I am now a Real Estate Broker!

All righty, then! Cheers!

Landlords: Read This!

Coming Soon! Here are some reviews of what you should be reading coming out soon and available on Amazon. Check back often!

"Landlord Landmines represents the PERFECT balance to all those "How to get rich investing in real estate" books! Only the IRS thinks being a landlord is a "passive" activity! What do they know?
"Purva has written her experience in a light, often funny style, that's easy on the digestion, concise, with a ton of hard earned insights. From me to you: Get a credit report EVERY TIME! People who pay their bills on time will pay their rent on time. Good reading!"
- Huck Ferrill, Sacramento mortgage broker.

“This little book points you in the right direction.
“I like this little book - it contains a lot of what to do and what to avoid. If I was a beginner, I would take it and put tabs on some of the pages, put it in a three ring binder, then add to it whenever something changed or I discovered a great way to do something - Sort of like mom's old cookbook!
“I think the book offers a lot of advice to prospective landlords. You do not have to be certified to be a landlord, but you do need to know a lot about a lot.”
– Michael Mast, landlord for over three decades.

“As a real estate investor herself, Purva and her husband, James, went through their share of landlord horror stories. Landlord Landmines is the book Purva wished they’d had when had when they were getting started. Landlord Landmines is written both from her own experience and from the experience of many other landlords who she interviewed for the book.
“Forget the theory and the spreadsheets — Landlord Landmines puts together decades of collective experience and stories from real investors, who teach you what you need to know and what you need to avoid.”
- John Lockwood, real estate broker of Elite Properties.

Want to know what to avoid without all the jargon? Here’s a simple straightforward book that tells you – without the hype and the legalese! And it might just save you thousands of dollars in mistakes! Check back for details!

If You Live in Folsom...

...and are a homebrewer, you might want to head over to the Brewmeister for your supplies. Today, we were over there to catch a little brewing session in the parking lot - so this notice is a little late. However, besides the fact that real estate is fairly stable in Folsom you homebrewers in Folsom have a lot to celebrate!

You can visit Brewmeister's website here.

It's about January, but still...

... if you're interested in the general state of real estate you might want to read this article on MSN. And remember that real estate is local. For the most up-to-date (and most local) market reports, go to the blog at Sacramento Home.

Sacramento Drivers: Take a Breather!

I don't know if it's because I drive in a small town lately - yes, Pollock Pines is small - about 5000 people! It's been hard lately driving in Sacramento. Actually, no, it's not because I drive in Pollock Pines! And although I hate the drivers in Sacramento tailgating me every time I head into the city, here's my take: have you seen the new lanes being put in? Any doubt population is going up? And if the population goes up, what do you think real estate will do?

Hmmm....

Living in a Box?

This might give new meaning to the term "living in a box!"

Check it out!

Dear Real Estate Broker Exam

Dear Broker Exam,

I know, I know. You're supposed to be tough. After all, a broker's job is a tough job. It involves - amongst keeping track of all the salespeople in a real estate office that are out showing property & managing mounds of paperwork, not to mention storing them for gasp! three years! - keeping a real estate brokerage out of court. But must you be so damn tough?

On the DRE website, you sound almost like a dream. 200 questions. Two and half hours in the morning, then a break, then two and a half hours in the afternoon. Get 75% right and you can get a license! (Well, unless the FBI doesn't clear your fingerprints. But then, getting a license is the least of your worries, holy moley!) And they're multiple choice. Should be a breeze, right? Wrong.

Even studying for two months and doing innumerable mock tests had not prepared me for your fury. And from the conversations outside the examination room during the break, no one else quite tamed you either. A flurry of flash cards and stacks of study materials flew out of purses and bags with such vigor that examinees forgot to eat. Really, broker exam, you are quite the anorexia-creator.

And now as I reflect on the five hours on my brain being bent every which real estate way and then some, I'm wondering about my results. Four days is an extremely long time to wait. My refrigerator is still covered with sticky notes with supposedly meaningless stuff like "43560" and "5280." But I'm not taking that down just yet. Not just yet.

My dear, dear broker exam... you're finally done. All I know is I couldn't have studied any more. Not a minute more than I did. Now to see if you liked me as much as I liked you!

Sincerely,
Sacramento Real Estate Gal.

Landlord Landmines: Another Review

We have another one! This is the third review of my upcoming book "Landlord Landmines" and it comes from Huck Ferrill, a mortgage broker I have worked with very closely in the past for my clients as well as for my own mortgages. Read on!

Landlord Landmines represents the PERFECT balance to all those "How to get rich investing in real estate" books! Only the IRS thinks being a landlord is a "passive" activity! What do they know?

Purva has written her experience in a light, often funny style, that's easy on the digestion, concise, with a ton of hard earned insights. From me to you: Get a credit report EVERY TIME! People who pay their bills on time will pay their rent on time. Good reading!

And remember to buy a copy when it comes out!

Broker Exam Next Week!

Yes, you read that right. Your very own Sacramento Real Estate Gal is now going to be a real estate broker. Which of course means I can't blame my mistakes on anyone. Ha. Just kidding.

So if you've been wondering where I am and what I've been doing, this is part of it. As of now, I can tell you off the top of my head that there are:

1 mile = 5280 feet
1 acre = 43560 square feet
1 square yard = 9 square feet

....and that's just it for the math! Anyway, studying for this test has been very interesting. If anything, it has renewed my faith in real estate as a long term investment even more!

Home Sellers: Must-Have Product

If your home is currently on the market, chances are you are still living there and wanting to every home buyer interested in buying it or at least making an offer. If you have pets and are a home seller, there's no product I would strongly suggest more than the Pledge Fabric Sweeper for Pet Hair.



I picked it up today along with the rest of my groceries and spent the next half hour picking up an entire cat from my couches and curtains. Okay, just kidding! But still, this product works. I've been so frustrated by cat hair on my couch when guests come over, I can just imagine being a home seller with pets and a current listing on the market!

Try it! It's an essential for home sellers! Realtors, this might be a good gift to give your listing clients as well. I know I will!

Avoid a Real Estate Disaster!

If you haven't given up yet on the real estate market, obviously you're here to stay. Learn what mistakes to avoid today and in the future when the market turns around. Read my posts on Sacramento-home "How to Avoid a Real Estate Disaster!"

Real Estate Broker Exam is Work!

If I had been really smart, I would have got this out of the way before I had a baby. Oh, the things we learn as adults!

However, I am studying like crazy at this exam and learning quite a bit of cool stuff which will be part of my real estate trivia for months to come! But first, some trivia of the real estate broker test in itself: for one, did you know that you must get 75% of answers right to pass it?

Yup! No excuses. I suppose it's because there's no one else to blame in a brokerage when things go wrong but the broker. You're forgiven if you're a salesperson, but as a real estate broker you'd better know better!

Wish me luck!