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Lake Tahoe Real Estate Buyers, How is Your Credit?

Now is the perfect time for all of the South Lake Tahoe home buyers that are still on the fence to make sure that their credit is ready for the big day. There is nothing more disappointing than finding a great deal on the perfect home, and finding out that you can’t qualify for a loan because of bad credit.

The first step is to get a copy of your credit reports. You can get a free copy once a year if you go to www.annualcreditreport.com . If you have already received your free credit report in the last 12 months, you can purchase a copy from www.myfico.com . The cost is about $16 for a report from one credit bureau or $48 for all three.

Once you have a copy of your credit reports, look at them very carefully for mistakes. Make sure that your name and address is correct (this will not affect your credit score, but is still important). Make sure that loans and accounts that have been paid off or closed show a zero balance. Make sure that there are no accounts on your reports that do NOT belong to you. If you do find something wrong with your report, you will need to file a dispute with each credit bureau that has the incorrect information. This may take a while, but it will be worth the time and effort when it comes time to apply for a loan.

Here are some tips for raising your credit scores:

Keep credit card balances below 30% of their limits
Make sure payments are on time, and pay at least the minimum payments on all accounts.
Avoid signing up for new credit cards, especially at stores just to receive the 10% off your first purchase. All credit inquires will lower your score.
Job stability- a long term job of a year or more will help your score
For more tips go to myfico.com

You would be surprised how ofter mistakes on credit reports happen. I was caught off guard when I checked my score. I had been sent to collection for a $28 medical bill that had been sent to my physical address. I recieve my mail at a P.O. box, so I had never received the bill. My credit score had gone down by about 80 points. I had to file a dispute, write letters, deal with the collection agency, hospital, and the credit bureaus. I finally had the issue resolved and it was well worth the hassle.

Once you have a good credit score you can be confident that you will be able to obtain a loan with a good interest rate. When you are ready to start looking at homes for sale in South Lake Tahoe, make sure that you sign up for new listing notification on my website. The new listing notification will allow you to choose your search criteria and have new listings e-mailed to you as they are entered onto the South Lake Tahoe MLS. Another great tool is my current list of foreclosures for sale in South Lake Tahoe blog post. I update this post daily and have all of the foreclosures on the South Lake Tahoe MLS, foreclosure price reductions, and foreclosures that are in escrow.

For more information about foreclosures in South Lake Tahoe, the South Lake Tahoe MLS, or South Lake Tahoe Real Estate contact Brent and Jill Johnson today!

Bijou 1&2

The Bijou area in South Lake Tahoe is located between Pioneer Trail and Regan Beach, just west of Ski Run. The South Lake Tahoe MLS divides Bijou into two sections, Bijou 1 and Bijou 2. Bijou 1 is on the East side near Ski Run and Pioneer Trail, and Bijou 2 is on the west side near Highway 50 and Johnson Blvd. near the Bijou Golf course.

Bijou is one of the oldest neighborhoods in South Lake Tahoe. Centrally located near Heavenly, the casinos, and Lake Tahoe, making Bijou a great area for a primary or vacation home.

The Bijou Community Park located off of Al Tahoe Blvd. offers a playground, basketball, volleyball, a bmx and skate park, disk golf, and a dog park.

Also located in Bijou is the public Bijou Municupal Golf Course. This is a 9 hole golf course and costs $15 for El Dorado County residents, and $20 for non-residents for 9 holes.

Other close by activities include the ice skating rink, Regan Beach, and the South Lake Tahoe Recreation complex, which has a year round indoor/outdoor pool.

Single family homes in the Bijou area range from small older cabins in the $200,000 range, to remodeled and new homes priced over a million dollars. Some of the houses in Bijou may have mountain and/or meadow views, forest views, and are on relatively flat lots. There are also some areas in Bijou that have multi-family properties including duplexes and small apartment buildings.

Current Mortgage Rates

Tahoe Keys Real Estate

The Tahoe Keys is a 740 acre private marina community. There are waterfront homes located on 11 miles of inland waterways that lead to the emerald waters of Lake Tahoe. Homeowners in the Tahoe Keys have

access to many great amenities including tennis courts, an indoor and outdoor pool, spa, park, private beach, marina, and launch ramp.

The Tahoe Keys area has unobstructed views due to fully underground utilities. Some of the great views include Mt. Tallac, Heavenly Valley, meadows, Lake Tahoe, local wild life, and other mountains surrounding Lake Tahoe.

The Tahoe Keys Property Owners Association is the Tahoe Keys HOA. HOA fees are $1919 annually for houses and from $1000 to $1400 quarterly for condos depending on their location with-in the Tahoe Keys.

Single family home property values generally range from the $500,000’s to $3,ooo,ooo, but there have been a few foreclosures in the Tahoe Keys that have sold for $400,000, and homes on Lighthouse Shores and Beach priced over $7,000,000.

Tahoe Keys condos range from $250,000 for a one bedroom, to over $1,000,000+ for a lakefront.

The 2008 Tahoe Keys sales statistics for single family detached dwellings are as follows

Median sales price $847,500 (down 12% from $960,000 in 2007)
32 Units sold (down 5 units from 37 in 2007)
Average days on market 196 (up from 185 in 2007)
Lowest 2008 sale $399,000
Highest 2008 sale $2,150,000

For more information about Tahoe Keys Real Estate, South Lake Tahoe Real Estate, or the South Lake Tahoe MLS, please contact Brent and Jill Johnson today!

South Lake Tahoe Foreclosures vs Re-sale Homes

Lately there has been a lot of buzz about foreclosures and how they are such a great deal. I thought that I would do some reaserch to compare the latest new foreclosure listings to the latest re-sale listings.

Since the first of the year (20 days) there have been 47 new single family listings on the South Lake Tahoe MLS. Out of the 47 new listings there were 14 foreclosures, 32 re-sale houses, and 1 new construction.

Here are the statistics for the recent non foreclosure listings:

33 new listings
Average listing price $644,301
Median listing price $573,500
Average price per square foot $301.75

Statistics for the recent foreclosure listings

14 new listings
Average listing price $308,375 (52% less than re-sale homes)
Median listing price $288,000 (50% less than re-sale)
Average price per square foot $219.64 (27% less than re-sale)

After looking at the previous statistics it seems like foreclosures are great deals. Why not target foreclosures if you are a buyer looking for a good deal on a long term investment? Lets look a little closer at some of the differences between foreclosures and non foreclosure single family homes.

Age- The average age of the recent foreclosure listings is 43 years old. This is 17 years older than the non-foreclosure listings which have an average age of 26 years old.
Size- The average square footage of the recent foreclosure listings is 1404 square feet. This is 736 square feet smaller than the non-foreclosures which average 2140 square feet.
Condition- The average condition of the non-foreclosures is better than that of the foreclosure listings. Most of the foreclosures are in need of minor to major repairs, maintenance, and/or upgrading and updating.

Although most foreclosures are priced less than non-foreclosures, there are other factors to take into consideration. If you are the type of buyer that is not afraid to build up a little sweat equity, a foreclosure is perfect for you. If you are looking for a home that is meticulously maintained and ready to move right into, you may want to expand your search.

Click here to view a list of foreclosures in South Lake Tahoe.

For more information about South Lake Tahoe Real Estate and information about any property on the South Lake Tahoe MLS, please contact Brent and Jill Johnson today!

Wikipedias definition of a foreclosure is:

Foreclosure is the legal and professional proceeding in which a mortgagee, or other lienholder, usually a lender, obtains a court ordered termination of a mortgagor‘s equitable right of redemption. Usually a lender obtains a security interest from a borrower who mortgages or pledges an asset like a house to secure the loan. If the borrower defaults and the lender tries to repossess the property, courts of equity can grant the borrower the equitable right of redemption if the borrower repays the debt. While this equitable right exists, the lender cannot be sure that it can successfully repossess the property, thus the lender seeks to foreclose the equitable right of redemption. Other lienholders can also foreclose the owner’s right of redemption for other debts, such as for overdue taxes, unpaid contractors’ bills or overdue HOA dues or assessments.

The foreclosure process as applied to residential mortgage loans is a bank or other secured creditor selling or repossessing a parcel of real property (immovable property) after the owner has failed to comply with an agreement between the lender and borrower called a “mortgage” or “deed of trust“. Commonly, the violation of the mortgage is a default in payment of a promissory note, secured by a lien on the property. When the process is complete, the lender can sell the property and keep the proceeds to pay off its mortgage and any legal costs, and it is typically said that “the lender has foreclosed its mortgage or lien“. If the promissory note was made with a recourse clause then if the sale does not bring enough to pay the existing balance of principal and fees the mortgagee can file a claim for a deficiency judgement.

Short sale:

In real estate, a short sale is a sale of real estate in which the proceeds from the sale fall short of the balance owed on a loan secured by the property sold.^[1] In a short sale, the bank or mortgage lender agrees to discount a loan balance due to an economic or financial hardship on the part of the mortgagor. This negotiation is all done through communication with a bank’s Loss mitigation department. The home owner/debtor sells the mortgaged property for less than the outstanding balance of the loan, and turns over the proceeds of the sale to the lender, sometimes (but not always) in full satisfaction of the debt. In such instances, the lender would have the right to approve or disapprove of a proposed sale. Most Short Sales leave a deficiency balance for which the Mortgagor / Borrower is still liable. In 99% of all cases it is not a settlement-in-full. A deficiency balance will remain while the mortgage broker, real estate agent / broker, loan officers, title and closing agents retain their profit. No regulatory agency governs this hybrid transaction.

Extenuating circumstances influence whether or not banks will discount a loan balance. These circumstances are usually related to the current real estate market and the borrower’s financial situation.

A short sale typically is executed to prevent a home foreclosure. Often a bank will allow a short sale if they believe that it will result in a smaller financial loss than foreclosing. For the home owner, advantages include avoidance of a foreclosure on their credit history and partial control of the monetary deficiency. A short sale is typically faster and less expensive than a foreclosure. In short, a short sale is nothing more than negotiating with lien holders a payoff for less than what they are owed, or rather a sale of a debt, generally on a piece of real estate, short of the full debt amount. It does not extinguish the remaining balance unless settlement is clearly indicated on the acceptance of offer.

Short sales are common in standard business transactions in recognition that creditors are not doing debtors a favor but, rather, engaging in a business transaction when extending credit. When it makes no business sense or is economically not feasible to retain an asset, businesses default on their loans (called bonds). It is not uncommon for business bonds to trade on the after-market for a small fraction of their face value in realization of the likelihood of these future defaults

Tahoe Island Park

The Tahoe Island Park area is located between Highway 50 and the Tahoe Keys on the South Shore of Lake Tahoe. The topography of the Tahoe Island Park area is flat and forested. Some of the homes on the out skirting streets of Michael and Jeffrey are located on Meadows and have mountain views, but most of the 6,ooo to 7,000 square foot lots will back one another.

Tahoe Island park has a mixed bag of different age and size homes in it. There are still a few buildable lots in the area, and there have been some new homes recently built. Most of the homes in Tahoe Island park are in the 1000 to 2000 square foot range, and there are quite a few ranch style single story homes built in the 1960’s-1980’s. There are homes priced from the $200,000’s to the $600,000’s, but the average sales price is in the $300,000’s.

Many of the houses in Tahoe Island Park have boat docks in the Tahoe Keys Marina. There is a fee associated with the boat docks that is paid to the Tahoe Keys Beach and Harbor HOA.

Tahoe Island Park is very close to the lake and is close to bike trails that The Tahoe Island Park area is a well kept neighborhood and houses priced right generally sell quickly.