Santa Clarita Valley Real Estate Podcast with Brandon Montemayor

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We’ve been seeing some changes lately in the market, so today we wanted to highlight a few things that you need to pay attention to, both in Santa Clarita and in the nationwide market.

Inventory is starting to rebuild, which we haven’t seen in a long time in Santa Clarita. Over the last five to eight years, we were hovering in the range of 300 to 500 homes as far as inventory was concerned. Right now, we have about 650 active homes on the market. At the same time, 330 homes have sold in the last 30 days, so the market is still healthy and normal.

As our inventory rebuilds, and should interest rates continue to tick up, this will knock out purchasing power for certain buyers. At this point, there’s only one thing for sellers in the market to do: be more competitive. In most cases, if the buyer pool starts to thin out, sellers need to be more competitive. Homes just aren’t selling as quickly as they have been.

In addition to this, we are seeing homes that are upgraded and priced right moving quickly and often selling with multiple offers. A lot of “experts” are saying that the market is going to start pulling back in the next year, while others are saying that we have another five to seven years of growth because of the economy.

At this point, we won’t know if the market has pulled back or not until three months after it has happened. What we do know is that it’s always important to have a game plan in place. Whether that is using the equity in your home to invest, possibly moving out of the area, upsizing, downsizing, and what options you have and what upgrades you can do.

No matter what your situations is, we’d love to work with you to develop a game plan. There’s no reason to panic right now, but it’s always important to have a contingency plan. If you have any other questions in the meantime, don't hesitate to give me a call or send me an email anytime. I look forward to hearing from you soon.

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Are home valuation tools like Zillow’s Zestimate accurate? Can you count on that information when determining how much equity you have, what your home’s value is, and what’s going on in the neighborhood?

We hear questions like these regarding those online tools all the time. The truth is, if you’re just trying to get a general idea of the neighborhood values, a Zestimate might get you close. However, I’ve seen many instances in which Zestimates price a home $50,000 to $100,000 higher or lower than they ought to have per the market.

Zestimates and their like determine the value of your home based on an algorithm that incorporates the information of comparable home sales in the area. It can’t take into account the fact that, say, your community is gated, or if it’s located in a tract that borders another tract; one low sale in a neighboring tract can throw your Zestimate off completely.

Additionally, Zillow can’t analyze what’s inside of your home, so it can’t take into account any upgrades and improvements you’ve done that might affect your value. It also doesn’t factor in the condition of the properties surrounding your home. If your home is a model match for the one next door, but yours has been upgraded where the other hasn’t, the Zestimate won’t be able to see the difference.

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 Want to Sell a Home? Get a Home Value Report

You’re thinking about selling your home in the next two to five years—what should you be doing between now and then to ensure that you get the most value out of your home as possible when it comes time to sell?

We have many ways to approach this problem. We are more than happy to come out to your house and discuss value-adding upgrades and upgrades that will be a poor investment. Having an agent’s help in that area will itself prove invaluable, since not every home will have same upgrades to boost its worth.

We can also send you our blank home inspection list. If you can start checking projects and repairs off that list sooner than later, it will save you a lot of time and stress when it comes time to list your home.

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It is starting to heat up out there in the Santa Clarita Valley. Summer is around the corner, and so is the peak buying season for our real estate market. We haven’t given you a market update in a while, so I wanted to give you a quick update on the latest numbers and where we’re at.

Inventory is something you’ve probably been hearing about a lot. Over the last few years, we have been hovering at very low levels. We are nowhere near where a balanced market should be. Right now, we have 452 active listings on the market to go along with 517 pending sales.

Over the last 30 days, we have had 317 closed home sales. Anything over 300 is a great number. The interesting thing about our inventory is that of the 452 homes, 252 of them have been on the market for less than 30 days. More than half of our inventory is fairly new. At the same time, 96 homes have been on the market for more than 60 days.

Another factor we need to consider is interest rates. Even though they are creeping up, our low inventory and high demand brings a lot of opportunity to the market for buyers, sellers, and investors.

If you want to know more about the market and where we see it heading over the next year, give us a call or send us an email. We watch these things closely and would be happy to chat with you. We look forward to hearing from you soon.

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So the bottom line is this: If you’re thinking of selling your home in the next few years, let us know and we can discuss whether adding solar panels to your property is the right choice for you.

If you have any other questions or would like more information, feel free to give us a call or send us an email. We look forward to hearing from you soon.

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There is a burglary about every 20 seconds in the United States. Today, I have a few tips to help you prevent your home from becoming a target.

There are six main things that burglars don’t want you to know:

1. Burglaries don’t always happen at night. That’s what we see in the movies, but the majority of burglaries happen between 12:30 and 2:30 p.m. The last thing the criminal wants to do is run into you. Protecting yourself in the middle of the day is most important.

2. They know when you’re not home thanks to social media. If you’re on Facebook or Twitter, don’t post exactly where you are if you are out of the house or on vacation. They recently caught a burglar who hit 33 different homes. He simply watched his targets on social media and looked at the location when they posted a picture to determine whether the family was home or not. Be careful when posting photos, and don’t make a status update about your week-long vacation.

3. They don’t like your security practices. If there is an easily identifiable alarm system for your home, then your home is 300% less likely to be targeted. Floodlights, leaving a car in the driveway, leaving a TV on, and turning on the lights inside all help deter burglars.

4. Great targets advertise their weapon supply. Is there a bumper sticker on your car that says you own a weapon? There are a lot of burglars out there who are incentivized to steal weapons because they can sell them for a lot of money. Advertising your weapons can actually make you more of a target rather than deterring burglaries.

5. Shrubs and architecture make great hiding spots. If you have big shrubs in front of your house that someone can hide behind to get into your house, that’s not good. The more open your landscaping is, the less likely it is for someone to try to break into your home because a neighbor might spot them from the street. If you do want to plant something in front of your window, make sure that it’s something thorny that they won’t want to jump through to get to your home.

6. Don’t leave your valuables out in the open. A lot of the time, these criminals look through the windows to see if there are any laptops or stuff that’s easily accessible for them to go after. Put your valuables away. I also recommend hiding family calendars because those can advertise where you are going to be.

Don’t advertise your location on social media.

I hope you found these tips helpful. I have something else to offer you today—one of my mentors and coaches, Steve Scanlon, just published his second book, “Still the Lizard.” It is an amazing read that explains what the lizard brain is and how it works.

If you want a free copy, be the first one to email me with the four traits of the lizard brain. (Hint: The answer can be found at www.rewireinc.com.)

As always, if you have any other real estate questions for me, just give me a call or send me an email. I would be happy to help you!

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Today I’d like to give you a few tips for saving money around the house. These tips might seem silly or simple at first, but they can save you a lot of money over time and they’re often overlooked by sellers:

1. Make the switch to energy-efficient lighting. A standard incandescent lightbulb costs around $180 in electricity to operate each month. If you’re using a CFL or LED light, however, that’s only going to cost you $30 or $40. That’s $100+ in savings each month, and if you add up the totals for the life of the bulbs, the sum is enormous.

2. Fix leaky faucets right away. Even if a leaky faucet only drips one drop per second, that adds up to over 3,000 gallons in a year. By fixing those leaky faucets immediately, you can save a lot on your water bill.

3. Change your air filter regularly. When you let your filter get clogged up, it works overtime to compensate. That leaves you with dirtier air and a higher utility bill. Make sure your filter is changed every few months.

4. Custom temperatures. Whether it’s with a smart thermostat or an old-school programmable one, being able to set custom temperatures in your home for when you’re not there will save you thousands over the years.

5. Overwatering your yard. This will not only keep your water bills sky-high, but it could also cause damage to your lawn as well.

6. Pay attention to the water heater temperature. During warmer months, you can drop the temperature in your heater down a little bit to save you a bit more without affecting anything else.

7. Poorly sealed windows. If a window or door is letting in a draft, make sure you get it sealed with some caulk or weatherstripping to keep things insulated and keep your energy costs down.

These are just a few great ways to save money over time as a homeowner. If you have any questions for me or want any more tips, don’t hesitate to reach out and give me a call or send me an email. I would love to hear from you.

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Tax season is here, so I want to discuss a few things about property taxes and what to do when you have some questions on those. 

If you plan on buying anything or getting a loan in the next couple of years, how you file today or in the next few months will have a huge impact on what you qualify for on future loans. 

People write off a lot of items. Whether you are a business owner or you have the ability to write income down or defer things, make sure you give us a call if you are thinking about buying an investment property or primary residence. We have to make sure that you have enough income on there to qualify for whatever home you are looking to purchase. 

There are a few other things you should know with regard to property taxes. 

July 1 is the beginning of the tax year for property taxes. October 1 is when tax bills are mailed. The first installment is due November 1. December 10 is the final due date you have to make if you don’t want to pay any penalties. 

If your property tax bill is too high, we can help you challenge it.

Then, the second installment is due February 1. April 10 is the last day for you to pay the second installment without penalties. 

Then, June 30 is the end of the tax year, and everything starts back over on July 1.  

If you get a property tax bill and you believe that it’s too high, let us know. We can help you challenge that.

If your property tax bill is too low, then keep that to yourself! 

If you believe that your bank is supposed to pay your property taxes because you pay impounds, and that number seems to be off or there’s not enough in the escrow account to cover it, keep an eye on that stuff. This is especially important in the first few years of homeownership because the bank can go way off and end up having to assess you additional fees or bump your payment later on. 

If you have any other questions about property taxes, just give us a call or send us an email. We would be happy to help you.

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We are charging into the end of the year. There is just a month left in 2017, so I wanted to share some of the latest numbers from the Santa Clarita real estate market, as well as a few exciting things for you to look forward to.

Inventory is going a little crazy right now. That said, we are seeing a bit of a slowdown in the market as we head into the holidays.

Typically, the market slows down around the holidays, picks up in mid-January or early February, and then slows down again for a bit when school lets out. Then the market is hot all through summer, slows down when kids go back to school, picks up again for a bit, and slows down during the holidays again.

We didn’t see the cycles in our market a few years ago since there were so many foreclosures and short sales, but in the last couple of years, we have started to see those typical market cycles. That is good news.

Although things have slowed down a bit for now, there are still some good options out there.

There are 375 active homes in Santa Clarita as of the filming of this video. That is a really low number considering that we are closing 325 to 350 homes each month. As a result, we probably have one month of inventory available. At best, we have six weeks. This means that if no new homes came on the market, we would sell out in a month or six weeks.

There are 580 pending sales in escrow right now, and 223 homes have closed so far this month.

Now, let’s break down those active listings:

Something to consider is that 223 of those active homes have been on the market for 60 days or less, which means about 150 of them have been on the market for over 150 days. If you’re curious how these numbers impact your personal situation, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me. 

We have about one month of inventory—six weeks at most.

Now, there are two exciting things I want to share with you.

First, we’re rolling out a new website in the next couple of weeks. You will get a notification once it’s ready. We are so excited about the new features on this site. We’ll even have password-protected areas for our VIP clients, friends, and family members.

Next, we are adding to our client appreciation program in 2018. Right now, we own popcorn machines, tables, chairs—anything that you might use or rent for a party, which you can borrow from us for free. We want to add at least one item to our party supply each month as we roll into 2018.

We have more exciting news for you in the future, but we just have to finalize a few things first. If you have any ideas on which items we should add to our party inventory, please let us know.

As always, if you have any real estate questions, just give us a call or send us an email. We would be happy to help you. Happy Holidays!

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It’s almost Christmas. Can you believe it? We are looking forward to serving you in the new year, but before we get there we want you to know about some great holiday lights around town. Each of these places is right here in Santa Clarita, so you and your family can pack up in the car and check them out for yourselves:

Cotton Blossom Lane, Royal Oaks Rd., and Stevenson Ranch. These streets are all next to one another and they boast over 55,000 lights for you to see. Pretty much any street in this area off of Hope Parkway or Hemingway is great.

27841 Crown Circle. This is an eight-house courtyard where the whole community gets together to put on an amazing light display. They even pass out hot chocolate for the people passing through!

Essex Place. This is right off of Hillsborough Parkway. This amazing street is also known as Reindeer Lane. You’ll see Santa’s reindeer scattered throughout the displays. Keep an eye out for Rudolph and his shiny nose!

Homestead Place. This street in Saugus Canyon has a special place in my heart because it’s the home to some of our favorite clients, the Ang family. You’ll see lights strung back and forth between the houses and some really amazing decorations.

Wakefield Court. This is also in Saugus Canyon and affectionately known as the “Wakefield Winter Wonderland.” This is quite possibly the most popular street in Santa Clarita as far as Christmas lights are concerned.

We encourage you to check out all of these places.

We hope you take the time to enjoy a few of these places this holiday season. If you have any questions for us or any real estate needs in the new year, don’t hesitate to give me a call or send me an email. I would love to hear from you.