Most of us don’t have several hundred thousand dollars in cash lying around, so when we want to purchase real estate (or invest in a business or embark on other expensive endeavors), we need a loan. Conventional bank loans require borrowers to follow strict guidelines regarding proof of income and creditworthiness. This works well for … Read more
Each week I ask for recommendations for column topics, and this week I received an excellent suggestion from Realty World agent and Ukiah’s rookie agent of the year Tanya Gilmore, who wants to help people of her generation think ahead and make wise investments. She rightly pointed out that many people are waiting until their … Read more
I don’t know if you’ve heard, but there’s a non-profit group working to start a family medicine residency (doctor training) program in Ukiah. While this may not appear to be closely tied to real estate, I’d argue it is, because anything that substantially improves the quality of life in our town also improves real estate … Read more
As many of you have probably heard, the balance of the old Masonite property recently sold. Factory Pipe owner Ross Liberty purchased 63 acres through a limited liability corporation called Friends of Liberty. The property consists mostly of the old factory property and goes from the railroad tracks west to State Street. While the purchase … Read more
I’m on the Ukiah Valley Medical Center (UVMC) Community Advisory Board, and at a recent meeting we received an interesting update on the hospital’s expansion. In case you’re curious, here’s what’s going on. The hospital is building a new emergency department (ED) and intensive care unit (ICU) to be completed in 2017. The original ED, … Read more
For those of you who read this column regularly, you may remember me reviewing several ways you can hold title (own property), each of them with different tax implications and several of them influencing how you could pass that property on to family members. As of January 2016, the California Legislature added a new type … Read more
Every property has a special designation that defines how it can be used, and knowing this before you buy the property can make a huge difference in what you can do after you buy it. I’m talking about zoning. Here in Mendocino County the following zoning categories exist: residential, civic, commercial, industrial, agricultural, and extractive. … Read more
Overall, 2015 was a good year for real estate. Home sales in inland Mendocino County were up 6.5 percent from 248 in 2014 to 264 in 2015. Home prices rose 10.5 percent and the time houses remained on the market decreased by 14.5 percent from 103 days in 2014 to 88 days in 2015. Interest … Read more
An escrow process is the process you go through when a property changes owners, so whether you’re a buyer or a seller, you generally don’t want to delay it. These days most escrows take about 45 days; a few can be quicker and some can be much, much longer. To keep things moving it’s best … Read more