Catherine's Blog

2010 is the year!

Catherine Krueger (Marvin Gardens Real Estate) — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 09:08:55 -0800

Wow what a start! While usually January is a sleeper month, not this year!! Buyers were out there anxiously waiting more inventory to hit the market and ready to jump on the somewhat perfect house out of desperation. My business is booming and I hear that most agents are in the same boat, at least in the East Bay (Contra Costa and Alamdeda counties). We saw a little bit of a lull from buyers afterwards waiting to see what else would come up and frankly nothing is coming up! There are only 5 homes total for sale in Albany and barely anymore in Berkeley!! Those that come up do sell fairly fast unless they are way overpriced and the sellers are stubborn, not listening to the market speak. I see from my pipeline and hear from others that spring will be very busy with lots of inventory waiting to make their grand entrance. A lot of people are trying to time the tax credit deadline by getting their house ready in March for an April 1st market time. I would frankly be surprised if the tax credit disappeared and interest rates increased as that could be lethal for the real estate market. Any opinion? Maybe one or the other but not both at the same time would make more sense so we can ease into it...

Rock bottom prices!

Catherine Krueger (Marvin Gardens Real Estate) — Wed, 13 May 2009 13:36:04 -0700

Lately I have seen a flurry of homes coming onto the market and selling right away even in the deepest places in Contra Costa County where I usually never go. I have been showing houses in Rodeo and writing offers and even there it is a mad rush to get your offer accepted!! Yes prices are a lot lower than anywhere else in Contra Costa but wow within a couple of days competition gets stiff for a chance to sell a home and some with squatters included!! Prices have been climbing back up since February and on that note I received 2 emails from buyers who said that they had missed their chances at buying a home! No wait!! that means that prices have reached rock bottom and now is the best time to buy before prices reach an all-time high again! (if they ever do). We are at the bottom of the wave right now and even if a buyer pays $2000 more at most than his neighbors it will make no difference when the next neighbors pay $200,000 more than them!! Are buyers becoming really picky or having delusions of grandeur? I have definitely seen more champagne taste on beer budget than ever before. This is a buyer's market but it will never be the old days of buyers market where buyers could demand anything. If you are dealing with banks just getting the house at a good deal is good enough, bad as it is that is the way it works.

Banks and their idea of real estate

Catherine Krueger (Marvin Gardens Real Estate) — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 21:00:34 -0700

After scoring a major victory against the bank and getting "my way" I want to warn everyone not to give up when dealing with a bank. Yes you will get the addendum stating that offer is final, take it or leave it but I fought for my clients and renegotiated the price after our inspection despite their addendum stating otherwise. I did fight for my clients for some undisclosed repairs (mainly trees cut and driveway repaired) despite their as-is clause.... it was not pretty and it was stressful but my clients deserved it and in the end they won. So don't give up the fight against bank. They need to follow the rules and if they are going to sell in CA or wherever then darn it obey the realtors!!!!!!!!!!!!

East Bay market update

Catherine Krueger (Marvin Gardens Real Estate) — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 20:56:00 -0700

Well it seems that buyers are back but reticent to buy! I had this beautiful home on the market and held it open with great success. Over 100 people came every single time and yet in the end I ended up receiving 2 offers and selling it for asking price???!!! weird market. I can't complain but truly with the activity I was getting and 8 disclosure packages plus 4 people on the fence as to whether they would take a package I was hoping for more offers! Clients are happy, that is what matters. They told me that they had the best agent one could ever dream of.. how sweet is that!

Human Nature

Catherine Krueger (Marvin Gardens Real Estate) — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 00:01:56 -0700

What is wrong with people? Just because they can insult someone from the safety of their homes, bbs or whatever device they use does not mean that they should!!! Isn't there some kind of etiquette that we used to call respect... I just finished reading the nastiest answers from zillows and other real estate portals... I am absolutely shocked at people's meanness.. Why??? Do they feel better afterwards?? I am puzzled....If people don't have anything positive or enlightening to say they should just MOVE ON and don't bother to reply.

Pushing my way through when selling a bank-owned home

Catherine Krueger (Marvin Gardens Real Estate) — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 10:46:35 -0800

I have always been told that banks tell you what to do and you don't have any say in it. While I have found that to be true in most cases I am in the middle of a "fight" with this bank and I am making progress maybe at the expense of my health with all the stress associated with selling a home to first-time home buyers but... at least I get the satisfaction of "winning" something on behalf of my clients. I managed to counter the banks final counter and lowered my clients' offer by $5000 in the meantime and now I am arguing for a non-disclosed tree issue that would cost up to $6000 to my clients if not addressed before close of escrow. The process has been painstakingly slow but yesterday I did get a call from the listing agent saying that the bank was reconsidering after reading my letter.... We'll see.

No chance this time around for my over asking offer?

Catherine Krueger (Marvin Gardens Real Estate) — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 15:56:30 -0800

Well I guess $300K over the asking was the magical number. I heard that my offer was not accepted but I was not told who got it and if it was an all cash versus an offer over mine.... My clients and I are bummed. Everyone around me is shocked that prices in Berkeley are still crazy and that people are overbidding by that much.

I can't say that it is true for every single house but given our lack of inventory I have seen many houses go over the asking price. El Cerrito has slowed down and prices have gone down too but the house around the corner from my office in the St jerome/1000 Oaks area received 4 offers so that is a good sign. Interest rates are holding up well and my upcoming listings should do well in this market. I just hope I don't have to compete against similar homes on the market at the same time as mine.

$230,000 over the asking price and still got countered!!!!

Catherine Krueger (Marvin Gardens Real Estate) — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 11:15:17 -0800

I wrote a few weeks ago about this house in the Berkeley hills where there were 12 offers. The bank still countered everyone for the highest and best offer despite offers $200,000 over the asking price.... That is pure gluttony. And then the worst part is they accepted an offer with 10% cash down on an REO where the previous owner had stripped the house of everything. You name it and it is GONE... so the house cannot appraise as a livable space. After 2 weeks the buyers backed out because they did not get a loan so the bank decided to lower the asking price and put the house back on the market instead of calling the agents who had written an offer!! I don't understand the reasoning yet again. We are back at our second shot hoping to get our offer accepted. I know that there were several over-the-asking all cash offers written on that property with 10 day closes and still the bank glossed over them. Do any of you know what to do to avoid all the countering back and forth and reason with banks? I would sure appreciate any tips you have....In my mind this is insane but nowadays if you don't want to deal with short sales then you have little choices and REOs are the norm.

The headaches of dealing with banks!

Catherine Krueger (Marvin Gardens Real Estate) — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 15:55:48 -0800

The market is such that nowadays most of our inventory is bank owned properties and short sales. Rarely will we see a "regular" sale and if they exist you can tell right away in the disparity of asking price!! Banks don't care about making a profit it seems like. They will unload the property their way! I wrote an offer on a bank owned property and the seller= the bank demanded we do our inspections prior to their signing any papers!!! So verbally we are in contract yet I have not received anything short of an email stating that our offer was accepted! My clients are spending money doing inspections. The rationale according to the listing agent is the bank does not want to negotiate so we do our inspections and decide on our final price and that is it! I put the agent on speaker phone so my clients could hear the bank's point of view and then followed up with an email to all parties explaining what had been said during the phone conversation. This is a CYA move just in case another offer slips in while we are doing our inspection and I am told I did not know that!!

Banks are notorious for dealing with real estate their own way. Their addenda supersede anything in the contract. At least now they agree to pay for owner's title policy after forcing their title company upon the buyer. They impose their timeframe and refuse to clear any title or code violations or point of sale ordinances which put the buyers in a precarious state. But once negotiations are done it becomes a smooth transaction unless financing prevents closing on time.....then the beast comes out and the buyers must pay for any day the escrow closes late etc... I think NAR and CAR and all of our state associations should put pressure on the banks to treat real estate the right way and if the banks hire an agent to represent them which is always the case then let the agent do something and not be a mere puppet at the mercy of the banks' whim.

I guess it is still better than waiting months for an answer on a short sale!!.......

catherine

Banks lameness!!

Catherine Krueger (Marvin Gardens Real Estate) — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 15:56:12 -0800

I keep wondering why we are supposed to bail out banks when they have not been too keen on saving money themselves.... I wrote an offer last year for a short sale and the bank completely ignored me for 4 months which happens in 80% of the cases. The house finally went into foreclosure and was sold. By then my clients were not interested anymore and had made an offer on another house. However, had the bank accepted our offer they would have cashed/saved another $100,000 from the proceeds. But no they preferred to ignore my offer.

Yesterday I wrote an offer on this big house in Berkeley and on tour today heard that the bank had refused an offer for $1,800,000 as-is!!!!!!!!! Now that the house is bank owned it is listed for just under $1,000,000. There is something seriously wrong with that. I have not heard back from my offer so maybe the buyers who wrote the offer came back this time around and they will get their money but that is a huge bet on their part.

Time will tell if they were right or wrong but I have my doubts.

Booming January market

Catherine Krueger (Marvin Gardens Real Estate) — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 17:04:16 -0800

Everything is spinning in the Bay Area! Suddenly buyers are back after taking a nice festive break. This week has been very busy with rates dropping and then rising and then dropping again. Refis are on the way up and more houses are coming onto the market.

Today I wrote an offer on a house that was previously on the market for $2,800,000! Beautiful 4500sqft home with gorgeous views of the bay on 1/2 acre!!! The seller unfortunately lost the home to the bank and the agent put it back on the market for under $1,000,000. Well, talk about chaos. Everyone wanted that property.

Then another client called me about writing an offer on a property in Richmond! Wow it is nice to be busy again and get back in the groove after a slower period in 2008.

Looking at prices in the depressed areas it is easy to understand why this frenzy from investors. Most homes are listed under $250,000 and even $200,000 so with some money down these houses are positive cash cows from the get go.

We'll see if that trend continues. Last year 20% of sellers sold because they were in trouble. The California Association of Realtors is predicting a drop in median price of 10% for California. We will see what Berkeley and surrounding communities hold up.

Happy New Year 2009!

Catherine Krueger (Marvin Gardens Real Estate) — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 21:35:40 -0800

Well another year has gone by and what a year for real estate. I am a newbie compared to some, this year I am celebrating my 10th year in the business as a Realtor. I still love it and would not consider doing anything else despite the challenges the business is facing. Last year was a transition year for me with a lot less transactions that I am acustomed to but I was busy nevertheless. A lot of my colleagues have left or taken a second job. I am not there at least which is reassuring!! 2009 promises to be a better year of "changes" as we have heard ad nauseum during the campaign. Let's hope it brings changes to the real estate market too. Rates should be low and even lower than 2008 and banks will hopefully be done with dumping their newly acquired homes onto the market and altering the real face of the market. It was a change for every Realtor to deal with unresponsive banks: I waited 4 months for an answer from a bank who finally decided to let the house go into foreclosure instead of accepting the short sale transaction and they ended up getting $100,000 less than our offer. My clients got tired of waiting and someone else benefited from all my work!!

My wishes for this year:

I hope to be busy selling and buying real estate with my clients,

I hope to be skiing often and see my kids on black diamonds again!!

I wish health to me and my family and everyone else

and mainly lots of happiness and peace in this crazy world!

Morning on a rooftop!

Catherine Krueger (Marvin Gardens Real Estate) — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 15:54:09 -0800

Well today I did something I had never done as a Realtor. There is always a first for everything and I have had my share of going into vacant houses just to find out a naked guy in the shower or having the door answered by an edonis dude dripping with water and a barely covered butt!!! Today I got stuck on this appartment complex rooftop!!!

Well there is a pool in the complex and I thought the pool was on top...wrong. The first rooftop door said emergency door do not open so I did not but the second door in a different staircase said nothing at all. No warning nothing on the door or the adjacent walls. My client was ahead of me and while I was looking for the pool the door locked behind me!! I tried opening it but nope it had latched well. My client stared at me and I could not believe my eyes!! This was my first showing for this client who had just fired his previous agent!!!!!! How funny or bad taste is that???!!!! Anyhow after trying to open and/or knocking on the door to alert someone I decided to confess to the listing agent knowing that he would hate me!!! But I could not wait there forever and my client wanted to go to the bathroom too!! Anyhow we were lucky, the agent was around and he came by within 15 minutes!!! I have learned my lesson!!

What an adventure! We will see what happens next!

Catherine

Where are all the houses?

Catherine Krueger (Marvin Gardens Real Estate) — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 14:11:56 -0800

Inventory in the Berkeley area, CA is so low!! Clients are waiting for a decent house to come up. I checked yesterday and in one week only 18 new homes in the East Bay!!! Some of them are overpriced and others are your typical REO or short sale listings... How can you sell those?? We need more homes to sell. Market is holding steady in the East Bay. I have seen a slight increase in sales prices in the last month as well.