The Ins and Outs of Home Search on the Internet

Let's get down to work!

You've gone onto an internet site you like to search for homes. Hopefully you'll appreciate that each site will offer the same basic information, and many will offer lots of opportunities to narrow your search down. Let's say, for example, that you searched for homes in certain Oceanside, CA neighborhoods, and the 21 homes on the left came up. They're all in the right price range, and they all have the two bedrooms and two baths you absolutely require. But do they have garages? Are there views? What, if any, are the HOA fees for the complex? Are the homes owned by the bank? What school district are they in?

Eventually you can work your way through much of this information, but each site you search on, whether it's my site, or another, will always bring up to a question that simply isn't answered on the internet. That's because a home isn't a pencil. A home is part objective, that is, it's so many square feet, has so many beds and baths, is made of this, roofed with that, and sits on so an so property.

But a home is subjective as well. That is, it breathes. It has life. The home will speak to you in ways that have to be seen or heard to become real. You need to see the home. You need to feel and experience the neighborhood. You need to explore any fears or lack of information you may have with someone who understands and relates to you.

It's time to get in the car and go shopping!

Buying a Home - How Internet Sites Make a Difference

We talked in our last post about different kinds of web sites for use in helping you find your home. Today we are going to look at two of my sites to get an idea of how you can decide if a particular one is best for you.

My two web sites,DonReedy.net and BuyHalfAHouse.com are completely different in what I hope they will be able to do for you in terms of providing information.

DonReedy.net is a more traditional real estate site. Here you will be able to easily set up a search for the kind of home you are thinking about buying, communicate with me about seeing homes, get loan information and much, much more. Go to the site (just click on either of the links above) and explore. Note that you can have access to information on all the homes that are for sale in Southern California. Try it! Just click on the "Search for Properties" section, use the map, address or area, and have fun.

Once you see how easy it is to find information on homes, I offer you the ability to get even more information on each home by becoming a member of my VIP Program. All I need is your email and phone number, and I'll provide much more detailed information on all the homes, including pricing options, bank owned (REO) properties, tax information, loans and much more. You can also use the VIP Program to ask me to schedule showings of properties you have preselected.

BuyHalfAHouse.com is a much different site altogether. If you read my blog here at all you realize that I have a passion about why home ownership is important, and that every hard working individual or couple should be able to afford to buy their first home. It's always been, however, that getting your FIRST home is always the most difficult. You have to have a downpayment, one that ranges from $10,000 to $50,000, and have good credit. How can you be expected to have saved that amount of money, or have a great credit score, if you're just in the workplace for a short time?

So I am an "evangelist" of sorts for having people learn about and utilize equity sharing. In the case of parents and children, that means that I teach families how parents and their children can buy homes together, benefiting both of them, and making the dream of home ownership come true.

Visit the BuyHalfAHouse.com site now. Explore the educational sections and explanations of how and who Equity Sharing can help. Do you see how the intent of each of these sites, though ultimately purposed to help you buy a home, come at the subject from a different viewpoint?

Let me know what you think. Next post we'll talk about how to take your first steps after you find homes you are interested in.

Buying a home - Getting started on the Internet

Lets get started on finding that home.

Today we're going to talk about getting started on the Internet. That's where over 80% of you will start your search, and if you know how to navigate all the resources that are available, you'll simply enjoy the process more, learn faster, be smarter, and buy with more confidence.

You probably know that buying a home by looking at information about the homes that are for sale in the area you want is a really smart way to get started. What you may not know is where to look, what to look for, and how to match up the information that's on the Internet with the knowledge of an experienced Realtor, Lendor, Inspector, Escrow and Title person.

So, let's get going. First, let's understand and talk a bit about transparency. That's a buzz word for the way all of us want to do business today. It means that the best Internet sites will be those that let YOU decide what information is important to YOU, not push or pull you to information that vendors, sellers or other businesses want you to utilize before, during and after you buy your home. All good sites (and their are plenty of them!) have in common the purpose of giving you information that you want, and how you want it.

Go to my website, and what you'll see is the basic information you'll need to get started. Let me say that most good real estate agents and companies have web sites that provide information in various styles and formats. Take me, for instance. While DonReedy.Net is my "base" site, providing all you'll need to find an area, select criteria about the home you want, set up searches and be contacted ONLY if you want, I also write and provide information on this blog, and on my companion site Buy Half A House. The difference is worth noting. Using my sites as examples, here's what to look for.

Can you "Search for properties?" This is the mainstay of all good real estate sites. As you probably know, almost all real estate companies now share information about the listings they take (that is, homes that they have contracted to sell), and all this information is presented in a fashion that lets you see pricing, specifications, and just a tiny bit of marketing by the listing company so that you have an opportunity to see why the seller thinks his or her home is just the right one for you.

Also note on my site that I offer "VIP" services. That means that I'm not going to invade your privacy and ask for your phone number or email address unless you decide that the additional services I can offer make sense for you. Always look for a good site to allow you to search for homes without asking for information, and then provide lots more information and services if and when you decide to take the next step.

Okay, enough for tonight. In the next post we'll talk about how my two web sites differ, how to take advantage of the best real estate sites, and we'll also talk about real estate blogs and how they can add to the information you can get about real estate agents and their services.

How To Buy Your Home - The Process

Here we go. We're about to go through the PROCESS of buying a home. During the next month we'll discuss all the important steps involved in moving from where you're at now into the home you've always wanted. Ready?

First a thought about the concept of buying a home....AS A PROCESS.

Want to buy an orange? Start car. Drive to grocery. Go in. Find orange. Make way to checkout. Pay. Leave. Home. Eat. This is the PROCESS. And with buying a home, it's just about this simple.........well.....no, it's really not.

And the reason it's not even remotely as easy is that the tasks that we perform when buying an orange (start,drive,go,find,make,pay,leave&eat) are tasks that we have done on our own, all our life, and are able to do without much of even a thought. Compare that to the following (short) list of tasks we have to do during the PROCESS of buying a home.

(Agency, Multiple Listing Service, FICO, preapproval/prequalification, HUD statements, Value Range Marketing, FSBO's, contingencies, addendums, title insurance, liquidated damages, highest and best offer, appraisals, escrow, loan conditions, ethics, disclosures, time periods, cancellation rights, and closing....just to name a few).

Even if you think you know what each of these tasks represent, in the setting of the home buying PROCESS they are very complicated, highly charged, tasks that define and protect the multiple parties to the sale. For instance, unlike our orange buying example, which involved one person, a store, perhaps a clerk, and yes, an automobile, a real estate transaction involves agents, Realtors, lawyers, title officers, lenders, underwriters, escrow officers, warranty representatives, property inspectors, appraisers, experts in natural hazard disclosures, transaction coordinators, and yes, sellers and buyers who may be individuals, corporations, trusts or partnerships. We're talking about some serious muddling/clearing up of the tasks by these folks, so the home buying process is much, much more complex.

So as we embark over this next month on a discussion of how get started, how to move forward, and ultimately how to complete the purchase of your home, remember that their IS a process, one which you can learn about here, and that process is at the heart of any success you'll eventually have in that purchase.

Next post - Getting started on the Internet

California on Sale!!!

Went to a Real Estate Investment meeting last night with two friends, Steve Rosenberry and Mia Rosenberry. Steve is a general contractor and home inspector. Mia is a birddog and much more for snydicators and other real estate folks, and yes, she is a Silpada jewelry salesperson as well.

Here's my take on the meeting, and on a rather big epiphany I had. California real estate is On Sale....no kidding! If you have lived and enjoyed any part of being in California, then NOW IS the time to buy, put down roots, or just simply add an investment to your portfolio that actually makes sense, makes money, and makes every other investment pale by comparison.

I have been working with clients in the Oceanside area, investors, who have found that they can put down 20 to 25% and clean the investment clock by getting a cash flow that is somewhere between $200 to $400 per month...right now....right here.

Renters are lining up (with all the past homeowners who have given up their homes in foreclosure now taking on the roll of renters), and the going rate in most parts of Oceanside are $1500+ for most homes in most of the areas where homes are being foreclosed on.

Buy now. California is on sale. Hasn't happened before. Won't happen again. Call me at 760-802-9713, or email me at don@buyhalfahouse.com. Don't wait. The current money supply (subbject of the next blog) is astronomical, and will be going away in five to six months. That means that the window of opportunity is short, but BIG>>>>>>

California homes are on sale now like they have never been in the past. The time for buying, either for yourself, your children, as an investment, or as a move-up, IS NOW.

Doggone....it's a New Year

Please say "hi" to the newest addition to our household. His name is Ramius (named after the Sean Connery character in "Hunt For Red October"), and he's a mostly (perhaps totally) rottweiller puppy of ten months of age.

During the last two years we said goodbye to three of our most beloved dogs, two from old age, and one from a particularly horrible accident caused by what is termed "bloat" by veterinarians. Ramius now lives alone with us, and we're looking to find him the perfect companion with whom he can form a life long friendship and relationship.

Do you think, then, that my wife and I have said a hearty and thankful goodbye to 2008? Indeed we have, though with all that is gone, I'm now going to collect my thoughts and remember what was found. Oh, did I forget to mention that I am a Realtor, and therefore all of you can sort of guess that I've had to take a hard look at how I make my living now that the real estate market has collapsed all around us. But doggone, it's a New Year.

During these past difficult years, with 2008 being the granddaddy of them all for us, and probably for you as well, we've taken each Thanksgiving and Christmas to reflect on our family and friends, and to remind ourselves that what seems most difficult often turns out to be that which is most worth looking back on. Both Beth and I have parents in their mid 80's, mine living in Youngstown, Ohio, and Beth's living in Staunton (pronounced STANTON), Virginia. During this past year, while we struggled to pick up the pieces after our dogs passed away, and I struggled to keep my real estate business alive and well, I think we both sometimes just wanted to hang it up so to speak. Vince Lombardi once said that "fatigue makes cowards of us all", and in 2008 it was pretty easy to get fatigued, and end up acting out in cowardly fashion, both in what we wanted for our business lives, and what we wanted for ourselves personally. Losing the dogs, our kids if you will, just wore us out.

But doggone, it's a New Year, isn't it? Our trip back to see Beth's parents at Christmas was very special, and though they are stricken with ailments that should cause them to act with despair and fatique, they did the opposite. Instead they baked cookies, assembled a 1000 piece puzzle, cooked old Norwegian and Swedish fare, served us up Glugg (Scandanavian drink with wine and more), and brought out a Christmas quiz that had all of us questioning whether we had ever read the story at all!

Beth spent much of the last six months taking care of Ramius, easing him into our home from our adoption of him at probably only six weeks, to see him grow daily into a responsive and loving puppy, but a puppy still. Her tasks included taking him out in the middle of the night when required, as a hip injury had sidelined me and given me a virtual free pass from having to perform this duty. What a gal, Beth is!!!

But I digress. Doggone, it's a New Year. Look for us to add to our home a friend for Ramius, and for me to add new ideas and energy to my real estate business. Already we have blocked out time to walk more together, play more with Ramius, and grow our family even closer. Already we have made goals for ourselves to conquer, and shared ideas about things that we want to do for ourselves and others in this coming year. Already we have planned to see more of our friends, keep more of our commitments, and share more of our free time together.

Doggone right.

Wanna Be on the "Smart Side"???

It's coming, and not soon enough if you ask me.

It's coming, and even Arnold (pronounced "Ahhhhknowlddddd") and his band of merry men up in Sacramento can't stop us.

It's coming, and it will be here before the snows stop melting in the Sierra's.

Stay tuned.......This time we're going to show you how to KEEP OUR KIDS IN CALIFORNIA, no strings attached.

In February we'll be letting you know about a Webinar that is upcoming in which a group of us real estate types (lenders, lawyers and Realtors) will be showing you how to help yourself and your children take part in the American dream, take ownership of a home, and begin the process of building a life of their own in this beautiful state of California.

To get yourself oriented, just stay tuned to this blog.

Wanna be on the smart side? Stay put.....we'll come to you.