San Fernando Valley Real Estate Podcast with Scott Himelstein

We’ve seen some great trends in the real estate market so far this year. Here’s what we’re keeping an eye on. Looking to buy a home? Get a Full Home Search   Looking to sell your home?  Free Home Price Evaluation It’s been awhile since we’ve given you a market update for Porter Ranch and the San Fernando Valley. There are a few statistics we’ve been tracking that we wanted to give you an update on. Back in March, the median price in the San Fernando Valley jumped to $671,500. It’s been sticking around that level since then. We’re still seeing a lot of low inventory, which is keeping the market very strong. Back in June, we saw a spike in inventory. In the three months since, we’ve seen a considerable drop as buyers continue to take advantage of the opportunity to buy with a low interest rate. We had 92 properties for sale in Porter Ranch in June, but we only have 75 on the market right now. The average time for a home to sell for the San Fernando Valley as a whole is 39 days, but it only takes an average of 32 days in Porter Ranch. The key to a quick sale is pricing. If a home is priced right, it should be sold within a week or two.The key to a quick sale is pricing. Only 2% of home sales in the San Fernando Valley are coming from foreclosures these days. With that being the case, you’re starting to see certain neighborhoods hit their pre-2007 highs in terms of home values. The California Association of Realtors predicts a more healthy appreciation of 2% to 4% this year.  That’s all we’ve got for now. If you have any questions about the market or anything else related to real estate in the meantime, don’t hesitate to give me a call or send me an email. We can’t wait to hear from you.

Having a warranty on your home can make life easier for homeowners, landlords, and tenants. Watch this short video to learn how.

In light of the recent natural disasters that have been happening around our country, I want to talk today about the importance of being properly insured. Looking to buy a home? Get a Full Home Search   Looking to sell your home?  Free Home Price Evaluation In light of the recent natural disasters in our country, I wanted to talk today about how you can be prepared for these kinds of happenings. To help me cover this subject, I recently met with Zachary Schneiderman of Schneiderman Insurance. Having insurance coverage is just one of the many ways you can prepare for potential disasters. Something Zachary suggests to everyone is to ask for an annual review. To do this, call your insurance agent and make sure that your home is insured to its current replacement value.  This is especially important given the fact that a study recently revealed a high percentage of homes to be uninsured based on their current replacement values.Make sure you are properly insuring your home and its contents. If you are underinsured by over 20%, certain insurance policies will carry clauses stating that they may only insure you for a percentage of the loss. Making sure you are properly insuring your home and its contents is critical. It’s also always a good idea to review your other insurance policies, as well. It is much better to be safe than sorry.  Even small, preventative measures can make a big difference. For example, you should absolutely save your insurance agent’s number into your phone. Also, store your policy number somewhere that is easily accessible.  Being able to contact your agent at a moment’s notice will become greatly helpful in the event of an emergency. However, remember to talk to your agent before filing a claim. An insurance agent will help you determine whether the claim is appropriate to file.  If you have any other questions or would like more information, feel free to give me a call or send me an email. I look forward to hearing from you soon.

In light of the recent natural disasters that have been happening around our country, I want to talk today about the importance of being properly insured.

Have you heard about Nextdoor? It’s a social networking site for neighborhoods and today we’re discussing some of its features.

Pocket listings can relieve a great deal of stress from the seller. However, there are several things to consider before listing in this way. Looking to buy a home? Get a Full Home Search   Looking to sell your home?  Free Home Price Evaluation Today I wanted to talk to you a little bit about pocket listings. A pocket listing is one that the seller intends to sell but hasn’t yet officially listed or put into the MLS.  Therefore, these listings won’t be found anywhere online. When it comes to a listing like this, the seller has often met with an agent who they’ve asked to find them a buyer.  Pocket listings have their own set of advantages and disadvantages. One of the biggest advantages is that you can maintain your privacy throughout the sale. Since pocket listings aren’t readily available to just anyone in the public, you have a lot more control over who sees your property and who sees your home. Pocket listings can work very well depending on your circumstances. This also means you have fewer buyers and fewer showings to deal with. Days on market is much less of an issue for this kind of listing since they aren’t on the MLS.  When my team and I work with these kinds of properties, we put them on something called the off-market property list. As soon as a person tells us they’re interested, we do our best to match the listing with homebuyers who we’re working with.  This has been very successful for us and many of our sellers. However, there are clear disadvantages to pocket listings. While fewer buyers do mean less stress, it also means that certain benefits associated with higher exposure are greatly reduced.  With pocket listings, our full, aggressive marketing package doesn’t work. These kind of listings naturally see less activity and foot traffic.  Ultimately, pocket listings can work very well depending on your circumstances. The decision whether or not to list in this way is really up to the seller—as only they can truly know and understand their individual situation.  If you have any other questions or would like more information, feel free to give me a call or send me an email. I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Pocket listings can relieve a great deal of stress from the seller. However, there are several things to consider before listing in this way.

Today I wanted to talk to you about this great new website that the Valley Relics Museum has set up for residents of the Valley. Looking to buy a home? Get a Full Home Search   Looking to sell your home?  Free Home Price Evaluation Today I’m joined by Oscar Urrutia, the vice president of the Valley Relics Museum. Today we’re going to talk about their new website. The Valley Relics Museum began over 30 years ago when Tommy Gelinas, the founder and curator of the museum, began collecting artifacts from iconic places in the Valley area. As places began to close down, he went out and grabbed these artifacts himself so that they could be enjoyed by generations to come. This museum is open to the public every Saturday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. with free admission.  The museum’s new website, MyValleyPass.com, was created to bring you a curated list of all the arts and entertainment events happening in the San Fernando Valley. The website now has some of those events posted, so be sure to check it out to plan your weeks ahead. What’s so great about this website is that it puts all the events on one page so that you don’t miss ones you wouldn’t have known about because you live in a different part of the Valley. The Valley Relics Museum is open to the public every Saturday. The Valley Relics Museum also has their own events planned in the coming weeks, including the San Fernando Valley Summer Drive-In Nights, where they will be showing locally-filmed movies including "E.T." and "The Karate Kid." You’ll be able to listen to the movie through your car stereo when you drive up, and there will be a live band performance before each movie—so be sure to show up early. The museum has also set up a new historical film bus tour that will be starting in September, where participants will be taken to historic film locations around the San Fernando Valley. There will be two tours available for you to choose from, so look out for news of those tickets going on sale as well. If you have any other questions about MyValleyPass.com, you can contact Oscar at 818-678-4934 or through their website. If you have any questions for me or you’re looking to buy or sell a home in the area, give me a call. I’d be happy to help.

 Ryan La Fleur from Four Seasons Nursery shares some tips on how to spruce up your landscaping with fresh plants. Looking to buy a home? Get a Full Home Search   Looking to sell your home?  Free Home Price Evaluation Spring is here! That means it’s time to start adding some plants around your home. Today, Ryan La Fleur at the Four Seasons Nursery is going to share some tips on the best ways to spruce up your landscaping.  The plants you should choose to add a little pizzaz to your home have to do with timing. Right now is the best time to plant pretty much anything. If you get plants from a nursery, you need to keep in mind that they have been babied. Keeping up with the care of those plants is going to take some time and energy.  The good news is, spring allows plants to adapt to their surroundings. Instead of experiencing a major climate change, the weather gradually increases. Spring is like a training period for summer, which means if you plant them now, your plants will thrive in the hotter weather. Planting in the spring allows plants to adapt to their surroundings before summer hits. If you’re selling a home, your plant selection is a little more focused. Although flowers can add a great pop of color for home showings, they will die very quickly and need to be replaced if the home doesn’t sell that particular weekend. It’s better to buy a plant that offsets the color of your pre-existing landscaping. For example, if you have green bushes, get a few plants with red or gold in them that will stay that color. You won’t have to replace them as often, and you still get a great pop of color.  If you have any questions for Ryan, you can reach him at (818-700-0092).  As always, if you have any questions about real estate, please don’t hesitate to give me a call or send me an email. I look forward to hearing from you! 

Today I’m going over a few tips for preparing your home for the spring market.  Looking to buy a home? Get a Full Home Search   Looking to sell your home?  Free Home Price Evaluation With spring right around the corner, I thought today would be a good time to give you some tips on how to prepare your home to sell in the spring market.  First, you need to neutralize and depersonalize your space as much as you can. Buyers want to be able to walk into a house and visualize themselves there, which means it’s time to start decluttering and stowing away items you don’t need either in the garage or in a storage unit. You don’t need to take down every personal photo, but toning down the personal items is a must.  Next, now is a good time to replace any flooring or touch up any areas that need new paint. A fresh coat of paint goes a long way in making your home feel move-in ready. Remember to stick with neutral paint colors! Remember to stick with neutral paint colors! You also need to to make sure you clean up the outside of your home. The outside is going to give off the first impression, which means you need to cut back the shrubs and put away any lawn decorations. It would also be a good idea to power wash your exterior and give your front door a fresh coat of paint!  If you have any questions about the market or real estate in general, please feel free to give me a call or send me an email. I’m always happy to help!