I guess the days of Thailand are over, although I do still have another blog to post on that if I can ever get time to do it. Since I've been back, there have been sellers, buyers, and piling paperwork to tend to! So I'm back to my busy life, and loving every bit of it. Nice to have vacation and nice to be back to work still feeling fresh (even after 1 month back).

If you've read all of my blogs from beginning to end, you'll notice I haven't spent a lot of time on technical aspects of real estate. I will try to do more of that, so I can help eliminate some of the potential stress for sellers and buyers alike. Plus I delight in the technical aspects, and try to improve each time so the process of selling and buying is as smooth as possible.

It's never an easy thing, but I try to make is as enjoyable as possible for my clients. There are always some sort of speed bumps during escrow, but that's all they are. Of course, "speed bumps" to a real estate agent who does this all day long may feel like "crash and burn" to clients who do this a few times in their lives. My job is to help us get around the speed bumps, eliminate the crash and burn, and move forward with things.

So let me give you some insight on the Environmental & Natural Hazards Disclosures, that might help sellers and buyers feel more comfortable about their next upcoming real estate transaction.

If I can advise home sellers and buyers of one thing prior to starting the process of selling or buying a home, it would be to pay about $130 and order an Environmental & Natural Hazards report on their existing property.

(Sellers, this would help you because it's better to have the report to provide buyers prior to making an offer...that way they know ahead of time if they would or would not be willing to move forward. Wouldn't you rather them back out ahead of getting into escrow?! The only thing is that if your property sits on the market for a long time, you'd have to get an updated report in case there is anything new, but I believe the disclosure companies would do this at no cost.)

Why would I recommend spending money on something as unexciting as one of these reports? Because the reports can be overwhelming and scary if the first time you've ever seen a report like that is on a home you are about to purchase or sell. But if you order a report on your existing property, you might be surprised at what you will find is within a mile radius from your present home, and will help prepare you for what you might find on a home you consider buying. Plus it would give you plenty of time to call the company providing the report and ask questions.

These Environmental & Natural Hazards Disclosure reports provide all sorts of intersting information, such as:

• Flood Hazard Zones,
• Fire Hazard Determinations
• Radon Gas Potential (as per Property ID, did you know that all of Los Angeles County is in a "moderate radon zone"?)
• Earthquake Fault Zones
• Soil Hazards
• Methane Gas
• Property Tax
• & more 

There are many companies that provide these reports. For more information or to order reports, you can start with Property ID www.PropertyID.com or National Disclosure Authority www.NDAreports.com. You can also do a Google search to find others. I have been using Prop ID for a long time, and have even been to their "Lunch n Learn" sessions onsite. Very informative and probably more than you would ever want to know!

Seeing an Environmental & Natural Hazards Disclosure report on your current home prior to buying another home might reduce some stress for both buyers and sellers. In a perfect world, we'd have no-stress "happy escrows", but the escrow process is a series of inspections, reviewing a lot of disclosures from different sources. There are seller disclosures, mandatory state disclosures, the NHD disclosures, and more beeing added all the time. Like a new addition I've seen called the Tsunami Hazard Inundation. Makes sense to have such a thing considering we live by the ocean!

Well that's about it on that subject. Of course, if I can be of any service to you or someone you know, or would like to talk about more technical issues in real estate transactions, I'm happy to coach you!