Gary Frimann

My final two cents...
Is is necessary to lower agent's commissions? Would it be because we make so much freakin' money?
A lot of agents are leaving the business. What are they doing? Retiring??? Yeah, that's it!!!
We assume all the risk and expense, and if the property does not sell, it is our time and money for naught.
Try giving the other agent , say 1% (for example purposes only--all commission between seller and agent are negotiable) and then jack it to 4% and see if it gets more agent previews! Good experiment for you. - Thu Jun 25 2009, 12:43

Steve, I saw some pretty good answers here...
Let me toss it back to you and ask a question:
How would this (a lower commission) help your sale?
Just something to consider. Being a seller today in most areas is a competitive thing.
The agent assumes all the risk-and expense- of marketing your home.
I've never heard of any seller offering to reimburse an agent for monies spent on marketing efforts and the houe did not sell, therefore leaving the agent in a worse position. - Wed Jun 24 2009, 06:18

Call another agent and let them write the offer. Actually there is some good advice presented by the other posts. Are you working under a Buyer-Broker agreement; if that is the case, stick with your agent. - Wed Jun 10 2009, 09:55

Marc,
Take a deep breath. Your credit is excellent. Congratulations on being a good pay. What the loan broker does is try to find you the best rate at the best lender. You are self employed, and you talk about "latest Occupation" being in the spam filtering business. The Lender will look to see what your average income is. Did you make a lot of money on a new contract just recently, or do you have a steady stream of income.
Here's why it sounds crazy... You'd actually being paying less in house payment than you pay in rent. BUT, in today's market, the lender must do due diligence to make sure you have the ability to pay it back. Good credit scores is no longer good enough.
ALso, you said you were working with a Realtor--GOOD!. On the contract, there is a time to remove the Appraisal Contigency and the loan contingency (2 seperate ones). On the C.A.R. Contract, the default date is 17 days for each--these things take time and with all the refi's going on, appraisers may be busy. Are you going FHA? That requires special appraisal stuff. Was the appraisal delayed due to access delays?
Anyway, pre-approval just means that the information provided shows that under the underwriting guidelines your loan should be approved. Basically, it means that you've filled out an application, and credit scores were run. The property needs to appraise as well. What if the property does not fall under the underwriting guidelines of a particular lender? Well, since you are using a mortgage broke, he can take it to another lending source. Once they "marry" the property with the borrower, you will get formal approval.
Things are changing rapidly in the loending world these days, so what was once required (or not) yesterday, may be a condition of the loan tomorrow.
Stay patient. These loans must be underwritten to secondary marketing guidelines, so there is a ready source of mortgage money.
Hope that answers your question. Consult your Realtor and mortgage broker. I really answered the question for others who are not represented, and always wondered about the difference or meaning (or meaninglessness) of being "pre-Qualified" or "pre-Approved".
Enjoy your new home, and welcome to what I hope is your fiorst rung of climbing the property ladder. - Sun Apr 19 2009, 19:00

Looks like raw land, for residential. Cannot say for sure, as it is not on MLS, which is a violation of MLS rules, unless an exemption was sent in. Ask the agent who "claimed" this property, and why she has not put it on MLS...I'd love to hear the answer. She could be stepping on another agent's listing. QUite frankly, it looks like the property may be going to auction, and that is just the starting price.
Sorry I could not be of more help, but when agents do not cooperate with other agents, it make ALL of real estate extremely difficult... - Mon Apr 6 2009, 12:48

OK, you've got a few answers... Which ones are right? Well, I cut and pasted right off the assessor's wensite:

Keep in mind, Prop 13 was STATEWIDE, not just for our county, so it applies to ALL of California.

How Proposition 13 Works
Frequently new homeowners will ask why they are paying twice as much (or far more) in property taxes than their neighbor. The answer is Proposition 13. Passed by the voters in June, 1978, Proposition 13 is an amendment to the California Constitution that limits the assessment and taxation of property in California. It restricts both the tax rate and the rate of increase allowed in assessing real property as follows:
To read the full artible, click on the link below:
http://www.sccassessor.org/portal/site/asr/agencyarticle?pat…

The property tax cannot exceed 1 % of a property's taxable value, plus bonds approved by the voters, service fees, improvement bonds, and special assessments.

Always use an Independent Broker ! ! ! - Tue Mar 17 2009, 16:11

Jo, Your property will be assessed at 1% of the purchase price, or assessed value, whichever is higher. as that sets the new "basis". However, lenders, etc. figure it at a conservative 1.25% because of any assessments, i.e. library tax, Mello-Roos (if any) etc. The assessor may take the higher assessed value if say, I sell my house to my sister for $1,000.00 and she sells me hers for $1,000.00. We'd only be paying about $10/mo. so the assessor would use the higher valuation to avoid this, or else everybody would do this.
In June, 1978 the voters passed Proposition 13, which sets the value at the 1% starting point (A home valued at $500,000 would be billed at ($5,000/year--plus some supplementary add ons). Now, under Prop 13 the most they could assess your home at the next year (and subsequent years) would be 2% higher on the value ($510,000) so you would pay ($5100/yr.). Year following that $520,020, although your house may have gone up in market value by $50,000 (or down, in which case you can petition the assessor and try to get your assessment down).
You can find more information here: http://www.sccassessor.org/portal/site/asr/
Furthermore, if you live in the home, you get a homeowner's exemption of $7,000 off the assessment, or roughly $5.83/mo. Big deal,eh? That figure has not changed since I started in this industry 22 years ago, when the median price of a home in CA was $133,640. A disabled Vet however gets a $100,000 exemption.
We enjoy a low property tax rate at 1%. Other states have it 3%, or even higher. Just thought I'd mention that as I just heard of a woman who purchased in TX who was from CA and she thought it was 1%. Big surprise. My home in AZ is taxed at a 3% rate, and commercial properties there are taxed at 8% (I think, I don't own commercial property there).
Remember also that property taxes are tax deductible on your income tax, if you itemize, which you should probably do if you start paying a home loan, which helps take a little of the sting out of it.
Example: If you buy a property for $500,000, and deduct the approx. $5,000 you paid in property taxes against your income, and your income tax rate is 25%, you would essentially be paying the IRS $1,250 less in Income Tax. Not earth shattering, but it helps keep the money local... - Tue Jul 8 2008, 06:47