Steffan Blaser's Lake Oroville Real Estate Blog

The inventory around the $100,000 range is slimmer here around the Lake and with multiple offers on the table for them from many buyers it makes it difficult to obtain a house in that price range as of late especially if it needs repairs and your buyers loan requires them to be done or guess what—no loan.

I am no expert by any means and that’s ok.  We all know what an ex is whether we have one or not.  And a spurt—well— I’ll just say I am glad no one calls me an expert.    Ha.

I believe that interest rates will climb probably 1/2% when the make the move and without my crystal ball handy (it’s in the shop) I don’t know when that’ll happen. But I will say this—with the 1st time buyers tax credit coming to a close and with interest rates down right now, if you are thinking about purchasing a home now’s the time. Cause if you don’t if you wanna roll the dice ( It Sup To You) (as my gram used to say to me) Sup to You—Buy Buy Now.

Today I went to put a sign in the ground on this 20 acre southeast facing parcel with a Lake Oroville View and these are the things eye saw today–This is The Feather River just past the railroad bridge on Cherokee Road.

Part of Table Mountain.     Spring Flowers are starting to bloom.

Looking Back toward Sacramento in the distance climbing up Cherokee Road.

Fun Ride up Cherokee Road.

The Covered Bridge in Oregon City

The School in Oregon City–way smaller than where I went to school in Orange, Ca.

There would be a Spectacular Lake Oroville View with some trees cut–Solar, Wind Country–No Power Here.

A Beautiful Saturday Morning Drive. What a Great Place to Live by The Feather River and Lake Oroville— Buy Buy Now.

What a Great place the Lake Oroville area is to live. Here are some of the sights eye saw on my way to work this morning. I drove up from my house to Brownsville where I am selling a home.

Lake Oroville is much fuller but still needs more water.

The mountain community of Forbestown. Stop at the Forbestown Store and have a deli sandwich and a drink.

I got to drive thru a creek on my way to work.  It was a great morning.

Nice little mountain town.

Have a good weekend.

Buy Buy Now.

Hi, This is a pretty simple question really–Should You Get a Home Inspection??? The answer is probably always Yes. Look at it this way.—Almost Every Home has things that can use repair–things age and break like you and me—I shouldn’t remind myself of that tho—anyway before I get off on that tangent, lets get back to the home inspection discussion.— My concern as a Realtor, maybe even representing you, is to have a qualified home inspector give the house a pretty thorough look. Things like operating range/oven/stove-top or what have you. The furnace, air conditioner, fireplace, electrical plugs and breaker boxes–plumbing leaks, water heater all the things that can cost Big $$$ if  and when they break, and everything does, eventually.— It’s  just a matter of when.— This inspection gives you a heads up advantage of trying to determine the overall condition of the home you want to buy.—So you write a check for $400 or so to Help Protect Your Hiney, especially when you are about to spend  Tens or Hundreds of Thosands of Dollars.— Better Safe than Sorry I say.— The Inspector I have been using is also a General Contractor who is familiar with Building Codes and the like and I and my clients feel more comfortable using someone who knows building rather than someone who may or may not. Remember to discuss this with your Realtor when you decide to purchase a House which You will make into Your Home.— See You Next Time—Buy Buy Now. 

Lake Oroville Elevation is  694 feet today.

Storage capacity today is 1,216,500 acre  feet.

Water Temperature is 45 degrees.

The inflow is 5300 cubic feet per second.

Enjoy todays rain.

VIEW THE LAKE OROVILLE SLIDESHOW

Happy Monday to You— Just a Tad More for you to remember to discuss with your Realtor during the purchase contract writing— The standard response time built in the CAR contract is 3 days after you have signed it (it depends on the details of the seller). Some of which are—Is it a Distress Sale? Is it a Short Sale or REO?—Or is it just—For Sale?    Your Realtor should know what is best and will be happy to discuss that item with you.  If their is a question about how much time the seller will need to respond (which is not uncommon) to your offer to purchase, probably your Realtor will want to call the listing agent to ask the question—How much time do we need to expect for the seller to respond?— Remember if You need questions answered ask your Realtor.   I hope this information has been helpful to you in understanding a few of the basics you need to make sure you discuss with your Realtor.—Happy Real Estate Hunting. — Bye Bye Now.

Hello again—So when you are with your Realtor while he/she is drafting your Purchase Contract. Here’s a  few more basics for you to remember. —It may seem like a trivial thing to talk about, but not all agents fill out the purchase contract correctly.— It is important that it is filled out properly and correctly not only for your protection as the buyer, but for the Lender as well who will ultimately give it to the Underwriter.—  The attorneys at C.A.R. and the forms people put protection things in the contract for you the buyer. —Make sure that your loan amount is in the contract.— I generally talk to the buyers loan officer (whoever that may be) prior to or during the contract writing process, to ask the important necessary protection questions for the buyer. (The Max interest rate that should be put in the contract, or if you are doing an FHA Loan how much must the seller pay, the buyer cannot and other questions too)— So ask your Realtor to show you where in the contract is the loan amount if you don’t see this in the contract, or if it is not brought up in discussion (haha—that is if you are getting a loan to do the purchase it needs to be in the contract—oh duh)—Next, there is a place to put in a MAXIMUM interest rate you are willing to pay (Typically that amount is given to the Realtor by the loan officer who knows the history of credit of the buyer and other details which will dictate the interest rate). It is a protection clause for you, the buyer because— If the interest rates rise and it goes above that percentage number in the contract, it is your right to back out and retain your deposit (ask your Realtor about this). — However if it is Not in the contract and you cancel the purchase (depending on certain  terms) You may have just given the seller your deposit when you didn’t necessarily have to.— That’s what I mean by a buyers protection clause.— Next, the interest rate will be written in the contract(hopefully) under the FIXED loan part. — Probably a 30 year Fixed Rate. You probably DO NOT WANT TO DO AN ARM (ADJUSTABLE RATE LOAN) EVER.—the loan term (30 years) should be marked as well as the 30 year Amortized (equal monthly payments over 30 years) is what that means (unless you are doing a Fixed 15 or 20 year loan and then it is set up thata way IN the contract.—That’s it for today—when in doubt ask your Realtor—That’s what this Realtor does—I Help People.—Buy Buy for Now.

As a California Realtor I use C.A.R. (that’s California Association of Realtor)  Contracts, by the way. In the Residential Purchase Contract and the Land Contract are cute little boxes that I usually put an X in, to ask the seller (which is normal in our area) to pay for a well inspection & water quality test,  A septic inspection & pumpout (because you can’t inspect or see the integrity of the tank if it’s all full of good meals gone by) and a box to check,  to ask for a pest control inspection (termites, fungus, dryrot & beetles–not usually rodents).

So when you are with your Realtor and or agent make sure you dicuss these items if the home or land has them.— If a septic system needs replacing–it could be $6500 or more. —If a well has problems or needs repair it could cost thousands as well–haha—well—get it? —Anyway, if the house/manufacturted/mobilehome or whatever has termites etc it could cost thousands too.—Now why would you not ask the seller to pay for that inspection when you are purchasing that property?  The reason I am putting this here for you to read is because they do not teach that in real estate 101 classes to get your  license. Granted it is more work for the Realtor/agent but a little protection goes a long way.—The attorneys at CAR put those cute little boxes in the contract, so your Realtor or agent can X (Mark) them  (add them if you will)  to help protect you, the buyer by asking for these tests. —Just a little protection tip for you if you are city kids like I was and don’t know about well, septic or termite inspections. — Have fun property shopping.

All the way thru the sale I must say I was very impressed with the way Wachovia had One person deal with me as the listing agent/Realtor. From start to finish I couldn’t have been more fortunate to have dealt with a Professional.  The offer I received from the other good Realtor I submitted with the hardship letter and all the other documents in one email. They had the appraisal and written approval quickly (14 days). Now they have recovered fair market value $$$ on the money they had loaned out because the sale is now complete.

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—I am dealing with another good Realtor in a deal, this time I represent the buyer. This bank is SLOW to respond and it has been since Nov 19th since I submitted the offer (Two Months). Now,  they are changing negotiators and I am not sure they actually know exactly what they are doing. My buyer is hanging in there when she could be looking for another home. That is part of what is frustrating about buying a short sale home. It takes commitment to make a fair market value offer and be willing to hang in there because some lenders are SLOW. The sellers Realtor is Calling the Loss Mitigation Dept to make sure they talk to the Foreclosure dept to talk to the Beneficiary to stop the sale date while we are waiting on them to get their act together.

 Feebleminds Picture  courtesy of knobbaa3.memset.net at Bing.com =============================================================================

I would rather deal with Wachovia–it is my recent experience that They know how to successfully close a fair market value offer on a short sale in a timely manner.

Gazunteit!!!                       With the real estate industry poised in what could be a good recovery there appears to be a Dark Cloud that is Slowing that recovery. HVCC.

We have appraisals coming in our local area thru HVCC, one in particular where it appears the appraiser who is sent by the Appraisal Management Company, may not be the right appraiser for the job, but was sent anyway. One specific case which involves a friend of mine doing a refinance. In my opinion an appraiser doing a manufactured home should know what the data plate is or the appraisal should be assigned to someone else (ya think?)—(the data plate is the piece of paper glued to the wall in the laundry room or under the kitchen cabinet or in a closet that says where and when it was built and by who, with the data on the insulation, snow load roof etc) and the HUD Tag is the metal plate affixed to the outside of the structure, just so ya know, in case you didn’t.

Almost every lender requires a picture of both (proof) i understand.  It must have been a bad day for the appraiser because pictures of the data plate were  forgotten. Two Weeks Later the appraiser had still not been back to the property to take the pictures that had been forgotten. FINE.  So the appraisal was held up by the appraiser, my friend lost his loan lock, costing more $$$. The only thing the loan officer could do is write the appraisal management company and say the the appraisal is still needed, over and over and over again.  Good job appraisal management company and it cost my friend more money for you. (Ya Dorks).— It just cost the owner (in this case) more for this appraisal because it is being handled by an Appraisal Management Company and they get paid to manage. So what are they managing? Incompetence? It sure appears so in this case. It has taken TWO Months to get the appraisal done by these yeah-who’s. The loan officer is not allowed to call the appraiser directly because of the hands off rules (HVCC) to loan officers who can have no direct contact with the appraiser and is not allowed to know who the appraiser even  is. Otherwise a phone-call would have been made to the appraiser to say, What Are You Doing?

 The reason I know is because my friend told me. —So the Net result of that is,  the owner, my friend, lost the loan lock because it took this appraisal process TWO Months.    So someone has to pay for that. It appears the appraisal managment company should, at least in my opinion pay for that, but of course they will not .

No matter what kind of business you are in there are always going to be the select few who try to manipulate the system by doing unethical things. The end result is more rules to govern us in everything we do. Unfortunately even tho HVCC was put in place with the best of intentions by Congress I believe, there are those things like this, that because you have no control, they spin out of control on their own like a car going 100 mph with no one controlling the wheel.

Now that’s just plain crazy. Ya Think?