I was going to write a post with information on the search efforts of Chelsea King but unfortunately it appears that our greatest fears were realized this afternoon when authorities identified a body found as Chelsea King. For those of you who don’t know, she is a Poway high school student who has been missing since last Thursday.

As I write this post I am really at a loss for words. I don’t have any children yet and still can’t even imagine how difficult this must be for the family.

There is a candlelight vigil at St. Michael Catholic Church for friends and family scheduled for tonight at 7 p.m.  It was planned previous to Chelsea’s body being found and it’s unclear if it will still take place.

I will post updated information as soon as it becomes available.  I would like to make a donation on behalf of one of our office football pool players. She asked that I donate her winnings to the family of Chelsea King. I am unaware of any fund at this point but as soon as I find something I will add it to this post and also make sure that we make the donation to the family on Chelsea’s behalf.

Here is a link to the Facebook page setup for Chelsea King.

UPDATE: 03-05-10

Chelsea’s family has set up the Chelsea’s Light Fund. People have asked about making donations and you can now make a donation to the Chelsea Light Fund at any Wells Fargo Bank. (Account #1838355913. Here is a link to the Facebook page for Chelsea’s Light Fund.

Alex Aguilar
Team Aguilar
Real Estate Agent, Blogger!
Alex@TeamAguilar.com
www.TeamAguilar.com
Real Estate Blog

If your looking for real estate in San Diego, Riverside or Imperial County you have arrived at the right place. Please feel free to contact us and please read our Real Estate Blog and leave your comments.

As more and more homeowners are going into default, it appears more and more are just walking away from their mortgage.

TEAM AGUILAR DISCLAIMER: Let me state that Team Aguilar or myself are not instructing anyone to walk away from their mortgage and ultimately the one that has to make that decision is you. VIEW THIS CALCULATOR AT YOUR OWN RISK!

There is a new calculator, may not be new to you but it’s new to me and I want to introduce it here. It may help people determine if it makes sense to walk away. The calculator is on the website, www.YouWalkAway.com, here is a LINK to the calculator.

Once you go through and start punching in the numbers it really gets you thinking. As an example I used a very typical scenario that seems very common here in San Diego.

I started by entering a home value of $300,000 with a 1st loan balance of $420,000 and a 2ND mortgage of $80,000. This is fairly common here in Southern California. Many people purchased a $500,000 home with 100% financing using an interest only loan that is NOW worth $300,000 in today’s market. After punching in all the numbers and using a rate of appreciation of 4% which I think is a very fair historical national average it would take approximately 16 years to get back to the break even point. The walk away monthly savings is approximately $700 a month along with a “Walk Away Cash Savings” of over $100,000.

What’s the bottom line? Well if you only planned on staying in your home for a few years to begin with, less then 10 it may make sense to walk away. If you know you are going to live in this home forever and be buried in the back yard then it’s likely that you will be just fine. It’s similar to your retirement account that are in the dumps right now with this market. If your close to retirement you may be in trouble but if you have time and years are on your side you will have to time to recover.

Voluntary defaults happen to be a brand new phenomenon in our society. With the recent collapse in housing, estimates show that as many as ten million families may currently be underwater on their mortgage.

UPDATE: So there seems to be some question about the You Walk Away organization. LET ME SAY that I know nothing about their services or service. I don’t know anything other then what I have read online on some different forums, blogs and message boards. I have no idea what value if any they can offer. I know that the mortgage calculator is unique and it may help you decide what to do. It’s fairly simple and you can create one of your own fairly easily. The bottom line is that you need to look at all of your options and decide what is best for you. Don’t rely on someone else or some organization to do this for you. You should take all the information you can gather, all the options available to you and decide what the best option is for YOU!

Also, a little rant and rave! Another issue really bothering me, LOAN MODIFICATION SCAMS. There are thousands of legal services offering loan modification services right now here in California and I am sure in many other states. The California state BAR is investigating hundreds of them right now. All of the services being offered by these companies are things that you can do on your own. It just requires a little bit of your time. Save your money, I can’t tell you how many times I talk to someone that forked over thousands of dollars just to have their home go to foreclosure with the modification company not doing one thing. I recently spoke with someone that contacted their lender just a few days before their foreclosure trustee’s sale only to find out that the lender had NO RECORD of the loan modification company ever contacting them.

Alex Aguilar
Team Aguilar
Real Estate Agent, Blogger!
Alex@TeamAguilar.com
www.TeamAguilar.com
Real Estate Blog

If your looking for real estate in San Diego, Riverside or Imperial County you have arrived at the right place. Please feel free to contact us and please read our Real Estate Blog and leave your comments.

How would you feel if you lost your home to foreclosure only to find out that someone working at the bank used it to entertain friends?

Newsstands have been buzzing about the recent scandal at Wells Fargo when a high-ranking executive was reportedly seen making herself and her family comfortable in the home of Lawrence and Linda Ellins, a couple that had to surrender their oceanfront home to Wells Fargo Bank to settle their debts.  The couple was one of the many victims of the Bernard L. Madoff’s massive fraud scheme.

Neighbors and residents of the exclusive Malibu Colony were puzzled at first when they noticed that someone was occupying the Ellinses home when they knew it was already vacant and that Wells Fargo has jurisdiction over it.  The Ellinses’ real estate agent Irene Dazzan Palmer was also surprised when Wells Fargo refused to show the house to interested buyers.

Cheronda Guyton, a senior vice president responsible for commercial foreclosed properties, was identified by neighbors spending time at the house over the summer.  The clincher was when she hosted a rather lavish party last August and people even had to be ferried across from a yacht.  Neighbors and residents became outraged.

Wells Fargo conducted an internal investigation on the matter and eventually concluded that “”a single team member was responsible for violating our company policies. As a result, employment of this individual has been terminated.”  This swift and direct action on the part of Wells Fargo indicates that they want to nip the scandal in the but and make it appear that what Cheronda Guyton did was of her own accord and not sanctioned by the bank.

After terminating Guyton, the bank immediately listed the house for sale at $21 Million.  Interested buyers who were eagerly awaiting the opportunity to buy this prime property were a little disappointed at the list price.  The house is 3,800 square feet and sits on an 8,700 square foot lot.  The property is believed to be worth between $12Million to $14 Million.

Really, how would you feel?

Update: 09-18-09 – Apparently this was not a true foreclosure, it was a negotiated settlement to settle other debt and the house was turned over to Wells Fargo to help satisfy the debt. Either way, the executive made a very poor decision.

I find myself writing a lot about this subject because it pisses me off and totally ruins my day. It seems like everyday I hear of another scumbag taking advantage of someone trying to modify their home loan.

Loan modification scams happen left and right everywhere, even at the local level right here in San Diego. If you are looking for someone who can help with a loan modification, don’t take for granted the fact that there are a lot of people who take advantage of your need for their own benefit. It is therefore a necessity to know what the signs of loan modification scams are so you can guard yourself against them.

Homeowners trying to get their mortgage payment lowered or fixed are usually having a difficult time meeting their monthly payments. They often find it a problem to ask for help and advice from other people. This makes them extremely vulnerable to these loan modification scumbags. These scumbags can approach you easily through misleading marketing efforts and many other means. After all, lenders publish notices at the 90 day delinquency period which is public information. This gives the scumbags their very own hit list. So what should you watch out for to determine if you are being scammed?

(more…)

Well folks, I can’t keep silent anymore. I’ve been biting my lip, avoiding the topic because it is SO RIDICULOUS but I have now reached my boiling point and I have to take the time today to remark on the issue of the La Jolla “Children’s Pool”. It seems that the Pacific Harbor Seal has found the perfect way to expose just how completely nuts we humans can be and how ineffective our judicial system can be at times.

For those unfamiliar with the situation, here’s a brief synopsis:

In 1931, the State of California conveyed this beach area of La Jolla to the City of San Diego.

Ellen Browning Scripps, then donated money to build a wall that slightly enclosed the beach so that children could swim there.

Harbor Seals, that have been sunning themselves on the rocks that the wall was constructed on for 100’s of years, found that the beach within the confines of the wall was a good spot too, so they became year round users of the beach.

About 15-20 years ago, a small number of nostalgic folks in La Jolla began lobbying to get rid of the seals at that beach because it was supposed to be a swimming beach for children.

This issue has been in and out of courts for YEARS now, and just last week,  San Diego Superior Cort Judge Yuri Hofmann ordered the city to remove the seals from the beach. However, a federal court still has a restraining order against the city of San Diego to remove the seals, and so, Judge Hofmann’s ruling is still not final.

So here we are today…with what seems like 98% of the people of San Diego asking why this is even an issue?! And the other 2% whining and pleading and making sure that this area remains as it was “originally intended” as a children’s swimming area.

I do not need to get into the reason’s that this issue has been help up in the court system for over a decade. But it bears importance for me to harp on the fact that if we all just had a little more common sense, I wouldn’t be wasting my time writing about this. It is unfathomable to me that people are fighting so hard to preserve this area as a swimming spot for children when San Diego is home to over 60 miles of coastline. Not only that, but there are swim-able areas just a few hundred yards from this beach!

The one place in San Diego where wild harbor seals come to rest, and we can’t just let them kick it there in peace? Who are you people that are arguing to have them removed? What is your line of reasoning? It DOESN’T MAKE SENSE! Show me one kid that would want to go swimming at that beach as opposed to taking a dip at the cove 2 hundred yards to the north. ONE KID! You won’t find one. You now why? Because kids LOVE seeing those seals. Jim Carretta of the San Diego News Network adds another point saying that “[Ellen Browning] Scripps was responsible for the creation of Children’s Pool in the 1930s as a place where young children could safely swim. Today, I don’t think this argument that the children of La Jolla lack a safe place to swim stands up in the presence of the sandy expanse of La Jolla Shores beach”. I agree Jim, I don’t think that’s a valid argument at all.

And forget the fact that it’s a full blown rarity for wild harbor seals to have found a rookery in an urban environment. Or that the other nearest rookery for harbor seals is at Point Mugu, near Ventura, which isn’t available to the public because it’s on military property. And forget the fact that the people against the seals have proposed a $700,000(!!!!) plan to chase away the seals by installing speakers that have the sound of a dog barking from sunrise to sunset (possibly the most absurd solution I’ve ever heard in MY LIFE). And forget that everything involved in this dispute and what is entailed to get rid of the seals is not what our completely broke city and state needs to be spending their money on.

The real issue here is that those that want to preserve this area as a children’s swimming pool are stuck in a world that no longer exists and this legal battle is the only tangible thing they have to hold on to the La Jolla of their past. I am sorry that you have fond memories of that area as a child and that seals have now come to rest there. I’m sorry that perhaps these seals are bringing more tourists than you might like to your beautiful town and boosting business as well as traffic. And I’m sorry that some of you who are privileged enough to live that close to the ocean don’t love the smell that the seals bring with them. But I am not sorry for calling you all nuts. Whatever your reasons are for trying to get rid of the seals, they are not in the best interest of anyone but yourselves. And if, by some horrible flaw in our legal system you win this battle, I wonder how long it would take before you began longing for the return of that pungent smell of harbor seals…anything to get rid of those damn barking dogs!

For more information on the interpretations of law and this matter in general, check out the following sites:

http://www.seashepherd.org/news-and-media/editorial-041020-1.html

http://childrenspool.org/

http://www.lajollafriendsoftheseals.org/

http://www.360cities.net/image/la-jolla-sea-wall-children-s-pool-and-seals

By Andrew Brentan

I went into a Ralph’s last week in a bit of rush to get a few groceries and when it came time to head to the checkout line I was faced with three frustrating options: 1) Wait in an express line behind 6 people, 2) wait in a non-express line behind 7 people, or 3) use the Self-Check-Out machines. Now, I’m not one to get too worked up about anything, but this really bothered me. There were two open lanes, SEVEN closed checkout lanes, and I counted 5 employees just standing around cracking jokes with one another. To make matters worse there was a manager who was walking around urging folks in line to use the self checkout lines. Have you ever used the self checkout lines? The only time you can actually checkout all by yourself is when everything you are buying has a bar code. Any produce requires the assistance of an employee. And half the time, the employee doesn’t even notice you’re in need of assistance so you have to go ask for help. Not much of a “self” checkout. So which option did I choose? I reluctantly went to the self checkout line with my bananas and oranges and lo and behold, had to ask for assistance.

I bring this up because the day after my sub-par experience at Ralph’s I read the blog posted by The Phoenix Real Estate Guy where he discussed his experience staying at the Broadmoor Hotel in Colorado Springs and how it reaffirmed his belief that customer service should always be priority number one. “The bellhop knew I was there for a speaking gig (because he asked. And listened). He asked me if I needed my suit pressed…..My wake-up calls were personal, not some automated voice system. Every time they asked if there was anything I needed. Every time.”  What the Phoenix Real Estate Guy made clear, was that everyone, himself included, needs a good reminder every once in a while of the importance and value of rock-solid customer service. “I want every client, prospective client and even just the casual site visitor to go away thinking, “It can’t get any better than this”.” Well, I myself couldn’t have said it any better, so I thought rather than paraphrasing, I’d quote the man directly. It really is an important philosophy to have.

At a grocery store, the checkout is the most critical part of one’s shopping experience. A slow checkout ruins everything. At that particular Ralph’s, instead of using those self-checkout machines in a manner to ease the tension of long checkout lines, they were using them to pawn off the duties of the cashiers.  I suppose one could look at this as less of a customer service issue and more of a managerial issue, but they truly go hand in hand.  As a result of the manager’s decision to prioritize the self-checkout machines over getting people out the door faster by using a couple more cashiers, my shopping experience became a source of frustration and I am not heading back to that place any time. I mean, no one is leaving that place and thinking, “It can’t get any better than this” that’s for damn sure.

So go ahead and roll your eyes, I’m going to say it anyway. Customer service isn’t just about providing the client with a service or product. It is much more about going beyond what is expected so that that person wants to come back. I know, this is all crap we’ve heard a thousand times before…but sometimes it helps to see an example of really poor customer service and the effect it has on you. (In my case, I was just flat out pissed-off!) Then you can better evaluate how you are treating your clients and what you can do to improve.

By Andrew Brentan

I’ve got some good news and bad news. Which do you want to hear first? Let’s start with the bad news and end on a high note.

Bad News:

It is heartbreaking to think of all the people who reached the tipping point, after losing their job, losing their home, and running out of money, scrounged up their last bit of savings and bought a tent. Tent “cities” are popping up everywhere around the country. From Athens, Georgia, to Nashville, to Reno, Seattle, and maybe the largest of the burgeoning tent cities, Sacramento.

Katharine Q. Seelye, a writer for the New York Times reports on the conditions in Sacramento. “The primitive settlement sits in the shadow of the state capitol and is home to about 300 people who have no toilets or running water, creating unsanitary conditions that advocacy groups worry could promote diseases like cholera. With the downturn in the economy and more working-class people losing their jobs and their homes, the tent city is expanding.” Apparently the city of Sacramento is exploring all avenues for creating temporary housing, but like anything in a monster bureaucracy, this will likely take a while. It is also sad to think that, according to Seelye, in Sacramento, 10.4 percent of rental housing units are vacant and 4.8 percent of owned units are vacant. Shelter, running water, and electricity, all going unused while hundreds of people are permanently camping just a few blocks away. So in case you still weren’t convinced, YES, this economic crisis is very real. And it is getting more serious every day.

More Bad News:

No way…that’s enough for a month, let alone one blog. And there’s too much damn bad news out there. I’m going to stop there in an attempt to further prolong any need for a Zoloft prescription in my near future.

Good News:

Bernie “King Shmuck” Madoff is going to jail…probably for the rest of his life. I mean, the astronomical amount of gall this man must have to start a scheme and continued to grow it to the point where $64 billion dollars in other people’s money were totally lost. He ripped off Ellie Weisel for crying out loud! That is record breaking amounts of gall!  And when he addressed the court today, reports claim that despite his “deep apologies” to the people whom he robbed, his speech and tone remained unapologetic with a tinge of arrogance mixed in for good measure. “When I began the Ponzi scheme, I believed it would end shortly and I would be able to extricate myself and clients from the scheme,” he said. “This proved to be difficult and ultimately impossible.” Oh, well now that you mention that, it’s completely understandable. You wanted to stop it. You really really wanted to, but you couldn’t. Alright Bernie, all is forgiven.

So fine, Bernie’s going to jail forever. But what a bitter-sweet victory. Recouping the victim’s money will be difficult if at all possible, and what about all the other people who helped old Bernie in his scheme? And when can we see some more blame come down on the SEC who needs to share an enormous amount of blame for Madoff’s extended stay atop the International League of Rat’s (ILR) as The Ponzi Scheme Champion of The World.

_____________________________________________________________________

Looking back on it, was that even THAT good of news? Not really. So let me leave you with some truly great news: Opening day is in a few weeks and the Cubs are going to win the World Series this year. Wooohooo!

By Andrew Brentan

I’m sorry to do this. It is not my intention to add to the nonsense regarding steroid use in Major League Baseball, but there are a ton of things that infuriate me about this big circus of attention surrounding Alex Rodriguez and his use of steroids back in 2003. First and foremost, I hate (HATE) that again, steroid use is back in the headlines and on every damn TV and radio program in the country. It is so embarrassing to watch players deal with their accusations in different ways. Barry Bond’s and Roger Clemens’ full denials, Giambi’s full admittance, Pettitte’s admittance but only because it was for an injury…and now A-Rod’s half-assed admittance blaming it on baseball’s culture at the time. What a joke…you all used them, you all knew it was wrong, just come clean and feel devastatingly sorry for it. Look at Giambi. He fully admitted to it and after being booed for a year and a half, won his way back into the hearts of Yankee fans albeit the help of a handlebar mustache.

But the worst thing of all with this A-Rod deal is that it brings back to light the fact that we, by way of the media, hold baseball on this ridiculous pedestal where, god-forbid, anyone does anything to taint the sacred game. What is the difference between A-Rod and Sean Merriman of the San Diego Chargers? He got busted for using steroids and was suspended for 4 or so games last year, and yet everyone in San Diego LOVES this guy and will continue to love him. The hypocrisy is ridiculous.

Speaking of hypocrisy, why in the world is Bud Selig still the commissioner of baseball? This man is being hailed as baseball’s great savior because he’s brought to light the use and over-use of steroids in the sport. But this man became commissioner of MLB in 1992 and all the steroid use that has come forth in recent years took place on his watch as commish. A-Rod, though I think it’s a sorry excuse for what he did, makes a good point when he says that it was the culture in baseball in 2003 to be using some sort of performance enhancing drug. And who is ultimately responsible for a culture where steroids are almost the norm? The commissioner, Bud Selig. So does the fact that no one is speaking up about this revert back to the nonsense that baseball is up on a pedestal? I think that A-Rod is a joke; I think Roger Clemens is a joke, and Barry Bonds, and Andy Pettitte and Mark McGuire and Sammy Sosa, because they all take us for fools. But I feel that Bud Selig has created a McCarthy-esque era in baseball, where he’s got all these big name players being focused in on, their careers and images shattered, while he is sitting on his throne and declaring that baseball won’t stand for substance abuse, even though he fully allowed it to go on for well over a decade. Give me a break. Can we all just take some responsibility? This could all be over, and off our damn televisions a lot sooner if people would assume some responsibility for their actions. Seeing as there is no chance of that happening, I am bracing on having to hear about this until I’m 80 years old.

By Andrew Brentan

Things That Chap My Hide: #1

I can’t resist. My boss sends me the Daily Real Estate News emails he gets and one of the headlines from this morning’s news was: The Real Estate Agent of the Future. Well, my interest was piqued and I read the very brief blurb about what a CEO of a real estate company foresees as the type of agent that will be most likely to succeed in this changing real estate market. This is not meant to be a jab at the author of this article, but rather to take note that the attributes he claims the agent “of the future” will need, are the very same attributes that an agent needs now, and needed 10 years ago, to be competitive. It is a little insulting to our intelligence that this article was even printed.

“…product knowledge, sales competency, access to customers, and service with integrity” the CEO states as skills future realty agents will need to successfully compete with other agents. Nostradamus adds to the list: “Another key skill of the future will be the ability to negotiate successfully”. Well, I am no expert, but it seems to me that having good negotiating skills is now, and has always been, a huge factor in an agent’s success. What exactly is different then, about the agent in the future?

This is my favorite: “an agent working in 2015 will need the ability to communicate effectively across generational spans as the different age groups move up and out”. So, in 1985 it wasn’t important to effectively communicate with people that varied in ages from the young to the old? Well then, when 2015 comes around, hold on to your hats, because the real estate world will have turned upside down! People of ALL ages will be buying homes!

Ok, I’m done. It’s a shame I even felt the need to write this. But I feel that when nonsense is being put out for all to see, someone has to point it out. I must harp on an article like this in hopes that such things won’t be written in the future and put on respectable websites. And so, I foresee that in 2012, a person writing for the Daily Real Estate News will not print an article simply to take up space, but rather it will be a valuable piece of information and actual real estate news.

Andrew Brentan