On a recent evaluation of what's a really great buy in the desert, the following properties are ready for the plucking;

2.5 acres in La Quinta Polo Estates for $225,000! An additional adjoining 2.5 acres is available. This is an amazing value for hold or to build a compound.

An amzing home in Indian Wells with 4 bedrooms with 3 bathrooms and a pool AND golf at two great courses for $35 per round!  Close to El Paseo and just $499,000!

Many of my golfing clients looking to make the desert their primary residence, always ask me about my teaching and coaching of PGA pros. How can they use their skills and education and more importantly, their love of golf, so they too can teach golf.

Below is a recent article that I send to my clients. A little different aspect but variety is the spice of life.




In recognition of the industry's growth and the demand for qualified golf pros, the PGTAA golf instruction school was established to provide extensive training to individuals as well as many established golf teachers with years of experience behind them. Aside from the PGA, PGTAA certification is the most highly sought after teaching designation from any golf instruction school. Becoming a PGTAA professional is one of the most important steps you will take during your professional golf teaching career. Becoming associated and certified by the PGTAA enhances ones credibility, fine tunes teaching skills and enhances earning capacity. PGTAA graduates have achieved positions including head professional at private as well as public country clubs, golf schools, driving ranges, golf learning centers, indoor driving ranges as well as becoming high school and college coaches. Graduates also hold positions as managers of both public and private golf facilities.

Use mortgage preapproval to your advantage


The home-sale market is showing signs of life. More buyers are confident now than they were a year ago that now might be a good time to buy. Interest rates are near all-time lows and home prices in some areas are back to 2002-2003 levels.

Some analysts are finally suggesting that we may be headed for recovery. If you have a secure job, plan to stay put and feel this is the right time for you to buy a home, consider the following.


In most places in the country, home prices are still declining. It has only been recently that the market picked up and it's too soon to know if this will result in a sustainable increase in prices.

The recent home sales in areas around California's Silicon Valley defy the norm. Significant job growth in the area combined with a low inventory of good homes for sale has resulted in multiple offers with buyers bidding the price up sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars over the asking price.

In other high-demand, low-inventory areas, you may find yourself bidding against other buyers, perhaps even more than once. This doesn't necessarily mean that the price will be bid up significantly over the asking price. This will vary from one listing to the next depending on property location, condition and price.


It's important to research the local community where you want to buy. Find out what homes are selling for, if multiple offers are common and if listings are selling for more than the asking price. This will help you make a realistic offer that might be accepted when you find a home you'd really like to buy. It helps to work with an experienced local real estate agent.


Some sellers in high-demand niche markets intentionally list their home at a low price hoping to stimulate multiple offers. If you see such a listing and there are a lot of buyers wanting to make offers, you will be better able to know how high your offer would need to be to win the contest if you have done your due diligence.



HOUSE HUNTING TIP: Whether you're anticipating competition or not, you should be preapproved for the mortgage you'll need to complete the purchase before you write an offer. In competition, this will make a big difference, particularly if everyone else who is offering is preapproved. It also lets you know what you can afford. And, it puts you in a good bargaining position with the seller.


Buyers aren't the only participants in the housing market that have heard the news that the market has improved. Some sellers are putting their homes on the market because they've been waiting for a better time to sell. This is good news for buyers looking in low-inventory markets.




You should expect that you will have to negotiate. Many of today's sellers are selling for less than they paid. Even though the market has improved a bit, sellers may be disappointed with the current market value of their home. Be prepared to negotiate, not just the initial price, but after inspections are completed if items come up that you hadn't anticipated.


Include realistic contingency time frames in your purchase contract for loan and appraisal approval if you're applying for a mortgage. The recent uptick in the market means that lenders are suddenly overwhelmed.


In mid-March, buyers in Oakland, Calif., who were seeking approval for a jumbo loan were told they could close a transaction in 21 days. Not only could they not close in 21 days, it took more than 21 days for loan approval due to lender backlog.


THE CLOSING: Underwriters could require that additional conditions be met before you can be approved. Act quickly to avoid further delay.

Dian Hymer, a real estate broker with more than 30 years' experience, is a nationally syndicated real estate columnist and author of "House Hunting: The Take-Along Workbook for Home Buyers" and "Starting Out, The Complete Home Buyer's Guide."

Both sales and prices of desert homes and condos in several desert cities were on the rise again during the first quarter of 2012 compared to the same period of ‘11. Over $608 million of desert property was sold during the first quarter in the five most active desert cities listed below.






Indian Wells: Sales UP +21.05% / Average sales price +11.90% to $917,983


La Quinta: Sales UP +9.35% / Average sales price +3.28% to $588,105


Palm Desert: Sales UP +3.45% / Average sales price +1.93% to $455,488


Palm Springs: Sales UP+2.07% - Average sales price -1.93% to $428,130


Rancho Mirage: Sales DOWN -4.26% - Average sales price -7.96% to $578,496


Indio: Sales DOWN -9.46% - Average sales price +2.09% to $308,879



2012 1st. Quarter Sales Volume By Price Segment Versus those of 2011's 1st. Quarter


Homes sold from $200,000 to $399,999: +3.14%


$400,000 to $599,999: +1.92%


$600,000 to $799,999: -1.81%


$800,000 to $999,999: +4.35%


$1M to $1,499,999: +29.90%


$1.5M to $1,999,999: +9.10%


$2 Million and greater: +15.65%


Data Source: Desert Area MLS sales of homes and condos sold in the first quarter of 2012 compared to 2011 in the cities of Indian Wells, Rancho Mirage, Indio, La Quinta, Palm Desert and Palm Springs. Data extrapulated from numerous reliable sources.


Disclosure: Data is deemed to be accurate but cannot be guaranteed.






Seeing declining inventories, several optimistic local and national new-home developers, especially in La Quinta, have either broken ground or are considering purchasing land and lots and building new homes again. Builders such as Lennar with the Bridges at Jefferson, Sedona Homes at The Hideaway and RJT Homes with Cordoniz . In January alone, builders took out over 200 building permits in Riverside County, which is more than the entire last six months of 2011.

Banks, accelerating efforts to move troubled mortgages off their books, are offering as much as $35,000 or more in cash to delinquent homeowners to sell their properties for less than they owe.

Lenders have routinely delayed or blocked such transactions, known as short sales, in which they accept less from a buyer than the seller’s outstanding loan. Now banks have decided the deals are faster and less costly than foreclosures, which have slowed in response to regulatory probes of abusive practices. Banks are nudging potential sellers by pre-approving deals, streamlining the closing process, forgoing their right to pursue unpaid debt and in some cases providing large cash incentives, said Bill Fricke, senior credit officer for Moody’s Investors Service in New York.

Losses for lenders are about 15 percent lower on the sales than on foreclosures, which can take years to complete while taxes and legal, maintenance and other costs accumulate, according to Moody’s. The deals accounted for 33 percent of financially distressed transactions in November, up from 24 percent a year earlier, said CoreLogic Inc., a Santa Ana, California-based real estate information company.

Karen Farley hadn’t made a mortgage payment in a year when she got what looked like a form letter from her lender.

“You could sell your home, owe nothing more on your mortgage and get $30,000,” JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) said in the Aug. 17 letter obtained by Bloomberg News.

$200,000 Short
Farley, whose home construction lending business dried up after the housing crash, said the New York-based bank agreed to let her sell her San Marcos, California, home for $592,000 -- about $200,000 less than what she owes. The $30,000 will cover moving costs and the rental deposit for her next home. Farley, who is also approved for an additional $3,000 through a federal incentive program, is scheduled to close the deal Feb. 10.

“I wondered, why would they offer me something, and why wouldn’t they just give me the boot?” Farley, 65, said in a telephone interview. “Instead, I’m getting money.”

Tom Kelly, a JPMorgan spokesman, declined to comment on the company’s incentives.

“When a modification is not possible, a short sale produces a better and faster result for the homeowner, the investor and the community than a foreclosure,” he said in an e-mail.

A mountain of pending repossessions is holding back a recovery in the housing market, where prices have fallen for six straight years, and damping economic growth. Owners of more than 14 million homes are in foreclosure, behind on their mortgages or owe more than their properties are worth, said RealtyTrac Inc., a property-data company in Irvine, California.

Foreclosure Holdouts

Short sales represented 9 percent of all U.S. residential transactions in November, the most recent month for which data is available, up from 2 percent in January 2008, according to Corelogic. Bank-owned foreclosures and short sales sold at a discount of 34 percent to non-distressed properties in the third quarter, according to RealtyTrac.

As lenders shift their focus to sales, they are finding that some borrowers would rather risk repossession while they wait for a loan modification, according to Guy Cecala, publisher of Inside Mortgage Finance, a trade journal. In a loan modification, the monthly payment, and sometimes principal, is reduced to help prevent seizure. Homeowners facing foreclosure may live rent-free for years before they are forced out.

“That’s why the banks have got to pay the big bucks,” Cecala said. “The real question is why is the bribe so big? Is that what it takes to get somebody out of their home?”

Multiple Banks
Banks also pay a few thousand dollars to the owners of second liens, whose loans can be wiped out by a short sale, to encourage them not to block the deals.

While JPMorgan is giving the largest incentive payments, other banks and mortgage investors are also offering them, according to interviews with 12 real estate agents in Arizona, California, Florida, New York and Washington. Lenders also provide incentives on loans they service and don’t own when the mortgage investor, such as a hedge fund, requests it.

JPMorgan, the biggest U.S. bank, approves about 5,000 short sales a month. It generally offers $10,000 to $35,000 in cash payments at settlement, real estate agents said. Not all of the sales include incentives.

Borrowers also can receive payments from the federal government’s Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternatives program, which in 2010 began offering as much as $1,500 to servicers, $2,000 to investors and $3,000 to homeowners who complete short sales.

Quicker Resolution
For banks, approving a sale for less than is owed on the home can cut a year or more off the time it takes to unload a property. From listing to sale, the transactions took about 123 days on average at the end of last year, according to the Campbell/Inside Mortgage Finance HousingPulse Tracking Survey.

Lenders spend an average of 348 days to foreclose in the U.S. and an additional 175 days to sell the property, according to RealtyTrac. In New York, a state that requires court approval for repossessions, it takes about four years to foreclose on a home and then resell it, the company said.

Lenders can often afford to forgive debt, offer the incentive and still make a profit because they purchased the loan from another bank at a discount, said Trent Chapman, a Realtor who trains brokers and attorneys to negotiate with banks for short sales.

Chapman, who also writes a blog on TheShortSaleGenius.com, said he’s heard about 50 homeowners who have received incentives from lenders including JPMorgan, Wells Fargo & Co., Citigroup Inc. and Ally Financial Inc.

Wells Fargo
“My guess is they want to get rid of bad loans,” Chapman said. “If they short sale these types of loans, they have less of a headache and have some goodwill with the homeowner.”

Wells Fargo, based in San Francisco, offers relocation assistance of as much as $20,000 for borrowers who complete short sales or agree to transfer title through a deed in lieu of foreclosure “in certain states with extended foreclosure timelines, including Florida,” Veronica Clemons, a spokeswoman, said in an e-mail.

Bank of America Corp. sent letters to 20,000 Florida homeowners as part of a pilot program, offering incentives of as much as $20,000, or 5 percent of the unpaid loan balance, Jumana Bauwens, a spokeswoman, said in an e-mail. The program expired in December and the Charlotte, North Carolina-based bank hasn’t decided whether to introduce it in other states, she said. About 15 percent of the homeowners agreed to participate in the program, she said.

Citigroup Offers
“The bank is pleased with the response,” Bauwens wrote. “The state is experiencing higher foreclosure rates than other parts of the country and is therefore seen as a viable market to gauge incremental short-sale response and completion rates when presenting homeowners with relocation assistance at closing.”

Citigroup offers $3,000 to most borrowers who qualify for its program, but the “amount may increase based on the circumstances of each individual case,” Mark Rodgers, a spokesman for the New York-based bank, said in an e-mail. “Investor programs have different guidelines for relocation incentives, which we honor.”

Susan Fitzpatrick, a spokeswoman for Detroit-based Ally, didn’t comment specifically on incentives when asked about them.

Borrowers typically can’t negotiate the incentives, which arrive by mail, Chapman, the Realtor, said.

Tap on Shoulder
“It’s not really easy to identify the guidelines because Chase doesn’t tell you, they kind of tap you on the shoulder,” he said. “When I first saw it in January 2011, I thought it was a joke or a typo. I was convinced it must say $3,000, not $30,000.”

Offering enough for the homeowner to put down a deposit on a rental apartment is reasonable, said Sean O’Toole, chief executive officer of ForeclosureRadar.com, which tracks sales of foreclosed properties. Giving tens of thousands of dollars to delinquent homeowners sends the wrong message, particularly if they got into trouble by running up home-equity loans during the housing boom, he said.

“It may make sense for people to walk away, it doesn’t make sense for them to get rewarded for doing it,” O’Toole said. “It’s not the homeowner’s fault that house prices dropped so dramatically, but they have already received months of free rent, if not cash out.”

Cecala of Inside Mortgage Finance said he wonders whether lenders are making big payments on properties with underlying title problems. Evan Berlin, managing partner of Berlin Patten, a real estate law firm in Sarasota, Florida, said representatives of a large bank told him the incentives are primarily given to borrowers when it doesn’t have the proper paperwork needed to win its foreclosure case. He declined to name the bank for publication.

Incentive Disconnect
State attorneys general across the U.S. began investigating foreclosure practices in October 2010 following allegations that the nation’s top mortgage servicers were using faulty documents to repossess homes.

Berlin said his office negotiated about 400 short sales in the past year and about a quarter included an incentive, ranging from $3,000 to $48,000. In some cases, the payments aren’t incentives at all because they’re offered after the borrower has almost completed the short sale, he said.

“The idea is that this is relocation assistance,” Berlin said. “But when you’re offering $48,000, obviously it doesn’t cost $48,000 to relocate.”

Cooperation Sought
The size of the payment may have little to do with sales price. JPMorgan gave one Phoenix homeowner $20,000 after she sold her property in June for $32,000, according to Royce Hauger, the real estate agent who represented the seller and shared a copy of the settlement sheet with Bloomberg News. The bank also agreed to forgive more than $70,000 in debt, she said.

Kelly, the JPMorgan spokesman, declined to comment on the payment. Kris Pilles, a Riverhead, New York-based real estate broker who represents banks, servicers and hedge funds that own distressed housing debt.


The homeowners are getting the money in exchange for their cooperation, said Pilles is frequently dispatched to the homes of delinquent borrowers to explain the benefits of avoiding foreclosure, he said. His clients have paid as much as $92,500. In return, the lenders expect the seller to clean the house before showings, and trim the grass.

“Money talks,” Pilles said. “From the bank side, it’s anything to initiate a conversation with someone who may not be listening to them.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Prashant Gopal in New York at pgopal2@bloomberg.net