Get a view of the Downtown Sunnyvale Real Estate Mall Renovation Project

This is a way to get a view of the progress of what's going on behind the walls surrounding the old Sunnyvale Town Center Mall. The project is on schedule to be completed by the end of 2008. They have a ton of work to do to get this completed by then.

Watch the progress by clicking here for the web cam. You can take control of the web-cam by clicking the 'control panel button in the upper right corner. This will allow you to move the camera and zoom in and out.

Enjoy!

Mark Thomason - 408.850.3085

Your Saratoga & Sunnyvale Real Estate Professional!

Full Service Realtor at only a 1% Listing Commission.

"Short Sale" a term that will be very common in today's new Real Estate Market.
Here's the definition of a 'Short Sale':
In real estate, a short sale refers to the sale of a property in which the sale price is insufficient to pay off all encumbrances (loans, fees, commissions or debts) and pay the expenses of sale. If the lender is convinced that the owner, for various reasons, is unable to continue making the payments the lender will often agree to take less that the full amount owed to allow the sale to close escrow. The incentive for the bank to approve a short sale is to have the property sell before the loan becomes a problem account on their books.
This process may be difficult to believe but it is a definite possibility. As stated below there are hoops to jump through. Banks are willing to allow individuals to assume the loan if they meet the required criteria. This is a system that works because the banks do not want to hold property for one but they also do not want to pay a fee (at times up to $25,000) in order to send the property through the foreclosure process.
Before a lender approves a short sale they will make two key decisions.
First, can the owner afford to continue making the payments on the property? If they can there is no reason for the bank to eat the loss. Banks will not look favorably upon a borrower that they determine lied to get the loan.
Second, will approving the short sale leave the bank in relatively the same position as they are likely to be in by going though the foreclosure process and then selling the property? If the bank can do significantly better by foreclosing they are likely to do so.
The seller must not receive any sale proceeds for themselves.
If there is a junior lien holder, the discounts can be substantial, sometimes as high as 90% or more. Question two is the primary determinant here. If the senior lender forecloses the junior may get nothing so they may take a deep discount to get something out of the property.
Short sale sellers need to be careful because there is no free lunch. The seller may end up with taxable income in the amount of the debt that is forgiven. The seller may also end up with adverse entries in their credit history. Any property owner considering a short sale needs to seek the advice of competent legal and tax advisor before entering into the transaction.
Note: This Definition courtesy of Inman News

Please contact me with any questions or if you know someone that could use my help.
Mark Thomason or 408.850.3085
Your Saratoga & Sunnyvale Real Estate Professional
Full Service at 1% - contact me to see how much money I can save you.

The Future of Real Estate is here Now!
I believe that I have the BEST Sunnyvale Real Estate Buyer & Seller programs in the business.
First of all you get complete professional representation from me & my team of experienced Realtors.
Second is that you get Full Real Estate Services with no limitations throughout the transaction process.
Third you get to save thousands of dollars and it costs you nothing!

Sellers:
1) I will list you home for a 1% listing commission, this will save you 2% of your sales price.
2) We will also offer 2.5% or 3% to an agent that represents the buyer.
3) If I can find a buyer through my marketing and advertising, you will only pay me a total of 2% for the sale of your home.
This means that on a $800,000 you would save between $16,0000 to $32,000 by listing your home with me & my team.

Buyers:
1) Receive up to 66% Cash Back of the Broker Commission offered. How this works that I keep 1% of the sales price and the rest goes back to you.
2) You get full service representation including working with you personally to understand your housing requirements, showing homes, professional negotiations, inspection reports ordered & reviewed, and much more.
This means that on a $800,000 negotiated purchase you could save as much as $16,000 and that could be applied as cash back after close of escrow, reduction of purchase price of $16,000, or a combination of both. Reduction of purchase price is the most common for my clients as it saves them in the long run on property taxes and the lender will have no issues with a lower purchase price vs cash back.

Please feel free to contact me with any questions about Sunnyvale Real Estate or my real estate cash savings programs.

Mark Thomason 408.850.3085 or mark@thomasonteam.com
Your Saratoga & Sunnyvale Real Estate professional!

Some Good News...Overnight real estate rates down again

30-year fixed rate at 6.22%; 10-year Treasury yield at 4.63%

Long-term mortgage interest rates dipped further Monday, and the benchmark 10-year Treasury bond yield fell to 4.63 percent.

The 30-year fixed-rate average fell to 6.22 percent, and the 15-year fixed rate sank to 5.87 percent. The 1-year adjustable dropped to 5.52 percent.

The 30-year Treasury bond yield decreased to 4.96 percent.

My mortgage rate figures are according to Bankrate.com, which publishes nightly averages based on its survey of 4,000 banks in 50 states. Points on these mortgages range from zero to 3.5.

In other economic news, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 42.27 points, or 0.32 percent, finishing at 13,121.35. The Nasdaq gained 3.56 points, or 0.14 percent, closing at 2,508.59.

Mark Thomason 408.850.3085 mark@thomasonteam.com

Your Saratoga & Sunnyvale Real Estate Professional

California home sales dropped more than 20% in July!

Statewide sales have decreased for the past 22 months and Foreclosure resales accounted for almost 8% of the sales in July. According to the data this is the slowest July in the California market since July 1995. Solano County saw the biggest annual drop in home prices, dropping almost 10% to $415,000. Home sales in a nine county area around San Francisco have decreased on an annual basis in that area for the past 30 months. Home sales in a six county region of Southern California also dipped to a 12-year low for July. The numbers do not lie and most agents are seeing their business slow considerably. The forecasts are even worse for California in the coming year, real estate agents must learn to position their business in this changing market in order to survive! We are definitely moving toward a strong buyers market. If you are considering selling in the next year, I would not wait as the statistics show a continued slow down in sales and property values over the months and possibly year(s) to come.

Please feel free to contact me to discuss how this could effect your situation.
Mark Thomason - 408.850.3085 mark@thomasonteam.com
Your Saratoga & Sunnyvale Real Estate Professional

Real estate rates lower overnight

30-year fixed rate at 6.25%; 10-year Treasury yield at 4.72%

Long-term mortgage interest rates were down Wednesday, and the benchmark 10-year Treasury bond yield fell to 4.72 percent.

The 30-year fixed-rate average slipped to 6.25 percent, and the 15-year fixed rate dipped to 5.91 percent. The 1-year adjustable sank to 5.63 percent.

The 30-year Treasury bond yield was up at 5.03 percent.

Mortgage rate figures are according to Bankrate.com, which publishes nightly averages based on its survey of 4,000 banks in 50 states. Points on these mortgages range from zero to 3.5.

In other economic news, the Dow Jones Industrial Average continued to fall, plummeting 167.45 points, or 1.29 percent, finishing at 12,861.47. The Nasdaq lost 40.29 points, or 1.61 percent, closing at 2,458.83.

Rates and bonds are current as of 7:15 p.m. Eastern Standard Time.
Stock figures are current as of 7:30 p.m. Eastern Standard Time.

Feel free to contact me with any questions...
Mark Thomason - 408.850.3085 or Mark@ThomasonTeam.com

Your Saratoga & Sunnyvale Real Estate Professional

** Listing homes at 1% with Full Service Representation & Marketing
** Buyers get rebated up to 66% of my Agent Commission

The Price of Hiding Homes Sales Price

RE InfoLink, our Silicon Valley-area multiple listing service with about 21,000 members, this month notified members about a new policy that allows its subscribers to pay a fee to conceal the sale price of a property, at the request of a home buyer or seller.

It's not uncommon for an MLS to have a mechanism to deal with such requests, said Jim Harrison, RE InfoLink president and CEO, though he said that the MLS had long resisted such a policy. What prompted the MLS to change the policy was that some subscribers simply chose to pull a property out of the MLS prior to a sale to avoid reporting the sale price, he said, in which case the MLS would lose out on data related to that sale.

Requests to withhold sales price, say MLS officials, are rare and tend to occur in higher-priced neighborhoods. It's an interesting issue: a desire to keep your own financial matters private vs. the public good in knowing what homes are actually selling for in your neighborhood.

Listing agents who are members of RE InfoLink can pay $500 for the first instance in withholding sales price, $1,000 for the second instance, $2,000 for the third instance, $4,000 for the fourth instance and $5,000 for the fifth and subsequent instances to withhold price information, according to the policy description, and agents must enter the code "SPWHLD" in the confidential remarks for those property listings.

The policy also provides that the "listing agent will close the listing as sold using last list price as the sale price," so agents who are conducting a comparative market analysis should avoid using properties that are flagged as sales price withheld.

Lucien Salvant, a spokesman for the National Association of Realtors, said, "NAR does not have a policy that says an MLS can't institute such a rule."

Any questions or comments?

Mark Thomason - 408.850.3085
Your Sunnyvale Real Estate Professional

Full Service Real Estate at only a 1% Listing Commission.
Buyers get up to 66% CASH BACK on any home.

Country Lane School district home for sale!

This is a 1407 sf wonderfully remodeled 3 bedroom & 2 bath home on a 8712 sf lot.
4263 Mc Kinnon Drive, San Jose, 95130 - Just off Saratoga Ave, near Hathaway Park.

Visit this home at www.McKinnonDrive.com and contact me if you would like to take a look at this home.

Mark Thomason - 408.850.3085
Asante Real Estate Group
Your Saratoga & Sunnyvale Real Estate Professional.

Below are the top visited real estate websites for June 2007 as reported by Comscore Media Metrix. Be sure to add three zeros to end of each number below for actual amount (note: AOL and MSN searches on their site to Realtor.com making up most of their traffic so the numbers from those sites are double counted)

Total Unique Visitors (000)

Rank1 is Realtor.com 5,2932
Yahoo! Real Estate 4,0013
HOMEGAIN.COM 3,4834
AOL Real Estate 2,8875
MSN Real Estate 2,5156
REMAX International, Inc. 2,4767
ZILLOW.COM 1,7878
HOMES.COM 1,7209
HPCInter@ctive 1,68010
NCI Interactive 1,51211
Century 21 International 1,37712
COLDWELLBANKER.COM 1,36913
ZIPREALTY.COM 1,19614
Housevalues Sites 1,12315
HOMESCAPE.COM 1,11116
MLXCHANGE.COM 1,07817
LoopNet Sites 97018
FORECLOSURE.COM 90619
TRULIA.COM 86720
FORSALEBYOWNER.COM 84221
REALESTATE.COM 76222
HUDFORECLOSED.COM 73723
PRUDENTIALPROPERTIES.COM* 67624
CIRCLEPIX.COM 67425
OBEO.COM 66526
WEICHERT.COM 66027
RENTALHOUSES.COM 65628
RENTORS.ORG 59029
MYNEWPLACE.COM 57630
Reply! Inc. 57031
SUBLET.COM 53732
MRIS.COM 49433
RENTCLICKS.COM 47734
INTERNEST.COM 46935
MOVINGGURU.COM 465

Mortgage industry is in Real Trouble: The Day The Credit Died

Published on August 3, 2007 in Wall Street and Mortgage News/Insight. Tags: alt a loans, credit crunch, housing meltdown.
Dear readers - what a day. I wish I could recap everything that happened, and I might get to it this weekend; if I try now I will have been working or on the phone or responding to email or writing for the last 13 hours straight and my wife will kill me - literally. So here is a quick recap:A commenter correctly said that NovaStar was not the only one that ceased funding today; many other lenders did as well. Here is a quick summary of those that I know who temporarily (unless otherwise noted) pulled the lending plug today:
NovaStar temporarily suspends funding due to “severe secondary market disruptions”
1st National Lending Services suspends all of the following products: Jumbo, Alt A, Pay Option Arm’s, and Seconds indefinitely (email to brokers) and throws in a round of layoffs for good measure
First Magnus suspends all jumbo ARMs and expanded and niche products (email to brokers)
Credit Suisse Wholesale suspends Subprime, Second Lien, Choice Payment ARMs and all 2 and 3 year ARMs
Wachovia pulls out of Alt-A temporarily
Wells Fargo pulls out of Alt-A
Aegis Wholesale suspends option ARMs, expanded Alt-A and second lien products (email)
Homecomings eliminates rebate on all Option ARMs (email)
Countrywide increases pricing and fees on the LTV/FICO/ Documentation type grids for all documentation types, adjustments for Subordinate Financing, Cash out transactions and larger loan balances (email)
National City makes changes
IndyMac increases pricing and spreads on Alt-A products
American Home Mortgage workers pack it up
Fieldstone stops funding
Bear Stearns says its the worst they’ve seen it in 22 years
And to cap it all of Cramer melts down on air on CNBC; so much so that the network needs to throw up a disclaimer or as a new friend called it DisCramer. Get that guy a single malt scotch ASAP! What a Friday. So now the question becomes - Will the Fed cut rates on Tuesday to calm the credit market? What are your thoughts? I have my own opinion but I’ll save them for later.

Mark Thomason - 408.850.3085 ThomasonTeam.com

Asante Real Estate Group

Your Saratoga & Sunnyvale Real Estate specialist

1% Full Service Real Estate Listings

66% Cash Back to Buyers of Agent Commission

Great 11 year new home in Saratoga for under a $1,000,000, Monta Vista High, Kennedy Middle & Blue Hills Elementary. Asking $996,000

1702 SF, 3 Bedroom, 2 Bath, and Updated throughout!

Find yourself in beautiful Saratoga and at ease with this wonderful 11 year new home in a quiet and peaceful setting on a private section of streets. Cupertino's finest schools, city & county parks for your children and a quaint downtown district with shops & fine restaurants for all to enjoy. The updates & upgrades of this fine quality home all speak for itself. Once inside you really appreciate and just absorb it all as it all flows in concert together.

Visit this home at www.ArroyoLane.com

Mark Thomason - 408.850.3085

Sunnyvale, Saratoga & Silicon Valley Real Estate Expert!