C.A.R. stands for California Association of Realtors. Most, but certainly not all, agents and brokers belong to this association that are licensed in the state of California. Agents and brokers pay dues to belong to this association. C.A.R provides many resources to agents and brokers. One very important benefit is providing contract forms to its members. Undoubtedly if you have purchased or sold a home in the state of California, you have become familiar with these contracts. There are many different contracts depending on the situation. For example there is the listing contract and there is the purchase offer contract. Most sellers and buyers may look at these contracts as, well, just contracts, but they are very important. These contracts are reviewed by C.A.R. real estate attorneys 4 times a year. Changes are constantly being made, all for the benefit of sellers and buyers. New contracts are also created. Just a few years ago there weren’t too many contracts devoted to Short Sales and Real Estate Owned properties. Now there are many. It is important to note that these contracts protect sellers and buyers. Badly worded contracts are the cause of lawsuits. Every once in a while agents and brokers find clients that want to change some of the language of these contracts. Not saying it can’t be done, because it can, but caution is advised. Agents and Brokers are taught from the beginning of their careers, not to ever act as an attorney or give legal advice. Making requested changes to contracts can force agents and brokers to do just that. It is dangerous not only for them, but also heir clients. If a seller or buyer wants to make changes to preexisting C.A.R. real estate contracts they should seek the advice of a real estate attorney. These C.A.R. contracts are well thought out by C.A.R. attorneys. One of the benefits of sellers and buyers using agents and brokers that are members of C.A.R. is being able to use these contracts. It is a good idea to become familiar with these contracts. Read them and understand them. Use C.A.R. contracts when selling or buying your next home.

See Contracts part 1 here

See Contracts part 2 here

If you are buying a home in San Diego, chances are very good that you will make a decision about getting a home warranty policy. Home warranties have been around for a long time, and buyers and sellers are subject to making the decision on whether to buy one or not every time an offer to purchase a property is presented. Why is that so? Because in the CAR (California Association of Realtors) purchase agreement there is a line item expense that asks if a Home Warranty Policy is to be purchase and whether the buyer or the seller will pay for it.

First of all what are home warranties? They are like an insurance policy that covers certain items within the home for repair or replacement. If you are a buyer, a seller may offer it from the beginning, but if they don’t you can ask for it yourself when making the offer. Generally home warranties cost $350-$500. A lot depends on what is covered. There are many people either in the real estate profession or home owners that say it is not worth the cost. However if you are a buyer you really have nothing to loose if the seller offers it or you ask for one because they are paying for it. But here is the deal. As a buyer make sure you get the policy and then actually read it. So if something goes wrong you will have a good idea what the costs to you will be and if the repair is even covered. Below is a link that reviews home warranty companies. Reading through many of the reviews, it will give you an idea on other homeowner’s experiences. It may help you decide to get a policy or not. But always keep in mind when reading these reviews that there are always people that will find a fault. It is like reading Yelp on a restaurant review. It may be a good restaurant, but there is always someone that will give it a bad review. Consistency of the reviews is the key.

Home Warranty Company Reviews

When you are trying to decide with your agent the selling price of your property you are about to list for sale, you need to have an estimate of the net proceeds. You really should be given 3 estimates; Best case, worse case and probable. When you have an accepted offer, your agent should give you another estimate of proceeds based on the contract price.  There should not be any surprises to you when you do close and you receive your final closing statement. The bottom line is a real estate transaction is all about money. A seller needs to keep up to date on the net proceeds. If you are a buyer, your agent needs to be giving you an estimation of costs on any property you are about to make an offer on. So before you sign a offer, look carefully at the estimation of buyer costs. Just like real estate commissions, real estate closing costs are negotiable. Lender, Title and Escrow costs are all negotiable and should be looked at very carefully. Below are examples of net proceeds to a seller and estimated costs for a buyer. They are based on a selling price of $739,000.

When you look at the newspaper, usually you see only one statistic or maybe 2 concerning San Diego County real estate market rends. The one that is most often shown is the latest median price of homes that have recently sold. First of all this number is for the entire San Diego County market and for all types of properties. Do you think this latest revelation is very meaningful to you? Well, it really isn’t. But make no mistake about it, market trends and statistics are important to both a buyer and a seller; however the only trends and statistics that are really important to you is for your “local” market. What’s a local market? This is the area that surrounds the subject property. That area is usually a mile, but not more than two miles. If you are a seller, you need these stats to help price your property for sale. If you are a buyer you need these stats to help you make a realistic offer to purchase. If you are a seller, having your agent provide you with these stats is really the first step in determining the asking price of your property. This is not a CMA (comparative market analysis); it is called a Comparative Market Activity report. The next step would be a CMA. Here are some of the items that would be valuable to a seller and buyer to know. They will be shown as a percentage of the homes sold. How many of the recent sold properties offered concessions, what was the average market time, what is the architectural style, how many homes were owner occupied, how many had sales restrictions, how many were REOs (foreclosures), how many were 1 story or 2, how many sere sold with conventional- FHA- VA and seller financing. If you are a condo buyer, what is the percentage of condos that are owner occupied and what were the HOA fees. Up coming blogs will get much more specific with examples on what stats you should be looking for and why those stats may be important.

Thinking of buying a home? Do you have children? Finding out what schools your children will be going too is always a high priority for parents. Some think it is even more important that the new home that is being considered. So click on the link below for many of the school districts throughout San Diego County.

San Diego County School Boundaries