how much is my house worth: Mission Viejo Housing Affordability Heats Current Market
- 05/15/17 12:51 PM
Every now and again Forbes magazine assembles what it calls its “top financial brain power” to comment on a topic of interest. Late last week, the topic was real estate—more specifically, the answer to the question, “Is the Real Estate Market Still Healthy?” Speaking for our Mission Viejo real estate market, I’d have to the answer “yes.”(It’s a cinch I’ll never be asked by Forbes to join the panel because a one-word answer doesn’t make for a very long article). Their panelists did better at elaborating. They voiced a couple of blanket observations on homeownership in today’s market, then settled on some reassuring points on housing affordability. Their … (0 comments)
how much is my house worth: Real Estate Investing in Tustin Now Easier than Ever
- 05/15/17 12:49 PM
Has technology made investing in Tustin real estate easier? Entrepreneur Magazine has supplied an answer to warm the heart of any Tustin REALTOR® (like yours truly). They say investing in real estate isn’t just easier—it’s grown significantly easier. The reason is the medium we’re communicating through right now. “7 Reasons NOW Is a Great Time to Invest in Real Estate” was the title of the essay. The screaming “NOW” was the initial attention-getter, although the single one of the 7 Reasons that had me nodding my head didn’t deal with interest rates or bankers’ current awakening from their previous lending lethargy. It wasn’t any of the points dealing … (0 comments)
how much is my house worth: Selling Your Lake Forest Home: Beyond Marketing
- 05/15/17 12:46 PM
Selling your Lake Forest home takes marketing, of course. Highlighting its features—the specific details that the Lake Forest MLS lists for every property—is only the beginning. The number of bedrooms, square footage, lot size—even the architectural style—all help buyers eliminate offerings that won’t satisfy their housing requirements. These are quantitative marketing specifics that qualify a residence. Most have numbers attached. They’re also the basis for the “comps” that the bank or other mortgage lender will use to estimate your property’s market value. But they are only the first step in selling your Lake Forest home. They can (hopefully, will) interest buyers—but they don’t do much more than that. What’s … (0 comments)
how much is my house worth: Mission Viejo Homeowners (and Their Hefty Tax Advantages)
- 05/15/17 12:37 PM
As this season’s controversies swirl through Washington, one of them seems likely to wind up being at the top of the heap: federal income taxes. Whether or not they will be simplified (hopefully) or lowered (ummm—probably?) will be sorted out in due time, but one detail is a lead pipe cinch: when the dust clears, the real estate tax advantage will remain. If any politician is thinking about eliminating the real estate tax advantage, he or she is wisely being very quiet about it. For good reason: that’s an idea that would probably lead to a quick retirement from public life courtesy of many displeased voters. Certainly, … (0 comments)
how much is my house worth: Next for Lake Forest Trailblazers: Shipping Container Homes?
- 05/15/17 12:30 PM
I don’t know about you, but when I used to hear the term “affordable housing” I’d think of value-priced Lake Forest condominium listings, some of the nicer area mobile home parks, or maybe fixer-uppers likely to be snatched up by professional house flippers (ultimately to become slightly less affordable housing). When I heard “affordable housing,” I did not think “packing crate.” Nor did I think, “steamer trunk” or “storage unit.” That turns out to be entirely appropriate; nobody is volunteering to live in those. Where I missed the boat was that I did not think, “shipping container.” But that was then—this, as they say, is now. Those simpler days … (0 comments)
how much is my house worth: Credit Scores Remain Central to Mission Viejo Real Estate Dealings
- 05/15/17 12:19 PM
If you’re a typical Mission Viejo consumer, like most California residents, it wasn’t too long ago that you were being constantly bombarded by offers to let you in on a secret: your credit score. The “free credit score” ads got a lot of responses, but lately, they’ve grown scarcer. I think I know why. It used to be that thrift-minded people shied away from plastic because it made overspending too easy. Today, ubiquitous credit card bonus points and associated discounts and freebies make the opposite true. After all, taking a vacation without using at least some of your credit card airline “miles” or hotel “points” seems more careless … (0 comments)
how much is my house worth: Rating Tustin Houses for Sale with the SLAM List
- 05/15/17 12:17 PM
It’s called SLAM: an abbreviated approach that helps Tustin house hunters to quickly sort through listed houses for sale. Tustin homes that compare well using the SLAM categories warrant further investigation. The four parts of the SLAM list: Schools. The eventual resale value of a candidate property isn’t usually given much consideration early on—but should be. A major issue when it comes to resale is the neighborhood’s school district rating. Schools head the SLAM list because—especially for those who don’t have school-aged children—the quality of a property’s school district is easy to overlook. It can also be an indicator of other community quality issues. Location. It’s the key element that … (0 comments)
how much is my house worth: Lake Forest Home Equity—a Perpetual Salary Machine
- 05/15/17 12:11 PM
You might have had a science teacher who explained to the class why perpetual motion machines aren’t possible. He would have had some common sense to back up his point (everybody knows nothing lasts forever). But the actual scientific explanation had to do with physics and Newton’s Laws: in the end, perpetual motion just isn’t in the cards. When it comes to real estate, however, for a lot of happy residents, their Lake Forest home equity comes awfully close to being a kind of perpetual income machine. There may not be a Newton’s Law of Retirement Motion, but for anybody planning their long-term future security, there should be. … (0 comments)
how much is my house worth: Four Traits that Aid Mission Viejo Homebuyers
- 04/03/17 09:44 AM
The Rorschach (or inkblot) test is the one where a psychologist shows you a series of pictures that seem to be random black-and-white splatters. The shrink asks you what you think they look like. What you “see” in the inkblots tells something about who you are—how you look at things. If someone were to create a pack of inkblots to test for who would be best suited for the tasks facing Mission Viejo homebuyers, they’d be designed to pinpoint character traits that come in handy during a typical homebuyer’s quest. I don’t know how Dr. Rorschach came up with the shapes he chose (what was he thinking?)—but … (0 comments)
how much is my house worth: April Can Be a Timely Entry Point for Tustin Listings
- 04/03/17 09:16 AM
It’s April—a time of year when area homeowners who haven’t yet added their homes to the Tustin listings may have a legitimate question about whether it’s too late to benefit from the spring selling season. This year, they may also be concerned that the rise in mortgage interest rates could discourage prospective buyers. The answer to the first question is a qualified not—not too late! The only qualification has to do with the condition of the property itself. If it can be put into sound showable condition within a month or so, this is an excellent time to jump into the Tustin listings—for a number of reasons. We … (1 comments)
how much is my house worth: Will House Sales in Tustin Match “Soaring” U.S. Rate?
- 04/02/17 08:50 AM
Tustin house sales do usually respond in the seasonal pattern that is familiar in most other areas. Spring and summer lead the way for weather-related, financial, school scheduling and other family-related reasons. From now into well past July (and sometimes even August), house sales activity can be counted on to peak. Those are the normal expectations. But when any segment of U.S. house sales numbers quadruple expectations even before spring bulbs see daylight, that’s worthy of special attention. That was the case last Thursday when the Commerce Department reported that in February, purchases of newly built homes rose by more than 6%. Since The Wall Street Journal’s panel … (0 comments)
how much is my house worth: Rental Properties in Lake Forest and Some Magic Stagecraft
- 04/02/17 08:46 AM
Striving to become a prudent person is a laudable goal—one usually only achieved after impetuous youthful misadventures have taught the wisdom of prudence. Caution—particularly in financial matters—may seem to be synonymous with prudence—but they aren’t always the same thing. Especially when there are magicians at work. An example of that can be found in the way most people think about Lake Forest rental properties. There’s no sleight-of-hand from the landlord’s point of view: few would argue with the proposition that rental properties are a prudent form of investment. The now-you-see-it, now-you-don’t sorcery happens when the audience (in this case, renters) view the same proposition: buying a home instead of … (0 comments)
how much is my house worth: Pricing a Home in Mission Viejo from Both Sides Now
- 04/02/17 08:42 AM
When it comes to the reality of pricing a home in Mission Viejo, it’s natural that buyer’s and seller’s points of view reflect their different roles and objective. In a way, they are mirror images of each another. From the seller’s point of view, pricing their Mission Viejo home starts out from the reality check of the “comps”—the prices registered in recent comparable neighborhood sales. From there, the pricing decision revolves around the tradeoff between maximum asking price versus the desire for a speedy sale. Even if there is no time pressure at all, serious sellers will still set the asking price below a level that indicates disregard … (0 comments)
how much is my house worth: Rate Hike No Surprise for Lake Forest House Buyers
- 04/02/17 08:35 AM
Lake Forest house buyers and sellers were not surprised in the least at last week’s Federal Reserve decision to notch up the Fed Funds short-term rates. For once, anticipating the move had been easy. The surrounding factors—the economy, employment, and consumer confidence measures—were all in unison, pointing to a meaningful improvement now underway. Already, a day before Wednesday’s announcement, Lake Forest readers could confirm what was coming: “Mortgage applications rise 3.1% as borrowers rush to lock in rates,” per CNBC on Tuesday; “Mortgage rates jump as economy revs up,” echoed MarketWatch. The editors at CNNMoney, well aware that the “news” was not likely to gather much attention, wisely chose … (0 comments)
how much is my house worth: As Consumer Confidence Builds, Mission Viejo Real Estate Gains
- 04/02/17 08:28 AM
The attachment we build to the places where we live is an easy-to-understand human emotion. Almost everyone who has ever moved away from a family home has experienced a sense of loss that can be quite profound. But that’s only one of the emotional connections that come into play where real estate is involved. Even though we tend to think of such important decisions as buying and selling Mission Viejo real estate in more hard-headed terms, a host of complicated human factors can play an important role. One of them is becoming more prominent—and is likely to grow more so as we advance into Mission Viejo’s peak spring and … (1 comments)
how much is my house worth: Lake Forest Relocation Tips: Nuts and Bolts of the Move
- 03/08/17 06:20 AM
If you go looking for new ideas to make a relocation to or from Lake Forest easier, it’s amazing how often the words “stress” and “relocation” appear in the same paragraph. The most universally agreed-upon method is to separate the two by hiring relocation professionals—not surprising since many of the most-read articles are authored by people involved in the industry. But the runners-up when it comes to relocation are either work-related (for those who are making the move to change jobs) or moving-related (the nuts and bolts of a household move). Since I’m involved in moving-day drama reduction on behalf of my … (1 comments)
how much is my house worth: Listings in Tustin Present a Fair (but Annoying) Challenge
- 02/27/17 06:10 AM
Today’s Tustin listings represent a gigantic leap forward in terms of market efficiency. It’s hard to imagine a speedier and more convenient way for prospective home buyers to examine the array of Tustin properties currently being offered. For the sellers, too, the Tustin listings provide a matchless system for examining the neighborhood competition. In a matter of minutes, homeowners can make certain that their offering is positioned in line with what the current market supports. The Tustin listings are also extremely fair in how local homes for sale are presented. On most sites, properties are given the same amount of space in blocks that are scrupulously identical. Since every … (1 comments)
Every now and again Forbes magazine assembles what it calls its “top financial brain
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