The California Housing Finance Agency, also known as CalHFA, is rolling out a new down payment assistance program for moderate income and low income first-time home buyers which is known as the “Dream for All Shared Appreciation Loan.” It provides the qualified borrower with the 20% down payment in exchange for a share of the appreciation in value of the home. When the borrower eventually sells the property, they will repay the original down payment loan plus a share of the appreciation in the value of the home. There are a handful of requirements that a borrower must meet, plus a few property ..read more

Streamlined changes are coming to the home buying process. That is the news being reported by Inman, and the described changes could save you hundreds of dollars in appraisal fees. Three years ago, Fannie Mae began waiving appraisals for qualified loans / properties as part of their “value acceptance” system. Fannie Mae estimates that they saved borrowers more than $2.1 billion during that time on loans that qualified for an appraisal waiver. In addition to saving the borrower money, the waiver system also saves time. This was all made possible by a combination of Fannie Mae’s large database o ..read more

Sacramento’s annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade & Festival will take place tomorrow, March 18th , in Old Sacramento. Festivities include the parade, live music, delicious food, and an outdoor beer garden. The event is family friendly and will be held from 12:00p to 5:00p at and around Old Sacramento’s Waterfront, with the parade scheduled for 1:00p. Note that the event will involve the closure of several downtown streets beginning as early as 9:00a.       Digital kiosks might be coming to a Sacramento sidewalk near you! Also known as interactive kiosks, these outdoor infor ..read more

In 2003, my dad gifted me a copy of Robert Kiyosaki’s “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” and it taught me that exchanging my time for money in the grocery business as an employee wasn’t going to get me to where I wanted to go in life. I was 24 years old and had worked at the neighborhood grocery store since I was 16. Real estate and stocks were the first two things I thought of for me to invest in, so I bought a book about stocks which I found to be incredibly boring, and I enrolled in a class at Sacramento City College to learn more about the process of buying a house. By the end of that year, I had fallen ..read more

If you're planning to sell your home, you're likely looking for a reliable and experienced real estate agent to help guide you through the process. Coldwell Banker Realty is a well-known and respected name in the industry, with a reputation for professionalism, expertise, and excellent customer service. I take pride in being a Coldwell Banker agent, and in this blog post, I'll explore the strengths and benefits of listing a house for sale with me as your Coldwell Banker Realty real estate agent. 1. Experience and Expertise One of the biggest advantages of working with me and Coldwell Banker Re ..read more

Buying a home is a significant investment and a crucial decision for anyone. One of the best ways to make the most out of your home buying experience is to attend open houses. Open houses are a great opportunity to see the property in person, get a feel for the neighborhood, and ask any questions you may have. However, to get the most out of an open house, it's important to know what to look for and what questions to ask. In this blog post, I'll share some tips for home buyers on how to make the most out of viewing a property at an open house. Plan Ahead - Before attending an open house, do ..read more

I enjoy writing down goals for myself each year and have done so for the past twenty years. Many times I write my annual goals in whatever generic spiral notebook I happen to be using at that time, and my list for that given year eventually gets lost in the shuffle. Some years I have the foresight to either scan a copy of my goals into my computer, or I think to tear the pages out of the notebook and add them to a manila folder in the file cabinet. But as far as I can tell, there’s nothing special about the lists that I’ve kept over the years in comparison to the ones that have gone missing. P ..read more

For months, the real estate market in Sacramento was one of the hottest and most competitive in the country. Interest rates hovered at historically low rates and that inspired buyers to be aggressive with their offers. It was that environment which led me to turn my attention away from Sacramento and instead pursue out-of-state real estate opportunities during the first quarter of 2022. But it is now December and the housing market in Sacramento has slowed significantly from its rampant pace a year ago. As the market has transitioned to this new normal, I’ve made sure to keep a close eye on lo ..read more

A little over a year ago, I posted a blog asking the question “Do SFRs in the Sacramento Area still pencil?” I wanted to share how I run numbers on a property when I am determining whether to pursue it as an investment property. When asking the question, “Does it pencil?” I am asking whether the property will generate more rental income each month than there are expenses in holding costs. The hypothetical rental I was considering at the time was a three-bedroom, two full bathroom home with 1,600 square feet of living space on a 0.16-acre sized lot in an average neighborhood. The median price f ..read more

Reading through articles today, I came across one of interest that highlighted the takeaways from Redfin’s Chief Economist Daryl Fairweather. Fairweather authored a just released report titled, “Five Ways the Housing Market Will Change After the Pandemic.” He forecasts that the housing market will experience five primary changes as the pandemic subsides. The first change that he predicts is that home values are going to grow at a much slower pace. He predicts that values will continue to grow, but will do so at around 5%. In our Sacramento region, values grew last year at a rate north of 17 ..read more