The South Tahoe Realty Blog

Being new to real estate video, I was surprised this morning to find an e-mail in my inbox from a video company recruiter. She informed me that she had seen a video of mine on the WellcomeMat.com Top 5. I had no idea what that was. However, after doing some searching, I found that WellcomeMat.com chose my 2489 Bernice Lane tour as one of their top 5 videos for last week! It was featured along with videos from Texas, Tennessee, and Colorado.

The WellcomeMat.com Top 5 - Aug. 28, 2008

For those of you who’ve never heard of WellcomeMat, it’s most easily described as the YouTube of real estate. At their website you can view video from around the world highlighting different properties, neighborhoods, agents, and other real estate related topics.

I have no plans of producing video full-time, but if you need to create a video, give me a call. Maybe I can also get you on the WellcomeMat.com Top 5!

Yesterday I was perusing through news articles on South Lake Tahoe and ran across some fascinating stuff. A substantial history of crime in Lake Tahoe shouldn’t surprise me too much. I mean they did shoot Godfather II here, and rumors continue to persist that Jacques Cousteau found dozens of mobster corpses intact at the bottom of the lake. I just thought I would have already heard about such things.

Not much of this relates to real estate - just fascinating Tahoe history I thought some readers would enjoy.  Each topic has a link to the article I read online. And not to worry, I don’t think anything this crazy happens in Lake Tahoe anymore.

• Harvey’s Bombing Memorable 28 Years Later – Did you know that in 1980 Harvey’s Lake Tahoe Casino was victim to, at that time, the largest domestic bombing in U.S. history? A few people, led by John Birges Sr., developed and delivered the bomb in hopes of extorting a ransom. Their plans for retrieving the ransom, however, were so terrible that authorities couldn’t figure out where to drop it. After a day and a half of working on the technologically advanced bomb, bomb experts attempted to detonate a charge that would explode the bomb’s detonator and not the bomb itself. The plan failed. The bomb was surrounded by sandbags. Many believe the Harvey’s building would have been lost completely without them. The explosion would stand as the largest domestic bombing in U.S. history until the incident at the World Trade Center in 1993.

• Frank Sinatra Jr. Kidnapping – In 1963, the son of famous singer, Frank Sinatra Sr., was kidnapped at Harrah’s. Sinatra’s son was returned to him two days later when he paid a $240,000 ransom. The kidnappers were later apprehended and sentenced to long prison terms.
   
• Operation Deep Snow – Federal investigators broke up a cocaine ring in 1989 that led to the arrests of 19 South Lake Tahoe doctors, real estate brokers, casino employees, and even then time mayor, Terry Trupp. This article was published because Trupp passed away last week at the age 65.

There are 14 foreclosure properties in South Lake Tahoe today. Four homes are new since I last published it two weeks ago. I’m surprised that only two foreclosures went into escrow since the last list. In that same time frame, 32 homes & condos went into escrow. That’s a lot for South Lake Tahoe, so it’s not like buyers have slowed down at all.

A couple properties stand out on this list. 602 Wintoon Dr. was reduced $30,000 a couple days ago and is an incredible buy. 3549 Morton Dr. was listed yesterday. It’s on 3/4 of an acre and backs to the South Upper Truckee River.

As usual, I have more information on properties that will become foreclosures. However, I don’t feel at liberty to publish this information on the internet. If you are interested in those properties or the ones on this list, call me at (530) 545-1831.

This is a video I recently created for my brokerage, Deb Howard & Co. The home is a new listing of ours in South Lake Tahoe. I’d encourage you to watch it in high quality so you can see the property better. If the video stops during playback, just press the pause button and wait a minute for the video to download.

Watch in High Quality

Here is the latest foreclosure list for South Lake Tahoe.  There are 11 foreclosures on the market.  They are all single-family residences (no condos or multiplexes).

Since the last foreclosure list, there have been a few interesting developments in the foreclosure market.  A few properties were just listed.  The only one I’m really excited about, though, is 2604 Knox Ave.  It is located on a rare 1/4 acre lot in Sierra Tract.  I think there could be a ton of value in that purchase.  I’ll drive by it tomorrow and post a comment with my thoughts on it.

The only other foreclosure steal that is new to my list is 2508 Cold Creek Trl.  It fell out of escrow recently.  It’s located in Montgomery Estates, which is one of the most prestigious neighborhoods in town.

There were some significant price reductions on the foreclosure list.  In the last two weeks 2587 Kubel Ave. went into escrow, fell out, and then saw a 10% price reduction down to $224,900.  Wow!  3705 Montreal Rd. also experienced a huge reduction.  It went from $339,900 to $309,000.  Both these properties could be sold before my next list comes out in two weeks. (Montreal may remain because it needs a ton of work.)  1612 Choctaw was reduced $24,500 to $474,500.

I have more information on properties that will become foreclosures. However, I don’t feel at liberty to publish this information on the internet. If you are interested in those properties or the ones on this list, call me at (530) 545-1831.

These days many homeowners are defaulting on their loans and risking losing their homes. To save themselves from foreclosure, short sales have become very popular. This evening I found 38 listings in the South Lake Tahoe MLS that are possible short sales. If you are unfamiliar with short sales, here is a great article that was printed in a publication I received from the Nevada Real Estate Division.

Short Sales
By Bruce Alitt, Chief Investigator

A short sale situation occurs when the owner of a property owes more than the market value of the property and has financial hardships that require the owner’s lender or lenders to approve a sale in which the lender(s) will actually receive less than the amount that is owed.

The approval by the lender(s) is required because the loans are liens against the property that must be satisfied in order for clear title to pass from the seller to the buyer. That means that the lender(s) must accept getting less than the amount owed and agreeing that the lien(s) is satisfied and can be cleared.

Even though there must be lender approval in a short sale situation, the owner/seller still must be presented with and accept the offer. That is the critical first step in the short sale process. The owner must accept the offer contingent on approval by the lender. The contingency is critical because the owner cannot perform on the transaction without either the approval of the lender(s) or a cash out of pocket situation, which is usually not feasible. Once the owner has accepted the offer contingent on lender approval, the offer must be submitted to the lender with any other documentation required by the lender. This documentation varies from lender to lender. At this point the transaction is out of the control of the licensees and owner, who must wait on lender approval, counter offer or rejection. Due to the current number of foreclosures and short sales, this can take several months. Both the seller and buyer should be made aware, in advance, of this unknown time factor.

During this “lender approval” time period, the house should stay on the market, however licensees should be made aware of its contingent status.

The seller must be made aware that if the lender does agree to the short sale, there could be a deficiency judgment, credit consequences or the amount forgiven may be considered as income for tax purposes. Every seller should be advised to get professional advice from an attorney, certified public accountant and/or a tax consultant.

Always trying to improve the real estate statistics I present to you, I’ve decided to mine for a new stat – median sale price for the last 90 days. I will present this statistic along with the median sale price for the last month. See the table below for the actual numbers.

What are the benefits of looking at the median sale price for the last 90 days? First, it helps minimize some of the incredible variance that occurs in a small market like South Lake Tahoe. A few high priced sales can throw off the median sale price for a single month here in South Lake. This isn’t so true when looking at sales over a 90-day span. Second, the 90-day statistic centers on a date 45 days in the past. The commonly accepted monthly median sale price centers on a date 15 days in the past. Thus, we get three times more homes, which minimizes variance, and only lose a month when it comes to keeping our stats current. If you are yet to be convinced, look at the table below. For any given month, the median price for the last 90 days, more often than not, produces a better reflection of market conditions than the median price for the month.

For those of you who’ve been following my statistical reports, you’ll notice that I’m no longer calculating median sale price over the last year (a.k.a. 12-month moving median). The statistic just doesn’t make sense to me. It’s good for looking at real estate history; and this is only true if the reader knows the data centers on a date 6 months in the past. Presenting it as current information on a month-to-month basis, however, just doesn’t make any sense.

As for now, we’re still seeing a lot of homes in escrow. We’ve had 60-70 homes in escrow at any given time in the last 2-3 months (the numbers I took from STAoR for the months previous to this one are low somehow.) And we’re finally seeing an increase in homes sold, but it still should be higher. Look at the numbers in 2005 when the market was at its peak. About 65% of escrows closed at that time. Right now we’re seeing about half close. I know a knowledgeable real estate professional who suggested that perhaps we have a bunch of really long escrows sitting out there. This would keep many of our escrows from closing. This isn’t the case, however. When I looked through South Lake Tahoe’s escrows a week ago, only 14 out of the 70 had been in escrow for more than 60 days. I think it’s just that a larger percentage of homes are falling out of escrow than we’ve seen in the past. With a tight lending industry, most buyers probably aren’t qualifying for loans. So if you’re a seller here in South Lake Tahoe, don’t be too upset about your home falling out of escrow. It’s happening to everybody.

I’ll do my best to bring you more statistics in the next week. I was only able to go back to the beginning of 2007 with the 90-day median sale price. I’d also like to give you some foreclosure, condo, and lot numbers. It’s just a very, very busy time for real estate here in South Lake Tahoe.