Purchase Your Home at an Affordable Price this Spring

There are many great Los Angeles and San Fernando Valley area homes for sale. Click here to perform a full home search, or if you're thinking of selling your home, click here for a FREE Home Price Evaluation so you know what buyers will pay for your home in today's market. You may also call me at (818) 491-4580 for a FREE home buying or selling consultation to answer any of your real estate questions.

Is Now a Good Time to Buy?
A client recently asked me whether now was a good time to buy. My answer was fairly simple, and I told this person that now is absolutely a good time to buy. I'm going to briefly list a few reasons why you should consider buying real estate in Porter Ranch.

• From December 2012 to December 2013, property values appreciated by 19.1%. This number comes from the San Fernando Valley, and it is an extremely promising number.

• For this coming year, we are only projecting an 8-11% increase, but those numbers are still very promising.

• One of the other things is that last year at this time interest rates were right around 3.875%, and currently they are sitting at 4.5% with just a little bit of teetering up and down.

• A 1% rise in interest rates on a $400,000 dollar home purchase can cost you upwards of $100,000 dollars on a 30 year term.

So, to answer your question, now is absolutely a good time to buy. Interest is rising and home values are too, so if you want to buy you need to do it soon if you want to do it affordably. If you haven't done so already, you should go ahead and get Pre-approved.

Give me a call and I can set you up with a lender, because even if you cannot buy at this moment it's good to know where you stand financially in the future. These decisions take a lot of planning, so you need to be on the ball.

Call me at (818) 267-7995 or email me at ericdelgado@kw.com

Stage Your Home Properly to Get Top Dollar

There are many great Los Angeles and San Fernando Valley area homes for sale. Click here to perform a full home search, or if you're thinking of selling your home, click here for a FREE Home Price Evaluation so you know what buyers will pay for your home in today's market. You may also call me at (818) 491-4580 for a FREE home buying or selling consultation to answer any of your real estate questions.

Staging Your Home Properly

With spring and summer comes a lot of activity from the real estate market. If you're looking to sell your home, you will need to prepare not only your finances, but also the way that your home appears to potential buyers. Staging is very important, because it will showcase your home to potential buyers. So, if you're looking to sell your home quickly and for top dollar, definitely take the extra time to do some staging.

Home owners who stage their properties actually increase their net profit by 3-7%, and that can add up to thousands of dollars, so it is really silly not to stage your home. Once you list your home in the correct price range, the goal is then to make your home appeal to the largest amount of consumers possible.

Neutralize your property by repainting any brightly-colored walls over with more earthy tones, and clear away any unnecessary clutter like family photos or collections. You don't want your personality to shine through, you want the potential buyer to project themselves into your home.

One goal you can set for yourself while staging is to have a consumer come into your property and get emotionally attached to your home. Once an emotional attachment occurs, logic goes out the door. This doesn't mean that you can take the buyer for all the money they have, but you will likely be able to leverage with them and get a great deal.

To get you top dollar on your property, we are going to make sure that the home shows well, has the best possible furnishings, and we also want the home to flow well. What we mean by 'flowing well' is that we want everyone who comes into the home to feel comfortable inside of it.

So, the main reason that you should stage your home is that it will net you more money by appealing to more buyers. Also, don't forget about curb appeal, because that is what initially draws buyers to your door. Staging is not only done on the interior, you also have to make sure the exterior of your home is attractive and inviting.

If you have any questions relating to staging or San Fernando Valley real estate, then please give me a call. I am always here to help you, no matter what your issue might be.

You can call me at (818) 267-7995 or email me at ericdelgado@kw.com

Price Your Home Attractively to Sell Quickly & Efficiently

There are many great Los Angeles and San Fernando Valley area homes for sale. Click here to perform a full home search, or if you're thinking of selling your home, click here for a FREE Home Price Evaluation so you know what buyers will pay for your home in today's market. You may also call me at (818) 491-4580 for a FREE home buying or selling consultation to answer any of your real estate questions.

Why Is it Important to Price Your Home Correctly?

A lot of my clients have been asking me about pricing lately. This is often one of the most overlooked aspects in selling a home quickly and efficiently. This aspect of selling homes becomes even more relevant as the market shifts gears towards a more neutral market where you will not be receiving multiple offers on your home.

The one thing you want to avoid is to price yourself out of the market and discourage potentially qualified buyers from pursuing your property. Something that I think everyone should know is that 80-90% of qualified buyers will commit to a property within 14-21 days.

In fact, every day that goes by after the first 2-3 weeks, you will be losing money. Buyers will see that your property has been on the market for an extended period and suspect that maybe something is wrong with it. The offers that you receive after the first 2-3 weeks will almost certainly be lower than the ones that you received when you first put your home on the market.

To avoid this kind of scenario, you should work closely with your realtor to assure that your home is marketed aggressively and staged to perfection within the first two weeks of being on the market.

Pricing too high from the get-go is a major pitfall that should be avoided, but be sure to talk with your
realtor about their pricing strategies because they are all a bit different.

If you want to discuss a pricing strategy with me or if you're looking to buy or sell in Porter Ranch, please feel free to contact me. You can call me at (818) 267-7995 and email me at ericdelgado@kw.com

Expert Advice on Selling, Buying, and Moving into Properties

Welcome to my new video blog where I'll be sharing real estate advice with you, as well as going over many other informational topics in relation to the real estate industry.

As of lately, many of my clients have been asking me whether or not they should start looking for an additional property before they sell their own home. There are 2 answers to this question:

1. If you plan on renting your current property, then there is nothing wrong with that as long as you qualify for an additional property. In fact, I think that is a good option.
2. If you're going to use the proceeds from your current home to finance your second one, then you will need to sell your home.

In this case, if you need to sell your home before you purchase your second one, here are a few pointers to help you in that process:

• Get your property listed, marketed, and sold before you go and search for another home.
• Your agent will need to write in contingencies that make the sale of your current property contingent upon the purchase of your next one.
• You will also need to know: what your property will sell for, how long it will take to sell, and what you will end up netting. This is because your buyer may choose not to move forward as a result of inspections or qualifications. You have to protect yourself in the case of this happening.

In short: You need to identify your home's worth, get it marketed, listed, and sold in Escrow. You must also have your buyer remove contingencies relating to appraisals and inspections so that you can end up netting the amount of proceeds that will benefit you in the purchase of your next home.
Sticky situations such as these often require the council of an expert like myself, so if you still don't know what to do with your property, then come to me and I would be glad to assess your situation for you.

As always, I appreciate your support.

Call me for a free consultation at (818) 267-7995 or email me at ericdelgado@kw.com