Sacramento Association of Realtors Supports Kathleen Kelleher for County Assessor

Last night, I attended an event in support of Kathleen Kelleher, candidate for Sacramento County Assessor. She is currently the Assistant Assessor, serving under Ken Steiger who is retiring after the end of his term. Kathleen Kelleher has served with the Sacramento County Assessor's office for 23 years, and she plans to continue a proactive approach to Proposition 8, the constitutional amendment passed by voters in 1978 that allows a temporary reduction in assessed value when a property suffers a "decline-in-value." I attended with a few other folks on behalf of the Sacramento Association of Realtors...in the photo with me is Kathleen Kelleher, Caylyn Brown (SAR's Government Affairs Director), and Kellie Swayne (my good friend and fellow Realtor).

New Listing - 5631 Great Valley Drive, Antelope / Sacramento, CA 95843

Great 3 bed, 2 bath, 1,567sf Antelope Home has been lovingly maintained by original owner-you will appreciate the custom paint selections, open floorplan, separate living and family rooms, spacious master bedroom, nicely landscaped yard. Don't wait! Offered at $209,000 subject to lender approval of short sale. For more photos and detail, visit http://www.5631GreatValleyDrive.com.

New Listing - 3209 Wemberley Drive, Sacramento / Arden, CA 95864

Adorable Arden Manor 3 bed, 1 bath, 1,081sf home-lovingly maintained and owned by the same family for 58 years! You will appreciate the fresh paint, newer composition roof, central heat & air, updated bathroom, newer carpet and tile throughout. Serene backyard is perfect for the gardening enthusiast! Traditional seller - NOT a short sale or bank foreclosure! Offered at $159,000. For more photos and detail, please visit http://www.3209WemberleyDrive.com.

New Listing - 8180 Dierks Road, Sacramento, CA 95830

Originally a Craftsman style cottage relocated from downtown Sacramento in the 70's...now a unique 2-3 bedroom, 2 bathroom country home! Updated with cozy cottage farm style feel. Huge country kitchen with pine floors! Brand new, large bathroom upstairs with drop in tub and large downstairs bathroom with antique clawfoot tub. Barn, pond & office off of breezeway all on 1 acre. Offered at $299,000 subject to lender approval of short sale. For more photos and additional detail, please visit http://www.8180dierksroad.com.

SB 401 - California Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Extended

When the State of California lawmakers passed SB 401 and sent it to Governor Schwarzenegger's desk for signature, I immediately started calling my MANY past closed short sale sellers from last year, and 2010 to date. What is SB 401? It is legislation that cancels the State of California taxation of forgiven mortgage debt...meaning many short sale sellers just got a BIG break!

In a nutshell (and completely over-simplified), if a homeowner does a short sale and owes $300,000, and the NET proceeds from the sale that a bank will accept in a short sale equal $200,000, the seller of the property receives a 1099 from the bank for $100,000 (the amount of the "forgiven" debt).

More than one of my clients started crying...tears of joy. One had just done her taxes, and faced an $8,000 State of California tax bill. She confirmed with her CPA after our conversation that not only will that tax forgiven, but she would actually receive a small refund. That was music to my ears.

Now I am no CPA (and I do NOT give tax advice), however I do know that several of my past, present, and future short sale seller clients will benefit from the cancellation of the state taxation for forgiven mortgage debt.

Basically, the State of California was slow to enact this legislation to extend the cancellation of state taxation of the forgiven mortgage debt...the federal government enacted legislation back in 2007 that is valid through the end of 2012. This state legislation supposedly matches the timelines of the federal legislation.

Not EVERY short sale seller will qualify for this...please consult a qualified professional who can evaluate your situation.

Sunday Fun Day at the San Francisco Giants Game!

So if you read my blog post from Friday, you will already know that I had to miss the home opening game of my beloved San Francisco Giants because I was being installed as the Secretary / Treasurer of the Sacramento Association of Realtors "Masters Club" at its annual awards luncheon.

Well, today my brother and I decided to go to the game...and it rained like crazy! We arrived at the stadium around noon for the 1:05pm start time, and waited through a 4 hour rain delay. It was a GREAT game, and the Giants won! Certainly it was not the same as opening day, but I was happy to be able to go and get my baseball fix for now...

Sacramento Association of Realtors Masters Club Luncheon...pretty much the only reason I would ever miss the SF Giants opening day!

If you follow me on facebook or twitter, you will already know that today I was installed as the Secretary / Treasurer of the Sacramento Association of Realtors "Masters Club" at the annual awards luncheon at the Hyatt. If you are not familiar with the Masters Club, it is a club for the top producing Realtors in the Sacramento region.

Coincidentally, today is also the home opening day game for the San Francisco Giants. I have not missed attending an opening day in 12 years, however this was an important event that I pretty much was not permitted to miss. Let's just say I have volunteered for next year's luncheon planning subcommittee so that I can ensure that this does not happen again! SO.....I am going to the game on Sunday. Fingers are crossed that it does not rain!

1031 Tax Deferred Exchanges - State of California Legislation to eliminate tax benefits

The State of California is in a financial pickle, and it looks like legislators are trying to get a little creative to generate new sources of income to balance the budget...

There is a bill, introduced by Assembly member Juan Arambula of Fresno, that seeks to eliminate the state tax benefits of the 1031 Exchange. In very simplistic terms (I'm not a CPA and do not give tax advice) a 1031 Exchange is a tax deferment mechanism for real estate transactions. An investment property owner can sell an investment property and purchase another of 'like kind', and essentially defer taxation of any capital gains (or losses)...so taxpayers do not have to pay a big old tax bill.

AB 2640 eliminates the tax law conformity with federal 1031 Exchanges. In other words, if this bill were to pass, these tax deferred exchanges would still be possible for a taxpayer's federal taxation, but they would not be recognized for tax deferred treatment for California state tax purposes. UGH...call your legislator if you feel it is important to maintain the ability for investment property owners to maintain the ability to do this sort of transaction!

I was Quoted in a Sacramento Bee Article about Short Sales

I spoke to Jim Wasserman of the Sacramento Bee briefly on Wednesday regarding the new Federal HAFA (Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternatives) Program that takes affect on Monday, April 5th. He used a few of my quotes for an article that appeared in today's SacBee about Short Sales.

The premise of the HAFA Program is good idea and all (to streamline the short sale process and provide financial incentives to lenders and sellers/borrowers for doing short sales)...and like the HAMP Program for loan modifications, I think that the implementation by the loan servicer participants, and overall effectiveness of HAFA will be slow and probably a bit clumbsy to gain any real momentum. I do not think the financial incentives offered to these servicers will be any major carrot for compliance with the program...

Apparently, all the of the loan servicers that are (voluntarily) participating in HAMP will be required to (voluntarily) participate in HAFA as well. There are many loan servicers that are working with the HAMP Program already - many of the major ones include Aurora Loan Services, American Home Mortgage Servicing, Bank of America (formerly Countrywide), JP Morgan Chase, CitiMortgage, GMAC, HomEq, Litton Loan Servicing, National City Bank (aka, PNC), OneWest Bank (formerly Indymac), US Bank, Wachovia, and Wells Fargo...there are several other small banks and credit unions on board.

I have spoken to many of the loss mitigation reps at all of the loan servicers I am doing short sales with (literally, reps from that entire list above), and most have never even heard of HAFA. Wells Fargo's loss mitigation department seems to aware of HAFA though, and seems to be restructuring itself a bit to get ready...but again, I think the roll-out will take a long while....and as I am quoted in the SacBee article, Wachovia has the smoothest short sale process out there already. Time will tell!

Renting a Sacramento home? How to find out if the owner is in default or facing foreclosure...

I received a call today from a very nice lady who is planning to move to the Sacramento area, and wants to rent in the Land Park area prior to purchasing a home there. She was full of questions about the neighborhood, schools, parks, shopping, etc...and then she among other things, she asked "Oh - and how do I know for sure if my potential landlord is facing foreclosure?"

In the State of California, tenants are entitled to certain rights in the event they are renting a foreclosed property (thanks to 2008's SB 1137), but who really wants to go through that? The last thing most renters want is to be evicted from a house if the seller goes into default and is foreclosed, or to be forced to show the property to prospective buyers if the seller opts for a short sale.

Well...aside from asking the property owner directly? There is a resource that I use often myself to see if a Notice of Default or Notice of Trustee Sale has been filed in Sacramento County. Luckily, the Sacramento County Clerk-Recorder's office has an online database called e-ROSI (Electronic Recorder Online System Index). e-ROSI provides on-line public access to Sacramento County's Index of Recorded Documents from 1965 to current. Unfortunately, you will not be able to see the actual recorded document online, but you will be able to identify the existence of certain documents, and can always obtain more information by visiting the Sacramento County Clerk-Recorder's office downtown at 600 8th Street.

You will need the name of the property owner, and the year of the filing (for example, John Smith, and 2009 or 2010). The e-ROSI website is located at http://erosi.saccounty.net/. Of course this resource is not completely fool-proof...it is possible that a property owner can be delinquent (past due) with the mortgage payments without a recorded NOD or NOTS, though one may be filed in the near future.