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A reporter called yesterday morning to ask me about the rising real estate prices and market recovery in Sacramento. After all, our Trendgraphix reports show a 42% increase in pending sales for June. That’s the message delivered by Lyon Real Estate. However, inventory is up about 8% and sales are down [...]

Some real estate agents don’t want to say anything to a home seller that sounds negative about a home. I suspect they are afraid of offending the seller. Besides, lots of sellers don’t notice the negative aspects of their home, especially after a number of years go by. They get used [...]

Lots of real estate agents want to know what’s the next thing that’s on the horizon for real estate. The savvy agents want to jump on that bandwagon and ride the road to easy riches. This morning, thanks to inspiration provided by Broker Bryant’s excellent blog,  I would like to [...]

One of the nasty surprises in store for women when we age is our arms turn into crepe paper overnight. I suspect that’s why a lot of older women don’t wear sleeveless garments. Well, unless you’re Madonna. But her arms are spooky. They look manufactured. I could probably achieve that model of [...]

Over the last 12 months I have sold on average more than one home per week. I know this because I looked at the stats in MLS a few days ago and my mouth fell open. I’m not one of those Land Park agents who routinely tracks her closings because that’s [...]

Elvis Costello should move to Clarksburg, California. In fact, I have the perfect home for sale in Clarksburg. I was thinking about this when my husband and I went to the Mondavi Center in Davis last night to see Elvis Costello perform solo.
It was sort of like the old days of MTV [...]

So much is written about how difficult Short Sales are, that I thought it was time I told you a bit about our successes with Elk Grove Short Sales…
Just this past week –
We closed 2 Elk Grove short sale listings…the bank on both was Aurora Bank. These properties were investment properties for the seller [...]

Jennifer Kelly with Wachovia Bank visited our Keller Williams Realty – Elk Grove office meeting today and gave us some great information and nsight into Wachovia’s short sale process. It certainly seems easier than most at the present time and our experience with Wachovia short sales has been just that – easier than the [...]

This is a list of questions that I provide to homeowners to ask agents during or before a listing presentation. Hopefully this helps them make a decision about which agent to list their home with. It seems that there are 2 or 3 questions that all sellers know to ask and that’s it [...]

Getting financing on expensive properties just got a lot easier.
Recently, Wells Fargo has raised it’s combined debt-to-income level on high-end loans to 80%. Well-qualified borrowers can buy a $1,200,000 home with $240,000 down, a $729,000 first loan and a $231,000 2nd mortgage.
During the boom. of course, banks were making loans up to 115% CLTV (combined [...]

Crystal Ranch is a high-end, newer home development in the hills above Concord. The 3,000+ square foot homes began selling in 1998 in the mid-$400,000s. By the year 2000, when this home was build, the prices had come up to the mid-$600,000s. By 2004, this home would have sold for over $800,000.
At the peak sometime [...]

There’s often a difference between assessed value and market value, isn’t there? I recently posted a graph highlighting this phenomenon, and today I have one more real-life example to share. The property below in the Sacramento area was assessed at $210,000, but after my tax appeal process I determined the home to be worth $130,000. That’s quite a difference [...]

Ever wanted to flip properties in the Sacramento area? Get the inside scoop from area investors who are doing it!
Find out how out to successfully rehab and/or flip in our local market! Join the Elk Grove Real Estate Investors Group next TUESDAY NIGHT -November 17th!
Please welcome them in joining David Granzella and John [...]

1. GET RID OF YOUR COLLECTION ACCOUNTS.
Did you know that paying a collection account can actually reduce your score? Here’s why: credit scoring software reviews credit reports for each account’s date of last activity to determine the impact it will have on the overall credit score. When payment is made on a collection account, collection [...]