2009 April

Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac Look Up for Simi Valley Home Owners

April 28, 2009 By Ted Mackel Leave a Comment

Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac Look up for Simi Valley Home Owners

The government is doing everything it can to keep stability in the housing markets. 75 million was set aside to try and help 3-4 million homeowners with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac backed loans get help with refinancing. This assistance was designed to help those who are paying their mortgage on time with lower interest rate refinancing. A website was set up so home owners can see if they qualify. See http://makinghomeaffordable.gov/

To check your Simi Valley address against the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac databases See:

http://loanlookup.fanniemae.com/loanlookup/

https://ww3.freddiemac.com/corporate/

Filed Under: Money matters, Real Estate News Tagged With: assistance, fannie mae, freddie mac, Home Owners, mortgage, Simi Valley

Simi Valley Home Owner Tip – Power Lines & Tree Trimming

April 22, 2009 By Ted Mackel 1 Comment

Simi Valley Home Owner Tip – Power Lines & Tree Trimming

Who is responsible for trimming the trees near power lines? What should you worry about?

Simi Valley home Owner Tips The service lines that come from the pole to your home will be maintained by Southern California Edison; however bushes, plants and trees that interfere with those lines are the responsibility of the home owner.

What many home owners do not realize is that Edison will come and disconnect your service for FREE in the morning, so you can have trees trimmed or removed and then come back later in the day and hook you back up for FREE. You will bear the cost of the tree trimming or removal, however many home owners mistakenly think there is a charge to have your service disconnected and try to have vegetation removed which can cause serious damage to your home if debris falls on or comes in contact with the service lines. The weather head on your roof can be damaged and you would need to get an electrician out to fix it before Edison could restore your service.

The side benefit to all this is that in the case of my home the service lines were damaged by the trees and squirrels over the years and were in need of replacement. While my service was dropped out for the tree removal, Edison came replaced the lines – new. I was disconnected from the grid at 8:30 am and back online after the tree was removed at 12:30 pm.

A few ways to avoid all this as a home owner is

Know your vegetation. The tree in my yard planted by the prior owner was planted in the wrong place and was too big a tree for my yard. Consult with an arborist before planting trees.
Trees need regular pruning and trimming and cannot be allowed to grow on their own. Consider the regular maintenance costs for large trees.
Always call Edison first before doing any home improvement near the service line for advise on how to proceed and how Edison may help you.

Filed Under: Buyers, Home Improvement, Sellers Tagged With: edison, home, home owner, Simi Valley

Simi Valley Real Estate Home Sales Market Update March 2009 YTD

April 9, 2009 By Ted Mackel 2 Comments

Simi Valley Real Estate Home Sales Market Update March 31 2009 YTD

The Charts in the video are posted below the table for further study.

One disclaimer is that the MLS data adds the homes that are contingent in a backup status with the Active Listings. This is not a true picture for the real market conditions. A disproportionate number of these homes in backup status are Short Sales and could possibly be a home that never closes escrow. The picture is rosier than it looks. This is why I post the charts, so the information can be compared to prior years.

Activity – Single Family Detached Homes

Active Listings	Simi Valley	Moorpark
Active
# Units	354	137
Average List Price	584,746	1,007,419
Average Days Listed	122	105

Pending Sales in Escrow
# Units	120	22
Average List Price	430,727	525,809
Average Days on Market	69	54

Total Closed Sales for 2008
# Units	212	57
Average List Price	445,630	609,357
Average Sold Price	436,334	583,091
Average Days Listed	85	80

Average Closed Sales per month	70.67	19.00
Unsold Inventory Index (in months)	5.00	7.21

Activity – Single Family Attached Homes

Active Listings	Simi Valley	Moorpark
Active
# Units	127	27
Average List Price	308,574	273,053
Average Days Listed	154	115

Pending Sales in Escrow
# Units	21	12
Average List Price	280,788	280,143
Average Days on Market	86	63

Total Closed Sales for 2008
# Units	32	25
Average List Price	259,375	256,986
Average Sold Price	251,539	249,861
Average Days Listed	88	97

Average Closed Sales per month	10.67	8.34
Unsold Inventory Index (in months)	11.90	3.24

Simi Valley Real Estate New Listings Chart March 2009

Looking at each year, 2009 has started off with an extremely tight inventory. This is causing the competition, but if you look at the chart below, typically we should see tight inventory driving prices up, but this is not the case. The drop in the average sales price between December and January was significant. It will take a few more months to see if this market stabilizes. My big wonder in all this is what would the market be like if we had the higher inventory levels like last year.

Simi Valley Real Estate avg home sales report 3-2009

Filed Under: Market Updates Tagged With: market update, moorpark, real estate, report, Simi Valley

Video Technology helps sell Simi Valley Real Estate

April 3, 2009 By Ted Mackel Leave a Comment

Video Technology helps sell Simi Valley Real Estate

(April 2, 2009 Pasadena California) Simi Valley local real estate agent Ted Mackel with Keller Wiliams Realty presented on full motion video home tours and video blogging in real estate at the Los Angeles Real Estate Barcamp. Attended by approximately 300 real estate agents, mortgage brokers and real estate related service providers, Mackel gave a 50 minute presentation on the future of real estate marketing. David Gibbons – Community relations director for Zillow.com was at the event and was commentating on Mackel’s presentation live over Twitter:

The conference was streamed live over the internet at www.dakno.tv/live and was continually pushed via the Twitter stream from attendees and those watching the streaming video.

Real Estate Barcamp, known as RE Barcamp among the up and coming stars of the real estate industry, is loaded with talented early adopters of technology. The RE Barcamp format breaks all rules where competitors in the industry get together and exchange ideas on how to improve business, reach more people and better serve the areas they work.

Mackel has been working with internet video for over a year to help sell homes and create viral content to promote Simi Valley to those who plan to relocate here. When asked why Mackel is so passionate about this topic he explained. “78 percent of internet traffic is watching video. The average time watching internet video is 3.5 minutes. Google’s Youtube just went over 100 million viewers. 3.5 minutes is perfect for a full motion video listing tour.” When asked why the real estate industry is slow to catch on to new technology, Mackel was quick to respond. “Most of my competitors have a hard time using email efficiently, they are resistant to text and mobile communication; just are set in their ways. The internet, website design and mobile communication is light years ahead what most companies are aware of; I have to stay in touch with the people at groups like RE Barcamp so I can give my clients the best service possible”. Mackel continued, “CNN, ESPN and many other traditional media powerhouses have embraced new technology especially on the mobile level. Sites like Facebook are being over-run by the 30s, 40s and 50s crowd and bringing even the novice computer users into the high tech communication age. I can go on and on with how grandparents are staying in touch with their grandchildren via free online video services like Skype and a myriad of other tools, but you might need to give me a whole page in the paper to do it. The fact is that technology is changing and improving exponentially, it’s becoming portable, mobile and consumers of all ages have embraced these developments long before my industry even reacts.”

Mackel further explained “video for real estate applications still has a long way to go. The learning curve, the tools and the computer skills to produce video is still a significant barrier. My whole industry has developed for Microsoft’s Internet Explorer and Active X. The video production software on the PC side is still cumbersome and not as user friendly as on the Apple Mac side. Because most real estate agents are so comfortable using Windows and Internet Explorer and confined to the platform due to industry software requirements; they will be locked out of the tools afforded by Apple Mac’s OSX. The option of hiring a professional to produce a video tour is still cost prohibitive for the average property. Most agents have a hard time putting together enough photos for a traditional Virtual Slideshow. I will continue to blaze a trail in this area and provide this service to my clients whether their home is entry level or high end, I’ve come up with a formula that works. In the mean time I am going to strengthen my relationships in the real estate tech industry so I can continue to improve”.

When asked what value can be gained from video use in real estate; Mackel Responded: “Number one, people can see my video blogs and video commentary and see if I am for real. I have a ton of knowledge in real estate and what a better way to share that knowledge with people looking for help. Number two, my video listing tours, use of viral medial solutions and adoption of a mobile media marketing plan gives me new and better opportunities to promote my client’s properties. The statistics support my ideas, I am taking advantage.”

You can find Ted at www.homebuysblog.com, Facebook, Linkedin and Twitter as @RealtorTed