Pasadena CA Real Estate

Every Thursday is a Broker's Open House day in San Marino.  This is an opportunity for San Marino real estate agents to preview all the homes that were listed in San Marino for the week.  This also gives an opportunity for San Marino sellers to showcase their homes and make sure that they are well presented to potential buyers and real estate agents.

Today, San Marino had a record 7 homes for sale open for broker's preview (2 homes were price reductions):

A San Marino Real Estate Market Snapshot:

San Marino Homes for Sale                47   at $649/sq. ft. on average

San Marino Homes Under Contract      26   at $572/sq. ft. on average

San Marino Homes Already Purchased by San Marino Home Buyers:

Sellers, if these numbers

 do not speak to you, let

me.  You are OVERPRICING

 YOUR HOMES!!! 

• The data is clear, San Marino Homes have been selling in the high $500s per sq.ft.
• Current homes on the market are averaging almost $650 per square foot.
• 4 out of 5 new listings this week are over $660 per square foot.
• Inventory is INCREASING
• San Marino's Real Estate market absorbs approximately 7 homes per month.
• There are 47 homes on the market for sale.
• This means that we have more than 6.5 months of inventory!

San Marino sellers, please understand San Marino buyers are looking at hard data.  This information is being provided to them by their San Marino Realtors.

For those of you that love charts, here're a couple from Altos Research, an independent real estate market statistics company.

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Late yesterday afternoon, Coldwell Banker announced that they will be closing two local real estate offices.  One of the offices was a Coldwell Banker office in Old Town Pasadena on Colorado Boulevard.  The other one was in La Canada.

The explanation given to the shocked real estate agents working at CB was that both offices were unprofittable.

San Marino Coldwell Banker survived the recent cuts, but the real estate agents working for Coldwell are feeling a bit uncertain about their future.

The real estate agents in both offices were given three weeks to find a new home or get a new career.

If you are an agent affected by these closures give me a call at 626-204-3340 to see if Keller Williams is the right home for you.

One of my readers emailed me and posed this question about FHA loans today:

       Is there a set rate for FHA home loans that’s standard around the country?

For complete information about FHA loans and programs, I’d suggest visiting FHA’s website at www.fha.com

I also asked Ernest Tepman of OCD Group who specialize in FHA loans and programs to give us an answer to this question and here’s what he says:

The answer is that there is no standard rate for FHA loans, each lender and at times even individual Loan Officers from same lender can offer different rates. The guidelines for the FHA programs are almost identical from lender to lender (but there are lenders who sometimes add individual overlays on FHA guidelines above what FHA actually dictates), which results in strange things occasionally, where a specific file will be eligible for FHA financing with one lender and not the other, not often, but it does happen. Keep in mind FHA only insures the loans, the actual loans are made by banks, so even though your loan is FHA, it is still from Chase, Wells Fargo or Countrywide :-) 

READ MORE:    Advantages and Disadvantages to FHA

Usually, when a buyer purchases a Pasadena home, one of the first things that their Pasadena real estate agent will recommend that they do will be a home inspection.

A common home inspection usually takes anywhere from 3 to 5 hours depending on the size of the home and after the inspection, a buyer will receive a pretty complete report identifying both small and large items.

The home inspection also takes place in the first week or ten days of the escrow AFTER an offer on your home has been accepted.  The buyer will review the list of items on the inspection report and will submit a list to you the seller of items/conditions that they will want you to repair, replace or give the buyer credit for.  This is a perfect opportunity to re-negotiate the price of the home for many a savvy buyer. 

This is usually step 2 in home price negotiations. 

As a seller, you can prevent further negotiations AFTER the home sale price has been set and accepted by ordering your own home inspection report PRIOR to listing your Pasadena home for sale.

By having this inspection done in advance, you can take steps to repair as many items as you and your Pasadena Realtor feel necessary to ensure a quick sale of your home.  In most instances, these repairs will cost you less to do up front with your choice of contractors.

Seondly and most importantly, your Pasadena Real Estate Agent will be able to present this home inspection report to all potential buyers for review BEFORE the price is negotiated and accepted.  This way, items that have been repaired can be pointed out to the buyer and they can sign off on the review and the receipt of the report so there are no surprises later on when they hire their own inspector.

A pre-inspection of your home can save you lots of money and take away some of the stress in selling your Pasadena home.

If you would like to get a list of CREIA (California Real Estate Inspection Association) approved home inspectors, please do not hesitate to call me at 626-627-7107 or email me at Irina@Irina4RealEstate.com.

For a private consultation on how you can get the most money for your Pasadena home, please give me a call.

In my previous posts, I mentioned that Los Angeles County Assessor is working on reassessing Pasadena California homes purchased between July 1, 2004 and June 30th 2007. 

ALSO READ:  Property Tax Increases on your Pasadena Home

                         How are Property Taxes calculated in Pasadena California

                         Get your Property Reassessed by the LA County Tax Assessor

Rick Auerbach, Los Angeles County Assessor just released a press statement that this project has been completed by his office.  128,000 Los Angeles County homeowners will be notified in writing by June 30th of this year that they will be paying lower real estate taxes.

The average reduction in assessed value is about $73,000, he added, amounting to an average property tax savings of approximately $750.

Below is the full press release for your review:

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