February 23, 2010

Recycle your old cell phone

Posted to Kathy Mardiros

I just heard about a great program that many local community groups and communities are supporting. The program is called 911 Cell Phone Bank. The program reprograms old cell phones so they can be used in emergency situations only and gives them to members of the community who could not otherwise afford a cell phone. The phones are often given to those subject to domestic violence or vulnerable seniors.

The phones are collected in a number of locations nationally – go to www.911cellphonebank.com to find a location near you – and all contacts on the phone are deleted. The phone is then reprogrammed so it can only be used for 911 emergency calls. The program began in 2007 and hundreds of phones have been distributed nationally.

So if you have updated to a new phone and have an old phone sitting around, why not check out the 911 cell phone bank and help someone in your community.

Posted by:Kathy Mardiros



February 22, 2010

Participate in the 2010 Census

Posted to

The questionnaires for the 2010 census will be posted to households in the middle of March 2010. Cities expect to receive $3,000 for each resident that is counted in the census. These funds help to fund schools and other community services. Please return your completed survey by the first of April so your city receives all the benefits that they are entitled to. For more info visit: www.Fremont.gov/census.

It’s a good life!


Posted by:Kay Korbel



February 18, 2010

City of Livermore Report of Residential Building Record

Posted to Pam Dakan, Real Estate Tips

I am currently selling a house in Livermore and was unaware that the City requires a Residential Building Record report be sent to the Buyer before the property changes ownership. It just entails the Seller of the property filling out an Application with a payment for $60. Seller has to make sure they install a chimney spark arrestor and smoke detectors at the time of sale, and also is a record of any permits filed with the City, which is useful information for the Buyer.

You can call the City of Livermore Permit Center for the application at 925-960-4410, or go to www.ci.livermore.ca.us.

Posted by:Pam Dakan



February 17, 2010

Bank Owned Bargain in Union City

Posted to Pam Dakan

I have a bank owned listing for sale in Union City at 4171 Queen Anne Drive. It is located in a very nice neighborhood, close to all amenities, schools and transportation. The home has 3 bedrooms and 2 baths, is approximately 1357 square feet with a large back yard. It is in need of some TLC. It does have a separate living and family room. List price is $365,000, which is quite a bargain in that area. Please call me for a showing at 510.673-4721, or e-mail me at pam@pamdakan.com.

Check out the flyer by clicking here.

Posted by:Pam Dakan



February 16, 2010

Legacy #1 in Alameda County (San Francisco Bay Area)

Posted to Kathy Mardiros

Legacy Real Estate & Associates is the top performing company in Alameda County for 2009. Legacy with two offices – Fremont and Livermore – and about 165 sales associates out performed companies much larger in size in terms of both number of offices and number of sales associates.

If you do not know a Legacy sales associate and are interested in buying or selling in Alameda County, please give me a call at 925-287-0550 or email me and I will put you in touch with one of our sales associates.

Posted by:Kathy Mardiros



February 10, 2010

Is your to do list out of control?

Posted to

Do you feel like you cannot keep your head above water? Do you feel like there are not enough hours in the day to complete the list of items on your to do list?

Here are a few helpful tips to help you take the pressure off and hopefully get better organized.

  • Keep your personal phone number to yourself; don’t give it to clients or colleagues.
  • Keep your work phone number out of the hands of your friends.
  • Turn off instant messaging and e-mail alert functions on your computer.
  • Stop checking personal emails during your normal work hours.
  • Place a red sticker or highlight dot in the upper right hand corner on each paper each time you handle it. Quickly you will discover the benefit of handling each task as it presents itself to you.

It’s a good life!


Posted by:Kay Korbel



February 09, 2010

IRVINGTON HIGH SCHOOL SOCCER FUNDRAISER

Posted to Area Attractions, Pam Dakan

My son Anthony played Junior Varsity soccer for Irvington High School for the last few months and they had their big fundraiser for the year, the 31st Annual Crab Feed! Parents donated baskets for the big raffle.

We made a Movie Night Theme, filled with goodies, Orange Crème Soda, Milk Duds, Blockbuster movie rental gift cards, popcorn, pretty much everything you would need for a great night in with movies. I get my baskets from the Gourmet Gift Horse, a company on the Peninsula. They do such a great job when I order gift baskets for my clients. I have personalized ribbon with them and I can use them as promotional items as well!

I helped with checking in people for the first hour – I saw parents I hadn’t seen in years, back from when my son played at Warm Springs Little League. I had no idea there would such a great turnout! I think there were over 400 people that came!

The kids all helped serving, wearing their soccer shirts, and were hustling to get everyone what they needed, be it carafes of unlimited wine, or salad, followed by spaghetti. It was all quite good, however, it was my first crab feed and I wasn’t as prepared as some of the veterans that have obviously been to a few crab feeds. I mean, parents bought home prepared cocktail sauce, fondue sets, and their own bottles of wine, as well as crab cracking tools! It was great! The crab was plentiful. I think I ate enough crab to see me through until next season!

Bill Aboumrad, my boss at Legacy Real Estate & Associates came with his whole family! It was nice to see support from my brokerage. Thanks Bill! Marie Rice, my office mate also came and supported the event.

It was fun, and I’ll sure be helping out again next year!

Posted by:Pam Dakan



February 08, 2010

Privacy Settings on Facebook

Posted to

A great article was published in the BayEast Realtor magazine, it was written by Kim Komodo regarding privacy settings on Facebook. It never occured to me how much personal information I had on my Facebook page. After reading Kim’s article, I made some changes in what info I share on my Facebook page. Here is a quick list of some changes you may wish to consider making in an effort to strike the right balance between openness and privacy.

  • Your profile, photo, location, fan pages and friends list are open to everyone. You may choose to make some of this private.
  • Search sites can find your Facebook pages.
  • Co-workers may be able to see your photos.
  • Prospective employers may search and find questionable or offensive posts and pictures. Remove anything you would not want a prospective employer or your employer to know about you.
  • Consider the email address you use…marketers can upload your email and learn a lot about you. Consider using a pseudo email address.

To read or subscribe to Kim’s free email newsletters, sign up at: www.komando.com/newsletters.


Posted by:Kay Korbel



February 05, 2010

California Proposition 90 and Proposition 60

Posted to

This is a constitutional initiative passed by California voters that allows proposition 60 to be modified by local government ordinance(s). Prop 60 provides property tax relief by preventing property reassessment when a homeowner/citizen is 55 years and sells their owner occupied residence and buys or constructs a replacement home worth the same or less than the home they sell. This applies when the replacement property is in the same county.

Proposition 90 allows those sellers that meet the criteria to transfer the current assessed base year value of their home located in one (8) participating California counties. Those counties are Alameda, Los Angeles, Orange, San Diego, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Ventura and now El Dorado. El Dorado County had just passed the PROP90 ordinance as well and will begin to accept transfers starting February 15, 2010. For more information, please click here.


Posted by:Kay Korbel



February 03, 2010

Work to Live versus Live to Work

Posted to Pam Dakan

Having just returned from a 3 week trip to Paris and London, it amazed me just how many of us here in the U.S. simply live to work.

The standard paid vacation for most salaried jobs in Paris is approximately 6 weeks, meaning most people take what I call “real vacations” of two weeks at a time, three times a year. The standard work week is 37.5 hours per week. Personally, being born and raised in London, this was true for over there also. If you go visit many places in Europe during the month of August, you will find that everyone is on vacation, enjoying time with their friends and family. Here in the States, one is lucky to get two full paid weeks of vacation. I think people are more productive when they have something to look forward to and work harder if they know there’s a vacation coming up. Don’t you find that when you are going on vacation, you rush to get everything done and you are way more productive? I do.

And so, I realized, it’s important to prioritize what is important. Living to work is not it, for me. Working to live? Now that’s a concept…really living means being able to enjoy the money you make. Unfortunately it seems most Americans are so deep in debt this may not be possible. So people commute and are on the road several hours a day, working from 8 to 5 or 6, not getting home until late in the evening, leaving their kids to be raised by others. This is quite unfortunate. I can’t change the way people live their lives, but maybe we could take a lesson from the Europeans and enjoy our lives a little bit more, spend time with those who really matter a little bit more.

Posted by:Pam Dakan



February 03, 2010

Problems Paying your Wachovia/World Savings Loan?

Posted to Kathy Mardiros

During one of our many Legacy Real Estate sales meetings, I learned that World Savings was one of the most popular lenders throughout California prior to acquisition by Wachovia. World held all their loans in their own portfolio meaning that none of the World loans were sold to other investors or banks.

At the present time about 40,000 customers holding these loans are a minimum of 60 days late in paying. What is Wachovia doing to help the homeowner? At the present time Wachovia has a loan modification department that wants to talk to any homeowner that is late in paying or is current on their loan but facing a financial hardship. The loan modification department may be able to help modify the loan so that the homeowner can stay in the property.

If that fails, Wachovia has streamlined the short sale process. A short sale is a situation in which the lender agrees to take less for the property than is owed. The property owner lists the property with a real estate agent (as time is of the essence, select an agent who has experience working with short sales) and the listing agent contacts Wachovia right away. Wachovia then orders a desktop or drive by appraisal on the property to get an idea of the property value. When an offer acceptable to the seller is received, the listing agent contacts Wachovia with the necessary paperwork. Wachovia will respond within a week to ten days in the form of a pay off demand as to the terms and conditions they will accept for the property. In the pay off demand, it indicates Wachovia will not go after the seller for any deficiency but a 1099 will be issued to the property owner. An approved short sale can close in about 28 days!

Approximately 22% of the loans have a second or line of credit loan behind the first. This does complicate things as Wachovia will only allow for a portion of that loan amount to be paid and it will be stipulated in the pay off demand that – usually 10 – 20% of the value of the second loan. Depending on who the lender is on the second or line of credit this may or may not work.

Additionally Wachovia does provide for a payment to the seller at closing so that the seller will have funds to move out of the property and rent a new residence.

A short sale or foreclosure does affect the property owner’s credit score. If the property owner was current on the loan and a short sale negotiated, the credit score will go down 30 – 60 points on average. If the property was late, the credit score goes down 60 – 80 points on average. If the property goes to foreclosure, the credit score goes down 200 – 300 points on average. There may be other factors such as late payments to other entities that further impact the credit score.

Wachovia is truly trying to help the property owner who cannot meet the mortgage obligation through a loan modification or short sale. If you are having trouble paying on your Wachovia/World Savings loan and would like to talk to one of our sales associates about your options, give me a call at 925-287-0550 or email me at kmardiros@legacyrealestateassociates.com and I will put you in touch with an agent who can help you determine what would work best in your situation.

Posted by:Kathy Mardiros



February 01, 2010

Buying a New or Pre Owned Car

Posted to

As a long time Costco member (formerly Price Club) I have purchased (2) new cars thru the Costco Auto Program (CAP). For the past (10) years Costco has helped more than 2 million members purchase cars. Here is a short list of the reasons I would use this program again.

  • Pre arranged pricing for Costco members
  • NO haggling over the price
  • NO surprises you get what you order
  • Shop at more than 2000 pre selected dealerships nationwide
  • Pre selected/designated personnel at each dealership-I used the fleet manager for both my new car purchases

In most cities, you can use the Costco Auto Program for a factory certified pre owned vehicle including (in some areas) boats and recreational vehicles. With those purchases, you may get a factory extended warranty at no additional cost. For more information visit: www.Costco.com and enter “WEB4ME” in the search box.

It’s a good life!


Posted by:Kay Korbel