Are bank owned properties the best buy? Not in all cases. If your thinking of buying a bank owned property ask yourself this first:

1. How many times has the home been robbed? - Many bank owned properties have had the windows busted out, the copper taken, the stove remove and there may be damage in areas not seen.
2. Will the bank pay for repairs? - No in most cases. Your buying the house as is.
3. How much Home Owner Association dues are owed on this home? - Some HOA's want you to pay for all the dues the first owner never paid. And that could add up to thousands in some areas.
4. How much money will it take to fix the yard? - When a real estate agent gets the home to the market for the bank, the home has had the water and power turned of for about 90-160 days. The lawn, trees, bushes and everything else has died. When you drive in an area and see lawn brown, those are the bank owned properties.

These questions are just a few to ask yourself. I'm not saying that REO homes can not be a good deal. In most cases they are not. The banks are not in a big hurry to sell them. They never see the homes and send real estate agent to the home to value it based on damage and market value. And the bank will still price the home high in most cases. Do your research first. Find an real estate agent who has experience in the REO market and those would be agent who had their license in the early 90's. Look at as many homes as you can and call around a find out what the repairs would cost to fix and add that into your bottom line. Always get the home inspected. The bank may not give you money for repairs but you will know what is damaged. The inspection could run you a few hundred dollars but it will save you money in the long run.

just be careful and do your homework.

Got Virtual Tours? Chances are if you don't, your listings are not being seen by buyers online. Every day more buyers start their home search using the internet. Website like Trulia.com, Yahoo.com, Google and Realtor.com are among the top site searched by buyers. These buyers are looking for photos & tours. They need at least 20 photos to get a good idea about the home. Home buying is a very visual investment. They need to fall in love with what they see before they spend their money.

The old school real estate agent goes to the home, takes a few photos of a dark room from a bad angle, and puts a few flyers in the box and start calling all their past clients to see if they know anyone looking to buy. The newer agent sends out a virtual tour company to take 20+ photos, put together a tour and starts plastering the home all over the internet. Then they contact past clients and direct them to their website to take a tour of the home. What agent do you call?

Professional photos and tours are priceless and virtual tours companies know this. That's why they charge $79-$500 per tour. They sell you on a basic tour and then they try to sell on upgrades to enhance your tours. Stop paying for over priced tours. Stop getting the bait and switch. I have created a virtual tour company call 4 Sale Tours. Every tour is only $125. Each tour gets a custom flyer design, 2 marketing CD's, unlimited photos, a branded and a non-branded tour. We host your tour and give you the links to add to your website and the local MLS.

We work with REALTORS & For Sale By Owners. We understand you need to show your home in the best way possible. We take our time and take as many photos as possible. Not every room needs a tour and most bedrooms are too small. We highlight the best features. If you have a showcase listing on realtor.com, we can upload your tour at no charge. Otherwise it's $30.

For more information about our services please go to www.4saletours.com

I am moving back to the Northern California area to run my virtual tour company and be closer to my family. I had a good time in Riverside County and enjoyed all the people I had the opportunity to meet. You all will be missed. Best wishes and good luck.

For those of you in the Sacramento area you now have a new virtual tour company called 4Saletours.com. Our price is one of the cheapest in town. Our package includes both a non-branded & branded tour, a custom flyer design, still photos and 2 marketing CD's. Complete package is only $125.00

For more information and my contact number please go to www.4saletours.com.

My name is Jeremiah Johnson. Yes, I was named after the 1974 Robert Redford movie "Jeremiah Johnson - The Mountain Man". My father was a funny man. I background in independent films. I work on such films like Fifty Pills & Lora Smiles. I got into real estate 3 years ago. I started selling for Keller Williams Realty in Corona California. I got off to a good start and like most other agent the market changed and I was doing less and less. Then one day I asked myself what am I good at and the answer was making videos.

So I raised a little start up money and started doing virtual tours under the company name of 4 Sale Tours. I have been doing them for over a year now and love every minute of it. My tours range from $99 to $150. I service the Inland Empire in Southern California. The turn around time is 3 days. Please check out my website for more information.

Thanks for having me in this group and I hope I can be able to give back to the group with my knowledge. Thanks your for your time and have a nice day.

                                                For a Sample of a tour Click A Photo Below:

                                                        To Go To My Website Click Bleow:

Today I crossed plans for the new San Jacinto Gateway project. I passed a sign on the Ramona Expressway and wrote down the website and check it out. This project is huge. At completion it will bring money and jobs to this area. This project should bring people from all over for shopping and dinning. For those of you who have not been to my area of the world, you are not missing out just yet. The best is yet to come.

San Jacinto sits next to the retirement town of Hemet. Hemet has a mixture of seniors, young families, and people just getting by. It's an unusual site to see while shopping at Von's.  You see old ladies who can hardly see over the dash board driving down the road just missing the young rapper look-a-likes. Not to say the area is bad to live in. It's nice and quite. Not  much crime and  very friendly. San Jacinto is like a suburb of Hemet. Young families and first time home buyers have relocated to this area to start a new life.

The current market consists of homes price at $350,000 on up. Yes, sells are low but in a couple of years it will be much better. This current project is planned to open in late 2008 to Fall 2009. This development will bring more home owner which will increase housing prices. I expect the home to increase around $75,000 to $120,000 in the next 3 years. It's going to be due to the supply and demand. We will self be contained and our new shopping centers will bring other here to shop.

For first time home buyers now is the time to by. For more information about the new San Jacinto project please go to http://www.sanjacintogateway.com/. For more information about local real estate call me, Jeremiah Johnson (951) 893-7008. And to get a virtual tour done by my real estate marketing company go to http://www.4saletours.com/.

Gateway At San Jacinto

GATEWAY PLAZA is a proposed 707,000-square-foot community shopping center development strategically located at the intersection of the Ramona Expressway and Sanderson Avenue (realigned). Gateway Plaza will offer prime freeway frontage along the planned Mid County Parkway and its own convenient off-ramp at Sanderson. This site is zoned and approved for retail and is situated within a redevelopment agency project area, known as the San Jacinto Gateway. The project is also exempt from TUMF, MSHCP and several other fees due to a development agreement. Retailers will enjoy strong demographics, a projected population of over 470,000, and more than 74,000 new homes under development, planned and projected in the trade area.

Park Central At San Jacinto

THE FESTIVAL AT SAN JACINTO is a proposed 812,000-square-foot community shopping center development at the intersection of the Ramona Expressway and Highway 79. The Festival at San Jacinto will be anchored by Target, a variety of junior anchors, theatre, specialty stores and restaurants. Retailers will enjoy outstanding freeway visibility, convenient access and strong demographics at "ground zero" of San Jacinto's hottest development area -- "The San Jacinto Gateway," where the new money is! The expansive and growing trade area includes a projected population of over 470,000 and more than 74,000 new homes under development, planned and projected in the trade area.

A 3.9 Earthquake rocks Corona California today. 3.9  2007/09/25 15:38:24 33.739N 117.469W  4.8   15 km ( 9 mi) WNW of Lake Elsinore, CA. Our office at Keller Williams Ralty Rocked and Rolled for a few seconds. No big problems. For the looks of things there were several quakes today in the Inland Empire. It seems like we have been having a quake every couple of week. I lived in the Bay Area and we have never had this many quakes. Hope nothing big is coming.

Google Base is up and going. Well it's been up for a little while, but not well used just yet. Brokers at Keller Williams Realty have made a deal with Google Base's new real estate search site. Now everyone can add their listing to this site for free. What a deal. By adding your listing to Google Base your listing will start showing up in the Google Search Engine. Not a bad deal for a few minutes of your time.

Go To http://base.google.com/base/help/realestate.html

How to you reach more buyers in today's market? Online is the key. Why would you spend anywhere from $200-2000 for ads in local newspapers or magazines. Newspaper subscriptions are declining weekly. People are not going to pay for news when they can get it for free. Yes newspaper will never go away but less people are going to be reading them in the near future. Open house ads work in the local paper but just putting a listing in there to show it off is not go to work. Craigslist work even better for open house ads and they are free.

Today buyers will spend hours online looking at digital photos and video tours. Companies like Agent Cast are making it cheaper and easier for agent to advertise their listing all over the word. The other agents who do not keep up with technology are going to get left behind. I search the MLS everyday in my area. I see about 30-40 new listings a day something and 6 will have photos and 1 will have a tour. Why even put them on the internet in this shape? No-one is going to looking at them.

I expect in the next year photo tours will be out and video tours will be in. Stop spending your money on print ads and start spend your marketing dollar online. When doing a listing presenting do you think a seller wants you to hold a few open house and put a newspaper ad out every few weeks or do they want an agent who can promote their house on Google, Yahoo, YouTube, daily blogs, buyer cell phones, email ads,  and showcase it to the world. The old school agent is going to loose out on that listing.

Over all you can advertise your home on the internet for a lot less then print ads. Print ads don't sell homes they sell REALTOR®. They brand your agent in the local market. 90% of people start there search online. And more people who use the internet to find their home end up using a REALTOR®. Get more exposure online. Get more clients online. Sell your home faster online. Just get online!

If you are in need of a tour check us out at 4SaleTours.com.

This is amazing. Trulia has only been around for a short time and they are already making a big hit in the online real estate search. The press release I read today said they are now in the rankings with Google base and yahoo. They have passed realtor.com, homegain and zillow.com. What this means to real estate companies is that Trulia is here to help them all. By offering some of the best real estate information on the internet they are putting buyers and sellers in touch with real estate agents. Unlike other sites that take the clients information and try to sell it back to real estate agent that already have accounts with them, Trulia is giving free information to these same clients and letting the client find a realtor the best fits their needs. Trulia also has a Question and Answer page that allows buyers and sellers ask questions and get answers from top realtors in their area.  

Companies such as Keller Williams Realty in Corona California have been using Trulia to gather local and nation information about the real estate market. They also try to answer as many questions as they can in their area.

To read the press release click here.

Getting your home sold is at the top of your list if your home has been sitting on the real estate market. In the past Riverside County has seen homes hit the market and then sell in a few short days. And chances are you got more then what the home was worth. Times have changed and to sell your home in today's market you need to be priced right and standout.

I did a search today on http://www.imrmls.com/ and found that in the cities of Corona & Riverside California there are 327 new homes on the market in the past 10 days. Out of these 327 homes only 20 have a virtual tour and 59 listing don't even have photos. Tours and photos increase the number of buyers looking at your home. If your agent has not even put photos of your home on the local MLS system in 10 days then there is something wrong. NO One will look at your home without a photo.

To fix your tour and photo problems I suggest contacting Jeremiah Johnson owner of 4 Sale Tours. He can put together a full branded tour for under $100. 4 Sale Tours is also Realtor.com approved. 4 Sale Tours services most of Riverside County.

Click this link to see an example of a recent tour. http://www.uBuildTours.com/tour.php?mls=k07124145

Don't get lost in the crowd Standout Today! Call Jeremiah Johnson at 951-271-3056 or send an email to bullfrog@kw.com