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The Housing Recovery Act of 2008 contains a tax credit for first time home buyers which will be beneficial here in the Sacramento real estate market. Although it is actually a loan, repayment is stretched out over 15 years and is interest free. The maximum benefit is $7,500 but is conditioned on purchase price, adjusted income and tax filing status.    Sound complicated? It really isn’t, check out the easy to understand details in my weekly column, First Time Home Buyers, over at Rocklin & Roseville Today and/or Sacramento Today. Read Full Post

Guest Author – Louise Buford

Here we are in August! It was three years ago this month when the super hot Sacramento real estate market hit the wall. Since then it has been pretty much down-hill since then with prices declines ranging from 28.5 percent in El Dorado to 43.2 percent in Sacramento.   Finally, earlier this week the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 was signed into law. It is a fairly complex piece of legislation and since much of it deals with mortgage industry I wanted to have an experienced lender write about how it may impact us. I couldn’t be happier that my first choice, Louise Buford with Partners Mortgage accepted this challenge and even promised to write a second article later in the month that will cover some of the other… Read Full Post

I mentioned the other day in one of my entries, “You won’t believe this”, that another reality television show had contacted me. Yes, this is in addition to our continuing interviewing with “Wife Swap.” According to the producer of House Hunters they found my website, jalone.com, and based on it and my blog, “Keep it Real in Sacramento” thought I would make a good realtor to work with a featured buyer in the Sacramento area.                 House Hunters takes viewers behind the scenes to learn what others look for in deciding to purchase a home. The show focuses on the emotional experience of finding and buying a new home. Each episode shows the progress as buyers working with their Realtor search for a home.  Since someone apparently wants me… Read Full Post

Word on the street is, several large national brand name brokers have sent messages to their troops saying agents need to produce or find another place to hang out. Make me money or be gone may be another way of saying it.

Real estate is a difficult business to begin with and is not as easy as it looks or even should be. One of the reasons agents go through dry spells is because they get very little support from their offices. Getting a single transaction completed can be a full time job and when an agent is working to get a purchase or sale closed they don’t have time to do much marketing. So many agents working in large brokerages find they are too busy or very slow. Now that they are slow and have time to market they get a message from “upstairs” to… Read Full Post

Over the years we have learned we need a day to get ready to fly home from Alaska and today’s it!  This is a wonderful place to visit and with everything we try to accomplish by the end our stay we have clothes and gear in every imaginable place.  Today we will get it all in one place, maybe even do a load of laundry and get packed up for our return to summer. 

While we are here, we have had a number of emails and a few calls asking about what has happened with “Wife Swap” the reality TV series.  As I mentioned a few weeks ago, they contacted me after finding me at our www.jalone.com website.  They said they were interested in having a Realtor on the show and liked my site.  Okay, we have talked to them a few times; filled out an application that asked…

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Not all out of town lenders are bad, just the ones I seem to have to deal with!  Twice in the past month I have had great clients who both were using lenders I had never heard of and were located out of the Sacramento area.  Both were quick to provide pre-qualification letters when we needed them.  One went so far as to say he could close the deal in 14-days when we told him the seller was requesting a 21-day close. 

There was more talk than anything coming from these two loan originators.  In the first case after six extensions we moved the loan to a local lender who now has it in the final stages and we are expecting a close next week.  The second lender experience has been the worst I have ever witnessed.  This particular lender has made promise after…

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Since the Sacramento real estate market is comprised of so many foreclosures I thought it might be a good idea to provide some tips on buying lender owned properties.  Although there are some bargains to be had they are not always easy and there are some things you should know if  you are interested in buying one.  Check out my latest article, Buying Bank Owned Properties, on my Real Estate News page at www.jalone.com.

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We returned to Anchorage from our favorite Alaska city, Homer.  Anchorage has and has not changed much from when we lived here.  There are new buildings here and there and plenty of road construction.  The downtown area is a mess as a enormous parking garage is being built and the traffic is as bad as we remember. 

Unlike California, everyone we talk to up here is excited about the economy and the future for the State of Alaska.  Yes, gas prices are high, we paid 4.74 per gallon of unleaded on our trip back from Homer but if you live here you may be getting a $1,000 check from the State soon to help with the higher fuel costs.  Seems the oil revenues are coming is so fast there is a multibillion dollar surplus.  If you are interested in reading more about…

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