The real estate market in Lake Forest, California, is very much like every other part of the country right now – it’s SLOW! The properties that are listed under $300,000 include 1-bedroom and a few 2-bedroom condos, with the lowest prices offered on the foreclosed listings. The lowest priced 1-bedroom is $204,900 and the lowest…
Yearly Archives: 2007
Watch out for Mortgage Fraud!
With the decline in prices, and scarcity of buyers, it may be tempting for a seller to fall for this scheme, but be careful, it could be one of the mortgage fraud schemes that are going around! The basic idea is that after a property has failed to sell, a buyer comes in and offers to pay…
Selling a Home in Lake Forest (in today's Challenging market!)
Behind the scenes. My daily checking of the MLS “Hot Sheet” has provided me with a lot of insight on how many agents are clueless about the importance of putting their listing in the best light when it is new on the market. They don’t seem to understand the fact that your listing is only…
10 Reasons to Over Price a Home?
When sellers say that they want to list their home for substantially more than the comps support, I think a good list of reasons for buyers to overpay would help both the listing agent and the buyers. I realize that some of these are a bit of a stretch, or maybe even sarcastic, but…
Lake Forest Real Estate Market September 2007
The current market is very slow now, but it is typical for this time of year. Traditionally, August and September are the months when people’s attention is focused on vacations, returning from vacations, or back-to-school activities, and football, so this is not unusual. Next month the pace should pick up a bit as buyers will…
Property Tax Assessment Appeal Deadline – September 15th!
Has your property value declined below the property tax assessed value? If you bought in 2005 or 2006, there is a chance that the value may now be lower than what you paid. Thanks to Proposition 13, our property taxes are based on the market value (usually, but not necessarily the sale price) at the…
Comparing 2007 Prices to 2006 Prices
Now that the first half of the year is over, it is time to take a look at where prices really are. DataQuick regularly publishes their statistics comparing this year to last, but they look at it a little differently than I do. My information comes from the SoCalMLS, so my numbers don’t include the private…
Over-Pricing Your Product
I am a member of ActiveRain and check it daily for interesting posts about the real estate market all over the country. Today, one of the more clever agents provided this story about trying to sell toothpaste for $35/tube. He provides a very good argument about how he did everything possible to try to sell this…
Interim Occupancy Agreement
Protecting the Seller When a Buyer takes Possession Prior to Close of Escrow I usually discourage giving the buyer possession of a property prior to actually closing the sale, but with the current situation in the lending environment, it may become necessary to do this more regularly. In California, we have a form called “Interim Occupancy Agreement” that…
Real Estate Roller Coaster – 1890 to Now
This is really fun! Watch this video and try to figure out how it should end! (We are all wanting to know!)