Real Estate Information Archive

White-Rodgers Recalls Home Heating and Cooling Thermostats Due to Fire Hazard

More than one million thermostats sold in the United States and Canada since 2006 are being recalled because the batteries can leak and cause a fire.

Product: The thermostats are made by White-Rodgers, but some have different brand names printed on the front, including ComfortSentry, DICO, Emerson, Frigidaire, Maytag, Nutone, Partners Choice, Rheem, Ruud, Unico, Water Furnace, Westinghouse and Zonefirst.

Hazard: The alkaline batteries used in the thermostat can leak onto the circuit board posing a fire hazard.

Remedy: Consumers should check thermostats for battery icon on the left side of the blue lighted screen, if the battery icon is not shown, contact White-Rodgers to receive a free repair or a replacement thermostat.

Consumer Contact: White-Rodgers toll-free at (888) 624-1901 from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. CT Monday through Friday or click here.

Carol Chamberlain 714-726-3166 or Email, Jim Chamberlain 714-726-3144 or Email

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This is an easy fix which I did right after I saw this video

Adjoining Owners Equally Responsible for Shared Fences and Boundaries:
As of January 1, 2014, landowners with properties that share fences and other boundaries must adhere to a new law, codified as California Civil Code (CC) § 841. According to CC § 841, adjoining landowners share an equal benefit from any fence dividing their property and therefore “shall share equally in the responsibility for maintaining the boundaries and monuments between them,” unless otherwise stated in writing. As a result of this shared obligation, any landowner who intends to incur any cost for such a fence must provide a 30-day written notice to the other landowners stating:

• A notice of the presumption of equal responsibility for the reasonable costs of construction, maintenance, or necessary replacement of the fence;
• A description of the nature of the problem with the shared fence;
• The proposed solution for the problem;
• The estimated construction or maintenance costs to address the problem;
• The proposed cost sharing approach; and,
• The proposed timeline for addressing the problem.

1. Homes have increased in value and the demand is up. There was a 10.1% increase in home values in November to $180,000 average from a year ago per National Association of Realtors. Nine consecutive months of home price increases accross the U.S.

2. Record low loans will be a thing of the past. Rates will be increasing to 3.5-4% says senior Analyst Greg McBride with Bankrate.com. Now, barring any unusual changes in the economy interest rates should hold steady. Cost of getting a FHA will mostly likely increase this year. Reserves are at all-time lows and with the Federal Housing Administration Fiscal Solvency Act of 2012 it gives them authority to raise premiums to build back up its reserves

3. Inventory of existing home down again in November by 3.8%, fewer distressed properties for sale, and lowest inventory since 2005.

4. New rules to protect home buyers from predatory lenders. Ability to repay rule, which takes place in January 2014 but most lenders will put in place this year. This should stop the risky practices such as interest only and "No Doc" loans that help create this mess in the first place. To many loans in the past set the buyer up to fail with loans they could never afford.

5. Home-Equity loans are back. Just like home loans, home equity loans have been going down too.  Home prices appear to be going up again lenders will be competing for your home equity business.

6. There are less and less distressed home deals to buy. Banks are giving distressed homeowners a chance to stay in their homes by giving them principal reductions as a way of avoiding short sales. 

7. New construction is up a whopping 27% over a year ago. Record low interest and increase in employment has spurred builders to break ground on new home projects.

8. You missed the bottom of the home sales market but prices are still at record lows. It’s time to check with a Realtor to see if it’s right for you to buy a home now. If you wait too long you may find the market will pass you by again.

Call Carol at 714-726-3166 or Carol@carolandjim.com

1. Accepting the buyer with the highest offer without regard to the other contractual terms.

2. Not properly handling mu1tiple offer situations with multiple buyers.

3. Not properly handling back-up offers.

4. Entering into an agreement with no earnest money deposit from the buyer, or a very small amount.

5. Entering into an agreement before verifying the buyer's financial ability to dose escrow.

6. Not disclosing known material fact affecting the value or desirability of the property.

7. Not providing the buyer with legally required disclosures.

8. Not obtaining the buyer's written acknowledgment of disclosures.

9. Not considering whether to require the buyer to remove contingencies.

10. Not excluding items from the sale that the seller wants to keep.

U.S. housing permits rise for the third month in May 2012. The Commerce Department said builders broke ground on 3.2% more single-family homes and April figures revised up to 744,000 - fastest building pace since October 2008. 780,000 permits were requested by builders the largest number since September 2008.

South Florida has seen an increase in foreign spending on real estate and tourism, Canada, South America, and even Europeans have been actively buying properties in areas of distressed residential real estate.

Austin Texas homes prices rise 6.5%, home prices appreciating at a higher rate than the national average and this includes distressed sales according to a report by CoreLogic.

Las Vegas is beginning to see a glimmer of renewed hope with a 90.4 percent increase in building permits and new-home builders have started increasing their home prices by $1000-$5000.

 Arizona ranked third for construction job growth in May. It’s happening all over the country signs of renewed hope that the housing market is truly on the mend.

California, 44% percent of all properties sold had multiple offers this year. Orange County California, personally are sales are up, multiple offers, homes selling over listing price, and Open Houses with a continues flow of potential buyers. Inventories are at the lowest level in years. Brea California today: 44 active listings, 92 with offers to purchase accepted by sellers (pending sales or taking backup offers), and 141 closed home sales since the first of the year with an average of 26 per month.

Steady builder confidence in June good article atThe Natioanl Association of Home Builders (NAHB) webiste

Opportunities knocking, will you be the one to take advantage of it this time?

If you are thinking about buying or selling a home, give us a call at (714) 726-3166 or send us an email to explore your options and to find out when is the best time for you to make a move. Texting ok

I stopped by McDonalds today and their doors were locked at lunch time, a sign on the door said "Come back after 2PM" So I drove over to Carl's Jr.  and had lunch there. Afterward I headed to Best Buy and was told that 11-12 was not good time to stop in and it would be better if I came back after 3 pm.  Better yet, why don't you call next week and set up a time to stop in? Pretty absurd, right! Yet, home sellers do this all the time! 

I blame this on the sellers' real estate agent. As an agent we are supposed to council our home sellers on the comparable sales, pricing their home properly, preparing the house for show, and making the home available 9 AM - 7PM every day of the week until they have an accepted offer. Sellers should not negotiate the time that an agent would like to show the home. They are with their clients for a certain amount of time and have a route of showings planned. When a seller makes their home unavailable, they may have lost the one buyer that was willing to make an offer. Put a lock box on the property for easy access! I guarantee you will sell the home faster and for a higher price if you make the home available with a lock box.

A pet peeve, if you haven't guessed it, is sellers wanting the agent to come at a different time than they are requesting. Remember the agent isn't picking the time the "buyers" have available to see your property. I show a lot of property during the week at lunchtime and evenings. Showing during the week, you can sometimes be the first in on a new listing and beat the rush of the weekend.

You can learn a lot from new home builders. Most people enjoy looking at new homes because they are staged. Builders hire decorators and pay them huge amounts of money to make their homes look amazing.  Lights turned on, tables set, furniture is optimized to make rooms look bigger, grass is green, bushes trimmed and flowers planted. Everything is clean and its place.  Times may be tough but you still can scrub, clean, pickup, and remove the extra clutter. This will do a lot to help sell your home faster and for a higher price.

Home sellers, when than phone rings and agent wants to show your house remember that this may be the agent that may write you an offer. It only takes one buyer to buy your home and the one you turn away might have been that one. Make your home available! 

Reward the kids for keeping their rooms clean. We had some sellers that gave gold stars to their kids for picking up their rooms and making their beds. They had a schedule of goodies that were they could exhcange the gold stars for, this included  going to the show, a frozen yogurt, a trip to McDonalds, etc. Make it a game. Plan things to do on the weekend so that you will not be frustrated as the Realtors wander through your home trying to sell it for you. There are a thousand things you can do.  This will lower your stress level over selling.

If you are thinking about buying or selling a home, give us a call at (714) 726-3166 or send us an email to explore your options and to find out when is the best time for you to make a move. Texting ok

Today my wife (Carol) had a call from a new client who was very angry with her. She hadn't even shown them any property yet. The client was referred to us by their lender whom she had had occasion to work with before. The buyer called Carol about a specific home in Anaheim Hills they had fallen in love with on paper. Carol called the agent who said they already had a strong offer over list price with 25% down and great FICO scores, and he would call if anything happened to that offer, even taking her cell phone number. Carol conveyed the information back to the buyers and emailed them several other properties similar in size and price range. The arrangements were made to view the available properties on Saturday 4 days later. The next day the buyer saw it still available on the web and called the listing agent. He told them the home was available and would they like to see it.

Now you know why the buyer was angry with Carol?

After about 20 minutes of conversation going over what the selling agent and Carol talked about, the client realized Carol conveyed the information the selling agent had given to her. Of course when Carol called back the listing agent his comment was the first offer fell out and they accepted another offer on the same day. In the past we had had a good relationship with this agent and would never have figured he would of played these kinds of games. This is not the first time and it probably won't be the last time this type of thing happens to all of us in today’s cloudy real estate ethics market.  We Hate Disingenuous Real Estate Agents!

If you are ready to start the process you will find our Home Buyers Guide Helpful

If you are thinking about buying or selling a home, give us a call at (714) 726-3166 or send us an email to explore your options and to find out when is the best time for you to make a move. Texting ok

We are experiencing a change in the market and it started in the last quarter of last year and has continued to improve in the first quarter of 2012. If you have been trying to buy your first home you have seen an increase in prices and properties selling pretty fast. The last four first time buyers we found homes for lost more than 3 houses before they were successful in finding a home they could buy. That right they lost out on at least 3 homes before they were successful at getting a signed contract to purchase.  Looking at the sales chart below you find some very interesting numbers.

1. Days on market have decreased.
2. Properties sold have increased.
3. Sold and Under Contract are beginning to zero out New homes on the market.
4. High end properties are dropping in price.
5. First time buyer homes have started increasing in price.

Great news for sellers properties in the first time buyer category are selling fast and are going up in price.  Bad news since a large number of the first time buyer homes are vacate we are not having the normal upward home purchases.  There are a lot of good news in the data above but it’s too soon for balloons and firework. Read the data and make your own conclusions.

Thinking about buying a home and are tired of inaccurate data on the major websites. Our data comes straight from the MLS and the data is up dated daily.  To sign up at www.forhomeinfo.us  to have homes that fit your criteria emailed to you daily.

No matter how bad the housing market has been. I have never lost $80,000 on a house in one day. Unfortunately a number of my friends did just that lost over $80,000 in one day. Now I know that’s unusual and if you leave your portfolio along it will probably come back over the long term if you were invested in good companies.

Buying a home now is a wise decision. The stock market is going to be volatile for some time and home interest rates have not been this low since the 70's.  There was an excellent article in "Smart Money" by Jillian Mincer, "Forget the Market. Buy A Home". We all need somewhere to live and at these interest rates if you have money buy now. Pay the home off as soon as possible if you can afford a 15 year loan due it even better a 10 year loan. If not, that’s ok too.