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Wanna Buy Real Estate in Dubai? Break Out Your Bitcoins!

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I don’t own any Bitcoins. It’s about as speculative as it gets as far as investments are concerned IMHO. But a developer is building a beautiful new building in Dubai willing to sell you an apartment with Bitcoins, or cash. Whichever you prefer! Let me know how you want us to write up your offer! šŸ™‚ Check out the available units here!

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Does Your Real Estate Broker Opt-IN or Opt-OUT of Zillow?

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Does your broker opt-in? Or do they opt-out of Zillow? Many that just started reading this have no idea what I’m talking about, but whether you’re a home seller or a REALTORĀ®, you best believe your broker knows if they opt-in or out of Zillow! But you as an agent, or you the home seller, definitely NEED TO KNOW either way!

Opt-In or Opt-Out of Zillow… For What???

Recently the Zillow Group, which includes Zillow and Trulia, announced it will no longer allow real estate agents to manually enter a listing into Zillow and Trulia. This poses a few questions. First off, what exactly does entering a listing directly into Zillow (and Trulia) do?

In the recent past, if an agent worked for a broker that did not allow the brokerage’s listings to populate into Zillow’s database, the agent could manually enter the listing for extra exposure or if it was important to their sellers.

Everyone knows Zillow is the big gorilla in the real estate market. Where it goes, so do a lot of real estate industry trends. Not having your listing on Zillow meant you were missing valuable exposure. This is important to a home seller for obvious reasons. The more buyers that are interested in aĀ home, the more money itĀ can demand. Simple, right?! RIGHT!

But for a REALTORĀ® the motivation could go either way. An agent may prefer to have their listing on Zillow to sell the property quicker, get a higher sales price, and even attract buyers as new clients interested in the home. But the other side of that coin though is some agents may prefer NOT to have the listing on Zillow.

The agent may feel the homeĀ is in a coveted neighborhood and already has a built-in buyer pool they can market to and take advantage of. If they end up representing the buyer as well, they can double-end the deal and make twice as much in commissions! Or maybe they know the price is aggressive and buyers will fight over the listing, and again the agent can attract potential buyer clients and/or double-end the sale.

But Now Zillow Has Removed That Choice

As stated above, Zillow is the big gorilla in the room and it gets to do what it wants. For years now Zillow has smartly allowed agents to include their listings manually. But Zillow has grown exponentially since, and this new policy forces the hands of all the real estate brokers that have up to this point refusedĀ to allow their listings to populate to Zillow. Zillow has become so integral in the real estate industry now, that opting-out is greedy andĀ selfish on the part of the broker. It’s also now bad business….

Let’s play make believe. Say you are a real estate agent at a listing appointment:

Seller: If I sell my house with you, will my listing be on Zillow?

You: No. My broker opts-out of Zillow listings and does not allow it.

Seller: How does that help my bottom line?

You: ….silence….

Its not advantageous to the seller to sell with an agent if the broker doesn’t allow their listings on Zillow. And now, agents can’t manually include their listings when their broker opts-out. Its an all or nothing scenario.

Its now not advantageous to an agent either because they can lose listings specifically because their broker opted-out of Zillow and Trulia!Ā So beginning in May 2017, Zillow and Trulia will ONLYĀ accept listings through direct MLS or brokerage feeds. Agents WILL NOT be able to post listings directly to Zillow independently of their MLS or brokerage.

This does not affect For Sale By Owners (FSBO’s). All MLS syndication preferences are managed at the brokerage level only. And once opted-in, a real estate broker can also control whether or not theirĀ agents have a choice regarding their own syndication preferences.

So, does your broker opt-in or opt-out of Zillow? Your answer to that question can have a serious affect on your home sale! AND the price it sells for. Oh and by the way, yes, we ALWAYS opt-in here at Garrigus Real Estate!

-Todd J Garrigus Broker, Garrigus Real Estate

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Sold Homes in the Redlands & Mentone Areas So Far in 2017

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The last time you bought a car what was the first thing you did BEFORE buying it? You checked the price of said vehicle and compared it to another dealer’s or seller’s prices. Why? Because you want to make sure you’re not paying too much! And the same goes for when you’re selling too. You don’t want to sell below fair market value, right?!

But this type of social behavior, and yes, setting a home price is a social behavior, is necessary for any prudent buyer or seller. We collectively set the prices for anything for sale: cars, boats, diamond rings, illegal lion pelts, private Caribbean islands, and even houses. So if you’re buying or selling your home in the Redlands/Mentone area, you best be checking what homes like yours, or like the one you want, are selling for!

That’s what this specific blog is for; to help you find the selling prices of the Redlands and Mentone homes in the neighborhoods you are interested in. So check ’em out below. The listings are categorized by either Redlands or Mentone, and are recently sold homes only. Oh, and if you’d like to talk to a real estate professional about your upcoming buy or sale, just call us!

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Sold & Active Homes in Redlands & Mentone, California


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Redlands, California Pending & Sold Homes & Real Estate in 2016

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2016 is coming to an end. Today is Thanksgiving (Happy Turkey Day! Gobble till you Wobble!). We are mere days away from the last month of the year and the hustle and bustle of holiday shopping and parties. Real estate, at least here in Southern California, keeps moving along mostly the same but with a little less fervor.

In Redlands and most of the Inland areas, short sales and foreclosures have taken a back seat to standard sales since 2012, but they still exist and have their place. We are also short sale experts and have helped many avoid foreclosure with our short sale negotiations. If you are wondering if a short sale is right for you please take a look at our Short Sale Formula Here.

If you are searching for Redlands pending or closed sales, or in need of a Redlands REALTOR, this page can give you an idea of the homes being sold and their price ranges. The up-to-date sold Redlands homes posted can also give you insight to what is happening in the Redlands real estate market for 2016 and where its headed for 2017.

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Redlands PendingĀ Homes

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Redlands Sold Homes

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More Riverside and San Bernardino Condos Will Be FHA Financeable Soon

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Its always been a thing in the real estate business: If you’re financing a home purchase with a FHA loan most condominiums (here in Riverside and San Bernardino Counties, at least) can be scratched off the list. Why? Simply put, if the condominium complex is not FHA certified then FHA will not sign off on a purchase in that complex.

H.R. 3700 Housing Opportunity Through Modernization ActThe simple question many buyers as is “why doesn’t the complex just get certified?” That question makes sense, but the current and hopefully soon to be old way of the certification process was a ton of red tape and bureaucracy, expensive, not to mention it had to be done every two years! It just wasn’t feasible for most affordable complexes to do it.

But now theĀ U.S. House of Representatives just advanced legislation to make this process much easier thanks toĀ H.R. 3700, A.K.A. the “Housing Opportunity Through Modernization Act”. If passed into law, the H.R. 3700 will essentially make the certification process “do-able” for many condominium complexes and ripe for affordable home ownership!

Please take a second and read the press release from the National Association of REALTORS:

RealtorsĀ® Applaud House Passage of “Housing Opportunity Through Modernization Act”

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ZestimateĀ® or Guesstimate – Is Zillow’s ZestimateĀ® Accurate?

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Expensive Homes in Beaumont and Banning CAI could argue for days about the accuracy of Zillow’s ZestimateĀ®. And now that Zillow is buying Trulia for $3.5 billion dollars (Did they use the ZestimateĀ® for this bloated price too?), I’m sure the ZestimateĀ® conversation is going to heat up more than ever.

I am a real estate agent and pricing homes and real estate is at the core of what my partner and I do! Without proper pricing a gold-laden mansion could sit on the market for years, or a boarded up shack could sell in hours. PRICING A HOME IS EVERYTHING!

So yes, I do take it personally when Zillow values a home (automatically with a computer program, mind you) too low or too high and sellers or buyers believe that that automated valuation is more accurate than I am! But, I’m not writing this to defend myself. I’m writing this to give you the reader, cold hard facts!

Let’s play a game called ZestimateĀ® or Guesstimate. The rules are simple, we will pull a recent sale of Ā a home, give you Zillow’s current ZestimateĀ®, then reveal the actual selling price! If the percentage spread is good (meaning not too far from what the actual sales price is), I will give credit to Zillow for a successful valuation, if not, I will condemn the website for its inaccuracy. That doesn’t sound too harsh, right? šŸ™‚ So let’s get started:

First Property:

1770 Ash Court, in Beaumont CA:

ZestimateĀ®: $181,000

Actual Sale Price on 7/28/14: $193,000!

That’s over a 6% difference! More accurately: 6.22%

Survey Says! GUESSTIMATE – No, no Zillow. Bad Zillow!

Sorry, but a $12,000 difference is a big deal for a home that sold under 200k!

By the way, the agent originally priced the property at $196,000. I think they were more accurate.

Second property:

38220 High Ridge Road, in Beaumont CA:

ZestimateĀ®: $269,000

Actual Sale Price on 7/29/14: $295,000

That’s almost a nine percent difference! Or more accurately 8.81%!

Survey Says! GUESSTIMATE – Nope, I’m sorry Zillow. You are inncorrect!

Nine percent is A BIG SPREAD. Too big.

Third Property:

This time let’s move to a different city, like Yucaipa, California.

13561 Canyon View Drive, in Yucaipa CA:

ZestimateĀ®: $383,000

Actual Sale Price on 7/28/14: $402,500

Survey Says! ZESTIMATEĀ® –Ā Congratulations, Zillow! You’re right! Let’s move to the bonus round!

I have to be fair here. That’s only a 4.72% difference, but think about this: had the seller sold their property for the $383,000 ZestimateĀ®, they would have lost $19,000! Oh, and the listing price did start at $383,000, but I’m sure a bidding war ensued with buyers that knew the true value of the property and drove that price up!

OK, one more property:

This one will be fun, and I will explain why below:

414 E. Stuart Ave in Redlands, California

ZestimateĀ®: $175,000

Actual Sale Price on 7/28/14: $120,000!!!!

Survey Says!Ā GUESSTIMATE!!! –Ā Nooo, I’m sorry Zillow. That is incorrect, but thanks for playing! (I wish I could put that “Wa Wa Waaaaaa” game show sound effect here!)

Wow. Over a 31.4% difference?! Are you kidding me? $55,000 difference on a low 100k house? But here’s the reason why the house sold for 120k – The house is a completely dilapidated, run-down property. In fact, in the description the agent even says, and I quote “What you see is what you get!”

This one made me smile šŸ™‚

But how did Zillow get it so wrong?

Simple.

How the hell is a computer program in Seattle, Washington (where Zillow is headquartered) supposed to know the condition of this house in Redlands, California? How is it supposed to know the condition of ANY house, ANYWHERE? Or a comparable house for that matter? It can’t. And until Zillow employs drones to peek into windows of houses across America, it won’t ever.

And I leave you with a quote from Zillow’s CEO Spencer Rascoff about the accuracy of Zillow’s ZestimateĀ®:

Zillow’s ZestimateĀ® has a 6.9 percent median error rate, and should be used as a starting point in determining a homeā€™s value.

Well, I agree, Spencer Rascoff, the ZestimateĀ® should be used as a STARTING POINT in determining a home’s value, but NOT as the ONLY determining factor, especially with a 7% median error rate. Do you think I believe that home sellers and buyers should avoid Zillow and the ZestimateĀ®? No, of course I don’t! I believe the website can be used as a great tool in a real estate process, just as long as it’s not your only tool. But please remember when your professional real estate agent, REALTORĀ®, or real estate broker takes time and care to access your property, the comparables sales and other listings activity, conditions and local market trends, and comes to a valuation different from a computer calculation, it may be the computer program that is off, not your agent.

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