Category

Sellers

Jul 04
0

House For Sale – Your Privacy and Safety

By | Buyers, Dutch stuff, Privacy and Safety, Sellers, Sonoma County info | No Comments

Some time ago I posted a blog about Google and your Privacy.

Selling a home means that a property becomes a showcase, strangers walk through and see how a person lives. Where I come from (northern part of 449_klein.jpgNetherlands), privacy is important. People don’t open up their homes that easy, homes used to have a room to visit with visitors (voorkamer or parlour). A front door opens into a hallway with a door towards the family room: someone at the front door cannot see inside the house. Funda.nl is a great website to check real estate in Netherlands by the way.

When selling a property, safety and privacy become more and more important. Reason for this blog posting:

Last week my dear friend Diana had a nightmare: the house she is currently renting is being sold. She was worried that some ‘weird’ Realtor would use the lockbox to come in at night. This is a valid concern. If you do not know about the  Lockbox system we use in Sonibox.jpgoma County, a reason to worry. What Diane did not know: the Supra Lockboxes that are used to give Realtors access can be programmed to have timed access. This means that Realtors showing a property only have access to the key in the Lockbox when they are within the times that are programmed in the Lockbox: usually between 9 am and 7 pm.I am not the listing agent for that property and when Diane told me about her nightmare, I realized that the Realtor hired by the owner (she rents the place) had not shared with her this valuable information. Now Diane can sleep again at night: the lockbox on her front door has a timed access, no ‘weird’ real estate agent can come in a odd hours.  Other interesting tidbit: the moment an agent shows one of my listings, within a few minutes I receive an email showing the time and the name of the agent showing the property.

Lesson learned: the next time I do share my extensive marketing plan with a person who wants to sell his/her house, I will put even more emphasis on this small but oh so important feature of the lockbox system we use here in Sonoma County.

Your safety and your privacy is important, especially when selling a property.

Mirjam

Jun 26
0

It’s the Law!!!

By | Around the house, Buyers, Disclosures, Sellers | No Comments

When moving to a new country the first thing to deal with is the difference in the laws. Traffic law is usually the first one: when you rent a car and drive of the airport parking lot. Yours truly has come to find out that usually police officers don’t respond when you tell them you were not aware of the law that you didn’t adhere to. The response: it’s the law… its-the-law.jpg

Funny story: my  husband was pardoned the first time he visited CA: when he drove from SF Airport to Cupertino and a police officer stopped him and found out he came straight from Netherlands he was warned that speed limits in CA are lower than in  Netherlands and he could not drive that fast ;))) he got of with a warning, promising he would drive slower ;))… When we finally moved to CA we both had to get used to the speed limits here…

With that said: There is a new law that affects everyone who lives in a home in California. Per July 2011 every home in California needs to be equipped with a Carbon Monoxide detector. This is next to the smoke detector every house needs to have. carbon-monoxide-detector.jpg

Reason: The Carbon Monoxide Poisoning Prevention Act of 2010 signed into law last year. Locally in Sonoma County, not having one could result in a $200,00 fine. Here is a link to the article in our local new paper the PressDemocrat this week.

There are more and more laws to comply with when you buy and sell Real Estate. They are part of the many disclosures your receive. Both sellers and buyers are always advised to read all the paperwork carefully.

The local hardware store is a great source for these new Carbon Monoxide filters. Home Depot has instructions on their website on how to choose and instal one that is right for your home.

Have a great week,

Mirjam

Jun 12
0

Green Living, what does that mean for you?

By | Buyers, Economy, Investing in Real Estate, Sellers, Sonoma County info | One Comment

220px-flesinname.jpgOne 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 bottles and crates back and receive the refund. For some of the bottles this might be a high as an Euro. Great reason to recycle… Also in most towns, the glass bottles you don’t pay deposit money for, have to be brought to recycling containers, separated according to color… In the first month after we moved to CA, I walked through twice through the local grocery store to find the recycle station… and then I finally asked…

In Sonoma County we have Curbside recycling for glass, paper etc, there is a recycling guide for all the items that need recycling. We might not realize it but we have more ‘toxic waste’ products in our homes than we think.

Recycling is just one part of Green Living. A lot of the buyers I work with like to live in a spot where they can bike to work, walk to the farmers market, walk to the store. The numbers show a trend that is becoming more important. Popular neighborhoods in Santa Rosa for this reason: JC area, Burbank Gardens, Proctor Terrace, Sherwood Forest, Montgomery Village, the West End district. It will be interesting to see how this is going to impact for instance the homes in Fountain Grove, right now the same SqFt home in Fountain Grove is less expensive than in the areas mentioned before.

santa-rosa-charlie-brown.jpg Think about this: if you pay $600 a month to fill up your car to get to work while you could save this money by biking to work or walking to the stores… with current mortgage interest rates, that is about $100,000 in mortgage payment…

Just some thoughts I wanted to share, not only when buying a property to live in but also when investing in real estate. Properties in areas closer to good schools, shopping, parks, public transportation are just easier to rent.

Green living saves money!

Mirjam

May 01
0

Keep the Gutters Clean

By | Around the house, Sellers | No Comments

Earlier this week we did a pest inspection on a cute older house, built in the early 1920’s. The family had lived there for a very long time. A couple raised 4 daughters in that house, he passed away when he was in his early 70’s and she passed away when she was in her 90’s. But she lived in the house until she died. Now after she died, the daughters are selling the house. There is clearly some deferred maintenance which was clear in the pest inspection performed by Bugbusters in Santa Rosa.

One huge problem was that water had leaked inside one of the walls, the damage on the inside showed clearly that it came from the roof and had intruded the wall all the way from the second story. Guess what the main cause was??? Yes you guessed right: by not cleaning the gutters for over 10 years, the debris that accumulated in the gutters had caused the rain to to flow over into the wall.

When the inspector mentioned the problem they realized that dad had always cleaned the gutters but after he had died, no one had ever thought about doing this.

So next when my dear hubby says that we have to clean our gutters I will help out with more fervor.

Mar 27
0

Buyers… and Sellers

By | Buyers, Foreclosure, Sellers, Short Sale, Sonoma County info | No Comments

Statement for today: when you as a buyer are frustrated with the seller or the sales process, please keep in mind: it’s most likely not your intention to create a life long friendship with that seller, you are interested in the house. It would be nice if everything works out well and amicable. However in today’s market there are so many frustrations, as a buyer it’s important to keep your goal in mind: you like to buy the house, that’s it. Even if the seller is …… that’s should not be a reason to walk away from a sale. It is OK not to like the seller. The same when it is the other way around by the way.

There are many reasons a situation gets tense: a seller is unreasonable as to concessions for repairs, doesn’t accept it when an appraisal comes in lower than the agreement purchase price, in case of a divorce, one party agrees, the other doesn’t… to name a few.

Same is the other way around: lending situations  are changing constantly, what used to be a easy process has become an obstacle course where banks are asking for more and more information while the process is in place: more documentation from a buyer, extra reviews. All these situations will quite often extent a sale.

During the process it’s sometimes good to take a step back and realize that frustrations are the result of expectations that didn’t work out… for both parties. Discuss your frustrations with your Realtor and keep the big picture in mind: the new house, the new neighborhood, the ability to move on with your life.

And don’t forget to smell the roses, or take the afternoon of and do something fun. Sonoma County is a beautiful place to life.

Mirjam