Dual Agency Banned in Canada

REPOSTED DIRECTLY FROM INMAN NEWS. THIS CONTENT HAS NOT BEEN MODERATED BY WFG NATIONAL TITLE.

To read the entire article, Please Click Here!

France is On Sale

There are many castles currently on sale in France for less than a median priced home in the Bay!  Here is an article that lists 10 affordable castles currently for sale – CLICK HERE or should we say CLIQUEZ ICI.  This is a great article about an Australian couple that actually bought a chateau and is restoring it to its former glory (CLICK HERE).

The Easterbrook Team 916.850.6050 EasterbrookTeam@spmc.com

A Tsunami is Coming!

A Tsunami is Coming!

There’s a tidal wave of epic proportions of home buyers that is coming – directly from the southwest of us.  Real estate analysts predict that one third of the home buyers currently planning to buy real estate in the greater Sacramento, El Dorado, and Placer Counties areas are from the Bay Area.  North State Building Industry Association reports that they’ve checked with builders and guesses the one-third figure may be conservative at some new subdivisions.

Bay Area residents are blowing up Sacramento home developer websites, clicking through floor plans, watching promotional videos and signing up for email blasts, according to the New Home Company – a firm that is building in El Dorado Hills, downtown Sacramento and Davis.

The reasons are obvious: The median price of a Bay Area home hit $850,000 in April, according to CoreLogic, a real estate data company. That's a $100,000 increase in one year. In San Francisco, the median price hit $1.3 million. That often buys no more than a 1,600-square-foot house!  In contrast, the April median sales price for a resale home in Sacramento County was $357,000. And the median for a new home was $433,000.

As we reported in the Easterbrook Team newsletter last week, a recent survey reported that 46% of the Bay Area residents say they want to move out of the region within the next few years. They cite the high cost of living, high housing costs, traffic congestion and homelessness.
By contrast, Sacramento, El Dorado, and Placer Counties offer relative affordable housing, excellent employment opportunities, recreation, and a great central hub with an easy commute to the wineries in the foothills, Lake Tahoe and Donner Lake, and an easy drive back down to the Bay (if the former residents feel homesick).  
What can you do to ride this wave? 

·         Gear up!  If you don’t have a web presence, now would be the time to jump in.  No website?  Call us, we have recently helped several agents and even helped build one Realtor’s site from scratch for him. 

·         You can also build your online presence by affiliating with activity magnets such as Zillow, Realtor.com.

·         Facebook is still a powerhouse!  You can directly advertise homes and real estate services to Bay Area residents.

·         Open Houses – what better way to present yourself as the Sacramento Ambassador than to connect face to face with folks up from the Bay? 

Do you have any ideas to capture the wave of buyers coming soon?  Let us know.  Also, let us know how the Easterbrook Team can help you with your business.  We’d love to partner with you and help your real estate business grow!

The Easterbrook Team 916.850.6050 EasterbrookTeam@spmc.com

Sierra Pacific Mortgage is Pre-Underwriting Buyers

The two phrases used very loosely in the mortgage business are “pre-qualified” and “pre-approved”.   Pre-qualified meaning an interview has been done with the potential homebuyer and based on the conversation a dollar amount and loan type are established for the buyer.  Pre-approval takes the process one step further and verifies income, asset, and credit document to verify their accurateness. These statements alone usually mean little, because they are (or should be) accompanied by the phrase “subject to underwriting approval”.  They are only backed by the reputation of the loan officer that offered them. 

Sierra Pacific Mortgage is changing this loose practice of merely stating that a potential homebuyer is qualified by providing an underwritten approval prior to a buyer making an offer on a home.  As an underwritten buyer, a home purchaser can now offer with confidence knowing that they have certainty on the loan piece of the transaction.  Agents also recognize the value of having a pre-underwritten buyer in a competitive marketplace.  Anything that can make a homebuyer’s offer standout in the eyes of the listing agent and seller should be taken advantage of in a multiple offer scenario.  

Call the Easterbrook Team in Folsom to start the pre-underwriting process. Not only are we “Making the Process Easy”, we are creating certainty in homebuying.

916.850.6050  EasterbrookTeam@spmc.com

Survey Cites Many Plan San Francisco Exodus

Survey Cites Many Plan San Francisco Exodus

A Bay Area Council survey released June 4, 2018 found that 46% of San Francisco Bay Area residents plan to leave the area soon. San Franciscans cite the Bay Area's high housing and living costs as the largest reason for wanting to move. According to a new report from the real-estate company Redfin, Seattle is the top out-of-state destination for Bay Area residents. Other areas include Sacramento, California; Austin, Texas; Portland, Oregon; and Las Vegas.

The survey cites that 21% of those planning to move would like to move “anywhere cheaper”.  It seems that a good marketing campaign is in order to lure Bay Area dollars in our direction. 

On the Easterbrook Team, we have been reporting this phenomenon for the last 5 years on our blog.  The affordability index cites that only 12% of the residents can actually afford the median home of over $1.5M.

Are you curious to see the entire survey?  CLICK HERE

The Easterbrook Team
916.850.6050
EasterbrookTeam@spmc.com
www.homeloanworkshop.org