Pacita Dimacali

Besides schools, what are your other priorities and requirements. How far/how long of a commute to work can you handle without getting stressed out?

How did you choose the cities you named?

The reason why I ask is because I had clients who were relocating to the Bay area. Both husband and wife were transferred to jobs in San Francisco, and they were referred to Walnut Creek by their referral agent. When they visited the Bay area, they were surprised at how "far" Walnut Creek is to the City. So they started driving around and "discovered" Alameda where they ended up buying a home.

Alameda has wonderful schools, great climates, small town feel. It's a small island on San Francisco Bay, with easy commute via ferry or express bus to San Francisco, and easy access to highways to other cities.

Check us out! http://www.alamedahomefinders.com/About_Alameda/page_95171.html - Earlier today

When in doubt, disclose, disclosre, disclose.

Regardless of whether or not you're seling the property AS IS, you are still required to disclose material information about the condition of the house. If you know the furnace is red-tagged, you MUST disclose this fact. - Earlier today

I am so sorry to hear of the challenges yo are facing.

There are stages of foreclosure.
* Notice of default - Homeowner has missed several payments and receives this notice from the Lender. Homeowner can try to resolve the delinquency by getting a loan modification, make arrangements to repay what is owed, or try to sell the property as a short sale
* Trustee sale - the property will be sold at auction.
* Foreclosure - if property is not sold at auction, bank will foreclose on the property

If you have missed making payments for 4 months, have you already received a Notice of Default?

You should engage a realtor to go ahead and try to sell your home as a short sale instead of waiting for it to be foreclosed. A short sale will be less of a hit on your credit score than a foreclosure.

If the property will be difficult to sell even at a reduced price, you may also want to look into giving your bank the deed in lieu of foreclosure --- essentially you are deeding the property over to them, without having to go through the more involved process of being foreclosed.This is akin to foreclosure, however, and will have the same effect on your credit rating.

Remember: if you do get a realtor to sell your property at a short sale, it will be the bank who will pay for the costs of selling your property (i..e, commissions). They bank will have to approve the sales price. You are still the owner, and you can sign the offers, but ultimately, it's the bank's decision whether or not they will approve the short sale. You won't pay the commissions, but neither will you get any money out of a short sale.

Another advantage to a short sale --- you can start rebuilding and repairing your credit. It's been known to happen that someone who had a short sale was able to bounce back and buy another house after 2 years. Whereas bankruptcy or foreclosure can be a black mark for 7-10 years. This is why more people are attempting to do a short sale.

When you do hire a realtor, please choose someone who is knowledgeable and experienced about short sales. If you need help finding a realtor in your area, please let me know and I will be happy to look through my network for someone who can help.

Good luck to you. - Earlier today

When your offer was accepted and the short sale was approved, what timelines did both parties agree to? Is the lender really late at their end?

Your agent should have already set expectations in terms of short sales. There's nothing "short" about them; it is totally unpredictable dealing with asset managers, etc. This is not the same as a regular sale where everything is buttoned up in terms of timelines.

If you got a really good price on the property compared to current market values (remember that the seller had paid more for the property than what you're buying it for), it may be worth the hassle to wait it out for a few days. But by all means, get the agents to follow up. Sometimes, the delay is due to the lender needing more documentation, etc. to be processed and approved.

You can suggest to your agent to prepare a Notice to Seller to Perform (NSP) the contractual action to close escrow. If seller does not take the specified action, Buyer may cancel the Agreement.

I don't think this is the time to renegotiate the purchase price since your offer has already been approved at a certain price. If you do, it's like starting the short sale process all over again. Or are you getting buyer's remorse? You don't incur escrow fees until you close escrow, but you are responsible for paying for your own inspections and appraisals since the service has been provided. The seller/lender will not reimburse you for those not unless that was agreed upon in the contract. - Yesterday, 23:58

Microsoft Outlook, synched with my Blackberry is all I need and have needed. Then I synch frequently or as I make changes. I like the fact that no matter how many times I change smartphone/PDA, starting with Palm Pilot (yeah, that nearly pre-historic PDA) to TREO, to Blackberry, I can alwasy synch Outlook. Just need to remind myself to back up my data from time to time. - Yesterday, 23:35