Category Archives: Economy

To Buy or not to Buy…

Operation Twist is the economic policy from the FED:  at their last official meeting in August, the policy making committee decided to keep interest rates low until 2013 … This is good news for buyers… There is a time window … Continue reading

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Title Insurance: a Scam?

When you buy a home and use a mortgage you pay for at least 3 insurance policies: Home Owners Insurance, Home Owners Title Insurance and Lenders Title Insurance. For an average home in Sonoma County, Title Insurance is around $1,800 … Continue reading

Posted in Buyers, Disclosures, Economy, Investing in Real Estate, Sellers, Short Sale, Sonoma County info, Visit WineCountry, Wine Tasting | Leave a comment

Real Estate On Sale!

Always love a good sale, especially when the value is there. Buying just because it’s cheap doesn’t make sense. However, when something I like is on sale… Buying season! Sonoma County is a great place to live and right now … Continue reading

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Green Living, what does that mean for you?

One of the funny stories when we moved to CA had to do with recycling. In Netherlands you pay deposit money for a lot of the glass and plastic bottles. The gorcery store has a recycling station: you bring your … Continue reading

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Get Rich Quick Scheme

“Ora et Labora”, historically the mantra of the Northern provinces of the Netherlands. Totally opposite of this are the “Get Rich Quick Schemes” -> if it is too goo to be true… What does this have to do with Real … Continue reading

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Real Estate and Inflation

When you buy a home you stop inflation on your housing expenses. What does that mean for you? Ask your grandparent, your parents, maybe a neighbor who has lived in his/her house for 30 years: what did they pay for … Continue reading

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Foreclosures… How is our market?

Only articles with spectacular-read bad news- titles sell. Quite often the perception is that every home sold is a foreclosure or a shortsale.  Our MLS keeps track of this and guess what??? In 2010 in Sonoma County,  about 50% of … Continue reading

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I want to buy your house! But…

Ahh the ‘buts’ or the contingencies. As a proud home seller, you received the offer and if everything goes well, you’ll close escrow  in 30 days… 99.9% of all offers are made with contingencies: Inspection contingencies and loan contingencies are … Continue reading

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Loan Modification, just in name?

Do you know people  who have been living in their house for a few years now without paying their mortgage? Wondering when something is going to happen? Well I see the trend changing. Recently I have been talking to home … Continue reading

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Your credit score, how do you improve it?

We all live our lives and don’t think to much about our credit score, however it is important to have a good credit score and it is important to keep track of it for many reasons: when you want to … Continue reading

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