Sherry Lee Cox, REALTOR(R)/Broker,'s Blog

1.  Start a down payment fund. You goal should be to save a 20 percent down payment if you can.  Set up monthly savings goals.  Work more if you have to as the reward will be lower house payments and higher equity when you sell in the future. If a 20 percent down payment is just not feasible, you...

This year looks to be another decline in new construction for San Luis Obispo County.  Residential building permits throughout the county dropped 46% through June compared with the same period in 2008. For instance, the City of San Luis Obispo has issued only 3 permits for commercial buildings th...

I cannot believe the time has gone by so fast!  The California Midstate Fair ends today...  Temperatures will be mild, only 89, so be sure to bring a jacket if you are attending the rodeo tonight... Bull Wins For those of you who were able to attend, thank you for visiting our beautiful Paso Robl...

1.  Dirt Nothing turns off a prospective buyer quicker than a dirty house.  You must get your home in the absolute best condition it has ever been in.  Scrub and then scrub some more. Old carpets should be replaced with new.  If the carpets are relatively new, then at least have them commerciall...

What goes best with wineries, tasting rooms and gourmet meals?  Why art, of course! Paso City Park Fountain Studios on the Park, a nonprofit open studio art center in the heart of Historic Downtown Paso Robles, opened with much fanfare in May of this year.  The goal of Studios on the Park is to e...

Recently,  federal officials reversed a decision to allow first-time home buyers to use the $8,000 tax credit to borrow and use as a down payment on their first home. US Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan had told the National Association of Home Builders that HU...

  Ginny Mees, a member of the Harper-Mees Team at the Danville, California Keller Williams Realty recently founded the website www.WomanHomeOwner.com to put together local female professionals needed to help present and future women homeowners with their unique issues.  These individual support ...

  There are many reasons why a renter should seriously consider becoming a first-time home buyer in 2009. Home prices are the lowest they have been in many, many years. Interest rates are at an all-time low; around 5%.  Home mortgage interest rates peaked at 18.45% in October of 1982. First-time...

  On Friday, April 24th, at 6:00 pm, Sugar Daddy Swing Kings will do a live concert to kick off the Paso Robles Hot Air Balloon Festival at River Oaks, and just before dusk (weather permitting), securely tethered hot air balloons will have their burners ignited filling the evening sky with beaut...

Studios on the Park and the City of Paso Robles have come together to create the first ever Festival of the Arts in the Downtown City Park on May 23rd. Studios on the Park, founded by Anne Laddon, has arranged for 55 nationally and regionally acclaimed artists to participate in the Festival.  Th...