Sanjoseseller1000

I bought a home from WaMu and they were absolutely clueless! Their right hand has no idea what the left hand is doing. I don't know if they are going under, but I personally would avoid doing business with them.
I also would not hold any shares of their stock, either. In my home purchase WaMu was so unprofessional, that they lost money on the deal even though I tried to pay them more for the house. In the end, I got a very sweet deal on the house and WaMu probably lost about $200,000-$350,000 in the transaction. Maybe they didn't care because they new that the government would bail them out. - Tue Aug 5 2008, 08:29

I believe that it is a good time to buy if you are purchasing your primary residence and plan to stay in that home for more than 10 years.
Housing prices may continue to decline, but if you look at prices over many decades you can see that through any 10 year cycle the value of the home is more than it was 10 years earlier. At least this is true in San Jose, CA.
You need to determine how owning a home fits into your lifestyle, too with an investment mentality aside. Renting is always a loss of your money. At least with real estate, and over the long term, you will get a much larger percentage of the money you put in. However, don't buy a home as large as your ambition. Be careful with your finances and purchase a home that you can afford with a minimum 20% down payment and a loan with a reasonable interest rate. If you can't do that, then you should rent until you can. - Tue Aug 5 2008, 08:13

My current realtor has GRI after his name (he's the one that threatened to sue). He came recommended by a friend. We interviewed three other realtors this time. Only one of those three seemed competent. They were a mix of large and small brokerages.
Our previous home purchase we fired our first agent because he never listened to the criteria we had in our new home. He only looked at bedrooms, baths and price.
The agent we finally used was a referral from a co-worker. She found us the house, but then didn't seem to care what happened during escrow.
So, that's a total of six agents we interviewed. Only one (that we never used) would we consider talking to again. She came with no referrals, but was suggested when a co-worker that we originally spoke to was not available. - Tue Jul 22 2008, 12:31

Turns out, our agent gave us some very bad advice. I'm very angry. We were told that we would have to accept the first one that accepted our counter offer. So, that made us hesitate as we were waiting for another offer that never materialized. In the meantime we lost the potential buyer with the highest offer even though our agent had assured us that they would wait. By the time we were able to execute the multiple counter offer, all of the offers had expired. Only one came back with a counter offer to our counter which was much lower than we wanted to accept. We told our agent that we were not planning to extend the listing agreement and were threatened with, "I'm still entitled to my commission if you sell the house in the the next 30 days even with a new agent." Forced into a corner and not willing to lose anymore money, we accepted the offer. I'm very angry with my agent and I don't feel that they are entitled to any commission anymore. Such unprofessional conduct!
We're now in escrow. - Sun Jul 20 2008, 16:57

Dave,
I actually talked to someone at the Sunnyvale planning department. As I mentioned you are required to have covered parking. It depends on some details if you are required to have a single or two car garage. Here's the link to the regulations. - Sat Jul 12 2008, 17:37

It if was built without a permit then it's more than 90% likely NOT to be up to code. Besides, you can't convert a garage to living space in Sunnyvale if it's detached or if you are not still providing a covered parking space. You better go to Sunnyvale City Hall and discuss the building code issues with the building department. As soon as you purchase that property, it becomes your responsibility. I also recommend that since this is an "as-is" sale you should hire some inspectors. Everything you find that needs to be repaired, you need to consider in your offer price. - Fri Jul 4 2008, 02:41