Recent content by Maltese_IHB

Garrison, I still look closely at the Newport Beach and CDM market (even though I recently bought a place on the Eastside of CM), and I think your patience will pay off in the end. My general vibe is that while sales are rocking in the below 800K level in places like HB or Irvine, the Newport...

Have you been in this building? It is really beautiful, and they clearly dumped alot of money into it, but the layout is awful. I have some friends who have medical offices in the building and patients can't find their way to the office. Walking the halls I noticed alot of real estate related...

You can obviously get $400/sq foot if you buy a larger home in Newport Heights, but if you look at 1000 sq ft tear downs you are still looking at something like $800/sq foot on a 6000 sq foot lot. There are some obvious exceptions on tiny lots for tear downs, for instance the REO on the 400...

I am indeed a licensed physician. The bank made an exception on the 2-year history of self employment based on that fact, and based on a contract I have with a health care organization which guarantees a certain income for a 2 year period. They took this as being equivalant to 2 years income...

My realtor recommended going with a 30 day escrow because we were in a multiple offer scenario, and she wanted our offer to be the strongest. In retrospect, this was very poor advice. Taking a short escrow that you are unsure if you can fulfill can only lead to trouble. In our case the seller...

Funny you should say that, because I didn't mention that they gave us a 3 day notice to perform 3 days ago, which we did not sign based on our realtors advice. Today we informed them of our predicament, and we are waiting to here from the seller.

I see your point, but we would have 7 years to work that out. If the market bottoms in 2012, and drags the bottom a few years, by 2016 we may be back to even. In that time we should have paid down 100K of principal, so a refi might be possible even if values drop another 100K. However rates...

We have 12 months until 2 years of self-employment. If rates remain in favorable in 12 months, and if home prices hold steady, we should be able to refi into a 30-year-fixed. We do plan on staying in this house for a very long time frame. It is a good deal (not great), and I love the area...

Unfortunately, we did remove all contingencies (per our agents advice) once we had an appraisal and the loan was approved. I have the email from the loan guy saying "congratulations, your loan is approved with the following conditions". He also verbally told me that once the bank gets that far...

I need some group advice as we are in a pickle. The story will be told in generalities in case the counterparty is an IHBer. We entered contract to purchase a home in Coastal Orange County with a purchase price in the range of 1-1.5 million dollars. There was to be a 30 day escrow. We were...

Need a litigation lawyer. Please pm or post a name. Thanks

I was reading this thread and realized that nobody ever answered the question. Does anyone know a good real estate attorney? Is anyone on the board a real estate attorney that will give curbside advice? Please pm me if you can help.

The bidding wars and multiple offer scenarios are by no means limited to properties below 500K. We have seen first-hand that the all-cash buyers and hoards of other buyers are going after properties up the ladder and the multiple offer situations are happening even into the 1.25 million dollar...

The property is in east costa mesa. It is a stand alone property. Thanks for the input!

We are considering making an offer on a property built by a small-time builder. It is a recently completed property where the builder is in financial trouble and trying to unload the property for a small loss. What potential pitfalls does one foresee when buying a home in this situation...