lake tahoe real estate blog: Attention Home Buyers: Making South Lake Tahoe Even More Attractive (pt 5) - 09/19/11 07:33 AM
Improvements to South Lake Tahoe High School helps primary home buyers.
(Lake Tahoe Real Estate Blog / September 17, 2011 / Richard Bolen)
This is all good news for South Lake Tahoe home buyers. Home prices have not been this affordable in a decade, and mortgage interest rates have never been this low.
In addition to these very real home buyer advantages, there are a host of additional South Lake Tahoe positives that make our community even more attractive, and our housing climate even better.  These positives include improvements in our infrastructure and private investments in local businesses. All together, … (0 comments)

lake tahoe real estate blog: Attention Home Buyers: Making South Lake Tahoe Even More Attractive (pt 3) - 09/17/11 05:16 AM
 Infrastructure improvements increase the quality of our desirable South Lake Tahoe lifestyle.
(Lake Tahoe Real Estate Blog / September 15, 2011 / Richard Bolen)
This is all good news for South Lake Tahoe home buyers. Home prices have not been this affordable in a decade, and mortgage interest rates have never been this low.
In addition to these very real home buyer advantages, there are a host of additional South Lake Tahoe positives that make our community even more attractive, and our housing climate even better.  These positives include improvements in our infrastructure and private investments in local businesses. All … (1 comments)

lake tahoe real estate blog: Attention Home Buyers: Making South Lake Tahoe Even More Attractive (pt 2) - 09/16/11 06:27 AM
Infrastructure improvements increase the quality of our desirable South Lake Tahoe lifestyle.
(Lake Tahoe Real Estate Blog / September 14, 2011 / Richard Bolen)
This is all good news for South Lake Tahoe home buyers. Home prices have not been this affordable in a decade, and mortgage interest rates have never been this low.
In addition to these very real home buyer advantages, there are a host of additional South Lake Tahoe positives that make our community even more attractive, and our housing climate even better.  These positives include improvements in our infrastructure and private investments in local businesses. All … (0 comments)

lake tahoe real estate blog: Attention Home Buyers: Making South Lake Tahoe Even More Attractive (pt 1) - 09/15/11 06:44 AM
 Much more good news for buyers than low prices and low interest rates.
(Lake Tahoe Real Estate Blog / September 13, 2011 / Richard Bolen)
This is all good news for South Lake Tahoe home buyers. Home prices have not been this affordable in a decade, and mortgage interest rates have never been this low.
In addition to these very real home buyer advantages, there are a host of additional South Lake Tahoe positives that make our community even more attractive, and our housing climate even better.  These positives include improvements in our infrastructure and private investments in local businesses. … (0 comments)

lake tahoe real estate blog: Actual Email to a Tahoe Keys, South Lake Tahoe Home Buyer - 09/12/11 05:31 AM
 Working with a South Lake Tahoe home buyer from afar.
(Lake Tahoe Real Estate Blog / September 10, 2011 / Richard Bolen)
One of the things that makes what we do interesting is providing information about a South Lake Tahoe house to a client who doesn't live here. Because we are a resort attraction, this happens more than not: some 65% of our homeowners do not live here.
We never recommend that a buyer buys a house unless they have seen it. It has happened before, though, but that is very rare. The challenge is to give someone afar as much … (0 comments)

lake tahoe real estate blog: Catching Passes and Promoting Real Estate. - 09/10/11 05:16 AM

 Spies, Paris, Football and an unconscious nod to P.T. Barnham.
(Lake Tahoe Real Estate Blog / September 8, 2011 / Richard Bolen)
(Here's a post we did back in 2007. The start of the football season is a nice place to bring it back. Hope you enjoy.)
Here’s another story about our background. We hope you find it interesting. Before we talk about football and what that might have to do with our real estate practice, here’s how we got to France and what we were doing there.
Our family lived in Paris from 1957 to 1960. Our father, … (0 comments)

lake tahoe real estate blog: Searching for a Home in a Haystack - 09/05/11 07:11 AM

 Digging Deeper is sometimes what it takes!
 (Lake Tahoe Real Estate Blog / September 2, 2011 / Richard Bolen)
The phone rang while we were thinking about what we might write for a blog post about South Lake Tahoe yesterday. At that moment, I was sorting out whether we wanted to talk about our Nevada luxury home market since we're showing homes around $1.5M this weekend (he's coming in a Ferrari, but that's a different story).
 I didn't know it immediately, but the phone call was the story, and it took some 4 hours over yesterday and today for … (0 comments)

lake tahoe real estate blog: US Escrow Falls in July: What about South Lake Tahoe? - 08/31/11 05:11 AM

Housing is often different in South Lake Tahoe than in the rest of the country. (Lake Tahoe Real Estate Blog / August 29, 2011 / Richard Bolen)
All real estate is local, and what this means is real estate conditions are almost always different in one place from another. Sometimes this difference is miniscule, but often it is palpable. This is one of those.
This comes via the Associated Press from the National Association of Realtors (NAR) and it cites that US home sales agreements fell in July. Sales agreements are known as "escrow", and we thought we'd compare current … (0 comments)

lake tahoe real estate blog: The Effect of Listing a 1,500 sq ft South Lake Tahoe, CA House Too High. - 08/29/11 06:34 AM
Listing a South Lake Tahoe house too high costs a Seller time and money. The Question is how much?
(Lake Tahoe Real Estate Blog / August 24, 2011 / Richard Bolen)
we're looking at the median sold South Lake Tahoe house from the POV of a seller, that of a buyer and at the effect of listing that house at too high a price.
This is the last in a 3-part series. The source chart is below, and for this particular study lets look at the effect of listing a 1,500 sq ft South Lake Tahoe house too high.
What this … (0 comments)

lake tahoe real estate blog: Characteristics of a 1,500 Sq Ft South Lake Tahoe House: Buyer POV - 08/20/11 05:17 AM
A Study of the South Lake Tahoe, CA House between $250,000 – $299,999 (the 1,500 sq ft house)
(Lake Tahoe Real Estate Blog / August 18, 2011 / Richard Bolen)
This study is in three posts, and in it we're looking at the median sold South Lake Tahoe house from the POV of a seller, that of a buyer and at the effect of listing that house at too high a price.
This is part 2 in this 3-part series. The source chart is below, and for this particular study from a buyer's POV, we looked at home sales between $250,000 … (1 comments)

lake tahoe real estate blog: Characteristics of a 1,500 Sq Ft South Lake Tahoe House: Seller POV - 08/17/11 05:03 AM
A Study of the South Lake Tahoe, CA median sold house (1,500 sq ft).
(Lake Tahoe Real Estate Blog / August 15, 2011 / Richard Bolen)
Think average, but with greater detail and certainty, that's what the median sold price is, and for this study, which will come in three posts, we're going to look at the median sold South Lake Tahoe house from the POV of a seller, that of a buyer and we'll look at the effect of listing a that house at too high a price.
So this is part 1 in a 3-part series. The source chart … (0 comments)

lake tahoe real estate blog: So, Who does S & P Blame? - 08/10/11 06:33 AM

Blame is much less important than solution, one presumes.
(Lake Tahoe Real Estate Blog / August 8, 2011 / Richard Bolen)
Yup, some of you may be pleased, this is our last post about things political for a while. This comes from CNN, and it's about the S & P downgrade, of course.
The article is entitled: "Questions abound after agency downgrades U.S. credit rating", and it's here in full.
Of particular interest to us were comments made by John Chambers, head of sovereign ratings at Standard & Poor. When asked about factors that led to the S&P downgrade decision, … (0 comments)

lake tahoe real estate blog: The Top Ten Job Killing Companies (none in South Lake Tahoe) - 08/09/11 05:55 AM

Instead of blaming somebody else, why don't we all serve notice… on those who aren't serving? (Lake Tahoe Real Estate Blog / August 7, 2011 / Richard Bolen)
In economic times like these, when jobs are a premium priority, have you ever noticed that almost everything the political party in power does is considered "job-killing" by the other party? And it doesn't matter which party is in power, or not, because the party not in power always blames the other party for everything?
It's either all Bush's fault, or all Obama's fault, but it's never our fault for electing those … (0 comments)

lake tahoe real estate blog: Some Better News in South Lake Tahoe Today: Job Growth? - 08/07/11 08:12 AM
Any U.S. Job Growth helps South Lake Tahoe, and everywhere else too!
(Lake Tahoe Real Estate Blog / August 5, 2011 / Richard Bolen)
Lets not get too excited, the "good" news in South Lake Tahoe today is good because… well, it's not worse, and who knew that we would see an increase in the jobs market in July, and a tenth of a point down tic in the national unemployment rate from 9.2% to 9.1%?
All of yesterday's forecasters certainly didn't see this coming, and any movement in a positive direction is big time better than not.
The CNN … (0 comments)

lake tahoe real estate blog: Plunging Interest Rates Help South Lake Tahoe Home Buyers - 08/05/11 05:12 AM

 Interest rates and prices this low? It doesn't get any better for South Lake Tahoe home buyers than this!
(Lake Tahoe Real Estate Blog / August 3, 2011 / Richard Bolen)
Trying to find a silver lining in the recent debt-fiasco cloud, perhaps plunging mortgage interest rates is it. That's what happened today, with mortgage interest rates hitting new lows in some cases. All we can say is good for South Lake Tahoe home buyers. Bravo!
Today's report via CNNMoney.com states that the 30-year fixed rate, usually the most popular choice for home buyers, fell to 4.45% from 4.57% … (4 comments)

lake tahoe real estate blog: South Lake Tahoe, CA Short Sale Success - 08/04/11 07:27 AM
Some things make a South Lake Tahoe short sale more successful quicker
(Lake Tahoe Real Estate Blog / August 2, 2011 / Richard Bolen)
We're seeing success with some of our recent South Lake Tahoe, CA short sales. First let's look at some of the reasons why, then lets look at a few individual sales in general.
Before we do that, though, let's make sure we all understand this as it relates to short sales:
one does not ask a bank for permission first. there is nobody at your bank assigned to your file that can give you permission to … (0 comments)

lake tahoe real estate blog: A Better Jobs Report… amid all this Political Debt Nonsense. - 07/30/11 09:22 AM

Lots of our politicos talk about jobs, but more, simply, should talk less and do more about it! (Lake Tahoe Real Estate Blog / July 28, 2011 / Richard Bolen)
Amid all of this political debt falderol, here comes a better U.S. jobs report, the best one we've seen here in South Lake Tahoe since last April.
Who knew? We've been, it seems, inundated with funky economic news for some time now.
With the house vote going on today over the debt ceiling, and all of the juvenile name-calling that will go with it, we doubt this story will get … (1 comments)

lake tahoe real estate blog: How Much it Costs, Exactly, to List a South Lake Tahoe, CA House Too High - 07/26/11 06:25 AM
Putting Fact into South Lake Tahoe, CA listing agent cliche.
(Lake Tahoe Real Estate Blog / July 24, 2011 / Richard Bolen)
How many times has a real estate agent ever said this to a home seller: "if you list  your house to high it will cost you time and money?"
The answer is, of course, unknown, and the number of times a home owner has heard that is certainly a number too large to imagine (it's like counting the number of stars, or something like that).
In fact, the statement, if you list your house too high it will … (0 comments)

lake tahoe real estate blog: Another actual Lake Tahoe Real Estate Blog email to a hopeful Buyer - 07/23/11 05:39 PM

Thus starts the process that ends with owning a South Lake Tahoe, CA home
(Lake Tahoe Real Estate Blog / July 22, 2011 / Richard Bolen)
A retired teacher got in touch w us two days ago. The school teacher. being the most noble of all professions in our opinion — they are in charge of our children, we got to her questions immediately.
She found us via an online search engine and had not seen this blog before.
What was most interesting about this teacher was the pervasive real estate knowledge she has; it's spot on with one exception: … (1 comments)

lake tahoe real estate blog: Our Q2 South Lake Tahoe, CA real estate update in the Tahoe Daily Tribune - 07/21/11 03:30 AM

Information is King in The Lake Tahoe Real Estate Blog (Lake Tahoe Real Estate Blog / July 19, 2011 / Richard Bolen)
We like it when our local newspaper, The Tahoe Daily Tribune, uses us as a source for their real estate reporting. This is not to say necessarily that we like, or crave, the attention. What we do like is we know the public is nicely informed when we are cited as a resource.
More than anything perhaps, this is the true goal of this blog: an better informed public about South Lake Tahoe real estate conditions is better … (1 comments)