Category

Wine Tasting

Apr 15
0

Location, Location, Location…

By | Buyers, Sonoma County info, Visit WineCountry, Wine Tasting, Winery with picnic place | No Comments

Number one rule in Real Estate: location, location, location. Recently I have been working with buyers relocating to Sonoma County. It’s fun, I get to ‘brag’ about Sonoma County, the ‘bragging’ is easy, Sonoma County is a great place to live. And yet within Sonoma County, there are many nuances as to neighborhoods, micro climates, schools, personal preferences.

I remember moving to California, I was brand new in USA, everything was different. Luckily, when we moved into our first rental there was a handyman who gave many great tips as to shopping etc. I had a map on the table and every time he mentioned something I asked him where is was and marked it on the map. This was a while ago, now I would search it with Google maps and write it down as a list. However, maps are great to get started thus I have maps for those who want to get introduced to Sonoma County and when we go house hunting. And besides a map, a list of great professionals who are local who are part of the team that makes for a smooth relocation experience… there will be some frustrations anyway…

Even though everything is new and exciting, it is good to make a list of things that are important, if possible even in order of priority… Is it the outdoors, the restaurants, the schools, what popular locally…

Recently I re discovered a great winery in Hopland. It’s about 40 minutes from Santa Rosa to Hopland, a beautiful drive, worth the trip. The winery is Campovida. The property used to belong to Fetzer Vineyards. Next to great wines, there are beautiful gardens to stroll through and you can also stay at the property. Gary and Anna will warmly welcome you as well as the friendly staff in the tasting room, tell them I said hi;)

Mirjam

Feb 12
0

$ 8,000 Tax Credit, did you take advantage of it?

By | Foreclosure, Making Home Affordable, Sellers, Short Sale, Visit WineCountry, Wine Tasting | No Comments

Who doesn’t want to take advantage of Tax Credits? Remember the Federal Tax Credit programs offering $7,500 and later $8,000 to first time home buyers? A lot of Home Buyers did take advantage of it.

There are some hick-ups with the IRS as to claiming/repaying – see article LA Times -.  What if you  bought the house and ended up buying a house that was not the perfect fit?

Depending on what tax credit you used, it might be worth exploring what the consequences are for you, either selling and buying something else or turning the house into a rental.

The first one in 2008 -$7,500-, for those who purchased homes in 2008, was more like an interest free loan. It had to be paid back in 15 years. See link.

The second one in 2009/May 2010, didn’t have to be paid back but you had to live in the house for 36 months. For both programs, in case you either sell, loose the home to foreclosure, do a short sale, convert the home into a rental, i.e. it stops being your primary residence, you have to pay the credit back. There are some exceptions/rules. See link.

Sidenote: there were different programs for the purchase of new homes during that time. See link.

Depending on your situation, the option of repaying might not be that bad. It’s probably wise to talk to your CPA and discuss numbers with him, however, you might be pleasantly surprised. You may have losses or other situations that offset the ‘gain’ of the credit, if not, maybe paying tax on $8,000 is not the worst option. Remember there are  tax benefits of buying a home. In Sonoma County, home prices have come down a bit more, in general, we lost about 10% last year. Thinking about this, that will offset the fact that you have to pay back the credit.

And last but not least: Living in Sonoma County is great, the next Barrel Tasting weekends are the first 2 weekends in March, it’s the 34th one 😉

Mirjam

 

Oct 16
0

To Buy or not to Buy…

By | Buyers, Economy, Interest rates, Investing in Real Estate, RE by the numbers, RE Investing, Wine Tasting | No Comments

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 to benefit from low interest rates… Time to get once’s financial house in order…

Some might think that waiting to buy is a better option, they decide to stay on the sideline… Smart idea???

Well depending on your situation: if you rent a home you pay for someone else’s  mortgage. Why rent when you can buy? All the first time home buyers I have been working with recently end up paying less in mortgage than in rent…

Will home prices go down further? All Real Estate is local. While the higher end in Santa Rosa/Sonoma County is expected to loose some more value in the coming time, the lower prices homes have been fairly stable in the last years.

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But what if home prices are coming down a little further? You never know when the market has hit bottom until it goes up again. At that point there will be a lot more competition.In the mean time: you have to live somewhere, might as well pay your own mortgage and take advantage of the tax benefits when owning a home…

Bottom line: the current market in Sonoma is a great market for buyers: although the inventory is low, there are great homes coming on the market all the time. There is no such thing as the perfect home. But right now there is the luxury of not having to worry about interest rates going up dramatically.

Last note: in Netherlands most rental homes are owned by the government, our first home after we got married was government owned. Home ownership is becoming more common but not like in the USA. It’s called the American Dream for a reason.

Have a great weekend and enjoy harvest season in Sonoma County: the first weekend is the 13th Annual Wines and Food Affair

Mirjam

Sep 25
0

Title Insurance: a Scam?

By | Buyers, Disclosures, Economy, Investing in Real Estate, Sellers, Short Sale, Sonoma County info, Visit WineCountry, Wine Tasting | No Comments

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 for both policies. That is a lot of Peet’s Latte’s or paint, or carpet… And if you pay cash for a home, you can opt not to buy Title Insurance. A smart decision?

Last week I had an interesting conversation with Stewart Title, thanks to Jessica Smith, our Title rep. BTW, this was in preparation a presentation for the YPN Morning Buzz group They shared some interesting facts about Title Insurance. Side note : Title Insurance came into place because of inadequate US land record laws. When we moved from Netherlands to California, some friends where making jokes about us moving to the Wild West. When Paul started talking it made me smile, had to think of that.

• When the economy is bad there are more scams with Title/ownership. – One ‘popular’ scam in the Sacramento area has to do with home owners in distress who are upside down, not able to pay their mortgage. There is a company that promises to ‘take care of it’. In order to do this they have to take title to the house ;). This is how:  a ‘fake’ document is recorded, showing that a new private lender has taken over the mortgage. This ‘private lender’ receives the money at closing . The ‘real’ lender receives nothing and eventually will foreclose on the property… Think about the innocent buyer, busf_transamerica_.jpgying this property without Title Insurance… will loose that house. An innocent buyer buying the house with Title Insurance can go back to the Title Company for help…

• Every one knows the Trans America Building in San Francisco… Remember these beautiful Redwood trees next to it? Well that is because of an overlooked PG&E easement that was right underneath the footprint of the building. Apparently when about to start breaking ground, the company hired to do that knew about the PG&E easement and suggested it would not be smart to start digging because of the PG&E lines… Long story short:  The Title Company who had insured the property/loan had missed that easement, they ended up buying the strip of land that is now a small park and paid to have the PG&E easement go around the Trans America Building… Next time you walk to that park, realized that that was paid for by a local Title Company…

There were more interesting stories about easements, deeds and scams. Bottom line when you buy property, always pay for Title Insurance. Chances something goes wrong are not that high but when there is a problem, it is extremely expensive.

Have a great weekend, it’s grape harvest time in Sonoma County, a lot of wineries have great events this special time of year.

Mirjam

May 29
0

Get Rich Quick Scheme

By | Buyers, Economy, Investing in Real Estate, Retirement, Sonoma County info, Wine Tasting, Winery with picnic place | No Comments

“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 Estate? Well, Real Estate is a great way to built wealth, to built a nest egg HOWEVER, it is not a quick rich scheme. It is consistent and stable, despite the ‘hick-up’ we had. The quick rich schemes in Real Estate in the roaring 2003/2006 didn’t work, initially the majority of all the foreclosures were non owner occupied, victims of these schemes. Not built on cash flow but solely on appreciation, hence the problem. Did you know we still has an increase of 30.14% since 2000 despite the negative economic factors?

What does this have to do with you? Real Estate is still a good way to built money for retirement, just as part of a good financial strategy. AND there is a need for rental housing: on average about 33% of all adult Americans need housing and are not in a position to buy. In the USA this is not provided by the government (as it is in Netherlands ->the local department of housing provides rentals) but provided by private investors. The reason for all the tax benefits for owning investment property.

Myth:you need to be rich to invest in real estate. Fact: median income for an investor in 2010 was $87,600. Myth: you need cash to buy properties for investment. Fact: there are great mortgage products available. And Self Directed IRA’s that allow you to invest in Real Estate.

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This overview of historic values in Real Estate speaks for yourself. We all know what happened in the 3 years we had negative appreciation. But do you also see it’s a tad bit above the 0% again. Just a but and that is GOOD, that is what we like to see. Do you know what this also means? That now is a great time to invest in real estate, the numbers haven’t been this good in a long time, in Sonoma County the last time we had this was about 27 years ago.

And although Real Estate is fun, don’t forget to enjoy the good things in life, next week Windsor Oaks Winery has a ‘Chillin’ by the Pinot Pond party. Julie and Doug are passionate about wine and are happy to share their passion and knowledge about wines with you.

Enjoy,

Mirjam