Walnut Creek, CA Cares about Education!

I have been asked to become the board liaison for P.E.A.K. and I enthusiastically agreed!

www.peakwalnutcreek.org 

We are an education foundation, dedicated to preserving and enriching students’ learning experiences in our Walnut Creek schools.

If you are thinking about moving to Walnut Creek, you should know we CARE about our children, their education and the future of our community and country!

Please contact me if you need more information about great links to our schools. www.Day-RealEstate.com

Thought you’d want to know: Walnut Creek, CA – Real Estate Stats

In our beautiful City of Walnut Creek, CA. there are currently 64 detached, single family homes for sale.

Another 118 are pending, approx. half of these are distressed properties.

In the past month, 53 homes have SOLD, but 43 have been regular equity transactions. (not short sales or bank-owned)

Average days on the market for SOLD homes has been 26. The average price for these homes is $775,000.

Who do YOU know that needs to move. Being a native to the area and having lived, worked, played and raised my children here, I have an intimate understanding of the local community and all its amenities. I love to work with clients in my own “backyard!” Please let me know when I can assist you or those you care about get their home SOLD! www.Day-RealEstate.com 925.788.6582

Time to BUY a Home in Walnut Creek?

This could be the best time in a generation to buy a home in and around Walnut Creek or Contra Costa County.

Here’s why:

• Housing affordability is the best it has been in decades.
• Nationwide, average home prices are approximately one-third lower today than at their peak in 2006.
• The cost to buy is very often less than the cost to rent a comparable property. In fact, buying is cheaper than renting in 98 out of America’s 100 major markets.
• Interest rates are at a historic low, and today’s low rates can be locked in for the next 30 years.
• The general economy appears to be improving, with employment increasing, median wages rising, and little indication of possible inflation.

Contact me to get started on the path towards making the American Dream a reality for you and your family! Don’t you deserve that?

Dayna- www.Day-RealEstate.com

 

 

Existing Home Sales on the Rise!

dsnews.com - Existing-home sales rose to 4.62 million (seasonally adjusted annualized rate) in April from an downwardly revised March rate of 4.47 million, the National Association of Realtors ( NAR) reported Tuesday. Economists had…

Walnut Creek Home Sellers: It could Pay to be open to compromise with the Buyer

In some cases, your past experience will help you make a good decision about what to do in a current home-sale transaction. But if you rely only on past real estate experience to make decisions about selling a home today, you could end up with an unsatisfactory result. The old rules, such as they were, don’t always work for the current home-sale market. For example, more purchase contracts specify that time is of the essence. In other words, contingencies will be met on time. In today’s market, it’s often difficult for buyers to remove their financing contingencies on time unless they are paying all cash and don’t need to go through the rigors of mortgage underwriting.

Due to no fault of the buyers, they often need to ask the sellers for an extension in order to satisfy a contingency. Extensions should be reasonably granted but only after making due diligence investigations. For instance, it wouldn’t be wise to grant an extension to a buyer that hasn’t even submitted a loan application. In this case, it would be better to find yourself another, more dedicated buyer. However, if the lender is so backlogged that it hasn’t had a chance to underwrite the buyers’ loan package, and there doesn’t appear to be a problem other than the time delay, grant the extension.

 HOUSE HUNTING: To make it through a home purchase or sale in the current market, it’s important to understand the point of view of the person on the other side of the transaction. It’s impossible to control all facets of a home-sale transaction. Patience and compromise are essential. When buyers are doing everything they can to make a deadline in the contract, or the closing date, but are delayed for conditions beyond their control, they are doing what they agreed to do. Most buyers don’t like to ask for extensions any more than sellers like granting them. But, standing on principle could result in a dead deal. If you won’t grant an extension because a seller refused to grant you one in a previous transaction, you could find your home is back on the market. Buyers have a choice. They don’t have to buy your house, no matter how much they like it. Some buyers will walk away from a home if they think the sellers are unreasonable or are treating them unfairly.

Another rule that is broken fairly often in the current market has to do with inspections. In situations where sellers provide buyers with presale inspection reports, the expectation is that buyers won’t come back and ask the sellers to pay to correct defects they were aware of when they made their offer. Buyers were more forgiving in the bubble market when prices were rising rapidly. They felt they had less to lose and could afford to take on some of the repairs. Today’s buyers are more cautious and conservative. Some are more risk-averse than others. Second opinions by buyers’ inspectors are more common today than they were when the market was hot. Second opinions can lead to different conclusions about the seriousness of a defect and the urgency for making repairs. Although sellers may feel they’re being taken advantage of, they should weigh the merits of the offer in hand, even if it means settling for a lower price, before they decide to play hard ball. If you can’t resolve inspection issues, you might have to start over again searching for a buyer. This takes time and could cost more if you have to sell for less. Disclosure obligations vary from state to state. Even so, it’s wise to make any future buyer aware of all reports generated on the property to protect yourself legally.

THE CLOSING: Another buyer might be even tougher on inspections. I love this article and couldn’t have said it better myself! It’s all about creating a win-win transaction. Call me with YOUR real estate questions or concerns: 925-788-6582

www.Day-RealEstate.com

Source: Inman News-Dian Hymer

Win-Win or No Deal? 5 Tips for Better Negotiations

Understanding how to negotiate is important in real estate and in life.

1. Know the facts. If it’s about price, make sure your Realtor has done a complete market comparison of recently sold comps.
Also, knowing what homes are Pending and the other active listings will help you understand the stats the other party is reviewing as well. I always ask my Sellers to try to think like a buyer.

2. Be one step ahead. A preemptive strategy is best…consider all the possible objections that may arise and determine how you’d overcome them. Sometimes people get stuck on a certain point, sometimes a very small issue that becomes a bigger one, and don’t see alternative solutions. A real estate transaction can get very emotional. I see it as my job to show them there is another way.

3. Be prepared to lose something. My goal is to understand which issues my clients would be willing to walk away from. Good to know ‘sticking points’ before negotiations begin.

 4. Keep emotions off the table. A negotiation is not a battle. It should not become personal but should stick to the facts. If the situation becomes too heated, agree to walk away, think about possible solutions, and meet again. This is a hard one, becomes humans are emotional folk, but it can be accomplished. I sometimes need to put on my referee hat.

5. Come out with two winners. A successful negotiation is one in which both parties leave ‘the table’ feeling as if they’ve won something. A Win-Win situation!

Bidding Wars Catch Bay Area Buyers Off-Guard

Waiting on the fence to see if the market has hit the bottom? The waiting is over, my friends! Jump on the band-wagon while interest rates are still historically low! Let’s get started with your home search today!

Home buyers are unexpectedly finding more competition this spring in landing their dream home. Bidding wars are increasingly being reported in markets across the country, from California to Florida, The Wall Street Journal reports.”It’s a little surprising because we thought bidding wars were done with,” Andy Aley, a home shopper in Seattle, told The Wall Street Journal. Aley says he was outbid on a home earlier this year, even though he offered to pay $23,000 above the listing price and also waive inspections and other closing conditions.

Home buyers are frustrated and caught off-guard about the bidding wars re-emerging, real estate professionals report. We’re writing a record number of offers, but we’re not seeing a record number of closings because it’s so competitive.

Why are things getting so competitive? Many housing markets are seeing a drastic decrease in the number of homes listed for-sale, leaving home buyers with fewer options and more bidding on the same house. Housing analysts say the shortage in supply is from sellers unwilling to take much less for their home than what they originally paid for it and pulling their homes off the market. Also, a surge in investors has made the market more competitive, as investors snatch up homes in bulk in all-cash deals.

“The bidding wars caused by tight inventory provide the latest evidence that housing demand is starting to pick up after a six-year-long slump,” The Wall Street Journal reports.

Indeed, the National Association of REALOTRS® reported late last week that pending home sales in March reached their highest level in nearly two years and are up 12.8 percent from a year ago.

Source: “Stunned Home Buyers Find the Bidding Wars Are Back,” The Wall Street Journal (April 27, 2012)