I’ve always told my clients that the closing date is a “target date” because things can sometimes come up at the last minute that can delay the closing a day, or a week, or sometimes even longer. It seems like it’s RARE to close on time nowadays. The reasons for the delay are many. Sometimes […]
Credits or Fix
My normal rule of thumb is to spend as little as possible fixing the house up, but still get the job done. You don’t want to spend money on items where you won’t get your money back. For example, it’s not worth putting a pool in just to sell the home. However, I will suggest […]
The return of Alt-A?
THE RETURN OF ALT-A? If you haven’t heard the term, “Alt-A” before it’s because it’s a behind-the-scenes term that lenders use. Maybe you’ve heard of the terms “low-doc,” no-doc” or “sub-prime.” These are the loans most responsible for the real estate bubble and then crash of the early 2000’s. These loans were abused horribly to […]
Insurability Issues….…
INSURABILITY ISSUES… I’ve noticed that homebuyers often put off ordering their homeowner’s insurance policy until the week before closing. It is wise to investigate the insurability of both the home and the buyer as early as possible. That’s right, both the home AND the buyer need to be approved by the insurance company before they […]
Credit for Closing Costs
Credits for Closing Costs… Sometimes a buyer will ask a seller to pay for their closing costs. But, there could be a problem with credits for closing costs when the lender won’t allow credits to apply against some closing costs. Or when the buyer’s costs don’t add up to what was negotiated between buyer and […]
Solar News
Two items came to my attention recently in regards to solar power for your home that I thought you should be aware of. The first is that the federal tax credit that was set to expire at the end of 2016 was just extended for five more years. I’ve heard VERY little mention of this […]
Interest rate update 2016
The Federal Reserve recently raised interest rates. That is the first time they’ve done that in about 10 years. Gasp! That must mean that we’ll all be paying higher interest rates and our hot real estate market will cool down, right? Actually, since the Fed raised rates, actual mortgage rates haven’t changed that much. Maybe […]
Riding the Wave of the New Tech Economy (another perspective on local housing)
Here is an article I co-wrote with my colleague Liz Kroft you might find interesting. Santa Cruz is experiencing a technology boom and housing is becoming an issue we need to talk about. Here is the article: Riding the Wave of the New Tech Economy (another perspective on local housing) POSTED ON FEBRUARY 19, 2015 BY […]
Regional Housing Market at a Glance
I have uploaded a PDF of the Regional Housing Market at a glance report. This report gives an insight into what is going on in California real estate by region. It is worth reading if you are following the trends in housing in California and want to try and see where prices are going in […]
If you don’t communicate with your customer how can you expect to succeed?
If you don’t communicate effectively with your client, how can you expect to understand the needs and requirements to smoothly close the sale? The two biggest requests of Millennials is to be responsive and have local knowledge. In other words, pick up the phone, answer the email, text back, and study your market area. As […]