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Can I Get Top Dollar for My House in Stockton?

Can I Get Top Dollar for My House in Stockton?

The simple answer to that question is only if you add value.

For the past five years Stockton has either topped the list of or has been in the top 5 WORST places to sell real estate in the entire country. Today, the Stockton Real Estate Market remains one of the worst places in California to own an unwanted house and the forecast for the next two to three years is not much brighter.

So, what do you do if you have an unwanted house in Stockton and you’d like to sell it fast and for top dollar?

Well, unless your house is in pristine condition with no major defects, your options are limited. You can’t

expect to compete with every other “fixer upper” in the Stockton Real Estate Market and sell your house fast and at a price point you would like unless you are prepared to do something drastic to make the house less risky from a buyers perspective.

What defects can work against you?

1) You have a 3 Bedroom one bath house with no garage because it has been converted into the 3rd bedroom, but every other house on the street has a garage. While this may not have been considered a major defect when houses were in scarce supply and prices were up everywhere, it is today when 3 bedroom one bath houses are available on nearly every block with a garage.

2) You have a three bedroom 1 bath house and you have to go through one bedroom to get to the other bedroom. This is a major defect for most home buyers as people notice how badly a houses layout will affect their lifestyle.

What are your solutions?

In scenario number one you may be able to convert the bedroom back to a garage and sell the house as a two bedroom with garage. Under scenario number 2 your options may be limited. You might be able to convert the 3^rd bedroom into a master bath and fix the problem that way.

Be careful though because even if you have the money to fix a major defect in a house that you own, you may never get that money back out of the house as buyers are very conscious of the depressed home prices in the Stockton Real Estate Market.

Today’s Real Estate Home buyers are fickle and unless there is an incentive to buy a house with major defects it can and will sit for months on end without even a single offer. The Best way to sell a house that has any major issues is to price it right and be aware that you have lots of competition in this Stockton Real Estate Market.

Finally, if you have a house in Stockton and don’t have the money to fix it up to at least mask the existing deficiencies but you need to sell it fast, you might consider these other cost factors.

The longer you hold onto the house the more ongoing cost you have;

1) Homeowners Insurance

2) Mortgage payments

3) Monthly Utility Cost

4) Maintenance

5) Yard Work

6) Property Taxes

7) City Code Violations

Vandalism

Today’s Stockton Real Estate Market presents many challenges for homeowners that have houses which have turned into a liability and sometimes the solution may not be the conventional route of listing it with a realtor. In many cases homeowners can avoid paying realtor commissions and shorten their sales timeframe if they think outside of the Box.

If you have a house that has a major defect and would like to sell it but don’t want to wait for months on end, pay high real estate commissions or pay the ongoing holding cost while the house sits on the market, your best solution may be to sell your house fast to an investor for cash.

My name is Peter Westbrook and my Company is Westbrook Real Estate Investments and I Buy Houses in Stockton. Give me a call and I will make you a cash offer. I can be reached at 209-481-7780.

The Shadow Inventory(s): What Banks are Hiding in the Stockton Real Estate Market

As I wrote yesterdays Blog update I knew that what I had been seeing first hand in the Stockton Real Estate Market was something that has never been seen before. Not even in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s, the last time we saw the real estate market crash did we see such a devastation of the real estate market as it is manifesting today.

In the 1970’s and 1980’s we didn’t have government intervention under the guise of compassion, meddling in the housing or banking markets. Back then the Market was allowed to work and by virtue of no intervention, the market took care of the bubble that burst.

Sure we were in a deep recession, unemployment was at 7%, inflation was out of control, interest rates hit all time highs and credit was tight, but back then there was NOT a shadow inventory of foreclosures to exacerbate matters. Back then the rules were simple. When you were 90 days behind on a payment you were in foreclosure and if the mortgage remained unpaid a notice of default was sent out and the house went up for auction. As such, the house became a part of the general real estate market and landscape and was liquidated.

Did real estate values drop? Yes, but the market was allowed to do its job and the market absorbed them and there was no protracted and artificial “shadow inventory” of houses that no one knew about.

So what is this “shadow inventory” of houses that everyone refers to? The conventional definition is simple and refers to the houses that are technically in default (meaning mortgages that are 90 days past due), but no notice of default has been issued by the bank and as such no auction date has been set.

Today there are actually two “shadow inventories” that are dooming the Stockton Real Estate market to a protracted recovery.

Shadow Inventory I: This is the “Shadow inventory” that everyone refers to in today’s housing market. They are the houses that have yet to be foreclosed upon. These are the houses that the banks have not collected a mortgage on for upwards of 36 months. Since the banks have not yet foreclosed on these houses they are sitting as an unknown number of houses that have yet to reenter the market place. As such they are either being lived in rent free by the current mortgage holder or a renter that is paying the Mortgage holder while the mortgage goes unpaid.

This is all occurring, thanks to “new and more compassionate government policies” that some would call government intervention and manipulation that has virtually changed the banking rules. These new rules have made it easier for banks to hide unpaid mortgages on their books, and since Banks are not required to foreclose according to any particular time frame, that means that they can carry unpaid mortgages apparently as long as they chose to do so. As a result, the market cannot deal with this inventory until the bank actually forecloses and acknowledges the bad debt.

Shadow Inventory II: The second “shadow inventory” that no one is talking about are all of the houses that have been foreclosed upon but have dropped out of the market because they did not sell. Every month I see hundreds of withdrawn or expired listings of Stockton real estate that is Bank owned that have disappeared from the real estate market. The only reminder that these houses exist is denoted at the bottom of a comparable market analysis while attempting to research another property in the neighborhood.

In the Stockton Real Estate Market alone there are hundreds of these houses that have been foreclosed upon, that have not been sold and are NOT currently listed for sale by the Bank directly or in the Realtors Multiple listing Service. Most of them are vacant, boarded up and in such a state of disrepair that they make up a huge second “shadow inventory” and they are contributing to dropping home values in Stockton.

It is estimated that Americans have lost close to $7 Trillion in home values and equity over the past four years and I don’t expect that we have hit the bottom. While many are projecting a real estate recovery in 2012, I don’t believe it so long as the supply of foreclosed properties is hidden and excluded from the market itself.

Brace yourself as home prices in Stockton Real Estate will continue to tumble.

Peter Westbrook is the owner of Westbrook Real Estate Investments and can be reached at 209-481-7780 or peterw@westbrookrei.com. If you have an unwanted house you can call Peter directly or visit http://IBuyHousesStockton.com

 

We Inherited a Stockton House and it is Haunted by a Deadbeat Relative

Have you ever noticed that there are people that just want to help their family and family that just want to help themselves to your House? Well, you are not alone.

I would estimate that in today’s Stockton Real Estate Market roughly 15% of all homes that are on the market and are in major need of repair

have one thing in common… they have been occupied by a relative that is NOT paying rent, NOT making any repairs, NOT performing any maintenance and has NOT paid the property taxes. To make matters worse they have also refused to leave.

It is not uncommon in today’s Stockton Real Estate Market for a Mother or Father to pass away and leave a house to the surviving children. It is more common than you would think when one of those children decide that they are entitled to live in Mom and Dad’s old house for as long as they like rent Free.

It all starts innocent enough, the family is dealing with grief of the loss and one of the siblings says something like… “I have got an idea, you know that Mom and Dad’s house will be empty now and it is going to take a while to clean it out and put it on the market for sale and I have been looking for a house and until we decide what to do, I can live in the house, pay all of the property taxes, maintain it and keep the rest of you guys from having to sell it right now. After all the market is really bad, the house hasn’t been updated in years and I can fix it up while I live there. I will even pay rent if that is what you want”

Often times the relative has already been living there with Mom and/or Dad (rent free) and did nothing while they were there previously. Of course the guilt of Mom and Dad’s passing is hard enough and none of the other siblings wants to argue… after all it is a good idea in theory and what the heck it may even be what Mom and Dad would have wanted…. Right?

Wrong.

Time passes quickly and even more so when something is out of sight and out of mind and something as innocuous as Mom’s old house, is something no one wants to deal with. Pretty soon two years go by and the property taxes have not been paid, the house has not only not been updated it has also not been maintained and now if it wasn’t previously, it is the ugliest house on the block and the family member is still living there… RENT FREE. When asked why the house is in such bad shape the family member snaps back… “I can’t afford to maintain this house, it was worse than this long before I got here”.

It is Time to Sell?

When a house becomes a liability it is time to sell, but the issues that the family faces are generally overwhelming and the retrospect into what Mom and Dad would have wanted are now in complete conflict with the reality of the situation. The fact of the matter is that the house should have been sold long ago. Mom and Dad never wanted the family house to become a burden and while they hoped that one of their children would care for the house as they did all too often it is that one child that the parents knew would not.

To make matters worse, it generally falls on one Family member (the executor of the estate) to be the “Bad Guy” and the thought that they are going to have to deal with this becomes life consuming. Often times there are more than one sibling to deal with and evryone has their own opinion, but the common goal is the same… no one wants to come out of pocket to fix the house and certainly not while someone is living there.

The issues becomes very clear, the asset that was once a nice house has turned into a financial burden, a liability and now the family needs to deal with it. What are the options? Who is going to pay and in what proportion? How are we going to tell the family member living there that the rest have had enough, and who is going to tell them that they have to get out?

So the list is made and it is beyond what anyone anticipated;

1) The house is in need of repair and needs to be fixed before we can sell it

• Fix the dry rot, termite damage, and water damage from leaky old cast Iron plumbing
• New Roof
• New Paint
• New Carpet and flooring throughout
• New or remodel Bathroom
• New r remodel Kitchen
• Maintenance
• Plumbing
• The garbage needs to be removed from the house inside and out
• Window and door replacement

2) Property Taxes

3) Code Violations and fines from the City or County

4) Choosing a realtor and negotiating a commission

5) Establishing a sales Price

6) Evicting the Family Member

This is just the short list and it doesn’t take into consideration the rest of the competition in the Stockton Real Estate Market or number of

Foreclosed homes already in the market that are driving down house values. All of a sudden the house becomes an albatross that everyone needs to get rid of.

My name is Peter Westbrook and I am a Real Estate Investor in Stockton California and Tulsa Oklahoma. I Buy Houses in any condition and I pay Cash. I am not going to require that you spend thousands of dollars for you to fix your house and I am not going to charge you a real estate commission. I will come out and evaluate your property for free, give you a market analysis and then make you an all cash offer to buy your house in its “as-is” condition with absolutely no contingencies.

I will even help you with your family member that refuses to leave.

If you have an unwanted house that you need to sell, you can email me directly at peterw@westbrookrei.com or call me at 209-481-7780. I answer all of my calls and if by chance you get my voice mail, I will call you back. In any case I am a viable alternative for you and your family to spending thousands in house repairs and waiting for a return on that investment that may never come. Most people in this situation want to deal with someone that understands and while selling the house on the open market may be a viable alternative the list of expired listing (houses NOT SOLD) in Stockton grows daily.

One phone call could set the wheels in motion for you to taking back your life and allowing me to do what I do best… clearing obstacles… including that realative that refuses to leave.

 

Stockton Real Estate Prices Continue to Tumble on word that 25% of Houses are Underwater

The fact that Stockton Real Estate Prices Continue to Tumbleis not nearly as shocking to me as it is concerning. Homeowners in Stockton are continuing to

lose value at a pace that cannot be controlled by anything that they can do. So what is a homeowner in Stockton Real Estate Market supposed to do as they watch what may be their largest single asset continue to lose value?

With the release of the latest “housing market” report earlier this week, news that 25% of all homeowners in America are underwater on their mortgages, just underscores how volitile the Stockton real estate market is and why house values are continuing to take another dip that mirrors the overall economy.

Americans as a whole lost over $7 Trillion in home value since 2007 and in Stockton Real Estate the numbers compared to the national average are much worse. This coupled with the ever increasing numbers of foreclosures that have been slowly released each month has placed tremendous downward pressure on the Stockton Real Estate and housing market. and home values.

These numbers however do not include the Banks “Shadow Inventory” of foreclosures of houses that the Banks have yet to foreclose on even though some homeowners have not made payments for two to three years. When added in you get a much bleaker picture and begin to understand that while individual Homeowners maybe underwater, the entire Stockton Real Estate Market appears to be flailing and may be actually be gasping for its last breath,

You have to ask your self… how can the market go any lower? But the real question is; “How can the Stockton Real Estate Market recover if it isn’t allowed to hit bottom”? If the banks wont foreclose, and by not doing so, they prolong the inevitable, how many years can the Stockton Real Estate Market endure more of the same?

So when will this all end? When will the real estate market recover? If you listen to the so called experts, it was supposed to have happened in 2010 and 2011. Is 2012 the magic year?

The truth is that the Stockton Real Estate Market will not recover until all of the foreclosures including the shadow inventory are released to the market. There is no way that a recovery can occur until “the market” can deal with the glut of houses” one at a time. Until then, don’t hold your breath for any improvement or an uptick in Stockton Real Estate Prices.

Every month I evaluate close to 100 properties that are for sale for one reason or another and every month I see firsthand how Stockton real estate is continuing to drop in value. I see houses that just two or three months ago were evaluated by comparing similar houses sold within one quarter mile in the last ninety days drop in value even more when the latest month’s home sales are factored into the equation.

The truth is that Sales of houses in Stockton over the past the past 90 days are offering no encouragement and its clear that nearly 25% of all of the houses that are sold are bought by real estate investors and they are paying cash

So, while it may not be the best time to sell that unwanted house in Stockton right now, don’t expect home values to all of a sudden turn around or gather some upward momentum either. The other thing that you shouldn’t expect is any sympathy or leeway from the City of Stockton’s Code enforcement department as they are citing more and more vacant and unwanted homes in record numbers for repair and maintenance issues.

It is no secret that the cost of holding onto Stockton real estate is getting higher and higher when you add in falling rental values, increased cost of maintenance, homeowners insurance, property taxes and unpaid code violations that turn into liens against your property.

The truth of the matter may be that for your particular circumstances, NOW is the BEST time to sell that unwanted house and get whatever cash value remains before that too gets eaten up by fines, fees, taxes and damage caused by lack of maintenance or worse yet bad tenants.

If you have an unwanted house in the Stockton Real Estate Market, then I encourage you to call me to get a free market analysis and cash offer for your house. The worst thing that can happen is that you get a true understanding of what your house is worth in today’s Stockton Real Estate Market.

My name is Peter Westbrook and I Buy Houses in any condition. I can be reached at 209-481-7780 or my email address is peterw@westbrookrei.com.

Real Estate Investor in Stockton Buys Houses & Pays Cash

Real Estate Stockton-http://westbrookrei.com This video discusses how to sell a house fast in one of the worst real estate markets in Stockton CA, We specialize in buying distressed houses, pay cash Read more

4128 E 6th St, Stockton, California: A Tale of two Houses in the Stockton Real Estate Market

 

4128 E 6^th St, Stockton, California: A Tale of two Houses in the Stockton Real Estate Market

Stockton California has so many dilapidated houses left to waste by the collapse of the real estate bubble, that if not for the real estate Investor, nearly 38% of all properties purchased in the past 5 years would continue to blight neighborhoods across the city.

This is a tale of two houses in the Stockton Real Estate Market and how real Estate Investors are saving the real estate market, house by house, block by block and neighborhood by neighborhood.

4128 E 6^thSt, Stockton, California was not any ordinary house. There were so many code violations issued by both the City and the county that it became a health hazard and a target for the San Joaquin County Health department. The original house of less than 500 square

feet was described by a neighbor as an “old one bedroom chicken house”.

The owner had for the previous 5 years to my purchasing the property attempted to expand and rehab the house, but for every effort the owner made to remodel on the weekends was met with an equal effort to vandalize and steal whatever was left from the previous weekends work. The tale of a five year effort and over $25,000.00 in investment by the original owner is sad because at the end of the day, the house had become a serious liability that nobody wanted.

When I purchased the house I knew that I would be met by that same element that stole whatever copper wiring and pipes I installed the day before. I also knew that as long as I had full time activity on a daily basis, I could stop the theft and vandalism by merely being there.

Permits were pulled, inspections scheduled and for the next 3 weeks crews worked daily to transform one house in the east Stockton Real Estate Market into an example of what could be done with a continuous effort and a commitment to succeed. Wood fencing was installed around the house in a neighborhood where chain link dominates and our efforts to secure the house paid off as we began the project.

When we started 90% of the electrical was stolen, the copper and cast iron piping for water and gas gone and the only thing standing was the wood framing with its five year old siding that needed a lot of work. The roof had been built and sheeted, but the blue tarps that had once been the makeshift shingles were torn and damaged by the wind, rain and sun. It would also need to be completely redone.

The project finally ended with what is a virtually new house from the foundation up. Today at 4128 E 6^thSt, Stockton California sits a virtually brand new

1,000 square foot house boasting 2 Bedrooms and 1 Bath. It has new everything including wood laminate throughout, Walnut cabinets in the kitchen and granite slab countertops.

Not every dilapidated house in the Stockton Real Estate Market is going to receive the attention and investment that this one did, but you can be assured that house by house, the Stockton Real Estate Market is going to heal a lot faster because of the efforts of Real Estate Investors.

My name is Peter Westbrook and I am a real Estate Investor in Stockton, CA. I buy houses and I pay cash for Stockton Real Estate. If you have an unwanted house and cannot afford to fix it up give me a call and I will make you an all cash offer. I can be reached at 209-481-7780 or you can send me an email to peterw@westbrookrei.com and I will be happy to come out and evaluate your house.