Habitat Breaks Ground! & November CORT Report

Today, Habitat for Humanity had their ceremonial groundbreaking for the upcoming San Pascual Housing Project. It was a wonderful event where everyone was invited to meet the community members involved, as well as meet the 4 families who will live in the housing project. At this time, Habitat has reached 44% of the campaign goal, and recently closed escrow at the housing project site, located at 618 San Pascual Street. During today's program, Mayor Marty Blum and First District Supervisor Salud Carbajal, expressed their enthusiasm for the project, and for the organizations impact in our community. Mayor Blum encouraged everyone to visit the ReStore, and to join her with a hammer when construction begins.

The November CORT report is outlined below.

November Sales-South County by area.

1. Carpinteria 7 sales: Average sales price $1,711,426.57

Range ($250K-$6.5M)

2. Goleta 21 sales: Average sales price $668,523.81

Range ($285K-$2.3M)

3. Hope Ranch 1 sale: price $2.7M

4. Montecito 11 sales: Average sales price: $2,266,772.73

Range ($1.2M-4.2M)

5. Santa Barbara 34 sales: Average sales price $931,235.29

Range ($331,500-$3.6M)

6. Summerland 3 sales: Average sales price $1,107,166.67

Range ($454,500-$1.795M)

Sotheby's Contributes to Conservation International, $800 Billion Dollar Buy Out, Foreclosures Suspended

Sotheby's International Realty has announced a comprehensive program to protect tropical forest land worldwide through a company-wide support of Conservation International (CI), a global conservation leader operating in 40 countries.

Sotheby's International Realty is encouraging its agents, staff and customers to take action by participating in the program, which supports CI's "Lost There Felt Here" campaign to protect tropical forests. Already the company has given an up-front donation to protect over 4,500 acrse of endangered rainforest. In 2009 the will match each acreage donation made, until a combined total of at least 8,500 acres is reached. To learn more about CI visit: www.conservation.org

***This will be an organization that I will be contributing to, as well as our local Habitat for Humanity at the close of every escrow.

An article from MSNBC.com, "U.S. moves to thaw credit for consumers" (quick synopsis)

The government unveiled two new programs Tuesday that will provide $800 billion to try to help unfreeze the market for consumer debt from home mortgages and credit cards.

The announcements by the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department represented the latest modifications to the largest government bailout in history. The program on consumer debt will lend up to $200 billion to the holders of securities backed by various types of consumer loans. It will be supported by a $20 billion of credit protection from the $700 billion bailout package that was enacted last month. In a promising sign that homeowner's rates could tumble, rates on Fannie Mae and Fredie Mac debt fell Tuesday after Paulson announced the new plan.

Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac to suspend foreclosure sales until January 2009 (NAR Newsline)

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac recently announced that they will postpone foreclosure sales and evictions on occupied single-family residences scheduled to occur between Nov. 26, 2008-Jan. 9, 2009.

During this time, the two mortgage companies will streamline their modification programs, scheduled to launch Dec. 15th. Foreclosure attorneys and loan servicers will continue to contact borrowers who have defaulted on their mortgage loans owned or guaranteed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and continue to pursue workout options.

Pocket Listings, Food Bank and Lending News

Pocket listings: (call me for details or to set up a showing)

4 bedroom completely remodeled on the Mesa, 2 blocks from the Shoreline Park, Washington Elementary, price $1,565,000.

Downtown craftsman. 2 bed/1 bath on Upper East in Peabody School, updated and freshly painted, price $750,000.

Food Bank:

Sotheby's International Realty is participating with the Food Bank to feed our local Santa Barbara community. The demand for Foodbank services has increased by 25-30% this year. We have bins at each Sotheby's office if you would like to donate canned goods. One their website they have a list of nutritious items that they need. Please visit: http://www.foodbanksbc.org/ for donation information and programs provided.

Lending News:

Arick Fuller. a mortgage broker with First Capital provided the following update today:

The conforming loan rate for Santa Barbara will be set to a maximum of $603,000, starting next week. That has been lowered from our current conforming rate of  $729,500, but is significantly higher than the conforming rate of $419,000, back in 2005. Rates are under 6% for owner occupied, and are at ~6% for non-owner occupied, a possible point may be paid. Full docs are needed. Take out the guess work on what you may qualify for. Call your lender and get your pre-approval.

Clothing for Tea Fire Victims, Sotheby's home website and Property Taxes

A local clothing store, Horny Toad, is offering free clothes to the Tea Fire Victims. They have many sizes for men and woman. All clothes are new.

When: Nov.24-Nov. 26 from 12-4

Location: 15 W. Mason St., Santa Barbara

Time: 12-4 pm  

Sotheby's International Realty continues to provide the most extensive coverage of our listed properties.

Statistics show that 74% of all home buyers and sellers search the web for their real estate needs. Just for the month of October, 202 countries and 6 continents visited www.sothebyshomes.com, 207,005 pages were viewed, and 38,422 viewed were of Santa Barbara properties alone.

Property Taxes are coming up! I love to share good news, so why am I enthusiastically writing about property taxes?  If you have purchased a home since 2005, your property value may have decreased (at least according to the County records).

Recently, my clients who I worked with on the sale of their property and purchase of their current home, both of which happened in 2005, asked if I would help them with their tax re-assessment. I completed the County Tax Assessor's form, by providing current comparable sales, and detailed information on the properties. With just a few hours of time, I was able to get their property taxes reduced from, $18,000 per year, to $14,000 per year.

If you are interested in seeing if your property taxes can be reduced, give me a call, and we can discuss your particular property. This is a service I will provide, whether I was or was not involved with your home purchase, so don't hesitate to see if I can be of assistance.

Re-Store in Santa Barbara

If you have had coffee with me recently, you may have heard me discuss my involvement with Habitat for Humanity. Habitat for Humanity one of the local charities that I am involved with. I am currently on the Community Gifts committee, with our focus on the upcoming San Pascual project. This housing project will break ground next year and will become a first home for 4 local families.

I recently visited The ReStore which is run by Habitat. It opened in August, and is located on Hollister Ave. It is currently open 3 days per week, but may expand its hours in the coming months. The store carries new and used cabinets, ovens, doors, lights and so on. They have many sought after items very reasonably priced. When I was there, they had a newer Thermador double oven for $250.00. If you are remodeling and would like to donate your items, this may be exactly what your looking for. Or, if you are in need of the items listed above, this is a "green" way to shop. 100% of the proceeds from Re-Store go directly to Habitat's local Southern Santa Barbara County projects.

On Sunday I have an open house at 316 Peach Grove Lane located in the Hope School District, from 1-3, listed for $899,000.  www.316PeachGrove.com

Best Buy, Tip and Foreclosures

Best Buy:  3322 Calle Noguera, in San Roque. Currently listed with Sotheby's for $1,325,000. It is a 4 bedroom, roughly 2200 sq ft with a pool on 1/3 acre. A buyer must have vision to see past the renters decor and clutter. This home is the Peabody School district (where my son goes and it exceeds my expectations).

Window cleaning tip: I spent $250 for a window cleaning service. The service men showed up in a small truck and brought two buckets and some rags. While they cleaned, I looked for the special supplies. After many inquiries I then found out the trick is simply good elbow grease. Since then, I have cut back on the Windex and just rubbed a bit more, and the results have been that the windows look just as good as a professional service.

Many have asked,"How are foreclosures being handled?" If I was asked that question 3 months ago I would have said, "I am learning the process, and I normally do not negotiate with the bank directly." Since then, I have written eight offers, and now I can officially comment, "Every foreclosure is handled differently." A few examples: An offer that I wrote over 2 months ago is still being reviewed by the bank. There were 7 offers on the property and since then every buyer has walked, including mine. On another property, my offer to the bank was responded to by the bank with a Counter Offer within 24 hours from submittal. My clients were stunned as they expected a response in 2009.

For foreclosures, the best suggestion is to write a clean offer and include a pre-approval letter. Have your agent keep in constant communication with the other agent and bank negotiator. Often without a negotiator the process is not resolved in a timely manner.

I am off to have dinner with my family and get a good night sleep. I will be at my Cota Street Studios tomorrow morning from 9:30-11:30. We are a 1/2 block from the Farmer's Market. If you are downtown, please stop by and see one of the most photographed and published buildings in Santa Barbara. For information on the studios, (I currently have 1 for sale and 1 for lease,) please visit: www.225ECotaSt.com

Happy Friday,

Melissa

Real Estate, What Else?

Well I figured it was time to write my first blog. As we know I love to talk and I have been at Sotheby's for over 7 years so there must be information to share. This is a great day for me as well, Kevin and I  are celebrating our 9 year wedding anniversary today! 

I am constantly searching for best Buys, often involved in challenging escrows, and continue to enjoy my relationships with local experts in their fields (land-use planners, insurance agents, architects, contractors, lenders). I do hope to pass on real estate related information that may be of interest.

These past months with the fires, economic whoas, and so on, I have been asked, "What Now?" Well as for that all I can say is that we seem to be in unchartered territory. But one item that I am sure we need to address is insurance. We all need to know our insurance plan. Unless you are versed in "gibberish" you may just want to call your agent. I love my insurance agent and would be happy to forward you his info. Many of the fire evacuees of the Tea Fire were underinsured and wish they had increased their coverage over the past years. If you are renting or own, please note that I was given 3 incredible tips this week. 

1. Check with your agent that you have adequate coverage for your personal property and that you also add additional upgrades if possible, examples: double paned windows, land grading and retrofitting for today's building requirements, just to name a few.

2. If you have to evacuate and you own a pool, throw everything into it. Yes, that's right, even photos. This is of course if you only have a few minutes. Even a fireproof safe can incinerate with the high heat, but your grandmother's china and family passports will be at the bottom of the pool when you return.

3.  Video tape your house. The trick to this one is in the detail. Take an hour and go through your entire house with your video camera and record every room and every drawer and give an estimated price for everything down to the towels. That way if any disaster occurs you have record of it. Don't forget to take that tape to a bank safety deposit box or another location.

There are many articles on mortgages, stats on sales and great buys that I will be passing on to you in following posts.

If you haven't had a chance to view my website please take time to visit: www.melissabirch.com 

I look forward to sharing.

Cheers,

Melissa

Melissa Birch

Sotheby's International Realty

805-689-2674

www.melissabirch.com

melissa.birch@sothebysrealty.com