http://www.trulia.com/voices/profile/Real_Estate_Pro-Rowland_Heights_CA-178417/The latest answers submitted by Rick to questions asked on Trulia Voicesen-ushttp://www.trulia.com/voices/Market_Conditions/How_is_the_market_doing_in_Yorba_Linda_California_-10373Answer by Rick: go to dqnews.com for sold data or check for sold data here at truila.comSat, 12 Jul 2008 17:42:08 PDThttp://www.trulia.com/voices/Home_Buying/I_am_looking_for_a_house_in_Fullerton_Brea_Where-23978Answer by Rick: you want to look for a home that belongs to the troy high school. and for elementary and middle school you can go to http://www.schoolmatters.com/ to find out the performance.Sat, 12 Jul 2008 17:40:45 PDThttp://www.trulia.com/voices/General_Area/My_wife_and_I_are_looking_at_a_property_in_old_Ful-32024Answer by Rick: you pretty much got the answer yourself. to figure out the area just look at the neighbors. if most of them are unkept then don't buy there.Sat, 12 Jul 2008 17:39:08 PDThttp://www.trulia.com/voices/Schools/any_good_elementary_school_near_Diamond_Bar_Rowla-24723Answer by Rick: you can go to http://www.schoolmatters.com/ to find out more detailed school data for each cities.Sat, 12 Jul 2008 17:36:42 PDThttp://www.trulia.com/voices/Home_Buying/how_to_find_a_good_buyer_s_agent_in_Diamond_Bar_ar-32092Answer by Rick: you want to look for honesty, experience, and willingness to work. honesty because you don't want a lier just tries to get you through the transaction and collects commission check. experience because if the agent does not know anything you will end up paying a lot more and get a horrible house. willingness to work because you want an agent that does the things necessary to get the work done right. You should just work with agents that get commission from the seller. If you want to find out more about picking an agent you should know a little about buying real estate. you can read my other answers in truila and you should be very well equipped to pick a good buyers agent.Sat, 12 Jul 2008 17:35:35 PDThttp://www.trulia.com/voices/Foreclosure/We_gave_our_realtor_a_list_of_properties_from_Trul-35048Answer by Rick: trulia.com is not the best place to look for real estate inventories. it is a baby company it has a lot of great features, but inventory wise it does not have much. it is trying to partnership with associations and companies to get inventories in, but before that happens your best bet would be to look in realtor.com. it is the nation's largest inventory portal. its data comes from all of the local association of realtors data base and automatically extracted to realtor.com, although it is data is 2 or 3 days behind the inventory in agent's mrmls data base, but it is the next to best option for general consumers.Sat, 12 Jul 2008 17:29:13 PDThttp://www.trulia.com/voices/Foreclosure/Do_Real_Estate_agents_receive_commission_on_forecl-35047Answer by Rick: commission for foreclosures and short sales are negotiable with the bank, so it maybe the commission an agent receives maybe a little less than a normal real estate listing. another reason the agent maybe steering you away from it is that these kind of properties are usually more time consuming to deal with because one may have to wait for 2 or 3 months for a counter offer.Sat, 12 Jul 2008 17:26:16 PDThttp://www.trulia.com/voices/Home_Buying/Need_a_realtor_who_is_specialist_in_foreclosures_i-37855Answer by Rick: How to Beat Out Other Competitive Real Estate Buyers Although many consider it a down market, I still ran into a lot of competitors whenever I tried to get a good deal. I am surprised at how many investors are out there hunting for good deals. Every time I make an offer on a below market home the answer I get from the agent is that we already have 3 offers on the property. If you want to get the house you better offer higher than the listing price. So here I have some things to share with you about how to make your offer appear more appealing to the seller. Have a cover letter highlighting positive aspects of your offer in bold big letters, so that the agent/seller will see your pluses the second it prints out of their fax machine. Examples of some of the positive things that sellers love to see are: All Cash Offer Excellent Fico/credit score (700+) 3% or more deposit 30% or more Down payment Bank statement showing proof of down payment Stable Employment History W2 and Financial Statement showing proof of Income To make sure that the seller counter you back make sure to provide as much proof document as possible (copy of 3% check for deposit, online bank statement print out proving source of down payment, copy of w2 or financial statement for proof of income.Sat, 12 Jul 2008 17:21:48 PDThttp://www.trulia.com/voices/Home_Buying/Need_a_realtor_who_is_specialist_in_foreclosures_i-37855Answer by Rick: for a buying agent whether a property is foreclosure or short sale it makes no difference. the difference is whether the agent has a lot of experience in buying real estate and knows how to slash down the price! I wrote the following two blogs for buyers take take a look. Save the Most $ when Buying Real Estates After having a correct valuation of the home you want to buy now you can work on saving more money. the sources where you can save the most money when buying a home are: 1. The seller. the higher the sense of urgency a seller has the more of a bargain you will get. to negotiate with a seller it is best to chop down the price little by little. For example if the comparable value of the home is $500k and the seller wanted $520k for his/her house if you just offer $400k straight out it is very likely you won't get a counter offer. so the best way to do it is to chop off the price little by little. you can first make a $460k offer and have a comparable data showing value of the home to the seller. the seller may counter back $460 (you have just saved $40k off of the value of the home). To make sure that your offer is competitive please read my other blog on this page, "How to Beat Out Other Competitive Buyers." In the initial offer make sure to include all of the items you wanted in the house and items needing repaired. 2. Intangible items in the home you wanted to buy. After agree upon on the price you can request for some of the items in the house such as refrigerator, washer and drivers, televisions and etc. you can save another $10,000 or more here. Some times it is an either or situation. you may get the bargain price but not the items, but it all depends on how motivated the seller is. 3. Repair Expenses. Upon acceptance of offer you can save more money by bargaining with the seller about the repairs. the seller may either help you to repair, give you the credit to repair, or not to repair anything. From the time of offer acceptance you have 14 days contingency period (in California) to perform your due diligence. this is the time to hire a inspector to find out everything that is wrong with the home. take that inspection report back to the seller and request for the repair (ask your agent to send a document called request to repair to the seller/seller agent). At this time the seller is more inclined to negotiate with you since he/she already spent substantial time working with you and that you two already have a contract. However you have the right to back out before the 14 days contingency period so the seller will likely to agree to your repair request. 4. Agent Commission. Save money on the agents commission. Many agents may beat on me for putting this up here, but it is just one of the options and when you use this option please be reasonable. the agents needs to feel they are adequately compensated for their work too. In a situation where one agent represent both the seller and you he/she maybe getting 5 or 6% commission, in this case you may ask the agent to come down a 1 pint or 2 on the commission. It is a balance act you want to save some commission but your priority is still that the agent is happy enough with his/she commission and that stay loyal to you. 5. Mortgage Broker Commission. An inside fact that most consumer do not know is that the higher the interest point the mortgage broker gets you to pay the more commission he/she gets paid. Mortgage brokers are basically mortgage retailers. they get the wholesale rate from banks and resell the mortgage package to you. For example, if they get you to pay 7.5% interest they may get 3% of the money you borrow in commission whereas if you pay 6% interest they may get 1.5% in commission. There are other fees in a mortgage transactions too. Again you want to be reasonable. Maybe you can get the best interest rate but pay some fees. if you ask for both that would leave the mortgage brokers no profit. If you have great credit profile you may get a better deal by going straight to the bank. otherwise you may have to go through a mortgage broker to package the deal for you so that you can get the loan that is why the mortgage broker gets to make some profit. the rate of mortgage also differs greatly depending on whether it is a primary home that you are buying or investment home. 5. Transaction Fees. the many transaction fees usually amounts to 2% of the purchase price. this is where most buyers overlook. you can go to this neat site to check out the approximate market cost of each items in your transaction http://www.feedisclosure.com then ask your agent to see the HUD 1 settlement report to compare with the prices stated on feedislcosure.com to see whether the cost in this report is reasonable. How to Beat Out Other Competitive Real Estate Buyers continued in another post.Sat, 12 Jul 2008 17:20:11 PDThttp://www.trulia.com/voices/Home_Selling/Should_I_put_the_buyers_comisson_at_or_-15211Answer by Rick: A .5 percent commission is not going to put a big dent on your price. why would you want to sweat on this question? Your goal is to optimize all controllable factors to sell your house at the highest price.Sat, 12 Jul 2008 17:15:49 PDThttp://www.trulia.com/voices/General_Area/I_own_a_condo_in_the_Watermarke_Condos_in_Irvine_a-17251Answer by Rick: either look at the sold data here at trulia or dqnews.com and check out in which area the price went down more and factor in your purchase price then you would have an answer. make sure you use the zip code to check the sold data or get a Realtor to get the precise sold data within 1 mile radius. you want to sell the one in the area which price has not gone down so much and that transaction is relatively active in that market.Sat, 12 Jul 2008 17:12:54 PDThttp://www.trulia.com/voices/Home_Selling/I_own_a_one_bedroom_Watermarke_condo_I_have_seen-18203Answer by Rick: It is a tough question. to answer it right, one would have to have a crystal ball. if the price is expected to go up of course you would want to hold it, but nobody knows. If it will go up how long will it take for the price to go up and for how much more. Your expenses is way more than $400/month. you should use the following free online calculator to figure out how much is it you are exactly paying before you make the decision. also make sure you are valuing your property correctly. you can read my other blogs for the answer to that. http://www.mortgageinvestment.com/Investors_in_Real_Estate/investment_rental_real_estate_profit_predictor.htmSat, 12 Jul 2008 17:08:36 PDThttp://www.trulia.com/voices/Home_Selling/Should_I_sell_at_this_time_or_rent_my_BR_BA_cond-6333Answer by Rick: if you do not want to loose money get an agent and find out the exact sold trend of similar properties in your area (you can also look at the data here at trulia or look at sales history at dqnews.com. if the price is going up and that properties are in demand then you have no problem just list it and sell it. if the price went down, then you have to figure out what to do. If you lost a lot of money on it then you may short sale it. If you but it at a pretty low price and the price has not go down a lot maybe you can hold it just rent it out and sell it after the market comes back up.Sat, 12 Jul 2008 16:57:44 PDThttp://www.trulia.com/voices/Home_Buying/What_is_the_good_price_value_in_to_buy_and_to_re-44252Answer by Rick: this is a very broad question. In 92612 the most important thing you have to consider is the school that property belongs to. there are homes in this zip code that does not belong to University High for example Water mark. Take a look at this answer I wrote for another person. maybe you will have some ideas. Whether or not it is a bargain is not a mater of personal opinion, but result from market Data. However there is a couple of different approaches to look at it. If you look at per square foot price for this property it probably is a bargain because it is comparably much cheaper in its immediate Irvine area. and it is very new. However if you are looking to purchase it as an investment property and wish it to go up in price it may or may not be a good deal. it may not be a good deal because the this property does not belong to the University High school. Most of the people buys a home that belongs to the University high school for a couple of reasons: 1. they want their kids to go to University high school 2. If used for rental unit, it rents out very easily and gets really high rent 3. its price not likely to drop. if you look at the search the sales data by zip codes you will see that price of these homes are rising not decrease like water mark. it may be a good deal because the price is pretty low and it may go up, but because it does not belong to the university high school the answer to is not definite. if you don't care about school and just want a new and nice place to live in it is a great property and because you picked it up at a good price if it does go up it will make you some $$$. here are some explanation about how to value your property. Correctly Valuing a piece of Real Estate Ways to valuate home price: 1. Using Trulia.com to valuate the home price; a. Type in the full address in the window (Example:12345 Any street, City, State) & select property type; b. Scroll down and click on view all comparable; c. scroll down to uncheck the box next to homes for sale under the map, make sure the box next to recently sold homes is checked; d. click on the Recently sold homes large button make sure it becomes blue e. Sort the sold data by clicking on the sold date column and look at the first 10 or 20 sold homes; f. Hand pick homes to be compared by eliminating sold homes that are sold 4 or more month earlier, further than 1 mile away, with a sqft difference of more than 50 sqft, also eliminate the highest and the lowest price sold homes; g. add up the price of all of the remaining homes and divide by the number of homes will get you a very accurate valuation of the home you intent to purchase or sell. This is how banks evaluate value of the homes too. 2. Quick Rough Estimation by per square foot method: a. go to http://www.altosresearch.com and select the state and city; b. scroll down to find out the Price Per Square Foot; c. Multiply this price per square foot with the sq ft of the house you intend to purchaseSat, 12 Jul 2008 16:54:10 PDThttp://www.trulia.com/voices/Home_Buying/Is_buying_bed_bath_unit_in_Irvine_Watermarke_a-30809Answer by Rick: Whether or not it is a bargain is not a mater of personal opinion, but result from market Data. However there is a couple of different approaches to look at it. If you look at per square foot price for this property it probably is a bargain because it is comparably much cheaper in its immediate Irvine area. and it is very new. However if you are looking to purchase it as an investment property and wish it to go up in price it may or may not be a good deal. it may not be a good deal because the this property does not belong to the University High school. Most of the people buys a home that belongs to the University high school for a couple of reasons: 1. they want their kids to go to University high school 2. If used for rental unit, it rents out very easily and gets really high rent 3. its price not likely to drop. if you look at the search the sales data by zip codes you will see that price of these homes are rising not decrease like water mark. it may be a good deal because the price is pretty low and it may go up, but because it does not belong to the university high school the answer to is not definite. if you don't care about school and just want a new and nice place to live in it is a great property and because you picked it up at a good price if it does go up it will make you some $$$. here are some explanation about how to value your property. Correctly Valuing a piece of Real Estate Ways to valuate home price: 1. Using Trulia.com to valuate the home price; a. Type in the full address in the window (Example:12345 Any street, City, State) & select property type; b. Scroll down and click on view all comparable; c. scroll down to uncheck the box next to homes for sale under the map, make sure the box next to recently sold homes is checked; d. click on the Recently sold homes large button make sure it becomes blue e. Sort the sold data by clicking on the sold date column and look at the first 10 or 20 sold homes; f. Hand pick homes to be compared by eliminating sold homes that are sold 4 or more month earlier, further than 1 mile away, with a sqft difference of more than 50 sqft, also eliminate the highest and the lowest price sold homes; g. add up the price of all of the remaining homes and divide by the number of homes will get you a very accurate valuation of the home you intent to purchase or sell. This is how banks evaluate value of the homes too. 2. Quick Rough Estimation by per square foot method: a. go to http://www.altosresearch.com and select the state and city; b. scroll down to find out the Price Per Square Foot; c. Multiply this price per square foot with the sq ft of the house you intend to purchase.Sat, 12 Jul 2008 16:37:26 PDThttp://www.trulia.com/voices/Home_Buying/I_have_a_real_estate_license_I_don_t_have_it_hung-45716Answer by Rick: most nation wide franchised brokers will charge a much higher split for new agents. they usually looks at your previous year income from real estate brokering. if you are spanking new, most of them will only give you a 70% split plus other office fees, some will only give you 60% split. There are a few national franchise that charges only flat fee too, but they still will look at your previous year production. national franchises will usually charge you way more miscellaneous fees. if you do not plan to do it full time and just want to save some money for your own transaction it would make more sense for you to join a smaller local broker. some of them may have a few franchises locally. For your personal transaction they may not charge any split. and for regular transaction they may give you a 80% split or 100% split and just charge you on a flat fee for each transaction. maybe couple hundreds to $1000. however if you are really new to it and do not know anything about real estate transactions you may have to partner up with an in house more experienced agent to teach you on the first transaction. if you do that then you will split your commission with the trainer after splitting with your company. But after the first transaction your split will go back to the normal 80% or 90% I have personally worked for Coldwell banker, help U Sell, and local brokers and I have talked to owners of most of these nationwide brokering companies. here are some the differences among these brokers. this is just a general picture of each companies. each franchisees may be managed differently: Coldwell Banker: pros: 1. nationwide brand 2. usually has in house mortgage companies 3. does both commercial and residential transactions 4. broker participated advertising cons: 1. training program is not that great 2. split is low for new agents. maybe 60% or 70% miscellaneous fees is reasonable 3. no sales leads, but you do get floor time to answer phones Remax: Pros: 1. nationwide brand 2. good training program 3. flexible agent options: straight commission, flat fee based, desk fee based and more 4. pretty strong in both commercial and residential Cons: 1. fees are a little on the high end 2. no floor time. no sales leads Keller Williams: Pros: 1. probably the best training program in the industry 2. new agent referral split. if you refer new agent in you get split too 3. Pro Christian 4. fee is reasonable cons 1. franchise location maybe a little less than other national brands. Help U Sell Pros: 1. free sales leads 2. easier to get listing because of low brokering commission 3. training program is pretty good cons: 1. low split and low commission because fee charged is very low. local mom and pop brokers: pros: 1. potentially high commission split without regard to your previous income. 80% to 90% or 0% commission plus a set fee 2. very little miscellaneous fees and charges Cons: 1. no perceived national brand recognition. 2. quality of training is not uniform.Sat, 12 Jul 2008 16:17:53 PDThttp://www.trulia.com/voices/Home_Selling/In_California_are_sellers_still_liable_for_any_mi-45867Answer by Rick: you have no obligations to pay for any repairs. it is all negotiable, but you are obligated to disclose major problems. For example: Buyers usually send you the inspection report and highlights the things that buyer wants to be repaired. It can be viewed as a legitimate request for repair or just buyers' anther approach to ask you for more reduction on the price, which happens very often. you can read my other article about bargaining tools buyers use to negotiate on price.Sat, 12 Jul 2008 15:51:06 PDThttp://www.trulia.com/voices/Home_Selling/What_type_of_return_on_investment_can_you_expect_o-44567Answer by Rick: curb appear is very crucial for property value, at least perceived value. you don't have to go crazy with it. just put on fresh sod, some flowers and a couple of trees. it is a cheap face lift, but dramatically increase the perceived value of the home.Sat, 12 Jul 2008 15:44:49 PDThttp://www.trulia.com/voices/Market_Conditions/Where_in_greater_LA_should_I_think_about_purchasin-3724Answer by Rick: things to consider when picking a investment property: 0. you can look at the price and sales data trend in trulia or go to dqnews.com. look for the zip codes in which the price has dramatically dropped and make sure crime rate and income are good. 1. location: the rule of scarcity still applies here. for examples: locations near the beach is scarce. locations within short distance of major companies and universities. 2. schools: real estate situated in schools with high academic performance holds value, however on the flip side it is more difficult to pick up deals since the price doe not drop. you can go to schoolmatters.com to find out scores. 3. high rental demands: real estates nearby major companies and universities, beaches and or vacation spots get rented much quicker. it is still location that rules. 4. make sure the area does not have rent control 5. make sure the area is not oversaturated with rental properties.Sat, 12 Jul 2008 15:23:57 PDThttp://www.trulia.com/voices/Foreclosure/I_m_interested_in_building_a_real_estate_investmen-45851Answer by Rick: foreclosures and short sales are a great option. here are some pros and cons: pros: 1. easier to find good deals. you can check out ocwen.com, hut.org or go to my blog hutdeas.com for more links to great deals. 2. potentially more savings cons: 1. prolonged acquisition cycle 2. may need some repairs (although not all of them) here are some more things to be ware of when buying: Pitfalls in Rental Apartment Purchases Pitfalls in Rental Apartment Purchases 1. Find out the remaining life span of the roof. Roof is one of the largest expenses for apartment owners. make sure it is still in good quality when purchasing a rental property. If it is not use it as a bargaining tool to low the price or ask the seller for credit to repair. 2. Make sure the laundry machine rental contract pay out is reasonable. If not make sure the contract is terminating soon. Otherwise using it as a bargaining too as well. 3. Have the property inspected by an experienced physical inspector. You may also want to order an appraisal to get a fair market value. 4. Visit the property, talk to current tenants and inspect as many units as possible to find out all that is wrong with the property. Most importantly find out the condition of major items such as stove, dishwashers, air conditioning, water heaters, and roof. The repair of these items can bankrupt you very quickly, unless it is a fixer upper sold at significant bargaining price. 5. Choose property where people want to live, close to shops, parks and decent schools, and in a well-kept neighborhood. There's nothing worse than owning a rental property without any renters. Make sure tenants from the area have plenty of employment opportunities. rental properties belong to the district of great schools (make sure it really belong to that district because in many cases people living in the same zip codes maybe asked to attend two very different schools) and nearby beaches are the best. 6. Search past records for vacancy rates over the last five to ten years as well as at present. the best way to get these data is by insisting to ask the seller for financial statements. If not at least get the rent roll. Through the rent roll you can find out what lease terms current tenants are on, whether month to month or yearly lease. If yearly lease how much longer the lease term has remaining and the current rent rate. 7. bargaining points: anything physically wrong with the property, low pay out and long term contract for the laundry lease, short term tenant lease contract or long term tenant lease contract with low rental rate can all be used as bargaining chips while negotiating for the price of the rental property.Sat, 12 Jul 2008 14:49:53 PDThttp://www.trulia.com/voices/Home_Buying/Where_do_you_go_for_floor_plans_of_deveopment_home-11771Answer by Rick: If you want to find out the plan for a particular builders home just call them up and ask them to fax to you. If you are looking for a floor plan to build a home: you can just go to google and search for floor plans. you can check out this one too. http://www.designsplus.com/Tue, 11 Mar 2008 21:33:11 PDThttp://www.trulia.com/voices/Foreclosure/Is_there_a_rule_when_it_comes_to_making_an_offer_o-21277Answer by Rick: HI Robyn, Each lenders have their rules. it is a buyers market. there are plenty of homes on the market. why deal with the lenders that are difficult when you have so many other options on the market? Just because it is pre-foreclosure property does not automatically mean it is a good deal. the initial price usually is not that attractive. after they have been on the market for more than a couple dozen days then they will slowly realize with their original price nobody will even look at the listing. I have found that you will find locating deals much easier by 1. first search for homes that has been on the market for more than let us say 90 days 2. once the results come up do a simple comp for each listing to see if it is below market value or not. Using this approach I have found many homes that sellers already lowered the price more than $100,000 below market value because the home is just not selling. good luck,Tue, 11 Mar 2008 21:19:34 PDThttp://www.trulia.com/voices/Home_Selling/I_own_a_lovely_home_in_Altadena_CA_but_now_living-25682Answer by Rick: HI Rhea, As you know the current market is not easy for sellers. you are best bet is to get it into spotless condition by un-cluttering, updating, and staging whatever you can with the least investment and sell it at cheaper than other homes in the neighborhood. And, offer to pay for the first year payment (a year of free Payment sounds much better than $50k deduction on the price) a flat screen tv if you have to do it. what you don't want to do is to put it on the market over priced and reduce price later because the first 2 or 3 weeks when the home is on the market is when it will get the most exposure, after that buyers will never come back to an over priced home even if it is reduced. good luck.Tue, 11 Mar 2008 21:12:27 PDThttp://www.trulia.com/voices/Quality_of_Life/my_mom_passed_away_and_out_pf_sisters_my_mom_and_-18611Answer by Rick: Hi Laurie, You should consult a tax accountant and tax lawyer that specializes in real estate. you don't want to put the property in a land trust or limited partnership naming you and your step dad as the beneficiary of the trust/partnership. you dont want to be in the situation in which you are the inheriting the property, it just too costly and time consuming. you want to be the co-beneficiary with your step dad.Tue, 11 Mar 2008 21:02:38 PDThttp://www.trulia.com/voices/Home_Buying/i_put_in_an_offer_for_a_short_sale_and_received_a_-24603Answer by Rick: hi W.B., just because you have an offer does not mean the bank cannot accept other people's offer.Tue, 11 Mar 2008 15:57:34 PDThttp://www.trulia.com/voices/General_Area/How_is_the_housing_market_in_Alhambra_CA_-6410Answer by Rick: hi Lee, here is another site with more precise and independent numbers http://www.dqnews.com/ZIPLAT.shtmSun, 9 Mar 2008 12:27:29 PDT