Real Estate 101 | Sherri Stoneberger

 

About Sherri Stoneberger

Stonberger received her foundation of work ethics. growing up on a family farm in Oklahoma. She attended college at the University of Central Oklahoma, earning a degree in human development, with a physical education minor. After graduation she became a military wife and eventually settled in the Mission, Fremont area where she complete her Master’s degree in Educational Psychology while raising two children- Mark and Melissa. Upon discovering that her daughter had a debilitating illness she sought out a career with a more flexible schedule and quickly became licensed in Real Estate.

Sherri I started my career with Century 21 Mission, which eventually became Century 21 Mission-Bishop. In 2001, I joined Re/Max Executive in Fremont, which now became and revolutionized to Legacy Real Estate & Associates. Throughout her career she has received many awards and recognitions, but her most valued achievement is from the satisfied clients that she has helped to achieve their dream.

 

Interview Transcript:

 

Alan
Welcome back. I’m here today with Sherri Stoneberger. Sherri is a real estate consulting consultant with legacy Realty Sherri, welcome to today’s show.

Sherri
Thank you.

Alan
Sherri, give us your background, how you got where you are today how many years you’ve been in real estate.

Sherri
My goodness, I’ve been in real estate 26 years I started in real estate after I finished up working on a master’s degree at Cal State and decided that I needed a job with flexibility so I could manage having kids and do all the things I needed to do. What I didn’t realize that real estate’s a 24/7 job, but managing it has been something that I’ve been able to do and do well with combining family and all the other things that I do with it as well. I’ve been in the tri city areas, Fremont Union City, Pleasanton, Livermore, San Ramon area, working that area for just a long, long time, all the years of my career. And I’ve really enjoyed just just watching the transformation, I’ve been up and down cycles, several times now the upswing of cycle in 2000. And in the downturn, 2008. And then now we’re back up on a roll again. So it’s been fun watching all the transitions. And I know exactly what to expect when it comes along.

Alan
You know, you’ve been in the being in the real estate market for 26 years. And also maintaining the position of one of the top Realtors in the area is a remarkable feat. Nevertheless, what do you say your secret is to continuing to maintain the business, keep it going in both a good and a bad market.

Sherri
I think that basic it’s a balance of knowing what your clients want, and how to take care of them. And I usually end up 50% sales and 50% listings every year, at the end of the year, it’s 5050. So which means I’m still in a buyer representing buyers, as well as sellers. And so my my business has always been balanced. And you know, if you have too many listings and they’re not selling, then you’re in trouble, but you got to have the buyers and the sellers as well. So it’s a good match between both the buyers and the sellers. And that’s worked for me all these years. I’m not one particular agent that will go into a neighborhood and just less homes, I go out there still show property and make it work that way with taking care of the clients.

Alan
How does a how does a person know when a good time to buy is they may be looking at the real estate trends and say, well, it just ran up? Have I missed my chance? So how do you advise clients on that area?

Sherri
I think that they have to look at their own particular family situation, what is their motivation to buy to get into a house? Or to move up in a house? I mean, have they expanded their family? What is it that their own personal needs are at that time? And whether portability factor is there or not? So they have to look at their what their own situation is. I think that basically if you focus on, on on the family, and their needs, and the finances come and everything falls into place with making a good decision with with what they need to do you have time to buy would be what’s right for the family at that time.

Alan
Yeah. And with that said, of course you making your money on the Commission’s and selling the real estate, but do you ever advise some clients to rent versus buy?

Sherri
Yes, absolutely. And that sometimes is when they come in new into the area, and they don’t know exactly where they’re going to be or if they’re even going to like it. And sometimes it’ll instead of jumping right into it, then I just say you know, why don’t you rent in this in a good school district area before you decide to buy on a lot of times, you know, their finances are just short of what they’re being able to afford or what they want. I mean, they see that carrot dangling out there, they want to buy a house but it’s just not coming into place with the type of financing then I you know, I tell them recommend that they rent for a while and save money and then they can get more of what they want.

Alan
And what is what is what are the pros and cons of buying?

Sherri
Buying a home? Well, I think again you have to you know I kind of focus on what’s right for the family, you know what’s best for their situation and if their situation and says okay, you know I have I know I understand the five year picture the 10 year picture the 20 year picture of our lives at this time. And then you try to get them to see you know, if you if you buy now is it going to be a start home and then you can buy up, or should I just rent and save more money as a time and then buy in a better districts school district you’re better neighborhood.

Alan
I’m visiting today with Sherry stone Berger, she’s a real estate consultant with legacy Realty been in the market for 26 years, focuses on helping investors and also residential real estate sales. At Shea we need to take a quick break. We’ll be right back after these messages. And I want to get into talking about foreclosures and short sell homes. And when it is the right time to jump into that market.

Alan
Welcome back, I’m here today with Sherri Stoneberger. Sherri is a real estate consultant with legacy Realty been in the market for 26 years. She helps investors in real estate and also people either buying or selling residential homes, dabbles in the commercial market somewhat. But Sherry In today’s market, you know, with with the, I guess uncertainty, a lot of people may have overextended themselves get into situations where they need to move out of their home. Sometimes the homes get foreclosed on, sometimes they may be looking at a short sale. So when a prospective buyer comes to you say hey, Sherry, I want that deal. I want the I want the foreclosure that I could get it for pennies on the dollar or short sale to buy, you know, when the mortgage is underwater? How do you advise a client in that situation? What is it a right time for them?

Sherri
I think there’s still opportunity for short sales and foreclosures and particularly short sales, because short sells you get you end up getting a better buy on them if they were just out on the market. And usually, it’s an opportunity for a buyer to get in and start the process with just a little bit less money than they would have to pay on the just if it were not a short sale. So short sales also have turned out to be a way that people have over invested or they had a first and took out money a second loan and they can’t refinance. So they’re stuck, you know, with higher interest rates. And if they qualify, if they can show that their income has reduced by 20%, then the banks will probably allow them to do a short sale. And the good news is that they it’s a quick turnaround. Now for short sales. It’s not like it was two years ago where you know, it took sometimes up to two years to get short sell fit, finish it from start to finish. Now it’s averaging about three to four months. So in a lot of times less than that, because now some of the bigger banks have already pre approved short sales where the client goes in and says I’m in trouble and they’ll already approve it before it even goes out on the market.

Alan
So with the buyer coming to us there’s certain formula or a certain approach you would take to a short sale knowing if it’s really at the right price.

Sherri
Of course, I mean, we do all the investigations, market analysis, what they owe on it versus what the bank will take. And it’s it’s pretty, the bank usually sends out three different appraisers to do what they call a broker price opinion. So it could be a real estate agent that they’ve hired to go out and do a market analysis but they usually have at least three of them. And they average that out to come out with the price that the bank says the house should be worth. So and that’s not in, sometimes they leave a little bit accountability for the condition of the property as well because a lot of them are deferred maintenance. If they can’t afford to make the payments on the house. They certainly can’t afford to keep it up. So a lot of times you see a lot of deferred maintenance on the property. So once the the bank comes back with the three broker price opinions and they can set the price and if the buyer has offered and accepted gotten there offer accepted on a short sale. And the bank still has to approve whether that value is up to what they’re willing to accept. And they have a formula for that. I mean, it each bank is different. But usually it’s an a formula, whether their losses versus this, what they can ride off versus what they’re willing to sell it for.

Alan
The buyers when they come in, and they can still put all their contingency that they need to get the section one items on termite reports and all that, correct it?

Sherri
Usually not, it’s usually as is, however, they still have a right for other investigations. And basically, I don’t sell houses without at least all those inspections completed, because you won’t, you wouldn’t want your buyer to get into that same situation that somebody else had, you know, not being able to afford the property or keep it up. So there’s just a lot of investors who want the short sells also because they’re easy flips during bad condition. And they come in and clean them up and enough to let them

Alan
Okay. Sherri, I I’m running up against a break. And I’d like to hold you over for another segment. I’m basing Ted with Sherry stone Berger. She’s a real estate consultant with legacy real estate real estate. We’ll be right back after these messages.

Alan
Welcome back and busy here today with Sherri Stoneberger. She’s a real estate consultant with legacy real estate been in the market for 26 years. And we were talking about short sales. Sherri, let’s review the advantages of a short sale.

Sherri
Right. The advantages usually is the buyer gets a better price on the property than he would if it were all fixed up and out on the market.

Alan
And this is where the bank is actually taking a loss or not getting repaid or, you know for all the money that they lent out.

Sherri
And it allows the seller to sell his house without having a foreclosure. And foreclosure usually you can’t buy for another seven years but short sells you the sellers can get back into the market. After showing they have stability in their economic conditions in their jobs right now they can show that they have 20% stability, from the time that they had to do a short sell to when they want to reapply for a mortgage. It’s as short as one year. Now, FHA guidelines.

Alan
So this is this is a great thing, people that in the past, they were afraid to do a short sale because they couldn’t get back in they’d be stuck with renting. And so now the FHA says if you have the downpayment, and you can make the the 20% deposit for conforming loan will let you.

Sherri
They definitely are starting to ease the guidelines, they just want to make sure that the new credit that you’ve established is perfect. And that you’ve shown 20% of your economic conditions have improved since the short sale.

Alan
So the when talks about new credit they’re actually ignoring the fact that you did move out a short sale and and let’s say that they went through you had a bunch of credit card debt, you got it all cleaned up. They’re gonna let you do a fresh start them with with the seven years. Yes, good news. It is good news. And this just came out this week this week. Wow. That’s and where does person find out more information on these new FHA guidelines?

Sherri
You can go to the FHA guidelines and government loans on the web.

Alan
Okay. So Sherry, I want to move back to the prospective buyers looking for a property how do you know or how do they know if they can actually afford it? Is it really a situation where they should just depend on the bank to say, you know, we we think you can make all these payments SIRs are a process that you walk your clients through.

Sherri
There’s actually a process if first thing you you do, you’d want them to meet up with a lender reputable Lender of their choice. I can give references but it’s ultimately up to them to choose their lender. And in that process, they asked him questions about you know, what they have, what they can afford, what their plans are. And big banks don’t want to see any more than 36% of your gross income, go to your mortgage. So your housing, so which means that if you have two incomes, you know, you can probably most likely get into Bay Area housing, although we have one of the most expensive areas in the United States to buy a home. And but still at the same time, you have to look at all your tax advantages, their affordability factor, whether they’re a young family, starting their family, and if one’s going to be off work for two or three years, they have to take all those into consideration on what’s better for them at this time in their lives. So if we I usually meet with them before I would even take them out and just go through the numbers and see what they’re for affordability factor is what their plans are, is this going to be just a short term house? Or what they’re planning to do? Or is it going to be one that they’re going to stay in for 10 to 15 years?

Alan
Is there a rule of thumb for a client comes out and says, I just want to flip the house?

Sherri
Well, basically, if they just want to flip the house, we have to look for something that’s the ugliest house on the street, and has the most work to do on the street. And my investors have been very lucky in the sense that the three areas are usually a probate houses are good flippers. And usually they’re just, you know, maybe the elderly who have taken care of the house all along, but it’s not updated. That’s always a good one to flip those kinds of homes, and then the short sales and foreclosures does.

Alan
So how does housing affected the the inflation effect the housing market?

Sherri
My goodness? Well, the inflation because the it’ll reflect the interest rates, you know, what the, you know, the bond market all affects the interest rates, the interest rates have been so historically low that buyers have been able to, to go in and refinance and afford homes. So it’s stimulate the housing market, a great deal. And once the interest rates went up, then you can certainly see a little downturn in the market. I mean, not a downturn, but kind of its they build out the summer a little bit.

Alan
And where would you say, give me a recap where we’re at now with the real estate market the first half of the year, how’s that benefited? buyers market seller’s market? And where are we at now?

Sherri
Well, I can say that it’s been a seller’s market up into this point. And I think now it’s getting to be more balanced again, with buyers and sellers, because it’s kind of flattened out a bit. And it could be just the timing of the year, it always seems to slow down around August because people are busy with the last minute vacations and getting school ready and things like this and also the last quarter of the year. But I think now that you know, the big push is gone. A lot of the investors have gone so I think we’re gonna go back to a stable market. So it’s not so much a buyers market or a seller’s market, but just a nice stable market where people can enter in and good houses that are ready to go.

Alan
So pretty easy. So what what’s the sweet spot in the market? I mean, within the range is, is there a kind of like a cap at the high end houses at this level, seem to move really well. And above this level, they seem to be a little bit slower.

Sherri
It’s interesting because anything under 400,000 was selling i 20 offers on each thing, but I noticed that a lot of those are coming back on the market. So the investors had cooled off a little bit.

Alan
Hey Sherri, we’re running up I apologize. We’re running up against the break here. Quickly give us your contact information that prospective buyer or seller wants to contact you. How do they do it?

Sherri
Sherri Stoneberger Legacy Real Estate and Associates and they can find me on the web. They can Google me and find me in many places. So or they can simply call me 510-504-7177

Alan
Sherri, thank you for joining todays show Sherri Stoneberger Legacy Real Estate.

 

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This transcript was generated by software and may not accurately reflect exactly what was said.

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