Funny spoof on how to buy a bank-owned home.

Corona, CA: Tip A Firefighter Night at Chili’s

The Corona Firefighters Association waited tables at their local Chili’s to raise money for the Burn Institute – Inland Empire. Any customer that handed in a flier to their waiter received 10% of their meal cost from Chili’s. White envelopes were also provided for customers who wanted to leave a tip above and beyond what they usually would, and that money would go to the Burn Institute – Inland Empire.

“The Corona Firefighters Association will actually wait tables and bus tables and help out with the customers,” says Gary Stansberry, the Executive Director of Burn Institute – Inland Empire.

The customers enjoy having the firefighters serve them, as well. “We always have a great time here. It’s nice to play around with the firemen, give them a hard time. They’re very sociable,” the Project Manager of Har-Bro, Dennis Cool, says.

The $1200 that was raised for the Burn Institute was used to fund Camp Beyond the Scars, a week long camp for burn injured children. It is used to help children heal from the psychological effects of a burn injury. Article

It’s Christmas Time at The Mission Inn Hotel

The Mission Inn Hotel Creates the Most Dazzling Holiday Spectacle South of the North Pole.

For anyone looking for a little magic this holiday season and an experience to bring the whole family together, the historic Mission Inn Hotel & Spa kicks off its 17th annual Festival of Lights on Friday, November 27th.

As a gift to the community, Duane and Kelly Roberts, owners of The Mission Inn Hotel & Spa, will illuminate their landmark hotel with more than three and a half million brilliant lights as well as over 400 animated figures, such as angels, elves, and carolers that come alive throughout the iconic property. “The Festival of Lights allows everyone, no matter what age they are, to be charged with excitement, wonder and anticipation, and to share valuable time with people they love during the most important season of the year,” said Duane and Kelly Roberts, Owners of The Mission Inn Hotel & Spa, “It is an experience that brings families together, couples together and the community together, which is needed now more than ever.”

Local residents and out of town travelers alike are invited to experience this spectacular Southern California holiday tradition, which features an elaborately decorated Christmas tree, Dickens Carolers singing cheerful holiday tunes, horses pulling authentic carriages, and hundreds of characters dressed in 17th Century costumes entertaining the crowd and evoking the spirit of the season. Spectators can also enjoy cupcakes, hot coca, and cappuccinos from Casey`s Cupcakes & Cappuccinos, the newly opened cupcake cafe at The Mission Inn Hotel & Spa.

In addition, the City of Riverside has adopted The Mission Inn Hotel & Spa`s popular Festival of Lights event as a citywide initiative with a vision of a Dickensian winter extravaganza. Lights and decorations will adorn buildings throughout the city and an outdoor ice-skating rink will be built in the main street pedestrian mall near The Mission Inn Hotel & Spa.

The Mission Inn Hotel & Spa is offering a number of inspiring Festival of Lights packages for locals and out of town guests looking to celebrate the holiday season in style. Packages start at $189 and can be booked online at www.missioninn.com or by calling 951-784-0300. This year`s Festival of Lights celebration, which begins on Friday, November 27th, and goes through Sunday, January 3rd, promises to be a memorable event for the whole family.

Dan Marino Sweetends Home Offer

Unable to find a buyer for his Weston, Fla., home, Hall of Fame quarterback Dan Marino has a new game plan: He’s throwing in $1.5 million worth of designer furniture—and a signed football, too.

The former Miami Dolphin first listed the house—about 25 miles west of Fort Lauderdale—three years ago and twice cut the price. Now, Mr. Marino, 47 years old, and his wife, Claire, are asking $13.5 million for the 15,000-square-foot Tuscan home on four acres. They built it in 1998 and among other things put in a new master suite and marble showers. The home has 10 bedrooms, 12 bathrooms and two powder rooms. The property includes two guest houses, a pool, a putting green, a 5,000-bottle wine cellar and a pond stocked with fresh bass.

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Sotheby’sDan Marino’s Florida home is currently on the market for $13.5 million.

With three kids in college and a fourth graduating from high school soon, “we’re looking to downsize a little bit,” Mr. Marino says. The former footballer, who retired in 2000, first put the home on the market in 2006 for $15.9 million. Now, the home is being offered fully furnished, says listing agent Giselle Bonetti of One Sotheby’s Realty, which is marketing the property with Quintessentially Estates.

Mr. Marino adds, “I’ll leave one football, how’s that?”

Want to hear a real estate agent curse? Just say the words “short sale.”

That transaction, in which borrowers sell their house for less than they owe, has earned a reputation as a frustrating morass with banks taking weeks or months to respond to offers and then often rejecting them. Because lenders swallow a loss on short sales, they have the ultimate say. But now real estate professionals and banks say the logjam is starting to ease, with decisions coming more quickly, more short sales trading hands, and the prospect of a new Treasury plan that will further lubricate the process. “A year ago I wouldn’t touch a short sale,” said Kevin Kieffer, a Realtor with Keller Williams Realty in Danville. “It would be random prices banks wouldn’t agree to, you would be tied up six months hoping to get a property sold. But now we’re seeing banks up front negotiating prices and giving us criteria. They’re getting creative to make things move.”

An analysis of Multiple Listing Service records by Emeryville’s ZipRealty shows that short sales indeed are gaining ground. From last September through March, about 600 short sales were completed in the nine-county Bay Area each month, accounting for about 9 percent of existing-residence sales. The monthly short sales topped 700 in April and May and has hovered around 900 to 1,000 a month since then, putting it at about 14 percent of sales. (Zip said the actual numbers may be higher, as not all short sales are flagged as such in the MLS.) Cindi Hagley, a broker-associate with Windermere Welcome Home in San Ramon, said many banks are getting faster in rendering decisions on short sales, but others still take three or four months. “The larger banks are coming to the table,” she said. “My gut feeling is that short sales seem to be the preferred avenue for distressed property now. It’s cheaper for them to do a short sale than go all the way to foreclosure.”

For homeowners, a short sale provides a more dignified transition than a foreclosure – and will allow them to return to homeownership sooner. Fannie Mae, for instance, requires at least a five-year wait after a foreclosure but only two years after a short sale – and less if the homeowner wasn’t delinquent. Short sales are also better for the neighborhood because the home stays occupied instead of becoming a vacant foreclosure that may attract crime. And for banks, short sales let them skip the expense and time of going to foreclosure. Several developments are helping to expedite the sales: — Pre-approval. Some banks are proactively deciding what amount they will accept for a short sale house. Sometimes they reveal the amount; sometimes they don’t, but either way it expedites the process. Homes with this arrangement are listed as “Lender pre-approved short sale.” “It’s an internal reserve price that lets us know the floor we’ll accept on a short sale,” said Dave Sunlin, senior vice president for foreclosures and real estate at Bank of America, which doesn’t reveal the price for competitive reasons. Considering options At Wells Fargo, Ben Windust, senior vice president of default operations, said the bank is testing various short-sale approaches, including pre-approved sale amounts that it does reveal. That pilot is only for homes that Wells owns in its portfolio; homes owned by investors require more complex decision-making. — Proactive discussion with homeowners. Windust said another Wells pilot is to monitor real estate listings. “If we see we have a (Wells Fargo) borrower who listed property, if it’s underwater, we might proactively reach out to them to work with us now on a short sale.” Similarly, JPMorgan Chase spokesman Gary Kishner said, “We are working on a more proactive approach to short sales by obtaining a listing of our delinquent borrowers who have their property listed for sale and then reaching out to help them sell the property.” Wells, Chase and other banks said it benefits homeowners to let their banks know early on that they want to pursue a short sale so the home’s value, paperwork stream and other factors can be determined. — Treasury plan.

In May the Treasury Department said it would offer a streamlined framework for short sales and incentive payments of $1,500 to homeowners, $1,000 to loan servicers and $1,000 to second-lien holders. That plan is supposed to be implemented very soon. “As we understand it, it allows lenders to work with borrowers to mutually agree on how to market the property, set the price for it, gives us a fixed amount of time to sell the property and if not, converts it into a deed in lieu of foreclosure,” said BofA’s Sunlin. — Technology and staffing. BofA said it recently adopted a Web platform called Equator (formerly REOTrans) for managing short sales, as well as bulking up its short-sale staff. But despite the progress, many short sales are still exasperating. “Four of our offers are still out there in home-buying purgatory also known as the short sale,” said first-time home buyer Travis Shinkle of Fairfield. He and wife Kasey made some of those offers as far back as May and the homeowner accepted them – but they’re still waiting to hear from the banks. Still obstacles And even when there is progress, it doesn’t always sound like it. “Before you’d fax something 10 or 15 times before it would get anywhere,” said Janelle Boyenga, a Realtor with Intero Real Estate Services in Los Gatos. “Now you only have to fax it in three or four times. And banks are ambiguous when they call: They said I could get back to you in an hour or in a month.”

No new 21-day turnaround requirement for short sale approvals

No new 21-day turnaround requirement for short sale approvals Recently enacted Senate Bill 306 does not require lenders to review short sale requests from sellers and their agents within 21 days.

The new California law, which addresses certain escrow procedures, has been mischaracterized by some practitioners as landmark legislation calling for a 21-day turnaround for short sale approvals.The new law inserts a short payoff amount request into the existing payoff demand law which generally requires a lender to respond to a request for a payoff demand statement within 21 days from when it is requested, typically by escrow.

The new law essentially requires, after a short sale has already been approved, for the lender to respond to a request for a short-pay demand statement within 21 days. The lender’s response to escrow can be a short-pay demand statement or even, depending on the circumstances, a written statement electing not to proceed with the proposed transaction. Another provision of SB 306 also may cause confusion. In practice, a lender may approve a short sale subject to its review of a closing statement prepared by escrow, but the lender does not review that closing statement promptly.

Under the new law, if a lender fails to approve the closing statement within four days, the closing statement shall be deemed approved, but only if it is “not clearly contrary to the terms of the short-pay agreement or the short-pay demand statement provided to the escrowholder.” The new law does not bind a lender to a short payoff amount in an offer that the lender has not approved. Senate Bill 306 contains other technical changes in real estate related laws. This new law comes into effect Jan. 1, 2010.

The full text of Senate Bill 306 is available at http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/09-10/bill/sen/sb_0301-0350/sb_306_bill_20090806_chaptered.pdf.

We will never forget!

Our hearts go out to the family and friends of those who died or were injured on September 11, 2001. We will NEVER FORGET!

Unspeakable Evil

We’re not the only hard working agents….

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVGxJAd0iYs

Corona’s Home Owners Assistance Programs

“HOAP Now, offering working families the opportunity to buy a home in .” Corona

The Redevelopment Agency of the City of Corona is offering qualified first time home buyers down payment assistance through the Home Owners Assistance Program’s HOAP Now I and HOAP Now II.  Households with qualifying income can receive up to $100,000 in down payment and closing costs assistance to purchase homes located within City limits. 

 

HOAP Now I  funds are now available!

HOAP Now II is now closed and we are no longer accepting applications effective June 23, 2009.  All available funds have been committed.  Please check back for updates on the HOAP Now II program.

HOAP Now I offers a 30 year fixed loan not to exceed $75,000 or 20% of the purchase price of the home, 0% interest, no monthly payments, and it is payable within 30 years or becomes immediately payable if you sale the home or refinance to cash out on equity.

HOAP Now II  offers a 30 year fixed loan, not to exceed $100,000 or 50% of the purchase price of the home, 0% interest, no monthly payments, and it is payable within 30 years or becomes immediately payable if you sale the home or refinance to cash out on equity.

 

Here’s how to get started:

Step #1: Determine Eligibility

Step #2: Attend a First Time Homebuyer’s Seminar

Step #3: Contact a Participating Lender

Visit www.DiscoverCorona.com for more information.

http://www.discovercorona.com/index.cfm?section=City%20Departments&page=Redevelopment&cat=HOAP%20Now&viewpost=2&ContentId=1118

4th of July Celebration in Corona

Hey everyone!

We wish you a happy and “Seif” 4th of July Celebration.  Here’s some of the things going on in Corona:

Main Street Parade & July 4th Celebration
The Main Street Parade will begin at 10AM on Main Street between Ontario Avenue to Olive Street and will feature a variety of marching units.

 

The July 4th Celebration will be held at Santana Park (598 Santana Way) beginning at 4PM. Enjoy the festival, live entertainment, and fireworks show in honor of our country.  It’s a great time for the whole family.  We hope to see you there!

God Bless America!