http://www.trulia.com/profile/LoriMode/The latest answers submitted by Lori Mode to questions asked on Trulia Voicesen-ushttp://www.trulia.com/voices/Property_QandA/We_would_like_to_visit_this_property_Please_call_-172824Answer by Lori Mode: Ashika - this property is actually not currently on the market as an active listing. I am a member of Realty Trac - it looks as though that's where the information on this originally came from - and I believe the address of the property is 4713 Battles Court, Elk Grove. The property has been going through foreclosure proceedings and the Trustee Sale date was scheduled for October 13th. If the Trustee Sale was completed last week, this property would now be Bank Owned but it is not listed yet. It may be listed in the next few weeks or may not come on the market for a few months; it depends on how quickly the bank works and if the property is currently vacant or not. Are you currently searching for a bank owned home in Elk Grove? If so, you may want to consider hiring an agent who works with bank owned homes and can keep you updated on new listings plus coming soon bank owned listings. We provide this service as a free service to buyers. Just let me know if you are interested. If you have any further questions about how the foreclosure process works, please let me know. You may email me directly at Lori@ModeandDurhaM.com. Sincerely, Lori Mode Keller Williams Realty (916) 230-0371 www.AllElkGroveHomes.comMon, 19 Oct 2009 19:46:56 PDThttp://www.trulia.com/voices/Home_Buying/I_bought_a_house_for_but_then_on_the_final_clo-170953Answer by Lori Mode: Jess - It does sound like the difference may be a seller concession for your closing costs. Often times in this market the seller is willing to pay up to 3% towards buyers recurring and non recurring closing costs. However, I am a bit confused about why you would have thought that the actual sales price was $368,000, as the sales price should have been clearly defined in your purchase agreement. This amount should not change without your written agreement. If in fact, you agreed on the $375,000 and were getting an FHA loan your loan would be close to $368,000. Is it possible that you confused the sales price and the loan amount? FHA loans have a minimum of 3.5% down, but it used to be 3% down. There is a down payment of 3.5% plus there is closing costs of approximately 3% for a buyer. This means to close escrow with an FHA loan without seller concessions you would have to come up with approximately 6% - 7% - or almost $23,000 to close to the escrow. If truely your purchase agreement stated the price of $368,000 and you got to escrow and the closing statement showed a purchase price of $375,000, there needed to be some questions answered at that point. It is difficult to say what transpried for certain without seeing your purchase agreement and closing statement. Sincerely, Lori Mode Keller Williams Realty http://www.AllElkGroveHomes.com (916) 230-0371Mon, 12 Oct 2009 06:36:43 PDThttp://www.trulia.com/voices/Property_QandA/Is_there_mandatory_membership_to_a_Homeowners_Asso-167257Answer by Lori Mode: If the home lies within a homeowners association then dues are mandatory and in fact if you do not pay the homeowners association dues the association may foreclose on the property. Homeowners Association dues are often used for common areas, security gates to neighborhood, amenities such as community pools, club houses, tennis courts. The association dues can vary widely depending on amenities of the neighborhood, strength of the association and sometimes age of the development. The particular property you ask about does not fall within a homeowners association. For more information on Elk Grove area homes, please feel free to visit my website at www.AllElkGroveHomes.com.Sun, 27 Sep 2009 15:06:14 PDThttp://www.trulia.com/voices/Home_Buying/How_much_over_a_foreclosure_or_short_sale_asking_p-124388Answer by Lori Mode: In the Elk Grove area, both REO's or bank owned homes and short sales are generally being sold for over the list price. It is very difficult to give you a rule of thumb right now. Some are selling for just a few thousand over the list price and then I recently had a REO listing that sold for almost $30,000 over the list price. The banks have started being very agressive on their pricing and with more buyers in the market because of affordable prices and low interest rates, offer prices are adjusting up. I would recommend that you work with an agent that knows the market well and when you decide to place an offer on the property, make sure that the agent completes a Comparative Market Analysis on the property for you to review. This will help you with the offer price. If you have any questions regarding this please feel free to call me at (916) 230-0371 or email me at Lori@ModeandDurhaM.com. Sincerely, Lori Mode The Mode & DurhaM Team Keller Williams Realty (916) 230-0371Thu, 14 May 2009 20:54:17 PDThttp://www.trulia.com/voices/Property_QandA/Don_t_know_what_happen_to_our_offer_-122586Answer by Lori Mode: May - Was this home a short sale when you made the offer on April 13th? It sounds like there was a very good chance that it was. A very high percentage of our current listings in the Elk Grove area are currently short sales. Today we have 888 active listings in the Elk Grove area and 639 of those are short sales. When you made the offer you should have been aware of that. Unfortunately a short sale means that bank has to agree on the sale as they are going to receive less than what is owed to them on the property when escrow closes. This process can take anywhere from 30 days to 6 months. Communication between the listing agent, your agent and you are critical to complete this process. During that time a lot can happen - the bank could take the property back in foreclosure or the current owner could have received a loan modification, for instance. If you would like more information on the short sale process, you can visit our website at http://www.AllElkGroveHomes.com. Since this property is back on the market with another agent listed at $239,900, it appears that the bank probably took this property back and it is probably an REO or bank owned listing now. If you would like more information on this please feel free to call me at (916) 230-0371. Sincerely, Lori Mode Keller Williams Realty (916) 230-0371 Lori@ModeandDurhaM.comMon, 11 May 2009 08:14:03 PDThttp://www.trulia.com/voices/Home_Buying/Realtor_says_submit_a_higher_offer_on_REO_shoud_I-105117Answer by Lori Mode: I can tell you what is happening in Elk Grove and Sacramento with REO properties currently. If the property is listed under market value, there are multiple offers. I had one last week with 18 offers on it. It was listed at $262,900 and the highest offer was above $300,000. After the offers were submitted, the bank did come back with highest and best to each offer and the buyers had 24 hours to increase their offer or keep it the same. The top offer remained at the same price as their original offer and they got the property. Now with that being said you need to trust your agent...if you do and the agent has experience with REO's, I would listen to what the agent recommends you do. If the agent did a market analysis on the property for you and you can see that it is below market price, my suggestion if you were my buyer would be to go in above asking price. The other thing to consider is if you are asking for any credits for buyer closing costs; if you are not,. you may not need to go quite as high as another offer. I would have your agent run the last 60 days of solds in the area and show you the difference between the list price and the selling price. The trend on closings in Elk Grove over the last 60 days - if the home is priced under $250,000 - is that they are selling for approx. 104% of list price. A higher earnest money deposit will help if your offer is similar to another one but the banks mainly are concerned with their bottom line or net. Good luck, Lori Mode Keller Williams Realty (916) 230-0371 www.AllElkGroveHomes.comMon, 30 Mar 2009 18:01:20 PDThttp://www.trulia.com/voices/Foreclosure/Should_I_walk_away_from_a_investment_property_in_E-104216Answer by Lori Mode: Nancy - This is a difficult question to answer from the facts above....there are several different things to consider to help you make this decision. First, is the property currently rented? How much is your negative? Can you tolerate paying it and if so for how long? Would it be beneficial for you to move into this home or do you own other property as your primary residence? I know things seem bleak right now...I also purchased an investment property at the height of the market - paid $345,000 with $100,.000 down so I owe approx. $240000. I just sold the same model in the same neighborhood for $190,000. I took have a negative on it - approx. $200 per month. I own other investment properties that make up the negative though and it's a great neighborhood. This market is or is about at the bottom on this type of home in Elk Grove. We are receiving multiple offers and they are going often for over the list price. It's going to be a while however before the market goes back up to where it was...can you hang on until then? Also have you talked to your existing lender about a loan modification? And have you considered a short sale.? You may have options that you haven't considered yet. If you would like to discuss this further, you can send me an email at Lori@ModeandDurhaM.com and let me know when I should call you. t n addition, there could be tax and credit consequences to walking away to consider. For more information on short sales, check out our website at http://www.AllElkGroveHomes.com. Lori Mode Keller Williams Realty (916) 230-0371Sat, 28 Mar 2009 14:30:59 PDThttp://www.trulia.com/voices/Home_Buying/We_put_an_offer_on_a_home_that_was_a_short_sale_T-57037Answer by Lori Mode: If the Trustee Sale occurred on 9/8/08 then the bank now owns the property. You are correct the former owner cannot help and the listing agent cannot either at this point. This property will come on the market as an REO or bank owned home sometime soon, but could take the next 30 - 90 days. At this point, if there are other homes that you are interested in, you should pursue those; I wouldn't wait for this to be relisted on MLS as a REO listing, as interest rates are great right now. There really isn't much of a way to expediate the process on your end to purchase this particular property...were you the only offer? or were there others? Which lender is it that acquired the property through the trustee sale? And do you know if you were paying current market value? It is very important that you get good advise from an agent that is knowledgable about this whole process. If you have further questions, please feel free to email me at Lori@ModeandDurhaM.com or call me at (916) 230-0371.Thu, 11 Sep 2008 19:47:59 PDThttp://www.trulia.com/voices/Foreclosure/On_a_foreclosure_can_you_get_off_contract_if_ther-46072Answer by Lori Mode: You do not need to pay for a home inspection prior to submitting your offer on a bank owned home. Most banks will give you 10 - 17 days to complete your inspections on the property after your offer is accepted. You do need to make sure that you are aware of the time periods in your contract, because most of the bank's addendums state that your contingencies are removed "passively", so once you pass the time period you could lose your deposit.Fri, 11 Jul 2008 21:56:22 PDThttp://www.trulia.com/voices/Home_Buying/I_am_considering_buying_a_SFD_or_units_for_investm-35638Answer by Lori Mode: I have lived and worked in the Elk Grove area for over 25 years. Our team specializes in the Elk Grove area and our office is the #1 office in the area. We also have worked with many investors over the years and invest in real estate ourselves. Because we work with so many investors we also have a network of professionals to assist our investors with your properties, ranging from handymen to property managers to lawn service, etc. We are very knowledgable about investment properties and the needs of the investor client. Please feel free to call me at (916) 230-0371 or email me at Lori@ModeandDurhaM.com with any other questions.Mon, 12 May 2008 12:27:25 PDThttp://www.trulia.com/voices/Foreclosure/I_want_to_buy_a_foreclosed_Home_in_the_Elk_Grove_a-26268Answer by Lori Mode: There are a lot of great deals out there right now in the Elk Grove area. At this time there are over 350 foreclosed homes on the market in Elk Grove/Laguna. With interest rates low, now is the time to buy! We have a foreclosure home bus tour coming up on Saturday, March 29th in Elk Grove. During this tour you see the foreclosures (including the inside), learn about purchasing them, find out about financing on them and much more! It's a great way to learn about foreclosures.Sun, 16 Mar 2008 07:32:13 PDThttp://www.trulia.com/voices/Market_Conditions/what_is_the_market_price_for_elk_grove_bed_fu-10522Answer by Lori Mode: There are a number of factors that will determine the value of a home. Square footage being the most important, but also condition, location, age-is it outdated, shake roof, etc. We have a very high inventory of active listings in the Elk Grove area currently and only about 10-12% are actually selling. Our prices are dropping monthly still, with this being driven by the REO's (Bank Owned) and Short Sales. We currently have 4 bedroom, 3 ball homes ranging from $360,000 - $700,000 listed. To give you a true value of your home, I would need information on your home; address, square footage, any upgrades you have recently done that would not be in the County records. I can then prepare a Market Analysis and either drop it by your home or email it to you. You can send me an email at Lori@ModeandDurhaM.com.Fri, 5 Oct 2007 10:28:43 PDThttp://www.trulia.com/voices/Market_Conditions/has_the_market_value_gone_down_for_homes_in_elk_gr-4992Answer by Lori Mode: First, I am sorry I did not respond to this sooner, but I have just joined Trulia Voices. The market value has definately gone down in the Elk Grove (95758,95757 and 95624 zip codes) area. Homes are still selling but they must be priced aggressively, below others in the neighborhood. Buyers are taking longer to make a decision regarding which home to purchase as they have so many homes to choose from currently. Now is a great time to buy! The inventory in the 95758 zip code area, for instance, has steadily increased from just over 400 homes active on the market mid February to approximately 600 homes on the market this week. While the inventory has increased, the homes going into contract on a weekly basis has decreased. At this time, approximately 11% of the homes in the area are actually going into contract or pending. We also are seeing a large increase in the number of REO and Short Sale listings in the area.Tue, 10 Jul 2007 08:28:04 PDT