The value of home ownership has been seriously questioned recently due to so many people losing their homes. From about 2003 to 2007, we experienced a real estate orgy! Everyone qualified for loans of any size, every home appreciated, and everybody took their tax free gain and gleefully moved on to the next house. If…
Category Archives: Buyers
Before You Buy in an HOA!
If you are planning to buy a condo, or a house in Lake Forest, Mission Viejo, Rancho Santa Margarita, or other South Orange County area, there is a good chance that you will be buying in to a home owners’ association (HOA). If that is the case, make sure you read over all the HOA…
Sellers – When you get an offer respond quickly!
In the current market, when a buyer makes an offer on a property, it is in the seller’s best interest to respond quickly. The buyers today are not impulsive, frenzied, or in a panic to “buy now or be priced out forever.” If any urgency is felt by a buyer, it is more likely based…
Keep Your Lender within "Choking Distance!"
Lenders need to have a local reputation to protect and live up to! If you use a distant semi-anonymous internet lender, you will just be a “number” to them, and they may treat you like one! A seasoned agent told me years ago to make sure I always knew how to find my lender “just…
Creative Real Estate Advertising
Many people think that real estate agents are prone to exaggerating in their ads, but this one is really over the top! I hope you laughed as much as I did. This was my easy lazy way to add something to my blog without thinking too much. I just returned from a vacation, so I…
Which Home Improvements will Buyers Pay For in South Orange County?
After reading Forbes Magazine’s list of “Recession-Proof Home Improvements” I’m not sure I totally agree. Since I have only seen cork flooring once, and haven’t yet seen any bamboo counters, I wonder what people in South Orange County, California think about these. If you have a minute, please take my simple little survey by answering the…
Lake Forest Market Conditions – 4/6/2008
The Lake Forest real estate market is tough right now – for sellers, for buyers & for agents! While there are a lot of listings active on the MLS, when they are divided up by size, price, and locations, there really isn’t much to choose from. Today, out of 344 properties on the market, 58%…
Market Conditions for Lake Forest California February 2008
Like most of Orange County, Lake Forest has a lot of homes for sale right now. “Distressed” properties currently make up 44% of the total 357 properties available, with 116 short sales and 40 foreclosures. Due to the long wait times for lender approval of short sales, most of these are being ignored by the…
Orange County Homes Sales Report 2007
Total sales volume of homes in Orange County, California, for 2007 was off about 28% from the volume of 2006, but it was off 56% from our record year of 2003! I really believe that the volume of 2004 is understated because homes were selling so fast that many never made it in to the MLS at…
Lake Forest Market Conditions 1/2/2008
The Lake Forest real estate market is pretty quiet right now, and I don’t expect it to pick up much before our traditional spring start of the home buying season – Super Bowl Sunday, which will be February 3rd this year. The condo prices start at $189,900 for a one-bedroom bank-owned home. A two-bedroom is…