Elena Zimina's Real Estate

No doubt with fall weather upon us, you’re pulling out your coats, boots, and sweaters to prepare for the cooler months ahead, but is your home ready? Here are five easy hacks for prepping your property for the cold weather.   Inspect your insulation If your insulation needs work, your house will leak warmth and the rest of your heating efforts will be moot. Take a look at your insulation for any necessary improvements; it may be worth looking into a qualified assessor. This will cost a small fee but could be invaluable when keeping your home warm this winter. Seal gaps and cracks Plan an afternoon to scour your home for any cracks and gaps. For a fairly inexpensive price, you can purchase gap filler from your local hardware store and cover any areas you see where heat may escape. It may even be worth purchasing draft stoppers for roughly ten dollars a piece, to help prevent drafts from coming in through back entrances.   Use your windows wisely A great deal of heat is tr

Halloween is all fun and games until a trick-or-treater trip, knocks over your jack-o-lantern, and sets your front porch on fire.  Fortunately, most homeowners insurance policies cover these common Halloween home mishaps: Halloween Home Horrors T ricksters damage your home.  Standard homeowners policies cover vandalism, such as dents in your siding caused by eggs thrown at your home, when repair costs exceed your deductible. Candles or decorations cause a fire.  A fire started by a Halloween candle or a string of holiday lights will be covered. If the fire makes your home unlivable, your homeowner's policy will pay your living expenses while you wait for repairs. A trick-or-treater gets hurt on your property.  Injuries to trick-or-treaters or your party guests are covered by the homeowner liability portion of your policy. The injured person files a claim with your insurer. You crash your car into a telephone pole to avoid hitting a trick-or-treater in your driveway.  Tha

LOS ANGELES (Oct. 11) – A combination of high home prices and eroding affordability is expected to cut into housing demand and contribute to a weaker housing market in 2019, and 2018 home sales will register lower for the first time in four years, according to a housing and economic forecast released today by the California Assosiations of Realtor.   C.A.R.’s “2019 California Housing Market Forecast” sees a modest decline in existing single-family home sales of 3.3 percent next year to reach 396,800 units, down from the projected 2018 sales figure of 410,460. The 2018 figure is 3.2 percent lower compared with the 424,100 paces of homes sold in 2017. “While home prices are predicted to temper next year, interest rates will likely rise and compound housing affordability issues,” said C.A.R. President Steve White. “Would-be buyers who are concerned that home prices may have peaked will wait on the sidelines until they have more clarity on where the housing market is headed. This

Both  candidates for governor  agree that the cost of housing in California, to rent and own, is too dang high. They concur that the skyrocketing homeless population is a travesty. And they want to help the 1 in 5 Californians who live in poverty. But that’s pretty much all they agree on when it comes to how to make California more affordable. Gavin Newsom,  as has been he won't during two decades in public office, is a man with a plan. Fifteen of them, the Democrat says, that will address California’s housing and homelessness problems. John Cox,  as has been he won't during his two decades of trying to be elected to office, is a man with a critique. The GOP candidate says “all of these plans don’t mean a thing if we can’t change a lot of these laws that are driving housing costs through the roof.” As for specifics on how he’d do that, Cox said, “We’ll talk about that after I’m elected governor.” Until then, here are some areas where the candidates are trying to addre