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.The Thomason Team Silicon Valley Real Estate Blog including the cities of Sunnyvale, Cupertino, Santa Clara, Saratoga, Campbell, Willow Glen, San Jose, Los Altos, and Los Gatos.
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.
"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!
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 ProfessionalSome Good News...Overnight real estate rates down again
30-year fixed rate at 6.22%; 10-year Treasury yield at 4.63%
California home sales dropped more than 20% in July!
Real estate rates lower overnight 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. Feel free to contact me with any questions... Your Saratoga & Sunnyvale Real Estate Professional ** Listing homes at 1% with Full Service Representation & Marketing30-year fixed rate at 6.25%; 10-year Treasury yield at 4.72%

Stock figures are current as of 7:30 p.m. Eastern Standard Time.
Mark Thomason - 408.850.3085 or Mark@ThomasonTeam.com
** 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
Great 11 year new home in Saratoga for under a $1,000,000, Monta Vista High, Kennedy Middle & Blue Hills Elementary. Asking $996,000