David Wang | Prudential | 650.504.8190

It is the end of the year and property taxes are due by DEC 10th or it will be late. I have some of the counties for northeren CA and for Fresno. As I up date I will add more.

To pay them online, or view status, visit the sites below:

For Alameda:
http://www.acgov.org/propertytax.htm

For Alpine County:
http://www.alpinecountyca.gov/departments/treasurer

For Amador County:
http://www.co.amador.ca.us/depts/treasurer/

For Butte County:
http://ttc.buttecounty.net/Default.aspx?tabid=63

For Calaveras County:
http://www.co.calaveras.ca.us/cc/Departments/TaxCollector.aspx

For San Francisco County:
https://services.sfgov.org/ptx/intro.asp

For San Mateo:
http://www.sanmateocountytaxcollector.org/SMCWPS/pages/secureSearch.jsp

For Santa Clara:
http://payments.scctax.org/payment/jsp/currentSecured.jsp

For Contra Costa:
https://taxcolb.co.contra-costa.ca.us/taxpayment/main/

For Sacramento:
http://www.eproptax.saccounty.net/

For Fresno:
https://www2.co.fresno.ca.us/0410/fresnoproptax/

For the ones I have not found to pages to this is a good place to start you search

Hi there Tucson Agents,

I have a property that I think I want to sell, (not 100% but close). since I'm an agent and all our clients wonder would I use an agent heres my chance. I will use an agent other than myself if I sell

what I want
CMA of propterty (will provide the info to you via email)
know I will interview at least 3 agents
some marketing questions

experience I don't care, if you can do it I'll be satisfied.
New agents I can still see my first listing presentation,

email david.prucalbayarea@gmail.com
subject line shoud read AZ AGENT

or if you just want to give me your info in a reply comment here i'm good with that too.

thanks I will probably get back to all of you right after the holidays so no rush for the Thanksgiving. I'm not expecting anyone to work on the holidays, unless its an offer over asking JK.

BTW if you havent guessed it I will be out of the area of AZ so its an investment prop.

Scams on craigslist.org

Craigslist is being abused by certain people, I held an open house recently which someone used the address and put in fake pictures and stated that the house was for rent at an incredible low price. This is a terrible scam where the perpetrator (I will assume that it is a him because of the name Kevin) is after personal information. Not that I have done it but with the information that he asks for his application he has an above average chance of stealing more information and accessing your online banking account (question on pets and occupation have to do with security questions to recover forgotten passwords).

Normally I would not try to scare people with my theories and experiences but, we in the
Real Estate industry are portrayed in a negative way and this is something I can do to let others know we the major of agents and brokers are trying to protect clients and people from scams. If you see rental listing and they reply with an email similar to the one below just run or call a local Real Estate office (we love leaving all our contact information) to verify if it is a scam.

The real point of this post is don't give out personal information no matter how trivial because some evil people will try to use it.

------------------------------------------I left all the typos for the feel of realism-------------------------------

Hello Dear ,

Thanks for your response,I am Kelvin Teeman the owner of the house you are making inquiry of.My Mother and i used to stay in the house not until i left for west Africa for a construction job with Total/elf,(I'm a construction engineer) and my mum now too old to stay on her own is presently in a nursing home.i will be in west Africa for five years so presently my house is available for rent for $2000 per month including the utilities,it is furnished and i don't mind "PETS".Pls i want you to note that,i am a kind and honest man and also i spent a lot on my property,so i will solicit for your absolute maintainance of this house, i'll have a friend come in every now and then to check things up.hope you understand that it is not the rent that is my problem but i want you to keep it tidy at all times,hope we have an understanding

You would have to fill the Rent Application Form below if You Are Ready To Rent The House .

FILL THE RENT APPLICATION FORM

Also,Pls let me get this answer

1)Your Full Name
2)Your Full Address & Phone Number
3)How old are you?
4)Are you married?
5)How many people will be living in the house?
6)Do you have a pet?
7)Do you have a car?
8)Occupation?
9)How Long Are You Willing To Rent My House?
10) Your Picture if you Have any

Note:

The House Can Be Rented To You Furnished Or Unfurnished for $2000

I am giving out my House for 5 years and also Pets are allowed in my house.you would be making a deposit for the first month which is $2000 via Western Union Money Transfer.As soon as you the fill the Rent Application Form i will send u details of payment deposit for one month which is $2000 via Western Union Money Transfer and as soon as your payment is confirmed the house keys and Following documents would be sent to you via DHL so I want you to get back to me OK.

Here are the contents of the document.

1) Entrance and the rooms Keys
2)Paper/Permanent house form(Containing your reference details)
3)The house documentary file.
4)Payment Receipt.
5)Full address and description of the house.

So get back if you are ready to send the first month deposit fee so you can get the keys and house documents hope to hear from you soon .You can call me with +2348067161764

HOUSE DETAILS BELOW

3 Bedrooms 2 Bathrooms

ADDRESS : deleted because I don't need it to be up again

Amenities:

Dishwasher, Dryer, Electric Stove, Freezer/Deep Freeze, Fridge, Microwave, Washer, Washer/Dryer Hookups, Water/Sewer

Parking:

Automatic Garage
Security Alarm/Door

Interior:

Free Internet
Fireplace (wood burning)
Hardwood
Storage Area/Room
Walk-In Closets

You can drive by the house and view the neighbourhood and get back to me with the rental application questions so i can email you the details you need to make the payment so i can send the keys and documents for you to move in.

Thanks

Kelvin

Renting Vs. The Bank Owning Your House Vs. You Owning Your House, What is the difference!

I held an open house this weekend and an interesting older gentleman shared a very interesting opinion with me regarding home ownership. He felt that because you borrowed money from the bank to purchase your home the house was not yours it was the banks.

Not wanting to make him angry for holding one to his beliefs I asked if he would consider what ownership truly meant for houses.

Renting:

• You can not change the home in anyway unless you have the owner's permission. (usually not the bank even if the home owner borrowed money)
• You are asked to leave the house even though you are making rental payments of the agreed upon amount. (usually to the home owner even if they borrowed money from the bank)
• When you leave the property you pack up and go you take nothing and leave nothing. (There is no equity that has been built up from the rental payments.)
• You did not take deduction from your taxes for the rent. (Check IRS tax codes.)
• There are more but you get the idea.

Bank owning your house because you borrowed money:

• You do as you please with in the law.(in good taste)
• You are asked to leave only if you don't make the payments. (which you agreed to make)
• You have equity and when you decide to sell you get some of it back and if the property appreciates you get more out than you put in.
• You get tax benefits

Owning your house (no loan)

• You do as you please with in the law.(in good taste)
• There are no payments except for property taxes
• You have equity and when you decide to sell you get some of it back and if the property appreciates you get more out than you put in.
• You get tax benefits only for the property taxes

It seems to me that the last two are quite similar and depending on the stage of life you are in it really makes no difference.

As a last note the conversation started because homes are so expensive now in the peninsula. He mentioned that homes in Millbrae were originally $ 30,000.00. I did not respond to that as the conversation was getting heated by this time and the other people at the open house were beginning to look nervous. I just want to remind everyone that in those days the average income per year was probably significantly less than $10,000.00 so it makes sense that houses costs have increased.

This was not meant to be a rant just to let those buyers know that I was being nice to an elderly gentleman and I didn't want him so angry that he has a medical condition at the house and to have the sellers yell at me for that.

Technology, specifically the internet, has made getting information on home values easier than ever before. With each new website that forms the amount of information only increases. Google.com has estimated 579,000,000 requests for the term real estate as well as 678,000,000 results.

What does this mean to you? Initially, not much more than a huge head ache followed by more difficult choices than before. Like most buyers and seller you're not after the whole MLS data base, rather you are after what that information means. With the information you want to make the best decision possible and get the most for every dollar you spend. That's where we come in as realtors.

A realtor's job is more like an analyst's job for investment firm. We "crunch" the numbers and return a result on what should be your best investments. We combine the facts, including the homes listing price, and time on market, and combine them with opinions like condition, desirability and your needs and wants, roll it all up and advise you on what makes sense.

Why do you need the information and why is it important to you. First, there is so much information that everyone ends up with different piece. With so much information we must wonder which is the most correct piece, what is the most up to date and who is the provider of the information and what do they have to gain by posting it. Second the web has a long memory; most people consider this a huge advantage. However this strong advantage is also a weakness in the fast pace real estate market. Sometimes we are searching for information like history of a home or experience of an agent. If this was updated once a year it would be sufficient. When you are looking for comparables, time is the greatest factor, if it is too old (more than 2 month during normal activity shorter during hot times) the information might cost you a house or it could make you over pay. One example I cite is that we get calls in the office on listing we had over three year ago, some web sites still show them as active. Third you should get to see what we see, only when clients and agents have the same knowledge can we make a transaction happen. If a realtor were to tell you to buy a house because it's the best deal on the block would you believe them? If you buy a house its most likely because you and the realtor felt that this was a good house at a good price based on shared common knowledge.

Enjoy the internet and when you get tired, speak with an agent. We will sort the information and present it to you.