Palos Verdes Real Estate

Buyers Category

The Company You Keep

How do you pick a Realtor?  I can tell you one thing that should be pretty far down the list:  the company the agent works for.  I am with Prudential, but I used to be with Coldwell Banker, and Century 21 before that.  While you clearly want an agent active in your area, their company affiliation is nearly irrelevant. The real estate business is unlike most others in that the agents are independent contractors, not employees of the broker.  In the...Continue Reading!

Show Me Your List(ings)

When you're interviewing agents to sell your house, one the best things you can do is to ask them for a list of homes they've actually sold in your area.  If you're in Palos Verdes, a list of sales in the 90274 and 90275 zip codes would be appropriate.  Any others would be nearly irrelevant.  As explained below, the agent you're interviewing may not really be active in your area and/or may be starting with you.  If the agent isn't active...Continue Reading!

Property Inspections

Obtaining a property inspection is a crucial step in the buying process and a popular subject for TV shows.  As a veteran of those type of shows, I will just tell you that what ends up on the screen often bears little resemblance to what actually went on.  But I'm getting ahead of myself. While you want to have an inspection by a disinterested, but qualified, 3rd party (please be there for it), there are aspects of property inspection that may not...Continue Reading!

September 2013 Newsletter

Dear Neighbor:  In my July newsletter I mentioned that interest rates had just gone up about 2% (which is huge – 4% to 6%) about a week before I wrote it.  They have now settled to just under 5% now (loans over $729,750 are somewhat higher), but the predictable effect has transpired:  whereas in April when the market was absolutely berserk, there were as few as 112 homes for sale on the Hill; there are now 168, give or take.  For...Continue Reading!