Valorie Stover, SFR Realtor, for Mission Viejo, Lake Forest and Vicinity

i just put myself on Facebook today and I am wondering if any of you have had success with this. Are there other web site that I should be using? How much time does it take up to keep your profile out there?

Attended a class today that was ming bogging. I could spend all day on the internet and never show a property. I know this is going to be the future for prospecting and I am willing to learn all I can but HELP.

I will appreciate all the information I can get.

If you are on Facebook sign on as one of my friends, please. The only one to sign on is my granddaughter.

WHAT IS WRONG WITH THE AMERICAN PEOPLE THAT THEY ARE ALLOWING THE GOVERNMENT TO TREAT THEM LIKE THIS??????

We need to tell them to go to h---. We are receiving less and paying more while the big shots on capital hill still live the lavish life.

We, our children and our grandchildren are going to be paying for the rotten job our banks and Wall Streed did. Yet the management of the banks are still living the lavish life. Today, weeks after asking for a bailout, they are using chauffeured cars, private jets and getting bonuses. The bonus must be because they did a great job, that's why you and I get a bonus, right?

I grew up in a time when ordinary people trusted the bank to make good judgments. You went to the bank for a loan and they told you if you could afford it. Some of the people that are in trouble did just what I said; they trusted the bank to know if they could afford the house they wanted. I know that others used their house as a piggy bank. Take every cent of equity out of their house for anything they wanted and now we are expected let them out of their loans.

Some how we all need to stop the 1% of the population from running us into the ground.

The top management of companies need to get real with what they take out of the company in pay bonuses and perks!. Lets just say, if they took less and the workers made more, than the workers would have more to spend and the country wouldn't be in the mess it is. The top earners and the bottom earners are getting farther apart, not because the wagers are going down at the bottom. There is no Middle American anymore, only the top and the rest of us.

I don't know how to change it but by God someone out there does! I hope it comes soon!

I bet that the name of the Ponzi Scheme will get changed and be called the Madoff Scheme. It fits so much better "Made Off" with everyone's money. I think there are more "Madoff Schemes" that are still out there and will come to light this year. I don't want to think that any of the others will be as big but if it is your savings or retirement it hurts a whole bunch!.

I have been keeping track of home prices and sales in a retirement community for the last 13 month. There was 1 foreclosure and 4 short sales during that time, out of a total 76 sold properties.

Prices on average are down 20% from 12/1/07 to 1/1/09.

I did the retirement community because it is the least expensive detached home in Mission Viejo and is very stable. Meaning when people are buying at this stage of their lives, they are planning on staying for years. The community has a total of 1920 homes in it and 16 different models.

For the past year it has had an average of between 30 and 40 homes on the market each month. We are today down to 20 homes available. Inventory hasn't been that low in a year and a half but more interesting is Nov. and Dec.2008 sold more homes each month than the previous 6 month.

Dec. 2007 average price was $475,000 out of 6 sold properties.

Dec. 2008 average price was $383,000 out of 9 sold properties.

Jan, 10, 2009 average price of the 20 listings is $430,000. Most will close at or below listed price.

Taking the foreclosures and short sales out of the market and still selling the homes is a good indication that the market is settling down but only time will tell the whole story.

Are you considering buying a home when the market is right? Do you know how to find out when that will be? Keeping in touch with what is going on and having the right person watching over the real estate market for you would be a good thing. Realtors pride themselves in researching and evaluating all the data that is available, to see how it will benefit their clients. There are news reports every day that the market is going up, that it is going down, buy now, buy next year, sell, don't sell, how can you, possibly know what to do, if the so called experts can't agree on what to do.

Most of the time, the news that is reported, isn't right here in your neighborhood but a generalization of the whole country or at best a large metro area. You can get the facts for your neighborhood from a Realtor and find out what the house down the street is listed for or sold for. Most Realtors have a web site available that will help you to do your searches from. Some of these sites will also help you find out what is going on in other areas of the state, just in case you have to move.

Who better to assist you but someone who is spending their whole day looking at the information you need!