Lately there have been more and more stories about Realtors and Loan Officers taking advantage of people in the Orange County area, with “too good to be true” deals that end up making them lose thousands of dollars best case, and worst case, everything. While it is true these people are bad apples that need to be wiped clean from our industry, it is also true that information is power. Today we’d like to share ten questions with you that you should ask ANY Realtor® you are considering hiring to help you sell your home or buy a home.

Q: How long have you been in residential real estate sales? Is it your full-time job? 

While experience is no guarantee of skill, real estate — like many other professions — is mostly learned on the job.

Q: What designations do you hold? 

Designations such as GRI and CRS, are held by a small percentage of Realtors® in the industry. If you happen to be selling a unique property, or have a complex purchase, designations such as their might come in very handy, helping insure a smooth transaction.

Q: How many homes did you and your real estate brokerage sell last year? 

Simply put, production equals experience. By asking this question, you’ll get a good idea of how much experience this person has.

Q: How many days does it take you to sell the average home? 

Pricing your home correctly is a big factor in selling a home in a reasonable number of day. How this Realtors® average days on the market compares to the overall market is a good indicator of howthey do their homework, price their listings and prepare them for the market.

Q: How close were the final sale prices of the homes you sold to the initial asking prices? 

This is another indication of how skilled the REALTOR® is at pricing homes and marketing to suitable buyers.

Q: What types of specific marketing systems and approaches will you use to sell my home? 

You don’t want an uninvolved Real Estate Agent who only sees it their job to stick a sign in the lawn and wait. Look for someone who has aggressive and innovative approaches, and knows how to market your property competitively.

Q: Can you recommend service providers who can help me obtain a mortgage, make home repairs, and assist with other tasks? 

Your Realtor® should be an invaluable resource for you, as you seek lenders, home improvement companies, and other home service providers. They should be able to recommend more than one provider and let you know if they have any special relationship with any of the providers.

Q: What’s your business philosophy? 

While there’s no right answer to this question, remember that selling a home is a PERSONAL experience. Their response will help you assess what’s important to that agent and determine how closely the agent’s goals and business emphasis mesh with your own. While there is no right answer, there is a right feeling. If you have a strange feeling about them, they are not the Realtor® for you.

Q: How will you keep me informed about the progress of my transaction? How frequently? 

You need to be sure the Realtor® is willing to meet your expectations. Do you want updates twice a week or do you prefer not to be bothered unless there’s a hot prospect? Do you prefer phone, e-mail, text, or an in-person visit?

Q: Could you please give me the names and phone numbers of your three most recent clients? 

This is CRITICAL. Ask recent clients if they would work with this REALTOR® again. Find out what they were pleased with and what they wished went more smoothly. Find out if the Realtor® delivered as promised, and went above and beyond to ensure the client was happy.

There are of course many, many questions you can ask a prospective Realtor®, however this is a very solid, good start. Picking a Realtor® is a very important task that sets the tone for your entire Real Estate Transaction and whether it’s going to be successful or not.

We would love to talk with you and see if we can help you with your Real Estate Needs. Contact us anytime. We’d love to learn about your goals, and show you how we can help you achieve them, more easily than you ever imagined possible.

It's hard to believe, but it is already Easter. One of the greatest things about living in Orange County is that there are never a shortage of events out there for children and families to enjoy. Easter is no exception. We put together a list of Easter related events all over the Orange County Area that you and your family can enjoy. Have Fun!!!!

The rapidly appreciating 2012 to 2013 market saw the median price detached homes increase by $194,000 in two years. That’s roughly $8,000 per month. It was all about supply and demand. In 2013, there were less than 3,200 homes on the market and demand was a little bit stronger than today. When there is very little supply (fewer sellers looking to sell) and strong demand (a lot of buyers wishing to buy), prices take off. The commodity, housing, is in short supply and buyers trip over themselves to purchase. 

Today, there are more homes on the market, a lot more compared to 2013, 76% more. Even with stronger demand, more supply means that homes will not appreciate as rapidly as they did a couple of years ago. While there are far more buyers than a year ago, there is more of a reluctance to pay too much more than the most recent comparable sale. Buyers are paying a bit more right now, but homes are not appreciating incrementally as fast as before. 

You may be confused because everybody, including the local media, is talking about a lack of supply. They are correct, the long term average for the active inventory is about 8,500 homes, a lot more than today. But, what everybody is neglecting to mention is that there is also a lack of buyer demand. The long term average for buyer demand for a year is about 3,000 pending sales in a month. And, that’s an average, meaning the busier time of the year, now, should be a lot higher, about 3,500 pending 

sales and growing. The current pace of demand, 2,800, is about 20% off the mark. While it is true that there is a lack of supply, there also is a lack of demand. 

It is important for everybody to realize that part of what was fueling the buyer frenzy of the2012 to 2013 market was significantly lower values. In March of 2012, the median sales price for detached homes was $485,000; in December 2014 it was at $683,000. Prices are at levels where there is not much more room for appreciation. Excluding new homes, prices are about 10% off of the pre-recession peak established in 2006. We only got to that peak because of predatorily, aggressive, substandard lending. That sort of lending does not exist today. Buyers have to do a lot more than fog a mirror to get a loan. 

Regardless of which side of the fence you sit on, homes just cannot skyrocket in value continuously. Instead, we can expect over time for values to keep up with inflation and maybe even exceed it a bit. That makes a lot more sense. The economy is getting better with consumer confidence up, employment up, and retail spending up, but wages have not yet kept up. From here, it becomes harder and harder to support home price appreciation without incomes rising. 

Sellers were getting away with pricing $25,000 more than the most recent comparable sale back in the ’12 to ’13 run-up, but today that is typically a recipe for disaster, a.k.a. “overpriced.” It is being reported that overpriced homes is once again the flavor of the current market as it has been for the past several years now; however, sellers will not get away with this strategy. In spite of hot demand, the active listing inventory is growing. This means that buyers are not biting on grossly overpriced homes. With more homes expected to hit the market with the official start of the spring in about a week, expect the inventory to continue to grow on the backs of overzealous sellers. 

Demand: Demand dropped by 3% in the past two weeks. 

Demand, the number of new pending sales over the prior month, decreased by 78 homes in the past two weeks and now totals 2,813 homes. This is partly due to the fact that February is such a short month. None the less, demand has stalled, which can partially be attributed to pricing and the desire for buyers to pay the Fair Market Value for a home and not some arbitrary value contrived by a seller. 

Still, current demand is much stronger than last year and is within 5 pending sales of the 2014 peak reached in mid-April. Last year at this time there were 483 fewer pending sales and the expected market time was at 73 days compared to 59 today.

When you are selling your home, you have to remember the mantra, “First Impressions Are Everything”. While your home might have great curb appeal, and your entry way in your home may be amazing, you have to remember that while the sense of site is a very important one to people, the sense of smell in many ways is even stronger and more important. If your home has an off putting smell when a potential buyer walks in, you may actually be immediately turning them off, to the point that they simply skip your home all together and decide not to put an offer in on it.

Have no fear though. Today we are going to share with you a few sure-fire ways to freshen up the smells in your home that are sure to make sure it’s just as appealing to smell, as it is to look at.

Try A Lemon

Have a sink, washing machine or garbage disposal that smells bad? Try using baking soda and a lemon peel. Boil them in water, add some baking soda to it, and then cycle the water through your dispoal, washer or sink. Use the peels to scrub the sink and then run cold water through everything.

This will not only kill odor, but it also serves as a natural disinfectant.

Bathe Your Pets And Tend To Their Things

While many times the smells may be actual things in your home, you have to consider that the smells could be coming from your pets. Doing things like taking your pet to the groomer and having them clipped and bathed, cleaning out food bowls, litter boxes, washing dog toys and their beds will make a great difference in the smell of the rooms of your home.

Don’t Forget The Flowers

Bringing home flowers will not only make your significant other happy, they also serve a dual purpose of smelling great in your home and visually looking fantastic in a room. It is important to remember though that nobody wants to see a “plant cemetery”. To those ends, be sure to have a plan in place to remove wilting flowers, clean up dropped leaves and petals and replace them frequently.

All of these steps are very easy and inexpensive to perform. While you are of course a busy person, just keep in mind that you worked so hard to prepare your home for sale. Don’t make something as simple as the smell of the home become the determining factor for a prospective buyer to decide not to put an offer in on your home.