There are hundreds of ways to make your home more eco-friendly. Some are definitely more affordable than others. One of the biggest reason for going green is the rewards for energy conservation.

For existing properties, installing green features begin when repairs and replacements are needed:

• Installing Energy Star appliances
• Tank-less hot water heaters
• Vinyl windows
• Improved insulation
• Water barrels

Check with your local utility companies or tax authorities to learn if you are entitled to tax credits for installing these devices.

However, greening your home doesn’t have to mean expensive retrofits. Low and no cost methods include:

• Making recycling easy by having recycle containers available wherever garbage is collected.
• Installing energy efficient compact fluorescent lamps (CFL).
• Repainting using low volatile organic compounds (VOC) paints.
• Adding weather stripping to drafty doors and windows.
• Incorporating dripper and soaker watering systems to garden areas.
• Changing the landscaping to xeriscaping (eliminates the need for watering beyond what occurs naturally).

Today’s average citizen is ecologically aware!!Let’s work together to save our planet!!

Share and enjoy…

Jasmen Vartanian

Calstar Realty & Mortgage Inc.

Since 1987

A HUD foreclosure, or HUD home, is a single family or multi-family residential property acquired by HUD as a result of a foreclosure action on an FHA-insured mortgage, according to hud.gov. In the wake of the subprime lending crisis, FHA-insured mortgage loans are becoming more popular among homebuyers who experience difficulty in qualifying for traditional bank loans. An increase in the number of FHA-insured loans distributed to homebuyers is likely to be accompanied by an eventual increase in HUD foreclosures. As a result, investors could stand to reap high profit margins resulting from the affordability and availability of HUD homes on the market.

The process of buying a HUD foreclosure is significantly different than that of purchasing a traditional home. HUD homes are sold through a bidding process that puts investors in line behind intended owner-occupants. During the first 10 days that a HUD home is listed for sale, only owner–occupants are permitted to place bids; if a successful bid is not accepted by the time the initial priority period has elapsed, bidding is opened to investors as well.

Over the last decade, the Los Angeles real estate market, and much of the California real estate market for that matter, was rather inflated in price.  Since a recession has caught up to the high prices and overzealous loans issued by Los Angeles real estate professionals, the market is left with lots of short sales, foreclosures and bank owned properties.

Because of this, the Los Angeles real estate market is in a state of flux, trending back to lower (and more reasonable) prices based on the current cost of living throughout the United States.

Whether you’re interested in commercial real estate, residential real estate to live in, or residential real estate to generate income in the area, talking to a Los Angeles real estate broker is the best way to get some information regarding the home-buying process and check up on current listings.   Here are a few key terms to learn so you can prepare yourself for the process.

Cash Flow:

The amount of cash you generate from an income-producing property—your cash flow should be enough to cover the expenses of the property as a rule of thumb, such as mortgage, utilities, improvements and taxes.

Closing:

The last meeting between all parties involved with the sale of a property, where funds actually exchange hands legally.

Closing Costs:

All the expenses that arise for buyers and sellers that are a result of the actual transaction of a property—taxes, title insurance, credit report fees, appraisals and document prep fees are all examples of closing costs.

If you’re a first-time buyer, talking to Los Angeles real estate brokers can get a little overwhelming, especially if you’re just trying to gather information and aren’t necessarily in the buying stage yet.

Real estate in Los Angeles, like the rest of the United States, is highly regulated and many professionals are required to effectively buy or sell homes.  While a good Los Angeles real estate agent can always guide you through the process and give you a good window to real estate listings in your price range, it’s always good to be armed with a little information of your own.

In our continued effort to help first-time buyers get familiar with the Los Angeles real estate market, here are a few key terms to know when beginning to hunt for available houses.

Bill of Sale:

Basically a receipt for your house or property.   A bill of sale is a legal document that details the transfer of ownership of a title to an apartment of house.

Blanket Mortgage:

A mortgage that covers more than one property a buyer is financing—some lenders will cover two or more properties under one mortgage.

Blended Payments:

Loan repayment for a home or piece of property where the same amount is paid each period, but the composition of interest and principal fluctuate. This structure helps keep payments consistent for buyers.

Broker:

A real estate broker is simply a real estate agent that is licensed to list properties. Los Angeles real estate brokers are licensed to list real estate in California.  A mortgage broker helps arrange funds and negotiate contracts with lenders on behalf of buyers.

The legalities of home buying and the complexities of maintaining buildings all make for some confusing language that you may not always easily understand.

Trustworthy Los Angeles real estate brokers can help coach you through the process, but it always helps to go into the home-buying process with some knowledge of your own.

Here are a few key terms you’ll hear if your looking for homes for sale in Los Angeles.

Abstract of Title:

A condensed history of the title of a home or piece of property.  The Abstract details the home’s history of sale, transfers of ownership and any liabilities attached to the property.

Appraisal:

An appraisal is basically an estimated value of a home or property.  Los Angeles real estate agents won’t do the appraising themselves—a third party licensed appraiser is required by lenders in order to determine the amount of their loans.

Assessment:

An assessor is not the same thing as an appraiser.  Assessments are taxes assigned to Los Angeles houses for sale to pay for city services such as streetlights or sewers.  An assessor establishes property value for basis of taxation.

Asset:

Anything that can be attributed a dollar value that a person owns.  Banks take all assets into consideration when determining how much to lend those seeking homes for sale in Los Angeles.

But it’s nice to get some affirmation from TV networks that view the world of Los Angeles real estate as TV-worthy—Home and Garden Television has recently announced plans to film a TV series called Selling Los Angeles that will essentially be a reality series with Los Angeles real estate brokers as its cast.

Looks like homes for sale in Los Angeles can be every bit as exciting as the lofts, high-rises, and old-world architecture of New York City—you might have caught the series Selling New York on HGTV that aired last Spring and is currently re-running.

If you haven’t, the premise basically features a couple of brokers from Manhattan real estate companies rubbing elbows and selling properties to some of the city’s high-profile business people.  Selling New York was shot and aired earlier this year.

I guess HGTV figured if they were going to mix Hollywood and real estate, they might as well continue it by mixing Hollywood and Los Angeles real estate. The network decided to film Selling Los Angeles in early 2011.

The show will feature a few brokers from Los Angeles real estate companies competing to pitch prominent homes for sale in Los Angeles to high profile buyers around the city.

We’re not yet sure exactly who the Los Angeles real estate brokers will be during the series, but you can bet the show will give a pretty enjoyable inside perspective on high end homes for sale in Los Angeles and the process by which they get sold…at least through the perspective of a Hollywood lens that is!

But what can you do to sell your home in the down market?  With many of the state tax credit programs expiring last April, the market has experienced yet another semi-expected plunge, what many are referring to as the “After Tax-Credit Hangover.”

Statistics just came out this July analyzing the numbers of foreclosures nationwide, and it’s no surprise states like California, Arizona, Florida and Nevada topped the list.  Those states have been hit hard by a lack of tourism with the national recession and over-inflated housing markets prior to the industry’s fall.

These four states were subsequently already approved for $1.5 billion in federal funding along with Michigan in an attempt to stop the bleeding of foreclosures flooding the housing market earlier this year. Another Five states were approved a second wave of federal funding this past spring.

That leaves most realty experts recommending homeowners to wait to list their property if they don’t absolutely have to sell.  With lesser urgency from buyers, who have more of a pick-and-choose position in the market due to further expected decreases and a plethora of short sales and foreclosures to browse, sellers who don’t absolutely have to list their homes would likely do better to wait another one to two years.

For those who do have urgency to list, price aggressively.  You’re going to have to compete with homes that are being sold as short sales or bank owned sales.  These properties are priced to move as bankers and lenders have already agreed to take losses on them.

While most sellers may feel they can always come down on their prices, buyers are flooded with short-sale options, and aging listings can really hurt the overall perception of your property.

With that in mind, it may be better to price competitively right away in order to move the place or at least get some offers in your first 30 days. Most listings will drop in price by 10-15 percent when they age, so it may be advantageous to start a bit lower than you feel your home is worth, just to be a bit more competitive in today’s buyer’s market—it may actually win you more money in the sale.

The organization began cutting back on some of their programs (and even suspended some entirely) when the state of California real estate bubble heightened and the state budget became overly problematic in late 2008.

Since then, CalHFA has announced that it is rolling out a new program with the help of about 700 million dollars of federal funding to help California residents falling behind on their mortgages keep their homes instead of facing foreclosure.

California’s real estate industry has experience much higher foreclosure and short sale rates than the norm—higher than ever, really—and news recently came out to demonstrate that foreclosure rates and short sales are continuing to climb through the third quarter of 2010.

Funding for the Keep Your Home mortgage assistance program  has already been approved by the U.S. Treasury and will begin accepting applications for qualified homeowners this coming November.

The main goals of the Keep Your Home assistance program are described by CalHFA as “preserving homeownership for low and moderate income homeowners in California by reducing the number of delinquencies and preventing avoidable foreclosures, and to assist in the stabilization of California communities.”

Homeowners who are struggling to pay their mortgages as a result of hardship from unemployment or other circumstances that contribute to financial hardship may be eligible for funds within the program.

The details of the program are slowly rolling out until CalHFA begins accepting applications later this year.  Newest details on the Keep Your Home program website include the initial proposal and state representative reactions regarding the projected effectiveness of the program.

Most recently, CalHFA’s marketing director Ken Giebel used Twitter to announce q1ualifying income levels for eligible homeowners who may wish to take advantage of the program to help avoid foreclosure.

While this number is actually a five percent decrease compared to the last six months, it’s eight percent higher than the first six months of 2009.

According to the report, “1.28 percent of all housing units (one in 78) received at least one foreclosure filing in the first half of the year.”

As you may have guessed, California tops the list in total number of foreclosures with over 340,000. This equates to one in every 39 of California’s housing units receiving a foreclosure notice over the past six months.

The only silver lining for California is that staggering total is actually almost 13 percent fewer than the number experienced in 2009’s first half, however, these numbers are still unsettling as they are higher than the nation’s ever seen overall.

Additionally, almost every other state’s foreclosure amounts increased substantially to suggest the national industry is far from recovery.

Florida and Arizona shared California’s rank with the next two highest total foreclosures, but Nevada took the cake in terms of percentages. 5 percent of their housing units, or one in every 17, received a foreclosure notice in the past six months. Arizona came in second with one in every thirty.

Some inferences can be made from these statistics. Tourism seems to be related to these numbers as California, Arizona, Florida and Nevada have some of the highest tourism rates in the country, and it’s widely accepted that tourism falters along with a down economy.

Perhaps the rate of second-home defaulting is increasing in the poor economy. Many buyers who purchased at the pinnacle of the inflated market are definitely attracted to their defaulting or short sale options in order to cut their losses on high mortgages at the expense of their credit score.

It appears the market is in for more hurdles in the coming year, as the predominant category of listings are foreclosures and short sales and numbers suggest they will continue to be for quite some time.

If you would like to sell your house in this market contact CalStar Realty and Mortgage.