Pat Kapowich’s De Anza College Course Series Feb/25/12 @ 9am-12pm Guest Speaker: Shawn Parr Buyer and Seller Beware: Only prepared buyers and sellers should enter into transactions involving distressed properties. Short sales, pre-foreclosures and foreclosures are fraught with potential missteps and ramifications that are normally not found in an already stressful situation ~ the buying [...]
Market Wise Q&A: How Do We Part with This Multitasking Listing Agent?
January 31, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Pat Kapowich for the San Jose Mercury News Q: Our listing agent has tried unsuccessfully to negotiate the short-sale of our home as promised. He has repeatedly tried to work with our lenders with very little headway. The buyers we had in contract gave up waiting and pulled their offer. We have decided to cancel [...]
Market Wise Q&A: What Happened to The Top Producing Agent We Hired?
January 25, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Pat Kapowich for the San Jose Mercury News Q: We hired a top real estate agent to sell our home. Yet, his assistant is the one helping us most of the time. Sometime another “assistant” will call us to convey information. Our adult daughter is furious that the agent she recommended to us has turned [...]
Attorney Gerald Cummings ~ program # 176 ~ How to Hold Title
January 25, 2012 By Leave a Comment
2012 New Law: TDS Disclosure of Water-Conserving Plumbing Fixtures
January 25, 2012 By Leave a Comment
The TDS (Transfer Disclosure Form) form has been revised to include check-box in Section IIA for a seller to disclose whether the property has water-conserving plumbing fixtures (low-flow toilets, shower heads, and faucets). The revised TDS also clarifies in Section IIB that, by January 1, 2017, a single family residence built on or before January [...]
Market Wise Q&A column for the SJMN: Why am I Unpacking with a FOR SALE Still on the Lawn?
January 9, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Pat Kapowich for the San Jose Mercury News Q: I moved into my new home last week and the Sellers’ Agent key-safe, FOR SALE signs, brochure box, fliers and display, etc., are still here. The Listing Agent said she would stop by to take a picture with a SOLD sign on the lawn post. Since [...]
Real Estate Attorney Anthony Ventura on Foreclosures ~ #173 ~ Part 2 of 2
January 9, 2012 By Leave a Comment
New Law Regarding HOA Documents Saves Buyer and Seller Dollars on Excessive Fees
December 31, 2011 By Leave a Comment
No Fee Bundling for HOA Disclosures: Beginning January 1, 2012, another C.A.R.-sponsored bill requires a homeowner’s association (HOA) to, upon written request, give an estimate of the fee for providing a prospective buyer with the governing documents of the common interest development and other required HOA disclosures. The fee must be reasonable based upon the [...]
Market Wise Q&A column for the SJMN: Should we Sell to the Neighbors or Put the Home on the Market?
December 19, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Pat Kapowich for the San Jose Mercury News Q:We are planning on moving and selling our current home. Several neighbors mentioned they would like to purchase our property. This would make life easy, however, our son insists that we put our home on the open market and have buyers and agents come through it. Does [...]