Virginia Dean- Realtor Visalia Concierge Real Estate

Help for First Time Homebuyers

I believe that the first step for me to take, as a Realtor, is to provide information to my clients and possible clients.

This morning, while settling in at our usual booth in our regular Sunday breakfast restaurant, our waitress excitedly told me that she just found out she was going to be able to buy a home.

Great I said, do you have anyone helping you?? Yes, she said, I called on a sign and I am meeting with that Realtor next week for a consultation. She then asked, Why, is that what you do?? Well yes I said, thought I had mentioned it before.

After she went to put our order into the kitchen, my partner said, well that is a sale you lost. I said, I am not always comfortable telling people over and over that I sell Real Estate.

When she returned to chat, I offered her a copy of a book I give out to First Time Homebuyers, which she gladly accepted. I also told her I would be her resource if she didn't understand anything about the process. I also mentioned to her that in this market, not only are price and location an issue, but also what type of sale she chooses, a traditional sale, a short sale or an REO.

Thank you she said, I didn't know about that. I will call on you if I need help, because I know I can trust you.

I have the luxury of working from home. I have computers, printers, fax, and all the tools I need to conduct business from my house. I am usually home at lunch time, because I hate eating out and spending alot of money for often what turns out to be a second class meal.

My partner and I watch Huell Howser's show, California Gold often and this past week he was visiting a nearby town in which my team has a listing, Hanford in Kings County. We watched with interest as he visited many places we knew well from the Hanford Auditorium, the old jail named the Bastille and our very favorite place of all Superior Dairy.

When I first moved to the San Joaquin Valley, my partner spent alot of time showing me around introducing me to many unique, picturesque and interesting places. He introduced me to Superior Dairy's tuna salad sandwich and their ice cream, both of which are now favorites of mine.

This Friday afternoon we had a date in Hanford and I wanted to share some of the "gold" with Active Rain and my community.

Our community welcomes the judges from the Rand McNally-USA Today's Best of the Road Contest today.

Jim and Bonnie Parr of St. Petersburg, Florida will be touring some of our local restaurants, dairies, packing houses and local farm.

I wanted to give a shout out to some of our favorites: China Garden, El Rosal, Little Italy, Main Street Cafe and Alejandras. Of course there are many others, but we visit these restaurants over and over because they never disappoint us.

I started visiting Active Rain in January of this year. I don’t remember exactly where I first heard about it, but once I found it I knew I wanted to be a member.

In the almost 6 months I have been waking up with the rain, I have learned an enormous amount, laughed a lot, and most importantly have been inspired and encouraged by the wonderful group that plays in the rain.

I feel like I know some of you, as I visit your blogs at least once a day, to see what you have to say to me today. I have commented, reblogged and book marked on a regular basis. I own two books written by rainer’s and am sure will read whatever wisdom I can get my hands on.

Well Rainers, today, with the whopping point total of 31,147 I have become number 1 in my town and number 1 in my county.

I always thought all things started in California, but Active Rain is a secret here, and I don’t think I am going to share it with anyone.

Virginia “Ginny” Dean

This morning in our local paper, The Visalia Times Delta, there was an article about Home Warranties.

The article was attributed to the Associated Press and brought up a side of the subject that I had never thought of.

I have made it a practice to "gift" home warranties to my clients if one wasn't a part of the contract.

My brokers have even encouraged this by having the warranty paid for from both of our portions of the commission.

This article quoted the found of Angie's List as saying that "Homeowners often expect the warranty companies to replace a broken item and are disappointed to learn it's going to be repaired".

This really took me back. I gave these warranties to my clients to take care of the chance that an appliance or heater or cooler, that they already had inspected, and that they were aware of the age, might need repair in the near future, an unforseen problem. I didn't give it to them thinking they would get new appliances or units, if their's was repairable.

If everything is working at the time of purchase, the warranty gives the new owner a year of protection in the event of an unforseen repair.

I wonder what other Realtor's take on home warranties and their purpose is.