Real Estate Information Archive

A fantastic house just hit the market today, in Tahoe Donner, at a very attractive price.  It is a must see for anyone looking to purchase a home in the $400k range.  The home is beautifully maintained (and updated) and has a great mountain feel with wood walls and a lot of windows for sunshine.  The property also has lovely, relatively low maintenance, landscaping.  Click here for details of this great home in Tahoe Donner.

Update 9/10/10:  This home went into escrow less than 24 hours after going into the MLS.  It closed in 2 1/2 weeks for $1,000 over asking price ($428,900). 

If you like music and you love the Lake Tahoe and Truckee area, you don't want to miss the Lake Tahoe Summer Music Festival.  This annual festival brings well known artists to some of our most beautiful venues.  The festival started out last night with "America - 40th Anniversary Tour" and continues over the next couple weeks with artists sucha s Wynona, Natalie Cole, and Michael McDonald playing at venues such as West End Beach at Donner Lake, Tahoe Donner Golf Course, Old Greenwood Golf Course, Northstar, and Martis Camp.  For full details and tickets check out their website  tahoemusic.org.

It's obvious that the real estate market and economy of Truckee and Tahoe is dramatically impacted by the ski industry.  That's why it's such great news that the local ski areas reported the 2009-2010 ski season to have had the second highest number of skier visits ever.  Ski Lake Tahoe, a conglomerate of Squaw Valley, Northstar, Alpine Meadows, Kirkwood, Heavenly, Mt. Rose, and Sierra at Tahoe, announced this news last Friday.  According to the local paper, the Sierra Sun, it was actually the best year ever for Northstar which was up 16% over their previous best year (2004-5).  To read the full article, follow this link:  Lake Tahoe Ski Resorts Report Second Busiest Season in History.

Really this is a great statement for Truckee and Tahoe in 2 ways.  First, it shows that the economy is recovering.  Second, it shows that people realize this is a first class skiing destination.  Both of these things are great signs for our real estate market!

If you really want to see the true beauty of the Truckee area and the Sierra Nevadas, the best way to do it is on foot.  Some of the most beautiful areas of the Lake Tahoe and Truckee region aren't easy to get to.  A great example is the North Fork of the American River in the "Royal Gorge".  One of my close friends, Shawn Bratcher, and I have made a couple of overnight backpacking trips to this area.

We access the area using the Palisades Creek Trail which starts at the trail head between Cascade Lakes and Long Lake.  It is a 7 mile hike from the trail head to the North Fork of the American River with 2200 feet of elevation change.  The first couple of miles the terrain is very rocky with limited vegetation.  There are gorgeous views of the surronding peaks, particularly Devil's Peak, Castle Peak, and Tinker's Knob.  The middle section of the trail takes you threw fairly thick vegetation.  Most of it is pine trees and various shrubs with a mixture of redwood trees here and there.  The bottom third of the trail is where you approach Palisades Creek and, ultimately, the North Fork of the American River.  This section is quite a bit steeper and the vegetation remains pretty thick.  You'll start to see a lot more tall grasses and oak trees, and you have to be cautious of rattle snakes and poison oak.

This trail can be done as a day trip, but I highly recommend spending at least 1 night down at the river.  It is an incredibly beautiful area with waterfalls as large as 60 feet and numerous pools for swimming and relatively safe areas for cliff jumping.  There are a handful of established camp sites, but otherwise not many signs of people.  It is truly one of my favorite spots to visit.

One of the surest signs that summer has arrived in Truckee is the Summer Music Series, better known as "Music in the Park" amongst the locals.  Every Wednesday, throughout the summer, the Truckee Donner Parks and Recreation District hosts a FREE concert at the Truckee River Regional Park Ampitheatre.  These concerts have become can't miss events for locals and visitors alike. 

This is a great event for people of all ages.  Bring your dinner and beverage of choice and enjoy the grass ampitheatre, the surrounding pine and aspen trees, the music, and friends!

Last week was the first week of the series.  You can take a look at the calendar of upcoming shows by clicking here:  Truckee Music in the Park Schedule.

Some of our favorite summer events are starting to come alive.  One of our particular favorites is the "Truckee Thursdays" festival which takes place in Downtown Truckee every Thursday during the summer.  The event is all about fun and getting out in the community and has been very successful in getting both locals and tourists to come to downtown Truckee on Thursday nights.  All of the downtown merchants get involved and make it a fun evening for the whole family.  Click the following link for more details:  Truckee Thursdays

Spring may be the "off season" for visitors to the Lake Tahoe Region, but as the years go by, more and more of our favorite events seem to be lining up during spring time.  If you're itching to come up and enjoy the mountains, maybe you want to plan your trip around some of these scheduled events and spring activities?

As I mentioned in a previous post, one of the great things about living in Truckee is the variety of outdoor activities you can participate in.  During the transition months, spring and fall, it frequently feels like we live in 2 different seasons during the same week (and sometimes even the same day!).  This last week has been a classic example of this as we brought the ski season to a close, with the final weekend at Alpine Meadows, but also opened the door to the summer season with an assortment of activities. 

The highlights of a week in The Transition Season:

Snow Skiing:  I love spring skiing and conditions did not dissapoint during the last weekend at Alpine Meadows.  I was lucky enough to be able to sneak out for 2 quick sessions on saturday and sunday morning.  The sun was out, the people were out, and there was still tons of snow.  I had a big smile on my face as I ran into numerous friends and made our final turns of the season together.  It really seemed like a shame, as I left the mountain late sunday morning, that the season was coming to an end.  Can anyone tell me why we open the ski areas in November, when there's barely a patch of snow on the mountains, and close them in April and May, when the mountains are completely covered in white?!!

Wakeboarding:  One of my best friends just got his boat out of winter storage, so we just had to take it out and make sure it was running right.  We took it out on Donner Lake late sunday evening.  It was a beautiful evening, with the air temp pushing into the mid 60's, and smooth water.  The water was viciously cold (ranging between 47 and 52 degrees on the boat thermometer) but thanks to the technology of "dry" suits, we didn't have to worry about that.  We took our first pulls of the season surrounded by snow covered shores and gorgeous views of Mt. Rose and Donner Peak covered in white.

Softball:  The Truckee recreational softball season starts next week, so my team needed to get together for a couple evening practices.  It felt a little strange to put on the spikes and glove just 2 days after going skiing, but that's life in the transition season in Truckee . . . there's snow on the mountains, but the grass is nice and green in town!! 

Mountain biking:  Unlike skiing, a sport in which there is time between the start of the season and optimal conditions, mountain biking around Truckee and Lake Tahoe seems to start with optimal conditions.  Though some of the higher elevation trails are still covered in snow, conditions on many trails are perfect.  I went out for a quick ride on Emmigrant trail, just north of Truckee, after work Thursday night and found perfection.  No dust, smooth banked turns, and easy climbing conditions. 

What can I say, despite having to work 50+ hours this week, I still was able to enjoy a lot of time outside.  THAT IS WHY I LIVE IN TRUCKEE!!

There are a ton of great activities and events in the Tahoe/Truckee area, but only a handful which I truly consider as "must see".  This past sunday was one of my favorite events of the year, the Cushing Crossing at Squaw Valley.  Every spring, as the snow melts, a natural pond forms near the bottom of the KT 22 chairlift.  Every spring, Squaw's finest skiers and snowboarders try to find the most creative way to skim accross it.  I've seen pond skimming events at many other ski resorts, but I've never seen anything quite like the event at Squaw. 

This year the pond was easily 100 foot accross (its size varies year to year) and there was about a 3 foot drop off from the level of the snow to the surface of the water.  The contestants sported an array of costumes and attempted the crossing in every way imaginable.  Men and women, on skis, on snowboards, on cross country skis, on water skis, on all fours (attached to a pair of skis), 2 people on one pair of skis, 2 people on one snowboard (this didn't end well), a ski patroller pulling an emergency sled (luckily there wasn't anybody in it) and even one guy on stilts mounted to a pair of skis (yes, this was really attempted, and he came astonishingly close to making it accross the pond!).

Despite temperatures in the 30's, there was a throng of around 1,000 fans crowded around the shores to watch the 50 contestants.  There were many excited screams and loud groans.  Most importantly everyone was thoroughly entertained both by the costumes, the smooth crossings, and especially by the spectacular crashes!

"Foreclosure" is certainly the buzzword in real estate these days.  You'd be amazed how many people call saying, "can you send me information on foreclosures in your area."  As Realtors, we always chuckle when this happens.  Why, you ask?  Because clearly there's a perception (mostly, but not entirely, accurate) that buying a home in foreclosure is the way to get a great deal in the market place.  The reason I chuckle when I hear this question, is two fold:

1.  People don't realize the challenges and risks of buying a home in foreclosure.

2.  People don't realize that homes in foreclosure are NOT the only good deals out there!!

Despite my chuckles, I do recognize why people want to pay such close attention to the foreclosure market.  In light of that, I want to share an article I came accross today about purchasing homes in foreclosure.  I like the article because it was brief and to the point, but still gave a good overview of what to expect if you try to purchase a home in foreclosure.  Please take a look at the article, by clicking this link:  How to Buy a Foreclosure.  Then, review my comments relating the article to the specifics of the Truckee and Lake Tahoe home markets.

Preforeclosures:  In the Truckee and Lake Tahoe markets, preforeclosures are more commonly referred to as "short sales." The writer is on the mark when he says short sales are complicated and slow.  However, he also remarked that "prices are usually higher than at other stages of foreclosure."  This is not the case in the Truckee and Tahoe markets.  Why, you ask?  First, demand for short sale listings is not as strong because of the challenges of the short sale process.  Second, some banks are willing to let a house go for a little bit less as a short sale, so they don't have to deal with the time, cost, and hassles of repossessing a home.  Some of the best deals (sales prices of closed transactions) in this market have been on short sales.  The key to buying a short sale is to be patient and to focus on properties which only have one loan against them.

Sherriff's Auction:  In Truckee these auctions are commly referred to as the "trustee sale" or an auction "on the court house steps."  I completely agree with the writers statements here.  Great deals can be had, but these purchases are for the experts and investors.  I would not recommend an individual person trying to get involved, without doing major research first.  In fact, in the Truckee/Tahoe area, only a very small percentage of homes are sold at this step in the foreclosure process.  Most of them end up as REO's.

Repossession or REO's: I agree with the writer about most of his core points about REO's:

1.  This is the easiest and safest way to buy a foreclosure.

2.  You will get a chance to inspect the property (part of what makes them "safe").  He does not mention, however, that most banks try to accelerate the buyers inspection period significantly.  On standard transactions in the Truckee and Lake Tahoe market, a buyer has 17 days to do their inspections.  On most REO's in this area, the bank will try to force the buyer to complete their inspections in 5 days.  This is a short time period, but it can be done if you're Realtor is on the ball and can quickly get quality inspectors to the property (this is a strenth of the Nicholls Real Estate Group).

3.  The property will almost always be sold as-is.  He also mentions that most banks will be willing to take care of health and safety issues, however this is not always the case in Truckee Tahoe.  In our market, I find the banks which are willing to make any repairs, do so before putting the home on the market.  So, once the home is in the MLS, it is typically sold as is from that point.

One of the most important things about buying an REO in Truckee/Tahoe is not mentioned at all in the article . . . REO's are the foreclosure properties which see the strongest demand.  It seems that buyers come from far and wide as soon as they see the words "bank owned", "REO", or "Repo".  Because of this, it is very common to see multiple offers on REO properties in Truckee and Tahoe.  Because of this strong demand, many REO's, which appear to be great deals based on their asking price, end up selling at or above market value. 

Also, because of this strong demand, the banks will be picky about the offers they will accept.  They focus not just on price offered, but also put a lot of weight into quick closings, quick inspection periods, and cash offers or offers where financing is already in place ("pre-approved" as mentioned in the article).

Ultimately, this is just an overview of what to expect.  All in all, there are great deals to be had in the Truckee and Lake Tahoe real estate market, and foreclosures definitely play a part in that.  If you are considering buying a home, I strongly recommend you seek the advice of a real estate professional (hopefully us!!) who will advise you of everything you need to do to get a great deal.