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Here are the latest trends in the 94602 zip code for single family homes.

February figures were based upon 5 sales – too small a sample. Three of those were properties located on Kansas, two of which were tear-down condition while the third needed some work. All three sat on the market for a while. A fourth property – on Delaware – was tenant-occupied.

Here’s an 18-month snapshot of Emeryville’s condo market. Keep in mind the small sample sizes corresponding to most of the months.

This April, the first major revision (since 2002) of the CAR purchase contract will be released.

This means we agents have to be vigilant about learning it and making necessary adaptations to the way we do business. Understanding transactional intricacies is key. I tell clients my job is not showing or marketing property; it’s keeping them out of trouble. Mastery of all contract terms plays a huge part in that.

The CAR contract is used in most parts of the state, including the East Bay. On the Peninsula and South Bay, the PRDS contract is standard. In The City, there’s the San Francisco contract. All three are vastly different, in terms of stated rights and responsibilities of the parties involved in a sale. Tenants rights, Section I clearance, closing costs allocation, disclosure requirements….all of these terms differ among the three contracts.

As standard practice, I provide my clients with copies of the contract at the very beginning so they can study for the road ahead.

The California Association of Realtors compiles a weekly summary of relevant new articles.

This week’s includes articles on the decline in the lux market, trends in jumbo financing, and consumer behavior in credit card vs. mortgage payments, etc.

The firm has just launched Open.APR.com.

This site is the first of its kind in the Bay Area. It feeds from all of the different MLS systems in our region…so it’s a consolidation of data from Santa Cruz to Napa, from San Francisco to Livermore.

It’s meant to be a one-stop portal to Bay Area open house info. However…

Because it feeds from an MLS database, its open house listings are only as complete as the source. This new site will capture most of the open houses in those areas where agents have a habit and history of entering open house info for their listings onto the MLS, like Santa Clara and San Mateo counties. In fact, savvy buyers looking in those areas turn to MLSListings.com (the public site for that local MLS) for the latest and best open house info.

In the East Bay, the open house listings at Open.APR.com will be sparse initially. The agents here traditionally have used other resources—Ad Review, Alameda Journal, etc.—not related to our local MLS to advertise our open houses. You can expect East Bay agents to begin shifting to the MLS once they realize its benefits in promoting open house traffic.

Here’s the form to file for Prop 60/90 transfers in Alameda County. These docs should be available online at Assessor’s Office websites of the property’s home county.

Not all CA counties have adopted Prop 90. Effective February 15, El Dorado will become the current eighth.

The folks at Chicago Title provided an explanation of the role of title insurance. When buyers ask why it’s required as part of a purchase, the short answer is (if the sale is getting financed): Because the lender requires it. Well, attorneys can give plenty more reasons beyond that.

Whether the buyer or seller pays for the owner’s title policy and/or lender’s title policy may depend on standard practice in the area of purchase – or the location of the title company.

The lienholder(s) have approved your short sale. You’re the seller.

Escrow is due to close next week. At your signing appointment at the title company, there’s a big surprise: the lienholder(s) want you to sign a promissory note.

“No way!” you say. Deal’s off. Buyers not happy. Six months of work down the tubes.

It’s not uncommon for the seller’s lender(s) to require a signed promissory note – usually for the loan balance – as a condition of releasing the lien(s) in a short sale. (Word on the street is that Bank of America automatically requires them.) The terms of the note could be “generous,” like no interest over a long payment period. Still, sellers usually refuse them and would rather let the property foreclose.

So, if in a short sale, ask the bank(s) upfront if this will be an issue. The loss mitigation department may not give a straight answer; they might simply refer you to the verbiage on the short sale approval letter, if you even get that far. That’s exactly what a contact at ING did. Here’s a snippet from their approval letter:

Consult an attorney. Is “in full satisfaction” good enough…or open to scumbag interpretation?

And here’s a slice from a final addendum Wells Fargo (the second lienholder in this particular case) provided right at closing. The Wells loss mitigation contact did say, when asked after short sale approval, that they wouldn’t pursue a soft note or any sort of deficiency judgment.

Here are the latest trends in the 94602 zip code for single family homes.