Light, Bright and Airy Home Staging Tips
Sorry I am late this week, as I usually post on Tuesdays. I was in Washington DC working with congress on breast cancer research funding applications and am just getting back to my day job!
Staging tips for the week:
Houses are selling, and not just because of the government stimulus $$. Another great staged listing that I was a part of went into escrow within the first 10 days of being on the market and neither one sold to a buyer getting the credit.
Why, whats the trick? -
- Make your house look amazing and it should sell if its priced right!
- Pay attention to the details
- Clean the clutter
- Price it right
- Don’t forget to keep your eye on the money you spend on clean-up, staging and painting. Often you can spend very little and get a great return.
Happy Home Selling!
Arroyo Grande Strawberry Festival
As I was looking at upcoming events I realized how much sooner the Strawberry Festival in Arroyo Grande really was. Arroyo Grande’s Strawberry Festival is one of the largest in California with booths of every nature. There are hundreds of booths ranging from arts and crafts to booths with tons of different food and what would a strawberry festival be without strawberries? So don’t forget all of the different kinds of strawberry booths; Funnel cakes with strawberries, strawberry shortcake, strawberry daiquiris’, strawberry ice cream and tons of other strawberry delights. The festival takes place on Memorial weekend, May 29th-30th, all day, both days. Vendors from all over bring you hours of enjoyment to share with thousands of others walking the streets of the Old Village of Arroyo Grande. Other than the hundreds of vendors, there will also be entertainment all around the festival! There will be live bands, games for the kids, a petting zoo, and those amazing confetti eggs that we all love to pick out of our hair afterwards! While you are there, you can pick up a bite to eat from any of the food vendors or visit my favorite place, Alphy’s Broiler, or any of the other amazing restaurants that the Old Village has to offer. The great thing about the Arroyo Grande Strawberry Festival is, ADMISSION IS FREE and there is free parking around the town with a free shuttle service!
Kim Tomasko
South County Expert
805-440-4472
Our Advanced Form Property Search
Our advanced form search allows you to really narrow your search. We include most fields that exist in the MLS listing record. For example, if you wanted to search by a particular subdivision or mobile home park, our search form will allow you to do this. Want to search for properties that didn’t have an HOA? You can do that too. This can save you lots of time from having to look at the details all listings in a general search then finding something that you don’t want.
You can access the Advanced Form Search under the “Form Search” menu or by clicking here.
Rate Update
The events in Greece last week reversed investors’ “flight to safety” movement, leading mortgage rates higher earlier in the week. Successful Treasury auctions later in the week led rates back down near their lowest levels of the year. On Monday, The European Union (EU) and International Monetary Fund surprised investors with an announcement that they will make up to $1 trillion available to Greece and other EU members that are experiencing economic troubles. The commitment demonstrated by the stronger European countries toward their weaker neighbors calmed investor fears and funds once again moved back to riskier assets like stocks. In fact, the Dow Jones Industrial Average recovered over 400 points on Monday alone. The US Treasury long-term auctions were received very well last week, and led mortgage rates down despite the news from Europe. Given where rates are right now, it was not surprising to find out Mortgage Applications rose last week by 3.9%, with refinancing up 15% and purchases down 9.5% after the end of the federal home buyer tax credits. Currently, the 30-Year Fixed sits at 4.500% (4.648% APR) and the 15-Year Fixed is at 3.875% (4.137% APR). The monthly inflation reports are due out this week along with Housing Starts and Leading Economic Indicators.
805.543.LOAN info@centralcoastlending.com
Make Sure Your Wireless Network is Secure
Google announced today that when they were out taking “Street View” photos in their vans, they were also connecting to unsecured Wi-fi networks to snoop what websites people on those networks were visiting. They are supposedly going to delete the 600 Gigs of data they captured from this snooping.
This is a good reminder to make sure you have encryption turned on in your wireless routers. When you take a router out of the box, security is NOT enabled and anyone can get on your network and even get into your computer to snoop if they wanted to. Most people use unprotected networks to get on the Internet but you are leaving yourself open for more than that.
If you don’t know if your network is secure, just look at your computer’s wireless application. This is usually part of your computer’s operating system. It will show what wireless networks it sees and if they are secure or not. If your network is not protected, you need to go into the router and turn on WEP or WPA security and define an encryption key (WPA is the better security protocol to use, but older routers only have WEP). This key also needs to be added to every computer that you want to access the wireless network.
I Would Never Allow the Same Agent to Represent Seller and Buyer!
There is no good reason I can think of where putting in an offer on a house with the agent that has listed it. Unfortunately, some people still believe that they are going to “get a better deal” or the transaction will go smoother if they deal directly with the Listing Agent. Knowing what I do now about the real estate industry and witnessing deals that were “double-ended” by the same agent, I WOULD NEVER choose a real estate agent that has ever double-ended a transaction to represent me. Our industry has this perception by some that we’re used car salespeople and the agents that double-end transactions are prime examples why this perception exists. While California allows dual agency (the official term for double-ending), other states don’t. But just because it’s legal in California doesn’t mean it’s the right thing for an agent to do for a client. An agent that double-ends the transaction is doing it because they will make twice the commission, not because they are wanting to provide the best service for the Seller or Buyer. In fact, what most people don’t realize is that once a dual agency is formed, that agent’s service ends for the Seller and Buyer because they can no longer give advice as that’s illegal. For the Buyer and Seller, the agent becomes a contract administrator only and that’s all they can be per the law.
When a Seller hires an agent to list their home, one would expect they are paying the agent to represent their best interests and get the best possible price for the home. The agent would be working 100% for the Seller. Similarly, a Buyer’s Agent represents the Buyer 100% and is working for the Buyer’s best interests. When a Buyer goes to a Listing Agent to submit an offer, dual agency is in effect as the agent is now representing both the Buyer and Seller. This means that the agent can no longer represent the Seller 100%. The only allowable representation is 50% for the Buyer and 50% for the Seller which means that the agent has to legally stay neutral. The agent can no longer give ANY advice to either party. For the Seller, the agent can no longer represent their best interests to get the best possible price for the home as that is illegal in a Dual Agency. All the agent can do is provide facts to both parties, but no advice or opinions. If they do provide advice, then the agent can be sued by either the Buyer or Seller and a complaint can be filed with the Department of Real Estate and they may lose their license. What’s worse is that the Buyer or Seller can also sue the other party too (not just the agent) if dual agency was violated. Who needs all this mess??
So questions like the following CAN”T be answered by an agent in a dual agency transaction as it’s illegal:
- How much should we offer?
- How motivated are the Sellers?
- What do you think their bottom price is?
- Should we ask for closing costs in the offer?
- Have they had any other offers? What were they?
- How much is the Buyer qualified for?
- Should we ask for the appliances?
- How much should we counter back?
- What contingencies should we include?
- What repairs should we ask for?
- What repairs should we agree to?
- How emotionally tied are the Buyers to my home?
- This offer is real low, should we even counter back?
- This isn’t feeling right, should we just walk from this home and look for another?
If an agent can’t provide advice then you risk not getting the best price or having something happen in escrow that makes the deal fall apart because the agent’s hands are tied to try to negotiate.
If you’re a Seller, why would you even let your Listing Agent not represent you and your interests 100%? From what I’ve seen with dual agency transactions, the Listing Agent’s #1 priority becomes making the deal happen so they get paid twice the commission. That’s the cause of “sleazy” things like telling one party confidential info about the other party. I’ve also witnessed a situation where there were multiple bids for new listing, one being from a Buyer through the Listing Agent. The agent didn’t return calls from the other agents that had submitted offers because the agent was stalling for time to get their Buyer’s offer submitted. The agent pushed their own offer and probably cost the Seller’s $10-$15K because the priority for that agent was to get their offer accepted and not to use the multiple bids to negotiate a higher price for the Seller.
If you’re a Buyer, why would you think the Listing Agent is going to work in your best interest when they already have a relationship with the Seller? Get yourself a good Buyer’s Agent that knows the area where you want to live and is a good negotiator. Being a Buyer with your own Buyer’s agent means your agent can go find you another home. Just this fact is a powerful negotiating tool, one you don’t have if you use the Listing Agent to put in the offer.
If a Listing Agent did get an interested Buyer, there is an easy solution. They can refer the Buyer to another Agent and get a referral fee (typically 25% of the Buyer Agent’s commission). Having another agent representing the Buyer means that the Listing Agent is still working 100% for the Seller. If the other agent is ethical, there shouldn’t be any exchange of confidential info. You can even ask that the Buyer agent be someone from another Brokerage if you think that the Buyer’s agent they pick is too close of a friend of the Listing Agent. The Listing Agent ends up getting a piece of the Buyer Agent’s commission and both the Buyer and Seller are represented 100% by their respective agents!
If you are selling your house, make sure you add something to the listing agreement that says that the Listing Agent will not represent the Buyer or anything else you desire to say. It’s good to put this upfront so you won’t have to deal with it when an offer comes in. The Seller has the most to lose, IMO, as the Buyer looking for a dual agency has the expectation that the Listing Agent will give them information that gets them a better deal. And if you’re interviewing agents to list your home, ask the question “How many homes have you double-ended?”. If they have, they’ll probably get a proud look on their face and tell you the number. That’s because in real estate offices where greed is king, it’s a feather in an agent’s cap to double-end a listing. What I would do at that point, is just show the agent the door.
Foreclosure Rates
Top foreclosure rates for April 2010 from Realty Trac.
Top 10 states with the highest foreclosure rates:
1. Nevada: 1 in 69 units
2. Arizona: 1 in 169 units
3. Florida: 1 in 182 units
4. California: 1 in 192 units
5. Utah: 1 in 221 units
6. Idaho: 1 in 226 units
7. Michigan: 1 in 237 units
8. Illinois: 1 in 280 units
9. Georgia: 1 in 288 units
10. Colorado: 1 in 337 units
Top 10 metro areas with the highest foreclosure rates:
1. Las Vegas: 1 in 60 units
2. Modesto, Calif.: 1 in 101 units
3. Merced, Calif.: 1 in 104 units
4. Cape Coral-Fort Myers, Fla.: 1 in 105 units
5. Stockton, Calif.: 1 in 108 units
6. Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, Calif.: 1 in 110 units
7. Reno-Spark, Nev.: 1 in 112 units
8. Vallejo-Fairfield, Calif.: 1 in 117 units
9. Bakersfield, Calif.: 1 in 120 units
10. Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale, Ariz.: 1 in 136 units
VACATION RENTAL ORDINANCE FOR CAMBRIA & CAYUCOS
Currently- Cambria and Cayucos operate under San Luis Obispo County’s Vacation Rental Ordinance.
What this means is that if you own a property in Cambria or Cayucos- you are permitted to rent your property short term, less than a 30 day stay, as a ”vacation rental”, if you have or obtain a vacation rental license and registration. The ordinance limits the number of vacation rentals by a distance requirement. No property is issued a license if there is another property within 200 linear feet on the same block that already has one. Once issued, status continues indefinitely, as long as the annual fees are kept up .
The vacation rental ordinance will be coming under review this year and will go before the planning commission in late summer /early fall of 2010 for possible modifications. Some of the issue being considered include: The Distance requirement; Enforcement of the Ordinance; Possible expiration dates; and Extending the Ordinance to other communities in the area.
These changes may have an impact on current and future property owners in our beautiful communities where so many tourists love to vacation.
LYNN BATES, Keith Byrd Team, North Coast Realtor of San Luis Obispo County including Morro Bay, Cayucos, Cambria and Los Osos. 805 458-4409. Lynn@LynnBates.Com
LOS OSOS WASTEWATER/SEWER PROJECT UPDATE
On Friday, Bruce Gibson, County Supervisor, spoke to the Scenic Coast Association of Realtors in Los Osos. His talk included an update on the Los Osos Wastewater/Sewer Project- which as most of you know- is now being managed by the County of San Luis Obispo.
In January – the Coastal Commission identified 7 points that required additional information and clarification in order to proceed with the permit. These 7 points are now being addressed and worked on.
IF- no NEW issues are raised- it looks like the 7 points will be approved in the next hearing- scheduled for June- and the final permit will be issued.
Timing is, has been and remains- an issue as one half of the project is slated to be funded by USDA Federal Dollars- Grants totaling 16 Million and low interest loans of $ 64 Million. These federal funds, backed by stimulus dollars, need full permits on the project before approval of funding is guaranteed.
LYNN BATES, Keith Byrd Team, North Coast Realtor of San Luis Obispo County including Morro Bay, Cayucos, Cambria and Los Osos. 805 458-4409. Lynn@LynnBates.Com
