This year's Coldwell Banker Northern California fundraising event for Habitat for Humanity has raised another $191,000 for this noble cause. This was our 10th annual fund raiser and we have raised a total of $1.75 million over those 10 years to assist those who might not otherwise be able to afford it to purchase and own their own home. Funds are raised through special events (our office had a cake sale), raffles, and solicitation. Many agents purchase raffle ticket and donate them in the name of their clients to help to raise funds. Some offices also assit on building days. Congratulations Coldwell Banker!! All monies rased will go towards our local Habitat for Humanity chapter in 2009. Additional upcoming charity events include One Warm Coat and Toys for Tots over the holidays. Coldwell banker offices will have collection boxes available.

Well, a couple of things! First and most obvious is the fact that our rainy season is just around the corner. Although it doesn’t usually start in earnest until November, it can and does rain in September. I know this for a fact!! When I moved to this area in September 1972, it rained almost every day, or so it seemed. Remember the song “They say it never rains in California.” I believed it!! So it was not quite what I expected. A prudent person would think seriously about finishing off this roof job.

1. If you already own your home, have the roof inspected now, before it starts to rain. Roofers are hard to find in a downpour, as they are then working in emergency mode;
2. If you buy a newly constructed home, buy from a reputable builder who has been in business for a long time. That builder is more experienced, and is also less likely to disappear overnight and leave you holding the bag if defects are discovered after escrow closes.

 On several occasions I have written about how some of my clients have amassed a tidy retirement fund by moving into rental properties they owned, living there at least 2 years to establish those homes as their own personal residences, and then selling them and keeping $250,000 of their profit for a single person or $500,000 for a married couple, tax free, as long as they living in the home at least 2 of the 5 years immediately preceding the sale. I have clients who have done this as many as 4 times, thus accumulating $2 million, tax free, towards their retirement.

A recent sales contract provided for the buyer's deposit check to be deposited to the escrow holder's account within 3 days of ratifying the contract. The third day after ratification happened to be on a Monday. By Thursday that week I still did not have a receipt from the title company handling the escrow for the deposit, so I phoned to ask them to send one for my file. Much to my surprise, they did not have the deposit. I called the buyer's agent to find out what was going on and she said the buyer decided to use a different account ,so she had returned the original deposit check to the buyer and she would get the replacement in "by the end of the week." My response: Not good enough.

When a client hands their agent a deposit check, they are entrusting the agent to handle it appropriately. They are "trust funds."  There are very strict rules about handling trust funds and there is absolutely no excuse for not knowing this, because every agent in California is required to complete a refresher course on "Trust Fund Handling" every 4 years. Failure to handle trust funds correctly is one of the leading reasons for agents to lose their license. Just because the buyer wanted to replace the check with a different one does not suspend the contractual obligation to get the deposit check (either the original check or a substitute check) into escrow within the time frame specified in the contract. This agent was completely unaware of her responsibilities or the seriousness of the matter.

In this case the agent listened to what I was saying and hand delivered the check to the escrow holder by late Thursday afternoon. No harm done in this case, but there could have been serious issues if the buyer had decided to back out of the contract, for example. With no deposit, how would the seller be able to claim damages? This is the stuff that lawsuits are made of, and everybody knows how quickly almost any little thing in California can escalate into a lawsuit. For heaven's sake agents, remember that this is not a parlor game we are playing. Our responsibilites as agents are serious and the potential consequences for negligence of this sort can be enormous.

Real estate can be a tricky business. Recently I listed a home that was part of a probate. The administrator lived on the east coast and we decided to collect all offers by a certain time on a certain date. The plan was that I would email all of the offers to my client. She would review them overnight and we would convene via conference call Thurs. morning to decide how to respond to the offers. I made this all clear to everybody who expressed an interest in the property.