Some Of The Open House Visitors Are Curious Neighbors

12/27/05

OPEN HOUSES

When there is an open house in a neighborhood, the first ones to appear are the neighbors and the reason is always to compare that house with theirs. This also helps because they may have friends of family members interested in moving to the neighborhood.

Many seller insit their agent hold them, even though in their more candid moments, agents say that open house don´t generally yield a buyer for the featured house. They do, however, help agents bolster their client list of buyers. And those Neighbors Only open houses are a chance for agents to meet future home sellers.

In terms of effectiveness, the Internet and virtual tours may have surpàssed the open house as an agent frontline

A 2005 California Association of Realtors Study found that 68% of buyers used the internet to preview homes through tours and photos and 75% used it to identify the homes they wanted their agents to show them.

Alberto Pacheco
818 481 9211
Realtor Calbre01200694
Keller Williams Porter Ranch
www.granadahills.kwrealty.com

Lead Base Paint Disclosures Mandatory on Homes Constructed Pre-1978

Pre 1978 Housing Requires Lead Disclosure

Landlords and Home sellers have to comply with a federal law requiring that lead information be given to anyone purchasing or renovation housing that was built before 1978. Why 1978? That was the year the federal government banned the use of lead based paint in housing.

Since lead paint was widely used for many years, the older the property the higher the lead paint potential. Years of accumulated paint, stretching back before the law took effect, after lurks in layers below the surface. Landlords are specifically required "to disclose known information on lead base paint hazards before leases take effect."

Lease signing now includes a form on which landlords must indicate whether they have any knowledge of lead based paint in the rental. The law does not not require rental property owners or sellers to have the property inspected or tested for lead, nor does it require them to remove lead based paint. For buyers, the law allows 10 days to conduct lead testing if they desire, at their own expense. The buyer's time limit can be extended if mutually agreeable.

The Environmental Protection Agency publishes the helpful brochure titled "Protect Your Family From Lead in Your Home", the 16 page brochure is full of lead information everyone should know. It details how lead enter the body from various sources, including during renovations that stir up lead. Paint chips, lead dust and lead deposits can lead to lead poisoning in the body either by breathing or swallowing the lead.

Lead exposure is partaker dangerous to children, since their bodies are growing rapidly and absorb more lead than adults. As a result, one out of every 11 children in the United States has dangerous levels of lead in the bloodstream, according to the brochure.

If not detected early, children with high levels of lead in their body may experience slowed growth, behavior or learning problems, hearing problems or headaches. The most extreme cases involve damage to the nervous system and brain. Prevention of lead exposure is important.

In adults lead exposure can cause reproductive problems, high blood pressure, digestive and nerve disorders, memory or concentration problems and joint and muscular problems.

Fortunately, testing for lead in the body is easy and inexpensively A simple blood test can detect lead poisoning and establish levels of lead exposure. Treatments can include diet changes or medication. Extreme cases may require hospitalization.

For more information call The National Lead Information Clearinhouse at (800) 424-LEAD


Alberto Pacheco
818 481 9211
Realtor Calbre01200694
Keller Williams Porter Ranch
www.granadahills.kwrealty.com

Smoke Dedectors Are Mandatory On Every Home Sale In Los Angeles County

Fire preparedness Is More Than Making Sure The Detector Beeps

It is that time of year again when days grow shorter, nights longer and, most of the US clocks "fell back" an hour last month. This time changes serves as an excellent reminder to replace smoke detector batteries. Through valuable changing the battery in an smoke detector is only one step in ensuring that this life saving device does its job.

A smoke detector should be installed in each bedroom and on every level of your home, if you have them make sure they are in good working order. They should be tested once a month, they are equipped with a test button that, when pressed and held down for a few seconds will activate the alarm.

Use a safe contained source of smoke such as incense or "synthetic smoke" in an aerosol can to test the detector. IF the smoke detector are more than 10 years old, consider replacing them. They work 24 hours a day, seven days a week, that's more than 87,000 hours over 10 year period.

With smoke detectors, cleanliness is important. A dusty or lind-laden unit can't do its job properly. It should be vacuum with an upholstery attachment periodically to remove the dust buildup.

A recent released report by the Consumer Product Safety Commission on the audibility of smoke alarms found that linking or interconnecting smoke alarms could provide an earlier warning to fire and smoke. The study also found that wireless technology could be sa solution to better protecting American homes.

With an interconnected device, when one alarm detects smoke, it triggers all other alarms to sound. The immediate reaction provides more warning in more places. There is, on average, only three minutes to escape a house fire after the first smoke alarm goes off.

Families should create and frequently practice a fire-escape plan. Make sure everyone, including children know what the smoke alarm sounds like. Practice the escape plan during the day and at night when family members are asleep to see if everyone responds. If an older child or adult doesn't wake up, assign an adult to wake and assist that individual in the even of a fire. Always assist younger children.

Alberto Pacheco
818 481 9211
Realtor Calbre 01200694
Keller Williams Porter Ranch
www.granadahills.kwrealty.com

Beware of Fast Cash Home Sales

Beware Of Fast-Cash Home Sale Huckster

The signs are everywhere on big, blaring billboards and pieces of cardboard tacked onto telephone poles: " We Buy Ugly Homes." or sometimes "We Buy Houses."

But if you decided to deal with the "rapid resellers," don't expect to get top dollar. And exactly how much you'll get doesn't depend on the condition of your property, either. If you are willing to take your money over time, for example, you may be able to cut a better deal than if you want all your money immediately.

Ken Channa, HomeVestors director of training, says his people look to earn anywhere from 10% to 18% of the value of the house after it is fixed up and sold. That translates into offer to owners typically in the 55% to 65% range of fixed-up market value.

HomeVestors look for 3 kind of sellers:

- People who have owned adn lived in their homes for at least a decade but have not maintained their properties.

- Heirs who recently have inherited houses from a deceased loved one, houses thay may have been vacant or not well maintained for a long time, or houses that may be difficult to part with.

- Investors who are tired of being landlords and have not kept their places inf good repair.

Financially strapped owners who have not been able to make their house payments and are facing foreclosure are "not a big part" of HomeVestors' customer base says Channal. There are numerous honest investors engaged in short-term residential resales.

So, if you want or need to sell quickly, don't want to lift a finger to make your place more attractive to a wider pool of buyers, or perhaps just don't like the idea of putting a for-sale sign in your frontyard or having strangers tramping through your castle, selling to an investor may be the easiest way out.

Be forewarned, though, that choosing the right one takes as much effort as picking a good real estate agent. Start by checking them out with with your local Better Business Bureau, county consumer affairs agency or state attorney general's office.

Another tip: Look for an identifiable name and place of business with a phone number that answers during regular business hours.

Be sure your buyer has the ability to close quickly, certainly as quickly as original promised. Beware of hidden charges too. No one should charge a fee to view your property or make you an offer and there should be no sales commission, either.

Alberto Pacheco

Realtor Calbre Lic 01200694

818 481 9211

Keller Williams Porter Ranch

Real Estate Consultant

http://www.granadahills.kwrealty.com  Real Estate News, Mortgages, Trends

Blog: www.losangelescountyrealestate.blogspot.com

albertopachecorealtor@gmail.com

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Invest in Income Properties Like Duplexes Triplexes or Fourplexes

Enter To Hot Market Could Be A Duplex

Tired of being priced out of the market? Perhaps the answer is to buy an income producing property that you can live in, such as a duplex or triplex. The rental income could help pay your mortgage and enable you to qualify to buy a more expensive property.

Ideally, your wealth building strategy might go something like this: You move into the property and own it long enough to accumulate equity through appreciation. Then you sell. You use the proceeds earned from the portion of the building that you occupied as a down payment on a single family home.

You exchange the proceeds from the rental portion of the property into a larger rental that will have more upside potential thereby avoiding capital gains tax. This can be a 1031 Exchange.

Check the local landlord-tenant laws. Some communities like Santa Monica have rent control ordinances. In such municipalities you may not be able to raise rents to market rates. Base your projections on actual and allowable, not inflated rents.

Find out the strength of the local market. The rental market, like housing market, fluctuates over the time. The most successful rental properties are often located near shopping, transportation and good schools.

Finally, carefully consider whether you can handle being a landlord who will live close to the tenants

Alberto Pacheco

Realtor Calbre Lic 01200694

818 481 9211

Keller Williams Porter Ranch

Real Estate Consultant

http://www.granadahills.kwrealty.com  Real Estate News, Mortgages, Trends

Blog: www.losangelescountyrealestate.blogspot.com

albertopachecorealtor@gmail.com

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Watts Home Vales Appreciation

WATTS Home Values Appreciated More Than 40 %

Watts was the once predominantly African American community, which gained international notoriety during 1965 riots, saw resale-homes values increase by more than 40% last year, according to Data Quick Information Systems, a real estate research firm. Countrywide median rose 24.8%.

Fueled by demand from latino home buyers, Watts is on target this year to fulfill analysts' predictions that the Southland entry level market still has room for hefty appreciation. A comparison sales in August for this year and last, the latest period for which figures are available, showed an increase of 41.3% in the price of single family resale homes to a median of $ 325,000.

The prices have made it a hot spot for property flippers. Nearly 10% of Watts buyers this year have resold within three months, compared with an average of 3% throughout Southern California during the last decade.

In today's Watts, latinos make up the majority. African Americans leaving Los Angeles for the Inland Empire, Palmdale, Lancaster and the Southern United States.

Alberto Pacheco

Realtor Calbre Lic 01200694

818 481 9211

Keller Williams Porter Ranch

Real Estate Consultant

http://www.granadahills.kwrealty.com  Real Estate News, Mortgages, Trends

Blog: www.losangelescountyrealestate.blogspot.com

albertopachecorealtor@gmail.com

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Non Performing Mortgage Loans

Lenders Work Out Payment Deals For Borrowers In Jams

Many folks who get behind on their loans often trash unopened envelopes from their lenders because they figure it's just another dunning notice. But when they opened and get in touch with their lender then they discover the world of loss mitigation, a relatively new cosmos in which most mortgage investors bend over backward to keep financially troubled owners in their homes.

They help you if you have a legitimate reason for not being able to meet your obligation - illness, for example or some other major catastrophe, they want to help. Where is economically feasible, we do whatever we can to get "nonperforming loans reperforming again," said Bill Merrill director of nonperforming loans at Freddie Mac.

Most companies that administer Freddie Mac mortgages have what are variously known as work-out departments or portfolio retention sections. Their goal is to help those who want to remain in their homes and not because they are paid to do so. "Profit isn't the motive, at least is not intended to be," Merrill said.

Servicers want to keep things running smoothly because they don't earn any fees when things are not running smoothly. Loans in default are much more expensive to administer. Everybody loses not just the homeowner but the investor as well, when a loan goes into foreclosure.

Help doesn't come automatically however, you have to get in touch with your servicer, unfortunately studies show that most people don't. About 56% of all delinquent borrowers allow their homes to go all the way to foreclosing without ever taking to the lender accodring to merrill. When borrowers do call, though, four out of five go on to be happy homeowners. Early intervention is key, because you are not in arrears as much, Merrill said

Here are some of the options lenders can make available to delinquent borrowers.

forbearance: An agreement that temporarily allows borrowers to pay less than a full payment, or no payment at all, for a set period. Forbearance is an option when you can show that funds from bonus, tax refund or other source will let you bring the mortgage current at specific time in the future.

Reinstatement: Sometimes combined with a forbearance, this allows the borrowert to pay the amount they are behind in one lump sum by specific date.

Repayment Plan: An agreement that gives a fixed amount of time to repay what is owed by combining a portion of what is past due with the regular monthly payment.

Loan Modification: An agreement that permanently changes one or more terms of the original mortgage so the payment is more affordable. The borrower and lender may agree to add the missed payments to the loan balance.

A lender might be able to help homeowners who do not want or cannot keep their home. Indeed there are different ways to avoid foreclosing and reduce the impact on credit standing.

A buyer could be allowed to take over the mortgage debt, even if the loan is considered non-assumable. Or if the house can be sold for less than what is owed, the lender might agree to a "short payoff" in which the lender writes off the portion of the mortgage that exceed the proceeds from the sale. A third choice allows the transfer of the title of the home to the lender in exchange for canceling the debt.

Alberto Pacheco

Realtor Calbre Lic 01200694

818 481 9211

Keller Williams Porter Ranch

Real Estate Consultant

http://www.granadahills.kwrealty.com  Real Estate News, Mortgages, Trends

Blog: www.losangelescountyrealestate.blogspot.com

albertopachecorealtor@gmail.com

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Private Mortgage Insurance

A reap Isn't The Only Way To Rein In Costs

Now is good time to cancel Private Mortgage Insurance, before a slowdown or even a dip in home prices makes it difficult.

Based largely on the run-up in housing values many homeowners have taken advantage of a 7 year old federal law that lasts them jettison private mortgage insurance also known as PMI.

But the laggards among those still paying PMI, which can add $100 or more to the monthly house payments, had better get on the stick. A Slowdown in appreciation or perhaps even a decline in house prices, could preclude dumping PMI for several more years. Do it now.

Private morrgage insurance is a necessary evil for many first time home buyers. Nearly 12 million families nationwide in the last 12 months alone were unable to scrape together 20% down payment that lenders traditional require. So lenders, accept the insurance as substitute for the part of the down payment that is missing.

The less money the borrower puts down, the more expesive the coverage, even though the borrower pays the premium the insurance protects the lender in case of default on the loan.

The good news is that the coverage can be terminated, a fact that has not been lost on some borrowers. Through the first eight months of this year, appraisals has ordered more than 10,000 appraisals on behalf of borrowers waiting to end coverage. That's a 110% increase over the same period a year ago.

Under the Homeowner Protection Act of 1998, lenders must cancel private mortgage insurance at the borrowers request when a mortgage is paid down to 80% of the properties original value. Policies must be terminated when the loan balance reaches 78% of the homes value at the time it was purchase.

Coverage can't be canceled until the loan is at least 2 years old unless the owner has made significant improvements to the property.

Alberto Pacheco

Realtor Calbre Lic 01200694

818 481 9211

Keller Williams Porter Ranch

Real Estate Consultant

http://www.granadahills.kwrealty.com  Real Estate News, Mortgages, Trends

Blog: www.losangelescountyrealestate.blogspot.com

albertopachecorealtor@gmail.com

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No Where To Go But Up

No Where To Go But Up

Single story architecture sits right at the confluence of two trends driving the home building industry: consumer demand for bigger homes and the increasing price of open land.

The near disappearance of the single level style in a new construction is a milestone in regional land use a deviation from decades of building that emphasized one story homes. An one that seems ironic as the large baby boomer population is aging and more likely to be seeking out places without stairs.

About 44% of all new single family homes in the U.S. had two or more stories in 2004, up from 30% in 1978 according to U.S. Census Bureau statistics. This upward movement is not limited to urban setttings. There are entire developments being built in the Inland Empire where the bulk of Southern California's new home growth is, that don't have a single level home in them.

It's only the senior citizens who want a single-story homes. Homes with second story adds square footage without taking up more space on the ground.

Twenty years ago the average lot in California was more than 7,500 square feet, now is about 6,417 square feet.

Alberto Pacheco

Realtor Calbre Lic 01200694

818 481 9211

Keller Williams Porter Ranch

Real Estate Consultant

http://www.granadahills.kwrealty.com  Real Estate News, Mortgages, Trends

Blog: www.losangelescountyrealestate.blogspot.com

albertopachecorealtor@gmail.com

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Southland For Sale Signs Are Sprouting

Though A Few More Southland For-Sale Signs Are Sprouting, Buyers Are Coming Up Short

The number of homes for sale has been persistently low for almost five years, a cycle that bottomed out in the spring of 2004. Since the beginning of this summer, inventory levels in many neighborhoods have crept up a bit, and there is anectodal evidence that some pockets have more on the market now that September is here, but the increases are not much by historical stantards.

.

Everone has heard the predictions of a bubble, but I am still seeing a lot of buyers in all price ranges

. People are staying put and renovating instead of trading up, long term interest rates have been lodged near historical lows; many homeowners have borrowed against their equity and spent the funds.

The lack of homes for sale is a statewide phenomenon and another surprising characteristic of a real estate market that has for several years defied many experts predictions of a significant slowdown.

Alberto Pacheco

Realtor Calbre Lic 01200694

818 481 9211

Keller Williams Porter Ranch

Real Estate Consultant

http://www.granadahills.kwrealty.com  Real Estate News, Mortgages, Trends

Blog: www.losangelescountyrealestate.blogspot.com

albertopachecorealtor@gmail.com

 My Facebook     My Twitter    Pinterest

Downpayment Assistant Program From The City of Los Angeles

The City and County of Los Angeles has a First Time Homebuyer assistant program. The money is for the downpayment and closing cost. With this program the buyer can get a single family residence, condominium or townhouse. The Buyer has to bring an small downpayment of their own and be within the low or medium income salaray set by the county. They need to assist to a seminar given by Acorn Housing in Los Angeles.

When they go through Acorn Housing, they get preaqualify according to their salary and number of family members. Once that happened, they are refer to a lender within the program, the lender then submit their package for a pre-approval, once they are approved they go and look for properties within their and the La City limits. This transactions take at least 60 days to close escrow, sometimes more.


Alberto Pacheco
818 481 9211
Keller Williams Porter Ranch
Realtor Calbre 01200694
www.granadahills.kwrealty.com