Is your home priced too high for the current market? Many times, sellers insist on testing the market to make sure they are not leaving money on the table. Some times, the listing agent is selected based on recommending the highest list price. Other times, sellers simply have an inflated opinion of the value of…
Category Archives: Buyers
Lease Option (Lease to Own)
I’ve had a couple of buyers ask me recently about using a lease option, or “lease-to-own” agreement to buy a house. Since I have had some experience with this, decided to post about it. If you wanted to consider lease-to-own, also known as lease-option, of a property, the most likely candidates are vacant homes that…
What's Your House Worth?
Here’s a new one that I just tried out. You enter the purchase date and price, and it will calculate the current value using historic averages and the Case-Shiller studies and reports. Try it yourself! Let me know what you thought by leaving a comment here.
Lake Forest Real Estate Market November 7, 2007
Lake Forest sellers are having a tough time adjusting to the realities of today’s market. There are currently 421 active properties in the MLS, and 95 of those (22%) are either foreclosed or short sales. The short sales, in many cases are not really available because it is unknown in if the mortgage holder will agree…
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…
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…
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…
Lake Forest Market Conditions Report – July 2, 2007
The real estate market in Lake Forest continues to be slow. In the last 30 days there have been a total of only 32 properties that have closed escrow. That is below our long-term average by more than 65%. (These are early numbers and may improve a little in the next few days when a…
A Little Imagination Can Go a Long Way!
Pssst – want to know how to get a better deal in any market???? Learn to use your imagination! When I show homes to buyers, the most common objection that I hear is “it needs too much work!” The majority of buyers notariously have no imagination – that’s why resale homes get staged, or builders’…