Friday, December 11, 2015
Experience Matters
It's been a busy year (check out our map of sold homes!) Did you know the average realtor sells only 3 homes/year? EXPERIENCE MATTERS. Have you considered buying or selling in 2016? Let us know!
Wednesday, February 4, 2015
Our latest buyer sale- trust property in Lakewood!
Check our latest TRUST sale! I just sold this to wonderful buyers of ours and we are in escrow now!
Monday, February 2, 2015
Proof We Can Sell Anything --> The Ugliest Homes We Sold Last Year (2014)
Last year The Fingerhut Team of BEACH EQUITIES sold more than 25 homes! These are some of the "ugly" ones. We've been busy! The "pretty" ones coming soon!
Friday, January 30, 2015
New Lakewood FIXER coming to market!
$399,000 3 bedroom & 1 bathroom fixer / investor opportunity in Lakewood at 2618 Greentop! Hitting the market tomorrow!
Thursday, January 29, 2015
Reverse Mortgage Requirements Changing 3/2/15
After March 2, 2015, there are some new rules going into
effect for anyone considering obtaining a reverse mortgage.
To date, these mortgages have been attractive to a certain
demographic because there have been no income and credit requirements. The sole
criteria was age, and an appraisal value of the home. Now, however, according to the HuffingtonPost, “FHA has elected to impose income and credit requirements on future
applicants. The purpose is to assure
that … borrowers will have both the capacity and the willingness to pay their
property taxes and homeowners insurance.”
My speculation is that this will both inhibit potential
borrowers as well as cause delays for those still able or willing to move
forward with the HECM (reverse mortgage) product.
Before 2008, we used to do reverse mortgages through
Indymac. They are a really great option for the right candidates in planning
for their care and retirement. With guidelines changing and the implementation
for lenders to maintain their NMLS license, we now refer these loans to trusted
partners.
If you are considering a reverse mortgage, please feel comfortable in contacting us for a trusted referral!
Tuesday, January 27, 2015
Babyboomers are staying in their homes longer
Have you looked at your retirement plan lately?
What about updating your trust and will?
Feel free, always, to contact us for trusted referrals!
Tuesday, January 20, 2015
Meeting Reminder - We'll Be There Tomorrow, Will You?
Copy of Meeting Announcment from--
Estate Planning & Trust Council of Long Beach:
"How to Avoid Unpaid Consulting"
Date: Wednesday, January 21, 2015
Time: 12:00pm - 1:30pm
Location: The Grand
Speaker: J. Scott Bailey, Bailey Marketing Concepts
Most trusted advisors understand the importance and the value of bringing in new clients. They call it “Rain-Making” or “Business Development” or sometimes “Marketing Activities.” They rarely call it “Selling” because they never anticipated having to sell anyone on anything when they were in professional school.
Go ask a little seven-year old kid what they want to be when they grow up. How many of those little kids do you think will say, “I want to grow up to become a salesperson”!
All too often, we end up relying on our knowledge and expertise, attempting to impress our potential clients with the answers to their questions. We are really good at answering questions and sometimes forget that more power would come from asking questions. Sometimes we cross the line and commit the professional mistake of “Unpaid Consulting”.
J. Scott Bailey has been a veteran of the global network of Sandler Trainers since 1994. He works with companies with business to business sales teams in manufacturing, distribution and services. He helps them close more sales, shorten the selling cycle, eliminate stalls and objections and increase market share in a competitive business environment.
Over two decades, Scott has coached and trained many trusted advisors (financial planners, accountants, bankers, attorneys, and consultants of all types) who enlist in his sessions to transform their selling process.
Go ask a little seven-year old kid what they want to be when they grow up. How many of those little kids do you think will say, “I want to grow up to become a salesperson”!
All too often, we end up relying on our knowledge and expertise, attempting to impress our potential clients with the answers to their questions. We are really good at answering questions and sometimes forget that more power would come from asking questions. Sometimes we cross the line and commit the professional mistake of “Unpaid Consulting”.
J. Scott Bailey has been a veteran of the global network of Sandler Trainers since 1994. He works with companies with business to business sales teams in manufacturing, distribution and services. He helps them close more sales, shorten the selling cycle, eliminate stalls and objections and increase market share in a competitive business environment.
Over two decades, Scott has coached and trained many trusted advisors (financial planners, accountants, bankers, attorneys, and consultants of all types) who enlist in his sessions to transform their selling process.
***
We'll be there tomorrow & hope to see all our friends & colleagues in attendance! Please stop by and say hello!
Sunday, January 11, 2015
Big News! Review of our 2015 Legal Updates
Last Thursday I had the privilege of listening to all the C.A.R. Legal updates from the very informative -- and very entertaining -- Gov Hutchinson, the Assistant General Counsel for C.A.R., the California Association of Realtors. There are a number of changes, most notably for Realtors, the RPA (Residential Purchase Agreement) has been significantly modified. Along with it, so has the PPA (Probate Purchase Agreement). But more importantly, there are a few changes, in 2015, that you need to be aware of, particularly if you are a fiduciary or an attorney handling probate, trust, & conservatorship real estate sales.
Note: Absolutely nothing stated here is intended as legal or tax advice in any way and is solely my OPINION. Please consult your valued & trust legal & tax advisors before taking action.
So, with the disclaimer out of the way, I must say -- there is good news, and there is bad news. Let's lead with the good news! The good news is that the WPA form (wood destroying pest addendum) otherwise known as "termite" is GONE! The form has been deleted and you will never see it because agents can't even access it anymore in our system that generates contracts. This is fantastic but comes with a caveat. We must note in your contract that the sale is "as-is" and no request for REPAIRS will be considered -- because termite is now being treated in the contract as PART OF "Repairs." But so long as no one puts the word "termite" into your nice and clean contract, no lender should ever throw any fit about getting that work done or obtaining a certificate of completion. Wonderful!
Now, the not-so-good news. The contract now DEFAULTS to require the seller -- that's probably you or your client -- to provide PROOF of your seller entity within 3 days of Acceptance. I asked for clarification about what "proof" would be acceptable but of course that hasn't been truly determined yet. Mr. Hutchinson seemed to believe that a trust certification might be acceptable, or the 1st few pages of the trust. I wasn't able to ask him more about if a blacked-out copy of the Letters of Administration or Conservatorship would suffice or if we have to provide the entire document. My plan to handle this is to WRITE IN a change to this default at LEAST giving the seller more TIME to comply with this requirement. (I also plan to add language that would allow the seller to change that entity should it become necessary through escrow.) The obstacle I see here is - just in the same vein that we don't like it when buyers change their name or their entity in which they plan to take title - sellers may NEED to change their name or entity in which they are selling and it is our job to protect you to be able to do just that. We've had instances where sales have been delayed because one of our sellers needed to sell not from the trust but in the estate or vice versa for various tax implications (which is not my specialty). What IS my specialty is being able to structure our contracts in such a way that if you, as the fiduciary seller or attorney working with one of our trusted fiduciaries, needs to make such a change, and it takes time to do so, that we've covered you to not lose a buyer in this instance.
I am not sure, yet, how having to provide seller entity proof to the buyer now could affect these, usually rare, instances. What I am sure of is that if you don't have a Realtor handling your transactions who understands the nuances of not only their own job, but truly, the nuances of YOUR job, and that he or she is able to translate that understanding into a real estate contract that fully protects all of your interests, you will encounter - expensive - problems.
Lastly, there is a new addendum! The trust signature addendum and probate signature addendum are both gone and there is a new form called Representative Capacity Addendum. This will be required on every single one of your transactions in which you are signing in a representative capacity. Make sure it's attached and that your Realtor knows about it. It protects you from signing any document in a real estate transaction personally.
The above are the main items I wanted to bring to your attention. There are a few other changes worth mentioning too:
-- HOAs can no longer go after a resident for not watering their lawn, so long as we remain in a drought...
-- As of 7/1/15, all employees in CA will be entitled to PAID sick leave
-- Our "RPA" contract is not assignable without seller permission (previously allowed)
-- For canceling an escrow, a buyer may now submit a DEMAND to escrow for their deposit back, and the seller MUST RESPOND within 10 days or escrow will then need to release the deposit to the Buyer -- this one is being evaluated by escrow co's with their DOC regulations to see if this one will really fly
-- For 2013 TAX year - regarding short sales - they are now retroactively exempt from their short sale being treated as income or a gain and may be entitled to a refund
I hope you have found this 2015 legal review & update to be helpful & informative. As always, please don't hesitate to contact us at Beach Equities for all of your probate & trust real estate needs at ANY time!
Note: Absolutely nothing stated here is intended as legal or tax advice in any way and is solely my OPINION. Please consult your valued & trust legal & tax advisors before taking action.
So, with the disclaimer out of the way, I must say -- there is good news, and there is bad news. Let's lead with the good news! The good news is that the WPA form (wood destroying pest addendum) otherwise known as "termite" is GONE! The form has been deleted and you will never see it because agents can't even access it anymore in our system that generates contracts. This is fantastic but comes with a caveat. We must note in your contract that the sale is "as-is" and no request for REPAIRS will be considered -- because termite is now being treated in the contract as PART OF "Repairs." But so long as no one puts the word "termite" into your nice and clean contract, no lender should ever throw any fit about getting that work done or obtaining a certificate of completion. Wonderful!
Now, the not-so-good news. The contract now DEFAULTS to require the seller -- that's probably you or your client -- to provide PROOF of your seller entity within 3 days of Acceptance. I asked for clarification about what "proof" would be acceptable but of course that hasn't been truly determined yet. Mr. Hutchinson seemed to believe that a trust certification might be acceptable, or the 1st few pages of the trust. I wasn't able to ask him more about if a blacked-out copy of the Letters of Administration or Conservatorship would suffice or if we have to provide the entire document. My plan to handle this is to WRITE IN a change to this default at LEAST giving the seller more TIME to comply with this requirement. (I also plan to add language that would allow the seller to change that entity should it become necessary through escrow.) The obstacle I see here is - just in the same vein that we don't like it when buyers change their name or their entity in which they plan to take title - sellers may NEED to change their name or entity in which they are selling and it is our job to protect you to be able to do just that. We've had instances where sales have been delayed because one of our sellers needed to sell not from the trust but in the estate or vice versa for various tax implications (which is not my specialty). What IS my specialty is being able to structure our contracts in such a way that if you, as the fiduciary seller or attorney working with one of our trusted fiduciaries, needs to make such a change, and it takes time to do so, that we've covered you to not lose a buyer in this instance.
I am not sure, yet, how having to provide seller entity proof to the buyer now could affect these, usually rare, instances. What I am sure of is that if you don't have a Realtor handling your transactions who understands the nuances of not only their own job, but truly, the nuances of YOUR job, and that he or she is able to translate that understanding into a real estate contract that fully protects all of your interests, you will encounter - expensive - problems.
Lastly, there is a new addendum! The trust signature addendum and probate signature addendum are both gone and there is a new form called Representative Capacity Addendum. This will be required on every single one of your transactions in which you are signing in a representative capacity. Make sure it's attached and that your Realtor knows about it. It protects you from signing any document in a real estate transaction personally.
The above are the main items I wanted to bring to your attention. There are a few other changes worth mentioning too:
-- HOAs can no longer go after a resident for not watering their lawn, so long as we remain in a drought...
-- As of 7/1/15, all employees in CA will be entitled to PAID sick leave
-- Our "RPA" contract is not assignable without seller permission (previously allowed)
-- For canceling an escrow, a buyer may now submit a DEMAND to escrow for their deposit back, and the seller MUST RESPOND within 10 days or escrow will then need to release the deposit to the Buyer -- this one is being evaluated by escrow co's with their DOC regulations to see if this one will really fly
-- For 2013 TAX year - regarding short sales - they are now retroactively exempt from their short sale being treated as income or a gain and may be entitled to a refund
I hope you have found this 2015 legal review & update to be helpful & informative. As always, please don't hesitate to contact us at Beach Equities for all of your probate & trust real estate needs at ANY time!
Thursday, January 8, 2015
LA Investment Opportunity - Probate For Sale
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Sunday, January 4, 2015
Happy 2015!
From all of us at Beach Equities, Happy New Year! We wish all our friends, colleagues & clients, the best year yet!
~The Fingerhut Team
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