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San Jacinto, CA Real Estate News

By John Occhi, Mobile Notary Public/Certified Loan Signing Agent
(AZ Veteran Notary Services)
As an active REALTOR® in the Hemet San Jacinto, CA real estate marketplace, I am repeatedly asked specific questions about today's real estate market - especially in today's economy. In an effort to provide more information to my community, I am publishing this Top 5 in Real Estate Social Networking Systemsm "e-Article," in which I provide useful real estate information to my real estate networks. If you find the enclosed information beneficial to your family and friends, I encourage you to forward it to your "social network" as well.   Avoid Foreclosure - Options to Pursue, Scams to Avoid  If you are behind-or soon will be-on your mortgage payments due to a change in job status or other financial dilemma, you are not alone. The number of foreclosure filings nationwide rose 81% between ...
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By John Occhi, Mobile Notary Public/Certified Loan Signing Agent
(AZ Veteran Notary Services)
As an active REALTOR® in the Hemet San Jacinto, Ca real estate marketplace, I am repeatedly asked specific questions about today's real estate market - especially in today's economy. In an effort to provide more information to my community, I am publishing this Top 5 in Real Estate Social Networking Systemsm "e-Article," in which I provide useful real estate information to my real estate networks. If you find the enclosed information beneficial to your family and friends, I encourage you to forward it to your "social network" as well.   A 680 Credit Score Just Isn't What It Used to Be Do you remember when a 680 credit score provided the best interest rates? Today, according to Bankrate.com, the best rates and mortgage programs go to consumers with 700+ credit scores. Consumers with less...
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By John Occhi, Mobile Notary Public/Certified Loan Signing Agent
(AZ Veteran Notary Services)
HEMET - SAN JACINTO VALLEY, CA:  After days of intense rain, this afternoon, December 13th, 2009 turned into a beautiful late fall day in the Hemet - San Jacinto Valley, CA.  The day started off overcast with the local mountains being completely enclosed in a gray bank of fog as the clouds hung low over our heads. As the day progressed, the sun struggled and finally broke through.  Once the sunshine had a foothold on the valley it would not give in...slowly but surely it just burned off the dark gray clouds, revealing the most beautiful blue sky and a gorgeous panoramic view of Mt San Jacinto and the surrounding foothills and mountains. With the air is clean and fresh it is so beautiful I began reminiscing on the fact that we are in the midst of the Christmas season, celebrating the bir...
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By John Occhi, Mobile Notary Public/Certified Loan Signing Agent
(AZ Veteran Notary Services)
I'm tired of hearing Happy Holidays - this is Christmas, isn't it? OK, so you want a holiday - well the 4th of July is one of my favorites and what better way of celebrating a holiday than with a parade...so join me and enjoy this video form the 2009 Annual San Jacinto, CA 4th of July parade going right down Main Street. If I hear "Happy Holidays" one more time, I think I'm going to scream!
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By John Occhi, Mobile Notary Public/Certified Loan Signing Agent
(AZ Veteran Notary Services)
When a home for sale is bought and sold in the Hemet - San Jacinto Valley, CA the process will typically go through escrow to facilitate the transfer from the home seller to the homebuyer.  The expenses of the transaction, other than the actual purchase price are generally lumped together and commonly referred to as ‘Closing Costs".Both the buyer of the real estate, and the seller of the home typically incur Closing Costs but it is often negotiable as to who will actually pay these expenses...depending on both local custom as well as what the buyer and the seller negotiate between themselves in order close a real estate transaction.Some of the individual costs that are lumped into the generic term of ‘Closing Costs' include the fees paid to both the Title Company and the Escrow Company....
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By John Occhi, Mobile Notary Public/Certified Loan Signing Agent
(AZ Veteran Notary Services)
Short Sales are dominating the listing side of the MLS in the Hemet - San Jacinto Valley, CA and are starting to show up more and more in the SOLD MLS listings as well.The common denominator of all of these short sales is that the homeowner has experienced a hardship that prevents them from keeping up with the mortgage on their real estate.Many Hemet - San Jacinto homeowners may feel like times are tough - but not really have what the banks may consider to be a legitimate hardship.  So to help those in need, lets take a look at what the banks will typically allow as a hardship, when considering a short sale: Illness Loss of Job Reduced Income Failed Business Job Relocation Death of Spouse or C0-Borrower Death Incarceration Divorce Marital Separation Military Duty Reduced Income Medical ...
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By John Occhi, Mobile Notary Public/Certified Loan Signing Agent
(AZ Veteran Notary Services)
Short Sales:  Keys to SuccessShort Sales have certainly changed the real estate landscape in the Hemet - San Jacinto Valley, CA over the last several months.I first started listing Short Sale listings in the MLS in the Spring of 2007, in the local Hemet - San Jacinto Valley, CA area.  At the time, short sales were few and far between as the masses were still speculating if there was a housing bubble or not.Since then, I have learned there are four key elements that further the odds of a successful Short Sale listing, in the MLS.SELECTION:  While there are many homes and homeowners who find themselves in the situation where a short sale may make the best sense to them - the truth is that not all short sale listings are equal.Many homes are encumbered with second mortgages, home equity li...
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By John Occhi, Mobile Notary Public/Certified Loan Signing Agent
(AZ Veteran Notary Services)
The housing market in the Hemet - San Jacinto Valley, CA is at ground zero of the global real estate related crises which can be measured in both epic and historical proportions.To play the blame game should be left to the historians with their 20-20 hindsight.  We should all be able to agree that the lack of transparency played a major role by inciting the unrealistic, uncontrollable and unsustainable real estate buying decisions of this past decade.I have recently become involved with the Top5 Organization sponsored by RIS Media.  An important part of their educational curriculum revolves around Short Sales and a program they call The Four R's of Short Sales.  This program is all about transparency and being made available to the homeowners, the lenders, financial institutions, buyers...
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By John Occhi, Mobile Notary Public/Certified Loan Signing Agent
(AZ Veteran Notary Services)
OK, I have now written two posts about Short Sales in the last 24 hours...because once again I am a bona fide short Sale Listing Agent.  Granted, I may be rusty, after being away from this side of the business in Hemet - San Jacinto, Ca for over 2 years now.Yesterday I got the call from a seller and decided to help them (I hope I help them).  I had a pretty good idea of what needed to be done, from my previous experience...but I have changed brokers since then and all of my marketing material that I have stored somewhere in the archives of my desktop is all branded...with a brand I don't care to associate myself with.So, after spending a couple of hours going through the forms and reading what I had to, I went into the marketing side of the equation.  First I jumped into the MLS and pre...
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By John Occhi, Mobile Notary Public/Certified Loan Signing Agent
(AZ Veteran Notary Services)
I decided that I would write a chronicle on the life of my new short sale listing.  In case you missed it, I described my transition BACK to short sales from Bank Owned REO's as a listing agent and team leader in my recent blog post, Humble Pie...Or OH NO, Did I really Take a Short Sale Listing???? AGGGHHHHHHHH.  Yes, it is true I went kicking and screaming...but here I am.I had a meeting with my two assistants and shared with them in detail what I expect to happen and started to figure out the game-plan of how we are going to attack this file and set up our systems for all future Short Sale Listings.  Both of my girls have only worked with me in the world of REO's - but top be honest the REO's have dried up and I still need to pay the rent.So after our pep talk, Susie, my office manage...
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By John Occhi, Mobile Notary Public/Certified Loan Signing Agent
(AZ Veteran Notary Services)
Theis evening i trolled through a few of the housing tracts between my San Jacinto Office and My San Janjacinto CA home and took a few photos with my point-n-shoot digital camera. A wide Angel Fugifilm camera that does a great job for my BPO's but may not be ideally suited for taking night pictures of houses illuminated with Christmas lights...but take them I did. I put them together in the Professional version of Animoto - what I consider to be a hot video program - syncing the special effects with the audio...in any event I like it and hope you too have enjoyed this little Christmas presentation... Merry Christmans & God Bless,
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By John Occhi, Mobile Notary Public/Certified Loan Signing Agent
(AZ Veteran Notary Services)
There is one common denominator between all real estate buyers today - whether they are shopping for investment property or first-time homebuyers...they all want a deal and the perception is that the bank owned, or REO, properties are going to be the smoking deals of the day.  But not always...The truth is many of these homes can turn into big money pits.  Remember, when you are buying a bank-owned home in the Hemet - San Jacinto Valley, CA was probably a first time home for the previous owner...the same owner that for whatever reason was not able to hang onto their home and lost it due to foreclosure and now the banks own it.In very general terms, realize by the very nature of being a first time buyer, they were more than likely renters before...or perhaps living with parents.  In eith...
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By John Occhi, Mobile Notary Public/Certified Loan Signing Agent
(AZ Veteran Notary Services)
Black Friday - The Best Deal of the Day is REAL ESTATE!Sure, it sounds self-serving since I sell real estate for a living...I'll give you that...but here me out.On Black Friday morning, the day after Thanksgiving,...did you get up at Oh Dark Thirty to stand in line in front of Best Buy or some other big box haven of super deals with limited quantities.  Were you lured into getting out of a perfectly warm and comfortable bed to brave the cold (in most parts of the country - I think it hit 90 here today - but that's another story) and the crowds for one of those 3 lousy laptop computers for $199...or were you drawn in to Office Depot for one of their $59 digital movie cameras with 4 guaranteed in each store?I'll bet if you didn't subject yourself to one of these great bargains or any of t...
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By John Occhi, Mobile Notary Public/Certified Loan Signing Agent
(AZ Veteran Notary Services)
Thanksgiving has always been my favorite holiday of the year.  Not sure why...yeah the food is good, no doubt.  It is certainly a great time to catch up with family and friends...and a day off with a long weekend never bothered me.  Heck, I don't even watch very much football...but I did see Detroit get the helmets handed to them this afternoon by Green Bay. By the way, an interesting bit of trivia was revealed about the Silverdome - the state of the art stadium built in 1977 at a cost of $55 Million dollars and it was recently sold to a Canadian Developer for $585,000 - wow - talk about depreciation - that only about 1% of the original purchase price and it included 20 acres of land!...But that's another story. Today is about giving thanks for all we have - no matter how little we may ...
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By John Occhi, Mobile Notary Public/Certified Loan Signing Agent
(AZ Veteran Notary Services)
I suppose, I as a local REALTOR®, am fortunate that the Hemet - San Jacinto Valley in So Cal is not overbuilt with condos, as much of Southern California is.  All of our condo inventory, in the local real estate market is older - most dating back to the early 1990's and earlier.  Throughout most of the region, condos were built at a rapid pace during the recent housing boom.  Not only were condos built from the ground up but there were many involved in converting apartment buildings and complexes into condos.  Literally, hundreds of thousands of condos were built or converted and sold throughout this decade in Southern California.  Unfortunately, as we all know, the real estate market went on vacation shattering the American Dream and left developers, investors and bankers with an out o...
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By John Occhi, Mobile Notary Public/Certified Loan Signing Agent
(AZ Veteran Notary Services)
Property Tax Reductions - California Style...With the decline in the real estate market those who own property and are able to hang on, typically end up paying too much for their property taxes to the local county tax assessor.In California, we Passed Proposition 13 (Prop 13) - why back in 1978.  This was revolutionary legislation at the time and still continues to lead many states who continue to assess and collect property taxes like they were don a couple of hundred years ago.You see, the traditional model was to reassess the value of the real estate on a fixed schedule - with some areas being as frequently as every year and others no more than every 5 years.  No scientific evidence or anything, but I believe every 2 years reassessment is the most common across the country, then and ...
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By John Occhi, Mobile Notary Public/Certified Loan Signing Agent
(AZ Veteran Notary Services)
Twas the month before Christmas*   *When all through our land,* *Not a Christian was praying*   *Nor taking a stand.* *See the PC Police had taken away,* *The reason for Christmas - no one could say.* *The children were told by their schools not to sing,* *About Shepherds and Wise Men and Angels and things.* *It might hurt people's feelings, the teachers would say* * December 25th is just a ' Holiday '.* *Yet the shoppers were ready with cash, checks and credit* *Pushing folks to the floor just to get it!* *CDs from Madonna, an X BOX, an I-pod* *Something was changing, something quite odd! * *Retailers promoted Ramadan and Kwanzaa* *In hopes to sell books by Franken & Fonda.* *As Targets were hanging their trees upside down* * At Lowe's the word Christmas - was nowhere to be found.* *At...
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By John Occhi, Mobile Notary Public/Certified Loan Signing Agent
(AZ Veteran Notary Services)
The tides are changing in the local San Jacinto, CA real estate market as short sales take on a greater number of closed escrows each month, over the past 12 month period (November, 2008 thru October, 2009).Prior to June, 2009 the most Short Sales to close escrow in a month was 6, in April.  December and January saw 4 and 5, respectfully and November, February and March only saw either 2 or 3 closed short sales.  June reached the level of 8 closed short sales in a single month and after that we have been in double digits every month...with an increase every month; starting with 12 in July we went to 15 and 16 in August and September and finally up to 24 closed short sales in October, 2009!                 As encouraging as the trend is for those who are involved in short sales it still ...
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By John Occhi, Mobile Notary Public/Certified Loan Signing Agent
(AZ Veteran Notary Services)
The Housing crises is no stranger to San Jacinto, CA, located in the Inland Empire region of Southern California (Riverside County & San Bernardino County), one of the hardest hit in the entire country.The market has been dominated by the sale of bank owned real estate with 80% of all closed transactions reported to the MLS have been bank owned - or 1,202 of the 1,501 sales that closed escrow in the last 12 months (November, 2008 thru October, 2009).           Although there are numerous ways to look at and consider these numbers, I am not trying to be philosophical about the good and evil affiliated with the housing market and the subsequent fall and crash of our economy, in general.Thru March of this year, more properties were being listed in the MLS, in the City of San Jacinto than w...
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By John Occhi, Mobile Notary Public/Certified Loan Signing Agent
(AZ Veteran Notary Services)
San Jacinto, CA at the north end of the Hemet - San Jacinto Valley has been one of the hardest hit areas in the country when it comes to foreclosures and the loss of value in residential real estate.  For those who review the data on a national level, the Hemet - San Jacinto Valley is in the Southern California Region known as the Inland Empire which consists of San Bernardino and Riverside Counties.The MLS data shows that there have been 1,841 homes added to our inventory over the past 12 months (November 2008 thru October 2009) of which 1,501 homes sold and closed escrow.      The number of new listings peaked back in March, with 195.  The same month there were 143 closed sales reported to the MLS.  January and November, 2008 were both busy months as well with 187 and 175 new listings...
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