Three bedrooms plus loft, with two full baths, located in the Sierra Mountain foothills. Over a half acre of level property located right on Crystal Falls Lake. Home comes completely furnished & ready to move in or purchase as an income property and have a rental of your own!! Brand new heating & air and propane fireplace. This home is one the whole family will love! 71204 $479,500 View the listing here: Crystal Lake Home or email Gary and Charlene Hughes for more information. Listed by Sugar Pine Realty. In Tuolumne County Real Estate sales & service for over 30 years & still growing. We're located in the Sonora Twain Harte Mother Lode area of California, approximately 70 miles west of Yosemite. We are here to serve you! Visit our website: Gary and Charlene's homepage.

Very desired subdivision! Elegant sunken Living Room with Fire Place! This is a beautiful 2,207 square foot home, with 3 bedrooms, 2 baths. Spacious open floor plan perfect for entertaining!Located on a beautiful 1 acre lot with a lot of privacy! Hot tub. Back deck with views. Many new outdoor improvements including brand new driveway. Near historic Columbia & Lake Melones. This is the right home for any family. 70535 $535,222 View the listing here: Gold Springs Delight or email Gary and Charlene Hughes for more information. Listed by Sugar Pine Realty. In Tuolumne County Real Estate sales & service for over 30 years & still growing. We're located in the Sonora Twain Harte Mother Lode area of California, approximately 70 miles west of Yosemite. We are here to serve you! Visit our website: Gary and Charlene’s homepage.

Friday, June 8, 2007

 

For all those investors who are looking for a good buy....There are now many properties to choose from at a lower than last years market price! It is time to go shopping, the interest rates are still low and you can find a good value for a home at this time.

One thing is for sure the cylcle of real estate is that it consistantly goes up over the years! This cycle should change too in the future and then you're profits may be realized!

 

Where does the time go??  We are so busy...But what are we doing???  Who are we doing it for?? Why are we doing what were doing?   I am sure we have all asked these questions, but tomarrow is June 1, 2007 and now is a good time to evaluate the last six months of your life.  Did you accomplish what you wanted to do?  Are you satisfied with the results? What are the things you'd change?  

Life is to short ~ Take some time for yourself.   Find the time to ask yourself these questions! 

May you be productive, profitable, life giving, joyfull and peaceful with your time.

Time is a precious commodity use it wisely.

 

Your comments of encouragement and understanding were greatfully appreciated! I am now beginning to really understand the great purposes of Active Rain! Thank you, to all those who are willing to share there ideas to help others do better. The real esate industry and its moral ethics can be quite challanging at times, so it is good to see that there are people who care and want to help others without a selfish motivation!! Keep up the good work! You will reap what you sow!! May your businesses be blessed!!

Here's another one of those crazy escrow stories courtesy of Charlene Hughes of our Sonora office (you'll appreciate reading it to the end!): My client told us that this would be an all cash deal. He told us the money was in his trust account and all he had to do was get it released to him. He works with my husband, Gary, so okay. He seems very trust worthy. Right? He writes an offer and puts his girl friend on the contract. We began by ordering inspections and we were off. The pest inspection was done within a week and all looked good. That was until we started having a hard time verifying funds. Our client then told us "Mommy" had to sign off on his money and she was out of the country. Hmmm? Then he went to San Jose to sign papers to get the money wired by his mom's broker. Okay. Looks good. Then we were notified by the title company his check had bounced!!! Now we began to wonder what was going on. The story gets even better. The client told us that someone had unauthorized debits into his account. In this day and age that's entirely possible. So we believed him. He again assured us the funds for the check would be wired, but he couldn't get a hold of his mother to sign off. Then he told us she wanted to see the property herself and would like us to hold off until she came back to the states. Okay, this could be worked with but, the case of the Bounced Check was still in question. We explained his necessity to take care of this matter and told him this was check fraud. He had told us he was having his mom work things out to send him the money first to the title company. So we waited for the funds. And guess what? They never showed up! He explained his mother was going to contact us by email to arrange a time for us to meet when she was in town. So she emailed me from Europe?? She said that she was wiring the funds for the returned check to my client's account and he would have to clear the check himself and that was delayed because of the distance, but it would be done that day. Sure... By now we are aware that we have been taken for a ride by a very good con artist! Of course the money never showed up. He finally confessed and left a messege that he never had the money, but he would take care of the inspection fee and that we needed to cancel the contract. Really, you think!!!???? The next day when he was to pay the inspection, his car just so happens to break down and he calls his now disillusioned girlfriend and asks her to go pay the bill! (I don't think she'll be getting any of her money back!) It appears this gentleman is a pathological liar!! I can't remember a time when I have ever been so duped and I am a pretty good judge of character. The seller felt the same way and so did the person who was at her house when we did the home inspection. Neither my husband or I or the client's girl friend, had any idea about this man. And we even took them out to dinner! Of course, on US!! Because he was an all cash buyer and who wouldn't want to treat an all cash buyer to a business dinner!! Great lesson learned! If I had to do over again, I would probably have someone's funds checked before writing an offer regardless of the seven days allowed to prove funds. And I hope the next buyer will understand our position on this.

 

Tuesday, May 14, 2007

Sunny Days Ahead!!

We have had many rainy days in the past few months in the real estate market!

The deals are here... and everythings coming up Houses!

We shall soon see the.. Raining of Escrows!!

A new season is here... have Fun in the SUN! 

Opening doors of opportunity for eveyone!  

 

Buyers Beware!!!

The lending field is changing! No longer will new buyers with lower credit scores be getting those 100% financing loans so easily anymore! Make sure your lenders are giving your clients good advice about how to borrow money to buy a home!
Recently, I had a client told that they were approved for a loan on a home four times and even told they could execute the sale early! My clients trusted there lender and started to plan for there move....there utilities were connected, they gave notice to there landlord and even had the new home sprayed for pest work, not in there contract at the lenders advise! (Pest work was ordered by the lender....It had become very apparent something was wrong here!!)
When the fourth promise of approval on a loan fell through, there agent advised them to try a different lender to see if they could really get a loan!! After much stress and discouragement it appears that they will be able to get their home after all! The new lender explained that the restrictions on lending had recently changed! He told them up front what was going on and did not lead them on to believe they could get something they could not!! He was honest and forth coming and it was a refreshing change after so much confusion!! Did I mention the clients were expecting a baby any day now?!!
As a realtor of four years, I have never seen anything like this but I am afraid we will see more! Buyers and Agenst beware, research your lenders, or use someone a realtor, or friend who has had successful transactions with.
We do all we can do but remember, the buck starts or stops with the lender!! 

Well Tuolumne County has it all except the ocean! We grew up in Southern California right on the beach but Tuolumne County is Best!!  We have all four seasons, beautiful autumn colors, white winters with snow for skiiers, spring flowers of purple lupin and golden poppy's covering the hillsides and warm to hot summers with many choice lakes and rivers to explore.  This is a community the whole family can enjoy. Many people buy a second home here and look to retire in this beautiful area.  We are very greatful to live in such a beautiful location!  If you haven't been to Sonora, Ca. it is worth the time to take a vacation here and check out what we have to offer. While your here visit Yosemite National Park, with breath taking sites and waterfalls.