By Don Dunning | June 24, 2011
In some situations, buyers and sellers are much better off working with a real estate professional on an hourly, consulting basis rather than with a commission agreement. As an East Bay buyer or seller, however, finding a licensee prepared to work per hour, with the experience and knowledge you need, might not be easy.
Read MoreBy Don Dunning | June 19, 2011
How wonderful! Yes, this actually happened. Read HERE how a big bank messed up, was sued, and defied court order to pay homeowner’s legal fees. Sometimes there is justice in this world.
Read MoreBy Don Dunning | June 19, 2011
After over 30 years in real estate, I don’t see much any more I can call unique. My new listing at 5321 Miles Avenue in the Rockridge district of Oakland, however, definitely fits that description. This is one of six townhomes built in 1979 around a gorgeous, huge, tropical atrium. The unit has a deck […]
Read MoreBy Don Dunning | April 19, 2011
The Federal Reserve has just proposed guidelines for a QRM, “Qualified Residential Mortgage.” According to a mortgage broker I spoke with, in order to get a QRM for the best (lowest) interest rate, a borrower would need at least a 20% down payment. In addition, the maximum monthly payment for PITI (Principal, Interest, Taxes and […]
Read MoreBy Don Dunning | March 31, 2011
Surprises in an escrow almost always turn out badly. This was true for the buyer, seller and agents in a recent, local purchase. In the end, the sale went through, but only after all involved endured much grief.
Read MoreBy Don Dunning | March 3, 2011
Part of marketing a real estate listing is posting exterior and/or interior photos of the property online along with other details of the home, including the address, on the Multiple Listing Service, virtual tours, agent and real estate company web sites. Problem is… everything that goes online, stays online… sometimes forever. Not many agents and […]
Read MoreBy Don Dunning | February 8, 2011
As time goes by, the number and types of disclosures that must be made by a seller and/or his agent continues to expand. Many of these have resulted from lawsuits; all are meant to avoid legal disputes in the purchase of a California home. The California Association of Realtors (C.A.R.) “Sales Disclosure Chart” contains 39 of them for various property types.
When I am called to review a case as an East Bay and Bay Area real estate expert witness, the question arises as to whether the non-disclosed item was a “material fact.” This is defined as information needed to help the buyer decide whether or not to purchase and how much to pay.
Many sellers and a surprising number of agents seem not to understand the importance of full disclosure; this can turn out to be an expensive mistake.
Read MoreBy Don Dunning | January 3, 2011
If not yet here, the time is quickly approaching when Internet browsing and social networking will allow the most aggressive real estate companies and agents to make “identity sales” with information they purchased about you.
My experience, after 31 years in the business, is that clients often get chosen by the salesperson rather than the reverse. This trend, which has caused woe to an untold number of buyers and sellers, will continue at an accelerated pace.
Read MoreBy Don Dunning | December 12, 2010
“Syndicating” means receiving listings from the Multiple Listing Service (MLS), or the listing broker, then transmitting them to a myriad of accessible sites. The problem is not in finding real estate data, but in locating accurate, reliable sites.
A 2008 study of third-party real estate sites found a range of incomplete and/or inaccurate data from 20 to 92 per cent. This includes the largest and most well known ones and is creating some negative consequences for consumers and real estate practitioners.
Read MoreBy Don Dunning | November 29, 2010
Banks continue to make innocent consumers the victim of their past mistakes with credit rating agencies exacerbating the problem. A recent Washington Post article, “Realtors Group Lobbies Against Credit Score Hits Once Equity-line Limits are Cut,” describes the damage being done to folks whose credit scores are, unknowingly, cut after their equity-line or credit card […]
Read More