Category : Featured
“Children are the biggest benefactors of home ownership”.
And nothing compels buyers to purchase a home like “putting down roots” for those offspring.
Three esteemed So Cal professors provide hard evidence to support these assetions.
Richard K. Green and Gary D. Painter (USC), Michelle J. White (University of San Diego)
Key findings from the studyinclude:
a) The size of the down payment has little effect on the outcomes for children, except when borrowers put no money down, at which point the outcomes become indistinguishable from those for renters.
b) The impact of homeownership is particularly important for households with short lengths of tenure. Some had suggested that prior findings regarding the benefits of homeownership were simply due to a more stable housing situation, not necessarily ownership. These findings indicate that homeownership matters, particularly over the short term.
c) Parents’ marital status, income, race or age of the mother when the child was born had little effect on outcomes, after controlling for parental education, homeownership and other household characteristics.
“In a study conducted over 15 years, we found that children of homeowners fared better than children of renters.
The study was based on an analysis of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) and was sponsored by the Research Institute for Housing America (RIHA), the independent research foundation of the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA).
Regional Airports:
Ontario International Airport-Ontario. Hollywood Burbank, Long Beach, Orange County-John Wayne and LAX
General Aviation Airports:
Cable Airport – Upland (Cable is the largest private airport in the U.S.)
Chino Airport – Chino
Brackett Field – La Verne
El Monte Municipal Airport – El Monte
Colleges:
There are Three Community Colleges in the top 5% nationwide
Chaffey Community College – Alta Loma
Citrus College – Glendora/Azusa
Mount San Antonio College – Walnut
There are nine 4 year Universities/colleges in the top 5% nationwide
Cal Poly – Pomona
University of La Verne – La Verne
Pomona College -Claremont/Pomona
Scripps College – Claremont
Harvey Mudd College – Claremont
Claremont McKenna College – Claremont
Pitzer College – Claremont
Azusa Pacific University – Azusa
Mass Transit
The area is home of one of the most comprehensive suburban mass-transit areas in the nation. Served by Metrolink, Metroail, Foothill Transit, OmniTrans and the MTA
Location
Almost any city in the area is about 1.5 hours to the beach, mountains and desert (both high and low desert)
Today almost everyone uses the internet to find homes and the few, who are not, use an internet savvy Realtor©.
An article from NAR said that 97% of the general public, who are interested in real estate are checking first the internet and all are first looking at the pictures.
And out of the 97%, about 37% become investing in real estate. That result is a lot better than the general ads, open houses and cold calling.
On the internet, as a marketing tool, only images can capture and hold attention.
Some Realtors told me that photography doesn’t sell homes, getting it priced right does.
However, once a home for sale is priced near the correct market value it has to compete with all the other properties in that location, price range and set of features.
Getting buyers to come look at a home in today’s online search market is a matter of standing out from the other hundreds of properties a home for sale is competing with. Photography is the only way to do that.
It is not surprising that strong images play a big part in marketing homes. Images are the center of marketing everything.
The National Association of Realtors said “It’s no secret that pictures help sell listings faster.
But they also add value: Homes that are marketed with superior photos taken with high-quality cameras actually sell for more than houses that are photographed with standard, point-and-shoot cameras.
Traditional Real Estate does not work as a marketing tool anymore. If you need more information, check my website http://letpicturestalk.com .
A professional real estate photographer might be your best all-around marketing teammate.
By Ronny Geenen
Realtor and Photographer
Many articles have been written about Glendora, but most were about how it was in the past including the pictures. My article is about today’s Pride of the Foothills. Just open the web page and enjoy. http://letpicturestalk.com/glendora-today
Ronny Geenen
Realtor/e-Pro and Photographer
Info@RonnyGeenen.com
Ronny@LetPicturesTalk.com
626-278-2205
by GARY BOYER
According to a report just out, it is too easy to be fooled by home staging. Home staging is a term that we are gradually becoming familiar with. It is the idea that we try to create the best impression of our home when selling the house. It used to be just run the vacuum over it and do the dishes but nowadays there is a whole set of rules to follow!
The idea is, that a staged home stands out from all the others and therefore gets sold more quickly. It certainly can be carried to extremes with reports of sellers hiring storage units to cart their junk off to. Larger items of furniture are encouraged to be put into storage by professional ‘home stagers’ so that the house looks bigger and more spacious.
Another instruction is to remove anything personal like photographs, so that the prospective buyer can visualize the house as their own. Closets are de-cluttered so that they look more spacious and all bathroom paraphernalia is supposed to be gone from the counter top! Garbage bins are even removed and hidden from sight.
However it has been suggested that home staging can also be deliberately used to hide a multitude of sins!
The National Association of Exclusive Buyer Agents has suggested that as much as 82% of buyers are sidetracked from the important issues by a well-staged house. This organization also concedes that home staging nets more cash and faster sales – so it works!
Some of the underhand tricks used in staging can include using smaller furniture to make a room look larger, placing rugs over damaged parts of the floor, or using curtains to hide rotting sills. Also specified is the practice of putting a cheap paint job on to cover defects. Your realtor is legally obligated to let you know of any defects, but only if he actually knows about them!
Buyers are urged by the NAEBA to be cautious and to remember that when the house is sold, the stage is taken away. The tricks of home staging do not improve the floor plan, or the square footage of the home or the quality of the neighborhood, and these are the qualities that you will be re-selling at a later date.
by SARAH BARRON
It’s almost time for the Holiday Stroll in Glendora’s very darling “Village”. This Friday (11/18), merchants will don their festive holiday best, opening their doors for an evening for you to shop for the holidays. And while you’re here, stroll up to the north end of the village to 211 N. Glendora (aka Southland Properties) to sample our office’s chili and cornbread. Let us know your opinion of which Southland Properties agent or employee wins our in-office cook off.
by DENNIS BECKWITH
Question: What are the 3 most important things in real estate? This was one of the first little “catch phrases” I learned when I starting as an agent at the ripe young age of 23 recently out of college and newly married. That was 1985 and I have heard people quote that phrase any number of times since then, so it must be true right? What got me thinking about this was the spot I am currently sitting in, looking out the window at the Pacific Ocean. We are on a brief vacation with the family at Newport Beach in a lovely rented home right on the sand (yes, Realtors get a few days off now and then…but if you call me, I still might answer, or at least call you back). What an absolutely beautiful view and great location this is. But how much is it worth? Turns out, quite a bit! There are a couple of homes for sale on either side and they are asking in the 4 million range. That’s an expensive view! The property taxes alone would be nearly $50,000 a year or $4,000 a month. Can you imagine that? Most of us in our area have TOTAL house payments that are less than that. The rent is pretty steep here too (trust me) so you start to think “well what about being a block away, or a few blocks away” and then you do start to see a dramatic drop in prices.
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BY JACKIE DOORNIK
If you are on the fence about the best time to buy a home maybe the current proposed changes will help you realize the time just cannot get any better.
New and Proposed changes:
*Fewer loans from the federal lending programs popularly know as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
*Higher fees for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Loans.
*Gradually increasing required down payments from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans to 10 percent
*Higher mortgage insurance payments of FHA loans.
*Higher credit scores required to qualify for the FHA’s most favorable loan terms.
*Longer disclosure forms.
The goal is to make sure consumers are informed, that they understand what they’re getting into, to make sure they’re really comfortable.
Some regulations took effect late last year. Others, including the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, take effect this spring and late this year. Additional rules take effect in 2012, and others are still in development. “So the sooner you act, the more likely you are to dodge at least some of the new and coming requirements,” says Jackie Doornik, Southland Properties, Glendora, CA
By GARY BOYER
The Case Schiller Index has announced that home prices have hit a new low and that prices are back to being the equivalent to what they were in 2002. Now Real Estate Markets have always had their booms and busts. Just since 1970 we hit a high in 1972 and a low in 1977, high in 1980, low in ’85, high in 1990 and another low in 1998 and now this high in 2006 and presumably a low in 2009.
If you look at most charts you’ll find that we have been bouncing on the bottom since the beginning of 2009. This high and low have been extreme in their range. If 2004 and 2005 had not happened, we probably wouldn’t be having the dramatic changes that we are dealing with today. However, let’s look at the bright side of what has happened. The extreme boom was caused by government interference in the normal market by trying to be sure that everyone could buy a home whether they could afford it or not. The good news for home buyers is that the government has not realized how much damage they have done and continue to keep interest rates artificially low and by subsidizing banking losses they are allowing banks to sell foreclosed homes at unbelievably low prices.
Why is this good news? If buying a home at 2002 prices is not incentive enough to buy a home. How about interest rates at 1950 levels. If you combine the two, your mortgage payments today work out to about the same as payments you would have been making in 1995. In other words, you not only are buying at the bottom of this Real Estate bust, you can buy at the bottom of the previous Real Estate bust.
You buy a home today for $175,000, put 20% down with a 30 year mortgage at 5% interest, your payment would equal about $1130 per month. If you bought the same home in 1995 it would have cost about $120,000, you put down the same 20% with a 30 year mortgage at the 1995 interest rate of 8.9%, your payment would actually be a little higher than today, $1145 per month. (more…)
BY GARY BOYER
Have you ever been to a “Mortgage Burning” Party? I doubt it. It’s something that has become completely obsolete as Americans have accepted the lifestyle of living in debt for their entire life.
Mortgage Burning parties were commonplace in Ohio when I was growing up. It seemed like someone in the neighborhood was paying their mortgage off on a regular basis and they were proud of that accomplishment. Now, years later, living in California, I was talking to a friend about how stupid their neighbor was for paying off their mortgage. After all, they could take that money and invest it in the latest investment fad and make “a fortune”.
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