Mark Wisterman's Paradise & Lake Oroville Real Estate Blog

We’ve all heard the old saying , “Give them an inch and they will take a mile.” Right?

Well, this has never held more true than it does today in this age of bank owned properties. No, this is not another one of those bank, bashing blog posts that seem to be everywhere these days. Quite frankly it is difficult to tell if the expanding trend of banks REQUIRING  more and more of a potential purchaser before accepting an offer, is the work of the banks or of some of the bank-employed REALTORS® that have hitched their fortunes to their bank-employer.

Let’s take a little walk down memory lane to see what I mean.

Inch #1-In the beginning, banks that owned foreclosed homes simply required that a buyer present a loan prequalification letter with any offer that was made on one of their homes. This seemed fair, as no seller wants to be dealing with a buyer that is not qualified for a loan.

Inch #2- It was then not good enough that the purchase contract stated that the buyer had given a deposit check to their agent. The bank wanted a copy of the check.

Inch #3-Next the major banks required that any prospective buyer be loan prequalified with their bank before they would consider the buyer’s offer. Great way for the bank’s loan officers to try and persuade a buyer to swtich their business to them. Yes, it is happening! Read the rest of this entry »

Welcome back, once again, to your weekly sales update for the Paradise, California  real estate market. Market activity remains stable this week when compared to last week. The astute observer that you are probably noticed a revision in the housing numbers that I reported last week.  The revision was made because my intent is to report home sales activity for the town of Paradise. Last week’s report also included the Magalia area.

Which brings me to the question of what you want to see in these Paradise numbers. Do you want to see  just Paradise stats or would you like to me to include numbers for the Magalia area too?

Paradise, listings, homes for sale, properties, Lake Oroville, Oroville, Creal estateA Butte county

For a smaller town like Oroville, prosperity hinges greatly on the amount and quality of development that takes place.  Among other things, future development brings with it new jobs, which brings with it an expanded population base, which brings with it more housing needs. In other words, a prospering Lake Oroville contributes to a strong housing market.

Development, though cannot take place in ANY town without a City Council, or Town Council as the case may be, working together for the common good of it’s beloved city. Not only does nothing get done when city officials are bickering, but you won’t find any major companies willing to come to a town when there is discontent at the highest levels of city government.

So when I read, “City Council tensions erupt into open” on the front page of our local newspaper this morning I could only shake my head in bewilderment at how stupid things can get at City Hall sometimes.

The following e-mail was sent from one Council Member to our mayor. Now before you get your panties in a wad, I am taking no sides in whatever dispute these two elected members of our community are having. In fact, to be honest, I am not sure what the dispute is all about.

But I am sure of one thing, the message in the email below is unbecoming of an elected official and, in my view, may be reason to have him removed from office. I’ll have more comments on this after you read the e-mail. Oh, by the way, the text highlighted in red was my doing. Read the rest of this entry »

 It seems that this week’s Lake Oroville real estate market report reflects some ongoing reporting issues the local REALTORS are having with our new multiple listing service system.

It looks as though that the inventory of unsold homes is beginning to increase slightly. This may be an effect of some sellers trying to get a head start on what most people think is the peak selling season of Spring. Hopefully we can get the bugs worked out of our new MLS system soon. Watch for the weekly sales numbers for the Paradise real estate market later this week.

Today marks the first day of the waiver of FHA’s “anti-flipping” or as I call it, the “anti-free market” rule. Under the ill- advised rule a home that was purchased with the intent of being “flipped” has to be held by the owner for at least 90 days before it would be eligible to be purchased with an FHA-back loan. The effect of the rule was to cause an unnecessary obstacle to a real estate investor purchasing a “fixer,” renovating it and putting it back on the market for a profit.

 In the days of the flaming real estate market, FHA’s motive was to slow down the rate of home price increases and profit taking by homeowners who wanted to take advantage of the current market conditions.

With the number of foreclosed properties on the market, many of which are in such bad condition that they would not qualify for any type of loan, the FHA is now looking for real estate speculators and investors to help bail out the market. With the 90 day holding period waived for the next year, investors can now snap up some of the great deals that are available, renovate them as quickly as they can so that they will qualify for a loan, and get them back on the market so buyers can take advantage of the available federal homebuyer tax credits.

This should significantly increase the number of turn-key livable homes on the market in the Paradise &  Lake Oroville real estate market,  something that is sorely needed right now.  Going forward I would like to see FHA permanently rescind the regulation as it interferes with the free market. Only when the government gets out of the way will the market repair itself.

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A little while back I posted a blog article regarding the lack of attention that many REALTORS® are paying to their obligation and legal requirement to provide the proper disclosure documents to clients and cooperating agents in a transaction. Not much has improved since then. The biggest violators of the disclosure laws seem to be those agents that are working as agents for the banks.

Before I continue let’s make one thing clear: Not every REALTOR® who is working for a bank is ignoring the law. Most of them are doing what they are supposed to be doing.

There does, however, seems to be a growing number of  bank-hired agents in our area that have somehow come to believe that they are above the law, in fact REFUSING to comply with disclosure requirements. And to be totally blunt about it, I am tired of it. So tired in fact, that it is time to do something about it. Maybe it is time to start naming names on this blog site of those agents who seem to have acquired the arrogance of the banks to whom they have pledged their allegiance, and refuse to do their jobs. Or maybe the Department of Real Estate would be interested in seeing what some of these “agents” are doing; I mean, NOT doing.

Here is an example of what I am talking about:

I e-mailed the local listing agent for the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) last week to ask her to provide me her inspection disclosure. She is the listing agent for all of the HUD owned homes in Northern California. As an agent for the seller she is required to perform what the real estate law calls a “diligent visual inspection” of the property and provide a written disclosure of her findings to my buyer. As the agent of the buyer I to am required to do the same.

Her response to me was that she “normally” does an inspection when she is representing the buyer. But because I was representing the buyer she did not feel she was required to do the lawfully required visual inspection.

We currently have another transaction with an agent from S. California who has a bank owned property in Oroville listed. He too is refusing to provide the results of his visual inspection. Know why? He has never seen the home and has no idea what condition it is in. Being an agent from out of town DOES NOT exempt him from performing his duties. It seems that the longer this foreclosure market continues the more these type of agents cut corners and violate thier ethics. Can you imagine what it is going to be like by the end of the year if something isn’t done to fix it?

So here is how I am going to help YOU become part of the solution. Beginning this week I will be sharing with you the disclosures you can expect to see during your Lake Oroville, or Paradise, real estate transaction. With this knowledge in hand you can begin to demand the proper disclosures from your agent and have just that much more piece of mind about the purchase of your new home.

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Welcome to all of you interested in what is happening in the Paradise, California real estate market. As I have been doing for the Lake Oroville real estate market for the past 8 or nine months, I will be bringing these numbers to you on a weekly basis.  As part of this reporting I will try to point out anything of interest in the report each week in order to try to bring the proper perspective to market conditions.

I always welcome your comments and suggestions on this or any of my blogs posts, so don’t be bashful. Come join in the fun.

I am pleased to announce that I have made the decision to expand the Realty World brand into the town of Paradise, California.

I actually have owned the REALTY WORLD franchise rights to the Paradise real estate market for close to a year now, but have been waiting to actively do business in the town in the pines until market conditions warranted it.  I now feel that this is the time to bring this extraodinary real estate brand back to town.

I feel that this is the right time for two main reasons.  One, I see the market beginning, ever so slightly, to shift away from foreclosures and more towards short sales. And, two, I have heard from a number of people in the area that our brand of progressive and aggressive marketing is sorely needed there. I guess you could say that people seem to looking for a more up to date style of real estate marketing and negotiating.

As a company we do not intend to take the town by storm, we simply intend to very methodically, and consistently increase our presence within the market until we become the preferred real estate negotiators of the fine residents of Paradise.

The first order of business for this blog site will be to begin reporting  weekly Paradise real estate market stats in the same way that I am currently reporting market information for the Lake Oroville real estate market.  So be sure to check back soon for the first of those reports.

I will provide progress reports as this exciting expansion of our brand moves forward so you too can share the excitement we all feel in our Oroville office about our new venture.

Paradise……..HERE WE COME!!!!!!!

The rapid advancement of new technologies in the real estate industry has reshaped how we, as real estate professionals, conduct our businesses. As the onslaught of bigger and better things continues to provide more and more opportunities to represent our clients more fully and efficiently, there is a continual learning curve which confronts those of us who are trying to keep pace with the changes.

But REALTORS®  are not the only ones trying to keep up with all the advancements. Our clients are also working hard to understand how these new technologies affect them.

I think the best illustration of this is in the way sellers are still trying to grasp the way potential buyers are seeing their homes. In the “old” days, before the turn of the century, (around 1999 and before) the way sellers knew how much interest potential buyers had in their homes was from the number of buyers that actually showed up to the home with their agent to view the property.

Today’s technology though, has changed the way we gauge the amount of interest that is garnered by any particular property. No longer can we rely on physical showings to monitor buyer interest. With over 90% of buyers viewing properties online before ever calling a REALTOR®, it now is more important than ever for a listing agent to be able to show his/her client how much the home is being seen in cyberspace.  Without the ability of a seller to see what the level of buyer interest is, it is  impossible for the seller to make an informed decision on whether to make a price adjustment or maybe do a little sprucing up around the house. It is likewise just as difficult for the seller’s agent to know what to recommend to the seller without a COMPLETE picture of activity on the home.

Here are links to three reports that I think each seller of a home should have access to through their REALTOR®. These reports are generated weekly by the companies that provide the service, in my view should be an integral part of every REALTOR’S service to their seller in the Lake Oroville and Paradise real estate markets.

Click on each graphic link and look them over. If it is easier for you I have also included the text link. And be sure to ask your agent to provide these to you if he or she is not already doing so.                        

  Trulia Showings Report      RW Showings Report      REALTOR.com Showings     

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Don’t panic everyone!!!! These numbers do not appear to be accurate this week due to the Oroville Association of REALTOR®, The Chico Association of REALTORS®, and Paradise Association of REALTORS® switching to a new multiple listing service. It appears that some sales have not yet been reported into our new system by some of the Lake Oroville REALTORS®. By the looks of the numbers, I certainly hope that is the case.

Don’t spend much time on this but be sure to check back in next Tuesday to see how we are really doing.