What made the following Oceanside homes sell for what they did?  Were they priced correctly?  Were they clean and well staged?  Did everyone work for the benefit of both the home buyer and home seller?  Or were these homes abandoned, bank owned, REO homes that required an artist’s eye to see the value?

When you buy or sell Oceanside Real Estate you’re going to need to pay attention to each of the details above.  Don’t be fooled into thinking that your home will sell for so and so just because you’ve provided maintenance and loving care to your home for many years.  And don’t think that if you’re a buyer of Oceanside Real Estate that you can steal a home right out from underneath a seller.  Explore the homes below, compare them to your own home, and then do the right thing.  Call me to talk about how the sale of your Oceanside real estate home can net you everything you want, while at the same time bringing in multiple buyers who will be willing to pay what you need.

Real Estate Market Activity

Recently sold Oceanside homes

1005 Glendora Dr, Oceanside, CA

Sold 05/04/2012 for $365,000

4 beds, 3.0 baths, 2,660 sq ft

239 Del Mesa St, Oceanside, CA

Sold 05/04/2012 for $340,000

3 beds, 0.0 baths, 1,950 sq ft

5124 Maplewood Cir, Oceanside, CA

Sold 05/04/2012 for $290,000

3 beds, 2.5 baths, 1,327 sq ft

3621 Vista Campana S UNIT 110, Oceanside, CA

Sold 05/04/2012 for $166,000

2 beds, 2.0 baths, 1,585 sq ft

615 Vine St APT 27, Oceanside, CA

Sold 05/04/2012 for $92,000

1 beds, 1.0 baths, 525 sq ft

253 Asilado St, Oceanside, CA

Sold 05/04/2012 for $155,000

2 beds, 1.0 baths, 820 sq ft

4410 San Joaquin St, Oceanside, CA

Sold 05/04/2012 for $395,000

5 beds, 3.0 baths, 2,274 sq ft

1735 Avenida Alta Mira, Oceanside, CA

Sold 05/04/2012 for $290,000

4 beds, 2.5 baths, 1,678 sq ft

461 Avenida Canora, Oceanside, CA

Sold 05/04/2012 for $330,000

3 beds, 2.5 baths, 1,760 sq ft

Breakaway Dr, OCEANSIDE , CA

Sold 05/04/2012 for $463,500

0 beds, 0.0 baths, 0 sq ft

See Oceanside real estate and homes for sale
View Oceanside, CA mortgage rates on Zillow

Realtor Don Reedy

Real Estate Trends for Condos and Townhomes in Carlsbad

Carlsbad, California is one of the most beautiful places to live in Southern California. Prices for homes here tend to run higher than other North County San Diego Communities, partially because of the beautiful beaches, and partially because of the community itself.

Recently the prices of condominiums and townhomes in the Carlsbad area have increased.  At the same time, however, the number of homes that are for sale has increased as well, indicating that the demand for these condos may be decreasing.  This may be because the quality of condo for sale is increasing, indicating a potentially good sign for the housing market here.  We’ll just have to wait and see.

Average Sales Price of Carlsbad Condominums and Townhomes

As you can see by the chart above, the average Carlsbad attached home, either condo or townhome, is now at $577, 592.  This is for an approximately 1500 square foot home with three bedrooms and two and a half baths.

How to Search for Carlsbad Condos

Click here for Carlsbad Condos for Sale. If you need more help with questions about the City of Carlsbad, its benefits, schools or businesses, please contact Carlsbad real estate agent Don Reedy at your convenience.

Don Reedy – Part of the Hadley Home Team

Since Sandi Hadley is one of the premier real estate agents in all of San Diego, and one of the nicest as well, I thought it would be nice to introduce you to her.  Without further todo….

Sandi Hadley

Meet Sandi Hadley…

Experience

Sandi Hadley is a full time, professional REALTOR® specializing in North San Diego County including San Marcos, Carlsbad, La Costa Valley, Escondido, Vista, Oceanside, Valley Center, Encinitas, Bonsall and Fallbrook.

Honors

A consistent multi-million dollar producer, Sandi has been named Number One Agent in the San Marcos Office for dollar volume transactions and Number One in closed transactions. Sandi ranked #17 for number of closed transactions within Prudential in San Diego County, out of 1800 agents for 2008. Sandi Hadley also earned the Legend Award for being Prudential’s prestigious Chairman Circle for 11 years in a row– 1997 to 2008. Sandi also received the PREA 100 Award for being no. 65 in the company out of 45,000. This places Sandi in the top 1% of all Prudential agents nationwide.
Although she is one of the area’s top producers, Sandi is also dedicated to her clients. That dedication has been rewarded through the “Excellence in Service” Award for Customer Service and recognized by San Diego Magazine for Customer Service 2009.

Education

Believing that education is one of the keys to success, Sandi has worked to achieve three of the real estate industry’s most prestigious professional designations. Her GRI designation indicates that she is a Graduate of the REALTOR® Institute. The CRS designation after Sandi’s name shows that she is a Certified Residential Specialist. This designation is awarded only after a rigorous course of study and documented experience and is held by fewer than 3% of all REALTORS® nationwide. Sandi is also designated as a “Fine Homes Specialist” and “Resort & Recreational Specialist”. Other courses that Sandi has taken to help her in assisting clients in the most efficient manner include:
* VIP Sales Associate Course
* 1031 Exchanges
* Marketing Techniques for Today’s Market
* Secrets from the Archives of a Marketing Genius
* Joe Stump’s 4 Day Marketing Workshop
* Howard Brinton’s “All Star Power” 4 Day Workshop

Personal Information

Sandi Hadley came to real estate from a long and successful career in business. For 18 years, she was the owner of Linger Awhile, a chain of gift stores in San Diego County. Sandi owned three permanent stores as well as several seasonal shops at Christmas. Prior to that time, Sandi was a stockbroker. She was, in fact, the first female partner in a securities firm to go public in the United States.

Memberships

In addition to being a top-notch professional, Sandi is also a concerned member of the community. She is a member of the Board of Directors for Project Concern International and past member of the EYE Counseling and Crisis Center. She is a past Board Member of St. Clares Homes For Battered and Abused Women and also a past Board member of Harmonium. In honor of her commitment, Sandi was given the Volunteer of the Year Award in 1994 by the Philanthropy Council and Woman of the Year award from Womens Impact Network (“WIN”) 1997 for giving without expectation. She supports her husband who is a Board Member of San Diego Youth and Community Services.

Want to see how much we can do for you to sell your home? Contact us at the Hadley Home Team to tell us how. If you’re reading to start looking for homes to buy, then get your FREE VIP Membership to preview homes in all of San Diego County.

Just Stop Paying Your Mortgage Because You Want To?

That’s right, some people are deciding to not pay their mortgages simply because it is strategically one of a number of ideas that make sense in today’s economy.

Perhaps like me you read this article on Mortgage Defaults sometime in the last couple of days. As the article points out, homeowners that are simply walking away from their mortgages because they owe more money on their home than their loan balance have increased dramatically this past year.

What do you think? Good idea? Bad people? Bad idea?

I can tell you that the personal side of walking away from a mortgage strategically is what we in the legal and real estate world call foreclosure. I’ll be the first to say that some of my clients who have made this decision have done so with painstaking analysis of both their financial condition and their options, concluding that many of the so called refinancing or modification options are really thin air, not options at all. For these homeowners, walking away from their mortgage is simply what they must do to survive.

When homeowners walk away from their mortgage, what happens to your home value?

No warm or fuzzy here.  When your neighbor folds up his tent, walks away from his mortgage, and ultimately is foreclosed on, the value of your home goes down.  It’s the laws and regulations with regard to appraisals that mostly do you in.

Your home, Home A, is worth $500,000.  Home B, your neighbors, WAS worth $500,000, but now they have defaulted on their mortgage, and the bank bought the home at foreclosure for $400,000.  The bank wants their $400,000 back, and they are going to try to sell it for the first $400,000 that comes their way.  That means that when someone comes in to buy Home C, the same kind of home as yours and Home B, the appraiser MUST say the value of the home is as the last comparable sale, i.e. $400,000.

Don’t shout it’s not fair, because while it’s not, a home’s value is simply what the market will pay at any given time.  If homes just like yours are available at $400,000, then all of those homes have to sell before the next round of home buyers will consider paying more for your home.

Bad news, but better to be informed than not.

Contact Us if you want to talk about placing a value on your home today.

California Residential Purchase Agreement

Just wanted to share some notes over the next couple of weeks to all buyers and sellers regarding the newly amended Residential Purchase Contract.

Buying a Home?  New information on the Initial Deposit

As you probably know, when purchasing a home it is common for the seller to ask for an initial deposit from the buyer.  This initial deposit is of benefit to the seller, but also the home purchaser as well.  Let’s talk about a few purposes, and caveats, for the initial deposit.

Initial Deposit Represents Your Liquidated Damages

Let’s say you agree to purchase a home, and you have removed all the contingencies (reasons to not move forward).  The seller knows at that point that you have done your inspections, completed your loan work, and that within the next couple of weeks the loan will be funded, the property will close escrow, and the seller will take the proceeds from the buyer and move ahead with his or her life.

Often the seller of a home will not proceed with moving plans until all the contingencies have been removed, and they are certain that the home is going to be sold.  Imagine then, that the seller hires a moving company, pays to have the contents of the home shipped, and then, on the day escrow is to close and the home seller is to be paid, the buyer simply says “I’m not buying.”  That would not only be an irritating problem, but potentially a financially disastrous one as well, particularly for the seller of the home.

The California Purchase Agreement for homes specifies that in damages that are caused by either party for the specific instance above are to be limited by the initial deposit, and that initial deposit is defined as Liquidated Damages. So even, for instance, if the family selling their house suffers financially to the tune of $20,000, if the initial deposit was only $5000, then that limits the amount the seller can force the buyer to pay because of their default.

The initial deposit is also called earnest money, and by the term you can see that it is intended to be enough money so that the buyer and seller know that the consequences of knowing and abiding by the home purchase contract are serious.

Believe me, the issue of the initial deposit should be fully explained to you buy your Realtor in any real estate transaction. Initial deposits are very important in not only protecting financial interests, but can also play a part in the negotiating of the purchase itself. There are additional pitfalls to the initial deposit that are likewise impacted by other parts of the residential purchase agreement, and these also should be carefully reviewed with your agent.

If you have a question, please contact us, and if you are studying to become a better real estate consumer, then we hope this has been helpful.

Vista CA Condo and Townhome Pricing

Vista, CA is continuing to suffer from tepid sales of condominium and townhome sales.  The inventory of 78 homes (condos and town homes) have been on the market for approximately 160 days, and you can see that the trend for prices continues to fall.

With condo prices ranging from $65,000 to $349,000, it would seem that there are enough homes to appeal to buyers if they were serious buyers.  But again, this market continues to show no signs of improving soon, and so for both buyers and sellers our advice remains the same.  ACT NOW to Search for Homes while the market favors making money for sellers and making sense for buyers.

New California Home Purchase Contract

April 30, 2010

There’s a new Sheriff in town, and its name is the updated Residential Purchase Agreement from the State of California.  Beginning on Wednesday, April 28th, this new contract version took effect, and during the next couple of weeks we’re going to take you step by step through the changes that affect both how you purchase a home, and also what protections and changes are now available to home owners and home buyers while using this new contract.

The new contract is intended to accomplish a couple of things.

First, the contract simplifies the process somewhat by providing context for a number of forms that have to be filled out by buyers and sellers. Take the issue of agency, for example.

Before a Realtor can begin working with you on the contract itself, an agency relationship has to be formed. Both the buyer and the agent have to discuss what agency is, and how that agency relationship will affect the duties and obligations of both during the purchase process. There continues to be an “Agency Disclosure” form that outlines the obligations of the listing agent, the selling agent, the buyer and seller, but information about this form and its importance now appears on the first page, prominently, on the Residential Purchase Agreement itself. This should make it more apparent to the buyer or seller that this agreement (Agency Disclosure) is important.

Secondly, the Residential Purchase Agreement (RPA) follows a much more logical path, correcting some past fuzzy areas, making it clearer to both parties the timelines and who is responsible for costs and disclosures, and (sort of an insider correction for Realtors themselves) making it easier for buyers and sellers to know where to initial and sign.

In the next few weeks we’ll talk about specific aspects of the RPA, making you more informed, and hopefully making your purchase or sale of your home easier to understand.

This is an older post, but I like it because it’s playful and still informative. Sandi Hadley and myself (Don Reedy) work together in the North County San Diego housing market to list homes and help buyers purchase homes. We’re always available to talk, and that’s what this innovative post is about. Let’s talk…….760-802-9713.<!–blockquote>

In this video I talked with Caryn Leventhal, the owner of Senior’s Choice Handyman Services, about what she does, why she’s so good at what she does, and how that can really benefit you if you are thinking about buying or selling a home in North County San Diego.

As a Realtor I see many homes that would fetch much more from potential home buyers if just a few simple repairs had been done. I also see quite a few homes that can be “updated” with just the change of a screen, a switch, a fan or a little paint. See if your home would benefit from spending a little time with Caryn talking about how to make your home a nicer, and safer, place to live.

Senior Home Specialist

 Senior Real Estate Specialist to Exhibit at the San Diego Business Showcase

Don Reedy, a Realtor with Prudential California Realty in North County San Diego, provided information to seniors regarding issues and opportunities available to them at the San Diego Business Showcase on March 11, 2010. 

What is a Senior Real Estate Specialist?

Senior Real Estate Specialists® are REALTORS® qualified to address the needs of home buyers and sellers age 50+.

By earning the SRES® designation, a Senior Real Estate Specialist has demonstrated necessary knowledge and expertise to counsel clients age 50-plus through major financial and lifestyle transitions involved in relocating, refinancing, or selling the family home.  A SRES REALTOR® has received special training, gets regular updates, and is prepared to offer the options and information needed in making life changing decisions.

Free Home Sale Evaluation for Seniors at the San Diego Business Showcase

The networking event of the year was held at the Del Mar Fairgrounds on March 10, 2010. Don and his staff distributed materials that senior home buyers and sellers could use to start evaluating whether those seniors could or should be selling their homes. In the current real estate market in North County San Diego, you need experienced Real Estate professionals who specialize in Senior real estate matters. 

We believe that now may be the best time for many seniors to sell their home, and we want to provide information so you can be ahead of the curve in planning your home needs for the next number of years. 

Thanks for stopping by our booth, and remember that Don Reedy will be back at next year’s San Diego Business Showcase on April 7, 2011. We’ll provide you with valuable information, and we’ll make a friend at the same time.