Just as our local communities have evolved, we've seriously considered for the past several years how we could someday "give back" and "finish well" - expressions that can mean a lot of things to different people.
As part of our research into opportunities for service, in early 2013 we contacted a Peace Corps recruiter who helped us start our journey. But our new path wasn't going to be as straight and easy as we thought! And so we began a transition into something completely different from the routines we've known for the past 30 years - and have begun a path that's leading into the exciting unknown. This will be our story!
By Don | October 27, 2011
A puzzle! It seems like every short sale has a twist of some sort or another, but this one was bigger than most.
This home in Camarillo had a 2nd Deed of Trust from Bank of America that had been written off (charged off) 3 years ago according to one source, but this year varied from one department to another! In the byzantine world of Bank of America with its 100,000 workers, no one could figure out which department or entity within the bank “owned” the note.
Fortunately, Leslie has an inside person high in B of A that “assigned” responsibility to an entity in Florida and they did the necessary paperwork for this deal to close.
But to show how frustrating dealing with big lenders can be, Leslie had also contacted the escalation people at HAMP (they track these issues), and yesterday (coincidentally!) Leslie’s contact called to say he couldn’t get anyone at B of A to accept responsibility for this note! They both just laughed when Leslie said the deal just closed.
It’s quite like the letter Leslie got from Chase earlier this month about a short sale she closed earlier this summer…
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Short Sales | HAFA program
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By Don | October 24, 2011
I’ve finished the 4 wings (finally) and built stanchions that allow me to turn the wings for easier access in varnishing.
Trying to figure out which was most efficient, brushing or spraying, I ended up deciding to spray the wings.
Here’s what spraying on the varnish looks like!
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Tiger Moth
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By Leslie | October 24, 2011
Representing the buyers, Don recently closed a 7.5 acre industrial site in Santa Paula that was owned by First California Bank. He was instrumental in locating the bank owned property, finding the buyers and negotiating the transaction.
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Investors
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By Leslie | October 20, 2011
I recently got the attached letter from Chase on a short sale transaction I closed last summer. Hmmm…now you know why we just “love” short sales!
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Short Sales | HAFA program
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By Don | October 14, 2011
Leslie posted her detailed statistics for Ventura, Oxnard and Camarillo yesterday and I was very curious to see if I could see any trends starting to emerge. With all the negative housing news in the media (nationally), I wanted to see what was going on in our neck of the woods.
What surprised me was the trending of number of homes sold over the past 12 months – trend lines are up strongly for all 3 cities.
As far as trending over the past 12 months for home prices, Camarillo has softened, but Ventura and Oxnard have remained flat, which isn’t bad all things considered.
Leslie has started showing the percentages of distressed sales (foreclosures and short sales) and it’ll be interesting to see how those change over time. It would appear lenders are beginning to get more aggressive in starting foreclosures so I wouldn’t be surprised to see those percentages begin to increase a bit over the next several months.
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