Tuesday, June 28, 2016

Need an Excellent Lender?

If you are buying or refinancing a home and you need a great local lender let me introduce you to Doug Ross. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87GWarBDwMw

Monday, June 20, 2016

CoreLogic Reports Underwater Homes Down to 8%

A recent report from CoreLogic, showed that in the first quarter of 2016, 268,000 homeowners regained equity, pushing the total number of mortgaged residential properties with equity to 92%. When compared to last year, nationwide, home equity increased by $762 billion in the first quarter of 2016.

Homes that are still underwater came in at 4 million, or 8% of the market by the end of the first quarter. This is a decrease of 6.2% from last quarter’s 4.3 million, or 8.5% of the market. On a yearly basis, negative equity homes decreased 21.5% from 5.1 million homes, or 10.3% of the market.    Read the full Report here:
http://re-insider.com/2016/06/20/corelogic-reports-underwater-homes-8/

Thursday, June 16, 2016

Family Safety Day

Family Safety Day is this Saturday!27m ago

Crime Prevention Officer Andrew Bornhoeft from Elk Grove Police Department
Photo from Andrew Bornhoeft
The Elk Grove Police Department and the Cosumnes Fire Department are proud to cohost the yearly Regional Family Safety Day this Saturday, June 18, from 10 AM to 3 PM, at the Pavilions area of Elk Grove Regional Park. We have brought together several public service agencies from the greater Sacramento area to introduce and reinforce safety in a fun and educational way. Please come out to this free event, enjoy the variety of departments and vehicles, and feel free to ask questions and take pictures. We will have demonstrations thought the day, consisting of:

10:00 AM - Family Safety Day begins
10:30 AM - Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) demonstration
11:00 AM - Sacramento Sheriff's Department helicopter - Sheriff's Tactical Air Response (STAR) - lands
12:00 PM - Cosumnes Fire Jaws of Life demonstration
12:30 PM - EGPD Motorcycle demonstration
1:00 PM - STAR takes off
1:45 PM - EGPD K9 demonstration
2:15 PM - CERT demonstration
3:00 PM - Family Safety Day ends

Additionally, SactoMoFo has arranged to have Cichy Co, Wandering Boba, and Local Kine food trucks there.

Hope to see you there!

Monday, June 13, 2016

Renovations That Give You a Return on InvestmentJune 2016
Not all renovations are created equal. In fact, there are a number of updates and improvements you can make to your home that will increase its value on the resale market — and a lot that will cost a bunch of money but won’t improve your chances of selling quickly, or push your price a little higher. Remodeling magazine compiles a list of the smartest renovations every year; let’s see where it predicts your money is best spent on midgrade renovations in 2016.

Kitchen. A great kitchen is always a selling point, but it appears to have dropped in standing somewhat over the past couple of years. And, according to Remodeling, a modest kitchen update — around $20,000, with such improvements as new cabinet doors and hardware, fresh paint, new flooring, and an energy-efficient cooker — will give you a better return than a project costing $60,000, with ROI at 83% vs. 65%.

Attic. Insulating the attic is, surprisingly, the home improvement project that recoups the most out of pretty much all the projects we looked at. Remodeling predicts a whopping 116% ROI, on an upgrade that costs less than $1,500.

Siding. Swapping out vinyl for a manufactured stone veneer nets you about 93% ROI. This project is also somewhat low-cost, with the average replacement coming in at about $7,500. If you prefer the siding look, stripping off the old, weathered material and replacing it with new is worth about 77% ROI.

Garage door. How many people think about replacing their garage door when they’re making home improvements? Apparently, more of us should. It’s a big bump to your curb appeal, and you have many choices in styles and materials. Be sure to consider what you use your garage for when selecting a door: Is your garage only for storing cars, or do you have a workshop or laundry facilities there too? This will influence the material you select and whether you need pricier insulated doors. But no matter what type you choose, a new garage door brings in about 92% ROI.

Front door. Improve your home’s security and increase your energy efficiency with a new steel front door. It will also bump up your curb appeal. You can choose from a wide price range and many colors. With steel, you’ll get a 91% return. A new fiberglass door can also be a good choice; it’s less expensive and recoups about 82% of the cost.

Deck. Just like in 2015, a wooden deck has more appeal than a composite deck; but both have lost some of their mojo, bringing back 75% and 64% of your investment in 2016, as opposed to 87% and 74% in 2015. This is an improvement that can be fully enjoyed while you live in the home, and outdoor entertaining is very popular in most parts of the country.

Roof. Spending $20,000 to replace your roof is predicted to bring in about $14,500 upon sale of the house, a 72% ROI. 
Mission San Jose Mortgage

Sunday, June 12, 2016

Buying Your First Home? Better Make Sure It Has These 4 Things

Finding the perfect starter home is a journey as well as a destination. You’ve got to know what you want, then adjust expectations to meet the reality of the market. In the end, you don’t have to settle on your “forever home”—just a place you’ll call home for at least five to seven years.
But that’s a long time in homeowner years, especially if you wake up each day in a place you wind up hating.
“You want to buy something that’s going to last,” says Carol Temple, an Arlington, VA, Realtor® who loves helping newbies find their first home.
So how do you know what’s going to stand the test of (a decent amount of) time? You’ve never done this before. You’re taking a leap of faith that you have the money, skills, and temperament to maintain the biggest purchase of your life so far.
We know—it’s scary. And overwhelming. But there is a foolproof formula to picking the right starter home.

1. Manageable monthly expenses

If you’ve been renting all your adult life, you’ll be surprised by how much owning a home actually costs. There’s a mortgage, real estate taxes (usually wrapped into your mortgage), insurance premiums, utilities, and the drip-drip-drip of maintenance costs. And here’s the fun part: All these costs usually increase with time!
“New homeowners are often not aware of how expenses can add up when they own a home,” says David Reiss, who teaches real estate law at Brooklyn Law School in Brooklyn, NY.
When calculating how much you can spend on a house, figure in all these costs, and then add a little more for unexpected expenses. Like replacing LED lightbulbs at $20 a pop. Or hiring a pro to prune that gorgeous oak in the backyard. Or maybe replacing your Grand Palais range that spontaneously combusted.
Make sure your final choice truly fits your budget. Got it? That may mean buying something smaller, older, or farther out than you originally intended.

2. Low maintenance

Maintenance costs are the great unknown in homeownership—the older the house, the more it will cost to keep running. So unless you have the handyman skills and desire to fix whatever comes up, it’s better for your starter house to be newer construction (less than 10 years old).

Please, Mr. Postman

Send me news, tips, and promos from realtor.com® and Move.
 
You may even want to consider brand-new construction, which costs more but whose parts are typically covered by a warranty. Standard coverage would be a one-year warranty for labor and materials, two years’ protection for mechanical defects—plumbing, electrical, heating, air conditioning, and ventilation systems—and 10 years for structural defects.
Whether you buy a new or existing home, don’t forget to hire a good home inspector to thoroughly identify potential problems.
“Even if the home buyers are handy, they may not want to be spending their time up on the roof looking for a leak or in the basement up to their knees in water,” Reiss says.

3. Room to grow

Your family may consist of a spouse and a golden retriever today, but even if you aren’t thinking about expanding, your nuclear unit could look vastly different in a few years. You may add a baby or two, or you may decide to help care for your elderly parents. Since you never know what the future holds, buy as much house as you can reasonably afford. Talk with your lender and get pre-approval for the largest mortgage you’ll qualify for.
“A lot of first-time buyers have self-imposed limitations,” Temple says. “Talk to a lender, and at least know what your ceiling is.”
Use that purchase power to buy space, which is much more important than fancy finishes. You can always upgrade a drab kitchen and knock out a wall to create an open floor plan. But adding more square footage by popping the roof or pushing out an exterior wall is extremely expensive and a major hassle.

4. Easy transition

Change is hard, and moving is particularly stressful. So don’t pick a starter home that will drop you into a totally unfamiliar lifestyle and location far away from the people and activities you love.
If you enjoy grilling with old friends on weekends, make sure your new barbecue pit isn’t hours away from your buddies who, no matter what they say, will not frequently drive the distance to have a perfectly seared blood sausage with you. If art galleries and professional theater rock your boat, don’t buy a starter house in a community that doesn’t embrace those activities.
Most of all, buy a place reasonably close to work. A daily commute is time-consuming and expensive, and will soon get old if you’re adding two or three hours to your work life. Remember this. You’ll be glad you did.

Lisa Kaplan Gordon

Friday, June 10, 2016

Baby Boomers in Position to Control Market’s Direction

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Baby Boomers in Position to Control Market’s Direction

Home Building Blocks BHBaby boomers and other homeowners over the age of 55, which number about 67 million, control about two-thirds of the nation’s aggregate home equity, which computes to about $8 trillion.
These numbers put this group in a position to greatly influence where the housing market will go in the next decade, according to Freddie Mac Chief Economist Sean Becketti in a blog post on Wednesday.
“Whether they decide to move from their current homes or age in place, the cumulative impact of their decisions on mortgage demand, affordable housing supplies, and the housing options available to Millennials and other aspiring homeowners will be substantial,” Becketti wrote.
Freddie Mac’s survey of nearly 4,900 homeowners age 55 and over (a mix of men, women, Caucasian, African-American, and Hispanic, and Asian), revealed that the majority of baby boomers are satisfied with their current homes (about 64 percent) and that 90 percent believe people their age should own a home. Nearly everyone surveyed said homeownership makes sense for married people with children (96 percent), and a majority said it makes sense for people without children (85 percent).
About 63 percent of respondents said they prefer to age in place, which would compute to about 42 million homeowners spread out across the entire 55+ demographic. However, that still leaves approximately 40 percent of boomers (27 million) who said that if they had complete control, they would move at least one more time. According to Freddie Mac, 19 million of those boomers plan to buy a home and eight million plan to move in the next four years.
“These are big numbers with the potential to tighten homebuying competition in the housing market, especially for millennials and other first-time homebuyers,” Becketti wrote. “They also have the potential to generate significant new demand for mortgage credit. Whether the borrower is financing age-in-place renovations or buying a new house, even a relatively modest increase in lending to 55+ homeowners could add trillions of dollars in new originations in a relatively short time. One way or another, the baby boomers' housing decisions over the next few years will take our market to brand new places.”

DSNews