According to Dataquick's newest report for California 2009 May Home Sales: "The median price paid for a home last month was $230,000, up 4.1 percent from $221,000 in April, and down 32.2 percent from $339,000 for May a year ago."

Why is it important to hire a agent who is familiar with the area you are buying or selling instead of an out of the area agent who is a trusted friend? The answer may be very simple.

1. Convenience

Is it easier for a local agent to drive 5 to 10 minute or out of the area one to drive 30 to 60 minute to the house for showing? It is more practical to hire a local agent who is nearby due to the showing convenience.

2. Area Knowledge

On top of that, the local agent who specializes in the area knows the neighborhood by heart. They are familiar with the rating of the schools, the crime rate of the area, and where the parks and shopping malls are. Those local knowledge may require some research if the agent is out the area and could be totally unaware of.

3. Pricing Knowledge

A local agent who monitors the real estate market in the area is familiar with the pricing of each home sold on a daily basis. The agent understands the type of buyer for each type of house from experience and can price the house accurately.

There was one bank owned home in Diamond Bar for sale that is located in a extremely busy main street in June 2009. It is difficult to drive in and out of the house due to the street traffic. The same house was sold frequently every few years. It was normally priced about 10% below the market price in the past due to it's functional obsolescence.

It was sold 8 days after it was listed at regular market price. Buyers normally believe bank owned homes are good deals and especially if the value of the property checked out with appraisal site such as Zillow.com. This kind of situation could be easily prevented if buyer is assisted by a competent local agent.

With a good local agent working for you, it can help prevent selling your house too low or buying too high. Therefore, it is to your best interest to hire an agent who is familiar with the area you are buying or selling.

Buy a house in s good school district is one of the main reasons for family looking for a new home in the summer. The following is a chart of State's 2008 API school reports for Walnut, Diamond Bar, Phillips Ranch and Chino Hills to assist buyers who are factoring the shcools into their buying decision.

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Below is a chart of percentage housing price changes in Chino Hills, Diamond Bar, Walnut and Phillips Ranch according to the newest data published by MDA DataQuick, a company that tracks housing price.

Unlike most cities in Los Angeles where the 1 year percentage change are still in the negative, Walnut is up by 17.5%.

Why is housing price holding so well in Walnut? Here are the main reasons:

I. Top Ranked Schools

Walnut School District is famed for it's top ranked schools. For parents who wants to send their school age children to great schools, Walnut becomes a top pick.

II. City's Effort To Minimize Over Development

With City of Walnut's effort in opposing over development in the city in the past decades, Walnut remains one of the nicest residential cities to live in with minimal commercial traffic from outside of the city.

With excellent schools and city's effort in keeping it a small town atmosphere, Walnut remains one of the most popular cities for young family to settle down.

With the new signs of economic recovery, we are seeing large amount of solid buyers/investors returning to the market with 20% to 50% down payment to look for bargains.

The wave of purchase starting in March is causing a huge reduction of available homes for sale and subsequently driving the market price upward rapidly. Inventory is at all time low. Some cities such as Chino Hills and Phillips Ranch are having inventory level below one month supply.

The market frenzy is further indicated by multiple offers on the same home driving purchase price upward to as high as 10% more than the asking price.

Last week in Diamond Bar, a bank owned property on Silver Hawk received 30+ offers within 2 days it was listed for sale. According to the listing agent, bank chose an offer with offer price substantially above the asking price and had all the contingencies removed to guarantee their purchase.

Because of the bidding frenzy, it is common to see buyer submitting offers to multiple homes to ensure their success in purchase a house. If their offers get accepted by multiple homes, they will pick the one they like the most to purchase.

Due of the low inventory level, we are also seeing seller receiving multiple offers on the same house. Since buyers are also making offers on multiple properties at the same time, it is wise for seller to wait for couple of days prior to open escrow to make sure that the buyer is sincere enough to go forward with the purchase.

This article is found at: http://homebuying.about.com/od/sellingahouse/qt/sellwithpets.htm

Almost everybody loves pets except the home buyer who is buying your house. Don't ask me why, but that's often how it works out. Home sellers who adore their pets -- and I count myself as a huge pet lover -- have a hard time imagining the negative attitudes others harbor against pets. So, while this might be a bitter pill to swallow, if you want to get top dollar for your house, pay attention to how much you might lose with a dog or cat in residence.

Why Don't Home Buyers Like Your Pet?

- Nervousness. Pets make some people very uncomfortable. Not everybody grew up with a family pet or enjoys outings at the zoo. Fur and four legs does not a human make.

- Fear. Real and irrational. It's not only dogs that instill fear in people. All kinds of silly wives' tales and superstitions involve cats.

- Inexperience. Pets are not always predictable.

- Your pets aren't their pets. They imagine yours bite, jump, vomit, claw, spit-up hairballs or are just plain hyper and bad.

#1 Preferred Pet Solution

You're not going to like this but I'll say it anyway, fully realizing that this very excellent piece of advice is likely to fall on deaf ears. The best thing to do to ensure top price for your home is to relocate your pets while your home is on the market. Putting them in the back yard, in the garage or in another room that you keep locked is insufficient, and it's not fair to them. You need to remove them from the house.

- Let a friend or relative care for Fluffy and Spike.
- Board them at a kennel.
- Send them on vacation.

Overcoming Negatives Associated with Your Pets

If you shrug off all professional advice and absolutely refuse to move your pets out of the house, then at least minimize the objections and nuisance factors, real or otherwise:

- Cat Litter Boxes & Dog Potty Pads
Keep them out of sight and impeccably clean. Nothing turns off buyers faster than opening the door to the laundry room and being greeted by a full or stinky cat box.

- Carpet & Floor Pet Stains
Hire professionals to remove the stains. Buyers will spot them and form unfavorable opinions about the rest of the house. If the stains can't be removed, then remove the floor covering and replace it.

- Pet Odors and Smells
1. Cat urine is the worst. Without question. The. Worst. Bring in a neighbor to do a whiff test.

2. Do not use air fresheners. People with allergies will react.

3. Try enzyme cleaners such as Simple Solution , Nature's Miracle or call a professional ozone company.

Remove Signs of a Pet

You may be required by state law to disclose that pets have lived in your home, but you don't need to advertise that pets live at your house. Removing signs that you have a pet is simply smart practice. Why turn off a buyer at the get-go? It's those first impressions that are so all-fired important.

- Do not put photos online showing your cat asleep on the bed
- Seal up doggie doors
- Put away food and water bowls when not in use
- Vacuum religiously, every day, sometimes twice a day
- Pick up pet toys and put them away
- Pack up cat trees and other signs of cat paraphernalia (you know who you are)
- Remove photos of pets from refrigerator, walls and table tops
- Pack up all cages, carriers and other tell-tale signs

Showing Your House

Put your pets into a carrier and attach a note warning buyers not to disturb them. The last thing you need is somebody sticking their hand inside the carrier and getting bit or scratched. You can't predict how your pet will react when locked up and alone.

I learned the hard way by letting my cat run loose during a showing. I was outside talking to my neighbor while the selling agent showed my home. We heard loud knocking and looked up to see the agent rapping on my upstairs window. I thought he was showing the buyer I had dual panes. It didn't dawn on me that he was panicking and couldn't figure out how to open the window. When the rapping continued, I went inside. Turned out my cat had cornered the agent and the buyer, and was growling at them. Needless to say, that buyer didn't buy my house.

This article is found at: http://realtytimes.com/rtpages/20090304_homebuyer.htm
on March 4, 2009

It seems like every day someone is asking about why it is so hard to get a real estate loan. Just two years ago anyone, and I mean anyone, could get a loan to buy a house or condo. Well, the times have changed and rules from the lenders have changed right along with the times.

Think for a second of home loan guidelines being similar to the old pendulum clocks. Just a couple years ago the pendulum was to the left, and it was probably too easy to get qualified. But now the pendulum has swung all the way to the right, and it is very difficult to get qualified. Often, the lending industry swings its requirements from one extreme to the other without stopping at a sensible middle ground. For now we will not explore the cause of this change, only the new requirements. Keep in mind though that these will change over time as well, hopefully to a more moderated middle ground but only time will tell.

For those looking to get qualified in this tough market, please note the criteria below:

Fico Scores
These must be better than average (600+), and when the credit report is run there must be no Bankruptcy (BK), and likely no "collections" of accounts will be allowed.

Down Payments
Buyers must have some money to put down, no longer will the lenders approve 100% financing, most likely the lenders will require 10-20% down (except FHA which allows only 3% (3.5% in 2009)).

Ample Income
All income will need to be verified with pay stubs two year period and IRS and State tax filings for 2-3 years. Then they will calculate your debt-to-income ratios (looking to see that you can really make the payments). Each lender has different ratios they will pass or disqualify with. As a general rule, these days they are wanting to see much smaller debt-to-income ratios. In other words, the banks want to see borrowers with more income and less outstanding debt obligations.

Stated Income
This (with no verification) is no longer available, meaning quite a hardship on the self-employed, but lenders are very risk averse now. The only exception is if buyers have a very hefty down payment like over 30%.

Proof of Funds
A few months worth of recent bank account statements will be required to show that money is really available for closing costs and down payments.

Reserve Funds
Many lenders require that the borrower have reserve cash on hand to cover two to six months worth of payments.

Non-Occupants
If the property is not going to be the home of the borrower (like a rental) then most lenders will increase the interest rate on the loan.

Limited Holdings Restrictions
are also placed on many borrower that this property will not increase their rental holdings to more than 4 units. Lenders are very suspect of investors that might be over leveraging themselves.

Obviously, only very qualified people can meet the above criteria, and that is just what the lenders want in a time of uncertainty and massive losses. For the time being they can’t justify making any more high-risk loans. Hopefully, knowing what is needed in advance to get approved, buyers will understand that it is critical to prepare early and get their ducks in a row before starting the home buying process. For those lucky enough to be qualified in today’s market, a wide range of opportunity awaits them.

Below is a chart showing the number of houses sold in Phillips Ranch from 2006 to 2009. In April 2009, 7 properties were sold and 19 properties went into escrow. Of the 7 properties sold, 1 is regular sale at bargain price, 2 short sales and 4 bank owned properties.

17 properties went into escrow in March and only 7 were sold in April showing the level of difficulty to close escrow successfully. Unless the property is an outrageous deal like the bank owned or short sales selling 10% to 40% below market, buyers are not that desperate to get the deal through in today's buyer's market.

Transactions could easily fall apart in escrow due to buyer's inability to secure a loan or buyers' change of mind. Unless the escrow is closed successfully, sellers need to psychologically prepared for the worst scenario to put the house back on the market if buyer back out from the deal.

The sales volume is almost double this April comparing to last April in 2008. We are continue seeing market price rebounding rapidly for about 10% to 15% since January.

Since the interest rate is still below 5% for 30 year fix rate loan, it is great time for buyers to secure good deal at low interest rate.