Los Angeles and South Bay Real Estate Video Blog with Lenny LaRocca

There are 10 reasons why selling a home during the holidays is actually very smart. Looking to buy a Los Angeles home? Search all homes for sale  Selling your Los Angeles home? Get a FREE home value report There are some important reasons to list your home during the holidays. People looking for homes during the holidays are much more serious, for obvious reasons. More than likely, they have to buy a home, which is why they're out during the holidays. Less competition. These serious buyers have fewer homes to choose from on the market, which means less competition for you. The supply of homes will increase dramatically after the new year begins, so there will be less demand for your home. Less demand means less money for you when you eventually sell. Houses show better when they're decorated for the holidays. Houses show better when they're decorated for the holidays. Buyers are more emotional during the holidays than other times of the year. Some people are forced to buy before the end of the year. This could be for job relocation. January is traditionally the month for employees to begin new jobs. Since transfer employees can't wait until the spring, you have to be on the market now to capture this market. You can still be on the market but restrict showings during the six or seven holiday celebration days. We'll still coordinate showings to make things convenient for you, your family, and your guests. You can sell now for more money and we can delay the closing of escrow until after the holidays. By selling now, you may have an opportunity to be a non-contingent buyer during the spring when many more houses are on the market. I hope you found these points informative. If you're thinking about buying or selling a home, don't wait to give me a call. I look forward to hearing from you!

Renovating a home is a huge undertaking that requires a lot of time and money. Today, I’ll give you a few tips on how to avoid some major renovation mistakes. Looking to buy a Los Angeles home? Search all homes for sale  Selling your Los Angeles home? Get a FREE home value report When you renovate your home, you are committing a lot of time and money to the project. Renovating a home is almost like running a business! Since renovations can be overwhelming, I wanted to go over a few mistakes for you to avoid. First, I want to offer a quick tip. Make sure that you take the time to prepare before you start renovations. Choose your contractor and meet with them as if you are hiring them to work for your business. Now, here is a list of things to keep in mind when renovating your home: Do your research. Again, make sure you are prepared. Make sure your measurements are correct. Incorrect measurements can cost you a lot of time and money during the renovation, so make sure you have the right numbers. Get the proper permits. Some people skip permits in order to save some money. However, cutting corners will cause you a lot of anguish in the future, especially when it comes time to sell your home. Make sure you get all of the required permits that you need. Set a realistic budget. During home renovations, it's important to keep the scope of work in mind. Know that you will probably go over the budget when all is said and done. If you’ve ever completed a home renovation under budget, then I applaud you because that is very rare. Most renovation projects go over budget, so be prepared. Don’t DIY the demolition. Sometimes it’s best to hire a professional. Don’t go overboard. Don’t demo too much of the house. Work with an electrician to make sure everything is up to code. Don’t overload on current building trends. If you want to modernize your home, pick a few current building trends that you really like. If you go overboard and use all of the building trends, buyers may not be interested in your home when you put it on the market 10 years from now. Pay attention to the quality of the materials you use. While you may be improving your home for your own enjoyment, remember that the quality of materials you use during the renovation will directly impact the resale value of your home. Those are just a few things to keep in mind during the home renovation process. If you have any questions or if you are looking for a referral for a good contractor or electrician, just give me a call or send me an email. I would be happy to help you!

We're back with the second portion of our video series on real estate investing and the 1031 exchange. Today we're discussing what it takes to qualify. Looking to buy a Los Angeles home? Search all homes for sale  Selling your Los Angeles home? Get a FREE home value report For the second portion of our two-part series about the 1031 exchange in property investments, I'm joined once again by 1031 exchange expert Phil Antwan. You can see the first portion of this series here. As I mentioned before, I get lot of questions about the 1031 exchange from clients. Another common question is about which entities can complete a 1031 exchange. Phil points out that  any entity can complete the exchange–a trust, an individual, a family trust, an LLC, an s-corp, a c-corp, a partnership, an LP, joint venture–any taxed entity can do a 1031 exchange. They can also acquire this property anywhere in the country, which is wonderful. For instance, if you're selling property here in California and you need to acquire property on the East Coast or the South, the state and federal governments will allow you to exchange that asset for one or multiple properties throughout the country. The bottom line, according to Phil, is that the IRS says that when you go into this exchange, you have to go into like-kind property. A lot of people get confused by this, but really, "like-kind” by definition means any investment real estate to any investment real estate. In other words, it can't be your primary residence, or your second home, or a vacation home. To qualify, it has to be a property that you use for business, as an investment, or to collect income from. You could sell a vacant lot here in California and buy a condo in Hawaii and still qualify for a 1031 exchange. With the 1031 exchange, you can acquire property anywhere in the country. The goal is to acquire the new property for equal or greater value than what you sell for and to move all the equity from the sale into the purchase. If you do that, the federal government will literally defer all capital gains taxes as you acquire a new investment asset. So which properties do and do not qualify? Phil reminds us that your primary residence will never qualify, nor will a second home or vacation home. However, if you live in a duplex or a triplex, you can actually exchange the investment portion of the sale and take advantage of the primary residence portion of the sale, so in effect, you're using the property for two different uses: personal use and investment use. You can definitely separate that use via your CPA and do a 1031 exchange. We hope you learned a lot from our two videos about the 1031 exchange and all the benefits it provides to you as an investor. If you have more questions about it, please call Phil at (213) 479-8800. If you have any questions about real estate or you're thinking about buying or selling in California, give me a call. We're both happy to help!

How does the 1031 exchange benefit investors? I've brought in an expert to help me break it down in the first of two videos about the topic. Looking to buy a Los Angeles home? Search all homes for sale Selling your Los Angeles home? Get a FREE home value report Today I wanted to introduce a two-part video series to you about the benefits of a 1031 exchange. I'm joined by my good friend Phil Atwan, who is an expert in tax-deferred 1031 exchanges. Phil has been in this business in some capacity since 1982, so he knows a thing or two about it! I recently received some great questions from viewers about this topic, so I've enlisted Phil to help us break it down. So what would motivate an investor to sell their property and re-leverage their investment? According to Phil, investors buy properties for three different reasons. The first is to create cash flow. Investors want the property to work for them so that they don't have to. That's why they will own multiple types of properties including commercial and residential. The second reason is that they want appreciation, or for the asset to be worth more in the future than what they paid for it. Thirdly, they want a tax write-off. Why? When you create income from these properties each month, you have to pay taxes on them. Investors are looking for depreciation, which allows them to write off the asset to reduce the amount of taxes they have to pay to the state and federal government. The 1031 exchange allows you to defer capital gains taxes.What does the the 1031 exchange help investors accomplish? There are two things. Because you initially bought the property to create income and you want it to be worth more and offer a tax write-off, as time goes on and your equity grows, you want to re-leverage it so that you can create more units that will create additional income. You'll have more income from different sources, or as Phil calls it, "different doors." Secondly, you want additional appreciation. You want to diversify the appreciation and equity that has already grown not only into different doors but into other properties that are going to be worth more over time. Ultimately, as you buy up, you create additional write-offs of depreciation. Essentially, you want to redo what you've already done, but on a greater scale. Additionally, the 1031 exchange allows you to defer the capital gains taxes. When you sell a property, you have to pay long-term capital gains taxes up to 20%, you have to pay the new healthcare tax, and you have to pay the recaptured depreciation tax at 25%, among others. When you do an exchange, you literally get to keep all those tax monies that you would normally pay and put it into the acquisition of better properties that will generate more income, appreciation, and, hopefully, more tax write-offs. I hope this gives you a good foundation of understanding on the 1031 exchange. If you have any questions about the first of our two videos on this topic, you can give Phil a call at (213) 479-8800. Stay tuned for the second part of our discussion on the 1031 exchange. In the meantime, if you have any questions about real estate, give me a call or send me an email. I'd be happy to help!

Tax deductions are a huge benefit to buying and selling real estate. Join us as we explore some of the most common tax breaks. Looking to buy a Los Angeles home? Search all homes for sale Selling your Los Angeles home? Get a FREE home value report In case you were not aware, there are a lot of deductions to take advantage of in real estate. Even if you are aware of some of the deductions, you might be surprised to know how many of these deductions are out there for buyers and sellers. My first piece of advice to you is to talk to your financial advisor or tax planner. Consulting a professional will help you get a clearer picture, but here are some common deductions that you can take advantage of. If you are selling a home, you can deduct all your transaction costs. This includes commissions, title fees, escrow, and any other costs associated with your property, as well as any cost incurred to improve your property.Consult a professional before making any decisions.You also have the luxury of being able to take advantage of the capital gains tax as a seller. If you have lived in your home for two of the past five years, you can deduct $250,000 as a single person, or $500,000 as a married couple to avoid capital gains tax. Most of my clients use this deduction to their benefit each time they buy or sell real estate. Keep in mind, however, that if you decide to lease the property out, you cannot lease it out for more than three years at once to use the deduction. If you don’t, you can defer the gains on the property through a 1031 exchange when you sell. I’ll be bringing in a professional in a future video who will talk in more detail about this great tool. As a buyer, many of your transaction costs are deductible including escrow, title fees, and any other fees associated with acquisition. Your biggest deduction, however, is your mortgage interest deduction. You can deduct the total interest you paid on your home loan throughout the year. That’s a great deduction. If you have any questions or are considering buying or selling, give us a call or send us an email. We look forward to hearing from you.

Looking to buy a Los Angeles home? Search all homes for sale Selling your Los Angeles home? Get a FREE home value report I’m talking to lending expert Tony Cangas about Brexit, interest rates, and the future of the real estate market. Tony has been a mortgage broker for 21 years and he works with American/California Financial Services, the oldest brokerage in the South Bay. Brexit, the United Kingdom’s decision to leave the European Union, has directly impacted domestic interest rates. England’s economy is suffering greatly, and there is global malaise in the economy. As a result, people are putting their money where it’s safest: in U.S. mortgage-backed securities and treasuries. Right now, money is pouring in, which raises the price and lowers the yield. Yield is directly tied to interest rates, which is why rates have gone down in the wake of Brexit. Tony predicts that rates will remain low through the end of the year. In the wake of Brexit, interest rates may get even lower.There has also been a lot of talk about the 10-year note yield. Right now, it is at 1.58% but experts predict that it will drop to 1%. That’s crazy because we just saw a huge drop down from 2%! That 10-year note is a good barometer for long-term interest rates. Based on what we’re seeing now, Marcus expects that we will remain in a low interest rate environment for a long time. In fact, rates might get even lower. From June to July, we have seen a robust refinance and purchase market. In fact, the market tripled in the last month. There are a lot of great opportunities for those who have been waiting to refinance. That said, housing inventory is starting to creep up in our market. For the last year and a half, inventory levels have been incredibly low. There are fewer cash offers as well, which implies that some of that foreign money may be drying up a little bit. On the other hand, the real estate market tends to slow down this time of year anyway, due to vacation or returning to school. Still, the real estate market remains fairly strong and market values continue to increase. If you have any questions for Tony, give him a call at (310) 540-1330 X 109 or send him an email at [email protected]. As always, if you have any questions for me, please don’t hesitate to reach out. I would be happy to help you.

Looking to buy a Los Angeles home? Search all homes for sale Selling your Los Angeles home? Get a FREE home value report There’s more to advertising your home than just a “for sale” sign. To get it sold faster, it’s important to explore other marketing tools as well. Talk to your real estate agent about possible marketing that he or she can do. This is something that should be established from the initial signing of your contract with them. “ Don't stop at the "for sale" sign. ”Some homes have virtual tours and photographs online. If you choose to go that route, don’t forget to include the floor plans. That way people can see the full layout of your home and better determine if it’s right for them.   If you have any questions, give us a call or send us an email. We would be happy to help you!

Looking to buy a Los Angeles home? Search all homes for sale Selling your Los Angeles home? Get a FREE home value report As of April 2016, we had 1,384 available listings in the local housing market. Around this time last year, there were 1,458 homes for sale. That’s a slight 2.2% decrease in inventory. Check out the graph mentioned in the video. This year, we currently have 1,015 pending sales. This is great news, since we had 909 last April. Interestingly enough, that's a 9.1% year over year increase, despite declining inventory. So far, 836 listings have sold. This time last year, we were at 866. That’s a 5.9% drop in closed sales. Finally, we have around 1.7 months worth of supply. Thus, the market currently favors sellers. Buyers don’t have much to choose from, so sellers gain more control. They can get away with selling for top dollar, because there’s less competition right now. Ultimately, in our current market, if a property is priced correctly, it’ll move quickly. The Los Angeles market currently favors sellers, so you have the opportunity to maximize profits and sell for top dollar right now. Also, interest rates are at record lows under 3.5%, so buyers can benefit from securing low mortgage payments. Don’t miss out! If you’re thinking about buying or selling a home in the surrounding area, give me a call or send me an email. I’d be happy to speak with you today, especially with any questions you might have!

Looking to buy a Los Angeles home? Search all homes for sale Selling your Los Angeles home? Get a FREE home value report Most home sellers cannot afford to purchase another home before selling their current property. Many people will need to live in their homes while they sell it, so I wanted to offer some tips for the best ways to do just that: Start packing right now. This is the secret to making your home clutter-free. Remove anything that you don’t need and either store it, donate it, or chuck it. You’ll be surprised at how spacious your home feels. Make sure your home is squeaky clean. I know this seems simple, but it’s amazing how often people try to sell their home when it needs a good cleaning. I cannot emphasize enough how clean your home needs to be. When you’re on your hands and knees scrubbing,  just remember that a clean home can net you up to $10,000 higher in a sale. Maintain your privacy and safety. You have to realize that people will be looking inside your drawers and closets, so don’t keep anything that you don’t want anyone to see. You’d be surprised at how many prescription drugs or other valuables go missing when we show homes. It just goes to show!Clear your schedule and make your home available for any and all showings. This is especially true in the first week that your home is on the market. You have to make some sacrifices if you want to sell your home for top dollar. If you have any further questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me. I look forward to continuing this conversation with you!

Looking to buy a Los Angeles home? Search all homes for sale Selling your Los Angeles home? Get a FREE home value report Should you buy a home without a professional inspection? I would say no. There are a lot of things that a home inspection can reveal about a property that aren’t visible to the naked eye. When selecting a home inspector, be sure to hire one who has a good referral basis and has been in the business for a while. You can also look up the American Society of Home Inspectors to get a list of professional, qualified home inspectors in your area. Once you’ve chosen a home inspector, insist that they compile a written report with photos. Photographs are important because there are areas of the home the inspector will go through that the buyer typically doesn’t look at. These are just a few reasons why you should not skip the home inspection when buying a property. If you have any questions, give me a call or send me an email. I would be happy to help you!