Surfers Asking For Stategic Home Locations

When I started selling homes back in 1991, I used to get the usual golf questions. Questions that asked me about the local golf courses and homes which were near them. Over the last 5 years, I have noticed a trend where more and 30 and 40 something homebuyers are asking for locations which have the quickest access to a good surfing beach. In some cases, the closest house to a surf beach might be 45 minutes. I’m finding that the more I know about surfing and beaches for surfers, the better I’m able to help those homebuyers who require specialized help in getting a well located home to the surf. “Surfing is the new golf”

Educated Girls Investing in Real Estate Market

Is it possible that educated women will hold off on getting married and having babies by personally buying a first time residence? Buying at the bottom of the real estate market would be certain way of building a nest egg over the next 10 years for one who doesn’t want to tie the knot so fast. Then, a few years down the line, an equity rich woman would have the means to find the perfect someone without having to worry about the finances. Another emerging trend.

The #1 Reason Why I Love Valencia

The number one reason why I love to live and sell homes in Valencia is this. We have 50+ miles of semi private paseos which link up all the neighborhoods. There are trees, bushes and flowers along the routes. There are water fountains, monkey bars and exercise equipment along the way. There is an abundance of wildlife on the paseos which makes it like a mini safari when you go for a walk. The dogs love to be walked down the paseo so many animal lovers meet up and make friends. There are many city parks and tons of trees of every kind. I have extra paseo maps in my office if anyone needs a copy.

Young Couples Debate Buying a Home Longer

Even though interest rates are low and listed houses aren’t as plentiful, buyers are really doing a more in depth analysis before pulling the trigger on a home purchase. This is a good thing as this will help prevent another run up on prices. Younger buyers these days are much more educated than in previous decades. These new buyers have been trained in college to do basis financial analysis. The advent of the internet has made it easier for buyers to do their own research.

The Home Buying Trend: Women Between 24-54

The average homebuyer for many decades has been families with the adults being an average of age of 37 years old. The new demographic is that unmarried females are starting to overcome the previous statistic. Females from the ages of 24-54 has started to overtake the previous demographic in many locales across America. There appears to be a new trend taking shape.

8 Surefire Ways To Save a FHA Down in 180 Days

It seems like most buyers these days are trying to save a down payment for an FHA loan. The minimum down payment for borrowers who qualify for a $300,000 house would be $10,500.

I will use this price and down payment for an example of how one could save a down payment should they qualify for an FHA loan.

That means a borrower would have to save $1750 per month. How can a person do that? Here are some surefire ways to make this a snap.

1. Groceries: Eat at home and save big bucks. When buying groceries, skip the large corporate grocery stores. Instead, shop at Smart N Final, Costco, & 99 Cent Stores. Buy everything in bulk. It’s cheaper that way. Example: So you like corn chips with your salsa. Try buying the 5 pound bag at Smart n Final for $3.79 versus $4.99 for a one pound bag at the large grocery stores. This is one example of hundreds. The 99 cent store or dollars stores have many basic food items, produce and other household goods which cost a dollar verses the $5-$10 per item at a regular store. Remember, we all eat the same things over and over again. Buy large quantities and save at least $750 a month.

2. Coffee & Tea: Take a break from all the fancy coffee places or fast food places. Buy a thermos and take your own hot drink to work. If you miss the waiting in line for coffee and all the people watching you drinking your coffee, try this. Take your thermos of hot drink and spend 10 free minutes at the city park or other natural area where there are people. You will easily save $3 per day which is $75 over a month.

3. Clothes: Make it a habit to frequent thrift stores, garage sales, and Ross Stores. Be picky on what you buy and never pay more than what makes you glow, in getting a really good deal on some recycled quality clothes. Save $150 per month.

4. Bottled Water: Quit buying bottled water. If you live in Los Angeles County like I do, you have some of the cleanest water in the country. Do your own research on this to satisfy yourself but if you use tap water for your coffee, tea, pasta and workouts, you will save $125 per month.

5. Music/Movies: Do not buy or rent CDs or DVDs for 6 months. Instead, listen to music from Pandora.com. You can listen to it from your computer or cell phone. On Pandora you make your own radio stations to listen to in 3 easy clicks. This is my favorite web site of all time. For movies go to the best free movie site in the world…Hulu.com. This free movie site is my second favorite site in the world. Save $150 per month.

6 Cable or Satellite TV: Cancel TV services for 6 months and watch movies and or news programs on your computer through broadband or DSL. Save $70 per month.

7. Lunch: No restaurant lunches for 6 months unless someone else is buying or your company reimburses you for the lunch. Take a health lunch from all the bulk groceries you have been buying. Save $250 a month.

8. Transportation: Insist that each member of the household take a bus, carpool or bike to work at least 1 day per week. This will save gas, wear & tear and the average household will save about $180 per month.

Implement these 8 steps and save that down payment. Buying a house at the bottom of the market will be your key to success over the next few years.

Short Sale or Loan Modification?

Should You Short Sale Your Home or Complete a Loan Modification?

The market is just beginning to stabilize but short sales and foreclosures will be with us for a couple more years. The options for many distressed home owners are the following:

(1) Do a loan modification with subject lender.

(2) Complete a short sale of mortgage.

(3) Just walk away mortgage obligation altogether.

Obviously, the loan modification is the best choice for most people. The government is pushing banks to offer loan modification programs for home owners who are current on the mortgage payment but still in trouble with the resetting of the loan’s interest rate.

Although the loan modification process will take time to complete, this tool will help get the payment down far enough which enables most homeowners to stay in their home. Not everyone will qualify for a loan modification however.

If a borrower doesn’t qualify for a loan modification, then the short sale is the next best option. In a short sale situation, the bank agrees to lower the mortgage payoff so that homeowner can sell without bringing in any money to close escrow.

There may be tax consequences for doing a short sale but in most cases, the debt relief would not bring on taxes because of the government’s debt relief law that we are currently operating under. Always check with your CPA before doing a short sale.

The short sale option will not look as bad on a borrower’s credit as it will show the borrower cooperated. It will be much easier to qualify for a mortgage in 2-3 years providing the short sale option or loan modification is used. Don’t forget to check with a CPA or real estate lawyer first.

The third option is to just walk away from the loan altogether. This is really a last resort. The reason why this is the last resort is a foreclosure will stay on your credit report for 7-10 years. That’s an awful long time to have bad credit.

I don’t recommend this option ever, unless the mortgage holder bank will not cooperate on a loan modification/short sale. Only then should a home owner consider walking away and only if the home owner has tried every other option to afford the home.

Is the Santa Clarita Market Thawing Out?

Hello and Happy Springtime!

Can you believe this market has finally started to turn around! For the 11th consecutive month, sales of existing single-family homes have “surged” in the Santa Clarita valley.

Santa Clarita Valley has 719 resale homes pending in escrow. A total of 665 resale homes have SOLD and closed since January 1, 2009. There are only 1117 homes left on the market while there were at least 2500 homes on the market a year ago. There appears to be a shrinking of the inventory to say the least.

There are still many foreclosures coming, however, many buyers are coming out of the woodwork to take advantage of low prices. Many buyers are taking advantage of the current seller concessions mentality and the Federal Reserve lowering the interest rates. I see multiple offers as being more the “norm” now, than the exception.

We are predicting the second quarter of 2009 to pick up steam with the second half of 2009 being very busy. The interest rates will probably drop to 4.5% as some point which will make the market go crazy.

Plus, I’m predicting slight price appreciation by the 4th quarter of this year for many neighborhoods in Santa Clarita.

” Who do you know today, who could benefit from our services?”

Until next time…

Warm Regards!

Mark Bolender, CRS
RE/MAX of Valencia
661-714-0510

Mr Realtor: More Land, Less House, Pretty Please!

More Land...Less House...please!

I’ve noticed a trend in the last year where home buyers are asking for more land and less house. Certain home buyers are now wanting more land and less house in order to become more independent. The “more land concept” brings privacy and room for organic gardens, solar energy panels and collector tanks for rain collection. I’ve noticed this renewed trend among professional individuals in the creative fields. I see this trend expanding as more and more artists flee the city to live a more interdependent life with nature.

Are We At The Bottom…Watch The Fish!

Last week, one of my clients paged me and said they wanted to see me immediately. I quickly walked down to the reception area and was confronted by one of my clients who were worried about the economy sinking into a depression. She was worried that all the investment houses she had purchased through me were going to lose their values. I showed her a book out of my library entitled “Rich Dad Poor Dad” which predicted years ago the current financial crisis. The author of the book stated that real estate or small businesses would be the place to have your money as they ultimately will bring you cash flow income. Nothing I said seemed to resonate with her and she seemed like she was going to collapse. Thinking fast, I remembered how one of my mentors explained the economy and real estate values to me back in 1992 when I was worried about making it in real estate.
Back in 1992 I was a young agent. I was worried about going into a major recession which of course did happen. My mentor knew that he would never be able to explain the economy’s ups and down as frustrated and worried as I was. My mentor told me to get in his car and get ready to learn a symbolic lesson about markets. We traveled about 5 hours till we got to a large lake by Bishop off the 395 freeway. We got out of the car and my mentor took me over to a pair of bass boats that were moored by the side of the lake. I asked him if was taking me fishing or something and informed him that I was not a fisherman. He said no!… young man; we are just going out to look at the fish.
I said what! You brought me 5 hours to look at fish. He said yes, nudged me into the bass boat and then jumped in behind me. He took me out in the lake, dropped and anchor and then said…get ready for an illustration about real estate markets. He asked me to keep quiet, not make any noise and to peer over the side of the boat. I did that and quickly noticed that I could see all the way to the bottom which was about 40 feet under me. I noticed out clear the bottom was. After about 15 minutes, my mentor stuck his hand in the water and released a small piece of food. Instantly, a couple of fish came up the surface, grabbed the food and then slowly drifted back down to the bottom. After 15 minutes, the fish were still swimming around the bottom and then without notice they came back up to the surface and started swimming big circles near the surface. My mentor looked over at me and asked me if I understood the lesson.
I didn’t know exactly what to say so I ventured a guess. I said, what goes down must come up and what goes up must go down. He looked at me and said…whew, now you have it. I thanked him for the lesson and then asked how I could repay him. He said just this. Take what you have learned and illustrate this concept to a new agent or investor someday.
I carried this idea around for years and pretty much forgot about it until my young investor came into my reception area that day. I told her the story and told her to try and imagine what I learned about markets when I watched the fish all those years ago. After I finished telling her the story, her eyes swelled with tears and she asked. “does this mean the market will come back?” I told her, yes, remember the fish. Sometimes they swim to the bottom and sometimes they swim to the top. Never count on the market always being at the top and always count on the market going down again.
She left that day feeling better than when she came in. I had almost forgotten about the meeting until I got a call from her a few days ago and she had a question. She said if the market is near the bottom and the market will definitely go back up, is this still a good time to invest in real estate. I said it is the best time to invest in real estate. She then went on to say she was ready to jump back in the market and invest in rental houses. When in doubts about real estate markets…”remember the fish”.