Coastalhomefinder.com

11 Ways to Get Your Home Ready for Appraisal

If you're looking to sell or refinance your home in one of our San Diego coastal communities, you know that a home appraisal is a necessary step in the process. While the value of your home may not be what it was in 2006, it is important for homeowners to be realistic when it comes to getting their home appraised. On the positive side in San Diego we have had 13 months in a row of year over year median price gains, many times accurate value is harder to establish in a real estate market where prices are moving either up or down in a significant manner.

As a member of the Top 5 in Real Estate Network® in North San Diego County, I know how vital it is to list your home at the right price. Price is, after all, only a part of marketing...but it is crucial, and having an accurate assesment done can be a good first step toward making the right pricing decision.

Here are 11 ways to prepare for a home appraisal:

1. The appraiser will need approximately 30 minutes to one hour to complete the inspection phase of the appraisal process, which includes: exterior photos of the front and rear of the home and a photo of the street in front of the property; measurements of the exterior of the home, garage and any outbuildings; a walk-through inspection of all rooms and levels of the interior of the home.
2. Get organized. Put together a checklist that will help you get ready for your appraisal.
3. Be flexible when scheduling the appointment.
4. Have a copy of your home's blueprint to help verify measurements and lot size.
5. Provide a list of improvements made to the property since the purchase. Improvements that should be noted include adding a pool, patio, updating your kitchen or bathroom, and any room additions, etc.
6. Allow your appraiser access to the entire property, including access to any crawl space or attic areas.
7. Keep in mind that a clean home makes a good impression. Be sure to trim the lawn, clean the pool and garage, repair cracked windows or torn screens, check for leaky faucets and secure gutters and down spouts before your appraisal.
8. Point out any amenities that may not be obvious to the appraiser: sprinkler systems, patios, pools, security systems, built-in pool vacuum, etc. Providing an appraiser or agents you may be interviewing a list of improvements, as mentioned above, is very smart.
9. Provide a copy of last year's tax assessment information.
10. Know what year the house was built and when improvements were made.
11. The first thing appraisers look for is comparables, so be prepared and have a list of recent sales of similar properties in the immediate neighborhood.

Following these steps will go a long way toward making the home appraisal process a bit easier. For more information on home appraisals and preparing your home for sale, please e-mail me-and please feel free to forward these tips to any family and friends with a home sale in their future. To see the current activity in your area, homes for sale and recently sold you may use the application below to get the information emailed to you hassle free within an hour.

You may always call me directly at 760-602-1000 as well.

We are here to serve not to hassle, feel free to call or email even if you just have questions.

 Tax Credit Hangover with a side of ebb

The North San Diego coastal real estate market is charging ahead of many markets across America. June 2010 was the 11^th straight month of median price gains, up 15.66% over June 2009. We were due for a pause,  many are calling it the "Tax Credit Hangover", but just as likely is the fact that we need a bit of a pause to catch our breath. To be sure inventories in some locations and price brackets seem to be building, up to 7.1 months supply of inventory in North San Diego coastal detached homes.  For context, last year we had 8.5 months supply of inventory in June of 2009 and this year in April we got down to as low as 4.75 months supply of inventory.

You can download or view my North San Diego Coastal Real Estate Update for July here. This report offers a yearlong month by month graphical display with a breakdown of all the important numbers including Average Days on the Market, Month's Supply of Inventory, Supply & Demand, New Listings and more. This market dynamics report can be done for your specific zip code and price range as well. Just request one by emailing Loren@CoastalHomeFinder.com

A couple other things of note right now are that Notices of Default are down 41% from last year, which means two things are happening. There is a push to cut down the time it takes to do short sales and also there may be less people falling behind on their mortgage payments. Both are good news for the market.

The other item of note is that mortgage rates are at historical lows, if you are in the position to re-finance now would be a very good time to do so. Also there are some great real estate deals in North San Diego County and with rates this low and prices low as well, now is the time to act.  If you are planning on living in San Diego for awhile or want to retire here now is a great time to buy your dream home. This is a list of Coastal Short Sales and Foreclosures now on the market. If you would like to see one of these homes Call (760)602-1000 or email Loren@coastalhomefinder.com

If you would just like to search for homes in San Diego, you can search by school district, draw your own serch area on a map or use our standard search as well.

The Gift

I am a fortunate man. As life moves on it seems the more I see, people I meet and greater experiences I have it is clear there are gifts every day to delight in. I enjoy my calling (work) and so the goal is to hone my craft, seeking more effective tools to serve the people I work with, and for, in the real estate industry. This past week I spent a few days in San Francisco at the Inman Connect Conference. Fortunately, or unfortunately, I typically have goals when I do something. My goal going to Inman Connect was first meet some of the smart people doing really cool things in real estate and second to grab a hold of more effective tools to give my clients a few more advantages in this tough market.

Within the first goal was searching out people I know through social media but have not actually met in person. It is always curious to meet people you have conversed with online but have not actually talked to in person. It was alot of fun.

To start with, the Michigan contingent featuring Mike McClure and Todd Waller at Professional One real estate were awesome to speak with. I had the chance to pick their brains about the future of real estate. These guys have a radio show with the specific goal of raising the bar in real estate professionalism, a worthy endeavor to be sure.

Another terrific agent I met was Daniel Rothamel, The Real Estate Zebra. What  a great guy to have lunch with and a very good one to hear speak as well.

The "social media man" at Trulia threw an really nice party and I was fortunate to speak with Rudy Bachraty for a few minutes. I learned that Rudy and I both are big fans of Gary Vaynerchuk and unfortunately that Rudy is a Jet's fan like @garyvee. Go Chargers!!!

Mike Simonsen, Kristen Evans and the folks at Altos Research are always helpful and my experience with them at Inman was no exception. They really go the extra mile to be supportive.

Reggie Nicolay, Nicole Nicolay and Chad Johnson are dynamic tech trio and doing some incredible work. I am looking forward to seeing how their efforts will turn out on a project we are working on.

As for some of the headliners at the event, the "Craig" founder of Craigslist was there, Robert Scoble an incredible techno man and Kara Swisher, the awesome technology writer at the Wall Street Journal. She writes some funny and insightful articles and was a amazing to see in person, very funny... speaking of amazing check one of her latest blog post on AllThingsD.com  "everything is amazing and nobody is happy" , the  video clip used from the viral video is hilarious.

I am glad to be back home safe and sound, in Carlsbad California and both goals were reached. I will have some new tools coming on line soon to benefit our clients and community.

One tool we have had for some time is our GPS home search from your Smartphone, it works with iPhones, Droids and most cell phones equipped with GPS.  So before you drive around looking for homes in your favorite North San Diego coastal town get this Home Search Application. Use it then tell me what you think by commenting here. You might just win $100 Starbucks Card to keep you awake while you are driving around looking for a home.