2015 Real Estate Forecast

The California Association of Realtors (C.A.R.) recently released its 2015 California Housing Market Forecast.  C.A.R. forecasts that home sales will rise modestly and that prices will flatten out in 2015 as traditional home buyers return to the market in place of investors.  C.A.R. identifies stringent underwriting guidelines and double-digit home price increases over the past two years as the cause of buyers delaying their home purchase and forecasts that as home price gains slow, would-be buyers will return to the market.

C.A.R. forecasts that the average for 30-year fixed mortgage interest rates will rise slightly to 4.5 percent and that the California median home price will increase 5.2 percent (following a projected 11.8 percent increase in 2014).  Finally, C.A.R. highlights that “the state will continue to see a bifurcated market” and that areas with a tighter housing supply and vigorous job market, like Orange County and parts of Los Angeles County, will continue to outperform other regions.

You can view the C.A.R. news release here: http://www.car.org/newsstand/newsreleases/2014releases/859066

Esquire Real Estate can provide you with a complimentary, Comparative Market Analysis of the current market value of your home and forecast for home prices in your neighborhood.  Please contact Esquire Real Estate for all of your real estate needs.

Jake's Story

Jake B. and his family had signed a one year lease of a condominium unit. However, the unit was quickly and consistently invaded by the smell of both tobacco smoke and marijuana smoke from their next door neighbors. Jake could close all of the windows and doors and still smell the smoke coming into their unit, likely through porous and uninsulated common walls. Jake noticed that some form of foam insulation was sprayed into the common walls in certain corners of cabinets and other areas indicating that the landlord knew or should have known of the unreasonable smoke invading the unit, along with other prior comments of the landlord, who had failed to disclose this material condition prior to the signing of the lease agreement.

Esquire Real Estate assisted Jake B. and his family in negotiating with the landlord regarding the potential breach of the implied warranty of habitability and covenant of quiet enjoyment, as well as potential breaches of the standard lease agreement. In the end, the landlord offered Jake the opportunity to move out of the unit and receive his full security deposit in return for a release of his claims.

You can read Jake’s testimonial about Esquire Real Estate here at our Client Advocates page: Esquire Real Estate, a full service real estate attorney and broker, understands the intricacies of the law and negotiation tactics to provide you the best available service and result for your unique real estate transaction. Please contact Esquire Real Estate for all of your real estate needs.

Risky Business

Consult an attorney-broker to “avoid risky business."

A recent article titled “Avoiding Risky Business” in the California Association of Realtors magazine, California Real Estate, warns real estate agents against custom drafting of contracts and contractual provisions, which is the unauthorized practice of law. Many real estate agents use form contracts and disclosures, which are generally helpful but cannot possibly address every unique situation or each particular transaction. The article, written by Linda A. Kirios, Esq., senior counsel to the California Association of Realtors, does not go so far as to suggest that real estate agents consult an attorney for every transaction, but the implication is present throughout the article that consulting an attorney for each transaction would be helpful and perhaps, advisable.

You can view the digital magazine format of the article here: http://www.onlinedigitalpubs.com/ 

And the text only of the article here: http://www.onlinedigitalpubs.com/

Full Service Protection

Esquire Real Estate provides you with both the legal knowledge of a real estate attorney and the sales and closing expertise of a real estate broker for all of your real estate sale and purchase needs. Esquire Real Estate can provide customized, individualized contracts, disclosures, and other transaction documents tailored to your specific transaction. Rather than suggest that you separately consult and pay for a real estate attorney for your transaction, Esquire Real Estate provides both a real estate attorney and broker in one at no extra cost to you.

Should You Buy or Rent for Your College-Bound Student?

As students begin to submit college applications, parents are considering whether to shell out tens of thousands of dollars for on-campus housing for four years (or more) or to instead buy a property near the college for the student and as a future income stream. 

Interestingly, the better financial decision in most college towns is to buy a place for your student to live. Check out the following link and sort by the median break even years: http://public.tableausoftware.com/shared/PZMPCHWK7?:toolbar=no&:display_count=no

Unless your student wants to live in Newport Beach, Santa Monica, or Santa Barbara, buying a place for your college-bound student to live should provide a positive net profit for you. Further, a few other college friends renting rooms at the property means extra net income to you.

Esquire Real Estate is available to represent you in all of your real estate transactions and to advise you regarding purchasing or selling properties in California college towns.

Legally Sell Tenant Occupied Property

A landlord may enter a leased dwelling unit to “exhibit the dwelling unit to prospective or actual purchasers.” The entry must be made during “normal business hours unless the tenant consents to an entry during other than normal business hours.” If the landlord has notified the tenant in writing within 120 days that the property is for sale, the landlord may contact the tenant orally to notify the tenant of the entry, and 24 hours is presumed reasonable notice. Civ. Code § 1954.

Although the statute provides landlords a method to exhibit the property for sale, questions remain, including what are “normal business hours” and can a landlord or agent hold an open house on weekends? The California Court of Appeal in Dromy v. Lukovsky, 219 Cal.App.4th 278 (2013) recently provided some answers and affirmed a trial court’s order that under the circumstances, the agent for a landlord can hold two open houses per month on weekend days between 1:00 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. The Court of Appeal reasoned that because the custom and practice of the real estate community is to hold open houses on weekends, weekends are included in the definition of “normal business hours.” However, the Court required that the parties must strike a fair and reasonable balance and indicated that the landlord does not have an unrestricted right to hold open houses.

You can view the opinion of the Court here: http://www.courts.ca.gov/opinions/archive/B242952.PDF. 

You can be confident in the legal and real estate knowledge of Esquire Real Estate to legally and successfully sell your tenant-occupied property.