“I’d like to find out the value of my home. But you can’t really use comps to determine the value. When can you come over?” ***ANSWER: Uh oh. That’s short-hand for: “Scrap the accepted, time-tested way of evaluating homes because that won’t support the crazy price I want. Instead, get out the Ouija Board, tarot

“Hi Gary. I’d like to trade down from my house to a nice condo in the beach. If you find someone who’d like to trade, that would be great…” ***ANSWER: I’d love to help you but… The odds of you liking a specific condo AND that owner liking your specific home AND them being willing

“I’m interested in buying foreclosures in bulk from banks. Can you give me help getting in touch with some of the asset managers you work with?” ***ANSWER: You’re one of many people who’ve contacted me about this. Most are how-to-get-rich-quick-in-real-estate seminar attendees and/or in way over their head. I may be wrong, but I assume

“What’s the difference between a repo, an REO, a bank-owned home, and a foreclosure?” ***ANSWER: A “repo” (repossession), REO (real estate owned by a bank), and a bank-owned home are all the same thing. The term “foreclosure: could refer to any of the 3 stages of foreclosure: 1. When the owner is behind on payments

“Can you tell me about Propositions 60 and 90 and how I can keep my low tax base if I sell my home and buy another one?” ***ANSWER: Prop 60: If you qualify, indeed you can sell your San Diego County home and move your current low property tax base to your newly purchased San

“I’m seeing lots of ads touting short sales, most of which seem priced pretty well. Are they good investments?” ***ANSWER: [NOTE #1: I’m repeating a question/answer on short sales from July as too many people are still futilely trying to buy homes that are short sales and will never close.] [NOTE #2: a short sale

“I own rental property in Logan Heights and southeast San Diego in some pretty rough neighborhoods. I’m sick of all the bounced checks and related delays. I have a mortgage due every month whether they pay me or not. So I’ve decided to require cash-only for rent, but somebody told me that’s not legal. That

“I own rental property in Logan Heights and southeast San Diego in some pretty rough neighborhoods. I’m sick of all the bounced checks and related delays. I have a mortgage due every month whether they pay me or not. So I’ve decided to require cash-only for rent, but somebody told me that’s not legal. That

“Dear Gary, I’ve been told that the San Diego Tax Assessor will allow a senior citizen to sell their existing house in another county (ie. Orange County), allow you to retain your existing property tax base, purchase a home in San Diego county and forward your original property tax base to the new home in

“We want to cosign to help our 40-year-old daughter buy her first home, but with prices so high here in San Diego she can’t afford the payment. Can you give us any advice?” ***ANSWER: Consider a small duplex for her first home, like my wife and I did in the mid-1980’s. The rent should more