Sacramento, located in the great Central Valley almost in the middle, between San Francisco and Lake Tahoe, is fast growing and a great place to live. Sacramento is just two hours drive from San Francisco and Lake Tahoe and benefits largely from the proximity to the Bay Area. In spite of being so closely located, the Sacramento real estate market is much more affordable than the San Francisco Bay Area market, and is much less congested.
Sacramento offers a variety of housing options to choose from. Sacramento homes range from low priced condos from the $150s to multi-million dollar homes. Homes are available in a broad variety of styles ranging from the modern to historical landmark homes. One can find houses in many neighborhoods that range from low 200's and up, in various bed and bath combinations.
If you are thinking of buying real estate in Sacramento, now is the time. Prices are still very affordable, and have even come down a bit. As the inventory of Sacramento homes for sale increases, the average days on the market increases as well, giving the Sacramento home buyer more homes to choose from when shopping.
The entry level and lower priced homes are selling more frequently, leading to a decrease in the median home price in Sacramento County. As of March 2006, the Sacramento County median home price was $359,000, up 8.1% from a year earlier. In general, sellers of higher priced homes that have been sitting on the market for long; especially those that have been priced above $450,000, have been forced to lower their prices.
The Sacramento real estate market is bustling now with the rise in the number of homes on the market. The Sacramento county MLS active listings are at an all-time high. All this is good news for the buyers as it gives them more real estate to choose from.
Currently, the real estate market is neutral but is fast heading towards becoming a buyer's market. So, if you are looking forward to buying a Sacramento home, then it's a good idea to take advantage of these market conditions today. Sacramento homebuyers now have the advantage of more negotiating power as sellers vie to catch the attention of discerning buyers.
This article was written by Sacramento real estate agent, Kevin Scolastico, of Coldwell Banker. Whether you are looking to buy or sell residential or investment real estate, you can count on the Scolastico Team to provide personal and professional service. Please be sure to visit my website at: www.KevinScolastico.com. Reproductions of this article are encouraged but must include a link back to my website.
Source: Data Quick Information Systems
How to Pay Off Your Mortgage in 7 Years, <i>Without Extra Payments</i>
One of the most exciting new topics concerning wealth is "How to Pay Off Your Mortgage in 7 Years, Without Extra Payments". It used to be that there was only one way to do this--pay additional money towards your mortgage payments. Now in the past few years, new financial products and different wealth strategies make it possible to use special banker's techniques and pay your mortgage off quickly.
Here are three ways to pay your mortgage off quickly:
1) The Old Fashioned Way -- Make extra payments. This tried and true method to pay down your mortgage is enjoyed by many homeowners. In our book Pay Off Your Mortgage In 7 Years we talk about several ways to do this. Here are two quick formulas: If you start with a 30 year mortgage and pay 30% more per year toward your principal, you can pay your house off in 16.5 years. If you double your payment and add 30% to this amount you can pay your house off in 7 years.
2) Use a 3rd party program – There are 3rd party companies that specialize in administering your loan so you can:
-pay biweekly
-pay your mortgage and start a separate investment account at the same time to pay off your loan (called an offset mortgage)
-pay in an accelerated way with specially designed products
In our book we provide our readers with a list of companies with these mortgage products.
3) Banker strategies - there are financial strategies that help you use the magic of positive compounding to pay down your mortgage faster, without extra payments. We have 7 strategies like this we can go over with you to make your money work harder for you.
Good luck with reducing your mortgage debt and living free and clear!
For more information on powerful mortgage payoff strategies, please go to Pay Off Your Mortgage In 7 Years
Selling Real Estate - 1st Impressions: Ten Keys to Maximizing Profit
Now that you have decided to sell your home, how will you turn your home into the most valuable asset it can be? Selling Real Estate - The Ten Keys to Maximizing Profit is essential reading before you list your home. No matter if you are selling your home yourself, using a discount commissioned broker, or a fully-commissioned one, brush up on these common sense, low cost tips and you will increase the overall monetary return when you sell your house.
How do we know? After twenty years of being a buyer's agent and broker, we know that most houses would either sell more quickly or for more money if the homeowners had followed some common sense, time-tested real estate tips. First of all, it makes the buyer's agent job much easier if a house is showcase ready. While a particular buyer may not like your home for many different reasons, a buyer's agent is much more likely to bring other buyers back to a home that shows well. In the small community of real estate agents, word does get out pretty quickly when a home on the market is showcase ready.
First Impressions - What I'm about to tell you may seem minor and easily overlooked, but this advice goes hand-in-hand with the very well known concept of Curb Appeal. Whereas curb appeal is the very first gut feeling a potential buyer has about your house, the buyer's first impression lasts as they walk up to the front door to the point when the door first opens. With this in mind, the front door should be especially sharp, since it is the entryway into the house. Polish the door fixture so it gleams. If the door needs refinishing or repainting, make sure to get that done.
If you have a cute, little plaque or shingle with your family name on it, remove it. Even if it is just on the mailbox. You can always put it up again once you move. It is important to make your house anonymous as if the house already belongs to the next owner. Buy a new, plush door mat, too. This is something else you can take with you once you move.
Make sure the lock works easily and the key fits properly. When a homebuyer comes to visit your home, the agent uses the key from the lock box to unlock the door. If there is trouble working the lock while everyone else stands around waiting, this sends a negative first impression to prospective home buyers. If the lock is sticky, sometimes a shot of graphite in the keyhole is all that is needed.
Then, there is the entry way. Are there shoes or other clutter in the foyer, does the first impression of the inside of your home impress a buyer of things to come set them up for a polite, but quick tour of your home?
In any housing market, but especially in a buyer's market, your house is in competition with all the other houses on sale in your neighborhood. How your home competes is key to turning a prospective buyer in to a buyer with an offer.
A first impression will not last, if the rest of your home is not presentable. Many home sellers wonder what trade-offs to make, how much budget to allocate to get their home ready to list and sell. The starting place is to think like a buyer, put yourself in your buyers shoes, walk across the street from your house and walk up to the front door, make notes of all the things that you'd want to see fixed if you were going to buy your own house. Then, step-by-step, work through the other ten keys to selling real estate and maximizing your profits.
Jeff is the owner and partner of We List homes 4 Less, a full-service, low sales commission broker serving Santa Clarita Valley real estate and Valencia, California real estate markets. Jeff is an advocate for using the Internet to promote niche, local businesses and to pass the savings onto clients.
