“Buying/Selling Real Estate in Today’s Market: What You Really Need to Know”
Guest Speaker: Real Estate Attorney Julia Wei
Date: July 11th, 2009
Time: 11AM to 12PM
Q&A/Refreshments to follow!
Description: The number one mistake made when negotiating a residential real estate transaction is when participants lack understanding of the responsibilities of all of the parties and their [...]

[Read more →]

Q ~ We sold our house in August 1998. Before the sale, an inspection
of the bathroom floor revealed some water damage. The inspector
did not find structural damage. We replace the vinyl and wood under
the floor. Later the inspector cleared the bathroom and the buyer
signed off on it. In June this year, the buyer [...]

[Read more →]

by Pat Kapowich
Excerpted from the San Jose Mercury News, SJMN
Market Wise Column
Saturday, January 3, 2009
Q: We made an over-list price offer on a short-sale listing that was still occupied by the sellers. Our offer collected dust for more than seven weeks on the desk of the lender’s loss mitigator. Frustrated, we pulled our offer. Sure [...]

[Read more →]

Buyer Beware?! What About Seller Beware?
How Sellers and/or their Licensees ask for Trouble
These licensees have literally been trained to set up tripods
with blown-up neighborhood maps, color coding the sales in the
area, in order to gain new buyer and seller clients. Yet, they
convince the seller that all this extra work is for them, the seller!
Setting up [...]

[Read more →]

Excerpted from the San Jose Mercury News, SJMN
Market Wise column on First Saturdays
Saturday, May 2nd, 2009
Pat Kapowich for SJMN’s Market Wise Column

Q: We’ve made a couple of offers on homes that were not accepted. Each offer was accompanied by a deposit check of 1 percent of our offered price. We since have decided to settle [...]

[Read more →]

Kapowich on Real Estate ~ Top Ten

[Read more →]

Q: I thought buyers paid for inspections, why does my listing agent
keep insisting on us paying for seller inspections?
A: Your astute agent knows your home will sell better and faster with
a full disclose package, which includes inspections. Moreover, pre-sale
inspections also tend to keep a seller out of legal disputes.

by Pat Kapowich SiliconValleyBroker.com, owns Kapowich
Real Estate [...]

[Read more →]

Kapowich on Real Estate #138

[Read more →]

The Seller’s Market
Veteran real estate agents have seen/felt many, many markets “change,” also referred to as “cycles.” Some of these changes took place seemingly overnight. A Seller’s Market in Silicon Valley finds Buyers lining up in front of mediocre over-priced properties. In addition, these Buyers will compete to pay over-list price, buy “as-is” and [...]

[Read more →]

by Pat Kapowich
Excerpted from the San Jose Mercury News, SJMN
Market Wise Column
Saturday, February 7, 2009
Q: Last year we negotiated to purchase a home and were told that our final counter-offer to the counter-offer was verbally accepted. It was decided that we’d all sign a new contract combining all the agreed upon terms during a weeklong [...]

[Read more →]