Buying a Sacramento Home?

Today I published my fourth in a series of five articles examining the question, Is now the right time to buy a home in Sacramento. You can read it in my real estate column, “How much can you pay for a home in Sacramento,” over at Rocklin & Roseville Today.

I think the question, is now the right time to buy, is important in light of the current market and economic conditions. So far I have received some positive feedback on the series and hope it helps a few potential buyers make the right decision in regards to purchasing a home in Roseville, Sacramento or anywhere in the area. You can see the entire series of articles on my personal website, http://www.jalone.com/. They are located on here.

As some of you know I am spending the week in Alaska. As much as I love living in the Roseville area, it is always nice to be back in The Last Frontier. This week it is very cold in Anchorage. Today is forecast to be the warmest since I have been here, 16 degrees. Yes, that is cold but it has been clear and very pretty too.

Back home the MagnumOne Realty office has been very busy, especially with some of our short sales. Dealing with the lenders can be trying and is takes much more time than it should but when you finally get an approval, it sure makes everyone involved feel good. Last but not least one of our agents just got her first contract signed. She helped her buyers find their “perfect home” and the offer was accepted by the seller yesterday. We have lots of work to get the sale closed but I want to congratulate Kara Green on her fist sale. Great job Kara, we know there will be many more!

Produce or Leave

Word on the street is, several large national brand name brokers have sent messages to their troops saying agents need to produce or find another place to hang out. Make me money or be gone may be another way of saying it.

Real estate is a difficult business to begin with and is not as easy as it looks or even should be. One of the reasons agents go through dry spells is because they get very little support from their offices. Getting a single transaction completed can be a full time job and when an agent is working to get a purchase or sale closed they don’t have time to do much marketing. So many agents working in large brokerages find they are too busy or very slow. Now that they are slow and have time to market they get a message from “upstairs” to produce or else.

A team approach to real estate enables each individual to accomplish more than he or she could do alone and is why we formed MagnumOne Realty. It is by choice, not chance or necessity that professionals go into business together. If you are an agent who is feeling the pressure to produce or leave come talk with us about joining our team where we celebrate your success and let you enjoy your down time.

MagnumOne Ad

As you may know I spend a fair amount of time and money on maintaining a web presence. I believe that more and more people are using the internet to find everything from soup to nuts. That includes homes, where a recent report by the National Association of Realtors said a huge percentage of homebuyers search for a home online before contacting a Realtor.

I know from experience that some of my clients first learn about me from my website. More often than not they are directed there by one of the search engines but more and more seem to be finding me through some of the articles I have written and published on various other sites or from some of my on line social networking that I enjoy.

I have run a few advertisements, mostly over at Rocklin & Roseville Today where I write a weekly column about the local real estate market. They have directed traffic to the website but I can’t say I can attribute any clients to that advertising. I have just started running a new ad on my son’s parent teacher club’s website, http://www.sierraptc.com/ and think it is one of the best we have done.

I like supporting the PTC at Sierra Elementary; they are doing a great job of raising funds and fun for the school community.

Smorgasbord Wednesday

Congratulations to Robin Sweigart of MagnumOne Realty, who just last week got her first real estate sale in contract. Robin did a great job with her listing on Paizano Court and based on what I have seen looks like she has a strong buyer and hopefully a smooth escrow and closing. Good work, Robin!

I have had a number of emails about my latest column at Rocklin & Roseville Today, “Don’t blame the sub-prime lenders.” Several were from Realtors who agreed with most of what Michael Hill had to say and a couple were from lenders who indicated their companies were doing exactly what I suggested, attempting to come up with a new and innovative loan product for the current market. One that expands the ability of borrowers to qualify for a mortgage that is affordable. In both cases I responded back asking for details but have not heard anything back. At least it sounds like some lenders are at least giving some thought to what homes cost today and how to make buying and paying for them affordable. I did get one email saying my premise was wrong, prices of homes will fall at least 50 percent more and that is the only way houses will be affordable.

I do believe we will see some continued depreciation of home values in the Sacramento real estate market but there will still be too many homes that too many buyers can’t afford. If we are going to see any recovery in the next year it has be because some of the larger and trusted lenders develop new and innovative loans that make higher priced homes affordable to more buyers.

In the meantime, more houses are coming on the market in the Sacramento area, asking prices are declining and I am getting calls about short sales.

If anyone is interested in joining a fantasy baseball league and taking over a team in a “keeper” format please let my husband, Michael know. Their group is shy one manager and the season is rapidly approaching.

Creative Lenders Needed

The standard 30-year fixed rate mortgage has been around for a long time and must have been revolutionary when it was introduced as it opened the door to home ownership. If you believe the current real estate market is experiencing evolutionary problems that can’t be fixed with a short term stimulus package then we need some of the big and trusted players in the mortgage industry to lead the way in developing a new standard mortgage product as revolutionary as the 30-year fixed rate loan was when it was introduced.

To learn more, check out my column over at Rocklin & Roseville Today, “Don’t blame the sub-prime lenders.”

Closer to home: Congratulations Kelly! Yesterday, Kelly Baker, one of our new agents at MagnumOne Realty, closed her first ever solo real estate sale. Typical of today’s market it was a short sale and Kelly did a great job for her client, a Soldier who is being deployed to Iraq. She took over the listing from another agent who didn’t have any experience with short sales and with my help we were able to get it priced correctly, had 17 showings in the first weekend and had it in contract within three days. Not bad for a first sale and her client who has enough to worry about can cross off having to face foreclosure.

If you know Kelly, send her a congratulations email, she would appreciate it!

Job Opening

We were sad to learn this week that my assistant, Megan Warn, will not be returning to her position when she recovers from the illness she has been fighting for the past several months. Megan did an outstanding job for us and we were hoping she would stay, continue to learn and eventually become a Realtor with us. We do understand her current need to get well and find a job that offers medical insurance benefits.

The exciting part of having a job opening is that you get to re-define what you need and have the opportunity to meet and talk with people who will become a big part of your life over the next year. If you or someone you know is interested in an assistant position, check out our job posting or send me an email. Experience is not required but we are looking for a specific set of skills, flexibility and a desire to start a career in real estate.

Congratulations to Kelly Baker

Thursday, January 9, 2008

Congratulations to our MagnumOne Realtor Kelly Baker. Earlier this week she got her first solo listing. In this crazy Sacramento real estate market, as you might expect, the listing is a short sale. The good news is it is a great house in Lincoln Crossing. The seller is in the military, being deployed with no promise of returning to this area and unfortunately like many homes in this area of Lincoln it was built and purchased in 2005 at the height of the market. At this time, the value of the home is less than the mortgage and the lender has already conditionally approved the short sale. If you or someone you know is looking for a large family home, here is an opportunity to get a very attractive deal on a beautiful home. For more information, see Keswick Lane. Again, congratulations Kelly!

The market is clearly picking up after the holidays. Several of our listing had multiple showings this week and there are some scheduled for this weekend. Speaking of showings, I will be holding our Tanus Circle listing open tomorrow from noon to 3 PM. This house is fun to view even if you are not in the market for a new home so if you are out and about in Rocklin, stop by, say hello and take a look.

Just a few things....

Wednesday, January 9, 2008

Wow, we have things to report. Most important I’d like to welcome our newest Realtor to MagnumOne Realty, Kara Green. Kara is a brand new Realtor who we are very excited about. She has lived here in the Sacramento area for almost her entire life and has a large and diverse circle of friends and family. She is bright and outgoing and we believe will be a great addition to the MagnumOne Realty team. We have not had a chance to build a webpage for Kara but hope to have one completed by early next week.

Second, we have price reductions on two of our listings. The asking price on our Paizano Court listing in Roseville has been reduced from $850,000 to $799,900. Clearly this is a significant reduction and brings this wonderful former JTS model home with scads of upgrades into the bargain category. This is a lot of house for the price. We also added some great new pictures of this home.

On a showing scale, our listing on Tanus Circle in Rocklin ranks up there with the best we have ever marketed. This home is beautifully decorated, has all the right upgrades and is easy to feel like you could live there. We have just refreshed this listing with a new asking price of $594,000. It is time for a new family for this house and it should happen soon.

This past week, I had another interesting experience with an agent representing a home in Loomis that some clients of mine are interested in. The home is marketed as being on over 3 acres but the tax records indicate a lot size much smaller so I called the agent to get some clarification. Read about this surprising conversation in my weekly column over at Rocklin & Roseville Today. Bad real estate agents are not good for the industry or the clients they serve and if there is any good that will come from this slower real estate market it will be that some of these will be working at Wal-Mart as greeters in the next year.