At Last! Finding the Right Home by Building Your Wish List

Here is a great video by Ilyce Glink talking about establishing your "wish list" for home buying. Whether you're currently a renter, or a homeowner who needs to sell before moving on, I believe this is what everyone really needs to do very early in their planning for a new home, from the house itself to the location that will best serve them! Once this is done, it's a lot easier to start matching up your desired neighborhoods and your financing programs with what's on your list. If you're looking for assistance on more ways to make that match, please contact me! If you're interested in a property search, either take a look at the Homebuyer Market Program below for a comprehensive approach to homebuying, or go to my MLS search at http://www.juliahuntsman.com/ . Why do I say "at last!"??? Well, this may deeply surprise some of you, but in my experience I have actually met buyers who believe they will "just know" they have found the right house when they walk into it, and also in my experience, the buyers who "just know" are the ones who did their homework first.

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Future Reminders

I just saw this on another site, it's a great idea for reminders and planning. Send yourself an e-mail you write today and get in the future to find out if you really did do the things you said you would, or planned on, or wanted to do--your annual business goals, the trip you wanted to take, a relationship, selling your home--anything at all. Try it.

Long Beach, CA

Your House Is A Home, Not A Tech Stock

Everywhere you read, it's all about the slowing housing market, or worse. Nobody likes to feel they bought or sold at the right time, but to make the best move you can you need to know your future plans a lot more than you need a crystal ball. Playing the wait-and-see game, as this Los Angeles Times 9/10/2006 article shows, doesn't always work out. Real estate is cyclical in nature, and if you buy and plan to stay at least five to seven years, you are more likely to be making a good investment. "But housing is not bought and sold as easily as tech stocks ... People who are rolling the dice, and not getting into real estate for the right reasons, are putting themselves at risk," says John Karevoll of Dataquick. "If you're planning on living in the property for three to five years or more, you can make a good investment today," he said. "It won't be as good as if you bought three years ago, but it will be better than if you wait until interest rates go up." So trying to time the market and sell early or wait to buy, as some people have learned, can be the wrong move for the wrong reasons. First and foremost should be an assessment of your needs, then try to match those needs with the best loan and the best house that you can get at the time.