By definition, the best Costa Mesa real estate agent for you is the one who sells your Costa Mesa home soonest, for the highest price, and with a minimum of hassle. Because you have to designate the one who will be your exclusive listing agent, you can’t ever prove how all the others would have fared.

So, what’s a homeowner to do when it’s time to sell? Going it alone isn’t a good idea—statistics show that homes represented by a licensed real estate professional sell for more, even considering the agent’s fee. But how can you know which agent has the highest probability of turning out to be “the best” for you?

The solution to this dilemma most commonly recommended by real estate commentators is this:

Interview at least three agents before…

686 Views, 0 Comments

Read Full Post

There was a sort of silly article last summer, “What You Can Do if Your Air Conditioner Breaks Before Selling Your House”—a title designed to ensure that Costa Mesa readers who plan on selling their Costa Mesa house will put everything on hold while they find out “what they can do” if their A/C goes AWOL.

A more recent article—also a must-read for home sellers with broken A/Cs—was titled, “Can You Sell A House with a Broken Air Conditioner?” The answer was ‘yes’—but with a resulting “severe impact” on the sale price. The author pointed out that “it is wiser and safer to get your A/C fixed” before listing it.

Both rate a solid “10” on the duh meter.

But both bring to mind some serious surveys. Costa Mesa homeowners can find dozens of online…

785 Views, 0 Comments

Read Full Post

 

Yahoo’s “Money” tab is a source Costa Mesa readers can visit for non-technical reportage on the latest U.S. economic developments. Last week it led with a surprisingly upbeat look at residential real estate: “Homebuyers rush back in droves despite coronavirus pandemic.”

There was ample evidence to support the description—a rush from homebuyers attested to by a 44.3% jump in pending home sales. The leap from April to May set an all-time record. And for those still unconvinced, there was further verification via the sustained volume increase in home purchase mortgage applications. According to the Mortgage Bankers Association, applications had been on the rise, year-over-year, throughout the previous four weeks.

Given the backdrop of uncertainty…

764 Views, 0 Comments

Read Full Post

 

If you are thinking about putting up your Costa Mesa home for sale, you can expect that a goodly number of the buyers who will be considering your property will be female. And increasingly, the decision-makers may be Millennials—part of the group reaching adulthood in the early 21st century. Distinguishing how buyer traits and preferences differ is important for understanding what features are likely to appeal to different groups. 

For instance, the propensity for Millennials to use social media is a trait that can impact how they evaluate the Costa Mesa homes for sale that fit their search criteria. A recent research project by Better Homes & Gardens analyzed the differences between generations of women buyers “from Millennials to Boomers.” They…

978 Views, 0 Comments

Read Full Post

Costa Mesa’s summer solstice arrives this Saturday, June 20th. Astrophysically speaking, the solstice marks the longest day of our year. The moment of the summer solstice prompts a lot of scientific explanations, some more confusing than others. For instance, since the Sun doesn’t revolve around the Earth, Vox.com’s definition (“Technically speaking, the summer solstice occurs when the sun is directly over the Tropic of Cancer”) is a little misleading. Vox probably really meant that the solstice is the moment when the tilt of Earth’s axis puts the Tropic of Cancer latitude nearest to the Sun (that “Tropic” is the one that’s north of the equator; “Capricorn” is the other one). 

The reason this is at all significant for those of us who live a lot…

867 Views, 0 Comments

Read Full Post

The unsettling events of the first half of 2020 have prompted some Costa Mesa residents to adopt a wait-and-see attitude—especially major decisions concerning Costa Mesa real estate. For most of the spring, it had looked as if June would be the month when more clarity would surface, starting with how soon Covid-19 restrictions would be relaxed. To some extent, that’s been the case—but many other momentous headline-grabbing events have intervened. Clarity about the future has been limited. Even so, throughout 2020’s roller-coaster ride, one key element of Costa Mesa’s real estate component has remained steadfast and encouraging: mortgage interest rates.   

Last week, CNBC headlined, “Mortgage demand from homebuyers amazes again.” The “amazement”…

867 Views, 0 Comments

Read Full Post

When the objective is selling your Costa Mesa home for the highest price (which it always is), establishing the asking price is the second of the two most crucial decisions you will make. Many homeowners reason that setting the original asking price “at the max” makes the most sense. They see that strategy as a way of controlling the process since it provides room for negotiations. Because this early decision is made before the Costa Mesa home has even entered the market, it doesn’t yet feel like there is any time pressure. If the high figure doesn’t attract buyers, lowering the asking price will solve the problem.

That may sound logical, but it’s highly inadvisable. When a seller decides to price above comparable properties, the predictable result…

683 Views, 0 Comments

Read Full Post

 

Last Friday morning, Costa Mesa residents who had braced themselves for the dismal details of an unprecedented surge in national unemployment heard some astounding news instead. The greatest surge in hiring for a single month left the commentators scrambling to explain how it was possible that all of them could be so far off (some by as much as 10 million jobs). For homeowners who had been watching from the sidelines, delaying the decision about whether the months-long cloud over U.S. businesses would hamper their own Costa Mesa real estate prospects, the news provided a totally unexpected burst of sunlight.

The ramifications for Costa Mesa’s real estate prospects weren’t hard to guess. Realtor.com immediately posted a news article headlining the…

641 Views, 0 Comments

Read Full Post

One consequence of the pandemic was the on-again/off-again nature of this year’s Costa Mesa real estate busy season. The restrictions resulted in what you’d expect: pent-up demand. The promise of loosening restrictions is widely expected to bolster the number of “For Sale” signs that we’ll soon be seeing—in any case, we should know before long.

For house hunters who will be looking to land their first starter home, most are prepared to be satisfied with a property that falls short of a “dream home” designation. That’s to be expected: since homeownership is by far the most important component for building family wealth, it’s encouraging to watch how the equity being built from a first home is fueling the progression into the next, superior one.…

848 Views, 0 Comments

Read Full Post

 

For Costa Mesa real estate buyers and sellers who occasionally track national trends and predictions, last week was a good one…to take the week off! In a week crammed with news that ranged from tragic (Minnesota) to triumphant (America’s superbly art-directed return to space), real estate received scant attention. It mattered little: with so many economic factors bouncing from all-time this to all-time that, expecting stable guidance would have been overly optimistic in any case. A snapshot:

On Friday, Realtor.com Senior Economist George Ratiu offered his analysis of the buying public’s mood, yielding the headline, “Economic Indicators Are Down, but Consumer Confidence is Up.” If that seems to lack consistency, it might be because the…

640 Views, 0 Comments

Read Full Post