Meredith has been working in many facets of research, writing, editing and marketing for over 5 years. She obtained a B.A. in journalism and an M.A. in American history. Her current specialty is internet marketing and public relations, especially social media, and she is fascinated by the tools available to link people together online! A native of upstate New York, she now lives in sunny Southern California.
Archive for investment San Fernando
Dec
18
Good Time To Invest In Real Estate In Los Angeles/inland Empire?
Posted by: | CommentsDo you think now’s a good time to invest in real estate in orange county/los angeles?
Dec
18
Buying Property in a Tough Housing Market
Posted by: | CommentsSafe High Return Investments San Fernando
Buying property in a tough housing market. If you have a solid job, a bit of savings, and don’t own a home that’s losing value, you might be one of the lucky ones in the current economic situation. Economists predict housing prices should stay low for all of 2009 before they begin climbing again towards the end of 2010. Congress’s stimulus package also gives a substantial tax incentive to home buyers this year. In fact, with housing prices falling around the country (prices in Los Angeles’s suburban San Fernando Valley fell from a median of $650,000 to $420,000 between May 2007 and May 2008), you might think now is a good time to buy, especially if you were priced out of the market during the height of the bubble. Before you procure a real estate agent, here are some things you should do.1) Save, Save, Save. Part of the problem with mortgage loans over the past decade is the “no money down” philosophy. Sadly, this means many people ended up owing more than their house was worth, especially if they opted to have closing fees or other debt rolled into their mortgage. If you put down less than 20%, you will also have to pay for Private Mortgage Insurance or PMI, which your bank will require until you build enough equity in your house for them to deem your mortgage less of a risk. Currently, lenders are wary of awarding mortgages to those with less than a 3-5% down payment in hand. The government agrees that banks should probably not approve buyers for a mortgage if they do not have at least 1.5% of the cost of the home available for a down payment. If you are planning on staying in your house for 5 years or less, aim for 10-15% so you can start building equity in your home right away, even if the value of your property falls further. In addition, you’ll want to have a small nest egg in savings which you aren’t using for the down payment. Lenders are more likely to give you favorable rates if you have some savings left over. Plus, you’ll need extra savings for your closing costs, which can cost between 2-7% of your total purchase price, property taxes and any repairs that aren’t covered by the previous owner in your contract.2) Build your credit score. Your FICO score is a number between 350 and 850 which lenders use to determine how much of a credit risk you are. Because banks are now trying to minimize their risks, many people who may have been approved for a mortgage two or three years ago are being denied based on poor credit scores. The more risky you are (translation: you pay bills late or not at all), the less likely they are to extend credit to you at all, let alone on favorable terms. And with a mortgage, you want favorable terms. The higher your score, the lower the annual percentage rate on your mortgage. Since we are normally talking about hundreds of thousands of dollars, even a half percentage point reduction in your APR will save you thousands of dollars in the long run, and perhaps hundreds off your monthly mortgage payment. Beginning six to twelve months before you buy, pull your credit reports and scores from Transunion, Equifax and Experian, the three large credit bureaus. Check them carefully and make sure there are no mistakes. Work on paying your bills on time and paying down (or off) credit card debt. Keep your cards open though – the more credit you have available to you, the higher your score (which is why a maxed out card, besides showing fiscal irresponsibility, can be bad for your credit). Do not apply for new cards or a car loan – your score can take a hit of 5-10 points each time you open a new line of credit.3) Get approved and shop around. Before you start looking, get pre-approved for a mortgage. This will let you know exactly what you can afford and save you the heartache of falling in love with a home that is out of your price range. Next, make sure to hire a trusted real estate agent, especially if you’re a first time home buyer. A licensed agent has access to many more listings than you do and can work with the seller’s agent as well, and inform you about the process. Third, look for a good deal. Currently, many semi-custom home builders have a glut of property and new houses, and might give you free upgrades, such as custom paint colors or granite counter tops. If you’re looking at foreclosures or soon-to-be foreclosures, make sure there are no nasty surprises waiting for you, like unpaid property taxes or costly hidden repairs. A bank foreclosure can be a great deal, but be sure to know what you are buying! They almost always come in as-is condition and may need to have more money invested into repairs and upgrades to make them safe and habitable, especially a home that has been sitting vacant.Hopefully the flailing economy will be able to produce a silver lining for some, like your own home! Good luck searching!This article is brought to you by fightforeclosurenetwork.com.
High Return Investments San Fernando
Dec
18
Multiple Offers On Your Home?
Posted by: | CommentsSafe High Return Investments San Fernando
Multiple offers mean you priced your house right because more than one buyer is making an offer to purchase your San Fernando Valley real estate. Your San Fernando Valley Realtor will present the offers to you and explain the price, terms and contract contingencies so you can decide which offer is the best for your situation. If you are not represented by a Realtor, then you should consult with your real estate attorney.
Factors to Consider
Every seller’s motivation for selling is different so depending on your circumstances not every offer is necessarily going to work for you. This is where the expertise of your Realtor is beneficial to you. Your Realtor can help you counter out any items that you do not agree with and add any items that you want to address in the contract. Factors to consider include the following:
Once you have considered all the above factors, then you have the following choices to make:
Advantages to Seller
The advantages of multiple offers to sellers are:
Multiple offers create an atmosphere of competition between your buyers. As a result, you may receive a higher price for your home, and you have more choices.
Why Multiple Offers Can Back Fire?
One thing to keep in mind when you have multiple offers on your San Fernando Valley real estate is that buyers do not like to get into bidding wars. Because it is a buyer’s market right now, most buyers would rather find another property than over bid for your Sherman Oaks, Encino, Van Nuys or North Hollywood real estate.
Be careful about countering too high over your asking price, unless your asking price is way below market value. Today’s savvy buyers will not over pay for the home because they are educated about San Fernando Valley home prices. Buyers recognize that there are other homes available that also meet their criteria in the Encino, Sherman Oaks, Van Nuys and North Hollywood areas.
So avoid being greedy if you receive multiple offers because it could back fire on you, and you might lose all your offers as a result of the buyers walking away. Also, you cannot expect to receive a price substantially over market value if your buyer is obtaining financing because the house will not appraise, and the buyer will not be able to get a loan to purchase your home.
In this market, the smartest strategy is to take the offer that is closest to your asking price and the home’s true market value with the best terms that work for all parties.
David Hitt – San Fernando Valley Realtor and Training Director – has been serving buyers and sellers in the San Fernando Valley areas for over 13 years. His knowledge of the real estate market in Encino, Sherman Oaks, Lake Balboa, Studio City, Van Nuys and North Hollywood have helped him achieve an excellent reputation throughout the Coldwell Banker network (818)422-1702 or (866)981-3438 http://www.san-fernando-valley-ca-real-estate.com/north-hollywood http://www.san-fernando-valley-ca-real-estate.com/van-nuys http://www.san-fernando-valley-ca-real-estate.com/thevalleyblog
High Return Investments San Fernando
Dec
18
Should I Be Keeping Up With The Joneses?
Posted by: | CommentsSafe High Return Investments San Fernando
Staging is vital to selling your home in the San Fernando Valley real estate area!
If you are living in the San Fernando Valley of California and are planning to sell your home, you might want to consider one simple question. Should I be keeping up with the Joneses?
We all know that familiar saying. Where it came from, I really don’t know. But what I do know is that if you want to sell your home fast and for top dollar not only do you need to keep up with the Joneses but you need to pass them up.
Take a look around and see how many homes in your neighborhood, or even on your street, are for sale. Do any of those homes compare to yours? If so now is the time to out-do your neighbor. When I say out-do your neighbor, I mean get out there and do what it takes to sell your home before they do. Pass up the Joneses.
Because the amount of homes for sale outweighs the amount of buyers, what it takes right now to sell your home in any of the San Fernando Valley real estate areas, is to have it successfully staged. You have to stand out from every other home for sale. You have to appeal to all the senses of the buyer.
Staging your home doesn’t just mean doing minor repairs, getting rid of clutter, or remodeling. You have to make your home inviting, appealing, and comfortable. When you stage your home correctly, you can expect great results.
In today’s market, staging your home can cost you between a few hundred dollars to several thousands of dollars depending on the location, size, and price of your home. Think of it as a short-term, high-yield investment that will produce an equal or greater return in a matter of months.
Whether you hire someone or find that your real estate professional can handle this unique task, sellers need to understand and accept that staging your home is vital to selling your home.
So… you ask yourself… “What does staging my home mean?” Winnie Davis, the President of SRAR (Southland Regional Association of Realtors) says that once the decision has been made to stage your home, it can be completed in a matter of days.
Some of the techniques used to stage homes can be as simple as:
Removing unnecessary items to create an more open feel
Moving furniture or replacing it to create themes that are comfortable and welcoming
Improve lighting by drawing back curtains, open blinds, adding brighter light bulbs or add lighting where necessary
Playing music while you are away and your home is being shown
Implement minor touch ups like paint, carpet cleaning or the simple task of pruning your bushes or trees
All of these tasks, plus much more are things that are critical to selling your home in a shorter amount of time and for top dollar. So my suggestion and recommendation is not to just keep up with the Joneses but to pass them up and wave as you’re passing by.
David Hitt with Coldwell Banker is a licensed broker with over 11 years experience. He specializes in the San Fernando Valley real estates areas such as Sherman Oaks, Encino, Van Nuys and North Hollywood. To search homes for sale, get information about buying or selling visit
www.HomesInTheValley.info
High Return Investments San Fernando
Dec
18
Top 12 Reasons Why Today is the Best Time in Years for Investing in Real Estate
Posted by: | CommentsSafe High Return Investments San Fernando
Once upon a time, in the seemingly unending real estate booms of the 1980s and 1990s, everybody who could scrape together a down payment and keep the payments up for about three months could flip the house for a profit. Homes in the Sunland-Tujunga area of Los Angeles County, the northwest corner where high-priced Southern California price inflation hadn’t gone hog-wild quite as fast, more than tripled in value between 1997 and 2007 (average $165,000 to an average of nearly $500,000).Those times are gone, probably never to return. Instead of being able to fall over your own feet and make money in real estate, you will actually have to use your brains and your other talents. And now is a great time to start. Home prices are in a long-term fall, deals are popping up all over, the country is in a recession, and a lot of people just have no clue what to do. With falling prices comes opportunity for smart investors. Here are the top 12 reasons why today is the best time in years for investing in real estate:1. You’ll get no scoffers if you make an offer. During boom years, in a seller’s market, it was almost an unwritten rule in some areas that making an offer was just plain bad form. In today’s market the average home is selling for 93-96% of list price according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. While this ratio constantly fluctuates, it has been trending down noticeably recently. Sellers know that they are not going to sell their house for full “list” price, however they define that. Attitudes have completely changed in this regard, and making offers under the listing price is back in a strong way for the smart buyer.2. Patience is (almost) a virtue again. Naturally, a booming seller’s market is a hyper-accelerated environment, where everything from house hunting, negotiating, inspections and deal closings were rushed and even frantic at times. Buyers can take their time now, perusing the listings, surfing the Internet and visiting various homes. The deal, if it gets done, will be at their pace.3. There seem to be quite a few spec homes. A spec home is one that is built without having an identified buyer. A huge number of spec homes were built during the housing boom. The change in the market left plenty of spec homes unsold, so you can forget about overnight campouts on the sidewalk or entering lotteries to get a shot at a home in a new development. A top housing economist and commentator, R.L. Brown, said recently that U.S. builders have “thousands” of spec homes completed and awaiting buyers.4. You can expect action on repair requests. The psychology of a boom market (remember the Dutch with their tulip mania?) makes people act strangely at times. In a hot seller’s market, sometimes people would buy homes “as is” because they knew that the next person in line would do so. Now when you read your inspection reports, you can actually ask that repairs be made and not worry about someone swooping down and stealing the deal.5. Investment buyers have dried up. As recently as 2005, fully one-third of all homes were sold to investors. Some analyst blame non-occupant buyers for helping to cause the home inflation of 2005-2006, not to mention the sub-prime mortgage debacle and resulting financial carnage. Now, buyers are finding more (and more affordable) homes since the investment buyers have gone off to lick their wounds.6. Due diligence lives again. Buyers in this market, for the most part, are not competing quite so avidly for a home against other buyers, so they have stopped waiving inspections as a way of adding a deal sweetener. There is no reason at all not to have a general home inspection and a termite inspection, or to inquire about any questionable fixtures or other items.7. It is still all about “location, location, location.” During the housing boom you often had to settle on a second, third, or fourth choice area to find an affordable place to buy. With the change in the market, homes in more desirable first choice areas have come back in range for many buyers. For instance, in the Phoenix, Arizona area in 2004 and 2005, buyers looking for affordable homes would shop around in Maricopa and Queen Creek, where there were “low-priced” neighborhoods. Today there are even affordable houses across the very desirable Valley region, mere minutes from downtown Phoenix.8. Excellent financing is back. And fixed rates are back, too, as well as first-time buyer programs of various kinds. Once again lenders are offering special programs for public service employees, teachers, nurses and policemen.9. Super selections are everywhere. There are tens of thousands of listings in large metropolitan areas, and plenty in the wide open spaces, too, so you have choices that buyers in a hot market couldn’t dream of. In some areas, there are ten times as many homes on the market as three years ago. In addition, the number of foreclosures, bank sales and seizures means that another source of listings is coming online, and should be ongoing.10. A truce has been declared in the bidding wars. During the hot market years, there could be as many as 20 offers on homes in the desirable neighborhoods of L.A.’s San Fernando Valley. What this suggests is that a lot of people were buying their second picks, or even settle for their third or fourth favorite homes. Now there is much less competition for homes, so the jackboots and body armor can go back into storage.11. The flippers are taking a breather. Despite the proliferation of TV shows about buying and selling real estate, the flipping sensation has cooled considerably. With the non-resident buyers and investors holding back for now, and the do-it-yourselfers finding something else to do with themselves, serious buyers can take back the real estate market. Play it smart, you will do well.12. The last reason that today is a good day to buy real estate? Let’s make it up close and personal, and tell you why it’s the right time for you, specifically, to buy real estate. Simple: Because you can. That’s right. If you have the money to invest, you always want to do so at what is called a “market bottom,” whatever market it is you’re buying in. Homes are way down, but will rebound one day. If you predict, even roughly, when the bottom has been hit and the prices will start rising, you will know when to buy and when to hold. And that is how you will make money in a down market. It can’t stay down forever, but you may need to work on your patience. The market is one thing that you can gauge, of course, but you can’t hurry!
Dale Serbousek is a leading agent and in Bellingham, Washington real estate and for the surrounding area. Whether it’s for an investment or if your relocating to Bellingham, Washington, Dale can help you find the right property and the right price.
High Return Investments San Fernando