Archive for February, 2010
Are Huntington Beach Condos really this affordable???
YES!!! Our Huntington Beach Studio just a couple miles from the beach could be less than $1000/mo!
SURF’s UP!!!!!
Payment scenairos from a Certified Mortgage Planner!
Click here for a printable version of the flyer!
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Huntington Beach Condo is Beachfront Bargain
Huntington Beach Condo Puts the Beach Within Your Reach
Looking for a beautiful residence so close to the beach you could hop on your bicycle and reach sandy shores in minutes? Then you’re gonna love this Huntington Beach Condo. It’s a one level charmer with one bath, stunning hardwood floors, a cozy fireplace, and a balcony offering dazzling, beach breezes from Huntington Beach. Located in highly desirable West Huntington Beach, this property is pleasantly close to Bolsa Chica Beach, Huntington Harbor, and the Bella Terra shopping center. To complement the relaxed beachy environment, the complex enhances your living experience with amenities such as an open-air, lighted tennis court, racquetball, sauna, pool, and spa, all set against the soothingly scenic wetland preserves. Since this condo is being offered as a short sale, the asking price as an irresistibly-low $175, 000.
Such a fantastic deal is bound to get snapped up in the blink of an eye, so the best advice I can give you is get an early start.
5096 TORTUGA Dr #104 Huntington Beach, CA 92649
- # Carport 1
- Studio
- AP # 939-54-375
- Assoc Dues # 1 267
- 1 full bath
- Cross Streets S/WARNER AVE, E/BOLSA CHICA RD.
- Gated community
- Lot # 7
- Stainless steel appliances in kitchen
- Stories One Level
- TGNO 857D1
- Total Floors 3
- Tract # 10853
How much is the mortgage?
Glad you asked! One of our Certified Mortgage Planner friends Derek Beisner has created this Financing-Flyer for you with a few different options – payment could be UNDER $1000/mo….OMG!
If you’re interested in snapping up a great beachfront deal with this amazing Huntington Beach Condo, you may contact Angie at 877-230-3211 or angie@askangie.com to schedule a showing or get any of your questions answered.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 1 so far )Good advice on buying an Orange County home…from a recent buyer
Hi all,
I got a forward from one of our recent buyers – she referred a friend who is ready to buy her first home. With her permission, I am sharing her advice to another buyer with you!
Hi,
It was great running into you at John & Jane’s housewarming — I wanted to share my experience with you as far as getting the place of my dreams! It has to do with 3 things: the right Realtor, the right Broker, and total commitment within yourself to constantly be looking & educating yourself. By pure luck, I found my realtor, Angie Weeks through the internet as I had already been looking online for a place and googled condos in south county and her website came up….we met for coffee and just clicked. She’s really eager, she’s completely available, knowlegeable and doesn’t take no for an answer when needed (toward the Listing Agents etc.). So if you haven’t settled in on a realtor yet, please give her a try — a quick meeting or email or whatever. She lives in MV and specializes in South County can tell you HOA costs for several communities and the kind of neighborhoods they are (everywhere has a crappy area or 2). I just took her lead when it came down to which broker or Banking person to use because its important she have a good relationship with them as well cuz when you are in a 30 day close, everything is hyped up and needs to get done on time or you loose escrow and your down payment. Ok, Ok, I so totally may be telling you so much you already know but it was important to me that I pick what was right for me and I didn’t want some hoity-toity agent to be all arogant or worse, unresponsive….Okie dokie so after looking at TONS of places I put in offers to at least 15 I can recall due to the short sale aspect (its a dime toss and also pure timing to end up being accepted). I ended up with the 2nd place I put an offer in and it went perfectly…started looking at the end of July, Put offer (unseen!-only photos on website) end of Aug, offer accepted end of Sept and I closed end of OCtober….So many hands are at play to make all this work! For me, I wanted a condo with large outdoor space either patio or back yard area, one level and not a huge community…for you it can be very different but if you are interested in lookin at my place you can look it up. I know for a fact there are at least 3-5 properties either in foreclosure or short selling currently.
The Best websites I found the most information on were Redfin.com & ziprealty.com. If you go to redfin you can put in any address and it will show up – you click on details you can see the pics that the seller had up at the time as well as scrolling down to see ‘other nearby properties for sale’ and next to that ‘recent nearby properties that sold’….gives you perspective on where the market is etc.
My friend Caren just bought a place and now is in escrow in Mission Viejo Ashton community which is also really nice! She only needed to put 3.5% down!!
Sorry for the book here —- I just had such a great experience that I want to share it!! I love my place, love the neighbors even!!
Ok, well if you want to chat more wb and we can switch numbers — but please take a look at Angie’s website www.askangie.com.
Take care!
I think its so fun to let you guys help eachother and just be the guide. Feel free to comment with your own first time buyer experiences and searching suggestions. It does take hard work and dedication from all parties involved!!!
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Two More Reasons to Buy a Fannie Mae-Owned Home
Buyers Get New Closing Cost Assistance and Appliance Incentives From Fannie Mae
Good news for home buyers. Fannie Mae is giving you a 3.5% incentive if you buy and close on a Fannie Mae-owned home. This amazing offer will be on the table between January 28 and April 30, 2010. If you purchase a property listed on HomePath.com and the deal closes within this time frame, you may get up to 3.5% of the final sales price for: 
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Closing costs
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The purchase of a new Whirlpool® appliances by Fannie Mae
- Or if buyer prefers, a combination of closing cost and appliance discounts up to the maximum 3.5%.
Eligibility Requirements:
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Offers must be accepted on or following January 28, 2010;
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Property sales must close prior to May 1, 2010, and;
- Buyers are required to be owner-occupants. Investors can’t get in on this.
Sounds like a good deal to me. If you're interested in taking advantage of these amazing incentives, I'd leap right into action and talk to a qualified lender today. And if you'd like help finding the home of your dreams, I'm here to help. Contact me at 949.338.7408 or angie@askangie.com. Or follow me @AngieWeeks or @WeeksTeam.
Make the Most of Your Money – DIVERSIFY!
Mission Viejo Book Signing – ‘Making the Most of Your Money’
Last week I visited the Mission Viejo Library to get a copy of what is supposed to be the best personal financial planning book on the market right now. Entitled ‘Making the Most of Your Money’, it was written by Jane Bryant Quinn. Honestly, I had never heard of Jane Bryant Quinn until recently, but she definitely is a highly respected voice in the money management community.
Jane got off to a light start, joking that she almost named her book ‘Making the Most Out of What’s Left of Your Money’. She agrees that the economy is in a bad place, adding that the government needed to step in in order to prevent a full-on depression. But this cloud has a silver lining – the economy is recovering. Nevertheless, we’re still feeling some economic aches and pains, which is why keeping our finances in mind and tightening up our ship is such a good idea.
Jane covered quite a bit of financial planning territory. Regarding our current bull market, she recommended diversifying accordingly. She also touched on inflation, predicting that fortunately this monster won’t go very high.
For the U.S. government’s role, Jane pointed out that Congress may soon be restoring the Paygo law, which is intended to control government spending. This, along with a tax increase, could significantly help our budget.
So how do savers and investors pick their way through the current financial wilderness?
First and foremost, according to Jane, get OUT of consumer debt. “Debt is like feeding your dollars to squirrels.” Do NOT make it normal. Debt and credit are not glamorous. Sure, they seem fun at first, but when it’s time to retire and your mortgage is soaring, the debt beast will likely bring you to ruin.
In the Real Estate arena, Jane cautioned that we shouldn’t expect the height of where we were in 2007 for many, many years. OK fine. Thanks for that. In general, home prices follow the inflation rate. Currently, consumers aren’t thinking of their homes as investments. But that’s OK. Because when all is said and done, according to Jane, it STILL PAYS to OWN a HOME!!!!!! But watch those HELOCs. Let’s get back to that concept of paying down our mortgage, people. Jane also advised don’t take a reverse mortgage until you’re in your 80’s, even though you are allowed to in your 60’s.
If you’re underwater on your rental investment, it’s probably a good idea to lower your rent to keep your tenants. You must be prepared for losses for years and years if you are a serious real estate investor. Make sure you have liquid cash flow. You can also consider short sale or foreclosure if the property is a huge drain. Talk to a professional Orange County financial planner and / or consider some by the book investment education.
As for stocks, Jane mentioned that she talked with many of the top financial masterminds all over the nation. Apparently, the majority of them have the bulk of their own funds in a broad market index, something like S&P…
She added that for young people, lifestyle funds are a good idea, even though they’ve received a bit of a bad rap.
Jane also stated a good formula for your retirement fund risk is this: subtract your age from 110. Whatever that number is, that’s the percent you should be investing in stocks. As you get older, this formula helps you safely transition into a majority of bonds and a lower risk portfolio.
There are so many valuable insights in this book, it was THICK! I’m sure ‘Making the Most of Your Money’ is truly a valuable guide to sound financial planning. But seriously, no matter how many books we read someone, who does financial planning for a living will always be better than we are, IMO. You should have a professional on your side. Just like you should in real estate!!
Speaking of property, if you would like your diversification strategy to include owning some Orange County Real Estate, I’m happy to help. Contact me at 949.338.7408 or angie@askangie.com. Or follow me @AngieWeeks or @WeeksTeam. Happy investing – feel free to post what has and has not worked for you here!
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )First time buyers blog it best!
Hi everyone!
We’re starting a new series to open up the first time home buying experience – blogs from our buyers!!! We figured you would want to hear details from people who just went through the process. WARNING: we are NOT editing or sugar coating any of the down and dirty, read at your own risk 🙂
One of our favorite buyers last year, Kimberly, had good news to share a about her experience and the first time buyer credit. She writes:
Deciding to buy my first home after steadfastly saving for nearly 2 years was the best decision I have ever made and wanted to share that thanks to Obama Bucks I am getting over $7,000 back from my taxes this year!! I only owned my condo for 2 months in 2009 and had started claiming 4 once I was in escrow however my tax guy told me I could still stay at 4 and next year get nearly $2000 back! I wake up every day so excited to own these walls and not have a landlord anymore! I hope this feeling of pride and achievement never leaves, I’m on cloud 9! I’ll add some tips for new comers very soon!
Thanks, Kimberly! We agree the tax benefits to owning a home are very nice indeed 🙂
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )
Orange County Real Estate Success 