This disclosure alert is to inform California real estate Brokers and Agents that:

(1) Effective January 1, 2008, a new California law (Civil Code Section 1102.6e) specifically requires the Seller to notify the Buyer of any "Private Transfer Fee" that may apply to the sale property and…

(2) This requirement will affect less than 10% of the properties sold in California, and those would only be homes in some of the subdivisions built within about the last 10 years and…

(3) The new requirement DOES NOT apply to the government "Documentary Transfer Tax" which is routinely included on the HUD-1 Settlement Statement and…

(4) We’ve got you covered — with our new "California Property Tax Disclosure Report(TM)" — at the same price!

ABOUT THE NEW LAW:

The Seller’s duty is to disclose all facts material to the transaction. The Buyer’s responsibility is to read the disclosures, along with the preliminary (title) report and applicable contracts. Nothing has changed there.

The new law shines a spotlight on a hidden cost that, often, Sellers overlook and Buyers don’t know to ask about. It’s known commonly as the "private transfer tax" (named in the law as a "Private Transfer FEE")
that a few homebuilders and community developers sometimes impose on owners within a development. The problem is that a Buyer in one of these developments can get the surprise bill months after moving in.

To avoid this surprise and comply with the law, a residential Seller must provide the Buyer with six essential elements of information about any Private Transfer Fee that affects the property. Details include the amount of the fee required for the listing price, how the fee is calculated, who ultimately receives the fee, and how the fee will be used. The California Association of Realtors(r) has designed Form NTF (11/07), "Notice of Transfer Fee," which guides the Seller in providing the Buyer with that required information. See the sample Form NTF at CAR’s link below:
http://www.car.org/library/media/papers/pdf/NTF(11_07)sample.pdf

These statutory disclosure details are often spelled out in documents recorded against the property, sometimes in CC&R’s, but often in other notices recorded under various and unpredictable names. A few examples are: "Lifestyle Fee Agreement", "First Amended Settlement Agreement & Mutual Release of Claims", "Community Benefit Fee Agreement", "Declaration Imposing Conveyance Fee and Lien", "Declaration of CC&R’s Regarding Transfer Fee", "Charitable Housing Grant", etc.

Therefore, the only failsafe way to identify them is to read all "exceptions" on the preliminary (title) report for the specific property. We don’t pretend that we can do that for you, HOWEVER…WE’VE GOT YOU COVERED!
 
Beginning in December 2007, prior to the law’s effective date, our new "California Property Tax Disclosure Report(TM)" includes a new "TRANSFER FEE/TAX ADVISORY". This advisory clearly establishes the distinction between the government "Documentary Transfer Tax" and the "Private Transfer Fee", explains to your client the law and the disclosure essentials, and guides them, "How to Determine the Existence of a Transfer Fee." Its message is clear that the only way to ensure the disclosure is made is to, "OBTAIN COPIES OF ALL OF THE EXCEPTIONS LISTED ON THE PRELIMINARY (TITLE) REPORT FROM THE TITLE COMPANY AND *READ THEM* TO DETERMINE IF ANY TRANSFER FEES ARE APPLICABLE."  ….AND THE PRICE OF OUR NEW TAX REPORT?  STILL THE SAME!
 
The new and improved California Property Tax Disclosure Report is included in the "Industry Standard Package" (with the NHD, EnviroCheck and Clue Report) for just $99.95. The "Comprehensive Report" (with the NHD) for $79.95.  This applies to both the JCP-LGS and the First American Natural Hazard brand disclosure packages as well.

If you haven’t ordered a report from us recently, please give us a try. Still the best in the business after 30 years!

Please feel free to contact me should you have any further questions.  We look forward to supporting your success in 2008.
 

Marcie Orme
Account Executive
JCP/LGS Disclosures
321 Warren Ave
Fremont, CA 94539 W: 916-838-5743

http://www.disclosures.com/

 

Things are changing so fast online, and Web 2.0 is taking over! Thats right! WEB 2.0 is taking over.. Mashups (a web application that combines data from more than one source into a single integrated tool) are the newest buzz , and there will certainly be much cooler stuff to come in the not so distant future. Hopefully these technologies will continue to make it easier to learn about, buy, sell, or rent properties. What are the coolest real estate web 2.0 sites out there right now?

 

1) Zillow Zillow came out of nowhere and took the real estate world by storm. It allows anyone to find rough estimates of the valuation of their home by searching comparible properties. While values are not always accurate, the site continues to get it better.

 

2) RealEstate ABC

RealEstate ABC just released their Beta property valuation tool to compete directly with Zillow. It uses Google Maps in its technology mashup and allows you to do cool things like adjust values of properties given certain market conditions, web 2.0 style, something Zillow does not have. They seem to have beaten Zillow at their own game.

3) Trulia Trulia scrapes real estate sites to find listings and brings it all together in a clean, well designed site. Using Google maps and RSS feeds, the site seems to have taken the lead in the future of online property listings. I’m looking forward to see how they begin to compete with Craigslist for FSBO listings.

 

4) HotPads.com

Hotpads.com is an apartment, corporate housing, and roomate search site for the next era. With interactive mapping, great graphics and free listings, this is one site to watch! (Note: they don’t have a ton of listings, yet, but this cool site will catch on)

5) Propsmart

Propsmart.com, is another site that crawls the world wid web for property listings. It uses GoogleMaps for interactivity.

6) Google

Who better than Google to use Google’s technology for real estate? KING-KONG is jumping into the game, bringing fear to the hearts of real estate web entrepreneurs everywhere.

7) HousingMaps (Honorable Mention)
HousingMaps.com is one of the innovators of the real estate space of Web 2.0. Dreamworks software engineer, Paul Rademacher, created it with a blend of Craigslist and GoogleMaps to introduce one of the first recognized real estate 2.0 websites.

Coming Soon - BiggerPockets

BiggerPockets.com is undergoing our very own Web 2.0 transformation as we speak.

These sites are all  leaders in the web 2.0 real estate.