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Category Archives: Wine Tasting
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
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
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
Short Sales and every changing guidelines
This week there were 2 interesting updates: BofA is going to announce a major change in the way they work with agents. They are changing their systems to approve short sales within 2 weeks of an offer. Currently I am … Continue reading
Posted in Foreclosure, HAFA, Making Home Affordable, Sellers, Short Sale, Visit WineCountry, Wine Tasting
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Reverse Mortgage – a way to foreclosure proof your house.
A few days ago I had coffee with David Carter, he is a reverse mortgage specialist at BofA. When I initially heard about reverse mortgage I thought is was some sort of a scam… I was wrong. As with any … Continue reading
Open House!
It used to be that doing an open house wasn’t that effective for selling a home. A few years ago the numbers showed that less than 0.5% of the houses was sold as result of an open house. But the … Continue reading
Posted in Buyers, Sellers, Visit WineCountry, Windsor, Wine Tasting, Winery with picnic place
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Are we at the bottom?
Earlier this week I had the privilege to be at a financial seminar organized by Wachovia Securities. Senior Portfolio Manager Margaret Patel was the first speaker and besides a lot of valuable information she expects the real estate market to … Continue reading
Bittersweet Windfall?
The Press Democrat had a article about the “Bittersweet windfall”: when you bought you home at the height of the market, you can ask for an adjustment for your property taxes. Your Realtor can help you with the ‘comps’ by … Continue reading
Posted in Buyers, Economy, Press Democrat, Sonoma County info, Wine Tasting
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Foreclosures …
With so much said in the news about foreclosures and short sales just some facts. At this moment the bank owned properties are selling well, the lower price range of our market is selling, some bank owned properties were priced … Continue reading
Great time to sell too!
Today a totally different thought. You will read everywhere how bad the market (Press Democrat) is, that we are in a depression (see CNBC article), but don’t forget, the current market conditions do have a silver lining. Home owners who … Continue reading