Voak Homes

Cash Flow Machine – 3 New Properties

Scott Voak — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 20:44:37 +0000

Cash Flow Machine – 2 More Properties

Scott Voak — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 22:08:48 +0000

Are Market Signs Pointing Up or Down?

Scott Voak — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 17:31:45 +0000

A Look at San Diego Real Estate Drivers

An encouraging sign has been developing in the real estate market. The number of homes available for sale in San Diego is steadily falling and now sits 15% below the number available last year. This is the type of trend I look for as an indicator of a changing market. It is the reverse of what we saw happen in 2005 when the market hit the top. So, does this indicate the market bottom is finally here? I’m not so sure. There are four reasons I am questioning this data:

Distressed Inventory. 50% of our sales in the county are distressed (short sales, foreclosures, or homes that have been foreclosed on in the last year). That percentage has been over 50% for quite some time. Since that is one-half of the current market, what happens to the supply there is key to how San Diego goes over the next couple of years. According to the online magazine eForeclosure, Notice of Default filings started rising again in August. With employment not getting much better, this trend will likely continue and create more inventory on the market as we enter the new year.
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Cash Flow Machine – Spring Valley

Scott Voak — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 19:00:08 +0000

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Cash Flow Machine – National City

Scott Voak — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 12:30:38 +0000

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Cash Flow Machine – Imperial Beach

Scott Voak — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 00:00:15 +0000

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More Investment Opportunities

Scott Voak — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 05:47:37 +0000

Cash Flow Machine Update

March, 2011

Every once and awhile I will try and update opportunities we are finding in the market. There are too many properties we find that are good deals to post them all here as blogging is secondary to selling homes and working with investors. However, here is a sampling of 3 opportunites that are currently available. I cannot provide addresses because they are not my listings, but if you are interested, please ask me for access to the investors site we run where there is more information.

City Heights – 12.5% Cash Return

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Monday Morning Coffee – A look at February Numbers

Scott Voak — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 05:28:34 +0000

Monday Morning Coffee

San Diego Real Estate Sales – February, 2011

Good morning,

I hope you enjoyed the great weather this weekend. Zach and I took a walk around the neighborhood and it was nice to see some flowers blooming and hear the birds chirping away. It was also nice to see that last neighbor taking down his Christmas lights – made me feel better about not putting the dishes away.

A quick look at San Diego home sales in February shows a continuing slow down in sales this year when compared to last year. However, last year was bolstered by the First Time Home Buyer Tax Credit. Until June, our numbers are going to be compared to numbers that are artificially high, so don’t put too much emphasis on year over year number. However, just so you know what they are: Read more ...

Monday Morning Coffee – Short Sale Traps

Scott Voak — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 05:19:02 +0000

Monday Morning Coffee

Short Sale Scams and Traps

Good morning,

I hope you had a warm and dry weekend. Saturday night was the first time I have experienced hail in San Diego and it was pretty cool to see piles of it under the slides at the park on Sunday morning. Grandpa and Grandma were in town from AZ last week which meant Zach was sick and had to go to the zoo. Bummer.

This week is going to be a short email. I will have February sales numbers for the county next week, but it looks like we will still be off by about 10% compared with last year. A lot of current business still seems to be investors snapping up property to “fix & flip” and traditional buyers seem to be taking there time. However, the crisis in Libya (or Libia if you work at the White House) has caused rates to drop a bit, so if you are a buyer on the fence, the recent drop in rates could save you over $100 a month ($500k loan), which is why every lender you have ever met was busy locking loans last week.

One of the things we are working hard on is building our relationships with short sale departments. Just last week we were able to use our relationship with Wachovia/Wells to great benefit. One of our listings had been “misled” by a firm in Los Angeles that listed their home, put it on the LA MLS (so they could show the bank it was “on the market”) and then tried to purchase it through an investor for $150k under market price. We started working with them in December when there was already a Trustee Sale scheduled and were able to get the Trustee Sale delayed. On Thursday, we received a low but almost market offer on the property and were able to get it into the bank Friday morning and they not only pushed off the Trustee Sale scheduled for Monday, but APPROVED the short sale in 5 HOURS!!! If you know anybody having trouble with their bank and considering a short sale, please have them give us a call. We don’t always get happy endings, but we sure get more that our fair share of them.

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Monday Morning Coffee

Scott Voak — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 05:09:13 +0000

Monday Morning Coffee

Anybody Need a Few (thousand) Notepads?

Good morning,

I hope you had a nice weekend – and that those of you here locally enjoyed the week off with your kids (although you are more likely celebrating their return to school). My sister did a great job of making me feel good as she called to let me know that without much training she ran the Golden Gate 1/2 Marathon this weekend and took 4th among females, winning her age group. I’m going to get back up to running 3 miles without stopping again sometime. Really.

One note from last week’s letter. A couple of people told me they thought I was overly negative on the housing market, especially since I sell homes for a living. My goal is not to be negative, but it is also not to pretend things are great when I don’t believe they are. While I would love everyone who gets this to be referring their friends and relatives to me for both the easy sales and the difficult short sales, I want you to be able to trust I will be honest with them and not give them a “sales pitch” to win their business.

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