As a Real Estate Broker working in the Pasadena, California market place, I have been monitoring homes as they come up on the market. This, of course, helps me understand and to always be on top of the current inventory.

As new listings come up in and around Pasadena, I have programmed my computers to send me an automated email with information on the property immediately upon the home hitting the Multiple Listing Service.

Over the last year or so, I have seen some, well... the only way I can describe it is "doozies" coming through my email. I am constantly amazed that we have Real Estate Agents that literally throw the property on the market with no forethought or plan.

So¦ I decided to write a series of posts for sellers to give some guidance as to what they should expect from their Real Estate Agent and how they can check to see that their Agent is doing their job.

After all, no one cares about your home like you do. In most cases, its your biggest investment. So¦ please do not take marketing lightly and ensure make sure that you get what you pay for!

Your Number 1 Goal in marketing your home is quite simply to get as many EYEBALLS as you can to see it! Simple, isnt it?

The more people I can bring in to see your home, the more likely your house will sell faster and at the highest price! The first TWO WEEKS of the listing period (being officially on the market, in the MLS) will either make you or break you!

Sellers make sure that your Real Estate Agent doesnt just come in, sign the listing agreement and your home is in the Multiple Listing Service the next day! OUCH¦ no preparation and no thought given to exposure.

At the very minimum, I would suggest that your marketing plan and preparation include the following:

• First, before marketing your home, make sure its been staged. Make sure that your Realtor is working with a Staging Professional and brings one in for a consultation to talk to you about maximizing your homes appeal and get it ready ready for sale. If your home doesnt show well, no amount of marketing/exposure will help. The price will be the ONLY deciding factor. Please refer to the following post for more information on staging - What Is Staging? Also, heres a good example of before and after pictures on a vacant property at www.WhatIsStaging.Info.

• Once your house is ready to show, make sure that your Real Estate Agent takes LOTS of pictures of your home - inside and out! Not just one picture - TONS of pictures! Your home at a minimum should have 10 to 12 pictures in the MLS. Remember, that based on the NARs (National Association of Realtors) 2005 profile of Home Buyers and Sellers, 77% of consumers start their search on the internet. Price and location gets their attention, but the pictures entice them to actually set up an appointment and visit the home. There are too many listings in the MLS that have NO pictures what so ever, or just ONE picture. In todays age of digital cameras, that is just not acceptable. Sellers, you can easily check the MLS to see how many pictures your home has and the quality of these pictures. Would you want to visit your own home after seeing the way it looks on-line? Pictures are worth than a thousand words, right?
• Make sure that there is a Real Estate Show (Flash Presentation) or a Virtual Tourassociated with your home on the MLS. 82% of all time spent searching for a home is being spent on Realtor.com. If you go to Realtor.com, youll see that one of the search options allows you to search for homes with only Virtual Tours. Why is that? In my experience, we are all trying to save as much time as possible. By looking at pictures and virtual tours on-line, consumers are quick to identify the homes they want. I even had several of my buyers say to me that if they cant see the home on line, they think that theres something wrong with it - otherwise there would be pictures. Also it will give your potential buyers a much better feel for the house.

Talking about Realtor.com, the question to ask your Real Estate Agent is - Can you FEATURE my home on Featured homes in Realtor.com? Folks, its really simple, if your home is featured on Realtor.com, it will get 500% more exposurethan a home that is NOT a featured home. Also featured homes feed to sites like MSN.com, MOVE.com, AOL.com and more¦ Think Exposure. Now, only 1% of all Realtors in each marketplace have the Featured Home marketing. Try to find the ones that do. At a minimum, Real Estate Agents should be able to Showcase (enhance) your listing on Realtor.com. If a Realtor, doesnt have a Showcase or a Featured home package, your listing will still appear on Realtor.com, but will not stand out or have the same amount of exposure. Again, ask before you list, and then follow up by visiting Realtor.com to see how your home looks.

• Your Pasadena Real Estate Agent should market your home to your neighbors. Its been proven time and time again that your neighbors will know someone who wants to live in their area. If your neighbors know about your house and are invited to participate in helping them select their next neighbor, your homes chances of selling faster and for more money increase. I recommend sending out at least 200 to 400 Just Listed Cards to the neighborhood. Also, your Realtor should hold a special Neighborhood only Open House - I like holding Twilight Open Houses and inviting neighbors to see the home before anyone else sees it.
• Your Real Estate Agent should market your home to the Real Estate community. Chances are that another agent will represent a successful buyer for your home. Does your agent have a database with names and email addresses of top agents in the area? Do they have established relationships with these agents? How do they market their listings to the real estate community. What format does the marketing take? Your agent should utilize both email and the ˜old fashioned distribution of flyers to their fellow agents to encourage them to come preview your home. Also, its critical to have your home advertised on a Broker Tour.
• Will your agent create a website specifically for your home? Will it have its own domain name that can be advertised on the sign riders and in other marketing materials. For example, visit http://www.pasadenaviews.com/free-home-search/pasadena-home-for-sale-california-english-cottage-caltech-adjacent-2926-s-craig/
• What kind of brochures will your agent order? Are they professional? In color? Printed on nice paper? I sort of like to think of it as writing a resume for a job interview¦ the brochure represents your home and will be picked up by other real estate professionals, neighbors and potential buyers. You want it to stand out!
• Is there an 800 number with a specific message about your home? A lot of home buyers do NOT want to speak with a Real Estate Agent at the begining. They are just not comfortable. But, if they see an 800 number with information about your home that they can call 24/7, theyll do that. Whats more interesting is that as an agent, I automatically get notified of any phone calls that come in on any of my assigned 800 number listings. I can always follow up with the prospective buyer.
• Public Open Houses - I am not a huge proponent of Open Houses, but the first weekend that the house is on the market, is very critical. Holding the home open both Saturday and Sunday makes it easier for potential buyers to stop on by and see your home first hand.

As you can see, there's so much to be done - taking pictures, creating website, publishing flyers, updating Realtor.com and other websites, creating 800 # messages, etc. It can not be done in one day.

There are so many steps along with the ones that I have listed here that need to be done before your home hits the MLS. Its not as easy as just putting a sign in front of your home and saying that its now on the market for sale.

Sellers please be aware of what your agent is doing for you! Don't be afraid to ask questions. Selling a home is a partnership, both agent and seller working in concert for a common goal.

Please ensure that your home is represented professionally! Ensure that your agent communicates with you every step of the way. Ultimately, your bottom line is impacted.

GOOD LUCK with the sale of your home!

Are you 55 or older and live and own real estate in Pasadena, CA or Los Angeles County*?

If so, you can save thousands of dollars each year in your home property taxes.

How? Proposition 60/90!

What is it? How does it work?

This proposition was passed to provide tax relief to senior citizens who sell their existing home and purchase a replacement residence worth the same or less than the original.

In essence, if you are ready to sell your home and would like to down size into something smaller, maybe a condo or just a less expensive house, this proposition will carry over your current assessed real estate tax value.

For example,

Your existing home is worth $750,000.

You bought it for $200,000.

You are probably paying somewhere around $2,500 a year in Real Estate Taxes.

NOW, you are ready to downsize and are looking to buy a home for about $600,000. Normally, your real estate taxes will be calculated based on the purchase price of $600,000. Real Estate property taxes run about 1.2% of the sales price in Los Angeles county. This would mean that your taxes would now be about $7,200. OUCH!!!

This proposition allows you to carry over your existing tax base of $2,500. Saving you almost $5,000 each year!

There are certain criteria that you must meet:

• The seller of the original residence, or spouse who resides with the seller, must be at least 55 years of age at the time of the sale AND¦
• The replacement home must be of EQUAL or LESS value than the home sol, AND
• The replacement home must be either in the same county or another participating county.

That is all!!!

*The following counties participate in this program: Alameda, Los Angeles, Orange, San Diego, San Mateo, Santa Clara and Ventura.

This is as simple as filling out a form. BUT, it has to be done within a certain window of time.

Please do not hesitate to contact me for further information on this proposition or with any real estate related question.

Please take advantage of this wonderful opportunity! Do NOT throw your money away!

READ MORE:  Real Estate Guide - Everything You Need to Know about Buying or Selling Your Home

Did you know that most Pasadena real estate agents will not show their buyers available homes for sale that are in a ˜short sale process?

Why?

Most Pasadena real estate agents do not understand how to work with a ˜short sale. They do not understand how to counsel their buyers appropriately and do not want to put in the time or effort into the short sale, thus avoiding any listings that state that they are ˜short sales.

We have been fortunate over the last 6 to 8 years not to work with loss mitigators at the banks in handling these home sales. It is an art more than a science. Each bank has thier own idiosyncrasies. It does get complicated and requires a lot of work on the part of your Pasadena real estate agent.

Can YOU buy a home through a Short Sale? YES¦ I just helped buyers purchase and successfully close a ˜short sale home last week.

Stay tuned for more information on how Short Sales work and what to expect. Ask your Pasadena real estate agent whether or not they know how to deal with a short sale.

There are currently 24 single family homes for sale that fall into the ˜Short Sale category in Pasadena as of today. They range between $349,000 and $799,000.

If you are looking to buy a home in Pasadena, it is important to understand all your options including Short Sale homes.

Hot off the presses from Dr. Gary Woods, San Marino Unified School Districts Superintendent.

You found the right home in Pasadena and are so excited!!! All you have to do is just get through the inspections period.

There are three main contngencies that stand between you and your Pasadena home. A contingency is a condition that needs to be met prior to going forward with the escrow. They are:

1. You need to get approved for a loan

2. The property needs to appraise at its selling price.

3. You need to perform your due diligence and get a physical inspection. This includes going to the city to review permits and to ask any questions that might be of a concern to you. Getting a physical inspector to go out to do a general inspection of the property. Checking the local area, looking at the schools, etc.

If I may make a suggestion, as you're checking the neighborhood out, hiring an inspector for your general overview of the home, include a sewer inspection as one of your items to order and review.

The reason for this suggestion is simple, a physical inspector can give you a pretty good feel for the house, the Air Conditioning system, structure and can point you towards getting additional inspections if something is amiss. What they can not do is get into the pipes and make sure that they look okay.

A sewer inspection runs about $250-$300 in the Pasadena area. A plumber comes out with a special camera and runs it through the piping all the way to the sewer lines. You can see exactly what they do on a screen and will get a DVD with their findings. Its not much to spend considering that any issues uncovered could potentially cause you thousands of dollars.

I learned this the hard way, one of my sellers found out that their guest house was connected to a septic tank instead of city sewer lines through this inspection. My sellers did NOT know this. The city signed off on all plumbing for the guest house with no notation about the septic tank. The city did not know about the septic tank also. The buyer probably would not have known about this as well unless something went wrong down the road.

Its a small price to pay for peace of mind.

If you would like some references to sewer line inspection companies, please email me at Irina(at)PasadenaViews(dot)com or give me a call at 626-629-8439.

Good luck with the purchase of your home!

Sellers what do you expect from your Pasadena Real Estate Agent?

Most sellers will say to sell my home at the highest possible price with the least inconvenience.

But, how do Pasadena Real Estate Agents differ?

We all have different approaches and views on how to accomplish our sellers goals. When you are interviewing a Realtor for the job of selling your home, I would urge you to first LISTEN to what the Realtor says:

Is he or she trying to identify whats important to you in selling your home?

• Is the Realtors approach more consultative vs. ˜salesy?
• Do you feel like theres a connection between the two of you?
• Do they understand the market trends in your local area? Can they intelligently predict, based on hard data, the pricing trend in your area?
• Do they know the inventory and how many months of inventory is there on the market currently?

Here are some of the questions to ask:

• How will you market my property? A good Realtor will have a nice mix of internet, ˜snail mail, e-mail, paper/magazine advertising. She will also market to top agents in the area, neighbors and current sellers that could fall into the move-up category for your home.
• How will you keep in touch with me throughout the process? A Realtor should be updating their clients via phone at least once a week and should be able to provide access to a personal website where youll be able to track activities on the sale of your home. If you like using email, is your agent email savvy? How often do they check it? Do they have set times for returning their voicemails daily?
• Do they have an assistant or helper for when theyre out of town or unavailable?
• Do they have a full blown campaign ready to go the moment the listing is ready to be put on the market with custom color flyers, personal websites, 800 number (IVR) technology? It usually takes at least 7 to 10 days to line everything up so that your home is marketed correctly on day 1. The first 2 weeks of putting your home on the market are the most critical. Make sure that everything is perfect and not rolled out ˜piece-meal.
• Will they stage your home? A staged home will sell for more money and in less time than a home that is not staged.

Read more on Staging: What is Staging?

• Does he/she have Showcase homes on Realtor.com? Featured Homes? Only very few Realtors have Featured Homes. These spots give your home unprecedented exposure with hundreds of hits daily.
• Are there tracking reports available for all activities on my listing? A good Realtor will provide you with weekly stats.
• How often will you reevaluate the market and my competition? Its critical to make sure that you and your Realtor know what your competition is so that an appropriate strategy is used.
• What kind of pricing strategy would be best used for my home? Theres a fixed price and a Value Range Marketing Price. A good Realtor will be able to discuss the best pricing strategy and recommend the one that is right for you.
• How many Multiple Listing Services (MLS) are in my area? In the Pasadena area, there are 2 distinct MLSs and another 2 that are on the border. To get the maximum exposure, your home should be listed in ALL of them.
• Where does most of the Realtors business come from? You want to hear - REFERRALS! What a great indication of them doing a spectacular job if their clients refer them to more.

Dont be afraid to ask for names and telephone numbers of past clients. Your home, in most instances, is your largest investment. ASK, ASK, ASK and LISTEN!

All Realtors are NOT created equal! Do your homework and Good Luck!

I was reading Jana Coles post Technology, Yes, but always Verify and it occurred to me how many Pasadena agents still continue to fax over offers when representing their buyers.

When I started my career in real estate, I was taught to always present my buyers offer in person to the Listing Agent. Unfortunately, over the last several years, with the market in Pasadena, California going through the roof, many Listing Agents would not allow presentation of the offer in person. Especially, with multiple offers, where we sometimes get 15 to 20 offers at a time, it would make going through the presentations very time consuming.

Since I represent many sellers in Pasadena and surrounding cities, I have always been amazed by the lack of care that Buyers Agents show to their clients.

Half the time, an offer would arrive without even a phone call from the agent.

The other half, the agent would call me, ask most, if not all of the right questions, and then knowing that it is a mutliple offer situation, still submit a very badly and sloppily written offer.

In any case, this post is not about how to write an offer. Its about how to SUBMIT an offer.

Now, to me, this is common sensical. When I represent buyers, I have to ensure that I not only sell my buyers to the seller, but I sell myself to the other agent.

At a minimum, this is what I would do:

Prior to writing the Offer:

• Call the Listing Agent to introduce myself and ask about the property: Is the home still available? Did any offers come in? When will the offers be reviewed? What is the seller looking for in terms of escrow length? Where is the seller going to? Do they have a new home lined up? Are there certain providers that the seller and the agent are more comfortable working with or already have a relationship with? I always ask for any additional information that the Listing Agent thinks I should have.
• Get together with my buyer to strategize on the best way to structure the offer. Agents, please listen carefully, the offer is NOT ONLY ABOUT THE PRICE! Terms are very, very important! How long should the contingency period be? Escrow period? Do we need a loan or appraisal contingency? How do we come up with the price? How much does my buyer want the property? THERE ARE SO MANY DIFFERENT WAYS TO MAKE MY BUYERS OFFER STAND OUT FROM THE REST OF THE PACK!

Okay the offer is written, now what?

1. I always recommend for the buyer to write an introduction letter to the seller. In this letter, the buyer has an opportunity to talk about themselves and why they like and want to live in the house. REMEMBER, A LOT OF SELLERS ARE ATTACHED TO THEIR HOME. They have many, many memories there. They want to have someone buy the home who will continue to love it as they did. And, if you get a seller that doesnt really care about who the buyer is, the letter will not hurt our position.
2. I write a cover letter to the agent summarizing all the critical terms of the contract: price, down payment, earnest money deposit, escrow term, contingency periods, providers (escrow, title, home warranty)
3. Attach a well written, PRE-APPROVAL letter from a respected lender. Make sure that the lender is aware that an offer is being presented. All good listing agents WILL CALL the lender to ensure the information is accurate and to ask additional questions.
4. I make THREE copies of the contract. 1 copy for the Listing Agent, 1 copy for the Seller and an extra copy for the Transaction Coordinator or assistant. I usually put a post it note on each copy identifying who its for.
5. I package the offer in a company folder with my business card. I put my cover letter on top, followed by the buyers letter to the home owner and the preapproval letter.
6. The folder is then placed in an envelope and personally delivered to the listing agent. Call the agent first
7. If the agent is not available and I had to drop the offer off at the listing agents office, I would call to ensure that the listing agent knows the offer is there waiting for them.

I cant tell you how many times, this simple presentation was able to separate me and my clients from the rest. I can attribute at least three offers that were accepted over the last four months specifically due to the way they were presented.

Remember our actions speak for themselves. Take the time to professionally package an offer the way you would want to receive one and GOOD LUCK!

Call me at 626-629-8439 if you have any real estate questions.

How is the real estate market doing?

Both home buyers and home sellers ask that question all the time.

Do you truly care about whats going on in Phoenix, if you live in Pasadena, CA? Do you care about how the market is doing in Pasadena, if you live in San Marino, CA?

As a real estate broker, the answer is yes... I care. As a seller or buyer, I couldn't care less.

I just sold my house. It is located in San Gabriel, but has San Marino schools. The first thing I did when I was thinking of selling my house, is to learn what was going on on my street. How many homes were on the market now? Who will be my competition?

I wanted to know which 7 to 10 homes will I be competing against. I got into the car and visited all the homes. I knew how much they were priced at, how long they've been on the market and what kind of upgrades they had.

Now I knew my market and could price my home correctly to sell.

The market in my mind was the 1/4 mile radius around my home, preferably homes with San Marino schools.

This local market research, along with getting prepared by following a few simple steps like:

• Getting a Physical Inspection - which allowed me to anticipate issues up front and address them prior to listing my home.
• Curbside appeal - the exterior was painted and a landscape artist was invited to stage the front and side of the home.
• Staging - my stager extraordinaire, Nickie Rothwell of Staged2Sell, used both my existing furniture and brought in additional furniture and accessories to make the home stand out.
• Marketing - well... that's my forte - heres a quick sample of the personal home website, Realtor.com Featured Homes, numerous blogging platforms, emails to top agents in the neighborhood and targeted buyer mailings, amongst other things.

The Fed has been working hard in trying to make homes, or at the very least home loans, more affordable to buyers. With the average home prices in Pasadena being around $787,000, the first mortgage loan limits of $417,000 forced many Pasadena California real estate buyers to get a much more expensive 2nd loan for the difference between the first mortgage and the buyers down payment.

Solution: the new ˜high balance˜conforming loans that are being offered to Pasadena real estate consumers. These new loans allow Pasadena buyers to get the first trust deed as high as $729,750. This applies to most of the Los Angeles county and includes Pasadena, San Gabriel, San Marino, Monterey Hills, Arcadia, Temple City, Monrovia, Sierra Madre, La Canada, Arcadia, Duarte, Burbank, Glendale and surrounding cities.

Will this help? Maybe¦ These loans do allow a higher loan amount, but these high limit new conforming loans have pretty strict guidelines and cost more than what we previously have come to expect from our conforming loans.

To make it easier for our Pasadena buyers, I put together a quick outline of the features of these ˜high balance loans that home buyers can refer to:

• You can now get your Pasadena First Trust Deed home loan amount up to $729,750
• Buyers will need to have a MINIMUM credit score of 700 (FICO)
• Most lenders require a minimum of 10% down, mostly 15% to qualify.
• Available programs include 30 and 15 year fixed loans. Loans that are fixed for 10, 7 & 5 years and then move to an adjustable. Also being offered are 30 and 5 year interest only loans.
• These loans apply to Single Family Homes and are not allowed for 2nd or vacation homes or multiple units.
• You will need to occupy your Pasadena home to qualify. Non-owner occupants are not eligible.
• Cash out refinances are NOT allowed.
• Refinance to combine current 1st and 2nd mortgages are NOT allowed
• The buyers debt to income ratio needs to be a max of 45%
• Full verification of employment or income is required
• A maximum of 3% seller contribution allowed.

AND most importantly, these loans will cost you about 1% higher than the standard ˜conforming loan (under $417,000) and 1% lower than jumbo loans.

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I was exposed to ˜HOME STAGING several years ago when I heard Barb Schwartz, founder of StagedHomes.com and THE 'inventor' of the term ˜STAGING speak on the subject. I remember sitting in the audience of about 500 real estate agents thinking to myself - this makes a lot of sense.

Barbara, who has been staging homes since 1972 had single handedly created this brand new industry - STAGING. Barbara uses the following analogy to help us understand what Staging is all about:

Think of going to see a play in a theater. When you walk in, you see the stage, an audience, actors. You also know that there's a producer and the director behind the scenes. For the play to be a success, you need the play to be captivating and for all the seats to be full.

Now¦ lets say that your house is a ˜set on a stage of that play. We would need to ˜Stage your house for the audience - potential buyers - who will be coming through to see it.

The seller would be a producer because the seller owns the home. The Realtor would be the director since she will set the scene for how each room should look, with the help of a stager, to ensure a ˜sellout performance, i.e. buyers coming through to look at the house. And, there would be critics - yes - critics! Who are the critics? The critics are the other Real Estate Agents who will decide whether or not to bring their clients to see the house. They will also spread the word about the house to the rest of the agents that didnt get to see it themselves.

I have staged quite a few homes since the time I met Barbara. Some homes were staged by myself and others with an Accredited Staging Professional.

Let me tell you - Staging works!!! Its that simple.

Of course, Staging works in concert with the Pricing of the home. But, with everything being equal, a home that is priced right and staged will sell quicker and for more money than a home that has not been staged!

Stay tuned for my next post where I will show you some statistics and provide you with some specific staging ideas.

In the meantime, if you would like to see some before and after pictures, please visit my Staging Show by clicking Play the Show button below.