Wells Fargo will be flying in hundreds of our loan servicing specialist for this event. I encourage you to send this flyer to your data base, realtor partners, family and friends:

A few things to remember:

1. Customers should register on the attached website to minimize wait times

2. Parking will be free when registering

3. If the customer did not register on line or via telephone # on the flyer they need to advise parking attendant that they are attending the WF event and they will not have to pay for parking

4. Letters went out to LA Customers and surrounding areas March 5

5. For those customers who have mortgages with us and use their ATM cards at our ATM machines they will also get a notice of the event

6. Translation service will be available for many languages (we have hired a service to help us with translation)

7. Customers have to represent themselves and can not send a counselor in their place

8. Customers are encouraged to bring all financial information

Thank you all for getting the word out on this. This can be a life changing event for many families, please pass the word.

PLEASE EMAIL ME @ Bonnie@SimiLiving.com FOR A FLYER WITH MORE DETAILS

Where was the homeowners “bailout” in this scenario.

http://www.thinkbigworksmall.com/mypage/player/tbws/23087/1447188

Listen up all buyers who have been watching RealtyTrac or listening to the news, waiting for the full fall out of April 2010 loan resets, the sky MAY NOT fall. The banks are slow, slower than watching paint dry, or my daughter getting her shoes on, but they are getting better and the better they get, the better they are going to be able to act, to their own benefit. They are working on pre-approved short sales, for those who don’t qualify for loan modifications. There are almost ½ million temporary loan modifications issued nationwide and banks want to be able to switch those that can’t make payments under the temp loan mods to a preapproved short pay, not a foreclosure. And they are so concerned about having too many foreclosures this panel talked about them doing Strategic Non-Foreclosures, where the bank doesn’t start the foreclosure process on property they are not prepared to manage. So the homeowner could remain in the property for a year. (They have kind of done this in the past because they could figure out who owned which properties when so many banks collapsed but that’s another story because they didn’t actually plan it, now did they?)

Then, there are consumers who are looking at the situation and going, hmmmm pay twice as much mortgage for a place that is worth ½ as much as I owe on it OR rent a nicer unit down the street for less. Which should they do? The New York Times cover February 4^th discussed that some homeowners predict that it will be 2025 before they are right side up in their property value. You can put a lot of money aside and restore your good credit prior to 2025 if you move on now. This choice is a consumer Strategic Foreclosure. Otherwise, consumers feel they are throwing bad money after good. Consumer mentality about keeping the home changes as it become more socially acceptable to say “oh, I bought at the wrong time, I got a bad loan, I had to let it go” and who should judge, really. The borrower focused on in the article was a 20% down conventional 30 year fixed buyer, not the kind of no money down, no income qualifying buyers we are used to reading about. So, just as banks are making their “savvy” financial decisions, who is to say that consumers shouldn’t be doing the same. No one is coming in and bailing out consumers. The average joe is getting stuck with the debt, the long-term loss and the tax burden of the bail out…but this could be fodder for enough blog posts to last a year.

Real estate happens local. (So, if you are reading my blog from an area other than Ventura County, skip this paragraph.) Locally, in Ventura County, many areas have too little inventory. In fact, today I ran a search for homes built 20 years or newer, priced between 550-600,000 and around 2000 sq ft on a modest size lot. There were 4 homes available in this criterion, 4 homes. I have a list of ready, willing and able, qualified buyers who can not find housing, in a variety of price ranges, and I am just one Realtor. As the Trulia broadcast points out the federal government is bolstering the housing market. With fantastic interest rate, a tax credit and no inventory, we are pushing prices up. We are still in a multiple offer scenario for many, many homes that hit the market. And Trulia’s panel points out that they don’t see the Fed backing off of that support.

So even with all these things going on with foreclosures, it is going to take something more to make the sky fall, an earthquake in California would do it. Giant interest rates would make things interesting but with housing being about affordability, the combination of interest rates rising and prices dropping will still yield the same affordability.

 If you are thinking about buying, be looking for the right home for you at the right time for you and don’t worry too much about what is going on with foreclosures in the future. It is all changing and morphing and unpredictable. Make your choices based on what is going on now, for you. Find a great value by knowing what you want and what you can afford and looking at everything in your price range, regardless of who the seller is or who might be selling in the future.

 I don’t have a crystal ball, but I think the likelihood of an earthquake, completely unpredictable act of nature, happening and dragging down the local real estate market is greater than the odds of the anticipated foreclosure activity causing a substantial dragging down. Lets’ all hope that neither occurs.

Under the current general understanding of the Tax Forgiveness, the Federal Legislation for the forgiveness runs out at the end of 2009, the state timeframe is actually a little sooner than the end of the year in California.

So, thinking as a Realtor and not being a tax professional – and I encourage anyone in foreclosure to seek both professional tax and legal advice – I think maybe there is a downside to a later foreclosure action. If your lender does not get to foreclosing on your property until later in the year or they have started the process but fail to proceed timely, a homeowner in trouble right now could find that their foreclosure action does not take place in this tax year. Consider this, if your foreclosure action is on a note of 500,000 and your property value is, lets be generous, 400,000, the lender has a loss of 100,000 that they will 1099 the homeowner for. The homeowner then receives this as ordinary income. At a 30% tax bracket you don’t have to be a tax professional or a rocket scientist to determine that for someone who just lost their house, their next fight could be with the IRS on taxes of nearly $30,000 for $100,000 they never really earned.

For this reason, I would recommend that homeowners in foreclosure seek tax advice to determine how a later foreclosure proceeding will affect them. If it seems that they will be adversely affected, they may want to consider other options. A short sale might still be a possible resolution that could occur before the end of the calendar year. A deed in lieu of foreclosure may be an action that could be negotiated before the end of the calendar year. Bankruptcy may be an option for some borrowers to consider.

For this reason too, I would caution people to be careful when considering a loan modification. If you cant afford the new payments think twice about accepting an agreement that will result in your default occurring in the next calendar year. More than 50% of people who accept a loan modification are falling back into default within the first 12 months. And, listen up, if your loan modification includes a principal reduction, expect a 1099 for the principal reduction amount and consider with your tax professional how that will affect you. The amount may not be eligible for automatic tax forgiveness.

Will our government extend the tax forgiveness, well it seems that we need another year to really alleviate considerable hardship. BUT we also have a government that needs your tax dollars. It’s anyone’s guess. For many of you in trouble, I am sorry for your hardship.

Living is a pretty broad subject. People, me and you, friends and client, live in their homes and since I’m a Realtor, that will be a focus here. I’ll also include information about living here for those that can take advantage locally and those who wonder about living here. Some general ideas and ideals about living.

Want to know more about me and why you might want to check out this blog, sign up for updates or RSS my site,  check out my Trulia profile. Here you will find over 100 answers I have posted to the questions of individual users.