Caroline Tsou

The recent pullback in market price gives homeowners an opportunity to ease their property tax squeeze if the property was purchased after 2003. The deadline for filing "Decline-In-Value Reassessment Application (Prop. 8) is 12/31/08.

Here a quick outline on how to lower your property tax:

1. Contact me to get comps on the similar houses that was sold from January 1st to March 31. Those are the acceptable comps for the County Assessors to reassess the value of your property.

2. If the value of the comps are lower than your assessed value, file an application with county assessor. Here's the link to the application:

Los Angeles County

San Bernardino County

Riverside County

For those who purchase bank owned or short sale properties, your assessed value may be higher than the purchase price.

Please be sure to take photos of the house prior repair/remodeling to support your argument on the true value of the property at the point of purchase.

Being in the real estate business, I heard a lot of horror stories recently about scammers taking advantage of distressed property owners.

Exercise common judgment like "If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is." Be especially alert, if you need to put money up front or sign over your house deed. You can also check with Better Business Bureau to make sure they are legitimate business and not scams.

Here are some free and honest resources to assist distressed owners:

1. Home Ownership Preservation (HOPE) program. They have counselor to help you writing a hardship letter and assist you in preparing loan modification documentation free of charge.

HOPE (888) 995-4673
http://www.995hope.org

2. You can also contact HUD. Here's the contact info:

HUD (800) 569-4287
http://www.hud.gov/foreclosure/index.cfm
(Guide To Avoid Foreclosures)

3. Talk to your lenders (1st, 2nd and 3rd). They have the first hand solutions to help you solving your financial problem through either loan modification or recommend a short sale depending on your current situation.

Again, please beware of the loan modification scams or other similar scams that require upfront fee or signing over your house deed!!!

It is always very challenging to rent a house that has red, orange, yellow, green, blue, lilac or pink wall or carpet. It will take an extra one to two months to rent those properties and most likely at the lower than market rate.

Here's the reason why. Let say if a rental has red wall. Since about 50% of prospected renters will like it and the other cannot stand it, the color will eliminate 50% of the suitable renters. Thus doubling the length of time in securing a qualified renter. Also, the strong color of the property will probably post a challenge to match tenant's furniture's color scheme.

The same rule applies to wallpapers. Some people will like it and the others won't. Often times, even if they like rest of the house, most renters will just move on to the next suitable rental since there are so many to choose from in today's market. Landlord has only one shot to show the house right and it is important the house is in rent ready shape.

When replacing flooring or painting new paint, it is best to use neutral tone like beige or coffee since they are the most widely accepted color by renters. As regarding to wallpaper, it is best to remove it and replace it with neutral tone paint.

Landlords of properties with funky color decor will suffer more financial loss through rental vacancy since it takes twice longer to secure a suitable renter. Therefore, it is to the landlord's best interest to get rid of the wall paper and strong color decor and replace it with neutral tone decor to get the house rented promptly.

Here are some general reasons for using agents as a means to procuring tenants:

1. Interviewing prospected tenants can be very frightening especially for new landlords. Agents do this as a matter of course and can generally ascertain a lot more information by experience and asking the right questions.

2. No upfront fee until the house is rented. Agents handle all the initial transactions including property showings, collecting applications, pull out credit reports, verify employment, prepare lease and disclosures and collecting first month rent and deposits in cashier's check.

3. Agents constantly advertising in the newspapers and internet and have more advertising resources than private owners.

4. The agent can give the landlord 'an arm's length distance. Landlords can sometime be taken advantage of by overbearing prospected tenants.

5. Agents have experience of the current open market rental levels and can advise on the best achievable rent applicable, taking into account the condition of the property and market condition.

6. Agents are used to dealing and negotiating with clients to get the best deal for the landlord.

7. Agents are used to seeing all types of property and can often advise on the standard necessary to attract the best quality tenant.

8. Agents have access to existing tenants already in properties with good track records who for one reason or another want to move. Thus providing a more secure and reliable tenancy.

9. Agents are constantly working with a pool of renters and can easy match your property with the prospected tenants.

10. Agents who are members of professional bodies such as National Association of Realtors and California Association of Realtors are regulated and have ongoing training in respect of current legislation and changing areas within the business. In essence, these particular agents are accountable and always endeavor to carry out in a professional and ethical manner.

11. Lastly but very importantly is that agents spend much time showing the property generally after hours and weekends. Many phone calls can be taken on a particular property and sometimes can be very upsetting by over sensitive or demanding tenants. Agents are used to this behavior and take it in their stride.

It is very important to hire an agent who is experienced and specialized in rental properties. I work with landlords and investors on renting, buying and selling investment properties. For more information, please contact me at (626) 922-8408.

If your family is over grown and you need a larger home, it is perfect time to upsize in down market. Here's why.

Consider if your current house is worth $350,000 two years ago at the peak of the market and the house you want to upsize to is worth about $550,000. You will need to pay $200,000 to upsize.

If the market price drop 20% from 2 years ago, your current house is worth $280,000 (=$350,000 x 80%) and the house you want to purchase also dropped 20% to $440,000 (=$550,000 x 80%). You will pay $160,000 to upsize in down market which is a $40,000 saving from the up market.

Buyers save more money to upsize in down market. Therefore, this is the best time for homeowners to upsize since we are seeing 20% to 45% price drop in our neighborhoods.