How to Assess the Real Cost of a Fixer Upper House!

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  How to Assess the Real Cost of a Fixer-Upper House

  When you buy a fixer-upper house, you can save a ton of money, or get yourself in a financial fix. Read

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Copyright 2013 NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®

A day in the life of Real Estate!

It’s not easy, but there are some funny times and funny stories – in Real Estate there’s always something unusual happening. How about a house with absolutely nothing in it – no flooring, light switches, bathrooms (including the toilets), nada – it happens even in the best neighborhoods.

There was a Realtor in England who showed a home, thinking the owner was asleep, showed the clients out only to go back and discover the owner had passed away on the sofa!

A colleague of mine was feeling ill at his open house, again, laid down on the sofa only to be woken up by visitors poking him, he’d fallen totally asleep, thank goodness is still around!

Another colleague shared that he went to one house thinking he had an appointment to show it, the owner wasn’t aware but said it was ok to show, only to find out he was at the wrong house on the same street – embarrassing just a little.

Or my favorite – showing condos downtown San Diego, thank goodness my client was in her own car and I was in mine – we came out of one particular building only for me to find my car had been towed – we continued looking in her car!

There are so many different stories, some funny, some sad, but always a day in the life in Real Estate is never boring!


Jane Loveday
Windermere Real Estate Agent
619-519-1615 Cell
http://janeloveday.com
http://www.facebook.com/realestatesandiego

Using Social Media to Sell Real Estate!

There are plenty of social media sites today, more so than back when AOL first hit our screens. Then it was easy to keep track of friends, make new connections and promote your business. Now we have literally hundreds of websites that feed our content, but how does that impact buying or selling houses as a Realtor?

When MySpace first started, I maintained a business page (still have it)and in the first year sold 4 properties to 'friends', kept up with my blog there, useful tidbits and news. That was just one site. Now it's all about Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube and more. These days we have to make videos, link our Twitter to Facebook, our blog (this one) to all of the above and many more sites. We have to create a constant presence in order for our name to be recognized and valued as a leader in the latest news, views and ideas in Real Estate. Not many people go door-to-door anymore leaving door hangers, or calendars on our doorsteps, it's all about online presence.

It's challenging, exciting, very educational too. Just posting a new property listing is interesting - sending it not only to Craigslist, or Backpage, but out to Trulia, Realtor.com, Zillow, Hotpads, Enormo, Front Door, Oodle, Vast, GoogleBase .... and so on.

You have to be savvy in order to satisfy your client's needs to market their properties, there's plenty of help to be found as to how to do it, and I wish everyone who is starting to market via the internet GOOD LUCK! It's fun, a lot of work, but worth it in the long term!

Jane LovedayWindermere Real Estate Agent619-519-1615 Cell http://janeloveday.comhttp://www.facebook.com/realestatesandiego

30 Offers and a Red Front Door - San Diego Real Estate

I have had the pleasure of working with ALL my buyers over the past several years but 2009 has posed a completely different set of 'rules'. With the amount of foreclosures and short sales that we are seeing it is not unusual for me to counsel that it will probably take several offers before one is accepted. That saying several usually means anywhere between 4 and maybe 8 offers, due to the competitiveness of the market and the amount of cash investors knowing a good thing when they see one.

However I recently spent a few months writing up to 30 offers for one buyer, he stayed with me as offer after offer was rejected, he was a VA buyer which means he did not put very much down, VA usually requires a 100% loan, and we were asking for closing costs to be paid by the seller, plus all termite inspection and clearance fees, and a home warranty to cover appliances.

Our 30th offer was on a property which was being 'flipped' - bought at auction, was rehabbed with new appliances, carpet, windows etc and with a red front door! Why would that matter - well a red front door some say is lucky and we were! 30 Offers and a Red Front Door!

After 30 offers we received an acceptance, we closed escrow within 30 days thanks to a wonderful lender who I work with, and my buyer is over the moon with the fact that not only is he a new homeowner, he also gets his $8,000 first time homebuyer tax credit on his 2009 taxes!

Was it worth it, YES, YES, YES, your dream of homeownership is my dream for you too no matter what it takes. This market is challenging, but we Realtors are fighters and we stay the course because it's our business and we know in the future it will get easier, but for now we are in the ring and it's round 2, or 6, or 10 but we will win your title to your next home!

Jane Loveday
REALTOR Lic. # 01439083
Windermere Pacific Coast Properties
cell:619.519.1615
fax:619.269.3766
http://www.janeloveday.com/

Where Has The Buyers' Market In San Diego Real Estate Gone?

When the housing inventory (for sale homes) drops below the 6-month mark here in San Diego it becomes a “sellers” market. We now have under a 5 month supply.

What that means is, if all homes currently for sale are sold, we will have none left after 4 ½ months. Even if banks decide to unload more foreclosed homes, it will not affect this by much at all.

With new regulations on listing a home on the MLS (Multiple Listing Service) here in San Diego coming into affect at the end of May, we will only have a 2 month supply.

For homes priced under $500,000, there is the situation of multiple offers (my client just won out from 11 other offers) which means property is moving quickly, even with short sales. And talking of which, the new regulations mentioned above now require that short sales are placed into a ‘contingent’ status, between for sale and pending, as many of the short sales already have offers submitted to the lenders, with back-up offers being accepted only.

Is the bottom of the market here? What do you think …. If you are waiting for prices to drop further, look no more, they will be dictated by the sellers now, it’s a cycle, and we enjoyed the buyers market up until earlier this year, the wheels have turned.

Jane Loveday
Windermere Real Estate Agent
619-519-1615 Cell
http://www.JaneLoveday.com

San Diego Property Virgins

Here in San Diego we are experiencing (what is not usually known either in our local press or the national press) a very, very busy buyers’ market with investors who usually peruse the stock market, now buying real estate. So what does that have to do with Property Virgins to coin a phrase from HGTV?!

Well, pretty much everything. With investors not taking stock in the stock market, they are taking leaps and bounds into our real estate market and buying with cash the best buys they can find. It is not unusual to find a property, call on offers in advance (we are a multiple offer market here now) and find you are gazumped (does anyone remember that phrase) by an all cash buyer.

It is inherent in this economy to look for the best investment for your dollar. First time homebuyers are beginning to get on the bandwagon, only to find in a lot of cases that investors are beating them to the post.

I frequently call ahead to ascertain if there are any offers on the table, at or above asking – no actually figures quoted – only to be asked if I am representing an investor (all cash) or a home-buyer.

What is going on????

I now tell my buyers NOT to listen to the media, read the press, listen to the news, because in reality we are in the middle of a crazy, frenzied situation. Tonight I showed 6 properties, of those 3 we had to wait for the key to be returned as it was already being shown and this is within a 1 hour window in the middle of the week – goodness knows what is happening with the rest of the hours in the day. One property was already in escrow – YIKES!

So my take… my point … we need to educate buyers as to what to expect in REAL LIFE, not in the media, and to be on top of all offers they think they need to make, give their highest and best, and have realistic expectations that the bargain is no longer there. Tomorrow may be too late, yesterday was right and today was a competition…..

Jane Loveday

Windermere Real Estate Agent
619-519-1615 Cell
http://www.JaneLoveday.com