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When you own a home, some hidden, extra costs can sneak up on you.

Buying a home is not just about the money you spend up front. It's also about the rest of the money you have to spend beyond the actual purchase of the home.

To start, find out what the property taxes are, what your water bill might be, and what a standard electric bill will be in the home you're buying.

Before buying, find out the cost of property taxes and average utility bills.

You might also need to buy furnishings before you move in.

If you have any other questions about the additional costs of buying a home or you're thinking of selling your house in the Los Angeles area, give us a call or send us an email. We'd be happy to help you.

Buying a Los Angeles home? Get a full home search

 Selling your Los Angeles home? Get a free Home Price Evaluation

Why shouldn’t you make a hard sell when selling your home?

First of all, if you’re selling your home, you really shouldn’t be around the open house. You can try to sell your house for all the reasons you think it’s great but that might not translate to potential buyers. If you leave the open house, on the other hand, you allow those potential buyers to give unbiased, objective feedback to your agent, which will only help you sell your home in the end.

You shouldn’t be at your own home’s open house showing.

If you’re thinking of buying or selling a home, call or email us today for a free real estate consultation. We look forward to hearing from you!

Buying a Los Angeles home? Get a full home search

 Selling your Los Angeles home? Get a free Home Price Evaluation

Why don’t you need to wait until spring to sell? Although spring tends to be the most active time for the real estate market, it doesn't mean it’s always the best time to sell. The real estate market is active for 365 days a year.

During other times of the year, many people don’t list their homes because they believe that they have to wait until spring. If you can cater to those buyers in different seasons, you will have less competition to sell and you could possibly get a higher price. It’s easy to emphasize your home’s seasonal amenities too, no matter the time of year.

Spring isn’t the only time a successful sale is possible.

If you have any questions or are thinking of buying or selling, give us a call or send us an email. We would love to hear from you soon.

Buying a Los Angeles home? Get a full home search

 Selling your Los Angeles home? Get a free Home Price Evaluation

While the starting bidding price for a home at auction may be a good deal, it doesn’t necessarily mean the final price will be. If you’re thinking of buying a home at auction, you should be wary of a few things and do some research before making an offer.

First, make sure you’re strict with your budget. Don’t go over your final price just because you got wrapped up in the excitement of a bidding war.

Another thing you should know is that when you buy a property at auction, you won’t be able to get any warranties, guarantees, or inspections. Find out if the auctioneer is going to add those charges on top of the sale price. You should also find out if there are any liens on the property.

Be strict with your budget.

You also may be responsible for paying the property taxes on the house you just bought, which could make what looks like a good deal today become a really bad deal down the road.

If you have any questions for us or if you’re thinking of buying or selling, give us a call or send us an email. We look forward to hearing from you!

Buying a Los Angeles home? Get a full home search

 Selling your Los Angeles home? Get a free Home Price Evaluation

If you are preparing your home for the market, don’t do any major renovations or completely remodel the home.

Why? In most cases, minor upgrades actually get a higher return on investment than major renovations do. Construction projects usually cost more and take longer than you would expect.

Minor repairs will get you a better return on investment.

If you are going to invest in your property before selling, spend money on the exterior of your home. Research shows that if you spend money to improve curb appeal, your home will be much more attractive to buyers.

So don’t worry about gutting the kitchen or completely renovating your home; minor repairs will get you more money in the long run. If you have any questions about preparing your home for the market, give us a call or send us an email. We would be happy to help you!

Buying a Los Angeles home? Get a full home search

 Selling your Los Angeles home? Get a free Home Price Evaluation

Before you start shopping for a home, it’s very important that you get a pre-approval letter.

When you get pre-approved, the lender will tell you that you can get a mortgage up to a certain amount. In other words, the lender tells you what you can afford to buy so that you can set a budget before you start looking for a home.

A lot of sellers don’t want buyers coming through their homes if they are not pre-approved. A pre-approval letter shows that you are a serious buyer, not just someone who is out looking at homes for decoration ideas.

A pre-approval will tell you how much home you can afford.

Also, when you have a pre-approval, you will be ready to purchase when you find a home that you love. In any market, good homes will sell fast. If you are not pre-approved, you might miss out on that home. Sometimes when you don’t get the home you love the first time around, nothing else you look at afterward will seem good enough. You don’t want to be stuck in that situation.

If you have any questions about pre-approvals or finding a home in today’s market, give us a call or send us an email. We would be happy to help you!

Buying a Los Angeles home? Get a full home search

 Selling your Los Angeles home? Get a free Home Price Evaluation

If you’re in the market for a new home, there are a number of elements you should look for in a potential house. Décor, however, should not play a part in your decision to make an offer.

It’s important to remember that you’re buying the house itself and not the decorations that you see around it. Most home sellers will not include their furniture in the purchase. In fact, the home may have even been staged by a professional decorator who is trying to make the house look the best that it possibly can.

Most sellers will not include furniture with the home.

Instead, measure the dimensions of each room and picture your own furniture inside the house. Look only at the bones of the home and focus on things like the floor plan and square footage.

If you have any other questions about what to look for in a potential house, feel free to give us a call or send us an email. We’d be happy to help!

Setting a realistic budget is incredibly important when you buy a home. A realistic budget is different than the amount you are pre-qualified for.

For example, just because the bank qualifies you for a loan amount of $400,000 doesn’t mean you can afford to make that monthly payment. You don’t want to become a slave to your mortgage payment.

Before you hit the streets looking for houses, sit down and make a list of your monthly expenses. Then, come up with a number you are comfortable spending on your mortgage payment in addition to your regular monthly expenditures.

A good rule of thumb is to take one-third of your monthly gross income and set that aside for your mortgage payment. It is also a good idea to have six to nine months of mortgage payments saved in the bank, plus a little extra to take care of any home repairs you might need to make.

Your mortgage payment should be about 1/3 of your monthly income.

If you have any questions, give us a call or send us an email. We look forward to hearing from you!

Don’t trust everything a real estate advertisement says. It’s an error to assume that every ad is pure fact.

In order to truly understand a real estate ad, you need to learn to decipher real estate lingo. For example, “cozy” means “small,” and “as-is” means “fixer-upper.” If there are a lot of exclamation points in an ad, it’s because there is so little to say about the property in the first place.

Deciphering real estate lingo helps reveal the truth about a property.

Ultimately, if a real estate ad sounds too good to be true, it probably is. This is just another reason why you should always view a home with your agent before submitting your offer, if at all possible.

If you have any questions, give us a call or send as an email. We would be happy to help you.

Thanks to the Internet and virtual tours, it is very easy to buy a home without seeing it in person. However, we advise our clients not to buy a home without actually seeing the property first.

Virtual tours and online photography can be deceiving. Plus, it’s really hard to get a sense and feel for the home by only looking at it online. You need to actually walk through the place yourself.

You need to walk through the home to get a feel for the property.

We have many Chinese clients and understand that it’s sometimes not possible to see the home in person. In that case, we can always do a video conference at the property so that you can get a live tour.

As with all properties, we also recommend hiring a home inspector to look at the property and send you an assessment of repairs. The home will also be looked at by an appraiser before you purchase.

If you have any questions, give us a call or send us an email. We would be happy to help you!