SCREG_JULY2012

San Clemente Homes SUPPLY AND DEMAND

LISTED INVENTORY AND MEDIAN PRICE • CRMLS RESALES - SEASONALLY ADJUSTED

340 W. Paseo de Cristobal , San Clemente T-Street Beach House Located on a corner lot at T-Street beach entrance. This is a Landmark Location and truly a Surfer’s Paradise! Enjoy front row seats at home for the 4th of July Fireworks Show. Unobstructed panoramic ocean views that will seriously take your breath away. Walk to the pier along the sand within a few minutes to experience fantastic shopping and dining.

Enjoy world class surfing from home either as a spectator or in the water with great surf break directly in front of home! If you are looking for Spectacular pier & ocean views that is within a few steps to the sand, this is the one for you!

Property sits up high for extra privacy. Location, Location, Location!

SALES VOLUME AND MEDIAN PRICE CRMLS RESALES - SEASONALLY ADJUSTED

4 bedrooms • 3 bathrooms • 2000 sq. ft. • Offered at $2,988,000 www.340paseodecristobal.com

Chad Fox, BROKER/REALTOR chad@metrocitiescapital.com • www.ChadFoxRealty.com (714) 553-5895 DRE #01821926

MLS# H11058152

MIKE COTTER Broker Associate Cell: 949.322.6009 E-mail: Mike@MCotter.com Visit: MCotter.com Blog: SanClementeRealEstateBlog.com

DRE # 00806890

Real Estate

ExpErt’s CornEr Facts Sellers Need to Know For a Successful Sale To obtain the best price for your home, there are certain things you must do.

Price your home correctly. Your Realtor can provide the vital information to help you do that. It can be difficult for sellers to arrive at an effective listing price for their home.

Statistically your home will sell for more if it is priced right from the beginning.

Remember that you are now living in a model home. It must be kept spotlessly clean, free of personal items. Beds made daily, kitchens and baths squeaky clean are all “must do’s”.

If your windows are spotless, it completes the image you want to portray. Engage your kids. Make it a family effort.

A great attitude makes all the difference in whether staging is fun or a burden, and the parents set the tone.

Walk through model homes to learn. Make note of the fact that it is depersonalized. That ambience is created by design so that people can visualize themselves there. If closets look stuffed the buyer assumes your house doesn’t have enough room. You need three piles to help you organize closets and garages: Give away, throw away and keep.

Make your home available to show. Yes, it will sometimes be inconvenient.

Curb appeal. You only have one chance to make a first impression. Fading paint, weeds, kids toys strewn around do not help your cause.

Prior to listing your home, have a third party inspection conducted. If one thing is in disrepair, the buyers will assume many problems exist. Get repairs done early. This will make for a more successful escrow.

In this market you really need an expert Realtor guiding you through what has become a very complicated, sometimes convoluted maze of documentation. Experience, integrity and professionalism can more than pay for itself in the legal and financial realm. Moreover, in choosing the right Realtor to represent you, you will have assurance that the job is being done well. These days, peace of mind is huge.

DONNA SULLIVAN Coldwell Banker Real Estate Donna.Sullivan@camoves.com DRE #01018041 949-940-5580

Did you Know?

You Can Use Your IRA to Invest in Real Estate You may be able to take advantage of opportunities in the real estate market, even if you think you don’t have the means to become an investor. Most people are not aware that they can use their retirement funds to purchase any form of real estate through a self-directed IRA. By doing so, your investment choices can grow exponentially.

Real estate IRA investing opens up a huge range of alternative investments for individuals who are knowledgeable about real estate investing or who work with experienced advisors or brokers, like the Csira Group. Investing in real estate for your retirement may serve as a means to diversify your retirement portfolio to hedge against the cyclical changes in the stock market, economy and bank or government-based investments.

In most cases, real estate investments hold the potential to protect against the loss of principal while generating better-than-market-rate returns through income production and capital gains. When real estate investments are not leveraged, both income and capital gains can flow back to the IRA’s tax-deferred status (in some cases, tax-free).

What You Can Do in an IRA with Real Estate Buying real estate from an unrelated party with cash is the simplest way of investing in real estate with your IRA. Your IRA can buy raw land, commercial property, residential (i.e. rental) property, real estate options, as well as extend loans (e.g., first and second mortgages) secured by real estate.

There are also a variety of ways that an IRA can participate in a real estate investment without a full cash capital investment. For example, your IRA can co-invest with other parties (maybe they use their IRAs, as well). You could also have your IRA, and other parties participate in real estate investing by becoming members of an LLC that buys and sells property. There are many options available Conclusion In summary, using your IRA is an extraordinary way to capitalize on the depressed values in the real estate market and get a better-than-market-rate on your investment with an appreciating asset.

The Csira Group has experience in these types of transactions and can introduce you to partners who provide professional guidance on structuring your investment and tax implications of such an investment. Give us a call for a free consultation.

Surterre Properties, www.csiragroup.com 33522 Niguel Road, Monarch Beach, CA 92629 DAVE CSIRA 949.500.3283, dave@csiragroup.com

THREE STATISTICS THAT SAY HOME PRICES ARE GOING UP with apologies to Mark Twain Mark Twain popularized the phrase, “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.”

What I find fascinating, however, is the fact that people will rely on popular real estate market statistics to help guide their decisions, even though such numbers don’t often help.

For example, homeowners often look up national, state or county market statistics to tell them how their real estate is doing. But all real estate is local. There is really no such thing as a national real estate market. Only an analysis of your home and immediate neighborhood can tell you whether your equity is going up or down.

Then there’s the famous “supply and demand” maxim.

This universally believed adage, dubbed “Economics 101” for being so obvious, holds that the greater the supply of homes for sale, the lower the average selling price.

Conversely, the lesser the supply, the higher the average selling price, all other things being equal.

While this must be true, the problem with the sacred formula is that it is difficult to prove with statistics at the local level, where the decision to buy or sell takes place.

Looking at a six-year chart of the San Clemente market, for instance, one will notice that a steadily shrinking supply of homes for sale has had virtually no positive effect on home prices. As a matter of fact, the last four to five years have seen falling inventory and falling prices at the same time. This chart practically disproves the sacred maxim. My own experience tells me that this is counter to the reality on the street, but “figures don’t lie,” right?

Another predictor or leading indicator of home prices is supposedly the volume of sales. In early 2008, when local real estate prices and sales volume were falling like an anvil through water, many pundits said to watch for a turnaround in volume. Such an event would surely foresee a rally in market prices.

The turnaround in sales volume came shortly thereafter in the fall of 2008. But the rally in home prices is apparently just beginning to show up in the last six months, four years late.

At this point, I would normally remind you that “figures don’t lie, but liars figure.”

But I don’t have a chart for that.

For more on the San Clemente housing market, check out MCotter.com, especially latest market statistics and neighborhood stats.

MIKE COTTER Broker Associate DRE # 00806890

Cell: 949.322.6009 E-mail: Mike@MCotter.com Visit: MCotter.com Blog: SanClementeRealEstateBlog.com

HOME AND GARDEN Celebrating 25 Years

stay away from anyone selling out of their home as this will jeopardize the material and labor warranty.

serving North and South Orange County, Finishing Touch Floor’s would like to thank San Clemente for your overwhelming support through the years. We have watched many, many flooring stores come and go….some, being family-run businesses like ours that just couldn’t make a go of it for different reasons.

Unfortunately, most of the stores that came and went caused a lot of grief to the community by their dishonest way of doing business and not caring about the people that they were supposed to be serving.

We are more confident than ever that we have the best customer service, the best installers and the most competitive pricing for our customers in all of Orange County. We are a family business who takes great pride in giving consistent quality wood flooring installations as well as carpet and stone installations. We have a no time limit warranty on all labor and have proved this to our customers for over 25 Years. Our overhead is structured in such a way that we are not forced to charge the higher prices and being family-owned, we are not on commission and can make the cost of the total job fit each homeowners needs. Whether it’s wood floors, carpet or stone, we offer the biggest “bang for the buck.”

We have been asked the question quite often from our suppliers, especially in the last few years, “Why is The Finishing Touch Floors the busiest flooring company in North and South Orange County?” Our answer is always the same, “Life is simple; you reap what you sow and our success comes from years of treating our customers with respect and integrity.” It is an easy business to get into, but staying in it is extremely challenging unless you do it right and grow in a healthy manner.

The best tip that we could ever give to the floor covering consumer, is never buy from a retail store that does not install the product themselves. Stay away from companies who use labor houses for installation and

Laguna Hills 25252 Cabot Road (949) 770-1797

Long Beach 1804 South Street (562) 428-2523

Los Alamitos 3273 Katella Avenue (562) 493-5497

www.ftfloorsinc.com

We can confidently say that we are a flooring family and we not only know what we are doing but have had the joy of beautifying homes with the right product for the right price for the past 25 years. When quality of product and installation is compared, we will not be under sold.

Please stop by or call the oldest and friendliest flooring store today for a quote.

Thank you for your business!

Landscape Tip # 8 for 2012

“Install a fire feature such as a firepit or fire place for cool evenings.”

We have all seen the license plate frame; “San Clemente Best Climate in the World” After two months of foggy weather we may start to think that whoever came up with that slogan was only here from August to Decemeber. The fact still remains that we don’t own snow shovels, huddle in huge screened in tents even during the daytime and we reserve our 100% deet for camping somewhere else. What seems to happen is that despite the great weather we do have, we can get a little picky about what we consider a nice day and it gets even worse when it comes to the evenings that really cool down with the usual onshore breezes. This chilly daily cycle might make us rush into the comfort of our homes and miss one of the nicest times to be outside; The evening. On top of that outdoor evenings now have to compete with not only the TV, but every other sly form of electronic media. This is may be your summer to draw a line in the sand and regain at least a few evenings a month of enjoying the outside and the conversation of family or friends.

What can help is a professionaly designed and of course legal fire feature. (Have your designed fire feature approved by the City Building Department as required) Gas heaters are nice but lack some elements that can be found from various versions of the two following fire features. To start… an Outdoor Wood Buring Fireplace is not only enjoyable at night but can also be a showpiece in our yards during the day. A Gas Fire Pit in the right location with ample seating allows our guests to circle around, talk, stay warm, and go home without smelling like a beach fire. Give us a call and have us consult you on where might be the best location and which feature may best fit your needs and budget.

Look for more discussion on Landscape and Hardscape ideas in this years SC Times Real estate section. —Submitted by Rob McFadgen (owner of Costa Verde)