Click photo to enlarge…

Above, is Bill Koelzer, my husband, along with fellow Realty personage in the Donald Trump book, Blanche Evans, at the National Association of Realtors Convention in New Orleans.

Blanche is editor of RealtyTimes.com, and listed as one of the 25 most powerful women in Real Estate. On the right side of the photo, is me, Debbie Ferrari, South Orange County real estate Broker-Realtor.

Check out my new ad that is running in the San Clemente Journal and will soon run in many other newspapers and South Orange County media. We were so thrilled to have an entire chapter in the new Donald Trump best selling book:

Trump—The Best Real Estate Advice I Ever Received:
100 Top Experts Share Their Strategies.
(Amazon.com and nationwide bestseller)

Others among Trump’s top 100 experts include Steve Bollenbach, CEO, Hilton Hotels; Mortimer Zuckerman, chairman, U.S. News and World Report and New York Daily News; Blanche Evans, Editor, Realty Times; Dorothy Herman, president/CEO of Prudential Douglas Elliman, NYC’s largest realty firm; Bruce Karatz, chairman/CEO, KB Home, one of the country’s largest homebuilders; Barbara Corcoran, founder, The Corcoran Group, NYC’s largest realty firm; Jim Gillespie, president/CEO, Coldwell Banker; Jack Peckham III, Real Estate CyberSpace Society; Tom Kunz, president/CEO of Century 21; Leonard Lauder; chairman, Estee Lauder Companies, Inc.; Dave Liniger, cofounder/chairman, RE/MAX; Terry J. Lundgren, chairman/president, Federated Stores;
John J. Mack, chairman/CEO of Morgan Stanley; Bernie Marcus, cofounder, Home Depot; Bruce E. Mosler, president/CEO, Cushman & Wakefield global real estate; and Jonathan M. Tisch, chairman/CEO of Loews Hotels.

To advertise in the San Clemente Journal, see the below contact information:

PO Box 788
San Clemente, CA 92672
Phone: 949.492.8981
Fax: 949.492.8193
E-Mail: Don@sanclementejournal.com

http://www.sanclementejournal.com

If you want to advertise in the San Clemente Sun Post newspaper, contact April to have her place ads for you. Here is her contact information:

April Driggers
Account Executive
The Orange County Register, OC Post,
The Sun Post News, OC HOME Magazine,
Coast KIDS Magazine, Squeeze OC Magazine
(949) 454-7396
(949) 351-0817 (cell)
(949) 454-7388 (fax)
adriggers@ocregister.com
Assistant - Pat Stone
pstone@ocregister.com
949-465-5411

According to Prudential California Realty, these

are the ways and percentages showing how

home buyers find the home they buy:

36% - Real Estate Professional

24% - Internet

15% - Yard Sign

7% - Relative, Neighbor, Friend

7% - Home Builder

5% - Newspaper Ad

3% - Knew the Seller

1% - Magazine - Homes for sale book

So, if you are a Realtor, you better start investing in more online Internet resources so that you can start attracting real estate home buyers here in Orange County, California.

If you are a home buyer, choose a well established Internet Realtor to handle your purchase…search for “(name of city or county) Realtor” and see who comes up highest. For example, search on Google for “South Orange County Realtor” or “San Clemente Real Estate” and choose from one of the top ten agents shown there.

You might want to select ONLY from Realtors shown there; sites that are mere lists or directories of agents often are not as reliable as the sites of actual agents who have their own have earned their own web presence and did not have to ride the back of a realty directory to get found.

If you are a home seller, choose a Realtor who has impressive web presence, not only on the Google and AOL search engines, but in many major real estate web sites in the list of agents who are associated with a given city.

Here are some tips for home buyers who are

seeking an Orange County, CA home this spring.

Panoramic Ocean View and $500,000 in Upgrades Found in Fabulously Remodeled San Clemente Home See our TV commercial on this home: CLICK HERE. Have Debbie show you her newest listing… upgraded inside and out with a 180-degree Panoramic Ocean View from high atop a San Clemente hill. Only $2.1 million. For many pages of detailed description on dozens of upgrades, CLICK HERE.

1. Sell Your Current Home

At least put your home on the market at a reasonable price. It is taking longer to sell a home, now, so unless you can afford paying for two mortgages simultaneously, it’s best to either sell your old home first, or at least have it in escrow before looking for a new orange county home to buy.

2. Check Comparable Area Home Prices

Before you make an offer on a home, have your buyers agent research and get for you what is called a “Comparative Market Analysis.” This study of homes currently for sale and those that have sold within the past six months. Pay special attention to whether the homes in the CMA are actually comparable to the one that you are considering.

For example, there could be two homes of the same square footage and the same floor plan. But Orange County home one may be in a gated, guarded golf club community and the other home might be in a deteriorating part of town, or border a noisy freeway. Be sure it is apples and apples that are being compared. Beware of sites like Zillow.com which can be several months behind in their figures.

3. Make Sense With Your Offer

Nobody is going to GIVE you a home, so quit dreaming. Never make an offer that’s more than 10% below the asking price unless there are major extenuating circumstances. Low ball offers are usually perceived as an insult by sellers and when you make one, you are just cutting your own throat for further negotiations/counter offers on your Orange County Real Estate purchase.

If the home seems radically overpriced, have your buyer’s agent collect evidence in the form of a CMA and ask the seller’s Realtor to show it to the seller, or at least explain why the asking price of the home is quite different than what YOUR Realtor’s CMA showed.

You can always pay the seemingly high price, but offset that with concessions, such as asking the seller to pay the closing costs, etc.

4. “SOLD” on a Sign May Not Mean “SOLD”

Plenty of south orange county homes fall out of escrow so have your agent follow the progress of the escrows on homes that may have “gotten away from you.” Often, after a home falls out of escrow, sellers may become more realistic about a lower price or at least may eager accept another offer so soon after the old one went kaput. This applies to new home sales, too.

5. Get Your Credit and Finances All Ready.

Get yourself a letter of credit from a financial institution showing that you are approved for a loan sufficient to cover the purchase price of whatever the home costs that you are shopping for. Get copies of your credit history report or have the loan institution do it before they issue your letter of credit.

Call me with any questions.

Debbie Ferrari, Licensed Broker/Realtor:

Serving all of South Orange County, CA
Providing Realtor® and real estate services for: San Clemente, Dana
Point, San Juan Capistrano, Laguna Niguel, Aliso Viejo, Monarch Beach,
Capistrano Beach, Laguna Hills, Beach Cities, and South and Central
Orange County, California
Prudential California Realty
San Clemente Location: 2924 Camino Capistrano, San Clemente, CA 92672
23811 Aliso Creek Road, Suite 181 | Laguna Niguel, CA 92677
(Inside The Laguna Niguel Design Center | Corner of Aliso Creek and Alisa)
Call Me Toll Free: 888-547-2942
Voice (949) 496-4159 | Fax (949) 625-8622
Cell Phone: 949-463-4111
E-mail: deb4re@cox.net
http://www.debbieferrari.com

Here are some tips for consumers who are selling an Orange County, CA home this spring.

Sellers Should:

1. Put Your Home on the Internet. More than 80% of buyers use the web to find homes now. Listings with six good photos get almost 300% more viewers than ones with just one photo. (PS–Orange County listing Realtors…are you reading this?

2. Make your house look good. Hire “I’m Gorgeous Inside,” San Clemente’s own decorator firm to give you a consultation for $200. Or, just hire Gail Marino and Lisa Garcia, owners, to redecorate any dowdy rooms FOR you. Contact them at 949-361-0580 today. Their ideas will gain you far more in selling price than what they cost you for their brilliant redecorating of your home in the San Clemente or South Orange County area.

3. Price it Properly. Don’t ask too much. Get real. Weigh what it costs you to go six months before selling your home at YOUR price against what you’d get by dropping the price 10% NOW. The market a year or so ago is not there today…just accept it.

4. Emphasize Green Features — Swap regular light bulbs for the new fluorescent ones everywhere. Install faucet filters. This means lots to some people and can become a tie-breaker against homes of the same square footage.

5. Don’t Sell it as a Fixer-Upper - Go ahead and do the cosmetic things first. Paint with taupe, not white. Replace old kitchen and bathroom fixtures that have become outdated, such as toasters that recede back into the wall, chromed towel racks, goofy toilet roll holders, etc.

#

Our Orange County Weather gives us much Better Home Sales Statistics Than the Median Figures Below for the U.S.

Orange County, California real estate buyers and sellers caught a break from December through February, because our weather was cool, but quite good for house hunting during the early months, and Realtors were out with home buyers in full force.

The rest of the country, especially the East, faced dank winter days that kept both home buyers and Realtors at Home for many non-productive weeks.

—————————

The National Association of Realtors got out its crystal ball and made these predictions for upcoming housing market:

Last year there were 6.48 million existing-home sales, There are 6.42 million of them projected for this year and in 2008, there’s to be 6.66 million.

The national median existing-home price is projected to rise 1.2 percent to $224,500 this year. This is after a 1 percent gain in 2006.

Existing-home sales are projected to be reduced due to subprime lending restrictions, but they should rise gradually this year and next. Nar says that total sales this year will be fairly close to 2006 because last year’s sales begain high and ended up low.

Sales of new homes are forecast at 950,000 in 2007 and 981,000 in 2008, down from 1.06 million in 2006.

The new-home median price should increase 1.7 percent to $249,600 in 2007, after an increase of 1.9 percent last year.

There will probably be 1.50 million housing starts this year and 1.56 million in 2008. This is in comparison with 1.80 million starts last year.

Weather played a big role so far this year:

January’s icy spell slowed home shopping in December and thus fewer contracts were written on sales.

Then, February had terrible storms that pretty much twarted sales in a good part of the country—there had not been such a fold February since 1979. This, naturally, will keep March sales down with may transactions not closing until April and May.

You Must Buy a Property that is Equal or Greater in Value Than the One That You Have Sold or There’s No 1031.

Debbie Ferrari moderating a meeting of IRC/1031 Property Exchange Professionals.

To shelter 100% of the taxes on your exchange, you need to buy a property that is equal in value or greater than the one that you sold.

Be sure that you reinvest all of the cash that you got from the old property.

Then, buy one or more properties that are equal to or more than the net sale price of what you sold.

There are two factors to consider in figuring the equal or up number.

Debt Relief: This is the term for the money used to eliminate debt against the property, such as first, second, third mortgages, leins, etc.

Cash: This includes the amount of debt relief, plus the cash that you would get as seller. Together, these two sums comprise the target replacement value that you need to invest in the new property or properties to defer of 100% of the taxes on your sale.

Note: YOU CAN TAKE MONEY OUT if you want at closing. The IRS calls this money, “boot.” It IS taxable, but you are free to remove it from the exchange and keep the 1031 valid, if this feature was addressed in your early documentation.

Panoramic Ocean View and $500,000 in Upgrades Found in Fabulously Remodeled San Clemente Home See our TV commercial on this home: CLICK HERE. Have Debbie show you her newest listing… upgraded inside and out with a 180-degree Panoramic Ocean View from high atop a San Clemente hill. Only $2.1 million. For many pages of detailed description on dozens of upgrades, CLICK HERE.

At the open house I held on Saturday for this home, we had a good turnout. Earlier in the week, a Realtor had brought a lady by to see the home, but the Realtor had a comparative market analysis or nearby home prices that was not accurate.

I did the research and found a better set of COMPS for them, and on Saturday, the lady buyer came by with her husband and not the Realtor. The home’s owner was there and personally showed them all the home’s great features that he had added with loving care.

We are hoping that the couple comes back and wants to make an offer on the home now that they know the CORRECT comps and have seen the incredible view and amenities and improvements.

This home is located in the elite, high atop a hill section of San Clemente known as Palacio Del Mar in South San Clemente, CA.