La Jolla Homes for sale & La Jolla Real Estate

La Jolla home owners sell and move, on average, every five to seven years. Why do home owners move? People who have lived in the same home for the past 30 years have a hard time understanding this phenomena. They are shocked that people move so often, but I know one thing for certain: Their day to sell and move will come as well.

Here are the top 15 reasons why people sell and move from their La Jolla home:

1) Home is too small. First-time La Jolla home buyers often outgrow their "starter" homes. Increased family size is the main reason home owners say they need a larger home.

2) Upgrade. The grass is greener on the other side. People often want what they don't have and long for a bigger, more expensive and grander, upscale La Jolla home. It's the American way.

3) Fix purchase error. Owners might believe they made a mistake when purchasing their present home and want to rectify that mistake. Maybe they thought they could get by without a back yard but yearn to garden, or the dining room in the center of the house annoys them, or they no longer enjoy the underbelly of planes flying overhead within inches of their face.

4) Job transfer. Relocation makes it necessary for many to pull up roots and move. If the commuting distance exceeds an hour, most people would prefer not to spend two hours in traffic every day.

5) Personal Relationships. Moving in with a partner or getting married can mean one of the parties will need to sell, especially if both owned La Jolla homes prior to the commitment. On the other hand, break-ups cause owners to sell as well for three basic reasons:

1 One party may need to buy out the other and not have the cash available.

2 The home may not be affordable to sustain on one person's income.

3 The home holds bad memories, making a fresh start desirable.

6) Neighborhood changes. The neighborhood might have changed for the worse, economically, socially or physically. For example, maybe a freeway was constructed nearby. Maybe the next-door neighbors receive visitors who arrive wearing striped pajamas at 2 AM. Or they have hung sheets over their windows while a skunk-like odor permeates the air.

7) Empty nest. The kids have grown up and moved out. The owners want a smaller home. The older you get, the harder it is to keep a big house clean.

8) See family more often. Some people want to be closer to their family as they age and will move to be near relatives. Parents want to be near children. Grandparents, near their children and grandchildren.

9) See family less often. To put more distance between the La Jolla home owners and relatives. Some might move out of state to keep harmony within the family. Dysfunctional and fractured families have been known to blossom being separated.

10) Retirement. Active-adult communities are attracting many buyers over the age of 55. These planned communities have golf courses, club houses, workout facilities, week-end social gatherings, back-yard barbecue parties and more, all designed for people over 55.

11) Health problems. Physical ailments such as knee or back problems make it difficult for an aging population to climb stairs in a two-story, so a one-story home may be more practical. A trade-off solution for many elderly people who don't require round-the-clock care is to buy a condo or move into assisted living housing.

12) Deferred maintenance. Some people don't want to put on a new roof, replace the siding or buy a new furnace, so it's easier to buy a newer La Jolla home. When you figure the life of most home systems is about 15 years, it could make sense to get out before everything goes haywire.

13) Home improvement perfection. A small segment enjoys fixing up and selling, spending time, money and effort on remodeling, and once the work is completed, these people become restless because there is nothing left to do. Some of you may call these people obsessed, but for some, it's a way to maintain balance while mastering a hobby.

14) Cash in equity. Some La Jolla home owners can't stand the fact their home is worth all that money because that money is not in their pocket. These people would prefer to stare at their passbook savings than stare at four walls with empty pockets. They. Just. Want. The. Money.

15) Lifestyle change. Others are simply tired of owning a home and would prefer to travel, pursue a hobby or be less responsible. We used to call these people misfits or boomers, but many past a certain age want to find a calling that is meaningful to them. So, for these people, home ownership loses its priority status and turns into the ticket for realizing dreams.

There are lots of relatively simple and affordable things you can do to give your home an upgrade. Your house will look more appealing and your family will feel happier in it. As a bonus, you will also increase your home's value.

1.  Add the perfect touch with paint

"A fresh coat of light paint on the interior walls can work wonders," says Whitney Jack of Middleton and Associates in La Jolla, CA. "Paint will clean up dirty walls and give a room a better feel."

Although dark colors can be chic, go for lighter shades to brighten things up in warmer seasons. Smart color selections can make a small or cramped room appear dramatically larger. In the entrance hall, make a good first impression with similar tones mixed at different strengths. In the living room, a bold color paired with a white ceiling makes the room seem taller than it really is.

2. Fabulous flooring

Quality, well-maintained flooring can set a positive tone for the entire interior of your La Jolla home.

"Like paint, flooring can help create an effect of spaciousness and airiness," Jack says. "Whether it's a floating laminate floor, tile or a natural 'green' alternative, lighter-tone flooring can make formerly bleak areas appear sleek and modernized ."

3. Lighten up the accents

Spring and Summer are a great time to change your window treatments and area rugs. Once again, dark colors are associated with winter months; a lighter, airy curtain will give any room a brighter and more pleasant appearance. If your floors are in good condition, you may want to remove the area rugs and leave the floors bare. Getting rid of the rugs will open up the room and make it appear larger.

4. Update the windows

Old windows aren't just unattractive- they can also let your heat and air conditioning escape, costing you money.

While window treatments are typically a focus in many home makeovers, the actual windows themselves are often overlooked. However, upgrading old single-pane windows with new Energy Star-qualified windows can save an average of between $126 and $465 per year on energy bills, and some new windows qualify for the federal tax credit.

5. Eradicate bad landscaping

Neglected bushes and overgrown lawns can kill a La Jolla home's curb appeal. Don't worry - you don't need a green thumb to tidy up your yard.

Clean up the site by removing any dead or dying plants, branches and flowers. Prune overgrown shrubs along the La Jolla home's foundation so they are below the windowsills and off walkways and driveways. Fill empty holes with site-appropriate plants. Have all the planting beds weeded, edged and mulched for a clean, crisp look. Finally, weed and fertilize the lawn and provide supplemental watering if necessary to maintain a lush green lawn.

6. Add decorative touches to the yard

We're not talking about plastic pink flamingos or creepy garden gnomes. Adding benches, steppingstones, fountains or other garden accents could go a long way in making your outdoors a visually appealing and welcoming environment.

7. A few final exterior touches

While you're outside, a few other quick moves can make a big difference.

Add color with paint to outdoor features such as window frames, decorative beams and porches. Stick with calm colors that complement the La Jolla home's exterior color scheme, avoiding shocking shades and drastic contrasts. Clean external brickwork or concrete slabs with a liquid masonry cleaner to make them look new and neat. Also, power washing can give external stonework, walkways and front stoops a quick makeover.

If you're looking for a La Jolla home, you may be considering new homes, short sales and foreclosures. The best deals will depend on your local market - and how much patience you have.

The U.S. housing market is flooded with foreclosures, short sales and home builders willing to make a deal. If you're in the market to buy a home today, you're likely weighing the benefits of each type of property available for purchase. But don't be fooled. Not all bank-owned foreclosures are sold at deep discounts. Not all builders are cutting prices. Short sales can be a risky and uncertain venture, with some buyers enduring months of waiting and still not getting the property.

All things considered, it's possible that your best deal is purchasing a traditionally sold existing La Jolla home, so don't count those out just yet.

To get the most for your money, it's important to understand the local market's inventory; market dynamics will have a lot to do with how various types of homes are priced. Also, do some soul-searching to determine how much risk you're willing to take and the amount of time and money you're willing to invest in a La Jolla home.

You won't be alone: "Buyers are more educated these days. They're coming to us with a good idea of what they're looking for," said Peter Middleton, Broker/Founder, of Middleton and Associates.  At the very least, go in knowing what you can afford and in what neighborhood you'd like to live, said Justin DeCesare, director of operations/real-estate advisor at Middleton and Associates. Since most properties find their way to local multiple listing services, buyers also can decide what type of home they'll buy after finding one that fits their needs, he said.

Bank-owned properties
Foreclosures reclaimed by the bank, often called bank-owned properties, are often sold at a discount. However, the size of the discount depends on the market you're in.

A recent report from Zillow.com found that the typical discount for bank-owned properties, compared with a traditionally sold home, averaged 20% to 30%. According to separate data from RealtyTrac, an online marketplace of foreclosure properties, the average discount on bank-owned properties was 34% in the first quarter.

There is more than one reason why the selling price of a foreclosure is lower than a traditional La Jolla home.

"The seller is typically a bank, and would like to move the property off the books as quickly as possible. A traditional seller is interested in getting a certain price and is willing to stay in the market," said Stan Humphries, Zillow's chief economist.

Also, the condition of the home can be an issue. A buyer who wasn't able to make mortgage payments also probably wasn't able to keep up with needed maintenance. One of the biggest mistakes La Jolla homebuyers make when buying a foreclosure is underestimating how much it's going to cost to repair it, said Rick Sharga, senior vice president of RealtyTrac.

Others agreed. "It usually ends up costing a lot more than you think it will," Middleton said. "You can add value to a property by rejuvenating it, but probably not more than the cost you put into it." Home inspections are generally recommended regardless of what type of property you're buying, and they're essential in the case of a bank-owned property.

Location matters, too, in the pricing of a bank-owned foreclosure. In places with the highest incidence of foreclosure, bank-owned properties garnered the smallest discounts, compared with traditionally sold existing homes, Humphries said. "The places that did not have very many foreclosures right now had large discounts," he said. Another way to look at it: A homeowner aiming to sell his home in a market where a large percentage of sales are foreclosures will likely have to price it like a foreclosure just to be competitive.

Short sales
Short sales offer some of the best deals, especially in the California market. A short sale is when the seller owes more on the mortgage than the home is worth, and the lender agrees to accept less for the property to make a sale. But even if you save money on a short sale, you could pay in other ways.

Although lenders and government programs are trying to speed up the process required to complete a short sale, a buyer could still wait months just to find out he or she failed to get the home. The La Jolla home is discounted partly because of the uncertainty that the buyer experiences.

"You need to understand there's a reason why they're less money - you have to play the game," Middleton said. "You have to be patient."

The market generally discounts short sales by 5% to 8%, compared with traditional sales, said Travis Hamel Olsen, chief operating officer of Loan Resolution Corp., a national pre-foreclosure asset manager.

New homes
In many markets, the supply of new-home inventory is dwindling. That has caused pricing in the new-home market to stabilize, said Middleton. That is, fewer bargains may be available for new-home buyers.

"There is less flexibility on the builders' side to negotiate prices," Middleton said. Plus, with supply more in control, "there's not as much urgency to drop prices to move the homes that are currently sitting on the market."  That isn't to say builders won't find other ways to make a deal. They're still willing to throw in incentives, like finished basements, as a way to sell a La Jolla home, Middleton said. But if you're looking to get the lowest price on a home, this might not be the best route.  And if there are distressed sales in new communities you're considering, proceed with caution.

"A lot of foreclosures in the area will drive down the prices of nonforeclosure homes," Humphries said, and that can extend to new-home inventory. It's not impossible to find foreclosures and vacant properties in communities that aren't even finished yet, he said.

Whatever route you decide to go, now is the time to buy that La Jolla home!

 Selling your La Jolla home is a daunting task full of potential blunders for a beginner. Here's why an agent is worth the commission.

Candace Hart of Middleton and Associates in La Jolla, CA., says that today's up and down housing market is just too tricky to go it alone. She offered five reasons why homeowners are better off selling their property with an agent:

1. Hire an expert: A typical property owner does not have near the home-selling experience of a real-estate agent. Agents can recommend relatively simple improvements - painting, repairing, organizing- that can help a home sell quicker and for a better price. "The Realtor is the neighborhood expert," Hart says. "We can walk through a property and see right away what needs to be done to get the home sold." Independent sellers might not be aware of these tricks of the trade.

2. Use better tools:La Jolla Homeowners using agents can get their property listed on Realtor.com and other similar sites, "which has more far-reaching access to market that property - with over 4 million properties on it - than the for-sale-by-owner sites, which have tens of thousands," Hart says. Independent sellers do not have access to these types of services.

3. Avoid lawsuits: Agents can also protect sellers from potential litigation. "A seller can face many kinds of liability issues when dealing one on one with a buyer," Hart says. A homeowner could, for example, tell a potential buyer that hardwood floors extend to all corners of the house underneath the wall-to-wall carpeting. But if even one room has concrete flooring, the homeowner could be sued, Hart says. Agents, who have experience dealing with these liability issues, can help La Jolla homeowners avoid such scenarios.

5. Avoid hardball tactics: It's a buyer's market out there. And with all the information available online, today's well-informed buyers are tough negotiators. Real-estate agents have been through the home-selling process before and are trained in negotiating tactics, giving them a potential edge in getting the seller the best possible deal. "It's hard to do that with your own property, particularly if you are not a professional," Hart says.

With costs of La Jolla CA homes for sale being in a comparative low this few months, many prospective buyers face stiff competition from investors, developers, flippers, and even speculators. It's become apparent that many more La Jolla properties are first-found first-won, especially in areas with lower inventory. Here are some ways to help you find and get that dream home before others can:

Inform your buyer's agent that you wish to hear news of new La Jolla properties as soon as they're listed for sale on the market. Getting this La Jolla market information can be crucial since it can let you send an offer even before others can look at the home, increasing your chances of buying success.

Get pre-approved for a home loan. Sellers are loath to wait for buyers who have to settle their loans after making their offers. By going to your lender and getting pre-approval, you entice the seller into accepting your offer above any others since your financing is ready to go.

Limit your offer's conditions. When looking to sell off your home before buying a new one, know that most sellers do not like to wait for an offer that depends on the sale of the buyer's home first, especially if there are offers already that have no stipulations. It's best to just say your purchase of the home is conditional only after a home inspection, since anything more than that can let your offer be ignored offhand.

Being flexible and generous as a buyer will make sellers consider your offer more seriously. It's also a good reminder to be patient in these days since buying La Jolla CA homes for sale today takes a bit longer than it did before.