Timely Real Estate News…………………………………………………15 July 2008
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The Russians Are Coming…and the Chinese, Mexicans, Norwegians, and Koreans
Where is Jonathan Winters when we need him? OK, perhaps you don’t remember the classic comedy — The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming (1966), but this Cold War spoof made fun of the Russians invading America. Well, 42 years later, it feels like that sometimes. But let’s not forget the Koreans, Japanese, Chinese, Mexican, and Norwegians (how did they sneak in there?).
It’s not hard to figure out, is it? I mean — look at our dollar? Look at the yen, the Euro, the pound — and you’ll American real estate bargains written all over these currencies. They are coming in droves — with cash offers to buy whatever they can. It will not last forever (we hope so), but for now the preponderance of buyers out there today are foreign and for the time being are stocking the real estate buying market on the Westside.
I have a fabulous listing ($11,89.5 million) in Bel Air Crest — and the majority of the showing appointments are with foreign buyers who have the cash and the interest to buy quality properties on the Westside — from Beverly Hills to the Pacific. They want quality and can find it. “We have the best neighborhoods, best cities, and best infrastructure of any place in the world today,” one buyer told me. “It is the place to own a home!” he said. So what does this mean in terms of getting our transaction closed in dealing with a foreign buyers? I have found that a number of these potential buyers have banking relationships here in this country, so that makes a little easier for them to have access for their funds. Even if all of their banking relationships are only outside our fair shores, it generally takes a little longer to get verification of funds and to have the escrow close.
How does this affect the marketing of your property? It is important to understand that differences in the cultures that are being represented in looking at your home today. This is another reason for working with an experienced agent (me) who understands some of these cultures and how to work with them. If you have a quality property in a good location — it will sell, if priced right. Price continues to drive this market — but is this unusual. Not in the least! Price is always the key factor in moving real estate. There is an old marketing adage: “If you have a line, your price is too low. If you don’t have a line, your price is too high.” This point is especially true when you price your home. Cash-rich foreign buyers are not fools, and they want bargains — true; but they also are astute enough to know quality when they see it, and are willing to pay for it.
So the good news? Not only are the Russians coming — but every other global player who wants to live in one of the great places on the Planet. What this trend is tells us: We have a great community.
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Position Your House to Sell….12 Simple Ways
It doesn’t take a brain surgeon to figure out how to quickly and relatively expensively improve your home to maximize its value. Here are 12 simple things you can do to enhance your property and maximize the price in today’s market:
1. Get the right mindset. Once you list your home detach yourself from it. Treat the house as a commodity, which means making changes that will broaden its appeal but that may erase some of your personal style.
2. Start at the curb. Look at what people will see when they pull up to the property. Trim hedges, prune trees, mow the lawn and plant oodles of color flowers.
3. Paint – Its money in a can.
4. Focus on the entry. Put some energy into the front door.. It makes a strong first impression.
5. Catch up on maintenance. Fix the little stuff like the cracked tile in the bathroom, torn screens, replace broken light switch covers and burned out light bulbs
6. Look for alternatives to expensive or messy upgrades. Keep improvements small and manageable. A major project can take up the valuable time you could be on the market. Timing can be everything.
7. Consider new appliances. Many times new appliances can make a kitchen appear to be new.
8. Add some house bling. Change an older dining room fixture that looks tired, same with curtain rods. New shiny front door handles and faucets make everything around them look fresh and new.
9. Start packing. Get rid of the “stuff”. We all have a lot more stuff in our room than we need and it makes any house, even the biggest ones look crowded and cluttered.
10. Remove the “you” factor. Many times buyers get distracted in looking at personal family photos of the sellers.
11. Clean the house from top to bottom. Look at your house with a new eye.
12. Banish smells. Try to avoid cooking odors when you know the house is being shown, fish is particularly offensive at times. An old, but good trick is to bake some cookies.. Nothing spells home like the fragrance of home baked bread or cookies.
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Green your computer use
Lightening your computing environmental footprint – Part 1
Computing has changed the world – a great example is the Internet. It’s hard to imagine either not existing.
While computer usage can actually lessen our environmental footprint, for example, being able to work from home or control of farm irrigation and many other tasks, the energy consumption involved with casual computing and gaming generally is massive.
There’s not just the actual computer usage related electricity consumption, there’s also all the millions of tons of plastic and metal used to create the billions of computers in their various forms now on this planet.
We can all do our bit in lessening our impact and the following are tips for more earth friendly computing, some of which will also save you cash!
– When not in use for extended periods, switch your computer off at the wall to avoid phantom power load consumption.
– Have your power saving/management options enabled and properly configured for periods when your computer is temporarily not in use. In Windows, this can be found in Settings/Control Panel/Power Options
– During usage, only have your screen as bright as you need it – unnecessarily bright screens really chew the juice
– If you’re going to use a screen saver, use a blank (black) screen – animated screen savers just consume electricity unnecessarily.
– When buying components and peripheral items, try to choose those that come in the least amount of plastic packaging as possible.
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I also want to thank my fellow Bel Air Crest neighbors for re-electing me to the Board of Directors for the Homeowners Association. I very much appreciate your support.
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By the way, if you know of anyone who would be interested in a beautiful 4 bed, 3.5 bath home for lease in Mountaingate with a pool and city views, please check out my listing at 12540 Promontory Road. Photos are on my web site.
Carole
