Larry Weichman's Real Estate Blog

When interest rates were cut after the Fed’s July meeting, the press was quick to point out that not every homeowner would benefit from the move. As Bankrate.com noted in its lead article How the Fed’s Interest Rate Decisions Affect Mortgage Rates, “the majority of Americans won’t be affected.”W...

As soon as you begin to plan to sell your Costa Mesa home, you’ll soon find one thing everyone agrees upon: the need to de-clutter. But where to start? For any home that’s been lived in for years, it’s easier said than done. Most of us shrink from even thinking about what goes and what stays. But...

 Selling your Costa Mesa home yourself is responsible for most FSBOs (“For Sale by Owner” offerings, pronounced “Fizz-BOW”). It’s the arithmetic that comes with selling yourself that seems at least worth considering—the attractive notion of avoiding paying commission dollars to a real estate brok...

Buying a home in Costa Mesa– especially if it’s your first – can seem just like any other large purchase.  It can be as straightforward as: you’re the buyer, which makes you the boss. It’s the L3’s job to make this happen.  But there are several parts of the process that can cost frustration, tim...

          That “things break down” is a truism as old as mankind—possibly preceding the invention of language itself. You can picture a furious caveman staring at the shattered remains of the wheel he’d just invented—after the first time it broke. Sooner or later, “things fall apart.”     When ar...

     Buying Costa Mesa homes takes some degree of organization no matter what. Especially when time is a screaming imperative, it can make or break whether you land a home that’s right—or one you ultimately determine isn’t adequate over the long haul. Whether the time pressure is due to a sudden ...

USA Today quoted an eye-opening figure. It’s one that probably means that it describes one of the most common of circumstances that might apply to Costa Mesa home buyers of any age or income group since the “common circumstance” applies to “89% of repeat homebuyers.” Coming as it does from the Na...

     Owning a home—whether in Costa Mesa, in California, or in any other state—is Americans’ most trusted way to build wealth. That’s the takeaway from Gallup’s poll, conducted this spring. It’s easy to agree with—but surprising for a number of reasons.      First off, the continuing bull stock m...

      Before a first-timer has experienced the complete home-buying process, given the number of unknowns that seem to be dependent on one another, they’re bound to be at least a little baffled. What if there are unseen problems with the house? What if the home loan company decides not to coopera...

          It was the Washington Post’s real estate reporter Michele Lerner who came up with the list of the most important “10 things” house hunters look for when they stop by Costa Mesa open houses.     The ‘ten things’ list is a useful one—and every bit as relevant for homeowners selling their ...