Time to Trade Up!

With so much negative media about real estate and the economy, it’s easy to think we should all just put our money in our mattresses and forget about buying or selling any time soon. But this real estate market actually presents a great opportunity for trading up to a better home. Here’s how:

If prices are down 20% in Pasadena, then that means that a home that was $400,000 would now be $320,000. And a home that was $800,000 is now $640,000. If you had a $400,000 home and wanted to move up, your first instinct is that it’s a bad time to sell because you’ll only get $320,000 for it and you don’t want a loss. But in fact, even if you lose $80,000 on the purchase of your current home, you’ll save $160,000 on your new home of $640,000. You actually save money by selling and buying something more expensive.

We’re finding that it’s a great time to trade up in Pasadena right now. There are REOs and short sales that have brought the price down even on Pasadena luxury homes. If you want to take a look at what kind of deals are available right now, you can sign up for a Hot List and let us know what you’re looking for, and we’ll send the information to your inbox. And when it’s time to start looking, you’ll want to get pre-approved for a loan so you can demonstrate to sellers that you can complete the deal.