East Bay Realty Pro Blog

If you are making payments on a house that is worth substantially less than your loan, you may have thought about how to get out from under this burden. Financial, legal, tax and credit ramifications are all important in deciding which route to take.
You might have approached your bank for a loan modification only to [...]

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According to an online real estate article, the Houston Association of Realtors (HAR), with 23,000 members, recently “pulled the plug” on a web-based application that allowed consumers to view which agents had the greatest number of listings and/or transactions in a given neighborhood or Zip code. This happened shortly after it was introduced because HAR [...]

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Would you read every word in the new, tightly printed, eight-page California Association of Realtor’s (C.A.R) residential contract? Probably not.
This contract, used by most real estate agents, has recently undergone its most extensive revision in the past eight years. Changes to this standard real estate purchase agreement can have a significant impact on the quality [...]

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In the overheated real estate market of 2004 to 2005, many buyers paid outrageously high prices for properties that were not special in quality or location. This included numerous ones that were decidedly underwhelming. Now, a plethora of purchasers are either victims of foreclosure, have sold for large losses or are paying mortgages on houses [...]

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Buying a home close to a school can be wonderful or a huge mistake. It depends on the exact proximity of the house to the school, the school’s size, and the administration’s policies regarding neighborhood relations. The agents listing or selling the home often are unaware of the actual or potential problems, which is all [...]

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After a long career in real estate, I can personally attest to how ineffective and feckless lenders can be in handling their business. But this one takes the cake!
An article in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal described how a contractor hired by Bank of America mistakenly entered the home of a woman who lived near Pittsburgh, [...]

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Looking to buy a house is like trying to find a mate; you have to be willing to go through a lot of frogs before you find your prince or princess. Despite numerous changes in the business, one thing has remained constant – too many buyers in this area, either out of frustration or pressure [...]

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This is the tale of a young couple who was highly qualified to buy, yet was unreasonably turned down for their purchase by one of the banking giants. They have allowed me to tell their story in the hopes of informing other would-be buyers of the ridiculous hurdles some lenders are placing on today’s home [...]

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