Archive for December, 2009
Wheelchair accessible home REHAB project
December 27th, 2009 Categories: Real Estate News
OCEANSIDE-
I have what I consider a great rehab opportunity for an underserved market. This home in the Fire Mountain area of south Oceanside has already had numerous past modifications for wheelchair accessibility and the current asking price is in the mid $300s. It has 3 bedrooms, 3 baths and is 1600 square feet.
I am looking for an investor, contractor or traditional buyer for this home in hopes that it will be remodeled and updated keeping the wheelchair modifications in place. I have worked with clients in the past who are in wheelchairs and there is often times NOTHING for them that is ready to go.
My video skills need polishing, but I feel I am spot on with my analysis of this home’s potential. Click on the picture below for the video and then contact me at 760.415.3329 for more information.
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The Griswalds are alive and well in Encinitas
December 20th, 2009 Categories: Real Estate News
ENCINITAS- I was on my way to house warming party when I came across this house on Hymettus in Encinitas. With there being just a sliver of moon in the sky this home was a beacon to travelers by land and air. If I owned a small plane, and more importantly had a license to fly the thing, I would be in the air tonight just to see how far out you could see this home. With the black backdrop of the Pacific nearby, this home has to stand out for many miles.
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The $40,000 real estate mistake
December 16th, 2009 Categories: Real Estate News
SAN DIEGO- Sometime ago I signed up for question alerts through the real estate website. I have rarely participated in the discussions as they are generally bone head questions and not at all worth the time to write a response. This morning this question came through, and while I feel sorry for the person, this is prime example of why things are not as easy as they seem and there are reasons to not play real estate mogul.
Now if you have basic understanding on how mortgages work you may already have an appreciation for this persons situation. If not here is a basic explanation.
The first loan is called the first because when a property sales, they are the first in line to get paid. The second, sometimes referred to as a junior loan, gets paid through the monies leftover AFTER the first loan has been satisfied. If there is not enough money, you have a SHORT SALE, because the proceeds are short the amount required to satisfy the loans against the property. In a short sale situation, the second can refuse to release its lien on the property, which is necessary to transfer the home to a new buyer, and is really the only negotiating chip the
second has to play if they will not take less than owed. But, by doing this, the first lender can just foreclose on the property. In doing this, they get the title to the property and the second gets ZERO.
So this person bought a $40,000 second note on a property worth $110-120. Unfortunately for him, the first is owed $125,000 so his $40,000 is worth less than NOTHING. Buying at auction requires an all cash payment, so in response to his question his only real option is to hope his wife doesn’t find out and pray that this property hits $165K in value quickly. If she does find out, hide the golf clubs!!
Why $164? This way his $40,000 is covered and he may then be able to sell the note again with no loss.
How the heck can you spend $40,000 and not know what you are bidding on?
DISCLAIMER: this is a very basic look at short sales, loans and makes a number of assumption based on limited information from the questioning party.
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Oceanside masters swim team showing the love
December 13th, 2009 Categories: Real Estate News
OCEANSIDE- Thank you Nancy Chennell and the Oceanside masters swim team for taking a moment to do this!! I am so stoked that I came up with this marketing. So much better than a mailer hitting the trash. I love our local athletic community!!!
Hi Brian,
I swim with the Oceanside Masters team. Initially there was one cap
that said Brian Long on it and we thought Dan was wearing Brian Long’s cap
and that he must be a famous tri-athlete. Then by the end of summer we
noticed that almost all the swim caps said Brian Long on them. So I took a
picture for you. We all thought you’d get a kick out of our unofficial
Brian Long swim team!
Nancy Chennell
Yes, I get a big dumb grin every time I look at it.
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No really, what’s my home worth?
December 7th, 2009 Categories: Real Estate News
SAN DIEGO- Last month I wrote a blog post acknowledging the joy of still being needed due to the inaccuracy of home value calculators. This week I spent some time with a client and we found a home they liked very much. We discussed making an offer and after providing them with the 
comparable home sales they presented me with what they wanted to offer as a purchase price on the property.
Having just written about how inaccurate online home value calculators such as ZILLOW.com, HOUSEVLUES.com and others can be, I went to my site to check out what my new home valuation calculator would say.
See I am switching my IDX service, IDX is the system that provides the listing data you see when you do a home search. My current service does not update frequently enough and did not have the COOLEST tool we REALTORs have, and that is the ability to custom draw an overlay that selects a very specific area on a map to search. When I found this new service had that feature I jumped on it. Additionally, it has some other pretty handy features. One of these, important to perspective buyers that may not be intimately familiar with a neighborhood is a map that will show the location of local grocery stores, hospitals, schools, etc in proximity to a subject property. Another is the local school’s data, in this case Encinitas, can be accessed so you do not have to navigate to another site. Lastly, there is a very thorough property valuation area complete with many charts showing trends, ownership rates and valuation. I wish I could say this valuation tool is very accurate, but it too is hit and miss and can be very wrong. Click on the picture above to see more.
I GOOGLE’D home value calculators just to see what all was out there and while they all were hit and miss the WORST home valuation calculator I reviewed has to be from QuickenLoans.com.
The only information they required for their valuation model was zip code, purchase price and date, loan payment and amount owed, value of improvements and when they were completed. They did not ask for bedrooms, baths, square footage, if it was an attached or detached home, they did not even care for the address. Obliviously it was little surprise to me when the valuation for my home came up with an error of approximately 20%!!
But what their report did give me was mortgage rates, loan payments options and how quickly they could process my loan. It then hit me; they don’t care at all if their evaluation is correct, they are using this tool for loan lead generation!!! I thought you big dummy, it is Quicken LOANS afterall.
I like their disclaimer-
Home value results are dependent on a number of factors, including how recently the local property records have been updated
They can’t mention the significance of the items I mentioned above such as number of bedrooms, because, 
duh, why aren’t you, Quicken, asking me for that information then? It’s easier for them to pin the potential inaccuracies on a donkey they have no control over, such as timeliness and accuracy of local data.
I understand that it is curiosity that sends people to these sites, shoot I go there too, but just don’t put too much value in this data. You need real data that you can invest in and that comes by working with a REALTOR. Sit down with them at a computer and review the recent sold properties. This way you can see influenticial information such as proximity to negative factors like roads, freeways, small lot sizes or the desirable factors like canyon lots, oversized lots, location in on the street or a NEIGHBOR with an awesome POOL!!! Applying this specific knowledge to the comparable properties data you can be certain you have an accurate value.
If you are considering buying or selling, please contact me at 760.415.3329
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