John 's Blog

Gasoline at $ 5 per gallon?  You have to be kidding! What! $ 10 per gallon gasoline.....you must be plain nuts! Well I was surprise to see gasoline pass the $ 4.00 mark and there is nothing to suggest that it will not go to $ 5.  Ten $ may be a stretch but if we don't get our act together that wi...

Ventura County real estate continues to show signs of having turned to the upside. Over the last week there has been a decline in listings (inventory); sales continue to  increase (although it slowed the last two weeks this past week when compared to prior weeks); the number of days on the market...

"There are several variations of the auction form including time limits, minimum and maximum limits on bid prices and special rules determining the winning bidder and the sales price. Maximum bid (I have heard it called and absolute bid but check on this) means that the property will be sold to t...

The areas of California, Nevada, Arizona and Florida continue to experience an accelerated weakness since the last report.  California and Nevada saw price declines of more than 8%. Within California the weakest areas continue to be: Merced Stockton Modesto Yuba City Salinas Santa Barbara-Santa M...

In my case real estate is my focus so I will look at items that generally are real estate related specifically mortgage financing and escrows because these will be benefical to my clients. Affordable.....yes at $ 77 per month.  For some it could be a stretch but overall even those that have to bu...

When selling a home  the first thing most people are told is to  "paint" it. When one looks at a new home, first impressions focus on the paint. So when it comes to color, most will see the color "BROWN" or cousins of brown in a home. Color influences our emotions, actions and response to other p...

Locally the coming of early summer will take a small toll on real estate.  People will be re-directing their attention to vacation spots, which I suspect will be minutes from home rather than days or weeks.  The Ventura County beach area will be crowded this year. We are lucky in Ventura County b...

For the complete article go to:  http://www.venturacountyretalk.com/2008/05/15/fix-the-little-things-to-sell-your-home-and-add-value/

50% of the kitchen counter top is covered with STUFF!  The buyer sees this and is turned OFF!  The bathroom counters is loaded with "stuff" and the buyer sees this?  TURN OFF! What to do?  If you can "box" it!  Eventually everything will have to be boxed so do it now.  If you cannot "box" it, put...

Do a clean bill of health. Do the minor things before listing your home and benefit. Those things are:  CLEAN; POLISH; REPAIR; and INSPECT.  Not necessarily in that order but do it.  And yes it may take some muscle.  Under the heading of clean is de-clutter both inside and outside the home.  Remo...