Now you have found the home of your dreams be sure to protect it with the right homeowners insurance. Linda Osty 13yr+ Broker/Agent of Osty Insurance ?located in the Village of Arroy Grande explained why it’s important to contact an agent early in the process of buying a home . For most of us our home is the single largest investment we will ever make. Homeowners Insurance provides coverages for damage to your home and other structures on your property such as a shed or detached garage. In order to prevent surprises buyers should check the disclosures for insurance claims filed on the property you are purchasing especially within the last three years.??The agent will at least do a drive by inspection and there could even be a required interior inspection to see the condition and anything that might create a future claim. An example would be the roof. The roof is not leaking todays but it is not raining today! The?insurance inspection may also uncover? attractive nuisances such as concrete cracks where someone might trip and fall , or pool areas are they fenced or not and? do they have a pool? cover.

Unintentional acts are covered under personal liability. Have you heard of the Mike Tyson test? If you bite someone you are not covered. If your dog bites someone you are covered but only the 1st time.Finally in the event someone is injured on your property or you damage property that belongs to others you could be legally liable for the injury or damage. A homeowner policy provides personal and liability insurance to financially protect you should this ever occur.

Enjoy the benefits of Homeowners liability insurance even if you rent or own a condominium.If you rent or own you still need coverage for your household contents and personal belongings and personal liability.There are specific policies designed for those who rent or own condominiums.

The SLO County Farmers???? Markets, longtime favorite attractions for both residents and tourists, is turning to new technologies and beefed-up marketing efforts to stay connected to customers and to increase public awareness about their markets. A new website, a radio show on public station KCBX, email and printed newsletters and markets kiosks have been launched by the SLO County Farmers???? Market Association. According to Market Administrator Peter Jankay, the association worked with local marketing firm Barnett Cox & Associates to retool its marketing program. ???Many people do not know that we operate five different farmers???? markets in the county. We wanted help getting the word out.???

One of the highlights of the new marketing program is a KCBX radio show. ???Keepin it Fresh on the

The newly revamped website, www.slocountyfarmers.org, provides a full complement of information about in-season produce and healthy cooking with fruits and vegetables, background on the association and its board members, and details of upcoming events. The website includes extensive information about a newly launched series of cooking demonstrations featuring leading chefs from each community. Jankay also noted that tourists are an important part of the market customer base, and the website offers an easy way to communicate with out-of-towners.

Further information is available via the association website, www.slocountyfarmers.org.

If buying or selling is in you future and you haven’t a nodding aquaintenance with the world of Pest Control??your? in for quite? an education. Why should you care? Termites and other related pest control??issues can cost thousands of dollars?to repair. ?If your selling a home or buying one it can effect your bottom line costs depending upon who (buyer or seller) agreed to cover the costs.

Here are a few quick tips to get you started. If your a seller?start ?with a ?reputable inspector. If you don’t know one check with the Structural Pest Control Board. This is an excellent resource of information.

If your a buyer you may search the Board’s Wood Destroying Organism System to see if a specific property has been inspected within the last two years. The Board’s database is very specific so the best results are usually found by entering in limited information, for example, only the building number and zip code. This will ensure that the entire database is checked for the information you are seeking.

Inquiring buyer minds want to know how long has a particular? property? been on the market. Buyers? believe? a long ?time on the market could be a sign of an over priced listing? or other related problems.? They use this to their advantage in negotiating?an offer.? Agents can check data in their local MLS statistics to inform a buyer the number of days a home has been in the market.?The challenge is for the agent to be sure the data they are using is accurate.? Some Agents will take a listing and if the home has not sold in?a certain number of days will use? methods such asremoving the listing temporarilyd? from the market classifying it as expired or?withdrawn.??The property will be brought back?within a short period of time as a new listing.? These agents think? it’s an advantage l to the seller to show the property with less marketing time then the actual?days on the market?and?some agents think they can improve their personal perceived marketing statistics. Buyers given inaccurate information are not able to make an?informed decision about what is in their best interest concerning making the offer.

?Days on the market can affect the sellers who are?trying?to determine proper pricing. How their properties are percived? by buyers? within the first 30? days on the market can be critical and sometimes adjustments are needed. Questions like: Are you getting showings??Maybe your getting?showings and no offers or how about getting no showings at all.? Knowing these answer can help a seller. Concerning the market perception and time on the market an appraiser said the market dictates the price these days.When the sellers list their homes and the statistics used for pricing their properties is not accurate this can mislead sellers down a? path with data that doesn’t tell the real story.

? I am a member of??The Central Coast Regional MLS?the?MLS provides the timing data on??listings as ?DOM (days on the market) and CDOM (cumulative days on the market) showing total days on the market and?whether or not it has been withdrawn, brought back as a new listing, or expired.?The consumer and subscribers ?get an accurate ?picture of what the?property history is and with their REALTOR can interpret the data relevant to their situation.

?Federal Reserve surprised the markets with a 0.75-point reduction last week?according to?Kevin Hassett, director of economic-policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute and according to Hassett’s commentary?on Bloomberg.com is a reduction in the rate that size?had never happened?before. Ever since the Fed began announcing changes in its policy stance in February 1994, it has been rare for the central bank to move between regularly scheduled Open Market Committee meetings. Yet even in those moments when it did take emergency action, the Fed never reduced rates by as much as it did on Jan. 22 2008.The raw economic data today are a little better than they were in 2001, and a little worse than they were in 1998. Equity markets, on the other hand, are much worse than they were in 2001, and even worse than they were in 1998. Since actions in similar periods under similar conditions proved, in retrospect, to be propitiously timed, it is easy to justify more aggressive action this time around. One can even say with confidence that Feds of the past would, faced with today’s data, almost surely have acted in a similar manner. Kevin Hassett,? is an adviser to Republican Senator John McCain of

I read?an interesing story recently about??the decline last month in new housing starts.The ?numbers for single-family housing starts are right on the money in terms of what we????ve been forecasting and what our members have told us in recent surveys,??? said Brian Catalde, president of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) and a home builder from El Segundo, Calif.? ???Builders are acting appropriately to manage the number of units coming on the market and help restore better balance to the supply-demand equation.???

???The 14.2 percent decline in overall housing starts for the month of December was due primarily to a 40 percent drop-off in the multifamily sector, which tends to display significant month-to-month volatility,??? noted NAHB Chief Economist David Seiders. ???On a quarterly basis, multifamily production actually has held up relatively well since the peak in the early part of 2006.???Meanwhile, housing permits were down, by lesser margins, in three out of four regions in December. The Midwest posted a 10.6 percent decline, the South posted a 7.8 percent decline, and the West posted an 11.6 percent decline in overall permits for the month, while the Northeast registered a 1.6 percent increase.

At the end of a very long open house I had just finished securing all the windows and doors and was headed toward the door. The seller had requested all shoes off before entering the home. I went to the spot where my shoes were and they were gone. I looked everywhere and no shoes, I couldn????t imagine where they were. I left bewildered.

When I got home I received a call from someone who had attended the open house with her son. As they left their car, the son called to his mother to ask if she would like him to bring in her shoes. “WHAAAAT shoes, honey?” It seems he had retrieved my shoes for his mother. Some people judge you by your shoes, if you have no shoes, who are you?

Recently I was asked what was one of the more?”interesting real estate disclosures sellers on the central coast are required? to make. I know all disclosures do have their purpose but one of my most favorites is the Morro Shoulder Band Snail. Living on the beautiful Central Coast we have endangered species due to the wide open coastal spaces that still exist here. Responding to a court order, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service?announced that it is designating about 2,566 acres of mostly state-owned land in western San Luis Obispo County, California, as critical habitat for the endangered Morro shoulder band snail, a native California species commonly known as the banded dune snail. The Service has also released the final economic analysis for the snail.
“As an endangered species, the Morro shoulder band snail is already protected wherever it occurs,” said Michael J. Spear, manager(at the time)?of the Service’s California-Nevada Operations Office. “The critical habitat designation will inform both the public and other Federal agencies about the snail’s habitat needs and ensure that proper consultation occurs before actions have a detrimental impact on essential habitat.”
Critical habitat identifies specific geographic areas that are essential for the conservation of a threatened or endangered species and may require special management considerations. However a designation does not affect land ownership or establish a refuge, wilderness, reserve, preserve, or other special conservation area. It does not allow government or public access to private lands and does not close areas to all access or use.
Critical habitat for the snail is contained in three units. They are:

Ben Bernanke, chairman of the Federal Reserve, left no doubt Thursday that the nation’s central bank will continue to ease credit conditions to fight a slowdown in economic growth

Top Fed officials, in recent statements and minutes of Fed meetings, have disagreed on the urgency for more cuts in interest rates. But after Bernanke’s speech in Washington, the decision seemed clear.

“In light of changes in the outlook for and the risks to growth, additional policy easing may well be necessary,” he said. “We stand ready to take substantive additional action as needed to support growth and to provide adequate insurance against downside risks.”

1. At 11 pm on the eve of the signing of your listing, your seller calls you with an epiphany about marketing their property

2. Client tells you he will close as soon as he receives his settlement. You ask the nature of the settlement. He replies: ???Disability??? you ask: ???How long have you been waiting???? he replies: ???Just a little over ten years.???

3. When your seller requests that every Saturday you pass out flyers at the local grocery store for 4 hours (confident this will sell the house)

4. You recommend your client paint the house a neutral color and they ask ???Are you available next week???

5. Your client entertains you with anecdotes about realtors he has sued.

6. Just after the signing of the listing your client mentions they will be leaving the country for the next 60 days.

7. A neighbor suggests you check the Megan????s Law Data Base concerning ???Creepy Pete.???

8. As the prospective buyer is leaving your vehicle you notice a recording device in his back pocket.

9. Your client can only meet with your prior to 6:30 am or after 10pm

10. Client assures you escrow will close just as soon as he is out of jail.