$8,000.00 Tax credit until Midnight June 1, 2010

You are a first time home buyer if you haven't owned a home for the last 3 years. The $8,000.00 tax credit was extended! The first thing you want to do when you are remotely thinking about buying a home is to talk with a lender. Find out what you approve for and what you want to spend on a home. What monthly mortgage payment are you comfortable with, will you impound your property taxes, how much will you put down on the home (minimum 3.5%)? Second, talk with a real estate professional, a Realtor, like myself. It's important to find a Realtor who understands what your needs and wants are. To me it is important that throughout the home buying process, you know every step of the way what is going on. You need to feel comfortable with the decisions you will have to make. The $8,000.00 tax credit is a great incentive to purchase a home in the first quarter of 2010. Interest rates are still low and home values are at levels that make home buying a possibility for many people. If you are interested in more information about buying a home, or selling, email or call me. I intend 2010 to be a very prosperous year. I wish you the best year yet!

Christmas is almost here! Many times this year I've thought that the cheer would never happen. Early in the year Charm our German Shepherd past away, past clients had to sell their homes "short" and new clients had trouble finding the right home and the financing needed. For me personally it did turn out to be a bottom line, good year. I was able to help clients find a home, help others with the sale of their homes, travel to visit my family in holland twice! We are blessed to be in great health and making things work out. Our new White German Shepherds even let us put Santa hats on them for a picture. I want to thank all my family, friends and clients for the support and fun this past year. Thanks also to my honey Elizabeth to always be there! Thank you everybody and Merry Christmas and may 2010 be the best year yet.

Robin

This week will be great! 4310 Larwin, Cypress Ca will close!

This week is the week... my listing in Cypress on 4310 Larwin has to close! It is a short sale listing that I've been working on for quite some time now. Of course short sales are known to take long so I'm happy to say this one overall has gone pretty quick. Unfortunately there's always some hurdles to take and this transaction is no different. We have negotiated two extensions already to make things work to give the buyers more time to get the loan squared away. tomorrow my team and I have to fight for extension number 3. We have high hopes we'll accomplish the extension. Keep your fingers crossed. All parties involved in this transaction have worked hard to make this transaction go through! This week has to be THE WEEK!

Red Day with Keller Williams

Volunteering, ahhh, the sore muscles it deliveres!

Yard work at the ASPCA in Long Beach. It was an awesome day to dedicate some time to help with the greenery on the property, pruning the roses, trimming the hedges and clearing a field of "birds of paradise" just to name a few tasks.

About 30 Realtors of the Los Alamitos and Huntington Beach offices showed to "go for it!"

It was a blast. For me personally the end of the day was Golden. Our Forewoman told us when she thanked us that the work we finished would have taken her and her volunteers about a month. Isn't that an awesome feeling? Helping out in the community is great.

If you have a cool story about colunteering, let me know!

Enjoy the day!

Robin Auwerda

Keller Williams Realty

562233-3724

Robinauwerda@gmail.com

Fruits of our labor

Today was the real pay-off for a job (apparently) very well done.

Cindy bought a condo in Long Beach earlier this year and today had her house warming party.
Yay! parties are always fun!

Finally able to get the Grand Tour and see what Cindy's done with the place. Wow, you really made it your own and the patio is indeed an entire extra room to enjoy the outdoors right outside your living room.

Quite a few friends of yours showed up for the event and I am very gratefull that you introduced me to this group of people.

Craig, who's with Coast Mortgage and Tim with Farmers insurance were part of the event too.

Thanks again Cindy for your hospitality and, let's do this again soon!

Real estate truly is FUN!!

Robin

This week has been a great week. Sunday I showed some properties in North Long Beach to tenants of mine. They've been renting from me for a number of years now. In today's market it is finally a real possibility for them to own a home of their own. Exciting! We looked at several homes in the 250-$275,000 price range. Some were bank owned and some were short sales. My tenants ended up writing an offer on a short sale. Now we wait ... Short sales can be real awesome deals when they are approved. The waiting time for the banks involved to get back with a short sale approval is long, 6-8 weeks.

I did receive two offers on my short sale listing in San Pedro. Great property! The short sale packet has been put together and the follow up game with the bank begins.

This May 14th is RED Day !!! Keller Williams Agents will give back to the community. Our Los Alamitos office will collect "Pennies for Pets" for the SPCA Pitchford Center of Long Beach and help them with some cleaning/yard work. Looking forward to that.

Enjoy your day and make it a great one!

Robin