First of all I’d like to announce a FREE “Foreclosure Rescue Event” a joint effort by the City of San Jose and the Santa Clara County Association of Realtors. It is being held this Wednesday, October 21st at the Mexican Heritage Plaza – 1700 Alum Rock Ave., San Jose. It will be open from 1:00 PM to 7:00 PM. Look for me. I’ll be volunteering with a bunch of others there. EVERYONE IS WELCOME. For more information on what to bring with you etc. go to the Foreclosure Help Center website.

We’ve moved into the fall and holiday season of the year. This is the time of year when kids are back in school and traditionally the buying season has basically ended for real estate. Even when mortgage rates are already low, they tend to dip a little more this time of year, trying to entise buyers to keep purchasing. Statistics already show a decline in purchases for August compared to July, and Sept. will be lower than August. The one thing that may present a difference is the first-time buyer tax credit due to expire next month, but many buying Silicon Valley real estate feel the $8000.00 is just a drop in the bucket when it comes to cost.

The National Association of Realtors are fighting hard to get Congress to not only extend the deadline, but to expand it to include anyone buying a home and raising the credit itself. Time will tell if Congress will pay attention or not.

I have a story I would like to share about a recent experience I had as a representative of a buyer and hope as a home seller you don’t see yourself in it.

My clients put in an offer on a house priced over a million dollars. The offer was approximately $65000.00 under the listing price, but by my estimations very generous as I figured the house to be almost $100,000.00 over priced. The sellers (heirs of an estate) were interested in a counter offer coming down in price by on $10,000.00. One of the sellers had read in the media how homes were selling and (at least temporarily) prices were going up.

The prices in this particular area had decline 3.2 percent in the last month. Even so, against my advice on value,  my clients were willing to hit the million dollar mark but not take any money out of their pocket if the house didn’t appraise. The sellers still would not accept.

Now it is a month later, housing prices again declined in that area by 3.4 percent which means the property actually declined basically over $71000.00 and some change in the 2 months we had been fiddling with this property.

In my professional opinion:

1. The property will never appraise for the asking price or even close to it
2. We’ve moved into the slow season. The seller will be lucky to see another offer for a while.

There is no mortgage to pay off on this house. The home is vacant.

While looking at a comparative market analysis given to you free by any Realtor is a fine place to start, you also need to pay attention to the other statistics in your market to decide what the true selling price of your house should be. It won’t do you any good to get an offer on your overpriced house and it doesn’t appraise, and then the buyer can’t obtain a loan. Have you ever heard the expression “stepping over dollars to pick up dimes”?