Caroline Chai's (sttsou) Blog

Buy a house in a good school district is one of the main reasons for family looking for a new home. I have compiled the following chart to assist buyers with school age children to factor the school info into their purchasing decision. The following is a chart of State's 2009 API school reports f...

If you need to sell your house and owe more than what the house is worth, you may consider a short sale. However, lenders do not sanction all short sale requests. You'll have to find out if you qualified for a short sale before you put your house on the market for sale. What are the qualification...

Can buyer back out from the deal after escrow is opened? Customarily in Southern California, buyer has 17 days to back out from the deal for the following 3 reasons: 1. Loan Contingency Buyer cannot secure a loan successfully. 2. Appraisal Contingency Property does not appraise to the value of th...

With the development of Internet and on-line banking, landlords have more options to collect rent from tenants besides the traditional mailing of the rent checks. Here are 3 possible ways for landlords to collect rent: Option I: Traditional Mail Tenant mails a check to the landlord. It is best if...

Market remains very strong for the month of December. According to Dataquick, sales volume was up 31% in 12/09 comparing to 12/08 in Los Angeles County. The meian price was up 5.9% from $320,000 to $339,000. First-time buyers and investors continued to dominate the buy side of the market last mon...

I often got calls from tenant inquiring about any rental that offers lease to own option. Lease to own is a great tool for landlord to get more money per month and have tenant take very good care of the property thinking that they will eventually own it. Nevertheless, it may be a very bad idea fo...

FHA's 3.5% down payment program and Fannie Mae's 3% down payment Home Path program may be hidden gems for buyers with high income but low savings. Loan Amount Down Payment Required   FHA's 3.5% down payment loan Fannie Mae's 3% home path loan $200,000 $7,000 $6,000 $300,000 $10,500 $9,000 $400,00...

Market remains very strong for the month of November. Number of houses sold went drastically up in November comparing to November of the previous 2 years except for Phillips Ranch due to it's extreme shortage on inventory. Below are the charts of number of home sold in the past 3 years in the nei...

You can attend Walnut Schools without residing in school district boundary by filling the lottery application. Senate Bill 680, the District of Choice measure, gives parents the option to decide which school district best serves the academic needs of their children. It is a lottery program that g...

Inventory level remains very low in December 2009. Below is a chart showing the inventory level in Chino, Chino Hills, Diamond Bar, Walnut and Phillips Ranch. In Chino and Chino Hills, house supply are both less than one month. Despite of the higher tax rate with Mellos Roose and HOA, Chino and C...