Orange, CA

RE/MAX Moved to New Location, 1835 W. Orangewood Ave., Ste. 101, Orange, CA 92868
Knowledge, Experience and Full-Service Amenities Will Be Showcase of RE/MAX Homes & Estates

September 21, 2009 - The RE/MAX California & Hawaii Region is proud to announce the moving to a new location of RE/MAX Homes & Estates in Orange, CA. Broker/Owner Al Villegas has been an Associate with the RE/MAX network for 12 years. RE/MAX Homes & Estates services North, Central & South Orange Counties. Along with residential real estate professionals, RE/MAX Homes & Estates specializes in income properties, Short Sales, REO properties and the luxury home market.
RE/MAX Homes & Estates Broker/Owner, Al Villegas, says, "There are many opportunities that exist in today's market, especially for first time homebuyers," said Villegas, "The real estate market fluctuates with time, and right now and a lot of people are going to be kicking themselves for not buying in this market" in Orange County, it's a great business to be in and an excellent way to serve members of our community."
In Al Villegas real estate career with RE/MAX, Villegas has been awarded the 100% Club, Platinum and Hall of Fame award..
The new office will be located at 1835 W. Orangewood Ave. Ste 101, Orange, CA 92868. For more information, contact (714) 453-3130 alvillegas@remax.net, www.ochomes-estates.net.

About RE/MAX International
RE/MAX was founded in 1973 in Denver, Colorado by Dave and Gail Liniger. It has grown to a global network of nearly 100,000 Sales Associates in more than 70 countries. No one sells more real estate than RE/MAX. Today, all U.S. home listings in thousands of cities and towns can be found at www.remax.com.
RE/MAX is proud to help raise millions of dollars and support charitable organizations like, Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure, Children's Miracle Network and The Sentinels of Freedom Foundation.

Lately I have had several people mention they are considering investing in real estate here in Orange County, CA. People want to live in Orange County, that is an undeniable fact, however investing in our Wild Wild West housing market is not for the feint of heart.

Getting a "deal" has increasingly become a challenge due to huge demand for homes/condos priced under $600,000. Cash is king, so if you can swing an all cash offer, you are golden. Banks will often take a low cash offer that can close quickly for their REO over a financed market value offer. There are a lot of people in OC purchasing all cash, so your offer may still be one of many. Condos in good areas can be had in the low to mid 100K's and single family homes start in the mid 300K's.

If you will be financing your investment purchase there are three different types of homes you can purchase.

• Bank-Owned homes: The trouble with these listings is that from my experience there can be 5-50 offers on them, so you have to put together a complete and "attractive" offer package. What I mean by "attractive" is that your offer price needs to be market value and the offer must include FICO summary, proof of down payment funds, a pre-approval from a direct lender, and any other addendum's the bank requires. If it is not all together in one package they won't even consider your offer.
• Short-Sales: Since you are not looking for a primary residence you have the time to wait out short-sale approval from the bank. From my experience this process may take 2-9 months. You never know if the banks who hold the mortgages will approve taking less than what is owed so don't hold your breath for "the one" to come through and keep looking for other options.
• Normal sale, or equity sale: These are the best, and hardest, homes to find. A normal sale should have less mystery components since they have to disclose everything they know about the home and have likely cared for the home more than a distressed property.

Bryan Shoup, Mortgage Consultant from Home Security Financial, says an investor needs to have a debt to income level of 45% or less, at LEAST 25% down payment (unless you are purchasing with a family member who will live in the home, then as little as 3.5% will work). No stated income loans and an individual can own up to ten properties (previously it was only 4).

If you intend to rent out your investment have your REALTOR run a search on closed leases for the size and type of home your intend to buy. This will be a good indicator of how much you could ask for. Rental prices have remained quite high even in this economic downturn so it is possible to be cash flow positive if you are financing 60% or less.

Do your homework, select a reliable REALTOR who will be a strong partner for your business success, and be patient with all the wackiness you will see in the market. Hold on for a bumpy ride in the Wild Wild West of OC Real Estate!

Share the word.

The REAL Tweeps of Orange County!

Despite our undeserved reputation induced by staged "reality" shows, Orange County is chock full of REAL people who freely give of their time, money, and knowledge. In the last few weeks I have had the privilege of getting to know some awesome Orange County Social Media Rock-stars. They may not be gifted musicians, but they are gifted with words and community.

Just Spotted, an Orange County website, hosted the OC Blog Awards at Wowzville in August. Much to my surprise, I was privileged to be nominated for a Micro-Blogging award (Twitter). The place was packed with OC locals blogging about everything from crafting (@thisiscarrie), fashion (@boutiquing), food (@fastfoodmaven) and everything in between. There were wonderful goodies donated by Dippen'Dots Fountain Valley, Daddy Cakes (pancakes extraordinaire), and BabyCakes cupcakes. Colleen and Kelly of Just Spotted organized this event to celebrate our powerful online community: http://www.just-spotted.com/2009/08/youve-just-been-spotted-oc-blog-award_20.html

A week later in Irvine another phenomenal event was hosted by Social Media Club of Orange County, Tweet Up Orange County, Style Week OC and sisters Rochelle, Haley and Chelsey Veturisa. The Irvine Peppino's bar was bursting at the seams as online personalities forged new offline relationships with fellow business owners, students, hobbyists, and plain old social media addicts. There were close to 90 Twitter "Tweeps" elbow to elbow with camera's flashing and video interviews being shot. http://www.ocregister.com/articles/twitter-networking-social-2541296-orange-county

The first OC Twestival will be held at Orange Hill Restaurant September 15th and will be raising money for Orangewood Children's Foundation. Entertainment is being donated by musicians and comics to benefit this very worthy cause. Hundreds of OC Social Media users will be there to support our local children. http://orangecounty.twestival.com/2009/09/02/move-over-america-twestival-ocs-got-talent/

Orange County has a rich pool of people who genuinely care about their community. If you need to know how to start a wordpress blog, or, simply, who has the best tacos in OC, there is a local online community anxious to share their knowledge.

I am proud to be a part of the REAL OC Tweeps!

Hey Kids,

Fun stuff today! Thought I’d keep y'all updated on what I see each time I attend Orange Caravan, a time for agents and brokers to preview recent listings in the cities of Orange and Villa Park, CA. We alternate weeks between east and west Orange. Today - West Orange. Eight homes at preview today and here’s what I saw (Just a reminder that ALL listings shown are standard sale. No foreclosure or short sales) :

Homes $449,000 - $675,000:

624 N. Clinton St. Orange $449,000 3 bd, 2 ba 1066 sqft.
2419 E. Garfield Ave. Orange $450,000 4 bd. 2 ba 1,505 sqft.
2604 E. Washington Ave. Orange $525,000 3 bd, 2 ba 1,819 sqft.
2712 E. Garfield Ave. Orange $559,000 4 bd, 3 ba 1,954 sqft.
1929 N. Fern Orange $675,000 4 bd, 3 ba 3,033 sqft.

Homes $:729,000 - $979,000:

1638 N. Brigantine Ln. Orange $729,000 5 bd, 3 ba 2,903 sqft.
619 N. Birchwood Rd. Orange $749,000 3 bd, 3 ba 2,913 sqft.
320 N. Cambridge St. Orange $979,000 5 bd 4 ba 3,254 sqft.

624 N. Clinton and 2419 E. Garfield are both good values, especially for first-time home buyers and worth checking out. 329 N. Cambridge is beautiful if you love historical homes. Nice work throughout. Good to see more inventory. Next week is east side!

Comprar mi Casa en Orange County California

Que tal amigo, se quiere usted Comprar su Casa en Orange County California necesita leer esto y estar bien preparado.

Seguramente si esta ya interesado en hacer su compra ya sea por primera vez o no se pregunta como esta le mercado?, que necesito para comprar ahora?

Pues bien sin hacerle perder mas su tiempo, he puesto una lista de recomendaciones que usted debe seguir para que realice con exito su compra.

1) Consulte con el banco de su preferencia por cuanto lo pueden calificar (Prequalification letter). el Banco le pedira cierta documentacion, (mas tarde hablare de ella) para poder darle us carta de aprovacion de credito.

2) Entreviste por lo menos a 3 agentes de bienes y raices, Por que?, por que muchas veces los intereses de usted no son los intereses del agente, y lo pueden mal informar, o hacerle perder su tiempo. Serciorece que su agente entendio lo que usted necesita, lo que usted busca y revice el plan de compra que el agente le sugiere, si no se siente agusto trate de platicarlo con el agente y si no hay un acuerdo mutuo consulte con otro agente.

3) Viste Open houses, la finalidad de visitar open houses es para que usted vea de cierto modo el inventario de casas, la calidad, condicion, precio y vecindario. De esa manera usted y su agente pueden hacer la busqueda de casa mas inteligente y perder menos tiempo para encontrar su casa.

4) Revice que los fondos para su enganche (down payment) estan listos y disponibles para cuando su oferta sea aceptada.

5) Una vez que encuentra su casa, haga su oferta, en ella se debe de incluir lo siguiente:

5.1.- Contracto firmado por todos los compradores

5.2.- Copia de su carta de aprovacion de credito bancario.

5.3.- Copia de su primer pagina del reporte de credito.

5.4.- Copia de su estado de cuenta bancario comprobando su enganche.

5.5.- Copia de su Deposito para abrir escrow.

Lo invito a que vaya a mi pagina de internet o me escriba un email o mandeme un text message si tiene alguna otra pregunta.

Tambien visite mas seguido mi blog, todos los dias tengo sugerencias y comentarios importantes para usted.

Gracias

Carlos Morales

714-955-1932

www.carlmorales.com

www.orangecountycashortsales.com

cmorales@ochomes-estates.net