Entries from Dan Melson's La Mesa Real Estate and Mortgage Website tagged with 'value'
New Consumer Article: Two Things Sellers Need To Understand About Buyers
The new consumer article for today is Two Things Sellers Need To Understand About Buyers, a discussion of two things both important and basic that sellers do not seem to understand about buyers, and judging by the available evidence, most...
New Consumer Article: Asking Price Versus Sales Price
The new consumer article for today is Asking Price Versus Sales Price, a short discussion of what they are and the relationship between them. Many agents have forgotten this stuff, but it really is very basic stuff everyone should keep...
New Consumer Article: Some Offers Are More Equal Than Others
The new consumer article for today is Some Offers Are More Equal Than Others, talking about how to evaluate two different purchase offers even though they may be for the same or similar amounts of money. This is primarily important...
New Consumer Article: Short Sale Negotiators and the Interests of Potential Buyers
The new consumer article for today is Short Sale Negotiators and the Interests of Potential Buyers. An awful lot of nonsense gets tried with short sales, most of it for the benefit of lazy listing agents who shouldn't have taken...
New Consumer Article: Why Sellers Should Counter All Reasonable Offers
The new consumer article for today is Why Sellers Should Counter All Reasonable Offers. It really isn't rocket science. If your agent advises you otherwise, something is wrong....
New Consumer Article: Real Estate and "Priced for Perfection"
The new consumer article for today is Real Estate and "Priced for Perfection" talks about the house that is too beautiful to pass up - but that you should....
New Consumer Article: "I'm Working With Someone Else, But Could You Just Help Me With..."
The new consumer article for today is "I'm Working With Someone Else, But Could You Just Help Me With..." talking about requests for free work from real estate agents. I'm perfectly happy to give general information to non-clients and...
New Consumer Article: The Sperm Donor Theory of Buyer's Agents
The new consumer article for today is The Sperm Donor Theory of Buyer's Agents. The real estate industry is built around the listing of property. Okay, it's actually built around the care and feeding of real estate brokerages, but...
New Consumer Article: I'm Competing Against Multiple Offers. How Do I Proceed?
The new consumer article for today is I'm Competing Against Multiple Offers. How Do I Proceed?. It's an article directed at consumers, not real estate professionals, so it doesn't go over some things such as alternatives to money that are...
New Consumer Article: The Measurement Unit For Desirability Is Dollars
The new consumer article for today is The Measurement Unit For Desirability Is Dollars. It really is that simple. A good agent can make a difference, but a property that has more will cost more. It isn't rocket science, but...
New Consumer Article: Buying Real Estate Isn't Simple
The new consumer article for today is Buying Real Estate Isn't Simple. You can pretend it's simple, and hope you get outrageously lucky. Or you can prepare and do the work, and come out reliably enough better to more than...
New Consumer Article: Restricted Sale Property: Very Difficult to Find A Loan
The new consumer article for today is Restricted Sale Property: Very Difficult to Find A Loan. Before you make an offer on restricted sale property, know that your financing options are going to be very limited, and being able to...
New Consumer Article: You Want an Agency That Can Pay ENOUGH Attention to YOU
The new consumer article for today is You Want an Agency That Can Pay ENOUGH Attention to YOU. It really doesn't benefit you to list with an agency that is too busy to pay proper attention to your property, nor...
State of the La Mesa and East County Real Estate Market April 2009
We were ready for a strong turn in the market, but the strength of what we've gotten in the last six weeks is amazing. It has been, if anything, worse that a few years ago. What caused it? People...
New Consumer Article: How Agents Should Respond To An Appraisal Below Purchase Price
The new consumer article for today is How Agents Should Respond To An Appraisal Below Purchase Price. The appraisal is a significant client protection, and trying to manipulate the appraisal to make the transaction happen is not in a buyer's...
New Consumer Article: The Home Valuation Code of Conduct (New Appraisal Standards)
The new consumer article for today is The Home Valuation Code of Conduct (New Appraisal Standards) that are going to be taking effect (appropriately enough) on May 1 ("May Day" or "MAYDAY"). It is going to be almost impossible for...
New Consumer Article: Stretching Your Budget Means Compromise
The new consumer article for today is Buyers: Stretching Your Budget Means Compromise. It's something too rarely covered by the press, and by real estate agents. There are tradeoffs in every choice a buyer makes, and unless they have a...
New Consumer Article: Top Twelve Things That Help You Buy a Bargain Property
The new consumer article for today is Top Twelve Things That Help You Buy a Bargain Property. If you're looking to buy a good property at a bargain price, put as many of these on your side as possible....
New Consumer Article: Selling the Property You Should Never Have Bought
The new consumer article for today is Lipstick on a Pig: Selling the Property You Should Never Have Bought. It talks about general techniques for selling properties with issues that make them less attractive to buyers....
New Consumer Article: Reasons Why You Want A Buyer's Agent
The new consumer article for today is Reasons Why You Want A Buyer's Agent. Lots of people don't believe how much difference it makes, but it does. My goal on every transaction is to make a difference of ten percent...
New Consumer Article: There Is Always A Reason For A Low Asking Price
The new consumer article for today is There Is Always A Reason For A Low Asking Price. Sellers are not looking for people to sell their property to below market price. Usually, low asking prices should be even lower than...
UPDATED Consumer Article: Refinancing When You Owe More Than The Home Is Worth
This morning I updated my popular article Refinancing When You Owe More Than The Home Is Worth, talking about the changes in the possibilities since I originally wrote it. I really want to be writing more original stuff, but...
New Consumer Article: Will I Qualify for the Loan to Buy Real Estate During The Market Meltdown?
Today's new consumer article is Will I Qualify for the Loan to Buy Real Estate During The Market Meltdown?, which helps people answer the question of whether they will qualify for and be able to get a loan during the...
Is San Diego Market Underpriced or Overpriced? - A Thought Experiment for August 2008
Let's do a thought experiment. Any market in any commodity has two components: The demand, or willingness and ability to pay for that good, and the supply of that good. Let's consider the demand half of that first. Specifically, ability...
What Remodeling is Likely to Show a Profit on Sale?
My general rule of thumb is "Remodel for your own enjoyment. If you're lucky, you'll get some of your money back when your sell." The remodeling industry has made a very large amount of money seducing people into believing...
Top Ten Reasons You Bought The Wrong House
About a month ago, I wrote Top Ten Reasons Your Home Isn't Selling. It was well received so I thought I'd take it from the buyer's perspective. Once again, I'll try to inject as much humor as I can....
Real Estate "Pig In a Poke"
Over five hundred years ago in Europe, there was a con game that was more practiced than any other con game in the history of the world. It was simply the thing to try on the new rube in...
Who Does Creating Artificial Barriers to Growth Hurt?
For at least the last thirty years, I've been hearing "affordable housing" advocates yammer about the high cost of housing, and how working families can no longer afford "decent" housing, which they apparently consider to be the three or...
How Can I Lower The Down Payment Requirements So I Can Buy Real Estate?
With a few lenders starting to loosen their requirements slightly in San Diego, it's becoming increasingly obvious that the bottom is behind us. However, the issue has now become, "I don't have much of a down payment. How do...
San Diego Real Estate Market: June 2008 Advice
My advice to sellers is very simple: Hold off if you can. Things have already improved, but better times are coming once more inventory clears. The prognosis for this is very good. I'm seeing fewer short sales, at least...
Top Ten Reasons Your Home Isn't Selling
No, I'm not a David Letterman watcher, for reasons having to do with turning into a pumpkin before his show starts. I'm going to treat it a little more seriously than he does, as this is a serious subject,...
How to Use Internet Based Real Estate Sites
As with anything you find on the internet, the critical thing to keep in mind with internet real estate is that it is subject to input control. In plain English, you only see what they want you to see....
A Good Listing Agent's Most Important Responsibility
The general public may not understand this, but the most critical parts of a listing agent's job all take place before the property hits the market. The most important responsibility of an agent who wants to successfully list property is...
Buyers, Asking Price and Days on Market
This article is for sellers who want to put their property on the market priced too high "just to see if we can get it." I know where sellers get it. A lot of people are out there hyping...
Sixty Second Public Service Announcement About Selling Real Estate
Here was an idea I had: Pack a list of the most important things consumers need to know about buying real estate, as packed into the words I can say in sixty seconds without sounding like an over-clocked squirrel. Here...
How to Tell A Good Real Estate Market Article From A Bad One
Don Henley has a fun song off his second solo album called "Driving With Your Eyes Closed". I can't find a video performance, but here's an MP3. It's got a chorus that ends with the line, "You're gonna hit something...
Manufactured, Modular, and Site-Built Homes: How Lending Practices Drive the Sales Market
Many people are unaware how profoundly lending policies influence the market for residential property. So I am going to go over the various gradations in available loans for various types of property. Pretty much everyone is familiar with the standard...
When The Appraisal Is Below The Purchase Price for Real Estate
what happens when house doesn't appraise? I presume this question meant "for the necessary value according to the lender's guidelines". Lenders base their evaluation of a property upon the standard accountant's "Lower of Cost or Market." This is intentionally...
Rejected Offers to Purchase
"overpriced house offer rejected what next" (Before I get started, I want to make it clear that I am using the same definition of worth found in this article) Well, the seller obviously didn't feel that it was overpriced. Given...
Real Estate Boycotts
I simply love: "Fear and Greed, or How Did the Housing Bubble Get so big? I'm not sure if you are aware that there is a grass-roots group that is starting a "boycott on housing." They feel that the...
Issues with Family Transfers of Real Estate
We live in (A California city). In a 2 bedroom 1 bath home on approximately a 20,000 Sq. ft. lot. It is easily worth 500K to 600K with a current mortgage of $116,000. The mortgage/Title is in the name...
Investors Aren't The Only Ones Who Can Fix Ugly Properties
About a year ago, I took a look at a lender owned property a few miles from my office. It was ugly. I mean ugly. The yard was a mess, there was a deck that was rotting. The facade looked...
What Drives Loan Rates?
Supply and Demand. Now that I've given the short answer, it's time to explain the macro factors behind interest rate variations. But I'm going to keep referring to those first three words. It is a tradeoff between the supply of...
Why the Real Estate Buyers Agent's Commission is Paid by the Seller
I have to admit I'm uncomfortable with it and don't like it. As a buyer's agent, here I am getting paid by someone who not only is not my client, but whose interests are aligned, in most issues, opposite to...
Losing Property Value with Highly Leveraged Properties
In an article on my other site somebody wrote in the comments about going upside-down on their mortgage: What happens if the property value falls and becomes far less than the loan ammount? (POP) Lets say you get a loan...
Will Agents List My Property if I Owe More Than It's Worth?
The answer is yes. As with everything else pertaining to real estate, there are potential upsides and downsides. First of all, lenders in short sale situations often demand agents reduce their commission, so the agents are not likely to start...
100% Financing or Low Down Payment or Low Equity: PMI May Be The Only Option
One of the casualties of the current lending meltdown is the high loan to value second mortgage. With many properties locally having lost twenty percent or more of their value, a second mortgage on a property that ends up in...
There's Nothing Sacred About Range Pricing in Real Estate
A few days ago, I had an agent get angry at me about an offer below a range asking price. I had submitted the offer with extensive justification as to why it was an appropriate offer. Basically, this clown had...
Buying Real Estate Below Market
This question: What real estate office can I trust to help buy below market house in (location) California in the year 2006? brought someone to the site and I have not previously written a real answer to the question. The...
Appraisers Speak Out Against "Make The Deal"
Appraisers Petition Against "Make The Deal" I've spoken about these issues before in this post. I've certainly heard of plenty of abuse on both sides of this equation, and there is plenty of motivation for lenders to abuse the situation...
Buyer's Appraisal versus Seller's Appraisal
My husband and I are currently in escrow with the sale of our home in California. Our buyers have been " difficult" to say the least. The buyers appraisal of our property came in $6,000 below the selling price...
Housing Bubble
(This was originally written in July 2005, but still has a lot of relevance) On someone's website: "Besides once in California, which completely recovered in a short period of time, by the way, can someone please show me an example...
Leverage - Making a Decent Investment Spectacular
One of the concepts I keep seeing without a decent treatment is the concept of leveraging an investment. Real Estate has this like no other investment. You go talk to a bank about leveraging eighty to ninety or even one...
What is Real Estate Worth?
One of the most common questions in real estate is "What is this property really worth?" The easy answer is the same as the deepest, most profound one I can come up with, "Whatever you can get someone to pay...
There's No Real Way to Take The Complexity Out of Real Estate
Every so often I get e-mail asking why real estate transactions are so complex. The answer is, "Because they're for a lot of money, and because there's a lot of money involved, con artists and other people will make a...
Money You Spend Before You Buy Real Estate
Before you even make an offer, you should be aware that you're going to spend a significant amount of money well before the transaction is consummated. There are methods of avoiding it, but they're a good way to get yourself...
The Escrow Process and Reasons for Falling Out
There are all sorts of reasons why escrow falls through, but they fall into three main categories. They can best be described as failures of qualification, failures of the property itself, and failures of execution. Before I get into the...
Don't Roll Mortgage Refinance Costs Into Your Balance If You Wouldn't Pay Them Cash
One thing that is very common in the mortgage industry is masking loan costs by rolling them into your loan balance. People are less sensitive to being asked to roll this money into their loan balance than they are about...
Refinancing When You're Upside Down on the Mortgage
I've been looking around for an answer to this but my searches haven't returned anything useful. Say you buy a house and with that house you finance in a pool. House was $210,000 and pool is $40k. $250k mortgage....
The Appraisal and Appraisers
Of all the issues having to do with a mortgage, the appraisal generates more overblown problems than any other part of the process. It's also one of the most critical areas to handle correctly. There are reasons for this: It...
Buy Now vs. Wait: Some Practical Hypotheticals
I am hoping to buy in the (city) area and am reviewing the possibilities. While I fear that the local market may be peaking, I intend to live in the home for at least ten years, so I am...
Things to Consider If You Can't Afford Your Payment
I read a lot of the info. you have on your web page ... thank you. I don't live in San Diego so I'm not looking for a home. What I am trying to decide is whether to sell...
FSBO Horror and Failure to Disclose Property Defects
I keep getting search result hits for the string "fsbo horror." It's an amalgamation because I haven't done any postings on this specific subject. Both buyers and sellers have problems relating to For Sale By Owner issues. For sellers, the...
Looking Beyond The Bubble: What's Next For Highly Appreciated Markets
(This was originally published March 31, 2006) Doing my workout this morning I asked myself what's next for the real estate market. The state of the market here locally is that prices are and have been in decline. There is...
Short Payoffs
A while ago I wrote an article called, "What Happens When You Can't Make Your Real Estate Loan Payment." This is kind of a continuation of that, as I got a search that asked, "What is necessary to persuade a...
Timeshares, Pro and Con (mostly Con)
I realized that I hadn't covered timeshares, and decided it was time. I suppose I should define what a timeshare is, just in case. A timeshare is a property where you buy the rights to use it for a certain...
Removing Private Mortgage Insurance (PMI)
"How do I remove PMI?" First off, a definition. Private Mortgage Insurance, often abbreviated PMI, is an insurance policy that the bank may make you buy in order to get the loan. It is a monthly surcharge based upon a...
Gravity Is Not a Major Determinant Of Housing Prices
I just saw a rather clever video someone did called, "That Last Dip's a Doozy!" Someone took housing prices 1890 to present and graphed them to a roller coaster ride. Just before the end, he turned the track around so...
Buyer's Strategy for the San Diego Housing Market
I've been telling people that the flat spell on rents we've had locally in San Diego is going to change. Here's the first confirmation I've seen: $1,241 average reflects biggest climb in 4 years The last few years, landlords have...
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