Secure Your Home For Summer Vacation
by Jen Jafarzadeh L'Italien, Posted Jun 21st 2010 9:30AM
Going on a trip? Take precautions to keep potential intruders away from your property.
When you finally take some time off for vacation, the last thing you want to worry about is what might go wrong at home while you're away. But the reality is that your home could be a sitting target for burglars when it's empty.
The good news? With this simple checklist, you can head for the sunshine knowing your house is safe and secured. The key to deterring intruders from your house? Make sure your home looks lived-in, even if you'll be away a couple weeks. Here's how.
1. Arrange for mail to be held while you're away. Mail quickly piles up in the mailbox (hello, catalogs!), and an overflowing mailbox is a sure sign to everyone that you're not home. You can easily stop mail delivery by notifying the post office online. Then you can pick up your mail when you get back.
2. Put your newspapers on hold. Besides the waste of paper (who's going to read old news when you return from vacation?), a pileup of newspapers on your doorstep is an easy red flag that you're away.
3. Show-off your alarm system. Make sure to have an easy-to-see sign on your door or window to alert everyone of your spiffed-up security system. Consider putting up a sign, even if you haven't invested in a high-tech alarm.
4. Don't button up the whole house. It's natural to want to "close up" the house while you're away, but you want to give the appearance that the house is lived in. Leave drapes and window treatments slightly open, rather than closed shut. Put some of your indoor lights on timers, and have some of them go on at night to give the appearance that someone's at home.
. Show-off your alarm system. Make sure to have an easy-to-see sign on your door or window to alert everyone of your spiffed-up security system. Consider putting up a sign, even if you haven't invested in a high-tech alarm.
4. Don't button up the whole house. It's natural to want to "close up" the house while you're away, but you want to give the appearance that the house is lived in. Leave drapes and window treatments slightly open, rather than closed shut. Put some of your indoor lights on timers, and have some of them go on at night to give the appearance that someone's at home.
5. Invest in motion-sensing floodlights for the yard. Now is a good time to consider investing in motion-sensing floodlights. When you're on vacation, glaring light will deter potential intruders. And when you arrive home, it'll be easier to see what's going on at night.
6. Leave a radio on. To those outside, the buzz of voices will make it seem like there are people at home. Choose a talk station, like NPR, rather than an station that just plays music.
7. Leave a car in the driveway. If you're flying to your destination, simply leave your car in the driveway. If you're taking a summer road trip, ask a neighbor if they could park one of their cars in your driveway while you're away. It's also a good idea to alert a neighbor or friend that you'll be away, so they can keep an eye on your house.
8. Arrange for your lawn to be mowed. You want to stop some services (like mail delivery) while you're away. But others, like getting your lawn mowed, should continue on just like you're at home. Arrange with your landscaper to have your lawn mowed as usual while you're away. If you typically mow your own lawn, consider hiring a local to come mow your lawn once while you're away during extended trips. Long grass is another sure-fire signal to burglars that the house has been vacant.
9. Take a walk-around your house a week or so before you leave. Check for any shrubs, hedges, trees, or landscaping that looks overgrown (also look for tree limbs that provide an easy route to an upstairs window.) Trim any greenery that looks like it would provide a hiding place for intruders.
10. Make sure unnecessary electrical equipment is turned off while you're away. It's a good idea to plug your electronics in surge protectors that are easy to power on or off with the flick of a switch. You'll also be saving energy (and saving on your electric bill!) by powering off the TV, computer, and entertainment center. Many appliances are also known as ghost energy hogs, sucking energy even when they're simply turned off. By plugging these devices in a safety surge protector, you can stop the flow of electricity.
11. Give the cat-sitter or dog-sitter a spare key before you leave. You don't want to hide the key under a rock, doormat, or in the BBQ grill. These are all known hide-a-key tricks; they give burglars a free pass into your house.
Tip: Ensure you come home to a fresh house post-vacation. Clear your refrigerator of any perishable foods (you can offer your milk to your friendly neighbor) and make sure you take out stinky trash before you leave.
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
FINALLY SOME GOOD REAL ESTATE NEWS FOR THE DESERT!
By Debra Gruszecki • The Desert Sun • June 20, 2010
Home sales and prices in the Coachella Valley rose in April and May, the latest real estate market report from MDA DataQuick shows.
This makes the seventh consecutive month of positive sales and price gains.
Economists say that's a sign the market is in a stage of recovery.
“The market is doing very well for buyers and sellers,'' said Brady Sandahl of RE/MAX Real Estate in Palm Springs.
DataQuick reported the 1,029 sales of new and existing homes in April rose 8.1 percent and the median price hit $215,000, reflecting nearly a 23 percent surge in price from 2009.
May posted 1,021 sales, recorded a 7.8 percent rise in sales and measured a $210,000 median. That median is 15.7 percent higher than in May 2009.
Since December 2009, median prices have been above $200,000 — besting the performance for most of 2009 when the median bumped along the $180,000 line.
Prices off from 2008
The April and May home sale prices still are well off the $301,000 median in April 2008 or $309,000 in May 2008 — prices hit their highest point at $410,000 in February 2006 — but the Southern California market already is at the $300,000 level.
Southern California home sales prices topped $300,000 in May for the first time in 20months, a spurt DataQuick linked to a cache of buyers capitalizing on low mortgage rates and the California home-buying tax credits that kicked in May 1.
The gains also were attributed to a shrinking stock of “ultra bargains” in the low-cost inland areas.
The DataQuick report for April and May seems to bear that out.
Hard-hit foreclosure zones of Coachella, Desert Hot Springs, Indio, Thermal and Thousand Palms, which had triple-digit sales activity in 2008 and part of 2009, saw sales contract year-over-year in April and May.
As sales there sputtered, the buying gravitated to communities of Indian Wells, Palm Desert, Palm Springs, La Quinta and Rancho Mirage.
Home sales in La Quinta are up 42 percent in April and up 22 percent in May, as is the median sales price.
The median rose 22 percent to $380,000 in April, up from $310,000 in 2009. Rancho Mirage's 65 sales drove up the median some 23 percent, as home sales prices rose to $440,000 from $355,000 in April 2009.
The Indian Wells median sales price rose 4.9 percent year-over-year in April to $524,500. And it outdid itself in May, measuring a 158 percent increase in sales and a new median of $810,000. That's up 40 percent from May 2009.
Positive indicators
Inland Empire economist John Husing said the sales increases and median price gains are positive indicators.
“May, one year ago, was the bottom of the market,'' Husing said.
Banks may be holding back supply from the foreclosure process to keep supply levels on pace to stimulate sales, he added, and advised: “Watch for slippage in sales volume.
“Still, the large increases in price shows the market really has started to recover.”
Luxury home sales activity has also picked up in a significant way from the 2009 doldrums.
Seven sales, ranging from $1.2 million to a high of $6 million, were noted in the DataQuick report for April. While April was the fourth month of solid sales in this genre, January came in like a lion with the sale of a $7.4 million home in Bighorn and two others in the range of $4.5 million and $3.1 million.
In May, the pace continued with one $7.8 million sale in Palm Desert.
Lags on market
New home construction sales is the only segment of the market that's been hurting.
Sales were off by 8.3 percent in April and May.
Altogether, less than 100 homes were sold in the median price ranges of $210,000 to $254,500.
That pace of home sales has been taking shape across California, the Building Industry Association reported. The monthly CBIA/Hanley Wood Market Intelligence report showed sales in new-home communities of 10 units or more were 32 percent below April 2009.
Foreclosure activity also continues to dog the market.
RealtyTrac has reported that foreclosure filings for May across the nation are down 3percent from April, but have not completely subsided as foreclosure filings rose 1 percent from 2009.
“Those numbers confirm a trend that overall foreclosure activity may be leveling off, as lenders work through the backlog of distressed properties,'' said James J. Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac.
Expansion begins
Even as market distress nips at the Coachella Valley, real estate companies across the Coachella Valley are ramping up to cater to growing sales opportunities.
That's because buyers are eyeing the middle and upper level brackets.
In some places, prices are 40 percent less than they were in the real estate heyday.
Windermere Real Estate Coachella Valley in April disclosed plans to open a new office in Indio in June, as an addition to its 13 other offices in the valley.
The company added 15 new agents to its 600-member team and may soon add another office to serve the desert.
Keller Williams Realty Inc. opened a new Legacy division in La Quinta at the end of April and made its debut in May. HK Lane acquired Classic Homes Real Estate to gain market share in recent weeks, and Realty Executives Desert Cities of Palm Desert last week held a grand opening for its new Palm Springs office.
“When we look at sales in Palm Springs from January through May and match them against the same curve for 2009, the counts are up 41 percent,'' Sandahl said. “In 2009, there were 10 properties that sold above $1 million. In 2010, there's been 24: It's more than doubled.”
VIP prices
The VIP homes that have come on the block in recent months — Liberace, Anne Rice, Edra Blixseth's Porcupine Creek — have helped reinvigorate interest from afar in the Palm Springs desert resort market, real estate professionals say.
Market interest — and some celebrity home sales — hasn't gotten lost on Bjorn Ahlstrom, an international player in the economy.
Ahlstrom, who grew Volvo North America Corp. as president and CEO from a $50 million car importer in the 1970s to a $6 billion company, and kept many properties in the Palm Springs market after he retired from Volvo in 2004, just put his $1.49 million tennis estate up for sale.
“It's time,'' he said, hinging it on observations of a “shrinking” market.
Ahlstrom said he and his wife, Diane, listed their four-bedroom, four-bath home in the Movie Colony because they're spending more time at their penthouse home in Marina del Rey and would like to add a condo in Manhattan to their property portfolio.
“I believe things are turning around a little bit,'' Ahlstrom said. “We decided to list it now to test the market, if you will”
In 22 days, Sandahl said the home's had seven strong showings.
“That's distinctly different from a year-and-a-half ago,'' Ahlstrom said, when the home was listed the first time. “Nothing moved.”
Now, the buyers are even different — heading in from multiple states and two coasts.
“As prices adjust down and available supply continues to shrink, buyers see value,'' Sandahl said.
“Houses are moving.”
The median rose 22 percent to $380,000 in April, up from $310,000 in 2009. Rancho Mirage's 65 sales drove up the median some 23 percent, as home sales prices rose to $440,000 from $355,000 in April 2009.
The Indian Wells median sales price rose 4.9 percent year-over-year in April to $524,500. And it outdid itself in May, measuring a 158 percent increase in sales and a new median of $810,000. That's up 40 percent from May 2009.
Positive indicators
Inland Empire economist John Husing said the sales increases and median price gains are positive indicators.
“May, one year ago, was the bottom of the market,'' Husing said.
Banks may be holding back supply from the foreclosure process to keep supply levels on pace to stimulate sales, he added, and advised: “Watch for slippage in sales volume.
“Still, the large increases in price shows the market really has started to recover.”
Luxury home sales activity has also picked up in a significant way from the 2009 doldrums.
Seven sales, ranging from $1.2 million to a high of $6 million, were noted in the DataQuick report for April. While April was the fourth month of solid sales in this genre, January came in like a lion with the sale of a $7.4 million home in Bighorn and two others in the range of $4.5 million and $3.1 million.
In May, the pace continued with one $7.8 million sale in Palm Desert.
Lags on market
New home construction sales is the only segment of the market that's been hurting.
Sales were off by 8.3 percent in April and May.
Altogether, less than 100 homes were sold in the median price ranges of $210,000 to $254,500.
That pace of home sales has been taking shape across California, the Building Industry Association reported. The monthly CBIA/Hanley Wood Market Intelligence report showed sales in new-home communities of 10 units or more were 32 percent below April 2009.
Foreclosure activity also continues to dog the market.
RealtyTrac has reported that foreclosure filings for May across the nation are down 3percent from April, but have not completely subsided as foreclosure filings rose 1 percent from 2009.
Home sales and prices in the Coachella Valley rose in April and May, the latest real estate market report from MDA DataQuick shows.
This makes the seventh consecutive month of positive sales and price gains.
Economists say that's a sign the market is in a stage of recovery.
“The market is doing very well for buyers and sellers,'' said Brady Sandahl of RE/MAX Real Estate in Palm Springs.
DataQuick reported the 1,029 sales of new and existing homes in April rose 8.1 percent and the median price hit $215,000, reflecting nearly a 23 percent surge in price from 2009.
May posted 1,021 sales, recorded a 7.8 percent rise in sales and measured a $210,000 median. That median is 15.7 percent higher than in May 2009.
Since December 2009, median prices have been above $200,000 — besting the performance for most of 2009 when the median bumped along the $180,000 line.
Prices off from 2008
The April and May home sale prices still are well off the $301,000 median in April 2008 or $309,000 in May 2008 — prices hit their highest point at $410,000 in February 2006 — but the Southern California market already is at the $300,000 level.
Southern California home sales prices topped $300,000 in May for the first time in 20months, a spurt DataQuick linked to a cache of buyers capitalizing on low mortgage rates and the California home-buying tax credits that kicked in May 1.
The gains also were attributed to a shrinking stock of “ultra bargains” in the low-cost inland areas.
The DataQuick report for April and May seems to bear that out.
Hard-hit foreclosure zones of Coachella, Desert Hot Springs, Indio, Thermal and Thousand Palms, which had triple-digit sales activity in 2008 and part of 2009, saw sales contract year-over-year in April and May.
As sales there sputtered, the buying gravitated to communities of Indian Wells, Palm Desert, Palm Springs, La Quinta and Rancho Mirage.
Home sales in La Quinta are up 42 percent in April and up 22 percent in May, as is the median sales price.
The median rose 22 percent to $380,000 in April, up from $310,000 in 2009. Rancho Mirage's 65 sales drove up the median some 23 percent, as home sales prices rose to $440,000 from $355,000 in April 2009.
The Indian Wells median sales price rose 4.9 percent year-over-year in April to $524,500. And it outdid itself in May, measuring a 158 percent increase in sales and a new median of $810,000. That's up 40 percent from May 2009.
Positive indicators
Inland Empire economist John Husing said the sales increases and median price gains are positive indicators.
“May, one year ago, was the bottom of the market,'' Husing said.
Banks may be holding back supply from the foreclosure process to keep supply levels on pace to stimulate sales, he added, and advised: “Watch for slippage in sales volume.
“Still, the large increases in price shows the market really has started to recover.”
Luxury home sales activity has also picked up in a significant way from the 2009 doldrums.
Seven sales, ranging from $1.2 million to a high of $6 million, were noted in the DataQuick report for April. While April was the fourth month of solid sales in this genre, January came in like a lion with the sale of a $7.4 million home in Bighorn and two others in the range of $4.5 million and $3.1 million.
In May, the pace continued with one $7.8 million sale in Palm Desert.
Lags on market
New home construction sales is the only segment of the market that's been hurting.
Sales were off by 8.3 percent in April and May.
Altogether, less than 100 homes were sold in the median price ranges of $210,000 to $254,500.
That pace of home sales has been taking shape across California, the Building Industry Association reported. The monthly CBIA/Hanley Wood Market Intelligence report showed sales in new-home communities of 10 units or more were 32 percent below April 2009.
Foreclosure activity also continues to dog the market.
RealtyTrac has reported that foreclosure filings for May across the nation are down 3percent from April, but have not completely subsided as foreclosure filings rose 1 percent from 2009.
“Those numbers confirm a trend that overall foreclosure activity may be leveling off, as lenders work through the backlog of distressed properties,'' said James J. Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac.
Expansion begins
Even as market distress nips at the Coachella Valley, real estate companies across the Coachella Valley are ramping up to cater to growing sales opportunities.
That's because buyers are eyeing the middle and upper level brackets.
In some places, prices are 40 percent less than they were in the real estate heyday.
Windermere Real Estate Coachella Valley in April disclosed plans to open a new office in Indio in June, as an addition to its 13 other offices in the valley.
The company added 15 new agents to its 600-member team and may soon add another office to serve the desert.
Keller Williams Realty Inc. opened a new Legacy division in La Quinta at the end of April and made its debut in May. HK Lane acquired Classic Homes Real Estate to gain market share in recent weeks, and Realty Executives Desert Cities of Palm Desert last week held a grand opening for its new Palm Springs office.
“When we look at sales in Palm Springs from January through May and match them against the same curve for 2009, the counts are up 41 percent,'' Sandahl said. “In 2009, there were 10 properties that sold above $1 million. In 2010, there's been 24: It's more than doubled.”
VIP prices
The VIP homes that have come on the block in recent months — Liberace, Anne Rice, Edra Blixseth's Porcupine Creek — have helped reinvigorate interest from afar in the Palm Springs desert resort market, real estate professionals say.
Market interest — and some celebrity home sales — hasn't gotten lost on Bjorn Ahlstrom, an international player in the economy.
Ahlstrom, who grew Volvo North America Corp. as president and CEO from a $50 million car importer in the 1970s to a $6 billion company, and kept many properties in the Palm Springs market after he retired from Volvo in 2004, just put his $1.49 million tennis estate up for sale.
“It's time,'' he said, hinging it on observations of a “shrinking” market.
Ahlstrom said he and his wife, Diane, listed their four-bedroom, four-bath home in the Movie Colony because they're spending more time at their penthouse home in Marina del Rey and would like to add a condo in Manhattan to their property portfolio.
“I believe things are turning around a little bit,'' Ahlstrom said. “We decided to list it now to test the market, if you will”
In 22 days, Sandahl said the home's had seven strong showings.
“That's distinctly different from a year-and-a-half ago,'' Ahlstrom said, when the home was listed the first time. “Nothing moved.”
Now, the buyers are even different — heading in from multiple states and two coasts.
“As prices adjust down and available supply continues to shrink, buyers see value,'' Sandahl said.
“Houses are moving.”
The median rose 22 percent to $380,000 in April, up from $310,000 in 2009. Rancho Mirage's 65 sales drove up the median some 23 percent, as home sales prices rose to $440,000 from $355,000 in April 2009.
The Indian Wells median sales price rose 4.9 percent year-over-year in April to $524,500. And it outdid itself in May, measuring a 158 percent increase in sales and a new median of $810,000. That's up 40 percent from May 2009.
Positive indicators
Inland Empire economist John Husing said the sales increases and median price gains are positive indicators.
“May, one year ago, was the bottom of the market,'' Husing said.
Banks may be holding back supply from the foreclosure process to keep supply levels on pace to stimulate sales, he added, and advised: “Watch for slippage in sales volume.
“Still, the large increases in price shows the market really has started to recover.”
Luxury home sales activity has also picked up in a significant way from the 2009 doldrums.
Seven sales, ranging from $1.2 million to a high of $6 million, were noted in the DataQuick report for April. While April was the fourth month of solid sales in this genre, January came in like a lion with the sale of a $7.4 million home in Bighorn and two others in the range of $4.5 million and $3.1 million.
In May, the pace continued with one $7.8 million sale in Palm Desert.
Lags on market
New home construction sales is the only segment of the market that's been hurting.
Sales were off by 8.3 percent in April and May.
Altogether, less than 100 homes were sold in the median price ranges of $210,000 to $254,500.
That pace of home sales has been taking shape across California, the Building Industry Association reported. The monthly CBIA/Hanley Wood Market Intelligence report showed sales in new-home communities of 10 units or more were 32 percent below April 2009.
Foreclosure activity also continues to dog the market.
RealtyTrac has reported that foreclosure filings for May across the nation are down 3percent from April, but have not completely subsided as foreclosure filings rose 1 percent from 2009.
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