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Easing the Transition to Your New Home Use the right boxes, and pack them carefully Professional moving companies use only sturdy, reinforced cartons. The boxes you can get at your neighborhood supermarket or liquor store might be free, but they are not nearly as strong or padded, and so can't shield your valuables as well from harm in transit. Use sheets, blankets, pillows and towels to separate pictures and other fragile objects from each other and the sides of the carton. Pack plates and glass objects vertically, rather than flat and [...]

Feng Shui is the oriental ancient art of placement - a guiding philosophy to bring harmony by looking at our environments and how the balance of energies can affect every part of life. Feng Shui (Pronounced "Feng Shway" or "Fung Shui"or Fung Shuway," depending if you are Mandarin, Cantonese, or American) means wind and water. The followers of Feng Shui believe that all we are and do is connected to the environment, Mother Earth and Chi, the natural order and energy in the Universe. Both the architecture of a home, as [...]

Home Improvements can substantially increase the value of your home, but it is important to understand that most home improvements will not necessarily lead to an increase in the home value at least equal to the investment. Home Improvements, however, can definitely make your home easier to sell and make it sell much more quickly. An additional service that I provide which I believe is unique to real estate agents is managing the process of a renovation or updating of your home in preparation of listing the property.  According to a [...]

Escrow is the process which facilitates the transfer of title, the funding of a new mortgage, the payoff of an existing mortgage, the issuance of new title insurance, the proper payment of all fees and expenses and the proper pro rations between buyer and seller. The escrow agent acts a third party to insure that all parties to the transaction have met their obligations prior to the recordation of any documents relating to the sale. The escrow agent performs the following tasks: 1. Escrow Instructions: Obtains copy of the purchase agreement [...]

What is Staging? Staging your home means presenting your home to potential buyers in the best possible light in order to make a lasting impression with them. It is all about creating a first impression of the home that will lead to a quick sale. Buyers tend to develop their opinion of a home immediately upon driving up to it and develop a lasting impression of a home within the first five seconds that they enter the house. Staging is meant to broaden the appeal of your home to the greatest [...]

Closing Costs Paid by Either Buyer or Seller: Allocation of costs associated with ownership of the home: These costs include the following: Property Taxes: Property Taxes in California are placed as a lien on a property July 1st of each year, and are for taxes for the period 7/1 through 6/30. These taxes are due and payable by 12/15 and 4/15 of the taxable year. At closing, property taxes are either allocated to the buyer or seller depending on the date of closing and the time that the last property tax [...]

The California Residential Purchase Agreement (California Association of Realtors form RPA-CA) is a standard form purchase contract There were significant changes made in the revised forms released in 11/14 and 12/15 , with changes in language in many paragraphs. Initial Offer: The initial offer that a buyer makes to acquire a property is made on the RPA-CA standard form Residential Purchase Contract. Some of the important items which must be included in the contract are the following: 1. Purchase Price, Financing, and Deposits: The purchase price, the amount of the deposit [...]

When Marketing Your Property for sale, I will utilize all of the appropriate resources available, particularly the Internet. E-Marketing is extremely important in today's internet-savvy world, particularly for those luxury home buyers who may be interested in relocating to the Los Angeles South Bay from another part of the country or the World. More and more home buyers are computer literate, and take the opportunity to surf the web in reviewing potential home acquisitions. Unless your agent takes advantage of this significant change in how people review potential properties for sale, [...]