Our state is abuzz with talk of the newly passed Proposition 19 changes, but what do you really need to know about this property tax law? One of the most significant changes brought on by Proposition 19 is that it allows you to transfer your property tax value to anywhere else in the state of California. Previously, the law only allowed for transfers to properties in those specific counties that had chosen to participate in Prop. 19. Now, if you want to transfer the tax value of your current property in Los Angeles or Ventura County to your new home in Palm Springs, you’re able to do so. In fact, you’re able to transfer the tax value on your primary residence up to three separate times—a huge increase from the previous one-time cap.

Here’s another benefit: The ability to transfer your tax value regardless of the purchase price of your new home. Previously, if you had sold your home for $1 million, you would have had to buy your next home for $1 million or below to carry over your tax value. Now, Prop. 19 extends to those who are upgrading on the market, though the taxes will be prorated. In other words, if you sell your home for $1 million and buy your next one for $1.2 million, your tax value for that first $1 million will carry over, and you’ll only pay at the new tax rate for that $200,000 difference. 

When all these changes are taken into consideration, it’s clear that many Californians now have a unique opportunity to make an affordable move. Hopefully, this overview answered any Prop. 19-related questions you may have had. If not, please feel free to reach out to The Buss Lampert Group; we’re here to be your real estate resource, and we’d love to hear from you. You know who to call for assistance with any of your 2021 buying or selling needs!

​Happy holidays to you!

The holiday season has officially arrived. We hope you enjoy this wonderful time of year and make some fantastic memories.

We wanted to take a moment to thank you for your continued support. We love helping people make their real estate dreams come true, so thank you for working with us and supporting our business.

This may be a busy time of year, but we are always here to help you and answer any questions you may have. Give us a call or reply to this email and we’d love to help out.

In case we don’t hear from you until 2021, have a happy New Year!

With the world we live in becoming so negative, it’s vitally important to start every day off right. If you win the morning, you win the day. I read a book called “The Miracle Morning” by Hal Elrod and have been following the routine it details since. Once you get in the habit of it, you realize it’s the best possible way to start your day. 

It’s a pretty easy ritual to follow using the acronym SAVERS:

• Silence/meditation. Here is one of my favorites is Tony Robbins’ gratitude meditation. 
• Affirmations. You can find them online or make them up yourself.
• Visualization. Take a moment to visualize how your day will look, how your week will look, and how your year will look. Think about what you want and the steps you need to take to get there.
• Exercise. This doesn’t have to be anything crazy. Just get your blood flowing with a quick run, bike ride, or weight lifting circuit.
• Reading. Take 10 minutes to read a bit of a new book or a few news articles.
• Scribe. One of my favorite things to do is to journal in the morning about my goals and what I’m grateful for.

This process takes roughly an hour and you don’t always get that much time, but if you can combine a few of these steps into one, you can get it done quicker.

If you have any questions or want to know more about my morning routine, don’t hesitate to reach out via phone or email. I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Today I’m here with my friend Ilona from Little Eyes Catering, who’s going to help me share the ways you can have a stress-free Thanksgiving. Nobody wants to do a last-minute scramble to prepare everything before dinner is ready and guests arrive, so Ilona will first share some of her tips for what to do the day before to make the holiday go smoother. Beyond that, she has some great tips and recipes for how she makes herbed butter, turkey, and so much more! To find out how to make your Thanksgiving holiday more simple, stress-free, and delicious, watch the video above.

We hope that you have a wonderful Thanksgiving filled with great food and company. If you have any other questions about throwing a stress-free holiday or anything to do with real estate, don’t hesitate to reach out to us. We’d love to help you.

​What makes this fall a great time to buy a home? There are five main reasons:

1. Homes sit on the market a bit longer. This means there’s more inventory and a better chance for you to secure a good deal. 

2. Less competition. There are fewer buyers to compete against than you’d otherwise see in the spring and summer months. Fewer buyers mean you don’t have to be as aggressive with your offer. 

3. For various reasons, many sellers want to close before the end of the year. For example, they may want to take advantage of certain tax benefits. 

4. Many sellers also want to sell before the holidays rather than wait through them. They want to be in their new home to enjoy the coming holiday season, so they’ll be motivated to help you buy their current one. 

5. You get to see homes in different weather conditions. In other words, conditions you wouldn’t see in the spring and summertime. 

If you’d like to buy now and take advantage of this opportunity or have any real estate questions at all, don’t hesitate to reach out to us. We’d love to help you.

Here are the top four reasons you should list your home in the autumn:

1. Less competition. In spring and summer, a deluge of houses hits the market, but that doesn’t happen in the fall. Your property will stand out better in a smaller crowd. 

2. High demand. People are still looking to move into our area, and there’s still not enough inventory. In the autumn, most buyers who come to see your home are serious. They’re usually pre-approved, motivated, ready to write offers, and aren’t just looky-loos. 

​3. Holidays. Since there are some wonderful holidays in the fall, buyers could have a more emotional reaction to your house. Seeing a property decorated for Halloween or Thanksgiving creates a sentimental connection for the buyer. 

4. Timing. Some buyers looking at your home may not have a family, so they don’t need to worry about a school schedule. There are plenty of other reasons someone may need to move.

If you have further questions about selling in the autumn or real estate in general, please don’t hesitate to give us a call or send an email. We would love to help you.

Today we’re taking a break from real estate content to do something fun! We’re conducting a special contest, and the prize is a $100 Amazon gift card! Below are five questions on little-known facts about me (Marissa) and Danny. 

This is an honor system, so when you’ve finished reading this message (or watching the video above) email me at marissa@thebusslampertgroup.com with how many questions you got right. The people who get the most answers correct will be entered into a drawing to win the prize. To get the answers, watch the video above. 

Question 1. Who was their sixth-grade arm wrestling champion: Danny or Marissa?

Question 2. Who was born in Westlake Village Hospital: Danny or Marissa?

Question 3. True or false: Marissa proposed to Danny on the balcony overlooking the ocean in Malibu. 

Question 4. Who was on their high school wrestling team: Danny or Marissa?

Question 5. True or false: Was Marissa Danny's first kiss?

Don’t forget to send me your answers! We hope you learned a few interesting facts about us. 

If you have any questions regarding real estate, please feel free to give us a call or send an email. We would love to help you.

​If you find yourself in a multiple-offer situation as a buyer, here are three tactics you can use to strengthen your offer:

1. Shorten your contingency time frames. When you write your offer, you’ll have three contingencies: the home inspection, appraisal, and loan contingencies. The standard contingency time frame for the physical inspection, for instance, is 17 days, so we recommend shortening this to 10 days (usually the minimum number of days buyers ask for). The standard appraisal contingency time frame is 17 days, so you can shorten this to 14 days—the limit that lenders recommend because they need time to get everything ordered and make their report. The standard loan contingency time frame, meanwhile, is 21 days, so reducing this to 17 days makes a world of difference. It’s always best to ask your lender if they feel they can get you a conditional loan approval within this time frame. 

2. Offer your highest price in your initial offer. Many buyers hesitate to do this because they want to leave room to negotiate, but in a competitive market, sellers don’t always counter all offers. Put your best foot forward right away. This way, even if you don’t get countered, you at least know you offered the most you’re willing to pay. If you do get countered and have already offered your highest price, you can counter back with shortened contingency time frames or an added sum of a couple thousand dollars. 

3. Waive the appraisal contingency altogether. Here you’re stating that even if the property appraises below the price you offer, you're still willing to pay that price. For example, let’s say you offer $950,000 on a house, the appraisal comes in at $900,000, but you decide you don’t want to pay that much over the appraised value. You still have your loan contingency in place, which allows you to cancel because you technically can’t get your loan for 20% down (or however much you plan on putting down) if the house doesn’t appraise for $950,000. This caveat allows you to back out of the offer if you decide that the appraised value is too low. If you decide you still want to buy the home for $950,000, you would then have to bring the additional $50,000 over your down payment and closing costs (based on the $900,000 loan). 

If you have questions about this or any real estate topic, don’t hesitate to reach out to us. We’d love to help you. 

If you would’ve told me when this COVID-19 pandemic first hit that, four months later, interest rates would be hovering at historic lows (2.5%) and listed properties would be receiving multiple offers, I would’ve said you were crazy. However, that’s exactly what's happening in our Ventura County real estate market. 

Let’s key in on four specific stats:

1. The sales-to-price ratio (how much homes are listed for versus what they sell for)
2. The average days on market (how long homes are taking to sell)
3. Current inventory
4. The median sales price increase since 2019

Conejo Valley (for homes under $1 million):

• Sales-to-price ratio: 99%
• Median sales price: $850,000 (2.41% increase since 2019)
• Less than one month of inventory
• Average days on market: 37 days

Moorpark/Simi Valley:

• Sales-to-price ratio: 100%
• Median sales price: $655,000 (4.38% increase since 2019)
• Just over one month of inventory
• Average days on market: 40 days

Ventura/Oxnard/Camarillo:

• Sales-to-price ratio: 99%
• Median sales price: $621,000 (5.04% increase since 2019)
• Just shy of one month of inventory
• Average days on market: 42 days

The bottom line: It’s a great time to sell your home. It’s also more important than ever to have your home professionally staged and properly marketed. If you’re a buyer, it’s a great time to lock in a historically low interest rate. The market is extremely competitive, so have your pre-approval ready and make your offer quickly. July was a solid month, and August is looking good too. 

Stay safe out there, and if you have any real estate questions or would like to buy or sell a home, don’t hesitate to reach out to us. We’d love to help. ​

There are three different types of financing you can use to buy a home:

1. Conventional financing. Many people don’t know that you can use conventional financing and put down as little as 3%. With conventional financing, you’ll have a lower PMI (private mortgage insurance) rate if you put down less than 20%, but you’ll likely have a higher interest rate, so compare financing types before moving forward. It’s a bit more difficult to qualify for this type of financing, so if you have bad credit or a high debt-to-income ratio, this may not be the best option for you. However, if you have great credit and put 20% down, this is often the best financing for you.

​​2. FHA financing. FHA stands for Federal Housing Administration. With this loan, you can buy a home with as little as 3.5% down. This loan is easier to qualify for because you can have a lower credit score and a higher debt-to-income ratio than what you'd need for conventional financing. Typically the interest rate for FHA financing is lower than with conventional financing, but the PMI rate is often a bit higher. If you’re putting down 10% to 19%, your PMI insurance will come off the loan after 10 years.

3. VA loan. You can only qualify for this loan if you or your spouse is a veteran. You can buy a house with this loan for as little as 0% down up to any loan amount. Little known fact: You can get up to a $2 million loan, though you still have to have the income to qualify. This is a wonderful loan, easy to qualify for, they work with lower credit scores, and they allow a much higher debt-to-income ratio.

If you have any further questions about these financing options or real estate in general, reach out via phone or email. We would love to help you.