Another great Yelp review for me

Andy and Lynette and I worked together three years ago when they bought their home in the Magnolia Park area of Burbank.  In the meantime, their little family has grown from two kids to three kids and they've completed several remodeling projects on the house.  I recently assisted them again with their refinance transaction and Andy just wrote this wonderful Yelp review for me.  Thanks, A&L!

Judy is a fantastic agent! She helped us buy our home 3 years ago; she made it a clear and low stress process. Even after we closed we've stayed in contact with Judy and she has been an indispensable resource as we worked on a refinance. Judy knows the market and is incredibly supportive. 6 stars for this one; she is the best!

This is maybe the best song about trying to buy real estate, ever.

Check out Depreston by Courtney Barnett.  You buyers out there will totally get this, and there's a lot of poignancy to this song too. It's available on iTunes, of course.

3 common mistakes that home buyers make

Have you been looking for a home in the San Fernando Valley or Los Angeles? Have you been disappointed with the kinds of homes that you have seen? Have you made offers, only to lose them out in multiple bidding situations? Here are three tips to help you.

Be realistic about your finances and what you can afford. Home prices have rebounded from the recession.  They have risen, too, since you first began considering making a purchase. Home inventory is really low as well which results in more buyers chasing the same few homes. If you find yourself in a multiple offer situation, price is going to matter to your seller much more than your good looks. If you love a home, but will be really stretched to afford it, or if you do not have a decent down payment for the home price range that you are looking in, you may want to wait awhile and save up more money.

Before you begin home shopping, get pre-approved for a mortgage loan by a local lender. I've said this before. Now is the time to shop for a lender and rates, not on a Sunday night after you have visited the open house of your dreams. This is important because most sellers and listing agents will look at your financial qualifications before they review your home offer. Your lender will be able to look at your financial profile and determine how much you can comfortably pay. A good lender can also coach you regarding cleaning up credit, straightening out financial issues, and qualifying for the best loan programs.

Write good offers. A home purchase offer contains much more than just the price, and your Realtor will be able to advise you on how to make your offer stand out. Put down a decent deposit. Find out in advance what your sellers' moving dates are and try to accommodate them. Shorten your contingency periods if you can. Think twice about asking the seller to pay for any of your closing costs. Yes, a letter explaining who you are and why you like the house will usually be helpful, too. Make sure to include a picture of your kids and pets.

Hopefully, you will now be better prepared to get the house you want. Happy house hunting -- your perfect home really IS out there.

Five ways to lose weight while house hunting

Let’s all multi-task and combine our two favorite activities, weight watching and house hunting, shall we? Here goes!   

1.       Run, don’t drive, between Sunday open houses.  It will help to map them first.  Stay hydrated while you do this.

2.       Skip dinner and see a new listing every night instead.  Do NOT stop at a bar on your way home to drown your sorrows.

3.       Skip lunch on days when there are broker caravans (Burbank has theirs on Thursday from 9:30 to noon; the rest of the San Fernando Valley and L.A. have theirs on Tuesdays and Fridays.)

4.       Stop buying food and use that money to pay down your consumer debt, thus raising your FICO score.  High credit score = low scale score.

5.       Get so neurotic about the home-buying process that you can’t keep any food down.  This is called home-buyer bulimia and it’s my favorite.

Depending on your search length, you can lose between five and 40 lbs! Seriously, if you need a new home, call me – I can help.  I can’t really help on the weight loss but you can come to Weight Watchers meetings with me.

The Realtor buys a place -- and freaks out about the process

My husband and I just had an offer accepted on a new place to live.  We love our old place in Burbank that we've owned for two decades, but it's a matter of location.  We're moving to Studio City to be closer to our work and activities.  And it's hitting home about how scary this home buying process can be.  Over the next few weeks, I'll be giving you updates, pictures, and gory details.

Cash offers are the kings of L.A. real estate. Alas, offers with loans are only princes.

Again, cash trumps loans in my world.  A client made an excellent purchase offer with 20% down on a home, only to see the house go to somebody else who is paying cash.  Apparently, that was the only difference between the two offers.  Sigh.  Take heart, buyers -- this will end someday.

Burbank parrots were in my neighborhood this a.m.!

The huge flock of Burbank parrots were in my "above Glenoaks" neighborhood this a.m.  I had previously posted on the flock's whereabouts in Magnolia Park.  These birds are smart -- it's always good to look at several neighborhoods in a city before settling on just one.

How buying and selling real estate is like dating -- Rule #1

Remember everything your mom told you when you had your heart broken by your sweetheart?  (Cue Celine Dion singing "My Heart Will Go On") The same advice holds true for buying and selling homes: The only cure for the house that got away is another house.  For sellers, ditto on buyers that got away.  Stay tuned to this blog for other posts on how real estate is like being single and dating.

Sunday reading from the NY Times

Here's an article from today's New York Times' business section entitled Great Time to Buy (Famous Last Words).  It's not pro-home buying (and not strongly against it either), but it is worth reading.  And by the way, I never tell people it's a great time to buy.  It's only a great time to buy if it's a great time to buy for the particular buyer. 

Of course, all r.e. markets are local, so I disagree with many of the author's points.  Just about all of us have been renters at some point and most of us have nightmare landlord stories.  And the loss of "opportunity costs" of your mortgage downpayment?  What opportunity?  To go gamble your money away in the stock market?  And the evil of property taxes?  Again, that's a very local issue.  But how else to fund local infrastructure? And wouldn't your landlord be passing along his/her property taxes to you in the form of rent anyway?

One important correction to the text.  I originally read this as a hard copy.  When I went on line to get the url, there was this disclaimer at the bottom: An earlier version of this article misstated the additional amount by which Barry Ritholtz believes homes prices need to drop in the short term in order to return to their historical norms. It is 15 percent, not 50.

Can't buy without selling

For many years now, if you owned a home and wanted to buy another one, the banks said fine.

Not anymore. Now, most borrower/buyers will not qualify for any loan if they own their current residence and it has not been sold yet. Why? Because their debt-to-income ratios are likely going to be too high for the banks' taste. So if you own a home and are thinking about moving up, or moving down, or whatever, put your current house on the market now and make any sale "subject to sellers finding home of choice and successful close of escrow of same."

Lending guidelines are changing by the day, so this may change as well.