Real Estate
How to Sell Your Home: Staging Matters
September 2nd, 2008 Categories: Real Estate, Selling Real Estate
Sellers, have your heard of staging your home? Have you wondered if it could help you sell?
If you’re new to the idea, basically with staging, you hire a company to come in and do anything from very light staging (they can even use what you currently have and rearrange) or bring in their own furniture and pieces to create an attractive home environment.
We see that homes that are staged typically sell faster and for more money when compared to similar homes that are not staged. Why do you think developers spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on staging? They know how crucial it is for a buyer to feel right at home the second they walk in the door.
There are 5 key items that are important when selling your home:
1. PRICE (your #1 determining factor)
2. Condition
3. Timing
4. Ease of showing
5. Agent
Staging relates to Item #2- the condition of the home. From personal experience, we always see buyers react to homes that are staged much more positively than homes that are either vacant or not staged. It’s really a night and day difference.
If you’re thinking about selling, ask your agent if your home may be a candidate for staging. They can give you a few company referrals so that you can call them to get their ideas and bids. Yes, it’s money upfront that your paying out to sell your home but the finished product- and result- is worth it!
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Los Angeles Times “Puts to Bed” the Real Estate Section
August 8th, 2008 Categories: Real Estate, Real Estate News
This really shouldn’t come as a huge surprise knowing about all the staff cutbacks that have happened at the Los Angeles Times recently, but the paper has printed its last edition of the Real Estate section. This part of the paper has been an important source of LA home information since 1901.
They’ll continue some regular columns in their new Saturday Home section and Sunday Business section, as well as put online content on their site throughout the week.
We all know that the emphasis in marketing for homes- and the corresponding advertising dollars- have gone online. Very few people are going to their local real estate pages in the paper and rely on that to find their future home. We’ve known this for awhile now.
I’d guess that the paper had the ad money for the length of time it did because when the market was booming, brokers had the cash to put into advertising that they knew wasn’t very effective just because they could. It was easier to appease sellers and continue the same old thing because it was less work that educating people about how the marketing paradigm had shifted away from print media. Now that everyone is watching their wallets much more closely, better advertising dollars are spent on being where the customers are.
Personally, I think this is unfortunate news about losing the section. Yes, anything people really want to know about, they can find online and do their research there. But in terms of replacing reporters, generating new content with depth and having the research behind feature articles, that’s pretty tough to replace with bloggers and a hodgepodge of web content.
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Buying Second Homes for Bi-Coastal or Multi-State Residences
July 14th, 2008 Categories: Buying Real Estate, Real Estate
Question:
What’s the best way to obtain financing for someone who travels all over the United States and already has a home outside of California?
Answer:
”Dual primary” is the way we treat the financing for a client that has “two
primary residences”. This way the home-buyer can get better pricing with a
higher loan to value than if the property is treated as a second home.
We offer this for clients that are bicoastal, for example - Business
Owners or Doctors that have offices on both coasts, Venture Capitalists
and Investment Bankers who have clients on both coasts.
For a conversation about your particular scenario and how you can get the best rates, call Dan:
Dan Millstone
First Republic Bank
1888 Century Park East, Suite 1600
Los Angeles, CA 90067
Direct (310) 407-1309
Mobile (310) 295-7476
Fax (310) 407-1395
Email dmillstone@firstrepublic.com
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European (Foreign) Home Buyers Flood the Los Angeles Real Estate Market !
June 20th, 2008 Categories: Real Estate
There IS a silver lining in our boo-hoo real estate market cloud! Europeans and other foreigners are swooping in and buying up Calfornia (especially Los Angeles) real estate at a beautiful discount!
Galavanting within the highest volume-producing real estate office here in California, we are witnessing the influx of (mostly high-end and luxury) home buyers coming in from London, Switzerland, Italy, Dubai, England, Germany, Ireland, Greece, China, Canada; many making all cash offers on high-end homes.
The strength of the Canadian dollar, the Euro, and other foreign curencies, on top of a slowdown in the U.S real estate market, is making the United States an enticing place for foreigners to buy property. Buying now while the dollar is weak and their currency is strong may still be more advantageous than waiting for the prices to drop in few months time. Of course, we don’t have crystal balls to be able to guarantee all suggestions, but generally speaking it’s hard to argue that right now, prime Los Angeles real estate is being offered at a tremendous discount for Europeans and other country’s residents.
ATTENTION!! REGARDING FINANCING FOR FOREIGN BUYERS
Typically, a foreign buyer will need to provide lenders in the US with the following to become approved for a mortgage:
- At least 50%-65% down payment
- Type of visa one is staying in the country with
- Provide a social security number if available
- What business entity is making the purchase
- Where the funds are coming from to make the purchase a.k.a. proof of funds
If you’re in need of speaking with someone expert at lending to foreign buyers, call us. There are only a few outstanding lenders in town who are experienced with the often complicated and process of funding a foreign buyer, let us refer you to the best.
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Termite Inspections, Reports and Work - Who is Responsible?
May 21st, 2008 Categories: Bel Air - Holmby Hills, Beverly Hills - BHPO, Brentwood, Buying Real Estate, Cheviot Hills - Rancho Park, Culver City, Hollywood Hills, Home Improvement, Home Resources, Inspection Resources, Malibu, Marina Del Rey - Venice, Pacific Palisades, Real Estate, Real Estate News, Santa Monica, Selling Real Estate, Sherman Oaks - Studio City, West Hollywood, Westwood - Century City
So you’re about to buy or sell a house and the subject of termite inspections come up in discussion - usually when the offer is being written and/or presented.
Here is what YOU need to know:
CUSTOMARILY, the Seller is responsible for the inspection, providing the buyer with a termite report, and ultimately a termite clearance at the close escrow. The Seller usually pays for Section I work, and the Buyer can pay for any Section II work needed.
What is “Section I” and “Section II” work?
Section I is any EXISTING termite infestation, damage or wood destroying organisms such as dryrot fungus and the like. This may include local treatment, whole house tenting, and replacement of damaged timber.
Section II is anything found to possibly invite termite infestation or cause wood damage in the future, such as debris in the attic, earth to wood contact, etc.
There are circumstances when the Seller is NOT responsible for all the “termite work”, some examples are:
- When it’s an ALL CASH purchase. The termite clearance is necessary to close escrow because it’s often a condition for funding by the lenders.
- When the property is a TEAR-DOWN. If the intent by the buyer is to bulldoze the property to the ground, no one really cares if there are termites or rotted wood all over the place.
- When the SELLER specifies in the contract they will not do any work, or caps the dollar amount they are willing to pay for work needed. The Buyer then can agree to pick up the difference.
95% of the homes that are sold here in SoCal require some termite clearance action. Homeowners are well advised to maintain a termite treatment regime once a year to keep those buggers away.
Call us anytime for a referral to a reputable company to add to your home vendors list!
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So, What is the MLS Anyway?
May 15th, 2008 Categories: Buying Real Estate, Real Estate, Selling Real Estate
Once you start looking for a home or getting involved in real estate in any shape or form, you’re going to hear the MLS mentioned over and over. What in the world is this? How does it work?
Basically, the MLS stands for Multiple Listing Service and is a database service that all brokers use for their listed properties. Area brokers belong to their local MLS system and pay an annual fee to be a member. This way they can keep track of homes that are actively on the market, those that are looking for back up offers, in escrow (pending) or have closed. They can also go into the listing history of properties and compare comparable sales in the area for clients making offers or getting ready to list their property.
How are the search features different from regular search engines like yahoo.com or Google? Or brokers’ sites like coldwellbanker.com? Or real estate specific search engines like Realtor.com?
All the real estate search engines will basically get you the same info- it’s just the lag time behind the market that makes the difference here. I’m not sure about the other brokerages but I know that when you look at Coldwell Banker’s site, you’re not just going to see Coldwell Banker represented homes. You’re going to see every home that fits your search criteria. Realtor.com is the same way. It’s a great place to see all of the homes. The issue is that it’s a few days behind the market.
So, to get real market-time information, brokers go to the MLS. You may not think that a few days would matter but it most certainly does for HOT homes. Those can easily be snatched up by the time it hits Realtor.com.
Since the MLS is a closed service, you need to be an agent to place your property on the system. As an agent, I can, however, set up clients on a private MLS website so they can have access to everything that is on the market that fits what they’re looking for. This way they will see everything available in real market-time and be updated as soon as a property comes on the market, comes back on the market or gets a price reduction. I can also set up clients who are selling their property on their own site so they can also keep track of the competition.
So, my suggestion is that if you’re looking to buy, get started on an MLS website ASAP- even if you’re thinking about buying down the road. And if you’re looking to sell, have your agent set you up on a website as well so you can become familiar with current competition.
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Taking a Gamble with Low Ball Offers
April 13th, 2008 Categories: Buying Real Estate, Real Estate
Here’s the situation:
You see a house you like. You see there’s value there somehow… either in the location, the space, the condition, the asking price, etc. You think that with all the bad press about the market, maybe there’s room for a “deal.” So, even though your agent has told you what the other side is looking for and what the value of the property is, you decide to offer way below their asking price, to “see what happens.” You have to at least give it a shot, right?
I want you to understand clearly what can happen when you try to get a “deal” and make an offer at far below asking price, what we call “low ball” offers in the real estate industry. There are 3 things that can happen:
1. They can miraculously take your offer.
2. They will give you a counter offer.
3. They will reject your offer outright.
Don’t be surprised if you face the last situation. You see, when you give a low ball offer, you leave the door wide open for someone else. You have not given the other side an offer to get excited about. Why would they be? You did not give them what they want or even close to that. They are more disappointed than anything with your offer (and sometimes, just plain insulted). They now may very well think that you play games, that you are “testing” them. If you were on the other end, would you want to do business with someone like that?
Again, you are NOT entitled to a counter offer. Should they counter you? Yes. I would strongly encourage any client who is selling their property to counter because you just never know. But, that being said, they have every right NOT to counter you.
Your negotiation strategy may be to start really low to allow for lots of room to go up. Their negotiation strategy may be to only work with people who show real effort to buy the property, that means those who come close to their price. Just because you negotiate a certain way, don’t assume everyone else does the same.
You risk a lot when you give a low ball offer. It’s a true gamble. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. Be prepared.
Your best bet is if you are serious about a home, make a serious offer.
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Mixed Signals: Making Sense of Real Estate News for the Westside
March 14th, 2008 Categories: Buying Real Estate, Real Estate, Real Estate News, Selling Real Estate
We are asked by clients every day about what we’re seeing in the market. Are prices really dropping like what we’re seeing in the news? What’s going to happen next year? When should they buy? Should they sell now or wait to get more? And so it goes. Well, no one has a crystal ball but I can tell you what I’m noticing lately…
Everywhere we look, we see stories about the real estate market. This was true before the mortgage crisis in September and will be true next year and the year after. What’s happening is newsworthy, yes, but more than that, it sells papers and the media knows that if they lead with a story about the real estate market, people are going to watch. We are all interested and bad news- not good news- is going to get viewers’ attention. To confuse everyone even more, we see a constant stream of mixed signals by the press (see the relatively positive recent UCLA Anderson School’s report and a recent negative Los Angeles Times’ article as examples).
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SOLD! To the Highest Bidder at a Santa Monica Home Auction
March 3rd, 2008 Categories: Buying Real Estate, Events, Real Estate, Real Estate News, Santa Monica, Selling Real Estate
If you haven’t attended a live home auction recently, you’re like the rest of us because they just don’t take place all that often!
I witnessed my first home auction this Saturday at 710 Kingman Ave in Santa Monica. The property is a beautiful Spanish contemporary on a lovely tree lined street. The home is in great condition, 4 bedrooms with 3.5 baths in just over 3,000 square feet, on a 7,500 square foot lot. There is a beautiful tropical grotto style lagoon pool in the back, with the master balcony overlooking it. Fabulous home in a great neighborhood.
The living room was filled to capacity. It started with the expected dictation of the auction’s rules and regulations followed by a fun and LOUD practice bid for those participating in the process to get warmed up to the real deal. Yes, the Santa Monica Pier was auctioned off.
Opening bids for the home started at $2,000,000. The energy in the room blew the roof off as the auctioneer swung his gavel in the air rambling (in his professional auctioneer way that only an auctioneer can) off the increasing prices while the (five registered bidders’) paddles shot up in succession of one another…until we reached…da da da dummm…MARKET VALUE.
SOLD! with the crack of the gavel promising the home to the winning buyer for $2,450,000.
(Understand, that with an auction home sale, the buyer pays the costs of the sale, so the price sold is the amount the seller nets not what the buyer ends up paying. The buyer actually will pay about 8% on top of the $2.4M he’s agreed to pay for the house itself.)
A home auction is quite like dealing with mulitiple offers on a property that’s for sale, with some minor differences. As one of the buyers, you know what the other buyers are willing to pay when everyone is standing in the same room at the same time with the same goal. For the seller, the process of the auction saves time and the paperwork of having to counter offer all buyer offers in writing, a process that can take days.
Most obviously illustrated for all to see is that on the day and time of the auction when real serious buyers (cashier checks in hand!) turn out for the bidding to bid against each other for said property, there is no doubt about the home’s market value once THE MARKET SPEAKS.
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Beverly Hills Real Estate Update
February 26th, 2008 Categories: Beverly Hills - BHPO, Real Estate, Real Estate News
Your weekly fill of Beverly Hills real estate news… eat up!
606 N. Alt
a was held open for the first time today. It’s a gorgeous Spanish, redone to every last detail with over 6,000 sq ft, 6 bedrooms, 2-story guest house, pool and wine tasting room. A hefty price at $9,695,000 but it really is a spectacular home. Definitely a Wow! house.
1705 Angelo Dr.came on the market a couple of days ago and is one cool pad. The swankiest mid-century around, the rooms have enormous volume (feels very Trousdale-esque), walls of glass, terrazzo floors, private yard with pool. Will need some freshening up but definitely a fun project. Oh-so-nice (and rare!) that no one has messed up the home with misguided remodeling work in the past. Asking $3,450,000.
261 El Camino just came on the market today and is a fantastic buy for southwest Beverly Hills. Redone courtyard Spanish with a guest house for $2,640,000. A good one.
At this moment, there are 18 homes in escrow in Beverly Hills ranging in asking price between $1,395,000 (Spanish fixer south of Olympic) to $15,990,000 (English manor behind the Beverly Hills Hotel).
509 N. Palm just closed over asking for $5,326,000. As the for-sale sign was being nailed into the ground, the buyer drove up to the home and bought it on the spot.
Monterey Colonial on Angelo has not been posted to the MLS and it sold for around $7,000,000. The owner bought it last year for $3,950,000. It’s a 4 bedroom home with a pool and guest house on a 13,700 sq ft lot. An example of how “done” homes are selling like hotcakes.
Call us with any questions about these homes or others. We’d be happy to show you the latest and greatest in the area if you’re looking and make sure you don’t miss the best deals!
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