It’s about one month away, but it’s time to start getting prepared. Spring is a wonderful season. Spring is associated with blossoming flowers, sunshine, gentle breezes, and the chirping of birds. Why not embrace the new season and something for your home.

Whether you are just moving in, or have watched the years go by as the house settled, there are lots of things you can do to spruce up your home for spring. It’s time for your home to reflect the blossoming flowers outside. We will separate what you can do into two categories: home maintenance and home upgrades.

Home Maintenance

• Check for loose or leaky gutters. Time to get out the ladder, clear debris, then make sure that the downspouts pour away from the foundation.
• Using a screwdriver, probe the wood trim around windows, doors, railings and decks. Make repairs before the spring rains do more damage to the wood.
• Have a trained heating and cooling contractor clean and service the outside unit of the air conditioning system. Also make sure to change interior filters regularly.
• Since spring is the season of vegetation, rebirth, and growth, pay lots of attention to soil. Use a hoe to churn and loosen the soil, then mix in compost for nutrients. Low areas in the yard or next to the foundation should be filled with compacted soil. Spring rains can cause yard flooding, which can lead to foundation flooding and damage. Also, when water pools in these low areas in summer, it creates a breeding ground for insects.
• Do you know how old your air conditioning unit is? Before the sweltering summer  heat comes, consider investing in an energy efficient Energy Star-rated unit. Consult an expert to ensure the size of the unit is properly matched to the needs of your home.

Home Upgrades

• Consider some bigger home improvements like window replacements. Spring is the perfect time to do this because the weather is nice. Also, consider adding spray foam insulation to your attic or in other areas of your home where the summer heat can infiltrate. It is possible that you can start saving up to 50 percent in energy costs all year long. Another way to encourage that process? Add window coverings to block sunlight during the day, so your air conditioner does not have to work as hard.
• Replace inefficient incandescent lighting with more efficient compact fluorescent or LED lighting that also produce less heat and save energy.
• Get your outside social area ready! Chances are you may plan on having friends and family over this spring and summer to enjoy the weather, holidays, and simply celebrate life. Consider consulting with landscape designers and builders so patio, deck, and swimming pool construction will be finished early enough to enjoy it all while you still can this year.

The home improvement, maintenance, and upgrade tips we have just offered you are some of the best you can utilize to really enjoy your home in 2012. Do you have another tip or idea you would have added to the list? If so, we encourage you to share!

Please leave us a comment in the comment box below.

Welcome back to our blog everyone. We hope your new year started off with an excellent first month. As we move into February, we want to discuss a topic we know is important and relevant to a lot of you out there: tips for getting a home loan in 2012.

Low Home Rates

What works in favor of homebuyers is the historically low rates for home loans. Most economists have forecasted the trend for low interest rates to continue in 2012 mostly because the Federal Reserve has made a dedication to insistently back mortgages until the housing market comes around.

If there is any bright side to a sluggish economy, it is that interest rates tend to remain low during those times; however, in recent years getting a home loan has become increasingly difficult and that probably will not change anytime soon.

Study Your Credit

As you are probably already aware, the better your credit score, the better your chances at getting a mortgage in this economy. Get copies of your credit scores from the three main credit-reporting bureaus. Keep in mind that most lenders want to stay away from a credit score lower than 620.

Keep All of Your Documents Handy

No matter which lender you see, you will be required to have copies of pay stubs, W-2’s, tax returns, and bank statements. The more you have of these, and more importantly, the more recent copies you have of these, the better. You will be asked for them, so make sure you have them handy when that happens.

FHA Home Loans

Another important possibility to keep in mind are FHA (Federal Housing Administration) home loans that only require a 3.5% down payment. These popular loans allow you to save money for things like moving, buying new furniture, or any other reason you want to keep some extra money around during the home buying process. Plus, FHA home loan terms are flexible and the credit guidelines used by most lenders are pretty forgiving.

Consider a Shorter-term Loan

Shorter-term loans have become increasingly more popular and affordable for many borrowers thanks to low interest rates. People with 30-year mortgages with interest rates of 6% or higher may be able to refinance for a 20-year or 15-year loan while keeping their monthly mortgages rates relatively low. While this means higher monthly payments, it also means you can pay off your mortgage more quickly.

If you are interested in looking further into different home loans and mortgages, start here. Our Wells Fargo representative is ready to help you from the beginning to the end!

While we are still in jacket weather here in sunny California, it is actually time to start planning for that spring garden! Think of planning your garden like we might think of selling a home. We do not just take into consideration what must be done this week or even next month.

We have to think about the current season and the approaching season and start planning ahead. That being said, let us think about what we can do to have a prosperous, blooming garden this spring. It is important to have a garden whether you are selling your home, just moving into your home, or whether you have been long-established in your residence.

Having a garden adds significant visual appeal to your home. Having a garden at your home adds immense wonder to prospective homebuyers, and makes the home much more aesthetically appealing. In fact, we mentioned it in our post from last May, “Think Outside the House.”

In the San Luis Obispo area, the maximum average precipitation occurs in February, giving us even more reason to start planning that garden. Despite February’s high rain averages, January is also a popular month for rainfall with the average close to three inches. So, where to start?

• Plant Dormant Trees

Plants that lose their leaves and cease growing in the winter include most deciduous trees such as maples, ashes, birches, poplars, and oaks. When planting these, make sure to add organic compost mix to the existing soil so the surrounding ground is of the right consistency to receive all the nutrients and water the plants will need. If you want to have a little more fun, look for vine and fruit trees including apple, pear, peach, plum, and apricot.

• Mulch Your Defense Against Weeds

More rain means more weeds, but there is something you can do. A three to four inch thick layer of mulch in your garden will prevent sunlight from penetrating the soil thus preventing weed growth. The small effort pays off as you will not be spending as much time pulling weeds throughout the seasons. Another benefit of mulch is that helps to prevent or reduce frost in the winter.

• Adding Color and Adding Life

Adding colorful flowers to your garden brings a whole new feel. Since you may be planting your garden early, consider using cool-season flowers like snapdragons, pansies, linaria, and calendulas.

• Take Proper Care of Dormant Trees

For existing dormant trees, be sure to prune dead, diseased limbs or any overgrowth. Doing so strengthens the remaining branches and encourages new growth next spring. Do not, however, prune any large or well-established branches.

Once again, planting a garden is not just a great way to sell your home, it is a great way to help spruce up your old home and bring life to one you are just moving into. If you have any spring gardening tips for our fellow Californians, please share them with us in a comment below. We would love to hear

We try on our clothes before we buy them. Many bars and cafes let us sample their drinks before we buy those too. So why can’t we do the same with homes?

We do not need to explain to you the importance of understanding what life is like before into a new area. You want your new home to be in an area that suits your personality. Great schools, exciting night life, friendly neighbors and a beautiful atmosphere are just some of the qualities you want to find when moving to a new area (and fortunately, the San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara areas boast plenty of that).

We found a handful of videos that we think will convey the idea of what it is like to live in the San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara areas of California. We recommend watching this video first. It explains Oprah’s vote that San Luis Obispo is America’s happiest city, Sunset magazine’s claim that it is the “Best Town of the Future,” the “Best Weather in the US,” “Most Irresistible Wine Escapes,” and “Best Foods and Farmers Markets.” Even Dateline NBC said we are the “Top Place in the World” to live. That is a lot of boasting, but we encourage you to watch the rest of the videos to get the best idea of the area.

Here is a brief video of some college students and alumni explaining what their favorite activities to do in SLO are.

Those of you with pets will be interested in this video. If you love your dog or cat, there is no doubt you want to travel around and bring your best friend(s) with you everywhere you go.

And don’t forget like we mentioned a few months ago, San  Luis Obispo is still the Happiest City in America.

We could have found more videos about the San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara areas, but we had to stop sometime. Do you have a video you think we should see? Share it with us in a comment below and maybe we will feature it in a future blog post!

Thanks for coming back and stay tuned.

We are three days away from Christmas and while you are spending lots of time and money shopping for your loved ones, you might also be wondering about what you can get for yourself. As many of us know, a home purchase is one of the best long term investments you can get for yourself. Several weeks ago, we told you about how easy it is to apply for a home loan. With the milestone-reaching purchase of your own home, you may have some questions about loans and what you need to know about loans in 2011 and going into 2012.

Let us start with the understanding that there are multiple types of loans. Your personal situation will decide which of these types of loan will be best for you. Some questions to ask yourself before embarking on the mission of getting a loan are:

1. Do you expect your financial situation to change within the next few years?
2. Are you planning to live in this home short-term or long-term?
3. Are you comfortable with a changing mortgage payment amount?
4. Is your goal to be free of mortgage debt as your children leave for college or as you retire?

After answering those questions for yourself, we would like to introduce three things you should know loans. It is definitely not a comprehensive list, but these three items are things you should definitely know.

     1.      You will need complete information regarding assets being used for your mortgage.

Make sure you have all of your bank statements, 401(k), IRS, and other investment account information. The more information you have for these accounts, the better you will fare. Since you will need all of this information, make sure you also have as much information for all assets, income, and credit as well.

     2.      You will need two full years of tax return history.

Your mortgage lender will request tax transcripts from the IRS and will compare what you submitted in your mortgage application   with what you submitted to the IRS.

     3.      One bad credit score could seriously affect you.

A decade ago, this was not as serious as it is now, but today, having high balances or too many inquiries can bring your chances of receiving a loan down. Our advice? Sign up for a free credit report, routinely check it, fix inaccurate credit accounts, and pay down your balances.

Now we that understand loans a bit more, make sure to call our Wells Fargo representative, Bob Franklin, and he can assist you further in the process and answer any questions you may have. Bob can help you find mortgage options that meet your current situation while complementing your long-term financial goals. Plus, you can start the home buying process with a free consultation!

Two weeks ago we told you why Santa Barbara is a hotspot in America. Three months ago we told you why San Luis Obispo is America’s Happiest City. But the news keeps coming and we have to keep sharing.

Something you probably already know is that we are in a great buyer’s market right now. A great buyer’s market combined with a great place to buy sounds like a match made in Heaven. Let’s explore why these two make such a great match.

Why San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara?

San Luis Obispo was recently listed as one of the top 10 places to buy a home in the country. One of the reasons CNN Money cited? San Luis Obispo is “home to the state’s rising star of wine production, Paso Robles, where even French vintners are buying property.”

We include Santa Barbara with San Luis Obispo because the two neighbor each other and offer so much of the same great things that appeal our residents. If you remember from two weeks ago, Santa Barbara boasts:

• Great air quality
• A geographically beautiful location
• We are on the coast, but still close to majestic mountains
• Tons of great restaurants to please any palate
• We are only 1.5 to 2 hours from Los Angeles if you want access to a metropolitan area
• The extensive and beyond satisfying Santa Barbara wine country
• Traffic is typically not a problem
• Santa Barbara is a low-stress community

But under the umbrella of great deals and great living as well are Arroyo Grande, Paso Robles, Pismo Beach, Templeton, Lompoc, and more cities in the Central Coast region.

Why is now the time to buy on the Central Coast?

Favorable market conditions such as historically low interest rates combined with the pace of home sales makes right now the time to find the house you were meant to fall in love with. We work closely with Wells Fargo, experts in more than just understanding that a combination of low interest rates, decreasing house prices, and slow home sales are more than enough reason to start the home buying process.

If you are ready take advantage of the perfect alignment of a great place to buy and a great time to buy, contact us and we will work with Wells Fargo to make the process as simple and affordable for you as possible.

You might remember that last September, we told you that San Luis Obispo was named America’s Happiest City. But what about Santa Barbara? Well, don’t think for a second that much of that happiness has not spilled over into Santa Barbara.

As San Luis Obispo’s neighbor, Santa Barbara has just as much to boast about as San Luis Obispo. As a matter of logic, there can only be one America’s Happiest City, so how does Santa Barbara compare? From the looks of it, Santa Barbara looks like a close second place, but let us ask some of America’s happiest people.

Santa Barbara’s website features a great post where local residents Shaun Tomson, Cat Cora, Rob Lowe, Andrew Firestone, Jean-Michel Cousteau, Jay Ferguson, and Zach Gill do just that. In the series of entertaining videos found on this page, they discuss why they made Santa Barbara their home and what their perfect day in Santa Barbara would be like. And just like every wise tourist knows, it is a great idea to ask where the locals hang out. Thankfully, they discuss that as well. So, whether you live in Santa Barbara currently, or are thinking of moving here, be sure to spend some time on this page acquainting yourself with what the above mentioned residents and celebrities have already acquainted themselves with.

What else appeals to people who live in and love to visit Santa Barbara? Simple:

• Great air quality
• A geographically beautiful location
• We are on the coast, but still close to majestic mountains
• Tons of great restaurants to please any palate
• We are only 1.5 to 2 hours from Los Angeles if you want access to a metropolitan area
• The extensive and beyond satisfying Santa Barbara wine country
• Traffic is typically not a problem
• Santa Barbara is a low-stress community

In 2005, Sam from the Travel Channel visited Santa Barbara and told us her top 5 favorite things she loved to do in Santa Barbara. Her number 1? Just being in Santa Barbara! That makes complete sense to given the above list.

We have done a lot of boasting regarding everything great there is to enjoy and experience here in Santa Barbara, but how could we resist keeping all of this information a secret to those not in the know? We made quite a brief list considering all of the things we could have really bragged about regarding Santa Barbara, but that does not mean you can’t share something with us as well.

If there is something you love about Santa Barbara that we did not mention, or if you would like to elaborate on a point we made, we encourage you to share with us by adding a comment below.

The home buying process can be just as confusing and tedious as it is exciting and thrilling. That is why we help you from the beginning to end and answer every question you have. One of the more common questions is about loans and the process in general. To help you gain a bit more understanding, we will explain that in this blog article.

The loan process can be broken down into four steps (or more if we really wanted to get into detail, but for now, we will keep things simple). Remember, Lao Tzu said that a 10,000 mile journey begins with one step. Luckily, this is only a four step journey that begins with one step, here they are:

Step 1: Determine how much you need and can borrow

This step is based on a number of factors including how much of a monthly payment you can afford, your employment history, credit history, income, debt, and more. With this information, the lender will determine how much they can loan you. If you need some help with this step, take a look at the calculators provided by Wells-Fargo Home Mortage.

Step 2: Pre-qualify for the loan

In this step, you provide information employment, assets, residence history, etc. The lender will review this information and give you a Pre-Qualification Letter. Then we will use that to make the best offer on the home you choose.

Step 3: Apply!

Together, we will make an offer to the home seller. Once it is accepted, you can complete the loan application. This is not too hard considering you can do it right online!

Step 4: Your loan is funded

In this final step, we work together with the seller to designate an escrow/title company to handle the funding of your loan once it is approved. We coordinate with the escrow/title company to make sure all the papers your lender will need are in order, and you’ll sign everything at the escrow/title company’s office.

As you can see from the above steps, qualifying for a loan is not as a difficult process as many people think it is.

Congratulations! You are a new home owner!

In our last post, we told you about how you can decorate green for the holiday season. This time we are going to travel outside of the house and talk about what the San Luis Obispo area has to offer its green-minded residents.

Ten years ago, the world did not have as much to offer its population for the green movement as it does today. The amount of progress we have made in terms of technology, available products and just our way of thinking should be commended. Let’s take a look at what is happening here in San Luis Obispo.

Let’s start off with an exciting event coming up in just a few days. On October 30 and 31, environmentalist and journalist Bill Mc-Kibben will be speaking in San Luis Obispo at the Fremont theater regarding climate change. His talk is called “Brave New Planet: The Fight for a Livable Climate.”

We should be excited to have him considering The Boston Globe has called him “probably the nation’s leading environmentalist” and Time magazine referred to him as “the world’s best green journalist.” This is just another reason to throw on top of the pile of why San Luis Obispo is America’s Happiest Cities.

Organizations like SLO Green Build are helping to make San Luis Obispo one of the cities spearheading the green movement in America. Their website states, “We who live in San Luis Obispo County consider it one of the most precious places on earth. We treasure the natural environment with its clean air, rugged coast line, rolling hills, productive ranches and farmland, and open spaces.” Organizations and residents like this are one of the reasons why our area remains so beautiful, and they are definitely not the only one of their kind around here.

Of course, we could not say the word “green” without bringing up farmers markets. There are a lot in our area, so we will leave it to our county’s website to give you the list. One interesting fact though: San Luis Obispo County is home to one of the oldest and largest farmers markets in the United States! Downtown, every Thursday night, the main street is blocked off, and dozens of farmers set up their booths, musicians play music and other businesses and organizations join in to offer visitors an excellent night.

Our local newspaper, The Tribune, recently ran an excellent story regarding how we can change the green movement. The article begins with an excellent point, “Who wants to be lectured about the environment or made to feel guilty about the damage we do to it ever day? Instead, what we want is to feel empowered, but the problems can be so overwhelming that we just don’t know where to start or whether we can make a difference.” There are a lot of articles online discussing the green movement, but few make as strong a point from a unique perspective as this one.

While we certainly have not covered everything that is happening in San Luis Obispo on this topic (we could have a separate blog just for this), this is a good foot in the door on how our area remains one of the most beautiful in the country. If there are any organizations, events, ideas or miscellaneous items you think deserved to make our list, we encourage you to tell us about them in the comments section below.

In our last post, we told you about preparing your home for the fall season. That is the work side of things. In this post, we want to talk about the play side of things, but in a greener, more responsible way: decorating your home for the upcoming holiday seasons and keeping it ‘green’.

What benefits do we have by decorating ‘green’? Like all other ‘green’ solutions, decorating ‘green’ is meant to save energy. With the availability of products out there, it should be no problem finding energy efficient options that are as easy on the wallet as they are on the environment. Not only do you save energy, and money in the form of electric bills and having to replace items like energy efficient light bulbs in the future, but you can appear tech savvy to friends and neighbors while showing people you care about the environment.

The question is: how do you decorate your home for the upcoming holidays (Halloween, Thanksgiving, etc.) while also being environmentally conscience?

The question has a long list of answers, but our “solution motif” is: Rethink and Recycle.

Under “rethink”, look for products made locally, perhaps within 100 or 200 miles. While that seem like a far distance, it is much closer than most countries, so even if the product that you are buying may not be categorized as ‘green‘, the fact that less energy was used to obtain it means you are playing a role in being friendlier to the earth. And remember, like we said in an earlier post, 25% of San Luis Obispo’s residents work for themselves. Shopping local not only helps the environment, it supports local business owners and employees who keep the city alive.

Another idea is to recycle or repurpose items you already have. For example, before you go and throw away last year’s (or last decade’s) holiday decorations because they seem outdated or no longer operate to their fullest capacity, think of other ways they can be used. We found some great examples of this on this website. That should give you the idea that lots of items can fulfill purposes they are not originally designed for.

We know that everyone has their own specific ways for decorating their homes, so these are just some ways to supplement your ideas. Do you have an idea of something we should have included? Perhaps something outside of our rethink and recycle motif? If you have an idea we have not thought of, we invite you to share it in a comment section below and show the world how San Luis Obispo does the fall holidays.

Thanks and have fun decorating all fall, cause soon enough, it will be time for the winter holidays!