Welcome to RealtySB & Keller Williams Realty

Welcome to RealtySB.com, your source for Santa Barbara real estate.

In today's competitive real estate market, timing is everything. Many good homes are sold before they are ever advertised. Beat other homebuyers to the hottest new homes for sale in Santa Barbara with my New Listings Notification or sign up for my weekly Foreclosures List email to hear about bank owned properties.

If you own real estate that you're thinking of selling, I'd be happy to provide you with a FREE Home Evaluation. There is absolutely no obligation.

Whether you are buying or selling a home, hire an agent like me, who wants to earn your business. You're welcome to contact me anytime--I'd be happy to assist you with this important transaction.

Sincerely,

Gretchen Szostak (pronounced Shaw-stack)

Real Estate News

L.A. Times - Real Estate News

Hot Property: Scarlett Johansson, Ryan Reynolds buy Los Feliz house for $2.9 million

The 1960s Buff & Hensman-designed Wong House has a pool, a walled garden and downtown and ocean views.

It seems as though actress Scarlett Johansson had no sooner sold her old place in the Hollywood Hills than she and her husband, actor Ryan Reynolds, closed on a house in Los Feliz for $2.9 million.

Home of the Week: Chateau on Lake Arrowhead

Completed a few years ago, a Normandy-style estate was built to look a century old.

Glen and Linda Keane felt guilty about tearing down the O'Melveny family home. After all, John O'Melveny was part of a group of Los Angeles businessmen who formed Lake Arrowhead Co. in the 1920s and oversaw the lake's development into a popular resort destination.

Fannie Mae tries to stimulate market for foreclosed homes

The mortgage giant quietly launches the HomePath program, which offers subprime-era terms for buyers: minimal down payments, no appraisals, no mortgage insurance and lower minimum credit scores.

If you're a buyer with little cash or a small-scale investor looking for a deal on a foreclosed house, a little-publicized national lending program could be just what you need this fall.

Home of the week update

How some of our previously featured properties have fared in the sales market.

Buff & Hensman-designed beach house

Short-sale 'flopping' may be next big housing scam

Lenders lose an estimated $310 million annually in undervalued short-sale transactions, according to a study released in August.

How to sue your homeowner association to get records or repairs

Question: I am fed up with my homeowners association and successive boards for sabotaging owner requests for records and refusing to fix maintenance problems in common areas that directly affect individual units. I believe I have no other choice than to sue the association and the boards. What are the steps I have to take?

Locking out tenant is probably illegal

Keeping tenant out over concerns of illegal activities may be viewed as a 'constructive eviction.' Such moves as changing the locks to prevent access can bring significant penalties.

Question: I own a couple of houses that I rent out for extra income. Unfortunately, they are not in the best part of our town. I have a tenant living in one of them who may be dealing drugs or doing something else illegal because the police have arrested him several times. Every time he is arrested he makes bail and returns to the house in a day or so. Even though he pays the rent on time, I realize that I can't continue to allow him to live in my house. My plan is to change the locks the next time he is arrested, so he can't come back into the house. I know that I need to protect his property inside the house if I do this, but my plan is to move his belongings into a storage locker. I can't afford a lawyer to file an eviction case, so this is my only alternative. Will I be OK if I do this?

Index of pending home sales rises 5.2%

July's increase from June in the National Assn. of Realtors' gauge for previously owned residences follows two straight months of declines and a report that sales of such homes dived 27.2%.

An index of home purchase contracts for previously owned dwellings unexpectedly increased 5.2% in July over June, the National Assn. of Realtors said Thursday, a modest note of good news for the U.S. housing market.

Mortgage rates set new record lows, might hold steady next week

Treasury bond yields, which influence the home-loan rates, have surged since Tuesday.

Mortgage rates fell for the 10th time in 11 weeks, setting fresh record lows, Freddie Mac reported Thursday. But a rebound in Treasury yields in the last two days raises the possibility that home-loan interest costs won't fall again next week.

KB Home says SEC investigation over

The home builder's stock soars 11% after an announcement that there will be no action taken as result of an investigation into the company's accounting procedures.

Shares of Los Angeles-based KB Home soared on Wednesday after the home builder said an investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission into the company's accounting and disclosure procedures had concluded and no enforcement action would be taken.

Welcome to RealtySB & Keller Williams Realty

Welcome to RealtySB.com, your source for Santa Barbara real estate.

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