Southern California Real Estate: 2013

Monday, February 25, 2013

Making Corporate Relocations Successful

One thing many people encounter in their careers is the need to move with their job. While this process may be a stressful one, corporate relocations can be made much simpler with the assistance of one of the many relocation services available across the country and around the world. Whether you are a Chicago financial advisor, a teacher, or something else, if you enlist the services of one of these relocation companies, you will have access to assistance in every area of your move, from the initiation to adapting to your new community. Your employer may have a relocation service that they already work with, and this will be the place for you to start. If not, don’t fret; there are a number of other services available to help you.

Your corporate relocation service consultant will act as a realtor, mover, and city guide all in one. There are a number of areas that will need to be taken care of, including:

Buying a new home or renting an apartment and selling your current home. This can be one of the most stressful parts of the process, but with the right assistance, it can be much less stressful. Real estate professionals can help you find the right home or apartment for you and your family. They will negotiate prices with the selling/renting parties, and close the deal quickly so you can start your move as soon as you need to.

Be sure to do a few searches on your own though. As an example, if you're looking for Dayton Ohio corporate housing, do some search engine searches to get an idea of the price listings in the area, and the type of corporate housing you're looking for. This kind of information would be very much appreciated from your realtor, and it will help speed up the process.

When packing and moving, whether you do it yourself or have a moving service do it for you, your relocation assistant can help with organization and other details of this part of your move.

Shipping/moving of pets and vehicles, both of which require special care.
Self-storage for extra belongings that need to be stored during the move.
Job placement assistance for spouse or other family members who will be affected by the move but are not the sole purpose for the move.
Obtaining new homeowners or renters insurance.
Getting accustomed to your new community and knowing crucial information, such as that about schools, population and jobs.

Getting all of this done in a relatively short amount of time can seem nearly impossible, and many times, it is if you try to take it all on by yourself. While still working full-time and managing a family as well, many of the above tasks will get left by the wayside or be done inefficiently. Corporate relocation specialists are around to help you make the transition easier and to make sure everything gets done quickly and efficiently so that your move is not held up by details that have been neglected.

Corporate relocations are a relatively common instance in the business world, and they can be made easier and less stressful if you let a relocation specialist take on most of the work. If you take advantage of all your options here, you will be well on your way to a successful move and will have more time to successfully integrate yourself into your new community.

Saturday, February 23, 2013

Sebastopol, California

The town of Sebastopol filled up when the gold rush hit in the 1850's. It started out being a small trade center for the farmers in the region. In the early 1900's the town was hit by a fierce earthquake which left the buildings to rubble. The town bounced back and even though the other towns around were thriving with business the Sebastopol residential areas survived.

If you ever get a chance to visit this California town, I would highly recommend it!

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Don't Go Low for Vacation Homes

Often in a buyer’s market home buyers will try to get the absolute rock-bottom price on a home they are purchasing. While this sounds like common sense on the surface, you might actually be doing more harm than good.

So, right now you’re probably thinking, “What?!? Are you crazy!?! Of course I want to get the lowest possible price!”

Hear me out: Home prices are set based on comparable home sales in a given neighborhood. If the lowest comparable home sold for $250,000, and the highest sold for $400,000, then the median comparable home price is $325,000. Now, if you purchase a comparable home in the area for $205,000, you've just lowered the median price to $302,500, which is a 7% decrease in the median home value. That means that every other comparable home that goes on the market is going to be looking at the new, lower median price, and homes that are currently on the market are going to be encouraged to lower their prices to be comparable with your new home’s selling price. This can create a nasty downward spiral in a given neighborhood that can take a long time to correct (sometimes years).

Now, this doesn't sound like a big deal, until you consider that eventually you’re probably going to sell your new vacation home. Or, even if you don’t sell it, maybe you want to take out a home equity loan to do some improvements. When the appraiser comes to value your home a few years after you purchased it, he comes back with a value of $225,000. Hey, you didn't lose money. But then you start to think about all the improvements you've made and how you know you've put at least $20,000 into the place, and after all, it’s been five years, it should have gone up by at least the inflation rate (which would put it at around $249,000 over five years at 3%, not including the cost of improvements). What happened?

Well, after you bought your house for $205,000, other homes that were for sale lowered their prices. Pretty soon, the highest comp in the area was only $360,000, and the lowest was $190,000, making the median price $275,000. Now, even as homes in the area started to creep back up in value as the overall market improved, it was slow going.

Now, let’s say that you had paid $250,000 for your home. It’s on the low-end of comparable properties, but it didn’t throw off the median price. Property values continued to creep up at just over inflation (let’s say 4%). When the appraiser comes in to value your home after five years, your home’s value is now $305,000, even without improvements. That means that you now have $55,000 extra in equity. Considering that you spent all the equity you had gained in the previous example on improvements, even given the higher purchase price, you’re still $10,000 ahead of where you would have been with the lower price.

And, since you’re a savvy buyer and realized that it was a buyer’s market, you negotiated $15,000 worth of improvements to the property that the seller completed before you closed on the home. This means that you can effectively add another $15,000 value (plus appreciation) to your home. So, you’re really coming out on top. Give it another five years at the same appreciation rate and the value is now over $370,000, giving you an additional $65,000 in equity.

In the first example, even if after five years it appreciates at 4% per year for the next five, your value is still only going to be around $273,000, almost $100,000 worse off than if you had paid the higher price in the first place.

While on the surface getting the best price might sound like the way to go, in reality, it can harm your financial situation in the long run. This can be even more true with properties that you’re holding for investment. Unless you’re in a market that’s experiencing a solid upswing, and are planning on doing a lot of improvements in a property before reselling, getting a price significantly lower than comparable ones in your area could well do more harm than good. Instead, get the seller to throw in other incentives, such as improvements or prepaid mortgage interest. That way you’re still getting a great deal without harming the overall market.