<p>Yup. True that, mathmom. </p>
<p>And so sorry, jshain. But your house is spectacular. It will sell in no time.</p>
<p>So sorry, jshain. Just when you thought you were done with the showings, and after going under contract so quickly.</p>
<p>Looks like a pretty profitable business…</p>
<p>[Who</a> Owns Your Neighborhood? The Role of Investors in Post-Foreclosure Oakland](<a href=“http://www.infoalamedacounty.org/index.php/research/housing/genhousing/oaklandinvestors.html]Who”>http://www.infoalamedacounty.org/index.php/research/housing/genhousing/oaklandinvestors.html)</p>
<p>:eek: Just came back from driving a friend around the area, looking at new developments. OMG. Everything nice is “SOLD”.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>But the price in Oakland has not risen to a point anywhere we can call it recovery.Not in the '‘bad’ areas, only in those prime areas. East Oakland is still a dump.</p>
<p>jshain, it’s a funky week. Half the universe was out of town last weekend, and the other half is out of town this weekend. It will move quickly.</p>
<p>Thanks for the encouraging words jym and VeryHappy. Not a single call today. According to the OC Register (CA) newspaper, home prices in our region are expected to rise 7.1% in 2013. Our new home in Walnut Creek was appraised at $980K, which was $26K more than we paid for it. Renting our OC home for a year or two won’t be the end of the world if we don’t sell it this week.</p>
<p>I noticed the same thing in my area, houses that were pending are now back to active on MLS. My guess is that buyers can not be qualified to get loans. Lots of home owners are put them for rent as well. But there is a long list of houses for rent.</p>
<p>I was trying to see houses this week and even my realtor is out of town, so I’m out of luck. It’s not a good week for anybody involved in house sales.</p>
<p>jshain- any chance the buyers can secure other financing?
Toblin- congrats on retiring. Which FL coast are you on?</p>
<p>jshain,</p>
<p>hold your horses, the house will be sold, its matter of time and welcome to Walnut Creek.</p>
<p>Our buyers have signed a cancellation agreement that we also signed. I am still unsure how a lender can provide a pre-approval letter and then NOT honor the loan that they say in the letter that they will provide. It’s almost as if the lender did not do their due diligence on the buyer’s financial information up front. </p>
<p>There was a red flag on their loan, right from the get-go because, other than the letter from the lender, there was no other evidence of any financial information that was presented. When we were in escrow last year in Newport Beach (that we ended up walking away from during the contingency period) and then most recently on our new Walnut Creek home about to close next week, we had to provide a snapshot of EVERYTHING-- income, assets, etc. etc. The other red flag was when we never got a call from the appraiser wanting to come out and see the home. We sent multiple emails to our realtor about not hearing from an appraiser. We even did an extension on the appraisal contigency part of the agreement, but asked that the loan contingency be lifted on the 17th and final day. That’s when everything unraveled. Up until that day, everything was “on schedule” according to our realtor. I feel like our realtor either failed miserably in not keeping us informed when queried or totally let the ball drop in staying on top of things. </p>
<p>Two days in a row and not a single phone call from a realtor to show our home. Three weeks ago, I needed a receptionist to answer all the phone calls.</p>
<p>jshain - it’s vacation week, I bet it will pick up again. I know I’ve read that sometimes buyers think a pre-qualification letter will ensure smooth sailing and that you should be sure to get a pre-approval instead. So I am surprised this fell through, but I guess it happens sometimes. [Mortgage</a> Pre-Qualification vs Pre-Approval](<a href=“http://www.mortgage101.com/article/mortgage-pre-qualification-vs-pre-approval]Mortgage”>http://www.mortgage101.com/article/mortgage-pre-qualification-vs-pre-approval)</p>
<p>mathmom, Thanks for posting the link to the article above. After reading the difference between pre-qualification and pre-approval, it appears our realtor was “guilty” of calling it lender pre-approval when in fact it was simply pre-qualification.</p>
<p>jshain, six years or so ago when we put our house on the market, we got two full price offers on the first day. We had no idea which one to choose, so we selected the one that let us keep our refrigerator. They had some sort of blessing ceremony a couple of days later there with their family (we agreed they could do it), and the next day they pulled the offer. Based on their religion, maybe the ceremony revealed that plenty of cows had been eaten at that location!</p>
<p>All sarcasm aside, our agent immediately called the other people who had made the offer and asked them if they still wanted it. Luckily they did, and we sold the house. His next move would have been to call the other agents who had taken buyers there to let them know it was back on the market and available. Do you think your agent has done that?</p>
<p>bus, Yes, our realtor contacted the other buyers who made offers, etc. I only got one full-price offer and, since my realtor’s brother represented the buyer from the same office, we saved an additional 1% on the commission. That made a $19,000 difference between the offer we accepted and the next best offer. Offer #3 was lower by $29,000. </p>
<p>In retrospect, we should have waited a few more days to see if other offers would have come in at full asking price or higher. I am not a big fan of realtors representing both sides-- for a variety of reasons.</p>
<p>It always surprises me when I hear of realtors representing both sides. It just doesn’t happen where we are. Not sure if it’s specifically prohibited or just good business practice.</p>
<p>Here I think they only represent one side, and you are allowed to not have a realtor. Bad idea.</p>
<p>When we bought our first house we didn’t know what we were doing. The realtor for the seller told us there were other offers, and how much they were (illegal). So we knew what we had to fork over to get the house. Was it what the house was worth? No idea. Ballpark, but we probably lost a few thou by not having our own representative.</p>
<p>Edit: Now that I think of it, there probably weren’t any other offers. It was NOT a bidding situation.</p>
<p>The county assessor just cut the assessed value in half of the famous $100 million home in Los Altos Hills that had been discussed earlier on this thread. This saves the owner $600K in annual property tax, but eliminates the windfall the school district might have been hoping for.</p>
<p>[Russian</a> tycoon’s Silicon Valley mansion worth half its $100 million purchase price, assessor says | Business News](<a href=“Stock Market - Business News, Market Data, Stock Analysis - TheStreet”>Stock Market - Business News, Market Data, Stock Analysis - TheStreet)</p>
<p>Guess that sale price is gonna need a little tweaking too…</p>
<p>It is on the market, yes? And thats the one we all want to party at, yes?</p>