About Sonoma County, CA

Adding to Your Social Networking

How to Boost Your Twitter Following

How many of you marketers out there are actively using Twitter? What would Twitter even add to your business? Is it a sure way of bringing in new leads or is it just the newest online fad that will eventually die down? From a marketing perspective it almost doesn’t matter what the intended function of Twitter may be, just as long as it gets your brand name out, right? In the article I read this morning titled “How to Boost Your Twitter Following” Katherine Tarbox gives some great pointers on how to utilize Twitter fully.

So how is it that people get so many followers?! I understand for famous big hitters getting followers takes no effort on their part, but what about for a single individual or a company? Starting at ground zero on any marketing trend is difficult so where do we begin with Twitter? Tarbox suggests “following 100 people a day for a month. Nine times out of ten the person will reciprocate and follow you back” out of politeness and/or actual interest. So who should you follow?

If you’re in a business begin by following other in the local community that are in the same business. Follow your clients, referrals, colleagues, past clients and other associates on Twitter. Your Twitter base needs to show that you’re a local expert and have lots of connections with others in the community.

After you’ve sufficiently built up a good Twitter database you can slow down your follows to about ten to twelve per day. Make sure you keep up some level of maintenance in following new people and by the end of the year you’ll most likely be followed by thousands.

Lynn Tardibuono – Flipper Chick- Real Estate Agent and Co-Owner of Sun Pacific Mortgage and Real Estate. Serving Sonoma County since 1988. Her number is (707)523-2099 and you can also visit the website at http://www.sunpacmortgage.com.

This morning, our Multiple Listing Service (MLS) had 27 homes listed for sale in Oakmont. This compares with 31 for sale at the beginning of last week. This past week, two homes came onto the market, seven new escrows opened, and five homes closed escrow. For a complete list of all the homes currently for sale in our MLS system, please click on the link below:

View Listings

For details on any of these homes for sale in Oakmont, please click on Search by MLS Number and select "Sonoma" from the "Choose a County" dropdown box, then enter the MLS number at the bottom of the search screen.

Note: This is a live link, so any additions or changes to these listings will be reflected within 30 minutes or less.

For more information on the community of Oakmont, please click on Oakmont California.

Housing Relief Plan and Banks

How They’re Going to Start Helping the Market

The good news continues and I’m feeling more and more confident about the housing market by the day. Two fantastic pieces of news fell into my lap this morning that have me feeling very hopeful…

We all know that banks, especially in this past year, have not been doing their due diligence toward their borrowers and potential borrowers. These two articles are the latest updates about banks moving forward to try and fix the problems they’ve caused for many homeowners and first time homebuyers.

The first article is by Krista Franks Brock and is titled “Housing Crisis to End in 2012 as Banks Loosen Credit Standards”. For obvious reasons this caught my immediate attention.

So far the analytics firm has noted an average acceptable credit score of 700. It is a bit steep and is higher than the required score prior to our housing crisis, and many are struggling to get their credit up to that score. However, there is hope with other loan programs available such as Hard Money Loans or Credit Union portfolio loans….. so desired homeowners can still take advantage of this housing market.

Several other great points the banks are going to start hitting are as follows:

·Banks are now lending up to 3.4 times a borrowers earnings; up from 3.2, the low during the crisis.

·Banks are loosening LTV ratios (loan-to-value) which “Capital Economics denotes the clearest sign yet of an improvement in mortgage credit conditions”. LTV percent was at 74%, a low of mid-2012 and is now pushing upward of 82%.

· In November of last year 8% of contract cancellations “were the result of a potential buyer not qualifying for a loan”. Because of this credit conditions in the bank have loosened slightly.

All of this sounds fantastic, but how do we know the banks will follow through with their promises? I present to you the second article of today’s discussion titled “Obama’s Housing Relief Plans for Servicemembers and FHA Borrowers” by Esther Cho.

One proviso that was included in the news conference was “servicemen who were foreclosed upon since 2006 reviewed, and if any are found to have been wrongfully foreclosed upon they can receive compensation equal to a minimum of lost equity, plus interest”. This is fantastic news!

Not only this, but there will be 10 million dollars set aside to go into the Veterans Affairs fund to guarantee loans on favorable terms. This plan also includes plans for FHA borrowers to get refinanced at much lower costs. The current premium on this loan is at 1% and will be reduced to .1% which is a huge difference and will have an impact. “The administration estimates 2-3 million FHA borrowers will be eligible” for this relief.

The links for both articles are listed below if you wish to read further.

Article one: http://www.linkedin.com/news?actionBar=&articleID=5567733516482908167&ids=czcTc3wSdzcOdPkMd3oPczwRdiMUdPcQcjkMe34PcPkMej8Oe3kRb38Sc3sTdPANc3kMcjcNejATdjkIdPkSe3sUdz4UdzwOdz0QdPsRdiMTdz4Uc3AOe3gScjkPcPsTdzkR&aag=true&freq=weekly&trk=eml-tod2-b-pub-0&ut=2Ue3ZCN8k4AB81

Article two: http://www.linkedin.com/news?actionBar=&articleID=5567733516482908167&ids=czcTc3wSdzcOdPkMd3oPczwRdiMUdPcQcjkMe34PcPkMej8Oe3kRb38Sc3sTdPANc3kMcjcNejATdjkIdPkSe3sUdz4UdzwOdz0QdPsRdiMTdz4Uc3AOe3gScjkPcPsTdzkR&aag=true&freq=weekly&trk=eml-tod2-b-pub-0&ut=2Ue3ZCN8k4AB81

Lynn Tardibuono – Flipper Chick- Real Estate Agent and Co-Owner of Sun Pacific Mortgage and Real Estate. Serving Sonoma County since 1988. Her number is (707)523-2099 and you can also visit the website at http://www.sunpacmortgage.com.

As of March 8, 2012 a very impressive 46% of available homes for sale are in escrow.

For the month of February 2012 36 homes sold in Sonoma (16 of which were distress sales) for an average final selling price of $577,036.

The average original asking price of these homes wa s$615,457.

The range of final selling prices was from a low of $80,000 to a high of $3,150,000.

Of the 36 homes that sold 5 sold at their original asking prices and 9 sold over their original asking prices.

It took these homes an average of 114 days to sell.

To see all homes that are currently available for sale through our MLS sign in here under my name.

To learn more about specific properties or this area in general freel free to contact me.

As of March 8, 2012 a whopping 58% of available listings in Petaluma are in escrow.

For the month of February 2012 50 homes sold (26 of which were distress sales) for an average final selling price of $417,810.

The average original asking price of these homes was $463,834.

The range of final selling prices was from a low of $160,000 to a high of $990,000.

Of the 50 homes that sold 4 sold at their original asking prices and 12 sold over their original asking prices.

It took these homes an average of 154 days to sell.

To see all homes that are currently available for sale through our MLS sign in here under my name.

To learn more about specific properties or this area in general freel free to contact me.