From the category archives:

Inside the Trade

Disclosing on the TDS

June 24, 2010

Disclosure is key! The following is excerpted from our corporate attorney’s advisory to sellers, regarding the Transfer Disclosure Statement: Apart from the Purchase Agreement, the second most important document in a real estate transaction is the Transfer Disclosure Statement, commonly called a “TDS.” Unless an exemption applies, sellers of residential 1-4 unit properties must complete [...]

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Alain Pinel tops in productivity

June 21, 2010
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Alain Pinel: a Bay Area success

June 8, 2010
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open.apr.com map tool

May 19, 2010
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New EPA regulation re lead-based paint

May 12, 2010

Effective last month on April 22, contractors performing renovation, repair and painting projects that disturb lead-based paint must be certified and follow specific work practices to prevent lead contamination. This is a major development in the industry, given the age of our area’s housing stock. If your home was built pre-1978, then it most likely [...]

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Webinars on distressed sales

April 20, 2010

Yours truly has a shiny new credential. Yep, I’m SFR: Short Sales and Foreclosure Resource-certified, a designation of the National Association of Realtors meant to heighten agents’ knowledge of the distressed sales market. Much of the training material should be familiar to any agent who’s done short sales and foreclosures. But it also imparted some [...]

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Mushrooms and lawsuits

March 16, 2010

Winter rains benefit househunters. Several weeks ago, the company held one of our semi-annual legal briefings in Danville. Bill Jansen, who advises our firm on legal matters, quipped, “In our business, there are two things that sprout during this time of the year: mushrooms and lawsuits.” He was referring to (angry) buyers’ discovery of water-related [...]

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Message from a contract geek

March 1, 2010

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 [...]

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In the news

February 26, 2010

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.

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One-stop open house online shop…(almost)

February 22, 2010

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 [...]

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