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The legendary figure of The Wanderer has different connotations in different cultures. English teachers in San Clemente high school classrooms have always taught some of the most famous parts of Homer’s Odyssey—the heroic story of Ulysses, the most famous wanderer. Ulysses wandered in and out of a lot of trouble…
Planets are wanderers, too. During ancient night times, ancient shepherds looked up and watched them meandering restlessly among the stars, so they called them planets (“wanderers”). Dion (of Dion and the Belmonts) was the most celebrated wanderer of the 60s—at least his hit song claimed that he roamed “around around around around”). In today’s San Clemente culture, though, wandering is a lot less glamorous than it’s been through most of history. A modern definition includes the bit about moving around, but most dictionaries include less-than-positive modifiers like “aimless” or “without plan or purpose.” So when Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen gave a recent speech that San Clemente mortgage rate observers hoped would signal the direction where rates are headed, they expected clarity on the Fed’s plan and purpose. Last Thursday, The Washington Post headlined the following days’ financial reaction: “Mortgage Rates Wander Higher but Remain Near Yearly Lows.” When financial writers talk about mortgage rates that “wander,” it doesn’t really matter in which direction. It means that they’re going up and down in what amounts to wandering’s “aimless manner.” If it signals anything, it’s mainly that the signals from all corners are mixed. At Jackson Hole, Chair Yellen had signaled that the central bank “is moving closer” to raising their benchmark rate, but it seemed that the signal was not too convincing: Bankrate.com found that nearly 90% of the experts it talked to think rates will remain unchanged for a while. As for how the Post could see rates “wandering” higher yet remaining near 2016 lows, it became clear in the paragraphs down below. The average 30-year mortgage rate had changed from 3.43% to 3.46%, remaining stuck in the range that’s lasted all summer (it’s been moving up and down no more than 7 hundredths of a percent). “Wandering” sounds appropriate. Freddie Mac’s Chief Economist said mortgage rates have been “hovering;” but “wandering” sounds at least as apt. What this means for San Clemente real estate is perhaps the only really clear signal to emerge. For the moment, San Clemente mortgage rates remain appetizingly low, keeping the residential market pegged at historical bargain basement levels.
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When last week’s surprising news (on the plus side) about consumer confidence was announced, it was one more sign San Clemente homeowners might have felt nudging them in the direction of putting their home on the market. U.S. confidence rose to an 11-month high in August—a turnaround from consumer blahs that had ruled during the first half of the year.
Even when there’s some time pressure to sell your San Clemente home, one snag that can stall the decision—especially for those with older homes—is the thought of the cost of bringing the place fully up to date. Even if the mechanicals (heating and cooling systems, plumbing and electrical) are actually in perfectly fine working order, it can seem as if potential buyers will be hard to convince that it’s the case. And if the appliances are veterans, even if they’re perfectly serviceable, potential sellers sometimes fear that prospects will shy away from the Great Unknown of costly dishwasher or clothes dryer breakdowns. So it’s pretty good news that this is one concern that San Clemente homeowners and their future customers can do something about. The doubt-remover is a home warranty—the kind of policy that helps shield against the cost of unexpected breakdowns. California consumers can choose from a number of home warranty providers, each of whom offer varying levels of protection. The home warranty companies provide a straightforward proposition: it is a service contract, usually a year in duration, that promises to pay if a major system or covered appliance should break down due to normal wear and tear. Some high-end policies offer complete coverage for repairs—or even full replacement if necessary. More inexpensive home warranties may provide less comprehensive coverage or require the use of specified repair services. Once it’s been determined that the incremental cost is a worthwhile investment, it’s important to read through the previsions about what is covered—and to remember that systems and appliances have to be in good working order at the time the policy is issued. Some of the items commonly included can be the plumbing and electrical systems, furnaces and heating ducts, water heaters, pumps, dishwashers, garbage disposals, cooking appliances, refrigerators, washers and dryers—sometimes, even swimming pools. You can see why checking the scope of coverage is critical for determining the choice of contracts. Lately, home warranties have grown in popularity—possibly because of timing considerations. H.U.D. says it’s because the protection they offer home buyers comes during the critical period immediately following purchase—a time when there is often less extra emergency cash on hand. That can be a critical reassuring factor for San Clemente home buyers. Even more convincing are the statistics from the National Home Warranty Association. If it’s as true for California sellers as it is nationally, it’s eye-opening. The NHW finds that when a home warranty is provided as part of the sale, it can help a home sell up to 50% faster. THIS could come as welcome news if you’ve been undecided about whether this fall will be an opportune time to sell. Even if you’re on the fence, give me a call! It was tucked away in a backwater of The Wall Street Journal’s online Design tab, which is actually just a sub-section of their Real Estate section. “The Rise of the Colorful Bathroom” was like a conceptual hand grenade tossed into the placid lagoon of home decor orthodoxy. As far as design insights likely to affect South Orange County’s home resale market, the pointers found in Design lately haven’t been particularly noteworthy. Earlier this month, there had been a piece about metal versions of “The Classic Peacock Chair.” That might have had some impact in Rangoon, but here in San Clemente, where peacock chairs are few and far in between, it scarcely ruffled a feather. Similarly, there had appeared “A Décor Lesson in Subtle Patriotism” with marginally subtle red, white and blue illustrations—but especially since it first appeared after the July 4th weekend, South OC readers were unlikely to run that one up the flagpole… But now, tucked away beside a Most Popular Videos sidebar, came this subversive “Rise of the Colorful Bathroom.” A generous illustration showed an example of how far the author was willing to go: it portrayed a stark blue bathroom wall and sink featuring clapboard-like blue-and-gray porcelain tiles: the blue plank special. Did this mark a warning shot over the bow of one of the longest unchallenged home décor conventions—that the American bathroom palette should be, in the author’s phrase, “compulsively neutral”? If so, would the new trend force homeowners poised to enter San Clemente’s home resale market to have to expensively retool their bathrooms’ calming hues? Fortunately for the budgets of OC home sellers, a close reading made that unlikely. Although the National Kitchen and Bath Association (NKBA) does report some tip-toeing by their members in the direction of bathroom color infusions, no more than 10%-15% of them actually expect to decorate more baths “in green, blue and black”—at least for this year. There were also tacit admissions that the Rise of the Colorful Bathroom might become somewhat diluted before it spreads much further. “Muted beats candy bright” was the caption describing a mid-toned bathroom, displaying an almost traditional “quiet, palatable personality.” Some designers also expressed some reluctance to jump on the Colorful Bathroom train—at least in one part of the rainbow. Palm Springs designer Christopher Kennedy may opt for small touches of bright color, but will always “avoid pea greens and acid greens” because “they aren’t so great on the skin.” He goes in a rosier direction, with hip colors like blush “because it makes you look beautiful.” As far as SC home resale prospects are concerned, one devil-may-care subhead gives away a quite possible impact. The truly cool blues to emphatic blacks are labelled “resale-be-damned” colors. As we near the end of the hectic peak selling period, most South Orange County sellers are continuing to choose much more of a “resale-be-welcomed” disposition. If that describes your own stance, you’ll find it echoed when you give me a call!
To find out more on the property featured in photos above, check out the virtual tour link here!
Much of the financial press has been sounding a recurrent theme for a while: the complaint that the interest rate slump has left growth-oriented investors with few choices other than a Wall Street gamble. Orange County investors may find that some degree of risk is tolerable when you have a lifetime of earning ahead of you, but it’s a lot less tempting when the savings from that lifetime of hard work is already in the bank…barely keeping pace with the real inflation rate. Happily, one of those “few choices” is in our own backyard. A residential real estate investment in South OC brings with it the built-in peace of mind that comes with an investment that is right here, where you can keep an eye on it. And it also has the additional appeal of offering flexibility in the degree of involvement and control you decide to exert. With a single- or multiple-family rental property as your South County real estate investment, you can either decide to be a property’s hands-on landlord, or choose to play a more passive role by letting one of the OC’s reliable property management companies handle the operational details. If that is your choice, you can sit back and let the professionals do their job. All you need do is a bit of top-down managing of the managers. Every property has its own unique characteristics, but you will be able to rely on the best property managers to diligently accomplish these “Top 5” performance bench marks:
 As its name clearly implies, Mystery of the 184 Things Your Local Orange County Realtor Does is an exhaustive list of the actions a local Orange County Realtor is called upon to preform on behalf of a client. It is an authentic Golden Oldie.
Whenever someone wonders aloud what it is that OC Realtors do to earn their commissions, many of we agents have the option of digging around in a drawer for wrinkled printout of The 184 Things. If there were a Real Estate Hall of Fame, The 184 Things would be sure to have its own spotlighted exhibit... or even an interactive video display (so the kids could push colored buttons that would seem to make the list interactive). Since the list is 184 items long, it's a good bet that, given the option, very few of our clients would have read the whole thing (if they had, they'd probably be so exhausted they might well reconsider selling their house at all). Actually, the truth is Realtors don't preform all 184 in the course of any single home buying or selling transaction. Some items refer to specific kinds of deals; some others aren't always necessary. But they're all authentic, and for most local OC transactions, we really do execute on a lot more than half of the, To give you the flavor, they are actions like "Verify legal description," "Confirm lot size via owner's cop of certified survey, if available," "Prepare detailed list of property's 'inclusions & conveyances'...," and so on. Like so many other epochal historical events, the birth of The 184 Things seems shrouded in mystery. You might thing that the reason is because it happened so long ago--but 2006 isn't really that long ago. Perhaps they mists of time haven't actually had a chance to fully enshroud the event... so maybe simple confusion is responsible. Most historical citations credit its origin to a 2006 House of Representatives Financial Services Sub-Committee hearing, during which the president-elect of the NAR presented the Things at the conclusion of her testimony. This could have happened after some House member made the innocent mistake of asking what Realtors and real estate agents do to earn their commissions... but the actual exchange that provoked the list has been lost for all time. At any rate, despite the House hearing being often credited as the point of origin for The 184 Things, there are problems with that story. The House archives' transcript of the hearing shows a written Attachment that has 180 Things--not 184! But that's not the only mystery, because the Attachment has a footnote, which seems to credit the Orlando Regional Realtor Association. It's only after you consult the ORRA's web site that you come upon what may be a reason to put it in Florida... I don't need to do each one of The 184 Things overtime I set about helping a client buy or sell their Orange County home--but it's certain I do an awful lot of them. My own list is simply one with all of the things that need be done--and that turns out to be different for every client and every property. The first item is always the same, though--and it's all yours: call me! It’s probably inevitable (and may have something to do with the way our brains are wired) that when most people start looking for a home in the area, they’re automatically drawn to the new South Orange County listings first. Let’s face it: all things being equal, who wouldn’t choose a new car over a used one? That’s not to say experience hasn’t taught us that ‘new’ isn’t always the best choice. Last year, NBC’s ‘new’ live version of “The Sound of Music” is one example where the new model couldn’t hold a candle to the original (even if we had seen that one a half dozen times).
Yet the impulse to look for the latest, freshest product is as automatic as going to the fresh vegetables instead of the ‘day old’ bin at the supermarket. When you’re in the hunt for an Orange County home it’s just as likely that you will opt to check out the new South County listings before those that have been on the market for weeks or months. Now, there is really no reason why that isn’t a perfectly reasonable way to proceed. There is always the possibility, for instance, that a new OC listing has just come on the market, that it’s the most fantastically great property out there, and that by jumping on it immediately, you will steal a march on the other listing watchers—get the first showing, make the first offer, and wind up in the house of your dreams (it happens!). If you have an energetic local Orange County agent (hint: like yours truly), you may be contacted as soon as a new listing in the Orange County area appears that meets your requirements. Or you may have set up an internet contact alert to produce a similar heads-up automatically. These are all good ideas, as any worm-gorged early bird will agree. But the point is, the brand new listings are not the only game in town. Even if you have already combed through the OC listings so often that some of them have details you can recite from memory (oh, that’s the one with the “charming entry hall cathedral ceiling”), it’s worthwhile to occasionally revisit all the listings that fit your basic criteria. Among other reasons, Orange County listings that have been on the market for a while can undergo asking price reductions. Some which you haven’t paid attention to in the past can suddenly appear when they drop into your search price range. Others which had been listed as under contract may reappear when a buyer was unable to close the deal…In short, although it’s perfectly valid to review the real estate listings with the new local OC listings at the head of the pack, thinking of them as intrinsically superior isn’t necessarily the case. Listings aren’t lettuce. In fact, there should be a bumper sticker: Listings don’t wilt. An alert and energetic real estate agent is an immensely valuable partner to have when you are on the prowl for a house of your dreams. So…call me! By the end of last week, with world financial markets quavering and Wall Street chalking up the worst start for any year ever, you’d think that Orange County’s real estate outlook would be as worrisome as the rest of the economy’s.
Not necessarily. For sure, there was enough to worry about. If world trade levels continue to unravel, it’s hard to see how the U.S. economy doesn’t head south—and that’s usually bad news for anyone trying to sell anything. For South Orange County home owners planning to add their properties to this spring’s listings, seeing the stock market inaugurate the year with a full-blown correction would normally be unnerving. Yet there were two outside factors that worked to counteract such a reaction—and at least one of them had not been widely anticipated. The first factor is the textbook connection between financial assets (Wall Street’s stock in trade) and real goods (South OC’s real estate is, if anything, the definition of ‘real’). It’s an inverse correlation. Not always, but often, the more insecure “securities” become, the more money tilts toward real assets: precious metals, commodities, real estate, agricultural land and oil. If for no other reason than the unanimous hand-wringing of the economic commentators, that should make holdings in property a more desirable place to park assets. At least in theory. The second factor was the widely unforeseen one. By last Friday, Mortgage News Daily’s Matthew Graham was writing about how investors were fleeing riskier assets “seeking safer haven” in the bonds that back mortgages. The result was one that affected Orange County mortgage interest rates—one of the key drivers of affordability for OC home buyers. “Mortgage rates surged lower,” Graham noted, “at the quickest pace of the year.” Ever since the Federal Reserve’s decision to tiptoe into the first interest rate increase in many years, nearly everyone had predicted a slow rise in Orange County mortgage interest rates—one likely to continue throughout the rest of 2016. Instead, by the end of last week, commentators were reporting mortgage rates approaching 7-month lows! It really was a head-spinner: 7 months ago was long before the Fed raised that supposedly crucial Fed Funds rate. And now the commentators were casting doubt on when the next rate hike would take place…if at all… Lest we fall into the trap of thinking we can predict what lies ahead, one distant mortgage branch manager, after being quoted as saying that the year has been “great for rates” so far, admitted “Things could change quickly in markets like this.” That’s for certain—but for the moment, South County mortgage interest rates are one strong factor that makes buying or selling a more doable prospect than would have seemed to be the case just a month ago— as well as a great reason to stop putting off that call to my office! The first stop for anyone looking for a new home in Orange County—or for anyone who is even mildly curious about what properties are currently available—is the South Orange County real estate listings. Like those you find here on my site, today’s online real estate listings are updated regularly all across the internet. It’s a coordinated system that appears deceptively simple on the surface, bringing you what you ask for from within the mind-bogglingly vast amount of detail that encompasses all the properties being offered throughout the country at that moment.
When a prospective buyer goes online to get a feel for the South OC properties being offered, the real estate listings she or he sees appear to be straightforward enough. The information is clearly formatted, presented in a way that makes it easy to compare with other properties’ attributes. That apparent simplicity might be a little bit misleading, as anyone who has recently put their own home on the market knows. Before any listing goes online, all the property’s physical details have to be determined and verified. It’s your agent’s job to make sure the paperwork is complete—including the legal documentation that says, yes, this property is for sale at this amount. The 2015 NAR® handbook on multiple listing policy fills 152 pages for good reason. ‘Under the hood’ of the neighborhood listings is the structure of legal agreements that stitch together the cooperative framework that enables the smooth functioning of the modern real estate industry. Stripped of all its legal bells and whistles, it’s really an agreement among brokers and agents who agree to the way work will be apportioned and commissions shared. As you might expect, those 152 pages also cover some special kinds of real estate listings. Homeowners, for instance, can create Orange County real estate listings that are not made public. This is done when the seller withholds consent for a listing to be published with the MLS compilation. Although that might seem to be a particularly bad idea—like a candidate running for office who decides it would be a good idea to keep his name off the ballot—there are circumstances when it makes sense. Such ‘office exclusive’ listings can serve a useful purpose when maximum confidentiality is important. Celebrities and other public figures sometimes use this approach, as do sellers who’d rather not publicize their plan to jump ship until it’s a fait accompli. All this is made as simple and straightforward as possible for the benefit of all. If it were too complex, sellers and buyers would hesitate to get involved. The market would suffer. In fact, today’s South County listings—especially as they are presented online, on sites like mine— represent a standout example of how technology can make even complicated commercial undertakings easier and more efficient than they have ever been. To find your next home, for instance, you need only check out the current OC listings, and then there’s only one other thing you have to do: call me up! You usually can’t find as many Orange County lease option opportunities being offered as you would have a few years ago. Because the more normal marketplace has given buyers more confidence and sellers more and better offers, some of the usual reasons that South OC lease options come about rarely develop.
One of the appeals to renters that a South Orange County lease option conveys is that it provides some financial wiggle room. Back when South OC housing values were in free fall, buying seemed like a much more risky proposition than it does today. After all, nobody rushes out to buy something they think is going to be on sale in a month or two—and for a long stretch during the financial crisis, that did seem to be more likely than not. Especially for would-be buyers unnerved by the press reports of that period, renting for a while longer seemed the prudent course…even if bargain real estate prices made it tempting. A lease option (short for ‘lease with option to buy’) presented a middle course. When one was available, it looked like a safe compromise—for buyers and sellers both. If the lessee chose to walk away at the end of the option period without opting to buy at the agreed-upon price, there was no penalty for doing so. For the landlord who was willing to sell but had found no takers, a lease option for an Orange County home held the promise of continued cash flow…with an improved chance for a sale in the future. It was a win-win—if all went well. If not—if the lessee wound up being unwilling or unable to complete the purchase—his or her loss would be capped at the predetermined amount. The owner would be again free to offer the property on the South OC listings. It may not have been win-win, but at least it wasn’t lose-lose. That the lease option idea is still a viable alternative in today’s stronger market is probably due to some of the other aspects such an arrangement tends to incorporate. For the property seller/landlord, the amount that can be negotiated for the monthly lease payments may be higher because the situation is worth more to the tenant/buyer. After all, the pride of ownership benefit may not be fully present—but some elements are. A portion of a larger lease payment may be earmarked as a contribution to the final purchase price—one that will only be forfeited if the sale fails to close. For the landlord, too, publicizing a lease-option possibility can be expected to attract high quality tenants. The same pride of ownership element also acts as a strong incentive for the future owner to take maintenance obligations especially seriously. It’s not uncommon for a tenant to go ahead and make minor improvements themselves. Those are the advantages, but there are some drawbacks as well. The seller remains responsible for taxes and mortgage obligations, even though the tenant-buyer has a certain degree of power over title to the property—and of course it can’t be sold to another buyer during the term of the agreement. Buying or selling during this less hectic time of the year can sometimes open up creative solutions that do make for the win-win outcome. As your representative, I always do my best to keep all pathways as open as possible to produce exactly that. Do give me a call! There are many generalizations that can be truly instructive for homeowners with Orange County homes for sale. The undeniable importance of “location, location, location!” is a good one; de-clutter! as a main order of business is another…as is the wisdom of researching neighborhood comparables.
Anybody with homes for sale in South Orange County can usually visit the National Association of Realtors® website for useful nuggets of that kind of information. However, one article that appeared there last week seemed to me to be less than real estate gospel—although it was thought-provoking. It dealt with features that might make some homes for sale harder to sell; features that most people might assume would improve rather than curtail a home’s appeal. The article named seven otherwise “awesome” features that the author, Jamie Wiebe, thought belonged in that category. First was a school next door, for the main reason that traffic tie-ups deter many buyers. That’s a pretty common complaint, yet even the author had to admit that younger buyers might see the advantage of having school within walking distance. This one is a tossup—but having school a block or two away would have to be a plus! Next came middle-of-the-action location, meaning homes for sale on busy streets, because while “you might be intrigued by the activity,” future buyers might not. That’s true of any home for sale and any feature, of course; but it’s probably true that there is some degree of risk that the current popularity of being able to walk to frequent destinations (rather than drive or use public transportation) might fade over time. More possible minuses were assigned to multistory homes for sale (which might be avoided by older prospects shunning stairs); big backyards and small backyards (fear of yardwork for the former, lack of privacy for the latter); a swimming pool (admittedly, a must in warm climates); and tile flooring (difficult to remove). That last one is where local readers with South OC homes for sale might realize that citing these ‘drawbacks’ is not a uniformly useful exercise, since potential buyers who appreciate the beauty and easy maintenance of tile flooring might not be giving much weight to how difficult it is to remove. And come to think of it, people who garden might actually be willing to pay more for homes with big backyards! Just as people who hate mowing might…etc. But we shouldn’t be too critical of the author’s approach. It’s always a good idea to consider the pros and cons of how a property will be greeted by the public. And the seventh feature is one I think every Orange County real estate professional will agree is questionable: over-the-top renovations. The risk of striking some prospective buyers as ostentatious is possible, but the higher probability is of pricing yourself out of the market. Part of what I offer is marketing that emphasizes a property’s most marketable features in an unarguably positive light. Give me a call if you are interested in going over how your own home is likely to fare in today’s fall market! |
