS. Nick Falconio and Jason Dwyer will be representing me.  Prudential California Realty's policy is that they will not allow agents to represent their own properties due to conflict of interest and E&O (Errors and Omission Insurance) issues. Being a caregiver for my mother, it's ti... 01/05/2010

Distressed properties --- short sales and foreclosures --- constitute 60% of closed escrows for residential properties in San Leandro CA for the year 2009.  SOLD As a review of what happened in 2009, January 1 to today: 819 completed sales 134 were short sales or 16% of total sales 359 were bank-owned, or 44% of total sales Closer look at the 134 short sales that closed escrow: 13 were condos or 10% of total 6 were townhouses or 4% of total 120 were detached single family homes or 86% of total Average list price was $306,197 Average sold price was $307,433 Average number of days on market: 70 days Closer look at the 359 REOs that closed escrow 52 were condos or 14% of total REOS sold 21 were townhouses or 6% of total 1 was a duet 285 were detached single family homes or 79% of total ACT... 12/30/2009

Here is your listing search for homes available in the San Leandro North Area for December 27th. Estudillo Estates The Broadmoor Bay-O-Vista Best Manor Farrelly Pond LeBrun Hillcrest Knolls Assumption Parrish Estudillo Tract The homes on this list are represented by other agents but, I would be more than happy to represent you as the buyer's agent. The North Area San Leandro Search If you see some thing you like, please do not hesitate to give me a call.  I can arrange to show it to you.  If you have any questions please call.    510 334-7800 12/27/2009

The San Leandro City Council adopted a Climate Action Plan (CAP) at their meeting on Monday (Dec. 21). In response to significant input from Bay East members the Council removed the Residential Energy Conservation Ordinance (RECO) that was part of the original version of the CAP. The RECO was replaced with several alternatives that included incentives and financial assistance for property owners to perform energy efficiency upgrades. Unfortunately, a point-of-sale requirement was included as an option in the future. On a brighter note, the council directed staff to include REALTORS® in the implementation of the CAP. The city council action on this item, while not a complete victory for REALTORS® and property owners, shows that our voice was heard in city hall. Special thanks to those Ba... 12/22/2009

After having submitted offers and closed escrows on foreclosed properties, and also knowing that my regular buyers are competing with all-cash investor buyers, this was a first for me. For this particular property, I submitted the offer with the preapproval letter, financial statements as proof of funds, and a separate statement from the lender that my client's credit score is in the 800s. But the REO listing agent responded that: "We received your offer on 1234 Some Street on This City.  However, we are unable to submit it to the lender until you can have your lender supply us with the DU.  All offers for any bank assets require the buyers lender DU to be forwarded.  Letters of approval are no longer considered valid and are no longer accepted as evidence that a buyer is qualified to p... 12/18/2009

Here is your listing search for homes available in the San Leandro North Area for November 7th and 8th. Estudillo Estates The Broadmoor Bay-O-Vista Best Manor Farrelly Pond LeBrun Hillcrest Knolls Assumption Parrish Estudillo Tract The homes on this list are represented by other agents but, I would be more than happy to represent you as the buyer's agent. The North Area San Leandro Search If you see some thing you like, please do not hesitate to give me a call.  I can arrange to show it to you.  If you have any questions please call.    510 334-7800 11/07/2009

Here is a list of homes for sale in San Leandro's North Side.   Please use this list to see if there is anything that catches your interest.  If you are currently not working with another Realtor, give me a call and I can get you additional information and arrange to show the property to you. Michael Greenslade  DRE 01824328    (510) 334-7800 AVAILABLE HOMES IN THIS AREA Address:   Area:   Listing Price   Bedrooms: Baths: 10  MARLOW DRIVE   Sheffield Village   $362,900.00   3 2 115  STOAKES AVENUE   Farrelly Pond   $289,900.00   5 4 575  Maud Avenue   Estudillo Tract   $294,847.00   3 2 1927  CLEVELAND ST   Assumption Parrish   $298,000.00   3 1 364  LORRAINE BLVD   Best Manor   $299,000.00   2 1 27  DUTTON AVE   Downtown   $300,000.00   3 1 1971  HOWE DR   Hillcrest Knolls   $310,900.0... 10/29/2009