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MARIN REAL ESTATE BLOG

 

Mar 31

Housing Density AB-1537, Matt Hughes voted as President-Elect of MAR, MAR Monday Memo 03/31/14

By Legislation, Marin Association of Realtors, Marin Real Estate News

Good morning MAR members!

As I write this on Friday afternoon, it seems that we’re in for a soggy weekend.  Sunday appears to be mostly dry, so hopefully your open houses weren’t a washout…but the long awaited “Miracle March” for our water supply may well be coming together these last few days of the month.

It was a busy week at MAR!  Last week, MAR President-Elect Nate Sumner alerted me that due to some unexpected circumstances he will be unable to fulfill his responsibilities as MAR President next year.  MAR Bylaws call for a simple majority of the Board of Directors to replace any Board or Executive Committee position.  Luckily for MAR, we’ve built a deep “bench” over the past few years, and I’m pleased to announce that the Board of Directors voted unanimously on Friday to appoint MAR Secretary and Executive Committee member Matt Hughes as 2014 President-Elect.  Matt will serve as your 2015 MAR President.  Matt is the right man for the job, and we are all lucky that MAR was able to fill this important position at a very important time with such a well-qualified candidate.  Please join me in congratulating Matt Hughes!

Last Friday, MAR CEO Andy Fegley, MAR Treasurer Arun Burrell and myself all paid a visit to Assemblyman Mark Levine’s office in San Rafael.  It was important to make the introduction of CEO Fegley, and we also wanted to express MAR’s strong support for Assemblyman Levine’s bill, AB 1537, which lowers the potential density of future Marin housing developments from 30 units per acre to 20 units per acre.

This potential density is at the core of many of the spirited discussions we’ve had here in Marin over the past year…and discussions we continue to have.  In addition to expressing our support for his bill, MAR also asked Assemblyman Levine what we can do to help.  Assemblyman Levine was delighted to learn of our support, and these conversations are ongoing.

Housing density has been one of the key debates in our community over the past year, and I expect it will be for the foreseeable future.

The debate on housing reached a fever pitch last summer with the debate over Plan Bay Area.  These spirited discussions continue to this day.  MAR’s Board of Directors voted last May to oppose Plan Bay Area, on the basis that it circumvented local control.  MAR was one of the earliest organizations in the county to oppose the measure, and we voiced our opposition to the Board of Supervisors, and publicly in an op-ed in the Marin IJ.

The housing density that was and continues to be dictated to us from outside the county was an easy issue to oppose.  Local leaders should have the final say on local planning decisions.  Much more complicated, however, have been the individual Housing Element plans that each municipality and the county overall have been crafting.  These are complex plans, with an enormous amount of detail that each town has invested a great deal of time to complete.  There was really no way for MAR to become experts on each housing element given the voluminous nature of each plan.

In addition, MAR has not had a policy regarding housing in the context of the current debate.  Until now.

MAR’s Government Affairs Committee is where these issues have been explored.  We’ve been talking about housing for the better part of a year now, and it comes up at nearly every meeting.  MAR has shared our position on the 30-units-per-acre density with every elected official who has come before us.  Many of you have come before this committee to share your position on the subject.

Honestly, we could spend every monthly Government Affairs committee meeting solely on housing during this critical time.  Earlier this year, MAR’s Board of Directors created the Housing Density Subcommittee under the Government Affairs Committee to focus on these issues and free up the main committee to be able to review other issues in addition to housing.  Missy Crowe was named to Chair this subcommittee.

The first order of business was to craft a Housing Policy for MAR to utilize to inform its decision making process going forward.  I’m pleased to announce that the Housing Density Subcommittee crafted and approved this policy statement.  The Policy Statement then worked its way through the Government Affairs Committee and finally the Board of Directors voted to approve the statement last week after several modifications.  You can read the MAR Policy Statement on Housing Density here.

One of the keys to this Statement, and to the process we are all witnessing, is transparency.  The public needs to know what’s going on, and to have the ability to participate and provide input.  This is increasingly what is occurring, and the voters of Marin County will ultimately have the opportunity to hold their elected officials accountable on this subject.

MAR applauds the ongoing participation of the public on this debate.  Many of MAR’s members have taken outspoken positions, which is fantastic.  Participate in the public process in Marin County, MAR members!  Make sure your voices continue to be heard, regardless of your position.

In other news, the California Association of REALTORS Spring Business Meetings are coming up at the end of April.  I encourage all of you to participate in Leg Day in Sacramento on Wednesday April 30th.  If you make it to the morning session, you will have the opportunity to hear Governor Jerry Brown, who will be addressing CAR.  It’s a truly exciting event, and going to Sacramento to participate in the Business of the People is an experience that is difficult to explain short of doing it.  The REALTOR Party making our voices heard!  If you’ve never been, consider making the investment of one day to see your statewide association in action.

MAR’s representatives on the CAR Board of Directors need your feedback, as always.  In addition to myself, MAR’s CAR Directors include President-Elect Matt Hughes, Kay Moore, Mary Kay Yamamoto, and Katie Beacock.  Katie is also the Chairperson of CAR Region 4, of which MAR is a part.  If you have anything on your mind that you think our leaders at CAR need to hear…or that you think our elected leaders need to her…please seek out one of us via phone or email.  That’s the most important thing we do at CAR:  make sure the voices of our MAR members…YOUR voices…are heard at the statewide level.

That’s it for this week.  Again, please join me in congratulating MAR’s 2014 President Elect, Matt Hughes.

I wish you a safe and prosperous week!

Blaine

Mar 24

Salmon, Resale Inspections and the Ongoing Flood Insurance Conversation. MAR Monday Memo 03/24/14

By Legislation, Marin Association of Realtors, Marin Community News, Marin Real Estate News, Regulations

Good morning MAR members!

Spring is here, even though it’s felt like spring all winter.  I saw in the paper the other day that we just had the warmest winter on record for California…it really didn’t feel that way in December and January, when it was in the mid 20s every night at my house for about six weeks straight…no rain and frigid night temps killed much of my landscaping.  The citrus trees hated it.  That’s well behind us now, and the weather has been phenomenal for much of our winter.

Multiple offers all around.  Two offers, five offers, ten offers, more?  Every property of interest to my buyers is a brutal competition.  We seem to have more listings, and the data bears that out, but whether it’s in the flats or in the hills, it seems like every house on the market has plenty of buyers as long as it’s priced correctly.  Let’s get our sellers off the fence!

One final reminder for the Celebration of Catherine Munson’s life.  It will be held at the Marin Veteran’s Memorial Auditorium at the Marin Civic Center in San Rafael, this Thursday, March 27.  Doors will open at 1:00 pm, the service will begin at 2:00 pm, with music, food and joy to continue afterwards.  In lieu of flowers, the family prefers donations to Project Amigo, 14 Commercial Blvd., Suite 199, Novato, CA  94949.

This has been a truly amazing time to be the leader of MAR and to be able to witness firsthand the profound impact that Catherine has had on so many of our members and the community.  She touched so many in so many ways.  In meeting after meeting, people have shared heartfelt anecdotes about Catherine, and she will be missed very much.

On to what’s happening this week:

Salmon, resale inspections and the ongoing flood insurance conversation.

At my request, over the past couple of weeks, Donna Lahey of MAR staff performed a lot of due diligence with the county about where we sit right now in regards to the Marin County Streamside Conservation Ordinance.  As you may know, this is an ordinance that MAR opposed last year due to its vagueness, arbitrary rules, and compromise of private property rights throughout unincorporated Marin.

With all of that said, it was passed by the Board of Supervisors last year, and the Marin County Streamside Conservation Ordinance was the law of the land.  There have been several appeals, however, and two weeks ago the ordinance was sent back to the Board of Supervisors by the California Court of Appeal on the grounds that the Environmental Impact Report (EIR) was not thorough enough; the courts ruled that the impacts of long-term development on the salmon populations was not taken into enough consideration.  So the courts sent it back to redo the EIR.  The Court of Appeals also ruled that the prior building moratorium in the San Geronimo Valley was not valid either, and so no more building moratorium.  That is great news, and it looks like the building moratorium won’t come back around.

The upshot of this is that the 2007 Marin County General Plan, of which the Streamside Conservation Ordinance is a part, has been blown up as it relates to the San Geronimo Valley.  Rather than the 2007 General Plan, now the 1994 General Plan is the law of the land in the San Geronimo Valley.

Stay with me here.

As best as we can verify at the County, the building guidelines of the 1994 General Plan are in effect in the San Geronimo Valley.  Curiously, the guidelines of the 2007 General Plan are in effect for the rest of unincorporated Marin County.  The Streamside Conservation Ordinance has been declared invalid.  And the San Geronimo Valley building moratorium was declared invalid and thus no more building moratorium.

What I’ve been trying to get at is, “How in the world do we advise our clients and property owners?”  I had a camo this week in the San Geronimo Valley, and a couple of the top agents in the Valley told me that “No one knows what’s going on.”  You think?

The question that I had…which is still not answered by the county:  Let’s say I have a house in the Valley.  Let’s say I want to do something (repair my deck, add some space, rebuild my driveway, etc).  What rules am I operating under?  According to the County’s press release (click here to read:  http://www.marincounty.org/main/newsroom/press-releases/2014/eir-ruling), it’s the 1994 planning guidelines.

So let’s say I start a permitting process in the Valley under the 1994 guidelines, and before I’m done, this all gets resolved…do I get to finish my project under the 1994 guidelines?  Or will it be the 2007 guidelines?  Or will there be new guidelines?  I still cannot answer that question.  MAR’s Donna Lahey was interacting with Brent Ainsworth, the County’s Public Information Officer.  His response to this question was: “We’re still working on an answer to that other question. The court ruling is so fresh, the answer is being hashed out among our attorneys and community planners. We’ll try to get back to you soon.”

Again, as I understand it, other unincorporated areas like Sleepy Hollow, Marinwood, Kentfield, Tam Valley, etc, are still under the 2007 General Plan…minus the Streamside Conservation Ordinance.

Confused?  So am I.  Sorry for the incomplete info, but I think we need to be talking and thinking about all of this.  I think it’s best to advise our clients that there are a lot of moving pieces that will hopefully become clearer in the coming weeks and months.

More on resale inspections

Lots of feedback from members on my comments a couple of weeks ago about one of our large municipalities that is busy “cleaning up past mistakes” and engaging in “double jeopardy.”  The staff in this town seems to be admitting as much:  “we made mistakes in the past, now we’re trying to correct those mistakes.”  Thank you to Matt MacPhee for coming to MAR’s Government Affairs Committee meeting last week during “open forum” time to detail the challenges he is having with this building department.

This kind of feedback is essential to MAR, and best delivered in person during “open forum”, which we have at 9:00 AM before both the monthly Government Affairs Committee meeting and also before the monthly Board of Directors meeting.  This is YOUR association, and we welcome and encourage you to come in and tell us what’s going on.  About anything.  PLEASE take advantage of this, emails are great, but there is no substitute for the color and detail that our members can provide during this open time, and it allows for valuable Q&A.

MAR is focused on ensuring that the building officials and elected officials in our Marin municipalities know the value of our Fair Principles of Resale Inspections.  We are working on getting the leadership of this municipality in question to come in and tell us what they are doing and why they think it’s ok.

Flood Insurance Update

Good news!  According to NAR, last Friday, President Obama signed the “Homeowner Flood Insurance Affordability Act” into law.  This law repeals FEMA’s authority to increase premium rates at time of sale or new flood map, and refunds the excessive premium to those who bought a property before FEMA warned them of the rate increase.  The bill limits premium increases to 18 percent annually on newer properties and 25 percent for some older ones.  Additionally, the bill adds a small assessment on policies until everyone is paying full cost for flood insurance.

That’s it for now.

I wish you a safe and prosperous week!

Blaine

Mar 17

General Membership Meeting Highlights, Flood Insurance Update – MAR Monday Memo 03/17/14

By California Association of Realtors, Legislation, Marin Association of Realtors, Marin Real Estate News

Good morning MAR members!

Happy St. Patrick’s Day.  Please enjoy your green beverages and snacks in moderation!

Spring is here, believe it or not!  The official first day of spring is Thursday, but it’s felt like spring real estate for a couple of weeks here in Marin.  Just as agents were lamenting an “inventory crisis”, here comes the inventory.  At our MAR General Membership meeting last Tuesday, Steve Dickason shared that we have 2.5 months of inventory in Marin right now, and that’s the most in 15 months.  I personally was scrambling to see all the places on tour this week, and I expect most of you feel the same way.  Let’s keep those listings coming MAR!

Speaking of last week’s General Membership Meeting, we had another sellout!   Thank you for all of your positive comments about the program and our efforts at MAR to provide you with timely and relevant information to use in your business and share with your clients.

Some highlights of the meeting:

  • Per Steve Dickason, with a year to year comparison, in Marin pendings are down 13%, listings are up 13%, and closings are down 10%.  That sounds to me like short inventory earlier in the year with things starting to turn around.
  • Also per Steve, average days-on-market for closed sales this year are 64 DOM; last year it was 92 DOM.
  • Another anecdote that I found interesting:  30 years ago in California, there were 5 Realtors for every lawyer.  Now there are two lawyers for every Realtor.  So be careful out there, and keep a tight file.
  • Guv Hutchison from the CAR legal department was our keynote speaker, and he had an enormous amount of useful info.  An interesting new law that started this year on January 1 is a change in the 140+ year-old law involving fences: in the past, if you and a neighbor shared a fence, and one property owner wanted to replace the fence, that property owner could ask the other property owner to split the cost…and the person receiving the request could basically ignore that request, “…the fence looks fine to me!”

    Now, the requesting property owner can give a written request, and the recipient of that fence request has 30 days to dispute that claim.  If the recipient homeowner ignores that request, after 30 days the requesting homeowner can demand that the cost be shared, and the recipient homeowner must share in the cost.  The only remedy for the ignoring homeowner is to litigate that request.  Another reason, I suppose, why we need two attorneys for every Realtor.

  • Another item that Guv shared is the routine situation in Common Interested Developments (condos, townhomes, PUDs) where the CC&Rs say one thing, the Articles of Incorporation say another thing, the bylaws say something else, and the “rules” say something different.  A common issue relates to pets:  number of pets, kinds of pets, size of pets, what breed of dog, etc.  Well, there seems to be a hierarchy of these documents:  the “rules” are lowest on the totem pole; rules are superseded by the Bylaws.  The Bylaws are superseded by the Articles of Incorporation.  And the Articles of Incorporation are superseded by the CC&Rs.  Ultimately, the CC&Rs are the controlling document, they supersede all.  I see this being the foundation of some lively neighbor conversations if the word gets out!
  • Another interesting issue relates to medical marijuana.  If a landlord has a “no smoking” policy, can that landlord also prohibit medical marijuana?  According to Guv, yes, that landlord can also prohibit smoking medical marijuana.
  • Another new law relates to tenants in homes that are for sale.  In the past, we’ve all used the “24-hour notice” guideline.  Well, the new law says that tenants are entitled to a 10-day notice for an open house.  So we’re going to need to be a bit more organized as Realtors.  Yikes…
  • Finally (and this is not an exhaustive list), relating to SB-407, the water conserving fixture retrofit law that I spent a lot of time educating the membership on earlier this year.  Several brokers and at least one attorney have told me that the current disclosure language we have in the RETDS about SB-407 is insufficient, there needs to be more.  Well, I asked Gov that question, and he said that he feels that the disclosure language in the RETDS is in fact sufficient.  He seemed pretty confident in his position.

Flood Insurance Update

The flood insurance saga continues, but relief is in sight.  Several mortgage and insurance brokers confirmed to me this week that yes, the Natural Catastrophe Insurance Program (NCIP) which is underwritten by Lloyds of London is a viable and economically reasonable flood insurance solution if FEMA has crazy rates or needs an elevation certificate.

Even bigger news is that the US Senate overwhelmingly passed the House’s Flood Insurance Reform legislation.  This is great news.  The following is what I received last Thursday from Chris Gosselin, NAR’s Senior Political Representative for our area:

“The US Senate overwhelmingly passed the bipartisan flood insurance reform legislation  that the House approved earlier this month by a 72-22 margin. The President is expected to sign the legislation in the next few days.

The legislation that passed today:

  • REPEALS (the original Senate bill only delayed) the property-sales provision in the Biggert Waters law (sec. 205) that has triggered the most excessive and inaccurate premium increases over the past year.
  • REFUNDS (the original Senate bill would not refund) excessive premiums to those who have already seen an increase but were not warned by FEMA prior to purchasing the property.  (This would apply to ALL purchases of property including purchases of a second home or commercial property).
  • RESTORES (the original Senate bill only delayed) the grandfathering of lower rates when new flood maps are issued by repealing Section 207 of the law before any increases can be implemented.”

So I guess they heard us!  Thanks to everyone who shared important flood insurance feedback, which we at MAR were able to share with Congressman Huffman and also up the chain at CAR and NAR.

There is much work and clarification to be done…we need to see how and when this is all going to get implemented, but the good news is that help is on the way!

Opportunity to meet Joel Singer, CEO of the California Association of Realtors

Thank you to Jean Ludwick, a Broker Associate at Alain Pinel.  She asked me to get the word out that the Council of Real Estate Brokerage Managers (“CRB”) is hosting a luncheon on Monday April 21st at the Acqua Hotel in Mill Valley from noon-1:45PM.  Joel Singer, the CEO of CAR, will be the keynote speaker, and Joel will provide an overview of the current housing market conditions for the state of California and the Bay Area, and will share his outlook and forecast of the market for the rest of 2014.  A light lunch will be served, and it’s FREE.  Jean is the President of the Northern California CRB, and she wanted me to invite everyone, not just brokers.  So agents, feel free to sign up!  If you’ve never heard Joel speak, this is a great opportunity to hear one of the leading minds in our industry.  I for one plan to attend.  Please rsvp by email to jbanuat@coldwellbanker.com.

That’s it for now.

I wish you a safe and prosperous week!

Blaine

 

 

 

 

Mar 10

Resale Inspections, Flood Insurance Alternative and Loss of One of Our Most Respected Realtors – MAR Monday Memo 03/10/14

By Marin Association of Realtors, Marin Real Estate News

Good morning MAR members!

Inventory is slowly starting to come online.  My brokerage had its monthly buy/sell meeting last Monday, and I was pleased to fill up two pages in my notebook of upcoming listings relevant to my clients…so they are on their way!  Several of you mentioned to me this week that you are flush with buyers and nothing to sell them.  This situation obviously creates anxiety for our buyers, and the resulting byproduct is anxiety for us as REALTORS.  In Patty Oxman’s presentation at our Marin Young Professionals Network meeting last week, Patty pointed out that there is 40% less inventory countywide than there was two years ago at the same time (mid-February).  And probably twice as many buyers, or more.  Hang in there MAR, spring is coming!

I’m looking forward to seeing many of you at the MAR General Membership meeting tomorrow for our Annual Meeting.  I will be introducing Andy Fegley, MAR’s new CEO.  Our Marin Market Update from Steve Dickason is always informative, timely and useful, and our keynote speaker Guv Hutcheson of CAR will update us on all that’s new and the best practices of selling California real estate.  Registration for the event is closed, but there still might be a few seats left, please call MAR to see if there is any room if you’d like to attend.

I’d like to take a moment and reflect on MAR’s loss of our dear friend Catherine Munson.  Talking about Catherine allows me to talk about service.  While unfortunately I cannot say that I was friends with Catherine, I can say I was friendly with Catherine.  I first heard of Catherine’s illness early last Monday morning when the emails and phone calls started to come in.  Call after call, email after email inquiring about what was known about her condition.  When I got the very unfortunate news that Catherine had passed, the calls and emails kept coming.  Stories about Catherine and how much she meant to people.

And stories about service.  Service to her community and service to her colleagues.  So many of you  looked to Catherine as a friend, mentor, and someone to look up to.  Kathy Schlegel summed it up best:  ”if you didn’t know her… you have missed much!! Probably the most respected REALTOR in Marin for the last 50 years.”  Indeed, Catherine gave of herself throughout her life, blazing many paths, and always coming back to service to her community.  Practicing her business of real estate right until the end.  I last saw Catherine at a brokers’ open house several months ago, and she was so full of energy, holding court with the neighbors, telling stories, and accompanying me out the front door to make sure all of my questions were answered.

MAR and Marin lost a true original last week.  Thank you Catherine Munson for all you gave to your community and your colleagues.

Thank you for all of your emails and conversations about last week’s topic, flood insurance.  Last week, the US House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly and with bipartisan support to pass its version of flood insurance relief.  While not as broad nor as generous as the Senate bill, it now heads to conference committee to determine what the final bill will look like.  The bipartisan nature of the vote makes me hopeful that they will hammer out something out soon.  The House’s bill falls short of the Senate bill in that it does not place a moratorium on increases like the Senate bill.  The House bill is more about  controlling the rate of everyone’s increase, and after some of the crazy increases I’ve heard of this will be good news as well.  Stay tuned.

Thank you to Chris Caproni, one of MAR’s mortgage broker affiliates.  We love our affiliate members! Chris shared some info with me about an alternative to FEMA, the Natural Catastrophe Insurance Program (NCIP) which is underwritten by Lloyds of London.  Unlike FEMA, this program looks to have the ability to provide more affordable flood insurance WITHOUT an elevation certificate.  I encourage all of you to confirm this with your lenders, but through all of this flood insurance mess perhaps this new market might launch a bit of flood insurance competition.  I’ve been hesitant in the past to utilize Lloyds of London, as it’s often a last resort with very high rates.  I saw some rates last week that seemed very reasonable to me by comparison.  Please keep talking with your lenders, and let’s all look into this rumored new competitive product to FEMA.

Finally this week, resale inspections.  It’s like the big nasty bear that goes into hibernation, only to wake up in the spring hungry and ornery.  When we get into resale inspection aggravation season, the calls and emails flow like water.  When the season is over, the calls and emails cease like someone turned off the faucet.  The trouble is, the season seems to happen at a different time every year.  But trust me, we are in season and the faucet is on.

One of our large municipalities seems to have gotten back into the double jeopardy business, big time.  Claiming the moral high ground, cleaning up “past mistakes.”  It’s the same story:  old resale inspections that said things were ok (or not mentioning problems), and problems arising when it’s time to sell, even though no work had been done on the house since the current owner purchased the property.  This municipality has been telling our colleagues that it’s time to “clean things up.”

Two years ago, MAR’s Government Affairs Committee, under the leadership of then-chairman Gene Laico, came up with MAR’s “Fair Principles for Resale Inspections”.  An amazingly lucid and reasonable set of principles that are hard to argue with:  (1) Consistency–building standards should not be applied retroactively;  (2) no “double jeopardy”–no problem items on new reports that were not identified on prior reports; (3) Transparency–cities and towns should communicate resale inspection requirements in advance; (4) Timely inspection process; (5) No excess inspection fees; (6) Distressed home sales–in the difficult environment from which we are just now emerging, cities and towns should be sensitive that there is often no money for corrective repairs by the sellers.

We have witnessed politician after politician come through MAR, under various contexts, some reporting on their towns, some asking for MAR’s support at election time, and all in general agreeing with the reasonableness of these Fair Principles.  I’ve read these Fair Principles at town council meetings with affirmative nods all around.

We need to remind our partners in the building departments that the leaders of their towns agree with our Fair Principles for Resale Inspections.

Please keep sharing your stories of troublesome resale inspections.  This is something that MAR works on every year, advocating for our members.  We are on it.

I wish you a safe and prosperous week!