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Big Bear Lake, CA Real Estate News

By Tyler Wood, Big Bear Real Estate
(RE/MAX Big Bear)
This question always seems to come up from a seller when the buyer decides to back out of a real estate transaction or purchase. The answer to the question, as with a lot of real estate related questions, is "it all depends." Take a look below for my answer.   Like the video above? Check out some of my other video posts. Related Articles Let's Be Earnest When Talking About A Good Faith Deposit Syndicated from & originally posted at The Big Bear Skinny.
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By Mike Wochner, Big Bear Lake Real Estate Agent
(Coldwell Banker, Mountain Gallery Realtors in Big Bear Lake)
Monday morning I received an email from a past client who asked me, "When's the best time to sell a Lakefront in Big Bear"? My initial response was Summer. The weather is great, the water level is usually at it's highest point after the winter snow melt, and it seems like the recreational focus shifts from the ski slopes over to the lake. I wasn't sure if my answer was convincing enough (for either of us) so I thought it would be a good opportunity to do some research and share it with everyone. So here you go, Jim. I looked at 4 key factors in determining when to put your home on the market: 1. Let's take a look at when lakefront homes have sold in the past. I've broken down sales per month over the past 6 years below. It's important to note that these are closed sales. Most buyers and...
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By Tony Card, Your Big Bear REO Specialist
(Keller Williams, Big Bear Lake, CA)
As long as I've been selling Real Estate in the Big Bear Valley, we've had out of area agent's call us for help.  For starters, unless an agent is a member of the local Multiple listing Service, his or her lock box key won't work in our lock boxes.  I often wonder what their clients think of their competence when they arrive in Big Bear only to find out that their real estate agent can't open the properties that they came to see. This morning we had a call from an out of area agent who wanted keys to one of our listings.  As is our practice, we tell them to come by the office, leave us a business card and pick up a key.  From where he told us he was, he should have been at the office in less than 3 minutes.  About ten minutes later the phone rang and it was this agent who we were waitin...
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By Tyler Wood, Big Bear Real Estate
(RE/MAX Big Bear)
Home sales in Big Bear increased 28% in October 2008 as compared to the same month last year, but fell 11% from the September 2008 home sales number of 82. Though it is down, it was still the second best month for homes sales in Big Bear this year. The median price for the homes sold was $255,000, up 12% from Sept. 2008 but down 18% from Oct. 2007. The median price has been quite sporadic the past 6 months, ranging between $205,000 to $290,000. With such a limited amount of sales, any slight variation can throw these numbers around. There remains nearly $75,000 difference between the median asking price of $329,000 and the median sales price of $255,000.  Selling a home in this market still requires an aggressive price. If you are not priced aggressively, you will be one of the many oth...
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By Tony Card, Your Big Bear REO Specialist
(Keller Williams, Big Bear Lake, CA)
What are the banks thinking?  Yesterday I shared my thoughts with you regarding the banks listing their homes with out of area agents.  Today I want to share with you a situation that took place just recently on one of my escrows with an out of area agent. This situation is going to concern one of my escrow that recently closed.  The cabin that I wrote the offer on was not in the Big Bear Multiple Listing Service.  It had NO sign in the yard advertising it as a home for sale, and it didn't have a lock box on it that the local agents in Big Bear  could use to gain access to the house.  The only way that I knew about the cabin was because it was listed in a Multiple Listing Service that I am a member of.  If this cabin had been listed in the Big Bear Multiple Listing Service, it would hav...
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By Tony Card, Your Big Bear REO Specialist
(Keller Williams, Big Bear Lake, CA)
TRUE OR FALSE? When it comes to selling a property in the Big Bear Valley, the fact that it is  bank owned or an REO property should make no difference in the approach that you take to selling it.  It shouldn't matter if it is privately owned or bank owned, to be successful in selling the property, the process should be the same. SO, WHY ISN'T IT THE SAME? In my professional opinion, if you have a property to sell here in Big Bear or anywhere for that matter, you want to list it with a local agent.  This is the advice I gave my own father when he moved to Helendale and wanted to sell his home in Wrightwood.  But, like so many, he chose to list it with the agent who sold him the Helendale property.  After sitting for six months, he went back to the agent who sold him the house in Wrightw...
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By Tyler Wood, Big Bear Real Estate
(RE/MAX Big Bear)
Every seller is looking for a way to get their home sold in this market.  With only 1 out of every 15-20 Big Bear homes selling every month, it is understandable to want to try every possible strategy. One question that comes up a lot is whether to offer sales incentives to help entice more showings and a buyer.  The most common types of these incentives include a buyer's agent bonus, raised selling commission, and the seller paying some closing costs for the buyer. While offering sales incentives can help a property sell, it is not was causes the property to sell. It is putting the cart before the horse so to speak. Here are some of my thoughts on this question.   Let me know what you think. Like the video above?  Check out some of my other video posts. Syndicated from & originally pos...
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By Tony Card, Your Big Bear REO Specialist
(Keller Williams, Big Bear Lake, CA)
As a child, I can recall living in a house that had a wood shake roof on it.   I never gave any thought to the fire dangers associated with a wood shake roof, but my dad sure did.  I can remember many 4th of July celebrations when the neighbors would shoot bottle rockets back and forth, and I also remember how stressed my dad got over the possibility of a bottle rocket landing on the roof and starting a fire. While shake shingle roofs are very common in the flat lands, you would think that they wouldn't be used in a high fire area like the Southern California Mountains.  As a Realtor in Big Bear, I was very surprised to see so many homes throughout the valley with shake shingle roofs still on them.  Due to the extreme fire danger that these roofs possess, I would have thought that they ...
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By Steve Hirschler, Big Bear Real Estate
(Keller Williams Big Bear)
Moonridge Area of Big Bear Lake market information. If you would like to discuss market trends and information about Big Bear Real Estate, please fill free to give me a call. Steve Hirschler Associate, The Tim Wood Group Coldwell Banker Mountain Gallery 42153 Big Bear Blvd. P.O. BOX 6820 Big Bear Lake, CA 92315 stevehirschler@gmail.com 909 866-3481 EXT. 217 CELL 909 725-5889 Fax 909 866-3531 http://www.stevesellsbigbear.com  
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By Tyler Wood, Big Bear Real Estate
(RE/MAX Big Bear)
This question brings up visions of a Geico commercial for me. There is a school of thought out there that believe buyers can save money by purchasing a property directly through the agent who has the listing, otherwise called the listing agent. While that may be the true in some circumstances, it is in fact not the case in most real estate transactions.  While I do not have empirical data to prove this statement, I do have the "working in the business" knowledge to support it.  It just does not happen all that often. Most of time, the listing agent will not reduce their commission when they represent both parties.  They are doing double the work and have double the liability, not to mention the fact that they did their job: got the property sold. Buyers need to know that their interest'...
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By Steve Hirschler, Big Bear Real Estate
(Keller Williams Big Bear)
Sellers that have been chasing the market down for the past year or more need to understand something: Your listing is stale! It's definitely stale, and not just to the local Real Estate agents that have no interest in showing it. It is also stale to the buyers that now spend months on the internet searching for the right house. All of these people are bored with your extended listing and unreasonable attempt to sell above the market price. Now that you have a stale listing, what overcomes the objection? Price! As a former retailer a phrase that stands out is: You can sell anything when you get it to the right price.! Holding out for a higher price will net you less in the market we are in. Clinging on to some Zillow number or the price that someone on you block has been listed at forev...
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By Tyler Wood, Big Bear Real Estate
(RE/MAX Big Bear)
Lakefront properties in Big Bear are the most sought after type of property in our area. Understandably, there is something inherently desirable, albeit romantic, about have a home on the water, not too mention a vacation cabin or second home. The tough part is that there are less that 600 homes on the lake in Big Bear, and less than 5-10% of those that are typically on the market for sale. As you can imagine, this creates quit a bit of demand and thus puts lakefront properties on the top end of the pricing scale for real estate in Big Bear. The prices for a lakefront home in Big Bear range from $400,000's on the lower end to over $4,000,000 for the very best locations on the water, though the highest closed sale was $3,500,000 nearly two years.  There is one lakefront property currentl...
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By Tyler Wood, Big Bear Real Estate
(RE/MAX Big Bear)
The real estate business is very complex.  There are a lot of documents to go over, countless time frames & legalities to maneuver around, and various issues & unique personalities to deal with in every real estate transaction.  While I work in this business every day, it is no wonder that buyers & sellers have a lot of questions about how our business works. One of the questions that comes up often is the title of this post, "Who pays the buyer's agent commission?" Check out the video below for my response to this question.     Be sure to check out other real estate related videos that I have made dealing with topics such as bank owned properties, lake front properties, pricing your home and others. Syndicated from and originally posted at The Big Bear Skinny.
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By Tyler Wood, Big Bear Real Estate
(RE/MAX Big Bear)
I received a question last week on Trulia.com asking about the difference between a bank owned property and a foreclosure. These terms can be confusing to those who are not in the business, and even for some of us in the business. Here's a short video explanation of the differences between bank owned properties, foreclosures, and short sales and how they are all related in the end. Feel free to add comments or ask me any questions. Orginally posted at The Big Bear Skinny.
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By Tyler Wood, Big Bear Real Estate
(RE/MAX Big Bear)
There was some surprising news to come out yesterday regarding home sales in the Southern CA area.  Sales were up quite a bit in September 2008 though prices were down. I guess some news is better than no news at all but I think this report needs to be looked at in the proper perspective. I had a couple thoughts about it, check out the video below.     Mr. Mortgage, as always, also has some good points on this article.   Originally posted at The Big Bear Skinny.
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By Tyler Wood, Big Bear Real Estate
(RE/MAX Big Bear)
Bank owned properties in Big Bear are continuing to come on the market for sale at a steady pace. Don't expect that to change anytime soon.  In the month of September 2008, there were 41 properties that went back to the bank.  And there have already been 10 so far this month. While a few of these properties are already on the market for sale, the majority of them are still "in the listing process" with the banks and should be on the market in the coming weeks/months. What do the banks do between the time they take the property back and then list it for sale? One of the first things they will do is make sure the property is vacant. If not, there are certain hoops they have to go through in order to properly evict the occupant and or the occupant's belongings.  A lot of times the previous...
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By Tyler Wood, Big Bear Real Estate
(RE/MAX Big Bear)
It is getting to be that time of year again when the weather in Big Bear is turning colder.  It is pretty common these days that the temperatures during the night hover near the freeze mark.  This will only increase as we head into winter. Given that most of the people who own property in Big Bear do not actually live in Big Bear and are only able to make it up from time to time, winterizing your home now is very important.  Trust me, you do not want to take the chance of frozen pipes. The resulting damage can be in the ten's to hundred's of thousands of dollars, not too mention future disclosure of water damage and/or mold. Why take the risk? Here are several links from the local water departments that talk about the proper way to winterize your Big Bear home. City of Big Bear Lake DWP...
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By Tyler Wood, Big Bear Real Estate
(RE/MAX Big Bear)
News about the real estate market is huge these days.  There is a lot of talk about prices going down, sales going down, and lots of numbers to prove the point.  But, are these numbers legit? I use the Big Bear MLS to substantiate a lot of the real estate data that I provide on the Skinny.  Pulling sales data from the MLS only provides part of the story however. One of the biggest problems with the Big Bear MLS data is that it does not include all of the sales in the area. Along with the increase in REO properties for sale comes the increase in properties that are listed by out of area agents who do not put their listings into our MLS.  If the property sells, our MLS does not show it.  It also does not show any properties sold between private parties or by owner. Hello public records.  ...
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By Tyler Wood, Big Bear Real Estate
(RE/MAX Big Bear)
Home sales in Big Bear hit their highest mark of the year with 82 homes sold in the month of September. This surpasses the previous monthly high of 2008 which was 67 homes sold in the month of May. This is also 22 more than Aug. 2008 and the previous Sept. 2007. The median price for Sept. home sales was $224,500, down 21% from Aug. 2008 and down 17% from Sept. 2007. The median price has been all over the board the past 5 months, ranging between $205,000 to $290,000. With such a limited amount of sales, I guess this is understandable. There remains over $100,000 difference between the median asking price of $328,500 and the median sales price of $224,500. Selling a home in this market requires an aggressive price. Otherwise, you will be one of the many others out there that are not sell...
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By Tony Card, Your Big Bear REO Specialist
(Keller Williams, Big Bear Lake, CA)
With the change in the Real Estate market in the Big Bear Valley, I am seeing more and more appraisers come up from down the hill to find work.  Unlike many cookie cutter communities down the hill,  the Big Bear Valley is comprised of a handful of smaller communities.  If an appraiser is going to come to Big Bear to work, he needs to know all of the different areas in the valley.  He or she needs to know the differences between Big Bear Lake and Big Bear City.  The appraiser should know that a home in Sugarloaf is going to have a different value than a home in Fawnskin. The reason for my blog today is because I have just had to deal with a down the hill appraiser who should never have been allowed to this appraisal.  You may think that is a bit harsh but I don't and here is why! Red Fl...
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