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Sonoma County info

Jan 20
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Vacant Home Insurance – not your regular home owners insurance

By | Buyers, Insurance, Sellers, Sonoma County info | No Comments

I am surprised how many people believe that a home needs to be vacant in order to be able to sell it. Especially in the Netherlands, the majority of the homes that are for sale are vacant. When we sold our home when we moved to the California we had already moved here but had a tenant in the home for a little bit. We always felt it is better for a home to be lived in. In Sonoma, on average about 30% of the homes that are for sale are not occupied.

Besides the importance of staging a home and giving itHouse on Fire the appearance that it is occupied, it is of an even greater importance to inform your insurance agent that you no longer live in the home. The normal home owners insurance does not cover a vacant home. Vacant homes have a higher risk as to damage and burglary, thus the policy is more expensive. Yet that is a small price to pay in case something happens.

Erin Temple from Vantreo Insurance mentioned that not all insurance companies offer coverage for vacant homes, this is depending on company, location and situation.

Forest fire- house on fireI know, insurance is not something that is on our minds on a daily basis (for sure not on mine) and yet it is so important. I have come to the conclusion that a knowledgeable insurance agent is key in having the proper amount of coverage. Someone who explains what is covered and what is not covered in language that is easy to understand while making sure there are no gaps in the policy. BTW, I can highly recommend Erin, please feel free to contact her with any questions/inquiries.

Last week the property of one of my friends Burglarparents was burglarized. The burglars took the kerosine heather and the wood stove, besides a lot of other things. Apparently since the heaters were permanently attached to the house, they were not insured, it was in the small print in the policy. Both are very expensive to replace, a hard pill to swallow when you receive the bad news that certain things are not covered. That is why it’s a good idea to review your plans with your insurance agent BEFORE a loss happens.

Mirjam

 

 

Dec 23
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Living Trusts and Your Home – Are you properly insured?

By | Buyers, Insurance, Sellers, Sonoma County info | No Comments

Buying, selling, owning Real Estate affects many aspects of our life. Every time when someone asks: what does a Realtor do? I always say: that depends on the situation. When helping a home owner with a short sale, there is a lot of financial documentation to be taken care of. Other times marketing the property to the right niche of buyers needs a lot of attention. It all depends on the local Real Estate market and the personal situation.

Recently my insurance agent Erin Temple with Vantreo Insurance mentioned an important ‘detail’ with regards to trusts. Many home owners use qualified personal residence trusts (QPRTs), other forms of trusts and limited liability companies (LLCs) as vehicles to reduce tax liability and/or provide other legal protection of assets.

However a ‘trust’ as well as an LLC  are different legal entities and as thus should be named in the insurance policy. Say for instance the home owners/casualty insurance names Mr. and Mrs Smith as the insured, yet the home is for instance put in a trust, the trust is the legal owner of the property, not Mr. and Mrs. Smith. In case something happens, this might be a good reason to deny a claim.

Mathew Sweiffler, a local Financial Planner -who I can highly recommend btw- forwarded an interesting article about the subject.

There are so many details that are extremely important, I highly recommend you check your insurance policy to make sure have the appropriate coverage BEFORE something happens. Both Erin and Mathew are great resources if you have more questions.

Mirjam

 

 

Dec 10
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Thinking About Buying a Home? Get Pre approved

By | Sonoma County info | No Comments

Are you thinking of buying a home, or maybe move to a larger home next year? While you are thinking, or perhaps already started looking at homes on the internet, there is something to do right now. Get pre approved by a professional local Mortgage Loan Originator.  Why?

• When you apply for a loan, the first thing any lender does is checking your Creditscore. In the Netherlands the agency providing this is het BKR (Buro Krediet Registratie). In the US your FICO credit score  is provided by Equifax, Experian and Transunion.  It is fairly common to find errors on these reports. A lender might have made a mistake, or much worse.  Someone  might have used’ your identity. Things like this take a while to correct.

• It’s good to look at different options, this might involve talking to a financial planner or a CPA.  A good Mortgage professional will be a great guide in advising you who you may need to talk to.

• If you make an offer, the sellers and their agent will expect to see proof of financing, either evidence of sufficient cash and/ or proof that you are approved and will not have a problem with the financing.

• It’s not an easy process anymore. It’s good to start as soon as possible, especially when you are self employed, have seasonal income, own rental property etc etc. There is work involved, but this is totally worth it.

Looking for a good mortgage broker? Your realtor will be able to refer you.  A great local Mortgage Broker I can highly recommend is Seliga Financial, he can be reached at: 707-577-8737.

Mirjam de Rijk

Oct 28
0

US House prices vs Bonds…

By | Buyers, Financial news, Sellers, Sonoma County info | No Comments

The moment someone buys a home, that is the moment inflation on housing expenses stops. While rents go up, your mortgage payment remains the same  (in case of a 30 year fixed), for the coming 30 years. During the time that your mortgage payments stay the same, home prices fluctuate. However, over the long haul home prices do go up. If you doubt my statement, ask your parents/grandparents how much they paid

for their home way back when. When we lived in Leerdam (Netherlands), we lived in an older home, built in 1927, these homes initially sold for 27 guilders. At the time we bought it, you couldn’t even buy a washing machine for this amount 😉 Conclusion: Buying home is also a great long term investment vehicle.

But it is always good to diversify. Recently I spoke with Matt Schweifler, a great local financial planner about this subject. He mentioned an other ‘safe’ great investment vehicle: bonds. When you buy a bond you receive interest every year and you have a guaranteed return of your investment at maturity date of the bond. Between the moment of purchase and the moment of maturity, the value of the bond will fluctuate, but at the end there is the guaranteed return on investment…

What do these 2 have in common? The value of your home, matters only when you either buy or sell. In case the home values in your area go up, this is great, but realistically this only matters when you decide to sell. The same is the case when you buy a bond, between the date you buy it and the date you sell, the value may go up, may go down but that only matters in case you decide to sell before the maturity date.

BTW. How much time did you spend on planning your last vacation? How much time do you spend each year planning your retirement? While Real Estate is a great investment vehicle, you really need other investment vehicles too…

Mirjam

 

Oct 07
0

Natural and Man Made Hazards… Natural disasters

By | Buyers, Disclosures, Dutch stuff, Sonoma County info | No Comments

In 1953 there was major flooding in Netherlands: in the night of January 31 many dykes in the provinces of Zeeland, Zuid Holland and Noord Holland broke due to the combination of a spring tide and a northwesterly storm. Your first reaction might be ofcourse, about 50% of the country is below sea level… And you are right, Netherlands depends on the protection of dykes. The ‘watersnood of 1953’ caused a change in the priority (tax dollars) given to the maintenance of  dykes and water ways.

Now living in Sonoma County… part of the 3rd party Hazard Disclosure is whether a property is located in a flood zone. There are Special Flood Hazard Areas, areas of potential flooding, coastal flood areas, areas contained by flood control measures -dams- and more… Hmm sounds familiar ;)… It’s not that bad, parts of Sonoma County are more prone to flooding than others. When the Russian River floods it’s  due to extreme weather, the last time was about 7 years ago.

There are maps available showing where high risk flood zones are. When you buy a property and one of the requirements to get a mortgage is to have flood insurance, that’s a pretty clear sign too… There is a special form for this.

You insurance broker takes care of flood insurance btw. I just checked with Erin Temple of Vantreo Insurance.

Always read all the reports you receive when you purchase a property and before you remove your inspection contingencies. Then you know the risks of the location/property you are buying and have the choice to accept these or not. A good Realtor will go over the reports too, however it is the buyer’s responsibility to read and go over all the information given… Yes it’s a lot, but not doing your homework and have to find out afterwards is worse…

By the way: I love living in Sonoma County. It is a great place to live.

Mirjam