“First things first” is another one of those simple sayings that people utter without thinking—it just means, “Do this; everything else can wait.” It can be uttered by parents as they lay down a work/reward sequence for their children—or by project leaders pointing out the first task on the top of a process flowchart.

For anyone thinking about buying a home in Costa Mesa, “first things first” works pretty well, too. In that setting, the “first thing” that ought to come first is The Number. It’s all about The Number.

‘The Number’ is the figure that’s the centerpiece in CNBC’s recent engaging home-buying commentary that’s headlined, “As home prices rise, here’s what buyers can do to land a deal.” It begins with the news that for the second week…

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“Sustainability” may seem to be a term that lends itself to vagueness—but you can nail it down. It’s “the ability to be maintained at a certain rate or level.” Earlier this spring, the National Association of Realtors® issued a comprehensive report that began to put hard figures to the growing effect that sustainability issues are having on current real estate activity. It surveyed member agents and brokers on the bottom-line impact they see in today’s market. It looks to be appreciable—definitely more than an exercise in abstract idealism.

Probably the most significant single finding for how green features may affect Costa Mesa real estate marketing is the reported value of energy-saving features in listings. Sixty-five percent of agents and…

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Local homeowners with Costa Mesa homes for sale may be tradition-bound when it comes to how they plan on being paid (that is, with money)—but not every homeowner is equally old-fashioned. As CNBC pointed out last week, dollars aren’t the only option. Their report, “Real estate catches onto the crypto craze as people buy homes with bitcoin,” promised to examine how real estate agents “are pivoting to work with the cryptocurrency…”

The three-minute report that aired earlier this month did deliver on part of the premise, but fell short in verifying that much actual ‘pivoting’ has yet taken place. Boiled down to its verifiable elements, they reported—

  • Cryptocurrencies are cited as a growing trend for Realtors® buying and selling homes with…

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Last week was an authentic record-breaker for the stock market. The Dow, S&P, and Nasdaq all set record highs; the number of new unemployment benefit applicants swooned, and industrial production and retail sales both saw double-digit growth. With achievements booked at record levels and few voices calling for a turnaround any time soon, you’d think that many investors would be thinking ‘Dow Jones’ instead of ‘Costa Mesa real estate’—but that expectation wouldn’t be accurate. The opposite is overwhelmingly true if you ask the average American for their considered opinion.

At least that’s the finding of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York—a group with everything to gain from championing their hometown cottage industry (the Wall Street investment…

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Costa Mesa homeowners who’ve been finishing up cleaning the house may think they are, as the British say, “done and done” with 2021’s spring cleaning chores—but self-congratulations may have to be postponed for the moment. A living room cleared of the winter’s debris and bedrooms aired out and dusted do deserve the feelings of accomplishment they inspire—except for one last detail.

Costa Mesa homes may have sailed through the winter without any notable exterior damage, but before calling it quits, it’s advisable to step outside your newly tidied Costa Mesa home to conduct spring cleaning’s auxiliary chore: the exterior inspection. It actually may be the most significant part of a homeowner’s annual springtime cleanup campaign: spotting a budding…

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Today's house hunters have at their command a wealth of information by which to compare the homes currently available on the Costa Mesa listings—numbers that enable the kind of apple-to-apple comparisons that bring a smile to the faces of hard-headed realists who value hard data. Right?

Sort of.

If you're one of those realist types who value the precision of hard numbers, last Thursday's Realtor® Magazine provided an article bound to provoke a spate of teeth-grinding. In fact, why don't you just skip reading any further—you'll probably be happier reading the morning's stock market quotes or last night's baseball statistics.

The article in question, "Handle Square Footage Issues," was actually aimed at us real estate professionals. It dealt…

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Last week we learned that U.S. housing price increases continued their uninterrupted climb. But at the same time, accounts also included a few rays of sunshine for financially pressed homebuyers.

The nationwide appreciation in real estate values that's been gladdening Costa Mesa sellers blipped upward again in February. According to Tuesday's CoreLogic press release, the 1.2% rise over January capped off a 12-month increase: an eye-popping 10.4%!

Figures like those may cheer Costa Mesa home sellers—but, as CoreLogic's spokesman put it, it also "is sobering for prospective buyers." The spokesman's advice for ambitious home seekers was scarcely enlightening. Due to the price rises, they should "save more for a down payment, closing costs, and cash…

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Personal matters may be most important in deciding when and whether it’s time to sell your Costa Mesa home, but at least one real estate industry designation may also factor into that all-important decision: the declaration that it’s now a “buyer’s market” or a “seller’s market.”

When buyers read that real estate is in a buyer’s market, expectations rise that sellers will be more prone to accepting offers that shave dollars off of an asking price. The opposite holds when it’s thought to be a seller’s market—few would be astonished if their full-price offer is outbid by another buyer. For buyers, overcoming seller’s market headwinds consists of moving fast when an opportunity arises—and being patient (and persistent) while awaiting the next one to…

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Realtor® Magazine’s editors have frequently described the financial hurdles facing first-time buyers in today’s market. Even so, despite rising home prices and stalled inventories, a third of recent existing home sales have been to the newbies.

A pair of recent RM articles directly (and indirectly) explored several factors that help explain some first-timer successes. The articles dealt with bridge loans and some advantages Costa Mesa first-timers may have over repeat buyers.

  • Last Thursday’s “Bridge Loans May Help with Intense Bidding Wars” describes the solution that temporary loans provide to existing homeowners. Current owners commonly face a situation where offers they make on a new home must necessarily be contingent on the successful…

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They never fail to surface once real estate activity shifts into high gear: the Costa Mesa home loan scam operators. They seem perpetually ready to pounce on unwary would-be home buyers—notably those who are unfamiliar with the standard procedures employed by established mortgage lenders in the normal course of preparing a legitimate Costa Mesa home loan or refinancing package.

Falling prey to an unscrupulous mortgage scam can result in anything from inadvertently divulging personal information all the way to significant monetary losses—including home title fraud that takes expensive and time-consuming legal action to correct.

One simple way to protect yourself from some of the common home loan scams is to acquaint yourself with signs that an…

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