This is a complete list of Open House events this Sunday in Glendale, La Crescenta and La Canada. Open House listings in Burbank and Mt Washington are a bonus. Everything is open 2-4PM with a few open earlier. Enjoy!! Address Bed Bath SF Lot Price 820 N Lincoln Burbank 3 2 1852 7188 $515,000 820 N Catalina Burbank 2 1 1134 6745 $399,000 302 Parkwood Glendale 3 3 2506 8509 $724,950 436 Spencer Glendale 3 2 1900 7900 $839,000 730 W Doran 103 Glendale 2 3 1580 36155 $559,000 903 Omar Glendale 3 3 1737 8160 $659,000 1526 Winchester Glendale 3 3 2470 6309 $895,000 1817 Tamerlane Glendale 3 2 1778 8105 $625,000 1860 Foothill LCF 3 3 1955 24830 $799,000 4318 Bel Aire LCF 4 3 3028 11687 $1,400,000 4645 Hillard LCF 4 3 2430 10200 $1,295,000 4849 Fairlawn LCF 4 6 4300 17317 $2,675,000 5220 Castle... 01/18/2009

I know the snow is not real. I know it might sound cheesy to some. Especially those who are innundated with piles of the white stuff and they spend hours digging out their car and have trouble getting around. But...at least for 5 minutes per day, we in Sunny Glendale California have snow falling from the sky for a whole block. Granted, it is Caruso Way at the Americana at Brand and it is from a snow machine, but snow none the less. I am sure that if anyone in Boston, Chicago, Seattle or Detroit, were to see all of us "crazy Californians" gather to witness this nightly ritual, they would think we were crazier than ever!  So I was a bit skeptical as well, when my husband, Bob Yousefian suggested we go check it out. He was interested because he is an avid supporter of the Americana at Bran... 12/23/2008

Glendale California is a very caring community and it was evidenced by the outpouring of generosity from the more than 300 people who came to our holiday party to benefit Glendale Healthy Kids.   As I reported the other day on ‘Active Rain’ the Realtor Blog Site, Bob Yousefian and Sue Eller's holiday fundraiser party exceeded expectations, raising awareness and money for the charitible cause, "Glendale Healthy Kids.” Many community leaders and city officials, campaign supporters,  clients and friends, neighbors and yes, even Realtors were in attendance and a great time was had by all. I believe we had nearly 300 people in attendance.The unique demographics of the holiday party that we host is something that always makes me feel proud. This multi-cultural event was attended by  young and... 12/17/2008

Glendale's Americana at Brand is a beautiful place to enjoy the holiday season. With the 107 ft. tall Christmas tree festooned with lights and decorations and the nightly snow fall (man made-of course) it provides an excellent atmosphere of Christmas spirit. Even with the economic downturn, there is no reason not to just go there and walk around and take in the sights. When attending the first annual tree lighting at the site, I was happy to have been able to partake of the festivities. As my husband, councilman Bob Yousefian and I sat with the dignitaries in the front seats, we were treated to great live entertainment that put us in a festive mood. There were nearly 30,000 people in attendance that night for the first annual event.  For those who don't know, the Americana at Brand was ... 12/15/2008

As I predicted the other day, our holiday fundraiser party exceeded expectations, raising awareness and money for the charitable cause, "Glendale Healthy Kids.” Many community leaders and city officials, campaign supporters, my clients and friends, neighbors and yes, even Realtors were in attendance and a great time was had by all. I believe we had around 250 people in attendance. The unique demographics of the holiday party that my husband, Glendale City Councilman Bob Yousefian and I host is something that always makes me feel proud. The multi-cultural event was attended by young and old, rich and not so rich, men & women, democrats, republicans, and people of Hispanic, Armenian, Asian and Caucasian origin. One party attendee was a woman nearly 100 years old named Rosa Johnson from A... 12/12/2008

Mac tricks: I take the Mac to open house and use the photo booth with the built in i-sight camera to take pix of visitors to the open house. I set up the computer with a sign that says, "picture yourself living here". I get their email and send them the pix. A fun and very unique way to get attention. I also use i-tunes to make playlists for open houses and "stage" the house with music. I had a cool mid-century modern listing last Christmas so I download a bunch of "rat pack" (Sinatra, Sammy Davis, etc. xmas tunes and played them at the broker open)  I staged a French Normandy Revival home with french music downloaded from i-tunes. Please check back to see what other tricks I might come up with when using my mac computer. 12/10/2008

Market Index A market index of above 1.20 is a seller’s market, between 0.80 to 1.20 is a balanced market, and below 0.80 is a buyer’s market. The Market Index struggled back up two points to 0.32 compared to 0.30 for September.   New Listings - Fifty-three new listings in November, compared to 88 listings in October, versus 81 November. New Pending Listings - Forty-two listings entered escrow, the same as October, compared to 25 in November, 2007.   Pending Ratio – 0.79, up from 0.48 in September. A year ago it was 0.31. Listing Inventory – Two hundred ninety-five listings, down from 324 homes In October. In November 2007 we had 463 listings.   Sold Listings – Forty-three homes sold, compared to 63 in October and 47 last year. Average Sale Price - Declined to $572,013 down 15.1% from N... 12/06/2008

Hoover High School's 51 st Annual Tour of Homes is Saturday, December 13th from 10am-5pm. The Tour is a fundraiser that benefits Hoover students. This year the Tour is showcasing four very distinctive homes each featuring is a special feature. The award winning Hoover Jazz Ensemble will be performing at 1661 Valley View Rd., The Hoover Chorale will be performing at 863 E. Mountain St., there will be a Country Kitchen selling wonderful sweet treats at 319 E. Randolph St., and at 1415 Royal Blvd. there will be a Complementary Tea with area dignitaries serving. Advance purchase tickets are available for $20 and will be $25 the day of the Tour at any one of the four homes on the Tour. For more information go to HooverTOH@yahoo.com to request tickets. 12/01/2008

Keith Sorem | Keller Williams Realty | keith@beautifulglendalehomes.com | 818-230-8049 730 West Doran Street #209, Glendale, CA Sleek modern open floor plan, create your own layout. Stained concrete floors, sisal carpet, limestone baths. Large 444 sq ft balcony 1BR/1.5BA Townhouse offered at $559,000 Year Built 2007 Sq Footage 1,341 Bedrooms 1 Bathrooms 1 full, 1 partial Floors 2 Parking 2 Car garage Lot Size Unspecified HOA/Maint $267 per month DESCRIPTION Centrally located to Dreamworks, Disney, the studios, ABC and downtown. Oversized windows offer pleasant natural light, polished concete counter tops in kitchen with brand name stainless steel appliances. Baths feature limestone tile, unit has stained concrete floors and sisal carpet. Large corner unit. Now is the time to buy. Artic... 11/21/2008

Glendale, CA  September , 2008 Market Index  - A market index of above 1.20 is a seller's market, between 0.80 to 1.20 is a balanced market, and below 0.80 is a buyer's market. Our up and down market continues, 0.30 for September after 0.33 in August.   New Listings - One hundred seventy two new listings, compared to 134 last September.  It is unusual for the new listings to increase, probably due to more forced sales. Pending Ratio -That big jump in new listings affected the Pending Ratio, only 47 homes opened escrow giving us a ratio of 0.27, about half of the 0.55 we experienced in August. Interestingly 0.27 is the same ratio we had a year ago. Listing Inventory - Three hundred forty five homes this month, up eleven from August. Last year we had 490, so we can see that although new l... 11/06/2008

Glendale Buyers often ask me, "How long has this house been on the market?", and I always ask back, "What will that information tell you?" The truth is, the buyer often has no idea beyond the concept that the longer it's on the market, the more motivated the seller must be. While that is often true, there is so much more you can learn! There are two "Days on Market" numbers in the MLS. The first is the number of days the listing has been with this particular listing contract. There is no real explanation needed, here. 9 times out of ten, if you ask your Realtor how long the home has been on the market, they will give you this number. The real juice, however, is in the second number, the "Cumulative Days on Market"(CDOM) and the "Listing History". The CDOM is the number of days the home ... 10/21/2008

There is some seriously good hiking in the hills behind Brand Park. Regular hikers know that there are two trail heads in Brand Park: the fire road that starts at the Doctor's House and the "Ridge" that starts at the Miss American Green Cross. Today I want to talk about the "Ridge". The statue at the trail head is one of the most unusual I've seen. Here is what the Glendale City Website has to say about this statue: The statue of Miss American Green Cross was created in 1928 as a tribute to an early 20th Century tree society and a symbol of the deforestation that was taking place across the country at that time. After a car crashed into the statue, it was dumped behind Brand's Castle, and laid abandoned for 30 years. Hikers discovered it in an overgrown canyon in the mid-50's reporting ... 10/18/2008

Farmers' Market Information for Glendale     Day: Thursday Hours: 9:30 AM to 1:00 PM Location: Brand Boulevard, between East Wilson Ave & East Broadway City: Glendale County: Los Angeles Manager: Christopher Nyerges Office Address: P.O. Box 41834, Eagle Rock, CA 90041 Phone: 818-548-3155     Make sure to visit the Glendale Farmers' Market any time you visit the Valley or the Los Angeles area. A street map to get to the Glendale Farmers' Market is attached for your convenience.         So, you're probably wondering, what's Fresh Right Now! This is a great time for fresh veggies if you like Spinach, Avocados, Winter Squash, Brussel Sprouts, Mushrooms, Green Beans, Beets or Chinese Broccoli.  For fresh fruit check out the Pomegranates, Tangerines, Limes, Persimmons, Asian Pears, Mandarin O... 10/14/2008

Today's video answer addresses the question, " The Glendale home I want to buy has an unpermitted addition. What should I do?" Now, I apologize in advance. This answer got a bit windy - nearly 5 minutes of wind. You might not want to sit through the whole darn thing. After the video I have a short summary of points written out. No, the owner is not going to get you permits. They are perfectly fine with the home as it is. Every buyer asks the same questions: will I have problems while I own it and will I have problems when I sell? In order to assess this you need to look at the following: How important is the space? How big? Any plumbing? Is the added space a key area like a bathroom or bedroom suite? How does it look? Does it look like it is quality workmanship or just slapped together?... 10/08/2008

There are 17 homes on the sold list for last week! This is more than double the homes reported sold in last few weeks, so the trend continues in a positive direction. Below are the ones that caught my eye. Address City Bd Bth SqFt LotSz List Price Sale Price 1125 Shirlyjean St Sparr Hts 3 3 1,817 7732sf 629,000 607,000 2050 Rangeview Dr Northwest 3 2 1,404 8251sf 617,000 622,000 4555 Indiana Ave La Canada 2 1 1,034 10754sf 725,000 695,000 3129 Buck... 10/07/2008

Market Index A market index of above 1.20 is a seller’s market, between 0.80 to 1.20 is a balanced market, and below 0.80 is a buyer’s market. Our up and down market continues, 0.30 for September after 0.33 in August.   New Listings One hundred seventy two new listings, compared to 134 last September.  It is unusual for the new listings to increase, probably due to more forced sales.   Pending Ratio That big jump in new listings affected the Pending Ratio, only 47 homes opened escrow giving us a ratio of 0.27, about half of the 0.55 we experienced in August. Interestingly 0.27 is the same ratio we had a year ago.   Listing Inventory Three hundred forty five homes this month, up eleven from August. Last year we had 490, so we can see that although new listings has increased, total invent... 10/03/2008

Yes, the financial markets are scary. No, Congress did not pass a bail out bill. Yes, my clients, both buyers and sellers, are factoring in the current crisis when making their decisions to buy or sell. I had many in depth discussions about the news of the day. But in every case, yesterday (4 decisions in all), the buyers decided that the decision to buy real estate is a sound long term decision and went forward with their purchases. Why? Here's what I heard from these buyers: I plan to stay here 10 or 15 years. I know the value will go up in that time. The best deals are had when everyone else is scared. This investment suits my needs I love this house I am not going to give you some Pollyanna drivel that the housing market is just fine. We are in a very troubled market and some people... 09/30/2008

This is the sum total of sold homes this week in Glendale and Above the 134. The average escrow is 30 days long, so these are homes that opened escrow toward the end of August. Before we get started, though, I have a little bidness to take care of. (Never mind the dangling participle. It's not hurting anyone). I finally updated my Glendale sales numbers to include 3rd quarter. I was shocked - shocked, I tell you!- to find that the average sales price in Glendale has only dropped by 11%! The number of homes sold has dropped by nearly 30% and the number of homes available has dropped by 12%. The LA Times reporter who asked me to do these numbers asked the reasonable question, "why?". He was especially incredulous because his Dataquick numbers (this is a data crunching service that looks a... 09/23/2008

I read this post from fellow blogger Irina Netchaev and nearly fell over from laughter. She had this video of a cliche of a Realtor and, sadly, I know many of you have met this type of agent. t Really, what makes a great Realtor? What makes a great Glendale Realtor? Irina has some really great points and I agree with each and every one of them. Here, though, are my additional ideas. A Great Glendale Realtor Knows: How to negotiate Negotiations begin with the very first question. A great Realtor never gives their client's money away How to manage expectations We can't control other people, but experience can help us prepare you for what might happen How to manage the process Great systems and great resources make the process much smoother That long term success is way more important than... 09/22/2008

Sorry for the late morning-ness of this post, gentle readers! It has already been a very eventful day. Today is "New and Notable" Thursday and below is the list of the new homes I find interesting. We had another bumper crop week in Glendale and Above the 134 - with 21 mostly new listings. I say "mostly" because a few are just re-listed with another agent.  Address City Bd Bth SqFt LotSz List Price 307 San Juan Way La Canada 3 1 1,236 7800sf 599,995 1245 Oak Circle Dr Sparr Hts 2 2 1,274 6630sf 669,000 1447 Norton Northwest 3 2 1,611 12296sf 719,000 1522 Val Verde Pl. Sparr Hts ... 09/22/2008