FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Michael Schaller
CENTURY 21 Adobe Realty
(818) 338-1100
c21adobeinfo@century21.com

Local CENTURY 21 Office Releases Spring Survey Results
Agoura Hills, CA (Grassroots Newswire) June 22, 2010 - Many people dream of buying their first home or trading up to a new home that will better suit their changing needs. However, as the market begins to climb out of one of the most challenging economic downturns in recent history, the current state of the real estate market may be in question in many peoples’ minds. Is it the right time to make a move?
In April, two giants in the real estate market announced interesting survey results. Fannie Mae found that two-thirds of Americans (65 percent) are still bullish on homeownership, preferring to own a home despite the challenging economic environment and the housing downturn. Additional research conducted by Century 21 Real Estate LLC provides further insight.
CENTURY 21® First-Time Home Buyers and Sellers survey captured and compared the opinions of prospective home buyers and sellers who either purchased or sold their first home within the past year or are planning to buy or sell their first home within the next year. The majority of survey respondents had moved or intended to move more than 10 miles but less than 50 miles from their previous location, indicating current market conditions may be a catalyst for buying or selling homes, as opposed to a desire to dramatically change geographic location or relocate for a job.
“Buying a home, whether it’s your first or subsequent purchase, is the single greatest financial decision that most people will make in their lifetime,” counsels Rick Davidson, president and chief executive officer, Century 21 Real Estate LLC. “And, our research indicates that today’s market presents a generational opportunity for home buyers and current home owners looking to leverage their market position.”
Current Market Conditions
More than 80 percent of first-time home buyers and sellers feel the current housing market is more affordable today than this time last year. This is despite the fact that 40 percent of all respondents are more worried about the economy now compared to this time last year. Federal tax credits and solid mortgage rates have had a positive impact on driving people to take action.

Reestablishing Balance
A full market recovery takes time and current conditions continue to favor buyers. While buyers are excited about the opportunities in the current market, sellers note their main concern is losing money on the sale of their home and receiving offers near their asking price.
When will the balance between housing need and inventory return? The real estate industry typically considers six months of inventory to represent a balanced market. According to the National Association of REALTORS® the number of homes for sale currently represents approximately eight months of inventory and has decreased 21.7 percent below the record of 4.58 million homes for sale in July 2008*. First-time home buyers anticipate home prices will soon begin to rise and in fact, about half of first-time buyers (48 percent) expect an increase by this time next year, thereby reestablishing better market equilibrium.
Let an Expert Help Guide You
Whether you are considering buying or selling a home, 60 percent of first-time home buyers do not feel they have a good handle on the real estate process. Given the complexity and opportunity of today’s real estate market, 85 percent of both first-time buyers and sellers feel that using a real estate professional is important. Allow an experienced professional to help guide you to the home that is right for you, at a price you can afford.
The market is recovering and providing a powerful opportunity to act. Take advantage of positive price points and low interest rates today.
For additional information about market conditions in Agoura Hills, contact Michael Schaller at (818) 338-1100 or c21adobeinfo@century21.com.
*National Association of Realtors Existing Home Sales Report, March 2010
Methodology – Century 21 Real Estate LLC First Time Home Buyers and Sellers Survey
MarketTools, Inc. conducted a quantitative survey on behalf of Century 21 Real Estate LLC with 708 prospective home buyers and sellers who either purchased or sold their first home within the past year or are planning to buy or sell their first home within the next year. The quantitative study yielded results from 353 first-time home buyers and 355 first-time home sellers in the form of an online survey fielded from March 12 to 16. The margin of error for this study is 3.7 percent.

About Century 21
© 2010 Century 21 Real Estate LLC. CENTURY 21® Is A Registered Trademark Licensed To Century 21 Real Estate LLC. An Equal Opportunity Company. Equal Housing Opportunity. Each CENTURY 21 Office is Independently Owned and Operated.

What's a Linchpin?

Who is Seth Godin, what is a Linchpin and why should you care?

Seth Godin:

Writes the most popular marketing blog in the world;
Is the author of the bestselling marketing books of the last decade;
Speaks to large groups on marketing, new media and what's next;
And is the founder of Squidoo.com, a fast-growing recommendation website.

Read more about his bio here.

So what's a Linchpin?

Here is an answer I liked from Jacqueline Novogratz

You are invited to join us on June 14 2010 at 8PM! Here are the details!






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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?

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 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.