The CENTURY 21 iPhone Application

The CENTURY 21 iPhone Application Coming October 2009!

We are pleased to announce that we are launching a branded iPhone application for real estate consumers in October, 2009!

Century 21 This iPhone app will be a highly functional tool that is Gold Standard, bringing CENTURY 21 innovation to life. It will deliver local listings and community information through GPS. With the touch of an iPhone button, you will be able to review all the listings and open houses in any neighborhood. Buyers researching local neighborhoods or pondering a cross-country move can enter any location nationwide and view neighborhood information, property values and school ratings.

With this new app, you can use the built-in camera to take photos of properties. You can also add personal notes and attach them to the saved listing. Most importantly, you can easily find a local CENTURY 21 Office, and easily call the office to start a dialogue.

The CENTURY 21 iPhone application is well positioned to be the most dynamic real estate iPhone app available!

CENTURY 21: The Gold Standard.

Using Social Media To Find A Home

Using Social Media to Buy or Sell Real Estate


The first thing that comes to mind regarding social media is friends, connecting with friends. You can ping a message to everybody. Telling your friends via Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or any other social networking site that you’re looking to buy a house or sell your house or get into investing.

When you get to the core of social media it’s just a way of communication. You can use that form of communication to connect with people and send a message.
You might have friends that are realtors who would love the opportunity to help you. You may have friends of friends who are realtors. I’m sure someone you know understands real estate. They could be Investors, mortgage brokers or maybe even a construction person. The point is, using your net work of friends, family and business associates in your quest to find the perfect home.

If you live under a rock and are not participating in social media, you can reach out to people in traditional ways, like calls, visits, mail, and email.

So, what do you think would be the best way to use social media to buy or sell a house?

Getting Your California Real Estate License On The Cheap

Getting your California Real Estate license on the cheap.

Since April of the year 2000 we have consistently taught the real estate principles course for the State of California. Averaging 18 students per month some times 30 students per session comes to about 300 students per year.

In order for you to take the State exam you have to take, Real Estate Principles, Practice and one other elective is required as well (I recommend Appraisal). Once you complete these requirements you then are eligible to take the State Exam, which has always been in a physical location Sacramento, Fresno, Los Angeles, Oakland, or San Diego.

The Department of Real Estate has just made an announcement that they will be updating the process. It's gonna be a lot more automated, computerized and electronic read more about it here.

If you want to get in to Real Estate and don't know how to go about, it you can do the schooling in traditional ways (old ways) or online. Traditional ways work for some, but if you want to save time and money you can take the preliminary courses online through our school or any others.

I did my schooling in the traditional ways first, but I did not get the results I wanted until I did the classes online. Studying on my own time versus being stuck in a class room for me was a big advantage. Spending roughly 2000 dollars for the (two) weekend crash courses and private tutoring with one of the best real estate teachers in all of Southern California Jay Marshall (who has been teaching classes for over 30 years). He was helpful to me and thousand of others. The reason I bring Jay up is because I learned valuable studying techniques from him and I transfer that to my students at a fraction of the cost. The essence of what Jay teaches is to study the questions that resemble the State Exams and to answer them correctly.

So hope this helps and if you have any questions. You're always welcome to contact me at (805) 624-4739 or you can email me Hector@Century21.com.

Using Real Estate To Leverage Your Lifestyle

Real Estate Leverage is simply the used of borrowed money used in purchasing real estate. Equity is the amount of money that the real estate is worth above the amount of money owed. For example, let’s say that you have $100,000 available to invest in real estate and the average price of a home in your area is also $100,000 and the average rent for that home is $1,000 per month just to keep the numbers simple.

You could purchase one home for $100,000 cash and then rent it out for $1,000. This would give you a return on investment of 1 percent per month 1,000 / 100,000 = .01) or 12 percent a year. The average real estate appreciation since 1968 has been 6.34 percent per year. Some years it is less and some years it is more, but for this demonstration we will use 6 percent to keep it simple. Add 12 percent and 6 percent and you will have an 18 percent Return On Investment (ROI) for your $100,000. Not a bad return and much better than you would get at a bank or deposited in a CD.

Now let’s add leverage into the equation. If you purchase the same home with only 10 percent down ($10,000) with an interest rate of 6 percent then your Return on Investment would look like this. $1,000 rental income minus $450 interest divided by $10,000 down payment for a return on investment of 4.5 percent per month or 54 percent per year plus 6 percent in appreciation is equal to 60 percent ROI per year. Remember you only used $10,000 of your own money and you leveraged $90,000 and your profit per year would be $6,000.

Since you still have $90,000 in case available you could purchase 9 more homes. Then you would still have a Return On Investment of 60 percent but your profit per year would be $60,000 instead on $6,000 and you would also have leveraged $900,000.

I have not discussed taxes, maintenance, insurance or any other expenses associated with owning real estate. The expenses would be proportional for each home that you owned whether it is one home or ten homes.

The amount of money that you get from your real estate investments is always offset by the amount of debt you have; rent checks from tenants need to go toward mortgage payments and other debt. With real estate leverage it's important to make sure that the income generated from real estate is enough to cover the negative cash flow of the real estate debts during the bad times. Renters can and will damage properties, vacancies will happen from time to time.

If you finance with a variable interest rate mortgage or if the tax appraiser raises the value of several of your homes, you could be in a negative cash flow within just a couple of months with no way out.

Investing in real estate without significant cash reserves is, shall we say, not recommended. An investor without reserves might as well send an engraved invitation for disaster. Investing in real estate is a daunting task. There are hundreds of elements which must come together in harmony for a transaction to close.

Using real estate leverage is a great way to increase your own personal wealth and to build a large and healthy portfolio if it is done wisely. The more real estate leverage you have the more property you can acquire by using this debt or leverage.

It's not difficult to understand the concept of real estate leverage and if used properly can not only make for sound investments but can also make for a healthy financial portfolio.

Our Friends At Zillow

After attending RE (Real Estate) Barcamp in San Francisco I ended up makeing a few new friends:

Sara Bonert, Hector G. Diaz (me) Drew Meyers and Ajay Melita

Check out this video about how to use Zillow:

Below is supposed to be a picture with David Gibbons but the person who took the photo pressed record instead:

Simple precautions for the cautious agent

Real estate isn't exactly as entertainingly hazardous a profession like ice road trucking, but it does have its share of incidents like every other seemingly mundane job. This tragic article shows that even in our day in age, incidents happen that bely the apparently riskless nature of our work. Let's face it, active realtors will probably meet with more strangers in unsecure locations than an undercover cop. At Century 21 Adobe, we always keep a priority on our agents' safety so we've discussed the dangers and necessary precautions in our office meeting, but we can't limit our concern to just our employees. Here are some simple precautions you can take to ensure that your real estate success isn't hindered by any unfortunate occurences.

1) Communication: Keep your cell phone on you and adequately charged at all times. Make sure you check in with your office prior to an open house and that someone or several someones know where you're supposed to be. Tell neighbors in the area of your open house so they may also be a passive lookout for your safety. Smart realtors will also take this as an opportunity to market themselves to new prospects.

2) Reconnaissance: Before letting strangers enter a home, go in first yourself to make sure all windows and doors are properly closed and, especially in vacant houses, it hasn't been taken up by squatters, as a surprising number of agents in our office have complained about. If these pests looking for a free roof are present, do not attempt to reason with or remove them yourself, but rather call the local authorities. Like the bear in its den, squatters can be rather vicious if they are approached in their makeshift habitat, especially if startled from sleep.

3) Secure the Area: Make sure to call the current owners to prepare for the visit by hiding away all cash, valuables, weapons, and prescription drugs. One of our agents has an experience of over $25,000 worth of diamond jewelry being stolen from an open house while it was vulnerably lying out on a counter. Also make sure to close and lock all windows and doors at the conclusion of the open house.

4) Personal Precautions: Taking a hint from Jason Bourne, allow clients to walk in front of you at all times and never leave yourself cornered in a room without an escape route. If two groups arrive at the same time, make one wait outside while you show around the other. Having people wandering around is when mischief is most likely to happen. If you feel the necessity, carry pepper spray on your person as an additional defense.

With these simple steps, you can ensure your personal safety, leaving you to focus on your sellilng success.

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Our belief in the future

As we've declared many times before, Century 21 Adobe Realty is committed to staying ahead of the curve when it comes to the changing face of business. Business practices are changing fast and realtors will need to keep up constantly to succeed in a transforming industry.

That is why Realtors at Century 21 Adobe receive the benefit of a full-time technology consultant in our office, who can keep you on top of new strategies that have been very profitable for realtors in this market such as online listing syndication, blogging, and social web networking. Few other companies will show the same dedication towards its employees success in technology.