The first substantial snow fall for the winter happened this past weekend in Big Bear. We received about 8-12 inches of snow, which was very welcomed. The picture below was taking from my office parking lot this morning looking towards the Snow Summit ski area. This should help kick off the winter tourist season which has been slow up to this point. One obvious question that is asked now is do properties in Big Bear sell better now that there is snow on the ground? Historically speaking, no. The winter months … [Read more...]
Big Bear Lakefront Properties – Up & Down The Past 12 Months
December 5, 2007 by 2 Comments
With all the talk of how bad the real estate market is these days, I am starting to track the statistics of the Big Bear real estate market. The sales for lakefront properties, and all other properties in Big Bear Lake for that matter, tend to tail off during the winter months as most people turn their attention towards the local ski slopes, the holidays, and tax time. Let's take a look at where the 2007 sales stats for the lakefront properties in Big Bear stand as of yesterday (Dec. 4, 2007). I compared the … [Read more...]
Warning! 3 Sure Fire Ways To Sabotage The Sale Of Your Big Bear Home
November 26, 2007 by 3 Comments
Everyone knows that the real estate market in Big Bear is slow right now as compared to the previous 5-6 years. Many people think that they have no control over selling their property, and that no properties are selling. The fact remains that there have been an average of 80 sales per month this year in the Big Bear real estate market. So, it begs the question that why do some properties sell while other laungisuh on the market for many months? Below are three sure fire ways to make sure you property does not sell … [Read more...]
Things are “shaking” up for owners of Big Bear Lake properties with wood shake roofs.
July 10, 2007 by 1 Comment
In what I consider to be a knee jerk reaction to the South Lake Tahoe fires recently experienced in our State, the City Council of Big Bear Lake decided last night that wood shake roofs in the Big Bear Lake City limits create such a "dire" fire danger that they are going to try and eliminate them by 2012. Though the ordinance still needs some tweaking on specifics of enforcement, it passed. From a Realtor's perspective, my concern with this ordinance is the "point of sale" trigger that is a major part of the … [Read more...]
6 Things That Every Big Bear Lakefront Buyer Should Know
June 5, 2007 by 1 Comment
It is that time of year again when the some Big Bear lakefronts owners start to consider selling their property. The next 4-5 months are historically the best selling months for the Big Bear market and it is no coincidence that the weather in Big Bear this time of year makes it a beautiful time to be looking for a nice lakefront home. Having a property in time for our very popular annual July 4th fireworks show is the target date for many lakefront buyers to be in their new home. There are approximately 550 … [Read more...]
Let’s Be Earnest When Talking About A Good Faith Deposit
March 7, 2007 by 1 Comment
One of the most overlooked items on the purchase contract is the earnest money or good faith deposit. Sellers and agents are so anxious to see what the offer price is, they miss a key component of the offer. What is a earnest money deposit? There is a good definition & article on the same subject here by Elizabeth Weintraub. My definition would be anything of value, mainly money, put forward by the buyer to show good faith to the seller that they are genuinely interested in buying the property. The deposit, … [Read more...]
Big Bear January 07′ sales numbers not so hot
March 2, 2007 by Leave a Comment
The numbers for the Big Bear real estate market for January 2007 look pretty bad....for sellers, that is. According to the local First American Title Co., there was a total of 77 units that sold during this time frame (Download first_american_jan. 07.xls {Excel doc. 1.61 MB}). That number is down 45% from the January 2006 numbers of 139 total units closed. This makes January 2007 the slowest month in the last 10 years for sales numbers. To really understand the numbers though, this stat refers to the number of … [Read more...]
CRS Listing Course #201
March 1, 2007 by Leave a Comment
I just finished a two-day CRS class in Victorville, CA. CRS stands for Council of Residential Specialists, which is a special designation that Realtors can achieve by taking extra education courses as well as completing a certain amount of transaction. There are approximately 50,000 CRS members in the world, with the vast majority of them located in the U.S. This was my first class and my intention is to take a few more this year in order to achieve the CRS designation. The particular class I took was the … [Read more...]
Note to real estate sellers: rejection should not be in your current vocabulary
February 11, 2007 by 2 Comments
One of the items that was recently added to the California Association of Realtors purchase contract was a "rejection of offer" box at the end of the contract. The box states that, "no counter offer is being made to the buyer but it was reviewed and rejected by the seller." My guess is the intention behind this was to give assurance to the buyer that their "low" offer was at least presented. One of my fellow associates just received the aforementioned "rejection of offer" checked on one of his offers yesterday. … [Read more...]
Real Estate Blogging…..no excuses
February 10, 2007 by 2 Comments
I can think of a few excuses why I stopped writing posts over the last couple months (too busy, holidays, & not enough topics) but the real reason is lack of commitment to blogging. I don't think I am the only one who has done this. I have noticed a few other people, including some real estate agents, who have started a blog only to stop writing posts a few weeks into it. From what I can tell, blogging, like exercising & dieting, requires dedication and discipline to be successful at … [Read more...]
