Condo gone up in price!

Earlier this year a first time buyer or investor could purchase a condo in San Jose area for $125,000. Not anymore. That same condo will cost you $140,000 or more. That is almost an 11% increase in cost. That will kick a large portion of buyers out of the market.

From my point of view, real estate is still the premire investment vehicle for most Americans.

What do you think?

Free Reports:
http://www.StopForeclosureInSanCarlos.com http://LovelySanCarlosHomes.com
Foreclosure/Short Sale Information:
http://www.StartFreshLLC.com

Lawyers go to Jail!

12 plead guilty in $100 million mortgage fraud

New York City prosecutors have charged 25 people, including lawyers, bankers, mortgage brokers and appraisers, and a mortgage company, with committing mortgage fraud. Robert Morgenthau, Manhattan District Attorney, said AFG Financial Group Inc. (AFG) and its accomplices inflated property values, created phony loan packages, forged W-2 forms, and bank documents to get loans from banks for unsuspecting buyers. Buyers did not know that the transactions were a sham. AFG, through its attorneys, would ask that the mortgage money be deposited in escrow accounts. Instead of paying the seller, AFG would take the money for itself. "These attorneys often did not meet or communicate with their so-called clients until the day of the closings ... and were paid off by AFG for their efforts," Morgenthau said. Buyers were left with bad credit while the lender foreclosed the seller's property and took ownership. Banks which were cheated include New Century Mortgage Corp., which lost $32.2 mill ion; Countrywide Home Loans, which lost $7.9 million; and Washington Mutual, which lost $8.6 million. "This is one of the reasons for the mortgage crisis," said Morgenthau. Among those charged, 12 have pleaded guilty. All those convicted face up to 25 years in prison.
This is a step in the right direction by punishing the one who did in fact break the public trust. This is the only justice I have seen in a long time.

Free Reports:
http://www.StopForeclosureInSanCarlos.com http://LovelySanCarlosHomes.com
Foreclosure/Short Sale Information:
http://www.StartFreshLLC.com

Figuring out our economy

There are many mixed signals about the direction of our economy, don’t be hoodwinked by these signals. First of all…Don’t believe our government, they are the cause of it all, its simple politics and our economy are not the same and by our deficits it is apparent they don’t mix either. Secondly, if you want to know the truth where our economy is headed just look to the IMF (International Monetary Fund).

Our government keeps telling us they THINK things are starting to be rosy. Washington thinks wrong! Where is the evidence that a recovery is coming? There isn’t any. Warren Buffett said last week that he hasn’t seen any of the “green shoots” that Washington is talking about, and instead Mr. Buffett warns of significant inflation is raising it ugly head and is sure to give us a nasty visit.

Last week the IMF predicted a “deepening recession” WORLDWIDE! The IMF can point to fact and figures to back their prediction. FYI: IMF is the equivalent to our Federal Reserve Bank; you know where all the bail out money comes from.

I don’t think you will be able to wait this thing out. It appears we may be looking at two to three years more of a bad economy. Now is the time to work on getting your financial house in order. From my prospective real estate has always been a hedge for what I see us facing today.


Free Reports:
http://www.StopForeclosureInSanCarlos.com http://LovelySanCarlosHomes.com
Foreclosure/Short Sale Information:
http://www.StartFreshLLC.com

Housing loses again!

"Credit card debt is not the most serious problem facing America today. Empty houses are." Click headline for full report.

Brace yourself for some very hard decision by many Americans as to if they should stay home or should they go. Over 600K foreclosure the last quarter. No new jobs. Unemployment claims up.

The bottom to this market will not turn around until investors come back into the market and unemployment levels out.

If you owe more on your home than it is worth go to www.StartFreshLLC.com for help.

Everyone is Different

Everyone is Different!

Brian Tracy say:

"Happiness in life is like a smorgasbord. If 100 people went to a smorgasbord and each put food on their plate in the quantity and mix that each felt would be most pleasing to him, every plate would be different. Even a husband and wife would go up to the smorgasbord and come back with plates that looked completely different. Happiness is the same way. Each person requires a particular combination of those ingredients to feel the very best about himself or herself."

Do you know your combinations to happiness? I think most of us want the basics...happiness of love, life, and finances. You can have it if you only desire it, strive for it, and know you will get it.

Commit to yourself that you want happiness in your life and then go get it. It's all up to you.

We all are responsible for our own happiness...no matter what anyone else is doing!

Home prices slide at record pace!

This is perhaps the best time in over 30 years to buy a home. If you are a home buyer then be prudent and true to yourself...buy your home in the next two weeks.

Negotiate the lowest price you feel the property is worth in this declining environment. If you don't get your new home at what YOU consider to be the "fair market value" then just walk away. There are many homes available to buy in today's "New Market".

A word of caution. Don't be penny wise and pound foolish. If you like the home give a little to make the transaction happen.

Economic Forcast Bay Area Real Estate

In memory of all who gave their lives in the name of
Truth, Justice, and The American Way.

Hi Everyone,

I just wanted to write a short note to encourage you to remember our Veterans on November 11, 2008 at 11:00 AM. Additionally, be thankful on November 27, 2008 and spend that day, if possible, with your family. Finally, I would like to share my thoughts on the current state of our economy, and some of the tremendous advantages of buying real estate in today’s market.

I think Will Rogers summed it up best when he said “they are not making dirt anymore.” It’s true…they aren’t. With this in mind I believe it is safe to say the basic law of supply and demand apply here. We have just a limited amount of housing resources left on the San Francisco peninsula. This along with other factors like, the intelligence of the bay area population, good paying jobs, vast cultural experiences, and our wonderful year round weather to name a few. These factors make the San Francisco peninsula a great place to live and work. I believe this trend will continue

Warren Buffett has recently compared the United States economy to a triathlon athlete. I tend to agree with Mr. Buffet. The United States of America is lying down on the ground exhausted, as any triathlon athlete would be after a long arduous race. Our economy has been extremely stressed over the past years. Our economy needs some “Gatorade” to nurture itself and get its circulation back to normal. It’s going to happen too, because we are a country of doers and winners, capable of solving any challenge that rears its ugly face. It is the American Way!

Because of this I believe the future will be bright and profitable for those who invest in real estate in today’s market. I see several good real estate investments coming on the market daily. Interest rates are phenomenally low and look as they are only going to get better for buyers in the future. Now is the time to invoke the famous axiom “buy low sell high”!

Each and every one of you reading this note has something very positive in common. You all have gone to the negotiation table with me and demonstrated your prudent fiscal mindset. For a moment think about your dreams about retirement, college for the kids, ongoing passive income, or a home for your children so your grand children can be close at hand. These dreams can all be yours through the vehicle of San Francisco peninsula real estate due to your prudent fiscal mindset.

What I need you to do is to call me so we can talk about what you can accomplish. Remember when you bought your first home? I explained buying a home was a “process” and not an “event” like the Super Bowl. It’s true, it takes longer time today to get your ducks in a row than in years gone by. There are still loans out there for a strong borrower like yourself…it takes more time for a bank to say, “approved.” Call me: 650-346-7366, email Cliff@SFBayHomes.com, you will be glad you did.

I hope you have a very Happy Thanksgiving and please remember our Veterans. As always, I love talking to each and every one of you. Call me and say hi. Call even if it’s to say…”Cliff take me off your mailing list.” Do it today so you won’t miss out on tomorrow.

Thank you for your past support. Don’t listen to those naysayers, the future looks bright!

Your friend,

Cliff

World's most dangereous cake recipe

CHOCOLATE MUG CAKE

1 regular size coffee mug
4 tablespoons flour (plain flour, not self-rising)
4 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons baking cocoa
1 egg
3 tablespoons milk
3 tablespoons oil
3 tablespoons chocolate chips (optional) some nuts (optional) small splash vanilla

Add dry ingredients to mug and mix well.
Add egg and mix thoroughly. Pour in milk and oil - mix well Add chocolate chips (if using) and vanilla - mix again. Put mug in microwave and cook 3 min. on high
The cake will rise over the top of mug - don't be alarmed!!
Allow to cool a little, and tip out onto a plate if desired. EAT This can serve 2 if you want to share.

AND WHY IS THIS THE MOST DANGEROUS CAKE RECIPE IN THE WORLD? BECAUSE NOW WE ARE ALL ONLY 5 MINUTES AWAY FROM CHOCOLATE CAKE AT ANY TIME OF THE DAY OR NIGHT.

If you are unhappy remember...

Change is inevitable,
...growth is optional.

NOW is the time to buy!

The Memorial Holiday has shortened the week for real estate activity. Prices seem to be holding their own and in some market places there are still multiple offers and over asking sale prices. However, this is the exception and not the rule.

Fortunately for Redwood City in San Mateo County price are going sideways to a slight upward movement (1%). I see this as a trend through the rest of the year.

Oil prices have definitely had an impact on people. This past weekend I went to Hollywood for the release of my youngest son’s new album. Traveling down 5 and driving around the streets of Hollywood there was not the traffic there was a year ago. Even in the Bay Area I see less and less cars on the road when I am out there.

All this has a direct impact on homes selling and at what price. (This too will pass.) We still have the smartest men and woman around here and where else in the world can you find paradise like the Bay Area? You can’t.

Prices will go up again! Now is your opportunity to buy. Utilize this market to your advantage.

An Educated Person

John Taylor Gatto: What Is An Education?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Schooling Is One Thing, Education Is AnotherBy John Taylor Gatto
The question "What Is An Education?" has so many interlocking parts that no short essay can possibly be comprehensive, yet everyone would agree that both an education and a schooling have to have goals. You can't get anywhere unless you have a destination in mind!
Let me offer you 11 personal observations based on living a long time and living a long time as a schoolteacher. If kids get a sense there is no firm hand on the tiller, they have an unfortunate tendency to eat you alive! Also, they aren't very forgiving where what they consider "wasting their time" is concerned, and as you've probably already learned, the various goals of "the future" or "getting into a college" don't have much staying power with kids.
No matter who I taught or where I taught I always set out to let the kids know that I had definite goals in mind which would take years to achieve but which, I was determined, nobody could disregard without hurting themselves. Whatever "subject" I taught, I would relate the classroom abstraction to one of 11 principles I felt constituted the core of an educated human being.
In the hope you might find some use for a list, which took me years to compile, here they are:
1. An educated person writes his own script through life. He is not a character in a government play, nor does he mouth the words of any intellectual's utopian fantasy. He is self-determined.
2. An educated person know the ways of the human heart; he is hard to cheat or fool.
3. An educated person knows his rights and knows how to defend them.
4. Time does not hang heavily on an educated person's hands. She can be alone. She is not at a loss for what to do with time.
5. An educated person possesses useful knowledge: how to build a house, how to make clothing, how to build a boat, how to grow food, how to ride, dance, hunt, how to be physically masterful. Why would you want your daughter to know the name of the president of Iraq until she knew the name of the tree outside her window? Why would you want your son to understand Mogadishu until he understood how to scramble an egg? How were you ever sold such a bill of goods? Don't answer that, we both know - in school.
6. An educated person possesses a blueprint of personal value, a philosophy. This philosophy tends toward the absolute, it is not plastically relative (*altering to suit circumstances). An educated person clarifies his own values without advice from agents of the state. An educated person knows at all times who she is, what she will tolerate, where to find peace. But at the same time an educated person is aware of and respects community values and strange values.
7. An educated person can form healthy attachments wherever he is because he understands the dynamics of relationships.
8. An educated person accepts and understands his own mortality and its seasons. He understands that without death and aging nothing would have any meaning. An educated person learns from all his ages, even from the last minute of his life.
9. An educated person can discover truth for himself; he has intense "awareness" of the profound significance of being and the profound significance of being here.
10. An educated person can figure out how to be useful to others, and in trading time, insight and service to meet the needs of others he can earn the material things he needs to sustain a wholesome life.
11. An educated person has the capacity to create new things, new experiences, new ideas.
Everything you teach should be directly related to this package, I think. If it is, and it is clear that it is, you will have no trouble with kids - and you will discover surprisingly that you are learning as much as you teach.
© John Taylor Gatto
Editor's Note: Mr. Gatto's generosity with permission to reprint his work is legendary. However, he has specifically requested that Homefires inform readers that this particular piece is copyrighted and is not to be further reproduced. Contact the author for more information.

Foreclosure Filings

After hearing month after month about the sub-prime loan fiasco and how that had caused the implosion of the real estate market I decided to do some investigation. The following is my interpretation of the data:

• 30% of American homes are owned "Free and Clear"
• 20% of American homes are owned by Investors.
• 50% of American homes have a Mortgage/Loan.
• In 2007 in all of America: 1.033% homes had foreclosure filings

That means we have about 1/2% foreclosures in America. Or 99.5% American homes owners are paying their Mortgages/Loans and not part of any foreclosure. Is the market really going to hadies in a hand bag? I think not.

Should you hire and use a "Internet Broker"?

From my point of view I honestly see a niche for "Internet Brokers" to help buyers and sellers in today's market. Sometime they will not be able to help someone for example; last week I spent over 40 hours throughout 3-days of negotiations "working out" multiple offers, multi-counter offers, delays, requests, clarification, feet dragging and down right stubborness on the part of more than one person. It took all of my 31-years of experience in real estate to be able to deal properly with both the buyers and sellers to ratify this agreement. There is NO WAY someone sitting behind a computer screen can provide that type of knowledge, experience, and service! It wasn't easy and my negotiation skills alone were worth the commission I will recieve.

Do I deserve the commission? You bet! Is there a need for an "Internet Broker" in today's market? You bet! In the long run I believe all of real estate community will learn from each other and be able to work closer together than we appear to be doing now.

Currently the real estate community individuals who are involved on both sides of the issue seem to only want to put on the boxing gloves and duke it out. I find humor in this because from my point of view neither one of them are completely right.

Remember there are two basic real estate principals involved here; the buyers wants the lowest purchase price with the least amount of extra costs and the sellers wants the highest selling price, in the shortest period of time, with the fewest concessions. Each one needs their own advocate to promote their positions. So, you as the comsumer should use the right advocate that works best for you and your interests! YOU (the public) are always in control with your power to choose.

"Most of the things worth doing in the world had been declared impossible before they were done." - Louis D. Brandeis

Beginning Phase of a Boom R.E. Market!

This has got to be one of the best time to buy real estate! In fact I believe we are seeing close to the bottom of the next booming market. Why you say?
Well, over the last 100 years we have seen 3 Billion square feet of residential and commercial built in America. Over the next 30 years there is already on the book, through planning departments of towns and States, for an additional new construction of 2 Billion more square feet of space. 1.2 Billion square feet is ear marked for new construction and .8 Billion square feet is ear marked for rehab of existing space.
If our government knows our population is going to be grow such that this additional square footage is going to be needed (demand) what do you think will happen to the existing square footage (supply)? That's right, go up in value.
For all of you sitting on the fence waiting for the bottom to hit beware. Getting your American Dream is more important than figuring out the peaks and valleys of the real estate market or any market for that manner. If you find a home you like...buy it. The future looks bright.
This is the best buyer's market in 18 years. Take advantage of it. Sellers are motivated out there.

Why You Should Work With An "A Realtor in a C Market"

I was talking with a fellow associate, Joe, today and I told him how it is easy to be an “A Realtor in an A Market” because an “A Market” requires very little skill, no mental discipline or any daily rituals.

However, the true test of an "A Realtor" is can you be an “A Realtor in a C Market”?

The market place is now revealing the importance of great skill level, strong mental discipline and committed habits in an agent. In the past, some agents who had little skill, no discipline and poor habits had high confidence because they were making money in spite of themselves.

Now when the market turns down, the confidence goes first because there is no skill to adjust to this new environment, a lack of mental toughness and no daily disciplines. They just don't know what to do.

I am not telling you this to bad rap any agent but to suggest my 31 years of experience may be an indicator of skill, mental discipline and a daily discipline that will work in your best interest. If your best interest is of a concern to you, know that I will give you the guidance you need. You can count on me...I will not abandon you.

All you need to do is call me 650-529-2409 or email me.

It has been my pleasure...please don't keep me a secret!

First Day

Are you scared the San Mateo County Real Estate market will drop lower and lower in value in the coming months? It is not going to happen. Our niche market is so strong and so different from the rest of California and the US I believe you will continue to see home values maintain their current levels and continue on a slow upwards trend. "Crown Jewel" properties will continue to bring higher prices and quicker sales.

Why is this so? First of all they are not making dirt anymore. Secondly, I believe it is because of the intelligentsia we have in the Greater Bay Area. They come locally from such places as Cal-Berkeley, Stanford, U.S.F., Santa Clara University, and all the other State and County Universities-Jr. Colleges. This doesn't even include the people who relocate here from other institutions of higher learning.

We have gone through several Real Estate business cycles over the years and because of the enormous amount of smart people living and working here we have come through all these cycles in good condition. (For example; Airlines to Aerospace to Silicon Valley to Bio-Tech.). Finally, there is just a lot of MONEY and people with their share of it living in the Bay Area.

This may seem a bit simplistic, however, my 31 years of experience have proven these three reasons to be the foundation to the Real Estate market in San Mateo County. If you are on the fence wondering what to do...get in the game and score your piece of the equity pie.

Enjoy! Embrace the day.

Your friend, Cliff "Pops" Keith