Elise Timpe

Absolutely not! There is a name for this: "Buying the Listing". By promising a higher price, the agent secures your signature on the contract. Then, after a time, they will be telling you that you need to reduce the price. Meanwhile, the Realtor is using the sign on your property to find buyers for other properties when they call and find out how expensive your's is. The hard, cruel, fact is that the only way to determine the right price for your home is to examine the prices of similar properties that have attracted offers.
Everyone wants to believe that they can beat the odds, or that their house is special enough to command a higher price than other similar homes in their neighborhood. However, this rarely happens in real life. What does happen is that you will scare away buyers with your price. Those who do come to see your home will be dissapointed because it won't compare favorably with others that they can afford.
One mistake that sellers make over and over is to start out high with the expectation that people will offer lower and they will negotiate. This results in their home not getting anybody at all looking at it during the "prime time" of the listing-when it is new. By the time they reduce the price, the home has been on the market for a while and the negotiations will be much less rewarding for the seller.
Go with the agent with the most agressive marketing plan & experience. - Wed Nov 28 2007, 01:00

Absolutely not! There is a name for this: "Buying the Listing". By promising a higher price, the agent secures your signature on the contract. Then, after a time, they will be telling you that you need to reduce the price. Meanwhile, the Realtor is using the sign on your property to find buyers for other properties when they call and find out how expensive your's is. The hard, cruel, fact is that the only way to determine the right price for your home is to examine the prices of similar properties that have attracted offers.
Everyone wants to believe that they can beat the odds, or that their house is special enough to command a higher price than other similar homes in their neighborhood. However, this rarely happens in real life. What does happen is that you will scare away buyers with your price. Those who do come to see your home will be dissapointed because it won't compare favorably with others that they can afford.
One mistake that sellers make over and over is to start out high with the expectation that people will offer lower and they will negotiate. This results in their home not getting anybody at all looking at it during the "prime time" of the listing-when it is new. By the time they reduce the price, the home has been on the market for a while and the negotiations will be much less rewarding for the seller.
Go with the agent with the most agressive marketing plan & experience. - Wed Nov 28 2007, 00:48

The gated community off Green River has a wonderful recreation center. The homeowner's dues are well worth it there. Sierra Del Oro is a nice area because the landscaping is more mature, the Mello Roos/Special Assessments are mostly paid off and it is currently the closest proximity to Orange County.

I don't think that the value movement will be much different from South Corona/Eagle Glen/Dos Lagos area. Who knows? Maybe they'll have a tunnel through the mountain to Orange County in another 10 or 20 years:) Currently, there are a lot of high end office buildings going up in that vicinity. Since Corona still has a very low vacancy rate for office space, that should keep that area from declining faster than any others.

The Real Estate decline is being fueled in large part, by the many people who bought in 2005 & 2006 with creative adjustable mortgages. Now, they are starting to adjust upward raising monthly payments up to several hundreds of dollars. The tightening in the lending industry is making it harder for people to qualify for a loan. Many of those with the adjustable loans planned on refinancing. They are finding that they no longer qualify. Foreclosure.com reported that the number of NODs filed in Corona (notice of default) have almost quadrupled in the last month. There are a lot of "short sales" and "repos" currently for sale.

One of the things that happened in the 90s was that a lot of jobs were shut down, & people lost homes back to the banks. The banks lose around $80,000 when they take back a home and re-market it. That's why they agree to "short sales" (where they accept less than is owed for the home of someone who has demonstrated that they have no way of making the payments for various reasons). If the bank takes the home back, they want to sell it as quickly as possible while losing the least amount of money. Without personal attachment /pride issues, they tend to make whatever adjustments are necessary to sell the home. This means they usually clean it up, paint, carpet and replace any unworking appliances. Then they market it at current market value. If it doesn't sell, they will make periodic price adjustments until it does. When the neighbor puts their home on the market, the bank sale is one of the "comps" demonstrating the value of a home in that neighborhood. The neighbor, then, must price their home accordingly to get it sold. The law of supply and demand is in effect: Out of 250-300 homes for sale in any given month in an area, there are only 0-6 sales. Those who must sell will lower their price and those who don't have to sell will remain.

The question to ask yourself is "is this a home that I plan to stay in for at least 8 years?" If so, you should have no worries. The Realtor helping you with the sale should do a "CMA" showing you the prices of homes in the same area that are comparable in size, age, lot size, etc. It should include homes listed, pending and sold within the last few months. This is how you figure out what the current market value for your home is. If the home needs work (not because you don't like the owner's choices in carpet color, etc), you would usually offer less than market value minus repair costs because you will have to live through the repairs. Another consideration is whether it is a short sale, repo, or if the owner has equity enough to sell the home, pay costs of @7% of sales price and pay off any loans.

Interest rates are still historically good. You will have a tax deduction as a homeowner, and if you plan on staying in the home for a while, the cycle will eventually go the other way and you will come out ahead. The best way to get the best price on the home is to be fully approved for a loan by a reputable lender (contingent only on house and appraisal,) before even making an offer. This puts you in the position of a "cash buyer". The other ingredient to having the strongest position is to have a Realtor representing you that is a full time Realtor. Those who combine selling with lending, or who are part timers, often make mistakes when filling out the offer. This is quickly apparent to the listing agent who, if experienced, may feel less than confident about the chances of completing the transaction and may be less cooperative in finding a win win solution to bridge you and the seller. - Sun Oct 14 2007, 00:35

When you put your home on the market, you can never be absolutely sure where your buyer will come from. In the current market, you want a Realtor that leaves NO stone unturned when marketing for a buyer. One of the first things your Realtor will do is put it on the MLS. That will notify other Realtors that the house is available for them to show their buyers, and tell them what their income will be if they assist the listing agent in selling it, by bringing their buyers..
The MLS is also accessed by several Real Estate sites and offers the general public information about your home. If someone sees it on the internet and is interested, they will either call their Realtor, or they will attempt to "drive by" to find out if they want to see the inside. Unlike most Realtors, who are used to finding addresses, your potential buyer may not know that a house is for sale without a sign in front.

A good percentage of buyers will drive areas that they want to live in and look for signs to follow up on. You will never show up to those buyers. In general, 10% of the buyers will come as a result of the sign. You will lose those potential buyers.

There are circumstances where a seller may not want a sign, and it is possible to sell without one. Your reason should be quite compelling, though. Not just a matter of aesthetics or shyness.

When you are on the market, it can be difficult for sellers to realize that their "home" is now a "product". Getting it out into the market place is critical. There is also a delicate balance between price, condition and accessability. Even if you don't have a sign, a lockbox, in this market, is essential. The reason is that your highest chances are that one of the thousands of Realtors that access the MLS will find your buyer. If they have the person who would buy your home, but the fact that an appointment must be pre-arranged or they must go somewhere else to access the key makes your home "too difficult" to show, you'll lose a lot of potential buyers. I always use the lockboxes that capture the time, date, Realtor's name, phone number and office and update me by email whenever your home has been shown by accessing the lockbox.

Please contact me if you have any more questions.
Elise Timpe, First Team
951-500-8969 - Sat Oct 13 2007, 22:41