A foreclosure can devastate your credit. Your credit score can be lowered by as much as 300-400 points (or more) and you’ll be hounded day and night by your lender. Even worse, you’ll have difficulty getting credit cards, auto loans or even renting a home or an apartment for the next 7 years. Your home will be repossessed by the bank and the bank will sell your home, either at auction, or more likely through a real estate agent, with a large sign out front that says “Bank Foreclosure”.

Property owners in Alameda, Contra Costa, Sonoma, Solano and Napa Counties facing foreclosure have options. One of them is a short sale. A short sale is the sale of a home in which the amount owed to the lender(s) is more than the amount that the home can be sold for. Instead of the home owner having to bring in money to complete the sale, the sale is completed through negotiations with the existing lender(s) and the lender(s) agree to accept less than the full amount owed to satisfy the debt and allow it to be paid off “short.”

This transaction is carried out by a REAL ESTATE AGENT. Your mortgage lender agrees to discount a loan balance because of economic or financial difficulties on the part of the homeowner. The homeowner sells the mortgage property for less than the outstanding balance of the loan, and turns over the proceeds of the sale to the lender. Doing a SHORT SALE is simply the most economical solution for a homeowner who cannot afford the mortgage payment anymore. It is much more beneficial to do a SHORT SALE versus just letting a property go into FORECLOSURE (which is likely to have very serious and negative consequences). This is a good option if:

• You are not eligible to refinance
• You are at risk of foreclosure
• You have tried to work a modification with your mortgage lender and failed
• You have fallen behind on your mortgage payments and cannot afford it anymore
• You are facing financial hardship and are struggling

Please contact us at 1-800-533-7107 or visit our website at Team1realty.com and we will be happy to help. We are Certified Distressed Property Experts that will help you negotiate with your Lender.  We are local with a proven track Record that will Help You!

About Us:
Team1realty.com  is your Home and Land Specialist. Ty Leon-Guerrero is the Broker/Owner of Team1Realty. We are Certified Distressed Property Experts that will help you negotiate with your Lender.  Our role as real estate agents is to guide you through the buying or selling process, taking the time to make sure you understand every step of the transaction. We are absolutely committed to fulfilling your needs with the highest level of professionalism, expertise, and service.

Contact Us:
Ty Leon Guerrero
Real Estate Expert at Team1Realty
Fairfield, CA 94533
Phone: 800.533.7107
Website URL: http://www.team1realty.com/

For further information visit: http://www.team1realty.com/

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For Sale: Staging the house so buyers act

By Maryann Bouche

Posted: April 29, 2012 4:38 p.m.

Selling your house is like merchandising a product, real estate experts will tell their clients. Merchandising refers to displaying products so the items create interest and entice customers to purchase them.

With today’s challenging market, more sellers are turning to professional home stagers to better merchandise their houses in ways that attract buyers and bring strong offers.

Sellers tend to see their house as it is and not what it could be, noted Maribeth Mliner, an accredited staging professional for Work the Room Interior Staging, Milwaukee. “Staging is all about creating an emotion — we want the buyer to feel connected to the home,” she said.

Furniture placement, color, table settings and other accessories, music and lighting set the scene so the home whets the buyer’s desire to move in. “The rooms are staged to evoke happy thoughts, to feel at peace, to imagine entertaining family and friends,” Mliner explained. “We do use neturals, but we also work with color so the house is not bland or boring because that won’t create an emotion.”

Home stagers want to make the house look bigger, brighter, cleaner and more inviting, so that the house sells for the most money and in the least amount of time. To stage a room, “determine where the value is in each room — such as granite counters or a fireplace — and get the eye to go to that,” Mliner said. “Furniture placement and use of color are ways to draw the eyes.”

House hunters’ first peeks at the rooms are photos on real estate Web sites, which makes staging important even before a buyer enters the home, noted Mary Piekarski, an accredited staging professional for The Buyer’s Eyes Home Staging, Muskego.

Three Cs — clean, clutter-free and color — are key to appealing to the broadest range of buyers, she explained. “No. 1 is clean — I’m talking Q-tip clean,” Piekarski said. “People don’t want to buy another person’s dirt.”

Too much clutter and too many personal items also turn off buyers. “They start profiling the seller instead of just looking at the property, and they can’t see themselves living there,” she said.

Removing some furniture from rooms helps boost salability by making the space feel larger, plus house hunters can better envision their belongings in the space.
Color makes spaces engaging, so stagers rely on “moveable color,” such as window treatments, throw pillows and artwork, which are not permanent features of the room.

All sellers can benefit
Mliner said some myths about staging are that it is only for vacant houses or only for upper-end homes, that sellers cannot live comfortably in a staged home, and that stagers will ask clients to buy lots of new furniture and decorations.

“I’ve staged homes in all price ranges, including ones listed for under $100,000,” she said. “I look for ways to keep costs down for my clients. The goal is not to buy new things, but to use what the homeowner has,” Mliner explained.

The stager’s first step is to tour the home and provide a consultation. Piekarski said the consultation lasts two to three hours for most homes, although larger residences would require more time. Her average consultation fee is about $250; smaller homes cost about $150 and for homes 4,000 square feet and up, the consultation is $450 and up. The fee may be paid by the seller or by the seller’s real estate professional.

During the consultation, Piekarski offers a breadth of suggestions “to really make the home look its best — the homeowners decide to do as little or as much as they would like.” Understanding that the seller has limits regarding what changes can be made because of time, ability and financial reasons, she presents a range of options. To implement the suggestions, sellers can do the work themselves, ask the stager for referrals or have the staging firm do the work.

Tips from home stagers
• Edit the furniture in each room.
• To redesign a space, consider borrowing items or use pieces from other rooms.
• Add more lighting to rooms and turn on during a showing.
• Redecorate cheaply — spray paint is one option to give new looks to furniture and accessories.
• Place furniture so it faces the room’s focal point, such as a fireplace.
 

The highest bidder gets a luxury estate! Auctioning million dollar homes is a growing trend in the Charlotte area and these aren’t foreclosures or homes in distress.

$1.35 million, $1.4 million, and $1.6 million. The prices of some local estates sold by auction. It’s a way for homeowners to skip traditional real-estate listings.

“We began selling homes in the Charlotte area in 1999 and since then, our interest… the number of buyers that we are seeing at these properties have tripled,” said Stacy Kirk Reich, co-founder and president of Grand Estates Auction Company.

The Charlotte-based company has offices and homes around the world.

NAT SOUND-“the home is 9,100 square feet. It’s 6 bed, 6 baths.”

Close to 300 people are bidding on properties like the 9,100 square ft. Reverdy Estate in Matthews. The home and its 8.7 acres is up for grabs on Tuesday.

“There’s no minimum bid or reserve bid. The highest bidder will win the property,” sais Reich.

Reich says local buyers have waited because of market fears.

Experts consider this a downed real estate market, but the Grand Estate Auction Company is still able to market Charlotte homes to what they call the “right clients”. Those clients can write 100,000 checks just to participate on auction day.

Losers get their checks back. The $100,000 check from the highest bidder goes towards the down payment.

Reich says with so much auction success in Charlotte, there’s sure to be more million dollar estates up for bid.

This week in celebrity real estate Yankees’ star Derek Jeter relisted his bachelor pad penthouse for $18 million, Meg Ryan is hoping for a buyer for her Bel-Air home and Britney Spears’ estate may have finally sold.

Derek Jeter relists New York City bachelor pad for $17.95 million

Zillow

Derek Jeter’s bachelor pad includes a full-size pool table.

Want to live like Derek Jeter?

For close to $18 million you can.

The Yankees shortstop has recently listed his enormous bachelor pad in the Trump World Tower for sale — $2 million less than when he listed the home previously in 2010. Talk about connections; Jeter bought the Manhattan home directly from Donald Trump in 2001 for $12.72 million.

Reportedly the superstar is looking to downsize from the 5,425-square-foot penthouse. With a 30,000 custom estate on the waterfront in Tampa, Fla., listing agent Carrie Chiang, of the Corcoran Group told the NY Post that Jeter just wants a “pied-à-terre apartment” in New York.

Jeter’s apartment features plenty of bachelor-approved features: a pool table, Pac-Man game, wood-burning fireplace and control system for the audio, video and lighting in the home. Ultra-suede wall paper cover the walls and hardwood floors are featured throughout. Views of the Manhattan skyline are visible from the floor-to-ceiling windows.

Zillow

Jeter’s place includes 360-degree views of the city.

See more photos of Jeter’s place on Zillow.

Meg Ryan’s Home is Back on the Bel-Air Market

Zillow

Meg Ryan’s gracious 1931 Spanish home is back on the market.

Could third time be a charm? Hopefully it is for Meg Ryan, who just relisted her home on the Bel-Air real estate market for $11.4 million.

According to the property’s price history, this is the third time Ryan has listed the home since she bought it in 2000. Perhaps the news of home values rising and a housing bottom in sight makes her optimistic the time is right to find a buyer.

Best known for her roles in rom-coms like “When Harry Met Sally,” “Sleepless in Seattle” and “You’ve Got Mail,” Ryan purchased the home for $8.5 million. She first listed the home for sale in October 2008 for $19.5 million, but took it down in February, only to relist it again in October 2009 for a decreased price of $14.2 million.

With no takers, the blonde actress decided to go the landlord route, offering up the classic Spanish-style home as a $40,000-per-month rental. Rumor has it that Diane Keaton rented the home, but has moved on, leading Ryan to try her luck at selling again.

The 6-bedroom, 7-bath home has 6,877-square-feet of living space, two family rooms, a film-screening room, separate bar off the kitchen and enormous master suite.

Zillow

Meg Ryan’s home has “park-like” grounds with a pool and guest house.

See more photos of Meg Ryan’s home on Zillow.

4 years and 6 price cuts later, Britney Spears’ home sells

Zillow

After several years on the market, Britney Spears’ home has sold.

Finally, the home connected to singer Britney Spears’ worst moments in 2007 could be behind her.

Reeling after her divorce in 2006, Spears bought herself a Studio City home in January 2007 for $6.750 million. It was supposed to be a place of solace, but it became ground zero for the paparazzi and Spears’ soon-to-come tumultuous, headline-grabbing year.

In September 2008, Spears decided a new chapter was in order and she listed her Summit Circle home for sale for $7.9 million.

Four years, six price cuts and a few different brokerages later, Spears’ property finally found a buyer and is listed on Zillow as a pending sale. The current listing price? $4,466,150.

Why did Spears’ home linger on the market so long?

“Unfortunately,” explained Mauricio Umansky, Zillow real estate expert and co-founder of The Agency, “she bought it at the top of the market and listed it for so high right after the market crash in 2008 [it was] a bad marketing strategy.”

According to Umansky, the home should have been listed below the price Spears purchased it for, and if potential buyers balked, the listing agent should be able to back up the high price.

“Her [Spears'] celebrity status should be worth some money, ” said Umansky. “Playing that up and marketing the home right may have been able to get the home to sell in the low sixes.”

Built in 2001, the Mediterranean-style villa is located in the high-security, prestigious Summit neighborhood. The 5-bedroom, 6-bath home has an enormous master suite with his-and-her bathrooms and a fireplace.

Zillow

The uber-private luxury home includes a pool, spa and outdoor space.

See more photos of Britney Spears’ home on Zillow.

5* Resort property

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We offer full units from just £49,000 or shared ownership from just 25% from ONLY £12,250

The completion date on these is June 2013 and you will get 4% on you payment until completion.

We will then GUARANTEE 8% rental returns – rising by a conservative estimate of 10% for years 3-5.

We then offer a buy back GUARANTEE on year 5 for the price you paid.

Example of the investment returns:

On a full unit at £49,000 –

4% Interest until completion = £2,940
8% 2 years GUARANTEED = £7840
10% 3-5 yr return = £14,700

Returns = £25,480 (52%)

Then GUARANTEED buy back on YEAR 5

On a 25% SHARE (You can buy in 25%, 50%, 75% or full share)

4% Interest until completion = £735
8% 2 years GUARANTEED = £1,960
10% 3-5 yr return = £3,675

Returns = £6,370 (52%)

Then GUARANTEED buy back on YEAR 5

This is by far the best INVESTMENT currently on the market with amazing returns and a multi award winning developer.

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