“When I sell my home, I plan to sell it As Is. It’s not my job to make repairs for some buyer. If they don’t want to buy my place, that’s tough. I’ll just sell it to someone else.” ***ANSWER: Whoah. Simmer down now. Take a breath…and let it out. That’s better. Now, to my

“Hi Gary. My wife and I want to buy a home here in San Diego. We’ve been sitting on the sidelines, watching the market, watching what prices do. We’re really seeing much cheaper prices on homes lately. Do you think the timing is right to buy a home now?” ***ANSWER: Excellent question, and probably the

“My name is XXX and I’m a roommate of XXXX. I emailed a lender asking his opinion on the sub prime lender collapse going on right now and if it will effect loans in about 3-6 months. He said: There is no sub prime lender collapse, just major changes to how they do business. Lenders

“Hi Gary. I recently read that when you sell your home, you only recoup 79.4% of the cost of a kitchen remodel. But my kitchen was really busted up and I’ve got to think I’ll get more than that back. What do you think?” ***ANSWER: You’ve hit the nail on the head with one of

“I was in escrow buying a home in January and had the home inspected. The inspector found several items that he told me the seller should fix. But the seller refused to fix them all, including a broken pool heater and replacing the roof, which was old but didn’t leak. I wasn’t too happy when

“Hi Gary. My wife and I want to buy a home here in San Diego. We’ve been sitting on the sidelines, watching the market, watching what prices do. We’re really seeing much cheaper prices on homes lately. Do you think the timing is right to buy a home now?” ***ANSWER: Excellent question, and probably the

“With the prices down, I’m seeing a lot of good deals. I’m a first time investor and don’t really know what I’m doing. I have $55,000 available. What do you suggest?” ***ANSWER: An ideal investment for you is a small 2BR condo in an established complex. Condo prices have been hit the hardest, so you

“Can I find out my home value online?” ***ANSWER: Not exactly. Two types of websites purport to tell you your home value online: 1) automated; 2) agent/referral. Automated sites use complex but flawed software to calculate values, typically less accurate than most owners’ estimate of value. This is due to incomplete/inaccurate info about the home

“We’ve been driving around pulling property flyers from for sale signs. Why don’t the realtor flyers show the taxes on the property?” ***ANSWER: Because the taxes the current owner is paying is irrelevant. In California, properties are reassessed when they’re sold. The approximate rate is 1.1% of the price per year. And that goes up

“Gary, can you answer a question about loans and points? On the home we’re buying, we’re trying to decide if it’s worth paying points on our loan. We’re kind of lost. How do you figure that out?” ***ANSWER: Whether you pay points primarily depends on how long you plan to keep the loan. (Other factors: