Featured Home of the Day

There is no better high for me than telling clients "You got the House". When I spend a lot of time with my clients, getting to know them, searching for the perfect home, and then finding it - only to get our offer rejected, find one..get rejected again, it gets to be very hard. Not only on the client but on me too! It's not that I'm sad over the time and energy spent for nothing but I start to empathize with them. I share in their frustration and disappointment. Then, I just get even more determined to find the right house! It's like a quest to me. So, when I get to say those four magical words. It feels so good! Today was a good day! It just feels good to persevere. If your looking to buy - call me because I don't give up! Yay!

Today in Shasta County there were 27 new listings and 19 Pendings.  731 residential listings and 272 of those are in Redding.

Todays Featured Listing

As usual I just realized that its Tuesday - Not to be totally cliche but where does the time go???
So, my son is now a football player for Shasta JV football. I've been trying to get him into football for 15 years. Its MY dream that he grows up to become a San Francisco 49er and I get season tickets. It's HIS dream that he not get plowed over. He currently wants to be a Chef, which is fine with me because I love to eat. But can you imagine if he was a San Francisco 49er (or any other NFL Team but the Raiders) and he could cook??? A mother can dream...sigh. I tried to get his older brother interested in football but no deal. So Im very excited that next fall I get to watch all the Shasta games from the stands - Im going to try to not wince everytime he gets hit but I'm really just hoping for a long successful career on the bench - haha

Alrightly, in Real Estate News today... over the weekend there were 33 new lisintgs and 37 Pendings - the trend continues.There are 729 active residential listing on the market today. Check out todays featured listing. Its really pretty and I heard a rumor of a price reduction coming soon on it.

I just realized that Real Estate Agents (Myself really, I shouldn't speak for others) are the worst clients! We are demanding and unreasonable. I can't understand why my property in Oregon isn't selling and then I find out I'm overpriced! Well, REALLY! *Sigh* like I haven't had THAT conversation with a seller before - so do I lower the price? Yes,... is it enough? Probably not. Crackers and cheese! This real estate roller coaster that we have been on the downside of for the past 5 years is really frustrating - believe me I know. At least the recent press has been positive. So, what am I trying to say here? Really look at your motivation for selling right now. If you have to sell, price it right, find the right agent (me of course). If you don't have to sell - don't. If you have to sell email me and I'll help you, fully understanding your situation. If you are looking to buy - DO IT!  It's YOUR market right now!

Today we have 6 new listings and 15 pendings! for the week that makes 55 new listings and 69 pendings. This does indicate there is some competition for buyers. There are 734 residential listings right now in Shasta county.

Todays Featured Home - This home is the ideal vacation home!

I had this dream that I was Anthony Robbins. Only of course I am a girl so it was Tony being me, not me being Tony. Get it? A few months ago I was telling my daughter of my desire to become a motivational speaker guru type person and she said "Oh Mommy, you have to get yourself together first!" - Talk about bursting my bubble. Cr*&p. So, this morning, I was telling a friend of mine about my dream and she reminded me that "Those who can't do - Teach!" ( And she's a teacher so its ok to repeat that)  HAHAHA.  It's just sooo much easier to tell other people how they are screwing up than it is to look at ourselves and face that - and I say ourselves but I mean me really. I have such a hard time with that sometimes. Now you're probably wondering "Why or what does this have to do with Real Estate?" Let me tell you. The mechanic always has the beat up car - the manicurist bites their nails. The Real Estate agent can show you how to sell your house or buy your house but NEVER buy a Real Estate Agents house! HAHAHa and also remember sometimes the ones who are the most screwed up are really good at helping others!

Today we have 19 new listings and 16 pendings for total of 752 active residential listings. 283 of which are in Redding.

Todays Featured Listing

Todays Featured Home

The featured home for today takes you away from it all. Which is the theme of the day. As it is Presidents Day and most of the workforce here is off  I thought it might be nice to have a little seclusion.
This week Shasta MLS has finally changed the search for new properties to no longer include Pending Short Sales as Active. All this means to YOU is that now when I tell you how many homes are available in Shasta MLS, Short sales are no longer included. So..Today there are 745 active residential listings available. Don't think we sold 200+ homes over the weekend - that would be cool but no, we didn't. There were 28 new listings and 20 pending sales.

This weekend on a completely different note, I took the weekend off! Yay! I went over to Arcata and Eureka to visit my son who is at Humboldt State University. We had a great time. He dragged me and my husband out to the Manila Dunes which runs along the pacific ocean and although it was really cold and really windy it was worth it. Its really NOT a good idea to wear wedge heeled boots when walking in the dunes - FYI.

Featured Home of the day

I'm starting a new feature today. Everyday (Well I'll try everyday - but not on weekends) I will feature a property currently listed for sale with a different criteria for each. Today's criteria is that it has to be pretty! So just click on the link above to see the video tour. This house is really pretty. Thanks to Kim and Kelly for letting me post it here today. Call me to see it!
We had a tour of it a few weeks past and it was lovely.

Along with that, today there were 18 new listings and 10 pendings. 940 on the market today.

A tip for selling your house is to de-clutter it. Sometimes, as a seller, you want to infuse your personality into the home and show off your good taste but believe me - less is more. A few key items artfully arranged are much more ascetically appealing to the buyer than your vast collection of NFL memorabilia. And trust me I'm a hardcore football fan but hanging the blankets on the wall and using your NFL teams lamps,throws, pillow-pets, easy chairs, big heads and trash cans in the living room really take away from the feel of the home. The point is to have the buyer feel like they can live in the home with their things, not your things. Most people have a hard time visualizing the room empty or filled with their furniture. Keep kitchen counter-tops free of all your small appliances. A toaster and coffee maker are fine but put away all your gadgets. This shows off how much space there is! Have a great day out there today, go enjoy the sunshine if you can. Remember if you lived here you could!

I went to book club last night and we are reading and studying "Discover the Power Within You" by Eric Butterworth. This was the book that Maya Angelou said changed her whole perspective. Since I love Maya, I don't know her personally- but wouldn't THAT be cool "Oh Maya, wanna come over for coffee tomorrow?" - I decided to check it out. This book definitely makes you re-think just about everything you thought you knew. So check it out if you want. I recommend it. (Totally random -non Real Estate related thought there, just in case you were wondering.)

Now back to Real Estate in Redding:
In the last two days there were 29 new listings and 13 pendings.  Only 932 active residential though. The new listings include land and commercial property so even though it sounds like we have a lot of new listings, for residential - that's not the case. Bummer for buyers, we just got outbid. AWESOME for sellers.

I spoke with someone the other day about whether or not Granite counters add value to your kitchen and bath when its time to re-sell. I think that most buyers are looking for great kitchens. Nice shiny new appliances, pretty counter tops and cool cabinets really make the difference. Remember the kitchen is the number one reason most buyers decide to buy a particular home and a home that is updated with an older kitchen is a real turn off. So, get rid of the yellow and hunter green tile and grimy cabinets and put some value into your home before you list.

Alright, can someone please give me some feedback here? Are you liking the Blog? Do you want to hear more about me or more about Redding or more about real estate? Feedback Peeps!

Happy Valentines Day All! Can you feel the love? I was spoiled this morning with flowers and cookies, candy and a card. Some people say Valentines Day is overrated and unneeded. "We show our love everyday, or there is nothing special about today, blah, blah, blah." Sure the holiday has become very commercial. Stores start stocking up right after Christmas! However, as with Christmas, lets not forget the real true meaning of Valentines Day. I'm not going to go into the whole history or whatever, I'm just going to tell you what it means to me. Maybe it means something to you too. To me, Valentines Day is a day to show love. Its just a day on the calendar to remind us to show love. Show love to your family, your friends, your co-workers, show your love today. Be kind to a stranger today. Say Happy Valentines to everyone you see today. Everyone needs love and maybe your stray "Happy Valentines Day" will hit someone who doesn't have love right now. Someone who is lonely. Make their day special. Happy Valentines day to you!

And of course - just so's ya know, There are 13 new listings today and 13 Pendings with 940 total in Shasta County today!

I just noticed a note that my daughter left me on my blotter, it says "Remember to make a difference".
Last night on the Grammy Awards, Adele won 6 Grammys. When she won the award for Best Album you could see it really moved her. She was funny in remarking that the reason for her album was just a bad relationship. She turned a really bad time in her life into something positive. There are so many challenges in ones life. Its truly inspiring to see what can happen when you take that terrible thing and turn it into something beautiful. Congratulations Adele!

It's always after the rain that we appreciate the beautiful blue of the sky. These past years have been challenging for so many people. Realtors, Home-owners, Investors, even the yucky banks. It doesn't matter who is at fault all that remains to be done is to move on and make something positive out of it. I like to think that I'm making an impact in what I do. Tuning a distressed property into a jewel, seeing First-Timers move into a home they can afford. Building a life and re-building a community.

Over the weekend, 34 homes hit the market 20 were sent to Pending and there are 947 homes available today.
Happy Monday to all!

. It has been a very weird day today, not sure if its the full moon or the sunshine but it's been really weird today. Everything I thought I was going to do became nothing I was able to do. I was feeling a little like maybe I wasn't supposed to be here today. But maybe the Universe was just reminding me to chill out a bit. Sometimes I try so hard to stay busy and to focus on the job ahead, I forget to be still. When I am still, things come to me, phone calls I need to make, things I need to do, re-connecting with friends and just enjoying the moment. I have ideas just appear, things that are out-of-the-box. So, my reminder for today has been to just "Be". Enjoy whatever road I am on today. Today I will be the river.

We have 14 New listings today and 17 new Pending sales. Hmm.. good day to be a seller

There are 19 new listings on the market today and 19 new pending listings. Hows that for evening things out?
Is now the time to list your property? YA! With only 939 residential listings on the market today you have a great chance of selling yours!

Is now the time to buy? Holy Schnackers! Have you seen the prices?? I found one today for $15,000! Now I'm very sure its a fixer-upper in the major sense of the word but really?!  15K?
Something there has to be salvageable!

Lets talk about...Life. No just kidding, that's too deep. Lets talk about Real Estate in Redding.
Top 5 reasons to buy a home here:

• No one really wants to leave!
• River
• Mountains
• The way the air smells today after yesterdays rain
• People
• Food... Oops thats 6 - sorry

So, stop trying to figure out life and move to Redding and LIVE!

From Saturday thru Today there were 32 new listings (and forgive me - I thought today was Monday but its Tuesday!) and 18 homes went on pending sale. Total for today 945. It's a really soggy day out today. The weather called for tomorrow is Sunny thoough. I have that to look forward to.

So, as previously mentioned I have a few kids. One of them has a j.o.b. which is a good thing, at this Mexican cantina style restaurant. In Stockton there are taco trucks everywhere. Literally, almost one on every corner and they are amazingly good! The uglier the truck, the better the tacos n burritos. Probably really unsanitary but worth the risk- plus I've Never gotten sick from one. But anyways, back to Redding...when I moved here I quickly noticed a distinct lack of taco trucks. :( I did find one and I was really excited but it was terrible!!! :(( then I discovered Burrito Bandito on Placer. Taco truck burritos in a clean, fun great atmosphere! The best Ever!!! Now, my daughter works here!!! yay!!!! (she still charges me full price)

Ever go into a vacant home for sale and see this sign that says "HomePath". Ever wonder what that meant?

Okay, not to sound dumb here, I did know it was some kind of special financing plan, but neither did I! Last evening, courtesy of PrimeLending here in Redding I found out all about it! Now, I'm going to let YOU in on it, and just in case you do know what its all about, don't tell me. I like to think that what I post here is actually useful and informative. Don't burst my bubble. A "HomePath" home is a home currently owned by FannieMae, received through foreclosure. These home are eligible for a special financing option. With a HomePath Mortgage the new owners are able to secure financing without an appraisal. They can put down as little as 3% for the down payment which may be obtained as a gift and they need a credit score over 660. There is no mortgage insurance, unlike FHA which ALWAYS has mortgage insurance. You also may be able to  borrow up to 35K for needed repairs to the home. This loan is only for "HomePath" approved houses and of course there are the fine print details which I haven't covered but there you go! So contact me for a complete list of HomePath homes available now. And Now for a pretty picture of the day...

Myla

This was what greeted me this morning over coffee...
Enough said....




Today there were 19 new listings on the market and 17 going on the pending side. There are 940 active listings on the market today.

183 homes sold in January 2012 with an AVERAGE sale price of 183K compared to 140 for January 2011 with an average sale price of 191K.


Can you think of a better reason to move to Redding?

All this Blogging is time-consuming! Trying to configure the page, thinking about what to write about, researching information. Whew! I'm tired and I haven't even posted yet today! All this socializing in the media is exhausting!

It's really strange how I hear things that I was just thinking about and then someone repeats what I was thinking!  (not like weird hearing things! de-der-de-der) For instance yesterday, when we were all on caravan (that's when we go look at other agents properties), one of the agents said that she had a lot of out-of-towners looking at houses over the weekend! - Now isn't that weird? I just said that Monday! She hadn't even seen my blog yet! Psychic!

One of the really great things about my job, other than poking around empty houses and visualizing them fixed and pretty, is talking to clients and learning new things. One time a client was talking to me about Durham (I'm pretty sure that's what she said) Wheat and I didn't even know what that was! Thanks to the instant information age we live in now though it was just a Google click away! - I love Wikipedia! Today someone was talking to me about powder puff mines - no, that wasn't it... - some kind of mine - hold on... I'll remember... oh yea! Potash Mine! Never heard of it! - Have you? So there I go straight to Wikipedia again. Wow! The things that I didn't know could fill the Internet! OK, enough. Now on to the real reason you are keeping up on my posts...

Real Estate Stats!

20 new listings on the market today including one that regretfully is NOT mine but which I would love someone to ask me to show them because it has been listed before and now it's listed again! That's the 8,000Sq ft MAANSIONN (I wish I could sing that into text) that has 8 bedrooms and 6 bathrooms for the low low price of $1.9mil. Although I really don't want to be the one to clean it. Then we had 11 homes go on the pending list, so the total for today here in Shasta County is 941. Including Short Sale pendings. - That's all folks, have a great day and see ya tomorrow!

               Mt Shasta - just because it's pretty.