Scratch another association off my list...

In my totally nerdy quest to visit other out-the-Sacramento-area Realtor Assocations, I can now cross the California Desert Association of Realtors off my list. They have a very small membership, small and friendly staff, and are just a short drive away from the 26-foot tall statue of Marilyn Monroe in Palm Springs. I had the opportunity to visit CDAR while tagging along with my husband to a conference this week.

New Listing - 5919 Stacy Avenue, Sacramento, CA 95823

Adorable 3/4 bedroom, 2.5 bathroom, 1,618sf - first time on the market! Located in Sacramento but near Elk Grove. You will love the open layout with large living room, dining area with kitchen breakfast bar, large pantry, bonus room / den / separate family room /possible 4th bedroom downstairs (use your imagination!), updated bathrooms, freshly painted interior & exterior, huge master suite & balcony, separate tub & shower, large backyard, 2-car attached garage! Within Elk Grove Unified School District boundaries. Don't wait! Offered at $189,900. For more photos and information visit 5919 Stacy Avenue, Sacramento, CA 95823.

Temporary paper window shades are a great way to keep your vacant Sacramento home secure...

If you have a vacant property listing and want to take extra steps to try to keep it secure, temporary paper window shades can be a great aid. They are inexpensive -- a box of 6 is about $20 at Home Depot and a lot cheaper than installing mini-blinds or curtains. They look decent and much better than other cheap solutions like trying to hang sheets or taping newspaper over the windows. They are translucent and still allow natural light to enter the house. They are easy to install with an adhesive strip that sticks to the window or the window frame, and they can be cut with regular scissors into different sizes. Best of all, they prevent folks from looking inside to see that a house is vacant. I highly recommend using these...since break-ins and other crime can occur in any Sacramento neighborhood no matter how nice or safe you think the area is. They work great on occupied homes too! I can even install them for you. =)

Sacramento County -- now offering neighborhood waste clean-up by appointment!

Is extra junk piling up in your house? Do you need to do a little spring cleaning, but don't want to spend your money on having a dumpster delivered to your house, or making a trip to the dump? Do you live within the unincorporated County of Sacramento jurisdiction? You're in luck! The Department of Waste Management and Recycling has a program where they come to their customer’s home in Sacramento County at no charge.  The ‘Bulky Item Pick Up’ is by appointment only, but is easy to do.  Customers can call (916) 875-5555 or go online to the Waste Management and Recycling website, and set up an appointment date.  Customers can use this service at no cost once every calendar year. The no charge pick up includes an 8’ x 4’ x 4’pile; larger piles can be arranged for an extra charge depending on the size.

Neighborhoods within the unincorporated County of Sacramento area include Antelope, Arden, Arden Park, Carmichael, Fair Oaks, Orangevale, Elverta, parts of Sierra Oaks, Rosemont, and parts of South Sacramento, etc.

If you fall within the incorporated city areas (City of Sacramento, Natomas area, Citrus Heights, Folsom, Rancho Cordova, Galt, Elk Grove)...this program is not for your areas.

Staging your Sacramento home is one of the keys to getting the highest price in the shortest time on the market...

Properly "staging" a home listing is incredibly important if a seller is serious about getting top dollar for a property.

What is staging, you ask? In a nutshell, it's basically a process to prepare the home for sale in order to highlight the best aspects of a property. Staging can vary from simply rearranging existing furniture in an occupied home, enhancing with accessories or artwork, de-cluttering, deep cleaning, or making repairs to a home -- all with the intent to enhance and contextualize space so that buyers emotionally connect with a house and can see themselves living there. In a vacant home, it could mean furnishing the entire house from the ground-up. Think of it as "merchandising" your home, just like a store would to entice customers to buy things.

Most sellers I speak with are ready, willing and able to go through this process if it means their home could sell for more money in a shorter period of time on the market. It's rare for a seller to list a home and not want to...although occasionally if the house is being sold via a short sale, needs to be sold really quickly, or it has been inherited and is being sold by the estate in probate or via a trust, it may not be worth the time, effort and energy for that seller. Because it does take all of that.

Staging is a group effort between the seller (you), the listing agent (me), and a professional stager (my go-to stager is Michelle Kaspari with Essential Home Staging). I do include a consultation with Michelle as a part of my listing services. The consultation is critical. Michelle visits the house and inventories existing furniture, accessories, the way rooms are laid-out, colors and textures present, and takes into consideration any unique qualities of the home to highlight...or downplay. She then comes up with a seller "To-Do" list. This list often includes re-positioning furniture, removing or relocating artwork, de-personalizing the home as in removing certain family photos or (thinning them out), re-arranging existing accessories and possibly embellishing with new accessories, possibly bringing in furniture, painting, making repairs, and cleaning. 

Most of the items on the list your average homeowner can do himself / herself in a week or two, which tends to work out well since usually sellers don't want to put their home on the market the day after we meet to take care of the listing paperwork. The "on market date" is usually slated for a future day a few weeks out, so naturally that gives a seller some time to get things ready. Sometimes if more extensive cleaning, painting or repairs are recommended those tasks can take a couple weeks or months to complete. Sometimes it's not feasible to do 100% of the recommendations too; for example you may not have the time or resources to replace your blue carpet with something neutral, or your garage may be too small to store some extra furniture and your one friend with a truck can't help you move it somewhere else. We get it. Usually though it's worth the time, effort and energy to do many of the things on the list...it translates to higher sales prices and shorter time on the market.

Or if you are not into DIY or have a vacant home to stage, Michelle can basically act as your project manager to orchestrate the transformation of your home. And of course staging a home is topped off by having amazing marketing photos for your home...I also use a professional photographer as a part of my listing services, but that's a separate blog post for another day!

Has Zillow gotten more accurate predicting Sacramento Home Values? The answer is here...

If you have been reading my blog for a while, then you probably already know that I usually get a chill down my spine when one of my clients mentions "the Z word." What's the Z word? Zillow. What is Zillow? Zillow.com is a website that, among other things, provides information about neighborhoods and properties.

Zillow is a neat website. I have an agent profile on Zillow. I have clients who have found me using Zillow. However, my general thought about Zillow is that while it's a fun consumer tool that provides property information to people looking to buy or sell (or even rent property now), the vast majority of the time, the "Zestimate" (aka, the value that the website dreams up for a certain property), is usually not close to the market value of a Sacramento area property, and the homes listed for sale on the website are not current.

I posted a few times last year about how the sales prices of my transactions compare to Zillow data. I've closed a total of 7 transactions so far in 2014 between Janurary and February, so let's take a look to see how close Zillow is to the actual selling prices of these properties. This information is CURRENT as of today, March 6, 2014.

3715 Tallyho Drive #12, Sacramento, CA 95826; this was a condo I listed (represented the seller in a short sale) in Rosemont. The original listing price was $85,000, and this sold on 1/10/14 for $80,000. Zillow's Zestimate: $145,681. YIKES -- approximately 71.39% above it's selling price. WOW. Something is way off here.

1433 Sebastian Way, Sacramento, CA 95864; this was a home I sold (represented the buyer) in the Arden area. The original listing price was $215,000, and this sold on 1/10/14 for $215,000. Zillow's Zestimate: $178,000 -- approximately 17.21% below it's selling price.

213 Muckross Abbey Court, Lincoln, CA 95648; this was a home I sold (represented the buyer) near in Twelve Bridges Lincoln. The original listing price was $349,900, and this sold on 2/6/14 for $361,500. Zillow's Zestimate: $341,000 -- approximately 5.67% below it's selling price.

2237 Eastwood Drive, Roseville, CA 95747; this was a home I listed (represented the seller) near in the Fiddyment Farms area in Roseville. The original listing price was $459,900, and this sold on 2/25/14 for $460,000. Zillow's Zestimate: $437,610 -- approximately 4.87% below it's selling price.

8238 Leesburg Way, Elk Grove, CA 95624; this was a home I sold (represented the buyer) near Monterey Trail High School in Elk Grove. The original listing price was $250,000, and this sold on 2/28/14 for $245,000. Zillow's Zestimate: $220,000 -- approximately 10.2% below it's selling price.

4900 Sir Henry Court, Fair Oaks, CA 95628; this was a home I sold (represented the buyer) near Miller Park in Fair Oaks. The original listing price was $739,900, and this sold on 2/28/14 for $719,000. Zillow's Zestimate: $680,000 -- approximately 5.42% below it's selling price.

2656 Harkness Street, Sacramento, CA 95818; this was a home I listed (represented the seller) in Land Park. The original listing price was $275,000, and this sold on 3/5/14 for $280,000. Zillow's Zestimate: $273,000 -- approximately 2.5% below it's selling price.

I have said it before and I will say it again...I think two conclusions can be drawn from the information above. First, Zestimates are generally not accurate. They don't take into consideration property features that can not be quantified. Is it on a main street, is it near a park, was the kitchen remodeled, have unique architectural features...? Second, our dynamic Sacramento area real estate market is now increasing in value, and Zillow has a long way to go to catch up to pricing these trends and factoring them into their mathematical equations that determine these values. But it is still a fun website for entertainment purposes.

Sacramento Median Home Price February 2014

Well there you have it. After a slower January for sales volume and price (which is pretty typical if you look at trends over the last decade), Sacramento's median home price for February 2014 bounced back up to $260,000. This does not surprise me at all, and February was a brisk month for my business. I'm guessing March will be brisk too with lots of closings given there's a high number of pending sales...I'm not anticipating a huge upswing in price for next month, and expect things to continue with some modest price appreciation this year. Our current median home price is still FAR below the median from the peak of Sacramento's real estate market in the summer of 2005 (which was just a touch under $400,000). But it's nice to say that it's also FAR above the median home price at the bottom of the Sacramento market in winter 2011 (about $160,000). A trend that I am continuing to notice for the last several months is folks who purchased a home at the bottom of the market in 2009-2011 are calling wanting to sell their home and purchase a larger one (or smaller one, relocate to a different neighborhood, etc). If you purchased a Sacramento home during that timeframe, there's a good chance your home has increased in value in the range of 20%-35% depending on when you bought and where your home is located...so it's a great time to do sell and purchase another home. Of course if you would like me to provide you an estimate of your home's value, I'm happy to do that. Just email me.

Rent vs Buy a home in Sacramento? What the hard facts say.....

The last few years around this time I have written blog posts detailing the monthly mortgage payments vs. average rent payments in certain neighborhoods in Sacramento. I thought I would start 2014 with a similar post, updated with today's interest rates, average Sacramento home prices, and average rents.

2014 has started with a bang. I have been super busy with both home buyers and sellers. Who has been calling me? Prospective home buyers who finally have decided that now is the time to buy a home in Sacramento, folks relocating to the area, or looking for a bigger home who also need to sell their current home. I have also been called by several folks so far in 2014 who are looking to sell an investment property they've been holding on to. Interesting...

While home values have increased since last year, it is still currently more affordable in many areas to buy a home in Sacramento than rent a home. And compared to our market's peak in 2005, prices are still extremely low, plus rents seem to have increased.

When you take into consideration the average home price and probable monthly mortgage payment in particular Sacramento neighborhoods vs. the average rent, often times the mortgage payment is less. Plus often times the 'average' home that is purchased is much larger or nicer than the 'average' home rented. Let's take a look at a few different areas...just for the sake of citing my information sources, for average home price (used to calculate mortgage payment scenarios) I am using most recent January 2014 Trendgraphix data, which is taken directly from MLS, and for average rent I am using the most recent Q1 2014 Homepointe Quarterly Residential Rental Survey. For my mortgage payment calculations, I am basing it on a 4.5% interest rate (which is actually slightly above today's average market interest rates), and including the full PITI - loan principle, interest, monthly property taxes, and monthly homeowner's insurance (and mortgage insurance where applicable).

Natomas - 95833, 95834, 95835
Average single family home sale price: $264,000
Average rent for a 3 bedroom home: $1,340 (range $950 - $1,795)
30-Year Fixed VA Loan (Zero downpayment): $1,718
30-Year Fixed FHA Loan (3.5% downpayment): $1,952
30-Year Fixed Conventional Loan (10% downpayment): $1,660
30-Year Fixed Conventional Loan (20% downpayment): $1,422

Elk Grove / Laguna - 95757, 95758
Average single family home sale price: $303,000
Average rent for a 3 bedroom home: $1,380 (range $1,095 - $1,695)
30-Year Fixed VA Loan (Zero downpayment): $1,972
30-Year Fixed FHA Loan (3.5% downpayment): $2,173
30-Year Fixed Conventional Loan (10% downpayment): $1,906
30-Year Fixed Conventional Loan (20% downpayment): $1,632

Rosemont / College Greens - 95826, 95827
Average single family home sale price: $215,000
 Average rent for a 3 bedroom home: $1,259 (range $985 - $1,650)
30-Year Fixed VA Loan (Zero downpayment): $1,399
30-Year Fixed FHA Loan (3.5% downpayment): $1,589
30-Year Fixed Conventional Loan (10% downpayment): $1,352
30-Year Fixed Conventional Loan (20% downpayment): $1,158

Arden - 95821, 95825, 95864
Average single family home sale price: $217,000
Average rent for a 3 bedroom home: $1,258 (range $995 - $1650)
30-Year Fixed VA Loan (Zero downpayment): $1,412
30-Year Fixed FHA Loan (3.5% downpayment): $1,604
30-Year Fixed Conventional Loan (10% downpayment): $1,365
30-Year Fixed Conventional Loan (20% downpayment): $1,168

Carmichael, Fair Oaks - 95608, 95628
Average single family home sale price: $318,000
Average rent for a 3 bedroom home: $1,146 (range $900 - $1,800)
30-Year Fixed VA Loan (Zero downpayment): $2,069
30-Year Fixed FHA Loan (3.5% downpayment): $2,193
30-Year Fixed Conventional Loan (10% downpayment): $2,000
30-Year Fixed Conventional Loan (20% downpayment): $1,713

Citrus Heights, Orangevale - 95610, 95621, 95662
Average single family home sale price: $240,000
Average rent for a 3 bedroom home: $1,262 (range $995 - $1,800)
30-Year Fixed VA Loan (Zero downpayment): $1,194
30-Year Fixed FHA Loan (3.5% downpayment): $1,562
30-Year Fixed Conventional Loan (10% downpayment): $1,509
30-Year Fixed Conventional Loan (20% downpayment): $1,292

South Land Park, Pocket / Greenhaven - 95822, 95831
Average single family home sale price: $262,000
Average rent for a 3 bedroom home: $1,371 (range $995 - $1,795)
30-Year Fixed VA Loan (Zero downpayment): $1,705
30-Year Fixed FHA Loan (3.5% downpayment): $1,937
30-Year Fixed Conventional Loan (10% downpayment): $1,648
30-Year Fixed Conventional Loan (20% downpayment): $1,411

Obviously there are other tangible and intangible benefits to home ownership as well...for example, a tangible benefit is the fact you can write-off your mortgage interest on your income taxes, and also deduct some other related expenses each year. An intangible benefit might be that as a homeowner, you have the freedom to paint the walls, decorate, plant a garden, remodel, etc.

So clearly these numbers are just a baseline to give you an idea of housing affordability in certain areas. You definitely need to consult a loan officer to see what type of financing is the best fit for you, and ultimately just how much you can afford - and there are several variables that will affect your interest rate and terms. You should also speak with a CPA or qualified tax professional regarding the mortgage interest and other tax deductions to see how it will affect your particular situation. If you need a good referral to either one, feel free to contact me and I can put you in touch.