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Oktoberfest in Big Bear Lake

Big Bear Lake has been having optimum daytime weather compared to triple-digit Southern California. Autumn has arrived. The leaves are changing. The nights are cooling. The celebration starts as soon as you arrive! The Big Bear Lake Oktoberfest is a real treat for Southern California. A short drive up in the San Bernardino mountains, the "Highest Altitude Oktoberfest in the United States" is an open invitation to a fun time in Big Bear. There are only 4 weekends left! The 42nd Annual Big Bear Lake Oktoberfest is … [Read more...]

Foreclosures and Short Sales

Whether you're attempting to sell Big Bear real estate or you're searching local real estate listings as a potential buyer, it's important to know the difference between a foreclosure and a short sale. Foreclosure is generally a worse outcome than a short sale, if you are the seller, but as a buyer of a distressed property, a short sale is often the more difficult process to negotiate through. Foreclosure for Owner A property that has been foreclosed on means that the owner did make the monthly mortgage payments … [Read more...]

Maintaining Your Big Bear Fireplace

You can feel it in the air. The fall season is upon us and soon temperatures will be dropping. One of the great things about the colder seasons in Big Bear is enjoying a roaring fire in your cabin or home. Here are a few tips for keeping your wood burning fireplace safe and working properly through the fall and winter months. The best thing you can do to maintain your wood burning fireplace is have it regularly checked and cleaned by a professional. A fireplace should be inspected at least once a year to avoid … [Read more...]

Big Bear Sellers, Time is Not on Your Side.

Click here for video link. Back in the "crazy" Big Bear real estate years of 2000 thru 2007, the longer a home was on the market, the more a seller could get for it.  The prices were going up every month, and sellers were getting lucky.  Over the past 5 years however, this process has flip flopped.  Generally, the longer a home sits on the market, the lower the price it will fetch.  Seems pretty simple.  Yet, sellers continue to tell me they want to sell, but they are not in a hurry.   Therein lies the … [Read more...]

Dip In Inventory Equals Opportunity For Big Bear Real Estate Sellers

Direct link to - Window of opportunity for Big Bear sellers The number of homes for sale in Big Bear has been steadily dropping the past few months.  Just recently, we dipped below 600 homes for sale.  With that comes a window of real estate opportunity for some Big Bear home sellers. As the inventory levels drop, so does the number of available options for buyers to choose from.  And when they have less options to choose from, this makes certain properties stand out, which in turn increases the odds of that … [Read more...]

Who Controls the Real Estate Prices in Big Bear?

Direct link to Big Bear Real Estate - Who Controls Real Estate Pricing? In short, the buyers. Real Estate agents like to think they have some effect on the pricing, but I believe it is determined mostly by the buyers, and to some degree, sellers.  It doesn't matter how great an agent thinks they are, our how much money they spend marketing the property, if the price is too high and the buyers don't agree with it, it won't sell.  No amount of skill or marketing will force a buyer to pay a significant amount … [Read more...]

Low Appraisals – The Kiss Of Death for Your Big Bear Real Estate Deal.

I've had a few appraisals come in low the past couple weeks, and both times the buyers chose to back out of the deal. While this certainly happens from time to time, and is part of the real estate process, there are some things to keep in mind when talking about appraisals. As the video points out, appraisals are not fact. Rather, they are the opinion of one individual appraiser. While you would expect most appraisers to agree and come to the same value on a property, they don't. This is because some … [Read more...]

What Does It Mean To Be An Aggressive Agent?

Direct link to YouTube video? That's my take.  What do you think? … [Read more...]