Happy Holidays!

Hello Friends!

I want to wish you all a very happy holiday season. I also want to update you on the current real estate market and give some insight into what we should be expecting for the new year.

2009 was a very interesting year regarding the economy and 2010 will bring us some nice surprises I am sure! In my professional opinion, the market hit rock bottom somewhere in the middle of 2009 and I am convinced that we are in an upward swing. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you would like an in-depth explanation but in a nutshell, you should not wait to buy due to the further possibility of an upward shift in interest rates. If you have the opportunity to buy, please do so. Secondly, If you are waiting to sell, do not wait too long because there is a mad dash at this time. Your chances of selling are very high!

When we have international investors coming in and buying up property here, sight-unseen, this is an indication that we need to hustle and not let opportunities pass us by!

Please feel free to contact me any time if you are looking to buy property anywhere in SoCal, I will personally represent you. If you are looking to buy property anywhere within the United States and/or overseas, especially the Caribbean, I will be more than happy to refer you to my broker in the Island Affiliates of my wonderful company, Coldwell Banker.

This has been a spectacular year for my company and I am very honored to be part of such a wonderful group of people.

Have a very wonderful holiday season and all my best for the new year, my friends!

Sincerely,

Melody:)

*Photo courtesy of Lesley Benzakein.

It's A Spring Thing!

Hello Ladies and Gentlemen!

Greetings to all of my friends out there. Happy Spring to everyone! We are looking at some really fun stuff coming up! Right now we have 39 properties for sale in San Marino. Two of them are just under $1 Million and I suggest you get while the getting is good! This opportunity will not last. I also have properties in greater Los Angeles ranging from condos in the $200K's all the way up to whatever your little heart desires!

We have all heard a lot of different things about the real estate market, but I assure you that this is a great time to buy and if you are 'moving on up' to a bigger house or higher priced community, you will benefit from selling now and buying larger! There is no time to waste!

From reports I have learned that because we have a lot of international investors coming in and buying up our property, this is a good indication that the market has hit rock bottom. It sounds a little scary but we have to look at the bright side always! Of course we don't know how long we will be at rock bottom but as I've said before, we have some really AWESOME interest rates available! I urge you to take advantage of these rates. Evaluate your situation and determine how much you stand to gain even if you have a to take a tiny loss on your current property.

These decisions are not easy but I am here to walk you through your transaction and guide you in the right direction. A revered friend was talking to me the other day and giving me advice on another issue and she told me that I need to be on the same side as those who are working with me and to....this is the good part, "Listen carefully to what they have to say."

I'm on your side and if you have any questions or need real estate advice, I'm here for you! If I don't know the answer I will find out! I work for the best brokerage! My office was the number one in Southern California and we are also International! I have the best manager and we offer the best support for our clients.

Please know that my company offers:

• Top Notch Trained agents who are professional and knowledgeable


• Your home (if listed through me and over $500,000) will automatically be published in the Wall Street Journal (unless you state otherwise)


• Full service from our managers and attention from me


• The commission will determine how many other agents are interested in showing your property!


• Confidence that the contracts will be done correctly and you won't need legal advice or have legal problems later on


• Peace of mind!

If you want to know more about San Marino or Alhambra please check out these links!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Marino,_California

http://www.cityofalhambra.org/community/residential_living/index.html

Call me! Have a Super Fantastic start to Spring and let's get together soon!

Melody:)

New Hope For Our Real Estate Future!

Hello Friends! And a Happy Chinese New Year to you. This year we will see some big things happening. Whether you celebrated new year in the fall, January 1st, or today, we all have some ineresting and exciting trends ahead of us. Although none of us knows the future we can all hold on to the hope that our economy will begin to recover and our investments in real estate will once again pay off.

Now is as good as it gets for investors to take advantage of the opportunities available in the real estate market. Wall Street is pretty shaky but we should take refuge in the idea that we have always recovered economically. This is an historical fact and we have the privilege of hindsight to guide us through these unsure times.

If you are fortunate enough to invest, please consider real estate as a safe place and a great return in the long run. I am always here to help!

Did We Fall Back or Spring Forward?

We are in some changing times! The clock changed, the weather is changing, the economy is changing, the price of gas is changing, and the leader of our country will be changed. As Realtors we have to be resilient to change or find ourselves in the Realtor graveyard that so many have thrown themselves in when it became less easy to make a buck.
I love this business because I get to talk to people and meet new friends and working is not like work when you love it. The changes that come with this career can help us learn to adapt to many different situations and realize that there so many different people in the world that we need to make sure who we are before we go out and meet people. By changing ourselves to adapt we are actually becoming more stable within because we learn more about ourselves and understand people better and this makes us better Realtors.
A motivational speaker came to one of our meetings and said that we need to spend more money on ourselves than we do on our business. She meant more money improving ourselves. Of course she was trying to get us to buy a ticket to her seminar, but I believe her in part minus the money. We need to spend more time on ourselves and improving our personalities and adjusting ourselves to our environment with people and within real estate than time spent on the business alone. This doesn't mean to not make those phone calls or emails or ignore our business but to learn with every step throughout the day how to improve ourselves so that our business will improve. We can even spend time researching online ways to improve the nice parts about ourselves.
One last thing that my current boss said to me is to focus on the good things about my personality and forget about the bad things. What we focus on becomes bigger. So whether it's negative or positive we can increase features of our personality so it just makes sense to focus on the positive!
So, changing and adapting ourselves to survive is an age-old event. Adaptation. Survivability. Natural selection. Does this ring any bells? As I was a scientist for so many years I love to look at science and recognize how we are all just living things on this planet and we are all pretty much the same. We've all agreed to turn our clocks back in the fall, fall back, and turn our clocks forward in the spring, spring forward. We've all decided to be in real estate on our own accord and those of us who stick out these changing economic times have made a choice to adapt to our environment.
How can I possibly end this without a comment about the recent election.... Well, I can and I will. You can draw your own conclusions!
Have a Super Fabulous and Wonderful Day!

When The Truth is Found....

Hey Friends...

It's been a long time since I was able to write anything because I was so absorbed/preoccupied with this short sale (5+ months) that I was working on. I am pleased to announce that I am closing this deal! I cannot go into all the details of this deal because it is extremely sensitive, but I will tell you that I was tenacious and I got this home for my clients! I got this deal despite the listing agent causing trouble with the banks and despite whatever untruths that I will probably never know of, but am convinced were told during this process, from the beginning. "When the truth is found...to be lies."** Are you with me so far?

I also owe you an explanation about switching brokerages, but some things may also be sensitive. I quit Prudential after only 6 months. When I signed on with them in San Marino on Huntington Drive the manager never told me they were moving to Pasadena the next month. I even told the manager that I chose that office because it was on Huntington Drive close to my son's school. He already knew of the move to Pasadena, but did not say a word. I understand from the business aspect, but from a family aspect, that stinks!" ....and all the joy within you dies....."** following me?

I signed with Coldwell Banker in August back in good ol' San Marino. I will say this, I am extremely pleased with my new broker, the office, the location...etcetera, etcetera.

I have truly been initiated by this short sale being my first deal and with my father being a retired real estate attorney and an active broker in his spare time I have been blessed with knowledge, information, and wisdom.

This is short and sweet (unlike the short sale which is actually long and bitter). I made the best move of my life to be with Coldwell Banker. My broker, Gary Fleishman, has been so encouraging and such a positive influence in my life and we have barely met! He is focused on family and business.

"...Don't you want somebody to love....don't you need somebody to love, wouldn't you love somebody to love, you better find somebody to love!"**

**Jefferson Airplane (1967 'twas a good year!)

He's the best. That's why he's the boss.

For now,

Melody:)



P.S. My clients have stuck with me to the end because I have not disappointed them!

These Times They Are a-Changing...

How many of you have felt the crunch of the banks the past few months? I certainly have. And in a not so fun way.

I have been working on a short sale for four months now and the first lender is Indy Mac. If you watch the stock market you can roll your eyes along with me at the thought of what is happening to our economy. The interesting thing is that we have been waiting and waiting for word from the bank or anything just to let us know that we still exist and on the day the announcement was made that the FDIC is in control of Indy Mac (Indy Mac is in receivership) the listing agent actually got a phone call from Indy Mac! The phone call was initiated from their end!

Everybody is asking me what does this all mean? The answer is, I don't know. I'm hoping that Indy Mac will see that they need to get some money in pretty quickly so they will start getting their bodies in gear and accepting these offers that have been sitting on the table for months. If I was a manager there I would tell my people to bring in the money.

So, with my amateur prognosis, I am hoping that soon Indy Mac will accept our offer and push us into escrow to close this deal. Unfortunately it seems that it is too late to save Indy Mac. I drive by the headquarters of Indy Mac every day on my way to the office in Pasadena. It is not a happy day when we see our banks folding like chairs. But, if you want to know what is going on you can visit the site www.lenderimplode.com and I'm not promising you will feel any better, you may have to turn away at times, but it's the bare reality of what is happening. I believe it says 266 banks have 'imploded.'

In my company at Prudential we have an in-house lender who is an expert in the financial field. I defer my judgement to him and trust that we will all get through these strange times...because folks, these times, they are a-changing...

Good Luck out there!

Prices Falling and Interest Rates Climbing...

Hello Friends,

I've heard from many of my buyers that they are going to wait for prices to hit rock bottom. They think they don't need to hurry and buy now because we have not reached the lowest prices of the year. Well, my friends, the time is now!

From my experience and my relationship with our in-house lender I am aware of the upward trend in interest rates. Although they may be lower on Monday, higher Wednesday then back down on Thursday, the overall trend is UPWARD. I have clients who locked in their rates a few months ago at 5.62%. Those rates have expired and are now over 6%.

Let's see what happens if you are looking at a house where your payments will be approximately $4000 per month. Let's say that you can get a 6.15% interest rate today. But you decide to wait because you think this house will come down in price. Sure enough, the price of the house drops $20,000 next month, but your interest rate has increased a half percent. How does this affect your overall monthly payment?

Unless you are paying all cash for your home, you are really purchasing a mortgage which means, you are purchasing a monthly payment. If your interest rate increases 1% you will be paying a monthly payment of about 15-20% higher. A half a percent will be around 8-10% higher. In the long run you will end up paying more for your house if you wait for prices to fall as interest rates continually rise.

This is something to think about if you are ready to buy. Don't wait. This is the year to buy and if you wait too long you may just be missing the boat which I think is leaving the harbor now. Get in now and be happy that you did!