We recently had the pleasure of participating in Fall Harvest Festivals for two of our local Elementary schools. Coyote Ridge and Vencel Brown both hosted festivals that we helped to sponsor. There was all kinds of events, booths, prizes, costumes, and performances.

Sit back, relax, and enjoy the montage!

As always, please reach out to us if you need any help with real estate in Roseville!

As winter approaches, it’s important to prepare for inclement weather. Even if you have a vacant property, you need to ensure your house is winterized.

1. Inspect the roof. Look for broken, torn, or split shingles or tiles on your roof. Address any damages and get them repaired now. Check valleys for debris, such as leaves.

2. Clean the gutters. It’s easier to clean gutters now than deal with clogged gutters later. Clogged gutters can lead to roof leaks and potential dry rot problems down the road.

3. Check the drainage. Ensure water runs off the yard properly. You don’t want water to flood your property.

4. Insulate exterior plumbing. Even in Sacramento, it gets cold enough for pipes to freeze. Of course, if you live in other areas, I encourage you to consult local experts.

5. Keep thermostat on in vacant homes. Set the thermostat to 55 degrees. Pipes can freeze and break in a vacant home over the winter. Houses could flood without anyone there.

6. Inspect the fireplace. Clean your fireplace now if you have one.

7. Check the exterior of the house. Walk around your property. Check windows, doors, and other crevices for any cracked caulking. Re-caulk if necessary.

8. Inspect the screens for holes. Ensure there aren’t any holes or slits in your screens. If so, you’ll need to address this before it gets colder.

9. Change smoke and CO detector batteries. It’s easiest to change all the smoke and CO detector batteries at once.

I hope you all have a wonderful winter! Do your rain dance and hope for rainfall this winter. Give me a call or email if you have any questions. Talk to you soon.

Today I have Marc Brinitzer with me, and he's going to explain some important changes that the real estate market will be experiencing this year.

On October 3rd of this year, the real estate market saw some big changes. Why is this?

It's because of changes coming to the TILA-RESPA Integrated Disclosure (TRID), and they will affect everyone involved in real estate, from consumers to Realtors to lenders. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) issued a final rule amending regulations in the Truth in Lending Act as well as the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act.

So, what does this mean for you? The TILA-RESPA rule consolidates four disclosures for closed and credit transactions secured by real estate property into two different forms.

One of these forms is a loan estimate that must be delivered or placed in the mail no later than the 3rd business day after receiving the consumer's application. A closing disclosure must be provided to the consumer at least three business days prior to consummation.

These new disclosures must be provided by a creditor or mortgage banker that receives an application from a consumer for a closed end credit transaction. However, creditors will still be required to use the current Good Faith Estimate, HUD 1 and Truth in Lending forms for applications received prior to August 1, 2015. After that date, these forms will no longer be used.

The TILA-RESPA rule includes some new restrictions on certain activity prior to consumers receiving the loan estimate. These restrictions took effect on August 1, 2015, regardless of whether an application was received on that date. These restrictions include imposing fees on a consumer before the consumer has received the loan estimate, or requiring submission of documents verifying information related to the consumer's application before providing the loan estimate.

Please don't hesitate to contact us with any questions about this issue. We understand that it may seem a little confusing or overwhelming. We would be happy to clear up any misconceptions that you may have!

Over the last few months, we have seen prices stabilize and sales decrease. We are in the midst of a shift, from a strong seller's market to a more normal, balanced market that you would expect to see this time of year. In our opinion, there are two major reasons for the shift.

The first is affordability. The housing affordability index has gone from 67% to 44% in Roseville, and we've seen similar shifts in communities across the area. The housing affordability index refers to the percentage of people that can afford a medium priced home within a county. The drop in index really means that there are fewer buyers on the market than there have been.

The second cause of the shift is the increase we've seen in new construction. In Roseville alone, we have 8 major builders and 18 new home communities. This new construction is competing for buyers with resale homes, which will cause prices to flatten out and remain stable.

With all that being said, let me tell you right now that the sky is not falling and it's not time to panic. The economy is good, interest rates are still low, and current lending practices are fundamentally sound.

The decision to buy or sell should be based on your personal needs and wants vs. what the market is actually doing. If there is anything we can do to help you out, or any questions we can answer, don't hesitate to reach out.

Today, we're coming to you from A Dash of Panache, located on 217 Vernon St. in downtown Roseville. The owner, Scott Alvord, joins us to show us around.

A Dash of Panache offers many different things. There is a cafe opened during the day that serves sandwiches, salads, and soups. The handmade ice cream here was voted Best of the Best in Roseville.

Also, there's a party room for themed birthday parties. Everything is included, from the invitations to the cake to the thank you notes. A Dash of Panache offers royal princess parties, diva parties, crazy hair parties, and tea parties. It's a great place for a custom birthday party!

Finally, there's the French-Deco Tea Parlor. This is the only one in the Northwest United States. The Tea Parlor is the main hub of the business. You can stop by for high tea, lunch, and multi-course gourmet meals. Winner of Best Teahouse, the French-Deco Tea Parlor is a very popular place that's perfect for baby showers or bridal showers.

If you haven't yet, come on down and check out A Dash of Panache. If you have any questions for Scott, or would like to book an event, call (916) 788-4386 or email [email protected].

As always, if you have any real estate questions, give us a call or send us an email. We look forward to hearing from you!

Today, I want to talk about a question that I get often: What is the value of Zillow? Zillow is a fantastic website for buyers and sellers to go to and get basic information on properties. The website provides you with a Zestimate, which is Zillow's estimate of a property's value. This is a great tool if you're trying to do some basic research on a house you may be interested in.

However, buyers and sellers need to be a little cautious when using Zillow. The first thing I want to point out is that not all homes for sale are listed on Zillow. Zillow does not have access to the Multiple Listing Service. I do put my listings on Zillow in order to get my sellers maximum exposure, but if you're looking for a home, you could be missing out on some great properties.

Also, be wary of the Zestimate. Zillow uses trailing data to come up with their home values, data that happened two or three months ago. When you're in a stable, flat market, that Zestimate could be pretty accurate. However, if the market is trending up or down, those Zestimates can be off by 5% to 10%.

Zestimates also don't factor in the unique features and values of a house. They won't know if you have a pool, or what kind of wood floors you have. All of these things factor into the value of your home, so the best way to come up with an accurate home value is to have a real estate professional come out and look at the property.

The last thing I want to point out is that Zillow sometimes flags homes as foreclosures, when really the home is just in the foreclosure process. That doesn't mean that the home is for sale.

The most important thing is that whether you're buying or selling, you need a professional real estate agent to guide you. If you have any questions, give me a call or send me an email. I look forward to hearing from you!

It's time again for another Mortgage Minute Update for the Roseville area market.

Due to struggling international markets, the threat of rising interest rates has been put on hold. They remain stable, and will likely remain stable, until markets around the globe begin to recover. It looks like there is now only a 40% chance that rates will begin to slowly rise.

Right now, 30-year fixed-rate mortgages are in the low 4% range, 15-year fixed rates are in the high 3% range, and VA and FHA loans are about .5% lower than conventional rates. We'll probably see a bit of a rise by the end of the year, but nothing significant enough to worry about.

In the past, conventional loan interest rates have been very sensitive to a person's credit score. So, if you have a low score you get a higher rate, if you have a high score you get a lower rate. With FHA and VA, it used to be that everyone over a certain score got the same interest rate, but that's now changing. Soon, FHA and VA rates will be far more sensitive to your credit score, much like conventional loans are.

If you have any questions about the mortgage world, you can reach our preferred lender, Marc Brinitzer, at (916) 761-3760 or [email protected].

Of course, if you have real estate questions, don't hesitate to reach out to us. We're always available to help!

Today I want to speak about what buyers are looking for in Roseville homes. There are three very basic things that people seem to be looking for.

A clean home. This may seem very obvious, but dirty homes simply don't sell. Homes that are cleaner and better taken care of also sell for more money. Cleaning your home is simple and easy, so there's no reason not to tidy it up before a sale. Install new paint and carpet if you need to.

Remodeling is also what buyers would like to see. Updated kitchens and bathrooms are the two places that you will want to fix up. Granite countertops are pretty much standard nowadays. When you think about all the new homes on the market, remodeling is important if you want to compete.

Location is also extremely important. People want good schools, easy freeway access, and nice neighborhoods.

If you're thinking of selling your home and you have these three components, your home will sell for top dollar with no problems.

I realize not everyone can change their location, but there are ways to highlight other features of your home. If you need help selling, please don't hesitate to contact me.

I would love to get you top dollar for your home!

We're in the middle of summer, and we probably have at least another month of high temperatures in store for us. So, where can you take your family to cool off? I have three different places to share with you today.

The Roseville Aquatics Complex: This place features an Olympic size pool, a zero-depth recreational pool with beach entry, a 150-foot waterslide, and a children's play area.

Folsom Lake: You can water ski, wakeboard, tube, sail and swim on this lake. It's a wonderful place to visit if you just want to relax for a while. In the midst of our drought it's not as full as it should be, but it will fill back up sooner or later.

Lake Natoma: This is another great lake in the area, and it also features the Sacramento State Aquatic Center. This facility allows you to rent sailboats, paddleboards, kayaks, canoes, jetskis, and more.

These are some great ways to cool off this summer, but these aren't your only options. If you would like more ideas, please don't hesitate to contact me.

As always, refer to me as your #1 resource for real estate in the Sacramento area!

Today I just wanted to provide you with a brief real estate market update for Roseville and Sacramento. I want you to know that it's been a fantastic year so far, and we're looking to continue onward with this momentum. 

Currently, inventory is very tight in the lower price points below $500K. This is pushing up prices, which is creating a move-up market. This is actually creating more demand in our higher price brackets because people are selling with a lot of equity left that they can use to move into bigger and better homes. 

This is causing prices to increase across the board, but this increase is very gradual right now. If you've been looking to buy a home, then now would be the time to do so because prices will only continue to increase. 

If you're trying to sell your home, I need to know what you expect out of a home sale in order to pinpoint what you can expect. 

If you need any help buying or selling in Roseville or Sacramento, please don't hesitate to contact me. I'm always willing to help you!