Is Buying a New Home Like Buying a New Car?

December 5, 2012 By Leave a Comment

DATE:DECEMBER 3, 2012 | AUTHOR:BRENDON DESIMONE

When you drive a new car off the lot, it immediately loses some of its value. Does the same apply to real estate? And if so, should you care?

For years, the new construction and development market has been sluggish. But now, banks are lending again for new construction, and developers are ready to build in full force. In major cities such as New Yorkand San Francisco dozens of new projects are in some phase of planning, construction, development and sale. In the suburbs and country, national home builders with large parcels of land are ready to develop communities of new homes.

Buyers in any market are faced with the decision to buy a “used” home vs. a new one, of course. But it’s becoming a little more likely today that buyers will find brand-new homes from which to choose as well as pre-existing ones. Here are some things to consider when you face that choice.

Real estate generally appreciates

Any chart will show you that real estate values typically rise over a long period of time. So if you’re in it for the long haul and can commit to at least five or 10 years, don’t be overly concerned with your home’s resale value. On the other hand, in today’s highly mobile world, it might be more difficult to realize an increase in your home’s value if you sell too soon. If you’re not sure you can commit to a home, new or used, for at least five years, you might be better off renting.

Does the new car theory ever apply?

If you’re selling a home that’s five to 10 years old, you might think such a property is still “new,” and you shouldn’t have a problem selling. However, a buyer choosing between a brand-new home and a “used” one may go for the newer one if they can afford it. So, given two homes with similar floor plans and locations, the newer one should sell for more. The owner of the older home, then, might believe the new car rule — that the purchase depreciates in value over time — does in fact apply to real estate.

The reality is, you just can’t compare your home’s value to that of a newer home; it’s not an apples-to-apples comparison. Though your home’s value may be less than what a nearby new property sells for, it’s important to consider your original purchase price. At the time you bought your home, that price was based on the fact it was new, as well as the values associated with a new home vs. an older home. The bottom line: Though your home may not be worth as much as a brand-new, comparable home, it has most likely appreciated from the time you bought it, along with the larger market.

Maintenance of a new vs. an existing home

A new home comes with warranties not only on the appliances and systems but often from the developer as well. A good developer will stand by his work for at least one year. That means if there is a leaky window or a broken tile or floorboard, the developer would likely remedy the situation at no cost to you. Though a home warranty is always available through a third party, a buyer of a home that’s five years old likely won’t benefit from the original manufacturer’s warranties in place at the time the home was built.

Many buyers don’t want the headaches associated with a 50- or 100-year-old home. However, there’s some truth to the old saying that “they just don’t make homes like they used to anymore.” For example, it would be nearly impossible, let alone financially unfeasible, for a builder today to construct an Italian Stick Victorian home or a Frank Lloyd Wright-style house. And so, there’s inherent value in owning a historic home. There are fewer of them, and their uniqueness will set them apart. When the buyer goes to sell, she’s likely to find the home is worth more than other comparable, newer properties. Conversely, if you’re selling a 2-bedroom, 2-bath standard floor plan home, you’ll probably be competing with other homes built with similar materials and within the same time period. You’ll need to do something to make your home stand out and be more attractive to buyers.

Home first, investment second

Obviously, the fact that a brand-new car loses some value the moment it’s driven off the lot doesn’t stop people from buying new cars. Nor should it. There’s something to be said for that new-car smell, for the extended warranty it comes with, for being the first to own it. Many people spend a lot of time in their cars. They see it as a necessity, something they should enjoy and be comfortable in.

The same is true for a home. While it’s important to understand its value and your investment over time, don’t obsess over it. If the home is right for you given your situation and your timing, that’s the home you should buy, whether it’s new or old. You’ll be spending a lot of time and making many memories there. It’s where you’ll lay your head at night after a hectic workday or long business trip. It’s your home first and an investment second.

Courtesy of you Pasadena Real Estate Agent

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For Olympic Winners, Losing Track of a Medal Is a Personal Bust

July 25, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Michael Phelps, Shaun White Had Prizes Go Missing; When an eBay Knockoff Will Do

By STU WOO and GEOFFREY A. FOWLER

Chicago White Sox shortstop Alexei Ramirez won gold for Cuba’s baseball team in 2004. But he lost the medal when he moved to Chicago. Losing an Olympic medal is more common than you might think, but getting a replacement can be an Olympian task.

When Dutch rower Diederik Simon arrived at an Athens beach party during the 2004 Olympics, he noticed something missing from his pocket: the silver medal he had just won. “I was panicking, and I didn’t tell anybody,” he says.

Mr. Simon spent the celebration quietly searching for his medal. Before midnight, though, he gave up and went to the police station. Filling out a lost-property report, the officer asked him, “What color was the lost item? Ah, yes, silver.”

In the coming days, Olympians at the London Games will win about 3,000 medals, each the culmination of years of hard work. And in a moment’s carelessness, a few of those medals will be lost, perhaps as soon as the medal celebration itself.

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Chicago White SoxAlexei Ramirez’s gold medal replica.

After winning gold in the 1988 Seoul Games, Italian rower Davide Tizzano made the traditional leap into the water. Then a teammate jumped on him, jarring the medal from his hand. It sank to the muddy bottom of the Han River.

“I feel exactly like it was yesterday, the feeling of the medal going down, going down,” he says. For the team picture, he borrowed a medal from another Italian rowing team that won gold. A security guard who was also a diver eventually recovered the hardware.

It is up to the Olympic host countries to make the medals, which are typically alloys. Organizers of the London Games say their gold medals, which weigh just under a pound, are actually 92.5% silver and just 1.34% gold. The remainder is copper.

Journal Report

Read the complete Olympics Preview report.

Losing a medal happens more often than one might think. Snowboarder Shaun White once found one of his gold medals, which he has admitted to misplacing a few times, in a seat pocket of his mother’s car. Another time, his mom had taken the medal to the dry cleaner—the ribbon was dirty—and had forgotten about it.

It can be harder to keep track of multiple medals. Swimmer Michael Phelps recently admitted that he was a little foggy about where one of his 16 medals was located. “There are a couple of options of where it could be, but I think when we were traveling—uh, somebody was holding on to it,” he said in an interview on “60 Minutes.”

The police can sometimes solve medal mysteries. Tristan Gale, a skeleton-racing champion at the 2002 Salt Lake City Games, had her gold stolen by burglars last year. She recalls visiting San Diego-area pawn shops and asking, “Hi, I’m looking for an Olympic gold medal.” It took police a week to recover the medal. They busted three thieves, who pleaded guilty.

Mr. Simon, the Dutch rower, grew nervous with each passing day about a planned photo-op with Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands. “I didn’t want to be standing there without a medal,” he says.

A taxi driver found the award in his cab and, after taking photos with it, turned it in. Athens officials gave him his own medal ceremony with Mr. Simon, as well as a set of commemorative stamps.

It is hard for thieves to pawn a medal since it is easy to identify the award’s rightful owner. Athletes can sell their own medals, but Olympic officials frown on the idea. In a 2010 sale from Heritage Auctions, of Dallas, a gold medal from the 1980 “Miracle on Ice” hockey team fetched $310,700.

For athletes who don’t find their missing awards, the International Olympic Committee does offer replicas.

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BEIJING GAMES GOLD MEDAL

The IOC keeps medal molds from modern Games in the Olympic Museum in Lausanne, Switzerland, a spokeswoman says. She adds the organization, which has 34,237 medalists in its database, gets one or two replacement requests every year. The replacements have the word replica on them, usually in tiny print on the bottom edge.

The U.S. Olympic Committee says replicas generally cost the athlete between $500 and $1,200, depending on the intricacy of the design.

Getting an Olympic replica takes months. Alexei Ramirez, a Chicago White Sox shortstop who won gold for Cuba’s baseball team in 2004, says someone stole his medal as he and his wife relocated to the U.S. The White Sox sent the IOC a police report and payment this past spring. Two months later, the team received the new medal—without a strap, since the IOC doesn’t supply replica ribbons—via DHL and surprised Mr. Ramirez with an on-field presentation.

Mr. Ramirez says he keeps his replica in a safe place, but he won’t say exactly where. “That’s a secret,” he says. “I’m not going to tell anybody to make sure it doesn’t get stolen again.”

Some Olympians don’t like talking about their absent-minded moment. Glenn Eller, a shotgun shooter who won gold in Beijing, says only that someone took it while he was out with colleagues in Fort Worth, Texas, in late 2008. “I put myself in a situation that I probably shouldn’t have been in, and someone stole it out of my pocket,” he says. “I’m trying to forget it and go ahead.” He has since received a replica.

Olympic officials warn it can be tough to replicate certain medals if they contain materials other than metal. U.S. water polo goalie Merrill Moses, who had his silver from the 2008 Beijing Games stolen in a burglary of his parents’ house, says his replica medal contained jade that looked painted on, rather than a piece embedded in the back.

Mr. Moses returned that replica to Olympic officials, who told him they found a way to make a better one. In the meantime, he is toting around something else: a $75 knockoff silver medal he bought on eBay. “I do a lot of camps and clinics…and the kids want to see a medal,” Mr. Moses says, adding that he tells them it isn’t the real thing.

Before there was an official process for getting replacement medals, athletes made do with makeshift ones. Olympics historian David Wallechinsky says Canadian high jumper Duncan McNaughton lost his 1932 gold medal. So his friend Bob Van Osdel—the high-jump runner-up who happened to be a dentist—made a mold from his silver medal, filled it with gold and sent the replica to Mr. McNaughton, the historian says.

Corey Codgell, a shotgun shooter who won bronze in Beijing, doesn’t take any chances. She usually keeps her nicked-up medal in her front pocket when she travels. Before letting an audience at an event handle it, she warns everybody: “No one leaves this room until I get my medal back.”

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Streaming Coverage: Get the latest Journal coverage of the 2012 Games right here – every story, video, photo or tweet related to the competition and all news off the field.

Plus, watch video, see photos and view a schedule of events at WSJ.com/Olympics.

Write to Stu Woo at Stu.Woo@wsj.com and Geoffrey A. Fowler atgeoffrey.fowler@wsj.com

Enjoy the Games! -

COURTESY OF YOUR NUMBER ONE ARCADIA REAL ESTATE AGENT

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Olympics social media: Get as connected as the rings for 2012 Games

July 19, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Olympic FacesThe International Olympic Committee is enhancing its social media hub to include Instagram photos from the Olympic Village (IOC / July 19, 2012)
By Michelle MaltaisJuly 19, 2012, 1:20 p.m.

This summer’s Olympics will be more connected than the five rings of its emblem. It’s on Twitter,Facebook, Google+, Instagram (@Olympics) and foursquare.

And the International Olympic Committee is building up an Olympic Village online by integrating these social media to help connect a worldwide audience with the athletes in the London 2012 Games.

“When I went to the Games for the first time it was back in Barcelona in 1992—those games had an internal email system, and it was groundbreaking,” six-time Olympic British archer Allison Williamson told a press conference unveiling the hub. “In London, I will be sharing photos of the Athletes’ Village and other fun things.”

Through the IOC’s Olympic Athletes’ Hub, you can virtually enter the exclusive Olympic Village to connect with your favorite competitor’s Facebook and Twitter profiles, get Instagram portraits of the athletes and chat directly with a featured athlete in a Twitter #asknathlete Q&A.

“Social media has been a great way to connect with fans and share not just my stories but the stories of other amazing people and athletes,” said South African Paralympic sprinter Oscar Pistorius at the press conference. “I am truly blessed and thrilled to be participating in the 2012 London Olympics and look forward to sharing my Olympic experiences with the social media community and inspiring young athletes to do amazing things.”

Since we all like to pretend we are as informed as the judges, the IOC will soon launch the Olympic Challenge in the Athletes’ Hub, a social game that lets fans compete to predict the outcome of various Olympic events and see how they rank on the leaderboard against their friends and fans around the world.

Photos from various angles of the events will be available on Tumblr: an aggregation of existing social feeds, live from inside the Village with the Instagram portraits, Getty Images shots as well as shots and commentary on the fashion scene.

Enjoy the Games! -

COURTESY OF YOUR NUMBER ONE ARCADIA REAL ESTATE AGENT

 

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