“Hi Gary. My wife and I want to sell our rental condo in Mission Valley and buy a triplex or fourplex in North Park. I know I can avoid taxes by doing a 1031 exchange, but I don’t know how they work. Can you enlighten me? ” ***ANSWER: I’ll be happy to… There are 3

“Last time I sold my home, I moved out the day we were supposed to close and got burned. The buyer had loan problems and the closing was delayed for 3 weeks. I got stuck making payments on an empty condo. Now I’m planning to sell my house and want to protect myself so it

“Hi Gary, thank you for your newsletter, I really learn a lot. Question: My wife and I are planning to buy a home in about 6 months. Is there anything we should be doing right now in anticipation?” ***ANSWER: Very smart question. Here’s what I recommend: 1. Check your FICO (credit) score now. This will

“Hi Gary. I’m writing in response to what you wrote Friday about it being a great time to buy a home. My wife and I looked for a home a year ago and things were so bad, we gave up. Prices were too high and we kept getting beat out by other buyers, even when

“I’ve been looking for a home for 2 months and agents keep pushing me to talk to a lender. I’m looking for a good deal and if I don’t find one I won’t buy. So I don’t want to waste my time or share my personal information unless I find a home. I make good

“We tried to sell our home last year but it didn’t sell after 6 months on the market. We have no idea why. Now we want to move to La Jolla, Carmel Valley, or Poway to get our kids in better schools, so we’re going to try again. We don’t want the same result, so

“With the market no longer so overheated, I plan to wait a few years for prices to go down. I don’t have anything to loose. When do you think the market will turn around?” ***ANSWER: Let’s talk supply and demand. Our economy is vibrant and unusually well-diversified (tourism, military, defense, telecommunications, electronics, computers, biotech, software,

“Hi Gary. I’m being transferred to Virginia and we’ll probably never move back to San Diego. My wife and I are debating whether we should sell our home or rent it out for income. It’s in Pacific Beach and we just remodeled it 2 years ago. We think it’s worth around $1M. What should we

“Help! My mother inherited a home in University City. She’s not real estate savvy, so she asked me to handle it for her. I hired an agent and he hasn’t called us since listing the home 3 weeks ago. I’m planning to call him to find out what’s going on, but I can already tell

“What’s the difference between a cap rate and the gross rent multiplier?” ***ANSWER: Cap rate is the opposite of a price/earnings ratio, used with stocks. Here are some random cap rates and GRMs in San Diego: CapGRM Area 415 Pacific Beach 513 North Park 5.312 El Cajon As you can see, as cap rates go