Coronado Real Estate: 5 Reasons Why It May Be the World’s Best

Writen by Jamie Clark

If you’ve ever been to Coronado, California you have a pretty good idea of what paradise looks like. Real estate experts always talk about “location, location, location” as the most important factor in determining the value of a property. Well, it’s the absolute truth and it’s tough to find a better location than Coronado!

Here are 5 reasons why Coronado real estate may be the world’s best:

1. Perfect weather Coronado, located just off the Southern California coast, enjoys the type of weather most people daydream about: warm sun, cool ocean breezes, just a few fluffy clouds, low humidity, very infrequent rain, and a temperature that stays in the upper 60’s to low 70’s range all year long. As is the case in most cities on the Pacific coast, early mornings in Coronado can be chilly but, once the fog burns off, you won’t want to go back inside until the sun goes down!

2. Beautiful beaches Coronado’s beaches are consistently rated among the world’s best by travel guides, magazines, and television shows. In fact, the Travel Channel recently ranked Coronado’s beaches in the top 10 in the US, and number 1 in Southern California… which is saying A LOT when you consider the number of world class beaches located between LA and San Diego. It’s no wonder that Coronado’s beach front real estate is among the world’s most valuable!

3. Convenient Location Coronado is located right next to one of the most vibrant and colorful cities in the world: San Diego. Often called an “island,” Coronado is actually a peninsula connected to the mainland by a strip of land called the Silver Strand. Physically, Coronado is only about a mile from downtown San Diego, giving its residents easy access to a huge variety of shopping, dining, entertainment, universities, professional sports, and all the other great benefits a major city provides. For even more fun and shopping, Baja Mexico is just a 15 minute drive to the south.

4. Small Town Atmosphere Despite it’s close proximity to San Diego, Coronado has a truly unique and inviting “small town” atmosphere all its own. When you leave the city and cross the bridge to Coronado you really feel as though you’ve stepped into another world. You see wide tree lined streets, elegant Victorian homes, charming Spanish style cottages, beautifully manicured lawns, quaint, locally owned shops and boutiques, clean air, nice, cheerful people… and many other things you won’t find much of in the city! It’s this safe, friendly atmosphere that is the real draw for many people looking for prized Coronado real estate.

5. True Romance San Diego’s “enchanted island,” as Coronado is often called, is among the world’s most romantic locations. Whether its a picnic on the beach, a Sunday afternoon concert in the park, or an intimate dinner in the famous Hotel del Coronado, Coronado offers residents and visitors alike the perfect romantic getaway. There’s a reason why Coronado has been chosen as the number one wedding destination in America: you won’t find a more magical place in such an exquisite setting anywhere in the world!

As you can see, Coronado definitely deserves its world class reputation. It’s a truly special place that provides the perfect setting in which to live the “good life.” Buying Coronado real estate is a can’t go wrong investment anyone with the means and wherewithal should consider making!

Jamie Clark is a writer and co editor for Coronado Real Estate Guide.com. To learn more about beautiful Coronado, California real estate be sure to visit: http://www.coronado real estate guide.com

Will Solar Energy Initiative Affect the Real Estate Market?

Writen by Jeanette Joy Fisher

In February 2006, President Bush announced what’s has come to be called the Solar America Initiative (SAI), designed to promote the widespread use of various solar energy technologies in homes throughout the United States by 2015.

It’s yet to be determined what effect SAI will have on America’s sagging real estate market, and that may actually be beside the point in the initial stages of the program. The overall goal of the program is to expand America’s electricity options while reducing the country’s dependence on foreign oil, which will ultimately improve the country’s overall economy and environment.

U.S. Department of Energy

The push to incorporate more solar technology into American homes will be coming from many different directions, including the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), which has been given a mandate to encourage more use of solar heat and electricity in homes and businesses, beginning immediately.

The Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) recently released a document titled “A Guide to Federal Tax Credits for Solar Energy,” offering details about a number of federal solar tax incentives that were enacted as part of the Energy Policy Act of 2005. Included in those incentives is a 30 percent tax credit (up to $2,000) for the installation of qualifying photovoltaic or solar water heating systems in the home.

The same legislation increased the solar tax credit to businesses from 10 to 30 percent, with no cap on the amount of credit that can be claimed, if the systems are installed in 2006 or 2007.

The goal of the tax incentives is to encourage market growth and improvement in solar technology by increasing the demand and acceptance of the concept. As solar technology becomes more ubiquitous, public acceptance should become more mainstream, as well, and providing attractive tax incentives for both homeowners and businesses is a good place to start.

Energy Crisis

In the face of what looks to be a long term energy crisis, solar technology is beginning to make more and more sense to the average person. The solar industry is working with member of congress to try to extend the generous tax credit beyond the 2007 date, in hopes of making an even bigger impact on America’s energy shortage. Extending the incentives can go a long way toward establishing the U.S. solar industry as a strong alternative to foreign oil.

As American solar technology improves, more and more businesses and homes will begin to use the sun’s energy to provide all or part of their heat, hot water, electricity, and cooling needs. In time, home buyers will undoubtedly begin to insist upon having solar technology built into their real estate packages, but for now, the Solar America Initiative should be considered just the first step in moving the United States toward energy independence and greater economic stability.

In years to come, when solar technology has become so commonplace that’s it’s hardly given a second thought, it’s very probable that solar advocates will look back at SAI as the cornerstone that made it all possible.

Copyright © 2006 Jeanette J. Fisher

Jeanette Fisher, author of real estate investing and interior design books, also writes about Environmental Psychology. For more environment articles, see http://environmentpsychology.com/environment_ecology.htm

What To Expect From Your House Appraisal

Writen by Lee Dobbins

Having your house appraised can be a scary step in the moving process, especially if you don’t know what to expect. Will your house pass muster or will they find some hidden defects and problems lurking in the basement and attic? Should you scrub the house clean?

Don’t worry - this isn’t a test of how clean you keep your house or even if your house has problems (that will be for the home inspector to find out). The appraiser is there to determine a fair market value for your home. Whether you are selling the house or refinancing, this is a common part of the process and the inspector is quite used to traipsing about peoples homes in all kinds of disarray so you need not be embarrassed if your house is messy and it will not affect the value the appraiser puts on the property.

Determining the market value of your home is necessary so that your lender knows the home is valued at or above the amount of money you are borrowing. An appraisal is an estimate of worth. It is an opinion but is not entirely a subjective process. The FNMA, Federal National Mortgage Association sets up the guidelines and assigns values to certain assets of your home to ensure a fair sale.

The value of your home will be determined by comparing it to similar area properties that have sold in the past few months. The appraiser looks for properties that have the same number of bedrooms, baths, square footage and amenities like a fireplace or garage in your neighborhood or town. They start by looking at your neighborhood to find comparable sales or properties in similar neighborhoods that share similar characteristics of lifestyles, income level of residents, surroundings, average age and home values. A valid appraisal can be done when 3 or more properties similar to your own have been found.

Once the appraiser has these homes, there will be some adjustments made to take into consideration features that your home has the others don’t or features they have that you don’t. These features have nothing to do with your d

From Your Rooftop to Ground Zero: Home Inspections

Writen by Elaine VonCannon

Home inspections are an important part of the real estate process whether you are buying your first home, retiring to a second home or relocating to a new area. Real estate agents must work with a home inspection company that is both reputable and trustworthy. Attention to detail and knowing how to report the facts are essential to a thorough home inspection. In this article I have asked Kevin Salva of US Inspects

Malta’s Market Battle

Writen by Michael Johnson

With new destinations such as Bulgaria, Slovenia and Croatia offering two and three bedroom apartments for sale for

Real Estate Secrets Revealed: Make the Most of Your Home Buying Experience

Writen by Joel McDonald

When Christy Corder a first time home buyer just out of law school decided to buy a home, she wanted to get the best deal possible, but was too busy studying for the bar exam to do all the work herself. She didn’t have the time to “shop around” with a dozen different Realtors most of whom were incompetent anyway.

In a competitive market where there are practically more people with a real estate license than with a driver’s license, Christy realized that agents will do anything to get a customer’s business… ANYTHING! To capitalize on that fact, she developed a plan she could use on any real estate agent, in any market, and not only got them to bend over backwards for her, but she was assured that she would receive a nice chunk of that agent’s check at closing if all of her requirements weren’t met.

Some of the tactics Christy used are as follows:

Quickly separate the winners from the losers. Due to the fact that most agents couldn’t negotiate their way out of a paper bag, Christy needed a way to quickly identify the best agents who could get her the best deal on her home from the rest of the crowd. That way, she didn’t end up finding a home with an agent she might not want negotiating on her behalf.

Christy had a couple agents in mind, but rather than wasting time looking at a bunch of homes with each of them, she decided to construct an interview for each of those agents. After her interview, she would either identify an agent worth working with, or look around some more. Either way, she wasn’t going to waste a minute of her time looking at homes with an incompetent agent.

Guarantee they are going to be the ones doing all of the work. In an earlier attempt to find a home, Christy found more homes she wanted to see on her own than the agent she was working with found. She didn’t have the time to do all of her agent’s work, and knew that her agent SHOULD be able to find everything she was finding. However, typical commission structures give no incentive (or disincentive) for agents to do that work.

Christy changed that by making her agent agree up front that she would be compensated fairly out of the agent’s commission if she found the house herself. As a result, not only did her agent search the MLS several times a day, but he went above and beyond the call of duty to find other homes not in the MLS and he found them before 95% of other Realtors found them!

Keep them on their toes with a “cancel anytime clause”. Any agent who wanted Christy to sign an agreement committing her to use them for the next 6 to 12 months just wasn’t going to cut it since most agents sit back and relax as soon as they get a buyer to sign any such contract. Once Christy found that her agent “passed the test”, she told him she would sign a 12 month contract, but reserved the right to cancel her contract with that agent at any time for any reason. That way, if the agent got too busy for her, wasn’t finding enough homes for her to look at, or turned out not to be as competent as he initially appeared to be, she could get rid of him.

Force them to stop selling homes as if they were used car salespeople. Nothing irritated Christy more than agents who kept pointing out the obvious with each home as if she were blind and didn’t notice that the home had vaulted ceilings, or which bedroom was the master bedroom! Christy felt that an agent’s job isn’t to show off the painfully obvious positive features of every home they see but instead to watch out for her interests and find out everything WRONG with that home. She developed a condition which any real estate agent who wanted to work with her had to agree to up front. That condition essentially guaranteed her agent would never waste her time with “used car sales” tactics, and instead act as her advocate making sure she doesn’t buy a home that she won’t be 100 percent satisfied with after her purchase.

All of the agent’s work will cost her nothing, and on top of that, if desired, she could make money from her agent. Considering she was just out of school, Christy didn’t have much at all in savings, and she wanted all of that to go towards buying her house and furnishing it. The last condition Christy required of her agent was that she didn’t pay him a dime out of her pocket. In fact, she devised a very interesting plan that leveraged her contacts with the community to make money with her agent instead of ever having to pay a dime in steep commissions if she wanted to work with that agent in the future.

For a free report with full details on how you can get more out of your real estate agent, visit Make Them Pay.com

Up … Up … and Up Again!

Writen by Luigi Frascati

Stratification in civil engineering refers to the ability to create multi layer construction, like high rise building. Stratatization in real estate refers to the ability to create freehold strata lots, as in condominiums and apartments. Stratification and stratatization are the center point of attention in many municipal planning departments, as vertical construction (also known as elevation construction) takes strong precedent not only in North America but, in fact, all over the world.

One paramount tenet of today’s core urban elevation construction is the requirement that developers provide, at their sole expenses, public amenities that citizens and urban dwellers want. These are public parks, street and off street illumination, walkways, sidewalks, waterfront, piers etc. etc. The trick to a model urban elevation development is to establish equilibrium between the overall cost of the amenities vis

How To Sell Your House

Writen by Susy Copus

Every viewer is your potential buyer. Each viewing must be prepared for and you may have a viewing as soon as your house is on the market. Therefore you need to have the bulk of the house preparation completed prior to this so that you simply need to refresh your house when you have a viewing. Otherwise you may be caught unawares with an immediate viewing, not be ready and in effect lose a buyer.

Firstly consider the whole house - have a spring clean: get rid of clutter from every room including the loft. For any clutter that you want to keep store it in neat cupboards or boxes. Clean every room thoroughly. Cleaning the carpets with a hired carpet cleaner is cheap and gives the carpets a new lease of life. Do any repairs that have been waiting and touch up any marks on walls or if necessary repaint to give the room a fresh look. Viewers can be thorough in your inspection - clean the fridge, the oven and make sure any inbuilt cupboards are tidy and well organised. A property sells for thousands of pounds - investing a small amount and putting in the time to spruce up your home may save you thousands when an offer is made.

Once the house as a whole is ready view each room individually. Ask yourself what is this room used for. Is it obvious to a stranger? For example, the dining room or area needs to be clearly defined as one - not a playroom, or a storeroom or a hobby room. Your sitting room needs to convey an atmosphere of comfort and relaxation. The garden needs to appear well cared for and be inviting.

First impressions are hugely important so you must view the house as a viewer will see it. Start from the outside and ask what the house tells you - is it well cared for? Is the garden tidy and inviting? If not, dig up the weeds, mend the gate, have some pretty flowering pots. Get rid of or neatly tidy away any unattractive garden furniture.

On entering the house you will want a viewer to feel excited about living in your house. If the entrance is a dark hall, consider placing a small cosy lamp on a small table or shelf. Show the best room in the downstairs first - ideally the kitchen. It should be sparkling clean,coffee on and have fresh flowers on the table. Another key room is the bathroom. Again, make sure it looks fresh with clean linen, no clutter and new shower curtains. When you think you are ready to sell your home, ask a friend to look round your house and see how it can still be improved.

With the final adjustments made you are then ready to have your house on the market and to have those all important viewings.

If an agent is selling your home it is best if you are not there - let the agent sell your house. If you are showing the viewers around your home show them around each room and sell the home subtlety. And then, give your viewers privacy to look around the house themselves.

In order to sell your house at the best price and as quickly as possible prepare with care. Good luck!

To find an estate agent and your new home to go http://www.wheresmyproperty.com the UK Property Search Engine listing around 900,000 properties from 1000s of estate agents.

Don’t Be A Penny Pinching Landlord

Writen by Mark Walters

Most of us who are small real estate investors buying and renting single family homes are accustomed to making every dollar count. It’s that habit that causes us to make a silly decisions when we advertise a house for rent.

Just take a look at the Home For Rent classified section of your newspaper. You will see rows of two or three line ads that all seem to blend together in an uninspired glob. Yes, I know newspaper ads are expensive, but have you ever stopped to think how much a bland three line ad is really costing you? Let’s do some logical thinking about this penny pinching.

In our example will use a rental house where you have a monthly mortgage payment of $850. That includes principal, interest, taxes and insurance. You are offering the home for rent at $900 per month. If you divide your monthly mortgage payment by 30 you will realize that it is costing you $28.33 cents to own the home. That’s $198.33 per week. So every week that the house is vacant you are losing $198.33. Cutting two weeks from that vacancy will save your $396.66.

If you are penny pinching with a little three line ad that fails to find a renter for weeks you are watching $198.33 fly out of your grasp every week. That’s when you should realize that it just makes good business sense to buy a nice big classified ad, which will give you the best chance of catching the eye of a renter the first time it runs.

Filling vacancies fast is the mark of a good investor. As soon as your current tenant gives you the required 30 day notice that he or she will vacate the property you must swing into action. Your goal should be to have a new tenant ready to move in the day the old one moves out. Do this…

1. Ask your current tenant if they know of any one who is looking for a rental. Ask them to spread the word among their friends and co workers. If you have a good relationship with the tenant they should be willing to help you find a renter. Offer them a one or two hundred dollar reward if they find a new tenant for you before they move out.

2. Immediately put a For Rent sign on the property with flyers describing the property and the cost to rent. We have a page on our Web site for each property we own with inside and outside photos. Included on the page on room dimensions, and the location of nearby features like schools, hospitals, shopping, public transportation, etc. We include the Web site address on the For Rent sign and on the flyers.

3. We send a postcard announcing there will a rental available to the neighbors. They may have friends whom they would like to have live nearby. We offer a cash reward of one or two hundred dollars if we rent to someone they referrer to us before the current tenant leaves.

4. We pass out flyers to nearby businesses like barber shops, nail salons, dry cleaners, etc. We make the same cash reward offer to them as we do to the neighbors.

Penny pinchers don’t do things like that and they pay dearly for their mistake.

Mark Walters is a real estate investor who shares his experience with free videos at http://www.CashFlowInstitute.com

Learn How to Price Your Home in a Buyer’s Market

Writen by Jeff Morrow

Pricing your home is both an art and a science. It is probably the most important decision you and your real estate agent will make. This is especially true as the hot housing market turns from a seller’s to a buyer’s market. To be comfortable setting the listing price for your home, consider these key factors?

1. Think Like a Buyer Buyers will look at your home with impersonal and calculated eyes. They won’t have an emotional attachment or your personal interests in mind when they make an offer. Regardless of weather the overall market favors the buyer or seller, the buyer will want your home at a fair market price. They are not considering how much you paid for the home, the value of the memories that you have in it, how much cash you need for to close on your next home, or how much time and money you have invested in your home’s landscaping, bathroom updates, painting or other improvements. When you first decide to sell your home, it’s no longer your home. It belongs to the buyer with the best offer for you. Emotional detachment from your home will help you see your home the way a buyer will be looking at it. Brush up on more selling advice.

2. Start with CMAs Invite a few real estate agents to work up a CMA (Comparative Market Analysis) for your home. A CMA compares the price of homes recently sold, homes that were on the market but didn’t sell, and homes currently on the market to give you and your real estate agent an idea of how to price your home. Ask the agents why each particular home was included on their CMA. Have a list of questions and compare the answers you get from each agent. As you will find out, a CMA will show you varying prices for what each agent thinks your home is worth. Look for what seems to be a reasonable price. Some real estate agents will want to price your home below market value, looking for a quick sell or a bidding war. Some will overprice it looking to play on your hopes that your home is worth more than it really is, but an overpriced home will sit on the market longer and will likely need to be reduced later. Most real estate agents will provide you with a home value estimate or Comparative Marketing Analysis (CMA). It as good idea to find real estate agents who have plenty of experience pricing homes in the area, especially as the market turns to a buyer’s market.

3. Consider a Professional Appraisal A CMA will give you a good idea of the value of your home, especially if the agent is familiar with pricing homes in your neighborhood. However, for several hundred dollars that it usually costs to purchase a professional appraisal, the money could be well spent for several reasons. If the CMAs you get from real estate agents are not reasonably consistent, you might want to get an totally unbiased view point, one that you pay for. An appraisal of your home will make clear anything that may be wrong with your home and it adds an additional layer of assurance for prospective buyers. Appraisers rely on in person inspections of your home, recent sales of like homes in your area, and other data to arrive at their opinion of your homes’ value. The report you receive from an appraiser is more detailed than a common CMA. The appraiser’s report is a full blown description of your home and the criteria used to formulate the valuation.

4. Research On Your Own You can research several ways. Stop by homes that are for sale in your area and pick up a flyer. Spend an hour or so on the Internet looking at homes in your zip code with the same square footage, bedrooms, and bathrooms. Finally, visit open houses around your home and make an impartial assessment of how those homes compare to your own in terms of condition, location, size, ages, and upgrades. As you visit the open houses, make an honest assessment. Given similar condition, age and square footage, would you buy your home or the home you are touring?

5. Price per Square Foot Some agents may want to price your home solely on price per square footage. While this is an industry standard way of calculating home prices, there are many other tangible aspects that go into your home’s price. The average price per square foot in your neighborhood should be the starting point for setting your home’s price.

6. Market Conditions Consider the overall housing market in your area. Are home prices moving up over time? How long do homes stay on the market before they are sold or withdrawn? Where are interest rates? Is the overall economy in your area and state strong or weak? Are employers hiring or are they overly cautious of bring on new employees? Are builders actively building new homes? Will you be entering a buyer’s market or a seller’s market.

7. Determine Your Selling Costs
There are many costs involved in selling your home. Don’t shy away from getting to the bottom line as this is essential information. Use a variety of mortgage calculators and financial calculators.

8. Flexibility and Options Both you and your buyer may have needs that go beyond the bottom line. If you are willing to close escrow quickly, you will attract buyers who want to move in right away. A lease option can help first timers who need down payment assistance. If you can offer seller financing, your home will appeal to buyers who need to stretch their financial resources. The more creative and flexible you can be in meeting the buyer’s needs, the more success you will have in pricing your home to sell. If your home has been on the market for a while, can you offer a point or two back to the buyer to help with closing costs or needed repairs.

9. Use a Discount Real Estate Broker There are many good reasons to use a good discount real estate broker. The obviously reason is that you keep more of your home’s equity, but in a buyer’s market, using a discount real estate broker gives you pricing flexibility and that gives you not only a cushion to negotiate but a distinct competitive advantage over the other homes on the market using full commissioned brokers.

Jeff is the owner and partner of We List homes 4 Less, a full service real estate broker in the Santa Clarita Valley. Jeff is a strong advocate of using the Internet to promote niche local business and pass the savings onto clients. Their site rates in the top 99.75% of all Websites according to Alexa, a traffic rating service owned by Amazon. Find more house selling advice and mortgage calculators at We List Homes 4 Less.