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How to Use Real Estate to Design Your Ideal Lifestyle

May 5, 2011 By 1 Comment

The business of buying and selling real estate is highly competitive and price sensitive.

Real estate agents must provide tools and services that empower buyers and sellers to design their ideal lifestyle.

Lifestyle design starts with investing wisely, saving money, increasing assets, managing a performing portfolio, utilizing leverage and achieving the cashflow that pays for the lifestyle one desires.

A real estate search engine that allows users to map view or list view search by the most relevant criteria (location, price, property type, beds, and baths) is a start, but wouldn’t it also be nice to know if the asset produces income? In other words if you had to move or transfer wouldn’t you want to know if the property can be rented for the payment and what the return would be?

Whether one investments in a home as their primary residence, or purchases a home as a rental, buyers need a long-term partner in helping them achieve their desired outcome. By educating, advising and providing asset ratings to customers by individual property we set ourselves apart from the competition.

You mean to tell me if I purchase a property I’ll get a detailed analysis of value, cap rate, cash-flow, cash on cash return, ROI and more? YES! Even if it is for my primary residence? YES!

Products that help users gain knowledge on real estate investing, stay current on market information and make educated investment decisions drive customers and their referrals. By providing state of the art technology along with a high level of service, we constantly build confidence and brand loyalty as a one stop shop for real estate investing.

Lyons Realty strives to deliver an outstanding customer experience to elicit referrals and branding.

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The Pending Home Sales Indicator Offers Opportunity for Buyers

May 4, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Pending home sales is a great indicator for the strength and growth of real estate. “Pending” home sales are based on the number of escrows opened.

Escrows can be opened one of two ways:

  1. When a traditional sales contract is dually executed by both buyer and seller, or
  2. When a bank approves a short sale.

The index rose 5.1% nationwide in March (but is still 11.4% below March 2010)

The western region of the index (which includes San Diego) rose 3.1% (but is still 4.1% below last year – mainly due to the tax credit).

The hardline negotiators at Lyons Realty suggest that it is a good idea to create your own tax credit by requesting a credit from the seller in your offer.

Bill Lyons, founder and broker of Lyons Realty in La Jolla, CA said “Affordable prices, job creation and low mortgage rates have created very favorable climate for San Diego home buyers. The Pending Homes Sales Index is another indicator reflecting opportunities for today’s buyers”

Existing detached home sales in March for San Diego county were up 43% (but only .4% change from last year – mainly due to a seasonal jump coming out of the holidays).

It is important to note that Coronado and La Jolla were down 28% and 21% respectively while areas like Downtown and Mission Hills were up 29% and  37%.

Lawrence Yun, NAR’s chief economist, said “…existing-home sales should rise around 5 to 10 percent this year with sales growth of lower priced homes likely to outperform high-end homes. That means the price trend will reflect more homes sold in the lower price ranges”

All and all these stats are great news for San Diego home purchasers and we look forward to working with you toward the American dream!

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What to Look for When Buying a Condo

April 11, 2011 By Leave a Comment

If you’re going be writing offers on condos or purchasing a condo here are some things to consider:

1. Have your loan officer or real estate agent contact their title rep to get a verbal title search done, not only can you find out if the deal is an undisclosed short sale you can also find out if there are any Lis Pendens, Bankruptcy, Foreclosure filings (notice of default or notice of sale), Cloud on Title, and/or litigation. Most experienced agents know if a complex has any pending litigation but you are always going to want to verify this. Why? Pending litigation can affect your financing, insurance and resale value. After you have an accepted offer your lender or escrow will order the full preliminary title report. There are however a two lenders out there that will provide financing on condos in litigation. (Contact us for more details)

2. Order the Home Owners Association (HOA) Docs. Most associations you can get through www.condocerts.com

3. See if the complex is FHA approved this can help with resale value. Search HUD’s site here: https://entp.hud.gov/idapp/html/condo1.cfm

4. Spend the extra $300~ to get an inspection done in addition to the appraisal (especially in older complexes or ones with construction defect problems)

5. As with any home purchase make sure you are buying it at the right price and that it is a good investment in addition to a good property to live in. If you were going to rent it out in the future would the rent cover your payment (including your HOA fee)? What would the cap-rate be? What would your monthly cashflow be? What would your ROI be? What are the tax benefits?

6. Upon closing make sure you get a interior insurance policy (what happens if your upstairs neighbor accidentally leaves their bathtub running?)

Purchasing real estate is all about dealing with professionals and performing the proper due diligence. If you are concerned about the noise of a certain complex or if you will be moving into a college dorm or not; search online or hang around and ask people that are currently living in the complex. The more educated and informed you are the more likely you are to make a better purchase.

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