Today's topic will be about this developing trend of what are called "iBuyers", which are buyers that are more "convenient" to a seller, and who buy houses "as-is" with "all cash". In today's controversial environment of taking a position, this sounds all too familiar.  I would like to bullet point some of the problems of this iBuyer Trend: 1. iBuyers are really iBrokers The "buyers" really are intermediaries for larger venture capital companies, one of these companies, Opendoor, just closed on $300 million more to bring their total funding over $1 billion to buy single family homes for rent and for flip. It is estimated to spend more than $4 billion per year buying homes . Though the terms of the funding are not public, no one hands someone else $1 billion with no strings attached, they have their guidelines and what they can and can not do and are functionally no different than brokers.  2. Therefore, more i...

Recently, I was walking through a house for a first time buyer and going through a couple things that have always been on my "Checklists" of sorts. As I was walking through with the family and  explaining to them everything on the checklist, I realized it would be a great thing to teach others and to get in writing. One of the biggest ways this list will have value for you, is that you can take this list and fill it out per property (if you were looking at and deciding between multiple properties) and get a black and white comparison of how much value the house has, and from there make a decision to buy/not buy and how much money to do so with. I am thus calling this list: 10 Things of Hidden Value in Your Home. 1. Water Heater: When was the last time the water heater was replaced? How old or new is it? Old Water heaters will need to be replaced, while new or newer water heaters won't need to be replaced for a couple of years. New or Newer water heaters are +1. 2. W...

We recently had the great honor of attending the 17th annual- United American Mortgage Financial Round Table -on October 10,2018 down in Costa Mesa, CA . Hosted by Ted Learkos and his team of Jessica McClure , German Santibanez , and many more-attended by every Real Estate office from Realty Pro 100 to First Team to Keller Williams.  The afternoon started after lunch sponsored by Katella Grill to the guest speaker, Steven Thomas of Reports on Housing .  In his speaking appearance, Steven Thomas gave us his first " Orange County Housing & 2019 Forecast ". To discuss 2019, we must first discuss the 2018 Forecast :  -Low distressed inventory -Return of unrealistic over priced seller -Normal Cycle -Rise in Inventory In which, he was mostly correct.  For the 2019 forecast; we have a record number of houses on the market,there is more inventory than demand with a steep drop as we head into the holidays. So what is this market then? It is a Ba...