Home Inspection

Before you sign on the dotted line for your new Santa Cruz home, be sure to get the information you need to make a sound financial decision. That includes getting a thorough home inspection by a qualified professional.

This may seem like one more hoop to jump through, but a detailed and complete inspection can reveal some unpleasant surprises about your new Santa Cruz home purchase. It can also impact the price you pay for the property. Remember, part of your offer should include a clause that specifies who will pay for any necessary repairs discovered by the inspection.

When looking for an inspector:

• Ask your friends: Word of mouth is still the best way to go, as their good experience can lead to yours.

• Ask your real estate agent: Agents have…

Few things are as unsettling as the suspicion that termites are attacking your Santa Cruz home. This is one thing you do not want to stay in denial about. Here are some steps to help you face the possibility and prevent problems:

• Don't let any wooden parts of your Santa Cruz home touch soil directly.  As always, the best solution is prevention. If wooden parts of your house are touching the soil directly, a professional can remedy it by installing metal shields and re-grading the soil along the foundation to improve drainage and create a gap between soil and wooden structures.

• Determine whether you do have termites. Subterranean termites build characteristic mud tubes for movement between nests. The appearance of these tubes is often the first sign…

In today’s precarious job market, many luxury homeowners are finding they can’t afford their massive, custom-designed properties any longer. As the once rich are having to quickly sell or abandon their Santa Cruz real estate, you might be able to snag a good deal on a distressed luxury home.

There are many horror stories associated with short sales and foreclosures, but if you do your research, are patient and can act quickly, you might be able to purchase the home of your dreams. If you want to take advantage of this sour market, then consider the following guidelines — and happy house hunting!

• Find an agent who has experience with distressed real estate. Interview Santa Cruz real estate agents to find out their history of dealing with foreclosures…

Home improvement shows tell you that you can add 20 to 40 thousand dollars to the value of your Santa Cruz home by doing a simple remodel on virtually any room or outdoor space.  While you can get a return on your investment for most remodeling projects, the increase to your home value is not always as high as the home improvement shows claim.

Myth #1:  If you put 20 thousand dollars into a kitchen remodel, your home’s value will increase by 40 thousand dollars.

Fact:  The average kitchen remodel costs 40 thousand dollars.  This is on a mid-range remodel, not a high-end remodel.  The average return you can expect is 80 to 95 percent or about 36 thousand dollars on a 40 thousand dollar remodel.

Myth #2: Updating a bathroom can add as much as 20 thousand…

If you haven’t read “Santa Cruz Real Estate Investing:  Buying a Short Sale Steps 1 through 5,” start there.  This blog post provides steps 5 through 9 of the short sale process.

6.  Visit the Santa Cruz real estate on your short list.  You’ve already searched for short sales, researched them and narrowed your list to a few short sales that meet your criteria and have the best chance of making it to closing.  Now it’s time to personally visit the few on your short list.  Your primary purpose in visiting the property is to get an estimate as to how much it’s going to cost you to repair the home.  As a real estate investor, you want a property that needs some work so that the average home buyer won’t want it, and you can get it at a lower-than-average…

Getting from “I want to sell my house” to “SOLD” is often a long and stressful process.  The last thing you want to do is find someone who wants to buy your house and then lose him or her. 

Here are five ways to avoid deal-killing surprises:

• Get a home inspection.  If you truly don’t want any surprises, get a home inspection before you put your home on the market.  Then make all repairs needed; or disclose the problems up front, and tell the potential buyers how much you’ve reduced the price instead of making the repairs.

• Do not ask for favors.  You don’t want to suddenly ask the buyers if you can delay closing for six months or if you can keep the crystal dining room chandelier.

• Go over the contract in detail.  Ask your agent to have the…

You know my recommendation is that everyone should have a professional property inspection before they close on a house. Wouldn’t it also be a good idea to discover problems with a piece of property before you ever make an offer? With some attention to detail, you can find out a lot about the condition of Santa Cruz homes.

Here’s a pre-offer, do-it-yourself property inspection checklist to get you started:

• Basement - A basement can give you information about the structure of a house, especially if the basement is unfinished. You’ll want to make sure there are no cracks, the electrical wiring is organized, and there is no evidence of water damage. If there isn’t a basement, examine the exposed foundation on the exterior of the house.

• Electrical…

The Internet has made researching real estate easy for anyone who knows how to surf online. Whether researching real estate to sell homes or to find for their next big investment, many property owners and home buyers think they’ll save a lot of money by doing all the work themselves.

However, statistics show that you’re more likely to sell your property quicker or find your dream house faster when you work with a professional Santa Cruz real estate agent.  Working with an agent provides you with an expanded housing database, years of property-purchasing knowledge and valuable contacts for everything from inspections to loans.

The trick is to find the right Santa Cruz real estate agent to fit your needs.  Here are 5 tips to help you find your perfect…

Are visions of renovating a stately, older Santa Cruz home dancing in your head?  Older homes offer a unique beauty that can’t be found in newer homes. And, rehabbing them can be rewarding.  But, think twice before taking on this difficult and expensive task.
Here are six problems to look for in the older home you’re thinking about buying:

1.    Plumbing problems.  The plumbing in older homes can be inefficient or downright unreliable.  Homes that are 25 years old or older almost always have plumbing problems with the most common problem being lead pipes.  Even after lead pipes were replaced in the late 1940s, the earliest galvanized steel pipes still contained lead. Lead also was present in much of the solder used to join copper pipes as recently as the…

Whether you’re preparing to sell or buy a Santa Cruz home, getting a home inspection is one of the most important steps you can take toward a successful real estate transaction.  In order to get a thorough home inspection, you need to hire an experienced, professional inspector.

Here five things to ask before hiring a Santa Cruz home inspector:

1. Are you certified?  The oldest and largest organization of home inspectors is the American Society of Home Inspectors.  Another noteworthy organization is the National Association of Certified Home Inspectors.  Both these groups provide training and certification. If a home inspector is certified by either of these organizations, you know you’re getting a qualified inspector.

2. May I see a sample report? …