Ray Peckham Real Estate

Huntington Beach Real Estate Guide / Help for Buyers and Sellers

Huntington Beach has special regulations

Every area has its own building regulations. You need to know how these restrictions will affect the design of your Huntington Beach home. Issues to consider include zoning, setbacks, rights of way and easements. Most subdivisions have CC&Rs (Covenants, Codes and Restrictions). Studies of Huntington Beach demonstrate that these carefully to make sure they are not too restrictive for your needs or create excessive building costs.

Huntington Beach Fixed or Adjustable?

The fixed rate mortgages offer Huntington Beach real estate buyers peace of mind with predictable monthly payments. Taxes may go up but the principle and interest will remain fixed throughout the life of the loan. When interest rates were rising rapidly in the late 1970s, lenders came up with ARMs or Adjustable Rate Mortgages. With an ARM, the borrower assumes the risk of rising interest rates. Both have their advantages and disadvantages.

Huntington Beach FAIR MARKET VALUE

When you buy Huntington Beach real estate or refinance your present home, your lender will ask you to pay for an appraisal to help ensure that the sales price and mortgage amount is consistent with the property's market value. The appraiser uses the Rule of Three. What that means is the lender wants to evaluate three "comparables"—recent sales of nearby homes that are very similar to the one you are buying. Based on this information, the lender will make adjustments to reflect the differences between the properties and arrive at a fair price for your home.

Huntington Beach Real Estate Cycles

What makes most sense is the "buy and hold" strategy. Buy a home you expect to remain in for at least seven years or more. Huntington Beach is no different than most, although the Huntington Beach market does have it's own special circumstances.

Want to get a clear and up-to-date picture of the Huntington Beach real estate market? Call me at any time. I am happy to share my knowledge of the real estate market with homeowners and prospective homeowners who want to take advantage of market trends to buy and/or sell wisely.

Tips for Buying or Selling Huntington Beach

Most experienced real estate agents and brokers already have Websites that showcase their local MLS data so your Huntington Beach can show up online as soon as it is listed. On the other hand, if you are selling on your own it will take time or a considerable advertising budget to get your individual Huntington Beach property to show up on the major search engines where prospective buyers will find it. You could tap into one of the several For Sale by Owner Websites but that would limit your market of buyers.

Buying real estate in Huntington Beach is also much easier when you work with a real estate agent who knows the area and the market. While there is a great deal of information online about real estate asking prices, it is not always so easy to find out what a property actually sold for. And even then, specific terms of a sale often make a difference in how to interpret the sales price.

When Huntington Beach Does Not Sell

Let’s say a home is in excellent condition but simply messy. The cat box needs changing, the dog dish is a mess, the dishes haven’t been put into the dishwasher and the beds are not made. Should these conditions affect the price of the Huntington Beach? No, but they do. Take two identical houses next door to each other and priced the same. The sparkling clean house will sell much faster than the messy house and the messy house will more than likely sell for a lower figure. This is true of Huntington Beach as well as real estate nationwide.

When a home does not sell, the owners tend to think that the REALTOR didn’t do a good enough job of promoting the property. There is a difference among agents and brokers and some will promote a property more than others. However, the main and most important method of promoting Huntington Beach for sale is listing it in the local MLS.