PRIME HIGH-RISE CONDOS. METICULOUS DETAILS. PRICELESS AUTHENTICITY. One West Ocean, Long Beach’s tallest and fastest-selling residential tower, offers four exceptional, private luxury condos per floor. The commanding, 59-story ocean and city view condominium tower is perfectly positioned in the heart of downtown Long Beach. This full-time doorman designer skyscraper features beautifully tailored, expansive interiors that [...] Read more »
International Tower: Iconic Luxury High-Rise Living by the Shore
Address: 700 E. Ocean Blvd., Long Beach, CA 90802 Stories: 30 Units: 204 condos Types of Units: Wide selection, including 1 bedroom, 1 bathrooms; 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms; 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms Size Range: Approx. 880 sq. ft. to 1,260 sq. ft. Year Built: 1965 HOA Dues: Approx. $635/month Views: Breathtaking panoramic views spanning [...] Read more »
Top Reasons to Sell Your Home Via Short Sale
Perhaps you’re “upside down†on your house and can no longer afford your mortgage payments. Maybe you owe more than the property is worth and simply can’t refinance. Or, it may be that you still can’t handle your house payments even after modifying your loan or reducing your interest rate. Times are tight and you’re [...] Read more »
Short Sales 101: What’s All the Buzz About?
So you’re seeing the words “SHORT SALE†splashed all over real estate signs across town, on the news and in the headlines. Short sales are everywhere, but exactly WHAT ARE THEY and WHO BENEFITS from them? Let’s take a quick, painless, non-confusing look. You’ll be clued-in in no time, and if you have any questions, [...] Read more »
Weekly Real Estate Market Update for Long Beach, California
[No Auto Start]6f3SSwkO9rA[/No Auto Start] Here are the numbers: Active Properties for sale:Â 1667 Foreclosures:Â Â 717 Sold Last month in October:Â 305 Foreclosures or short sales:Â 135 Inventory:Â 5.46 Hot Property for the week:Â 251 E 17th Street, Seal Beach, CA Read more »
Do I Have To Be Behind On My To Do A Short Sale?
Probably one of the most common questions that I hear negotiating Short Sales in Los Angeles and Orange County, California is: “Do I have to be behind on my mortgage to do a short sale?” It is a totally logical and fair question. Unfortunately, there is no really clear cut answer. It all depends on [...] Read more »
What Happened at REOMAC?
I just got back this week from the 2008 REOMAC Fall Conference in Hollywood, Florida. The event was attended by approximatley 2,000 industry people including asset managers, portofolio managers, REO brokers, attroneys and service provides. The event was more than half the size of thhe 5 Star Conference in Dallas last month. This gave the [...] Read more »
Secrets to Buying a Foreclosure-Series Intro
In this video I talk about one of the secrets to buying a foreclosure. This is going to be the beginning of a series of videos to help real estate buyers learn about buying foreclosed property. I am an REO agent. This means that I work for the banks to help them sell their foreclosed [...] Read more »
How to Buy Foreclosure Properties in Los Angeles and Orange County, California
I regularly deal with a number of large asset management companies and lenders who need to sell off their real estate owned property, often referred to as REO property. The word on the street is that most are expecting a 100% increase in the number of properties that are going to foreclosure in the next [...] Read more »
Sara Henninger Gives a Testimonial for Mark Shandrow
[No Auto Start]jQjT-FLcP48[/No Auto Start] I met Sara Henninger when her house in Garden Grove came off the market. It had been on the market with another agent for 6-months-with no offers. We met and decided to relist the home with a new marketing strategy. Her ultimate goal was to move out of Garden Grove [...] Read more »
The Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 is Signed into Law!
Recently, the House and Senate passed broad-based housing legislation, which was signed into law by President Bush this morning. Heralded as the most sweeping housing reform since the “New Dealâ€, it includes the creation of a strong regulator for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, changes in conforming and FHA loan limits, a comprehensive modernization plan [...] Read more »
Countrywide Takeover Will Pay Off, B of A’s CEO Says
This is a great article from the Los Angeles Times about the BofA and Countrywide merger. The most interesting point is that the CEO of BofA, Ken Lewis, thinks that the California real estate market has about another 20% drop in the not too future…I would have to agree. This is one of the first [...] Read more »
How Not to Handle a Short Sale Client
Well, last Friday was the first time I actually “lost” control with a client. We have been negotiating a short sale with this one particular client for about 3 weeks making great progress. In fact, it looks like we will be able to get the approval on the short sale today. This is a personal [...] Read more »
Countrywide Short Sales
I learned an interesting fact the other day from a Countywide Loss Mitigation Negotiator. These are the people that we work with when we are negotiating a short sale. This individual said that Countrywide has over 28,000 short sales in process, but only closes about 7% of these. Wow!! You know what that means? Only [...] Read more »
New Foreclosure Law in California – SB 1137
As a result of the subprime loan market collapse, numerous bills were introduced this year in the California Legislature, including the recently enacted SB 1137. Within this highly charged political environment, the California Land Title Association (CLTA), along with trustees, escrow companies, and lender groups originally opposed this legislation, which subsequently underwent a series of [...] Read more »
Tom Grounds Gives a Video Testimonial for Mark Shandrow’s Real Estate Sales Abilities
[No Auto Start]2AzOcJrszhI[/No Auto Start] I helped Thomas and Tara Grounds sell their condo and buy another condo in the height of the Holiday season a few years ago. They have both become good friends. Hear what he has to say about my abilities to price a property right in any market. Read more »
The Shandrow Group’s Client for Life Program
Our clients get the royal treatment, with the Shandrow Group’s Client for Life Program. We provide you with the knowledge, comfort and security that you are receiving the best services possible…tailored to your life, your scheudle, and your needs.Through my involvement with the BNI Chapter Oceans of Opportunity you can rest assured that the vendor’s and [...] Read more »
Glen and Mona Sams Talk About Mark Shandrow’s Ability to Sell Their House In a Down Market
[No Auto Start]ZG2Xw6ADZVc[/No Auto Start] I helped Glen and Mona Sams sell their home in Santa Ana and allow them to move into their retirement home in Murieta, Califrornia. They were able to take advantage of Proposition 13 to move their tax basis from one home to another, saving them thousands of dollars per year [...] Read more »
Bellflower, California
Bellflower Bellflower, also known as “The Friendly City,†is an affordable, six square-mile urban residential community that was once the dairy capital of Southern California. Several reasonably priced single-family homes, gated townhouses and duplexes are available in Bellflower, which is statistically one of the United States’ most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities. Homes here range [...] Read more »
Huntington Beach, California
Huntington Beach Huntington Beach, where California’s world-famous surf scene was born, is one of the Southland’s safest, most vibrant coastal villages. The Orange County Register recently named “Surf City USA†OC’s number one city to live in, while OC Parenting readers last year ranked it the county’s “best family beach.†Some 195,000 people call Huntington [...] Read more »
Lakewood, California
 Lakewood Welcome signs at the gateways to Lakewood announce the traditional residential community as a place where “times change, values don’t.†Few would disagree. Some 50 years after its first homes were built, Lakewood still reflects the timeless charm and character of the classic mid-century American suburb. Lakewood’s extraordinary physical layout — the smart [...] Read more »
Signal Hill, California
Signal Hill Signal Hill, once the site of legendary Tongva Indian signal fires visible for as far away as Catalina Island, is one of the fastest growing cities in the United States today. Property values in this small, incorporated city landlocked by Long Beach grew an impressive 13.961 percent in the past year alone. Signal [...] Read more »
Bixby Knolls, Long Beach, California 90807
Bixby Knolls Bixby Knolls is a charming, historic Long Beach residential neighborhood with scenic, walking-distance access to boutique shopping and an international menu of dining options. This picturesque, tree-canopied Long Beach community is tucked away in the midst of the neighboring California Heights, Wrigley and North Long Beach areas. Many of the homes in Bixby [...] Read more »
Testimonial from Tom Johnson About Mark Shandrow
A great client and friend of mine, Tom Johnson, just closed on a SUPER KILLER deal on a duplex in California Heights, Long Beach, CA. It was a short sale that I was able to negotiate with Country Wide. [No Auto Start]BBqiCZ2Y1E4[/No Auto Start] Read more »
3 Reasons Why a Bank Would Want to do a Short Sale
You are probably wondering why a bank would agree to loose ten to hundreds of thousands of dollars on a short sale? The simple reason is that a short sale is less costly to a bank than a foreclosure. Period. It is purely economic. The reasons that short sales are less expensive to a bank [...] Read more »
Buy and Bail . . . A New Twist On ‘Just Walk Away’
Great article from the WSJ.com. Next month, Michelle Augustine plans to walk away from her four-bedroom house in a Sacramento, Calif., subdivision and let the property fall into foreclosure. But before doing so, she hopes to lock in the purchase of another home nearby. “I can find the same exact house as what I live in [...] Read more »
What is a Short Sale?
With the increase in foreclosures lately you may have heard the term “short sale†and wondered what it was. A short sale is when the lender will accept less than the full amount due on a mortgage when a property is sold. Usually, the lender will accept the short sale to avoid the time and [...] Read more »
Tax Breaks for Short Sales
In December, 2007, President Bush signed a new law giving tax breaks to homeowners who have mortgage debt forgiven called the Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act of 2007. Now, a taxpayer does not have to pay federal income tax on debt forgiven for a loan secured by a qualified principal residence. This new tax break [...] Read more »
Short Sale Approvals on the Rise
Wow, what a few months makes. I am now having almost a 90% success rate with getting our short sales approved. Banks like Chase, Countrywide, HSBC and WAMU have done an incredible job streamlining their short sale negotiation processes. I guess they had to do something with the increase in volume. Certain banks can still [...] Read more »
Q and A Fact Sheet from CAR on Short Sales
Short Sale Fact Sheet Information Provided by the California Association of Realtors (CAR) Introduction Increasingly, lenders are making loans in amounts that become too difficult for borrowers to repay. Some of these borrowers may not be able to fulfill their mortgage obligations. When a borrower is no longer in a position to make the mortgage [...] Read more »
LA Times Quotes Mark Shandrow of Keller Williams Realty on the Cover of the Sunday Real Estate Section
Diane Wender, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer, interviewed me a few weeks ago for a story she was putting together for the Real Estate Section of the Los Angeles Times. She used a lot of the information I provide and did an excellent job explaining the short sale process and some of pitfalls of doing [...] Read more »
Ten Common Deal Killers for a Short Sale
From my experience doing short sales in Los Angeles and Orange Counties, the following list are the ten most common deal killers for doing a short sale (in no particular order): The seller lies about their assets and the bank finds out. The seller disappears or becomes non-responsive toward the end of the short sale [...] Read more »
