Top 7 Overlooked Questions By Home Buyers

In the rush of adrenaline that a buyer feels when they walk into a home they can tell they will want to buy, a few important details might just slip by them, if they are giddy with remodeling ideas and envisioning how it will look when it is theirs... Here are 7 quick questions often neglected by home buyers.

Cool City Showdown: Boulder Colorado vs. Santa Clarita, California

I left Boulder in 1985, and never looked back. The cold, slushy winters, unrelenting hipster vibe coupled with my increasingly lousy college grades to point me towards greener pastures. So I moved 40 miles or so northeast, to Fort Collins, and there was much rejoicing. That town was more grounded, and every bit as eclectic. Fort Collins remains one of the best places in the entire country to live, especially to raise a family. But it got me thinking: why do I still see Boulder trotted out as more of a focal point of Colorado, and not Fort Collins? Did I make a mistake leaving?

Now I live in Santa Clarita. Awesometown. I've lived here for 20 years, and watched it grow like a weed. I hesitate to ever use that phrase that probably coined by some PR company 10 years ago, as it seems just a little too boastful, even when it's absolutely true. Santa Clarita is now the 3rd largest city in L.A. County, larger than more famous cities such as Burbank, Glendale or Pasadena. Colorado and California are two of your better places to settle down. I know a dozen people who moved from Colorado to Cali, stayed awhile, but then high-tailed it back to Colorado, never to return, even as a tourist. Los Angeles has that effect on people. But Santa Clarita is NOT L.A., just as Boulder is NOT Denver. I know both cities pretty well, though Fort Collins is undoubtedly growing and changing quicker than the other two combined.

So, if Boulder remains the coolest city in Colorado, is it a better place to live than my new cool spot?
Let's dig in....

Scenery

 In the video below, which city are you looking at? There's mountains, there's even buffalo grazing....

Alright.. That is not Boulder. But...

The initially shaky and jarring video above,

(hey, you do a 360 degree shot in under 60 seconds.. time is money, people!)

and photo below are shot exactly one mile from my doorstep.

 I can walk 1 mile in 3 directions, and hit absolutely gorgeous hiking trails.

I have to drive at least 5 or 6 miles in Boulder....

 The Score:  SC:1 BLDR: 0

If the citizens of Stevenson Ranch would bust out a camera and take a picture of their own flatirons, I'd have an excellent photo to give you a side by side of... But trust me, these are an absolute clone of Boulder's famed Flatirons.

Quick.. Colorado... is this the front range?

Santa Clarita

Boulder

Boulder gets 4 full seasons, including SNOW. Point: Boulder

Score: SC: 1 - Boulder:1

Biking:

Boulder was a biking hotspot even back in the 1980's.. It was ahead of its time in a lot of ways. I was raised on hamburgers and lasagna, Imagine my shock when I rolled into Boulder as a freshman at C.U. to find a falafel shop and a yoga studio..Those things have only recently made it into the mainstream. Bike paths don't really exist in Boulder. You have to ride in the street, in your own "special lanes" and pray you don't get run over by someone who is fed up sharing the road with you.

I know Boulder has tons of bike trails, but...

Santa Clarita has Paseos...

 In 2007, the League of American Bicyclists awarded Santa Clarita its "bronze" designation

as a "bicycle friendly community." Santa Clarita was picked to be the end of Stage 6 in the AMGEN Tour in Calif.

 Score: SC 2  Boulder: 1

Okay.. Some quicker comparisons:

Collegiate Sports:

Boulder has a BIG school, and football team. CU.

SC only  has College of the Canyons.

Point: Boulder. Score 2-2 (Incidentally, that was probably the score at the last CU game...)

Nightlife: 

Boulder has The Hill, and Pearl Street Mall.

Santa Clarita has Old Town Newhall and Valencia Town Center.

Point: Boulder... Pearl Street is a thing of beauty.. 

Score: Boulder: 3 SC: 2

Housing:

Boulder: Estimated median house or condo value in 2012: $477,200 

Santa C: Estimated median house or condo value in 2012: $360,600

Point SC.. We know both towns have gone UP since then.

Boulder has a STRICT slow growth policy that drives up the price of housing.

Score 3-3.

Income:

SC Estimated median household income in 2012: $78,894 

Boulder Estimated median household income in 2012: $56,274

Score: SC: 4  Boulder: 3

Education:

Santa Clarita: 

Bachelor's degree or higher: 32.8%

Graduate or professional degree: 10.5%

Boulder:

Bachelor's degree or higher: 71.6%

Graduate or professional degree: 36.7%

Point: Boulder.. Score Tied 4-4

Famous Townsfolk

Santa Clarita:

Taylor Lautner (Twilight Trilogy)

Shane Vareen (New England Patriots)

Naya Rivera (Glee)  all attended Valencia High School.

Tim Burton: Film director

Dee Dee Myers: Former White House Press Secretary

Ashley Tisdale: Actress

Boulder:

Dick Anderson (former Miami Dolphins )

Steve Ells, founder and CEO of the Chipotle restaurant chain

Joan Van Ark  (Knots Landing)

Hale Irwin (Golfer)

Point: Boulder (I hated the Twilight hoopla)  
Score: Boulder: 5  SC:4

Industry

The Boulder MSA had a gross metropolitan product of $18.3 billion in 2010,
the 110th largest metropolitan economy in the United States.

In 2007, Boulder became the first city in the USA to levy a carbon tax. (Boo!!)

In 2013, Boulder appeared on Forbes magazine's list of Best Places for Business and Careers.

Santa Clarita is home to over 20 soundstages, approximately a dozen movie ranch/backlots, and numerous production-related businesses that generate dozens of movies, music videos, television shows and commercials annually. In 2006 CNN/Money Magazine rated Santa Clarita the number one best place to live in California and number 18 nationally. Santa Clarita has an estimated gross metro product around $12 billion. It is home to Six Flags Magic Mountian, and Princess Cruises, the 2 largest private employers in the city.
Score: Boulder 6  SC: 4

Crime
Crime Index for Boulder 189.4
Crime Index for Santa Clarita 140.0
(Santa Clarita ranked 3rd safest in COUNTRY)
U.S. Avg. 301.1
Score: Boulder: 6  SC: 5

Wallethub Ranking Based on These Factors:
Median Income, Housing Affordability, Job Growth, Economic Progress, Commute Times, Credit Scores, Reported 'Well-Bieng'
Santa Clarita: 28
Boulder : Not Ranked  (Denver ranked 31)
Score Tied.. 6-6

Distance to the Ocean: 
Santa Clarita: Approx.30 miles -  1 hour by car.
Boulder: 1030 miles - 2 DAYS by car.
Score: SC: 7  Boulder: 6

Distance To Decent Ski Slopes:
Santa Clarita: 80 Mins by car (Snow Summit)
Boulder: 50 Mins by car ( Lake Eldora)
Score: Tied 7-7

Prestigious Universities:
Santa Clarita:
In 2011, Newsweek ranked CalArts as the nation's number one college for students in the arts.
The L.A. Times called CalArts:
 "The Harvard Business School of Animation".

Boulder:
 Eleven Nobel Laureates, nine MacArthur Fellows, and 18 astronauts have been affiliated
 with CU-Boulder as students, researchers, or faculty members in its history.

Score: Remains Tied 7-7

Another aggregator of factoids, livability.com has been enlisted to break this tie......

Santa Clarita is the winner!!

I kinda knew it all along, the day that I looked around on my hike and thought

"This is where I want to be."

Which Santa Clarita Zip Code Is Searched For The Most on Trulia?

Out of 805 Los Angeles County zip codes, Valencia's 91354 is ranked 67th in home searches.

Newhall is searched for the least, at 161st.

 (Both areas still rank in the top 20% of all searches in L.A. County.)

Baby Boomers Are Staying in their Homes Longer Than Other Generations

This infographic from California Board of Realtors shows a couple illuminating facts about  why Baby Boomers are staying in their homes longer than other generations:
 1. They plan to move out of the state at a rate slightly faster than those who plan to move here, continuing a net loss of population in California (not including births here, and immigration of both the legal and illegal variety.
2. They're more broke than they ever counted on being at this point. Results of a recent survey by Natixis Global Asset Management with 1000 respondents show, 33 percent of Boomers have set aside less than $50,000. By comparison, 41 % of the Millennial or Generation Y group (ages 18 to 33) have already put aside $50,000.   Now factor in the fact that Baby Boomers have saved an average of $262,541, about a third of the $805,400 they predict they’ll need at retirement. What? 
It's flat-out amazing that people have been able to squirrel away even these amounts... 

Nine Useful Tools For Your Home Search - You're Welcome

There are a bewildering number of websites, real estate apps and software suites that enable a regular Joe to try to match the abilities of a professional at something. In music, recording studios have to compete against digital home recording studio software that costs 1/20,000th of the price.....

Tech can definitely level the playing field in a great many occupations, including Real Estate. With the advent of the big real estate portals, it seems like a person can find all they need to move out of their beaten-down apartment, and into the home of their dreams. As a Realtor, I use tech every day as well, to search MLS listings, unofficially pre-qualify a client, or even help them imagine what a sofa would look like placed in an empty room. I have an iPad full of tools, and an iPhone full of contacts hoping I use those tools correctly.

For instance, there is an app called BAO, or Business Analytics Online which allows you to quickly and easily get key demographic and market facts about any location in the U.S. The thing is, it's pretty easy to mess up and get bad data, and you wouldn't know it unless you knew the characteristics of a neighborhood really well. The app told me the median income in my neighborhood is over $80,000. I invite the makers of BAO to visit my neighborhood and see that unfortunately, that is not the case.

My point? Tech can lead you down the wrong path, with bad data from time to time, so never rely on one single app when making a decision.

So, with that caviat in mind, I have some great tools that many of my clients have found useful, starting with MY app. Self-serving as it is to start with that, my Keller Williams branded app pulls data from our local MLS, and ties that in with GPS, includes a mortgage calculator, and allows you to sort and save properties to a list you send to your agent for more information.

To get it, just text:  "kw1gzs81l" to 87778 (the last two characters are 1 and little L)

Now.. The rest:

Sometimes, communicating what style of home you hope to find to your real estate agent is impossible. Do you want a modern farmhouse, or an Andy Warhol-esque single floor? Grab the Houzz app, (iOS / Android) and browse the largest database of photos of homes you're likely to find. For that matter, you can even send a picture or two of an inside of a home....

When one person can't be present for a home tour, let the other one have a virtual presence, using Facetime on iPhones/iPads.. A wife can show her absent husband around the property and talk about what she is seeing at the same time...

Did you forget to bring a tape measure? EasyMeasure (iOS /Android) will get you pretty close measurements, by pointing your device at where the floor meets the wall...

If you are curious what a room might look like with the walls painted another color, try ColorSnap Studio (iOS/Android) With it, you can explore over 1,500 colors, get color inspiration from a photo or virtually paint your walls with the brush of a finger.

Walk Score (iOS/Android) is for renters. It will instantly calculate how close you are to nearby important amenities, such as schools, hospitals, coffee shops, grocery stores and bus lines..

Great Schools Finder (iOS)  Locate and see on a map nearby elementary, middle, and high schools. Search listings and view detailed ratings, reviews, and test scores.

HUD HOMES (iOS & Android) Official source for Government Foreclosures.


Once you get back home, and want detailed info on your neighborhood, visit the L.A. Times Neighborhoods for an overview of schools, crime, and general commentary about all the neighborhoods in L.A.

What about visiting the 800 lb. gorilla of the industry, ZILLOW?
Obviously the big real estate portals like Zillow and Trulia have pictures of properties and some data, but they are often outdated. They have little incentive to keep them completely up to date, and the "Zestimates" (Zillow's estimate property value engine) are often off by a large sum. A Washington Post article recently noted that:
"No algorithm, however sophisticated, can quantify the value of a kitchen that was remodeled just before a home was put on the market or a yard that is poorly maintained. It simply isn't possible for any AVM to predict the value of a home with a level of accuracy sufficient to make a housing decision."

Zillow even acknowledges that their pricing is within 5% of the correct value less than half the time!

I don't want to get off on a rant here, so I'll switch to design..
For design inspiration, I suggest you visit curbed.com. The site is one of the top 15 most influential real estate sites out there, with stunning photos of how to up your home's curb appeal, as a seller.

I will do a PART 2 on this topic in a couple weeks, as there are far too many cool tools to list in one report. If you have a GO-TO tool you recommend, hit the comments below and share!
-Chris Gallatin   www.gallatingroup.net

Homeowners Vs. Appraisers: A Genuine Meeting of the Minds

In January of this year, Housingwire.com had a post about Homeowner's valuing their properties differently than appraisers... For instance, if Jane in Los Angeles thinks her home is worth $400,000 and her appraiser sets the value at $440,000  the appraisers value is 10% higher than Jane's. A year ago, appraisers figures on typical house values were 6% higher than homeowners. That amount has shrunk to 3% as of November 2014, according to quickenloans.com (Western U.S. only).

First of all, I'm surprised that homeowners have ever felt their homes were less valuable than their appraisers. I join those who welcome this latest trend of similar valuations, but wonder why it is happening. The report only shows the changes in differences of opinion over the last month, and not the actual values. Are the appraisers lowering their figures, or are homeowners raising theirs due to the stabilization of the housing market after the foreclosure crisis?

The article suggests that if the trend continues, the numbers will flip, and homeowners will become troubled that their home is appraising for less than they will think it should. That will seem "normal" to me, although the article suggests that's a problem. I don't see why. Do you?

Disney's Golden Oak Ranch: A Peek at Those Remarkable Backlots

In the quietest of news releases way back in 2011, Disney and ABC Studios announced completion of  two state of the art backlots on the Golden Oak Ranch. The 42 storefront urban district was constructed entirely with filmmakers in mind, and its presence in the formerly scrub-brush filled plateau just southeast of Newhall is breathtaking.

     The lots allow any filmmaker to re-create 1920's Chicago or present-day New York, and everything in between. They've also constructed a residential street, consisting of 14 homes, each embodying a different architectural style on a curved road. Over the years (since 1950 in fact) they've been acquiring more land, and this has brought the total to just under 900 acres. While they only plan to use a small portion of the land, it is plenty impressive. Who knew how much they had going on back there on Placerita Canyon Road?

The film industry is growing increasingly important to Santa Clarita with annual revenues now approaching $56 million. Many have remarked that Santa Clarita is doing so well because it is able to look like almost any city in the U.S. Filming permits and days of work were up 23% year over year for October, and sound stage vacancy rates remain low, so the ranch will be plenty busy for years to come.  For example, Glee''s production crew was at Golden Oak Ranch last month.

I've grabbbed a few of the picturesque shots from the Disney development, and made a quick photo gallery here. A more extensive set of pictures was posted in May 2013 including:

The Truth About Business Vampires

We've all heard the sentiment:

"DON'T lend money to friends!"

If a friend or family in need is asking you for money, then help with no strings attached in a genuine way or don't do it at all.

The point I'm going to make here is that I've had the amazing privilege and honor to do business with my friends. Heck, the majority of my business is with just friends!

I am grateful for the trust, and respond to a friend's need to invest in real estate with the utmost care. Does it ever go wrong? It can when the person asking for help is actually insecure about what they want to do.

Here's what happened......

A friend asked me to help them find an investment property. For 4 years, I busted my butt. Time and time and time again, deals slipped right by..After 4 years, I realize that they are insecure about making a decision and had been consulting dozens of other people on what to do...Oh my gosh, I'm exhausted just remembering this. Why oh why did I waste so much time! .(Yeah, I held on for that long because I thought I owed my friend this amount of hard work and many many hours for nothing..) 

This person was what we call " an emotional vampire." In this case, we're talking about an emotional/financial vampire. 

"Whether or not they know it, vampires are driven by insecurity and weakness, infirmities that impede goodwill. This doesn't excuse their predatory acts." - Judith Orloff, M.D.

Dear Reader, if you're working with a Realtor who is a friend or family connection, ask yourself this first: why are you working with them?

Is it because you respect what they do and trust them? Then proceed full throttle forward!!

BUT if you yourself have fears and doubts about making a real estate investment, then please do your friend a favor, and be honest and say you're not ready. It is absolutely ridiculous, and ruinous to a relationship to waste a professional's time with your fantasies of being a real estate investor.

Proudly, I can tell you that I have repeat business with friends and have helped them make money on income properties... I love that part of my job the most!

If a friend of mine owns a business, I go to them first because I'd rather support a friend. 

Not because I want a discount. No, actually that makes me feel uncomfortable, I support them because I trust and respect what they do. Period. So if there are any other vampires out there, my door will always be closed.