Big Bear Real Estate Blog

909 866-3481 EXT. 217 CELL 909 725-5889

Fax 909 866-3531

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www.stevesellsbigbear.com (website)

www.thetimwoodgroup.com (group website)

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2 comments • Steve Hirschler, Big Bear Real Estate • January 30 2009 11:49AM

Do You Want the Best Deal, or the Best House?

That is a question that I ask many buyers. Many buyer's think that the market is so slow that they don't need to move quickly. They feel like the longer they wait, the better the deals will be. True, the very best deal could come along at anytime, and that is why I love Real Estate. The perfect house could come on the market and someone will buy it. More than likely though if the deal (price) is best, the house will not be so good. Rarely, and I don't mean occasionally, a great house will sell for under value. More often, the best homes sell for the highest prices.

What makes them the best? In Big Bear, location is most important. As you know if you have talked to me or read my blog, Moonridge is one of my favorites.Most buyers want to feel like they are in the mountains. They want seclusion and quiet. Secondly, the home needs to feel like a cabin. Homes with a tract home feel and few windows will need to be priced well below those that have woodsy accents and large windows with views of nature. Buyer's want space and trees, they don't want to be looking out the windows at the neighbors house. Homes with large wood burning fireplaces, great rooms for families and forest views always seem to sell in shorter days, for more money.

Moonridge Cabin

So, do you want one of the best homes? If so be prepared to act quickly and don't expect to buy it for the price of the wrong home in the wrong location.

Steve Hirschler

Associate, The Tim Wood Group

Coldwell Banker Mountain Gallery

42153 Big Bear Blvd.

P.O. BOX 6820

Big Bear Lake, CA 92315

stevehirschler@gmail.com

909 866-3481 EXT. 217 CELL 909 725-5889

Fax 909 866-3531

Subscribe to "Ask an Expert, Big Bear Real Estate Blog"

Steve Hirschler

DRE#01703081

Associate, The Tim Wood Group

Coldwell Banker

42153 Big Bear Blvd.

P.O. BOX 6820

Big Bear Lake, CA 92315

909 866-3481 EXT. 217 CELL 909 725-5889

Fax 909 866-3531

www.bigbearhomes.wordpress.com (blog)

www.stevesellsbigbear.com (website)

www.thetimwoodgroup.com (group website)

http://twitter.com/stevehirschler (follow me)

2 comments • Steve Hirschler, Big Bear Real Estate • January 29 2009 08:18PM

Sell your home now, or don't.

The market is moving quickly. You can't wait and see what will happen. Your delay of the inevitable will cost you. Time is not on your side.Sell now, or don't.

Don't think it will get better. Don't think that a buyer will fall in love with your house and pay more. It will not happen. Sell now, or don't.

Prices are still moving down and buyers are thinking about every dollar. The price six months from now is what they want to pay. They want to insulate themselves from the downturn. Sell now, or don't.

Six months from now their will be more foreclosures and distressed properties on the market. You will then be faced with the nightmare off recalling the price you were offered six months ago, that hurts more than taking the offer you have now. Sell now, or don't.

Maybe this post should have been titled...

Don't Sell Now.

Steve Hirschler

Associate, The Tim Wood Group

Coldwell Banker Mountain Gallery

42153 Big Bear Blvd.

P.O. BOX 6820

Big Bear Lake, CA 92315

stevehirschler@gmail.com

909 866-3481 EXT. 217 CELL 909 725-5889

Fax 909 866-3531

Subscribe to "Ask an Expert, Big Bear Real Estate Blog

Steve Hirschler

DRE#01703081

Associate, The Tim Wood Group

Coldwell Banker

42153 Big Bear Blvd.

P.O. BOX 6820

Big Bear Lake, CA 92315

909 866-3481 EXT. 217 CELL 909 725-5889

Fax 909 866-3531

www.bigbearhomes.wordpress.com (blog)

www.stevesellsbigbear.com (website)

www.thetimwoodgroup.com (group website)

http://twitter.com/stevehirschler (follow me)

0 comments • Steve Hirschler, Big Bear Real Estate • January 27 2009 10:58AM

Big Bear Real Estate, it's not the same market as the neighborhood you live in.

Big Bear Real Estate is a unique market. With less than 10% of the listings in the Big Bear MLS being bank owned, it isn't the same as the rest of the Inland Empire. While bank owned properties seem to be driving the market here with over 30% of the closed transactions in the past 3 months, these numbers are far below the average for the other areas of San Bernardino County.

Close to 70% of the transactions in Big Bear MLS are still coming from traditional Real Estate transactions with a typical buyer and seller situation. Currently we have 931 residential properties available in the Big Bear MLS, and 68 of these are flagged as bank owned (7.30%). The Big Bear MLS has 100 pending sales and 52 of these are flagged as bank owned (52%). Month to date (January 1 - 23, 2009) we have had only 28 closings, with 9 of those being bank owned (32.1%).

*These numbers do not include the listings that are not in the Big Bear MLS, so it would be fair to say that there are more bank owned properties on the market and more sales occurring that are not shown here.

Steve Hirschler

Associate, The Tim Wood Group

Coldwell Banker Mountain Gallery

42153 Big Bear Blvd.

P.O. BOX 6820

Big Bear Lake, CA 92315

stevehirschler@gmail.com

909 866-3481 EXT. 217 CELL 909 725-5889

Fax 909 866-3531

Steve Hirschler

DRE#01703081

Associate, The Tim Wood Group

Coldwell Banker

42153 Big Bear Blvd.

P.O. BOX 6820

Big Bear Lake, CA 92315

909 866-3481 EXT. 217 CELL 909 725-5889

Fax 909 866-3531

www.bigbearhomes.wordpress.com (blog)

www.stevesellsbigbear.com (website)

www.thetimwoodgroup.com (group website)

http://twitter.com/stevehirschler (follow me)

0 comments • Steve Hirschler, Big Bear Real Estate • January 23 2009 06:37PM

Best deals under $400,000 in Moonridge area of Big Bear 1/19/2009

Below are my best picks for Hot Properties in the Moonridge area of Big Bear Lake under $400,000 this week:

Price Range 0 - $200,000

42889 ENCINO listed at $174,900

2 bedrooms and 1 bath. 864 sq ft built in 1963, 4500 sq ft lot. Ski Slope Views. Fixer with potential.

Price Range $200,000 - $250,000

1358 Flintridge listed at $229,000

2 bedrooms and 2 baths, 1368 sq ft built in 1972, 8460 sq ft lot, Upper Moonridge on a low traffic street. Vacation rental, clean.

Price Range $250,000 - $300,000

42780 Encino listed at $300,000

3 bedrooms and 1.75 baths, 1440 sq ft built in 1961, 4838 sq ft lot, Ski Slope Views, recently upgraded, pride or ownership.

Price Range $300,000 - $350,000

43647 Sand Canyon listed at $349,900

2 bedroom and 2 bath, 1424 sq ft built in 1976, 8250 sq ft corner lot on a quiet culdesac, 2 car garage, new carpet, near the National Forest.

Price Range $350,000 - $400,000

435 Villa Grove listed at $399,900

3 bedroom and 3 bath, 1820 sq ft built in 1988, 7500 sq ft lot, 2 car garage, large great room and game / bonus room upstairs. Great upper Moonridge location.

Search the Big Bear MLS

Steve Hirschler

Associate, The Tim Wood Group

Coldwell Banker Mountain Gallery

42153 Big Bear Blvd.

P.O. BOX 6820

Big Bear Lake, CA 92315

stevehirschler@gmail.com

909 866-3481 EXT. 217 CELL 909 725-5889

Fax 909 866-3531

Steve Hirschler

DRE#01703081

Associate, The Tim Wood Group

Coldwell Banker

42153 Big Bear Blvd.

P.O. BOX 6820

Big Bear Lake, CA 92315

909 866-3481 EXT. 217 CELL 909 725-5889

Fax 909 866-3531

www.bigbearhomes.wordpress.com (blog)

www.stevesellsbigbear.com (website)

www.thetimwoodgroup.com (group website)

http://twitter.com/stevehirschler (follow me)

0 comments • Steve Hirschler, Big Bear Real Estate • January 19 2009 06:42PM

HOME FOR SALE / 435 Villa Grove, Moonridge, Big Bear Lake, CA

If you are inerested in buying or selling Real Estate in the Big Bear area, please give me a call.

Search the Big Bear MLS

Steve Hirschler

Associate, The Tim Wood Group

Coldwell Banker Mountain Gallery

42153 Big Bear Blvd.

P.O. BOX 6820

Big Bear Lake, CA 92315

stevehirschler@gmail.com

909 866-3481 EXT. 217 CELL 909 725-5889

Fax 909 866-3531

Steve Hirschler

DRE#01703081

Associate, The Tim Wood Group

Coldwell Banker

42153 Big Bear Blvd.

P.O. BOX 6820

Big Bear Lake, CA 92315

909 866-3481 EXT. 217 CELL 909 725-5889

Fax 909 866-3531

www.bigbearhomes.wordpress.com (blog)

www.stevesellsbigbear.com (website)

www.thetimwoodgroup.com (group website)

http://twitter.com/stevehirschler (follow me)

0 comments • Steve Hirschler, Big Bear Real Estate • January 19 2009 06:39PM

Yes, I do know the market better than Zillow.

Believe it or not a Real Estate agent that works the local market will have a better feel for property values than a computer. While I agree that Zillow should not be ignored completely, using Zillow as the tool for pricing Real Estate can be a disaster.

Two examples of this currently are:

43046 Sunset Drive, Moonridge

Zillow Zestimate $232,000

In escrow at $176,000

801 Barker, Big Bear City

Zillow Zestimate $147,500

In escrow at $98,100

This represents a 38.4% inaccuracy from Zillow. You might as well get a dart board and start throwing.

Search the Big Bear MLS

Steve Hirschler

Associate, The Tim Wood Group

Coldwell Banker Mountain Gallery

42153 Big Bear Blvd.

P.O. BOX 6820

Big Bear Lake, CA 92315

stevehirschler@gmail.com

909 866-3481 EXT. 217 CELL 909 725-5889

Fax 909 866-3531

Steve Hirschler

DRE#01703081

Associate, The Tim Wood Group

Coldwell Banker

42153 Big Bear Blvd.

P.O. BOX 6820

Big Bear Lake, CA 92315

909 866-3481 EXT. 217 CELL 909 725-5889

Fax 909 866-3531

www.bigbearhomes.wordpress.com (blog)

www.stevesellsbigbear.com (website)

www.thetimwoodgroup.com (group website)

http://twitter.com/stevehirschler (follow me)

0 comments • Steve Hirschler, Big Bear Real Estate • January 16 2009 12:58PM

Smart work is overrated: Hard work is where the top producers are.

Great Post by Jonathan Washburn. Hard work wins.

Via Jonathan Washburn (ActiveRain Corp):

It is a great deficit to start with. Being smart, or God forbid "extremely talented", has to be one of the single greatest impediments to becoming successful in real estate.

No, it's not that real estate is a special field; there are in fact only a few highly specialized fields where brains end up doing more good than harm. For example, it is good if you want to be a rocket scientist, university professor, doctor, or consultant. In pretty much any other field it just gets in the way. Here's why:

1. Smart people use their brains to make the right decision:

People with massive brain power usually know that they are smart so when it comes time to make a decision on something, they tap into their giftings to evaluate and deliberate what the right course of action should be. Sometimes this process can take days or even weeks. The really, really smart people usually take the longest to figure out which way to go, sometimes even months.

Its true that smart people usually don't make a lot of mistakes. They rarely lose a lot of money on a stupid marketing investment, or expend a lot of energy running down the wrong path. In fact they rarely run anywhere; instead they move cautiously.

The dumb people just move. They don't know no better. They know that even if they took the time to try to figure out the right way to go they'd probably just screw it up anyways, so they just save the time and simply go. The nice thing about just going is that you can do it at any time. All you need to do is get out of your own way.

2. Smart people rely on their brains to limit the amount of work they need to do:

When you are smart you can usually a figure out a way to do whatever needs to be done more efficiently than dumb people. In fact really smart people usually can figure out a way to get somebody else to do the work for them. When the smart person succeeds at getting someone else to do their work for them, they usually benefit in the short run but not in the long run. By offloading their work, they lose the experience, and confidence that an accomplishment would have built.

Dumb people don't realize that there is any other way to doing something than to just do it. So they do.

3. Smart people fear looking dumb:

People put a lot of expectations on smart people. If a smart person does something dumb they will usually get chastised, so they learn early on to not screw up. Dumb people don't have that same pressure. They are free to mess up as much as it takes to figure something out. This freedom to screw up is key to learning and succeeding. Just look at children and compare them to a smart adult in how quickly they can learn something new. Children, like the dumb person, give themselves the freedom to fail.

4. Smart people count on good ideas to become successful:

Smart people think. They think, then they sometimes come upon a good idea. Smart people know that good ideas are not that easy to come by so they carefully guard that idea to make sure no one steals it. Dumb people know that they are not going to come up with a good idea so they don't even try. Instead dumb people spend their time doing.

Closing message to dumb people: The good news is that being dumb comes naturally to you. There isn't a lot of advice that you need; just keep on going.

Closing message to the gifted ones: Just because you were born with brains does not mean that you cannot be successful; you will just have to work harder than others. When your first reaction is to deliberate the merits of your choices: don't. Learn to go with your gut. Over time you will be able to develop your gut instinct into a finely tuned insturment. Know that your smarts will not make you successful. The most important thing to success is giving a little more than everyone else. The dumb guy knows this inherently; he knows that for him to get even the littlest bit of success he will need to work 2x as hard as the next guy. If this post struck a cord with you and you are thinking that you are going to act more and think less, start now. Seriously, pick up the phone, knock on some doors, do something and don't stop doing it.

Steve Hirschler

DRE#01703081

Associate, The Tim Wood Group

Coldwell Banker

42153 Big Bear Blvd.

P.O. BOX 6820

Big Bear Lake, CA 92315

909 866-3481 EXT. 217 CELL 909 725-5889

Fax 909 866-3531

www.bigbearhomes.wordpress.com (blog)

www.stevesellsbigbear.com (website)

www.thetimwoodgroup.com (group website)

http://twitter.com/stevehirschler (follow me)

1 comment • Steve Hirschler, Big Bear Real Estate • January 16 2009 10:09AM

If you want to buy a home in Orange County, DON'T CALL ME!

Call me for the name of an agent in Orange County that can help you, but don't call me or any other agent that works out of the area and expect to get an expert.

When you need a surgeon, you look for the expert in the area of your surgery.

You wouldn't call a brain surgeon,

Brain Surgeon

for surgery on your knee.

Real Estate is local and that will not change. I am an expert in Big Bear Real Estate, but I don't know enough about any other area to do a good job for you. Work with an full time agent that is actively working the area that you will be buying or selling in. These agents will be the most knowledgeable about the inventory and local market conditions.

Every week I see agents from out of the area showing property to clients as if they are experts in Big Bear Real Estate.

Ask your agent how many closed sales they have in the area that you are looking to buy or sell.
Ask your out of the area agent if he can tell you the utility providers for the different areas of Big Bear.
Ask your out of the area agent how to perform a winterization on your Big Bear home.
Ask your out of the area agent about the types of termites that live in Big Bear.
Ask your out of the area agent for a local contractor reference.
Ask your out of the area agent where the City of Big Bear Lake ends and the county area begins.

and the list goes on......

Out of the area agents will fail this test, and I would fail a similar test in an area that I am not an expert.

Real Estate is Local!

Regards,

Steve Hirschler

Associate, The Tim Wood Group

Coldwell Banker Mountain Gallery

42153 Big Bear Blvd.

P.O. BOX 6820

Big Bear Lake, CA 92315

stevehirschler@gmail.com

909 866-3481 EXT. 217 CELL 909 725-5889

Fax 909 866-3531

Steve Hirschler

DRE#01703081

Associate, The Tim Wood Group

Coldwell Banker

42153 Big Bear Blvd.

P.O. BOX 6820

Big Bear Lake, CA 92315

909 866-3481 EXT. 217 CELL 909 725-5889

Fax 909 866-3531

www.bigbearhomes.wordpress.com (blog)

www.stevesellsbigbear.com (website)

www.thetimwoodgroup.com (group website)

http://twitter.com/stevehirschler (follow me)

0 comments • Steve Hirschler, Big Bear Real Estate • January 06 2009 05:53PM

Moonridge Minute Market information for the month of December 2008, Big Bear Lake

Moonridge Area of Big Bear Lake market information. If you would like to discuss market trends and information about Big Bear Real Estate, please fill free to give me a call.

Steve Hirschler

Associate, The Tim Wood Group

Coldwell Banker Mountain Gallery

42153 Big Bear Blvd.

P.O. BOX 6820

Big Bear Lake, CA 92315

stevehirschler@gmail.com

909 866-3481 EXT. 217 CELL 909 725-5889

Fax 909 866-3531