Licensed since 1984, San Diego real estate broker Gary Kent is a recognized authority on real estate. In addition to selling over 5,500 homes for clients, he has been an expert court witness, trainer of other agents, and he does seminars on home buying, home selling, and investing. Gary has sold homes for The Salvation Army, dozens of major banks, and Fannie Mae, amongst others. You can find Gary on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.
Buying a San Diego Home
Saturday, 17 May 2008
“I have a problem I hope you can help me with. Im buying a home and the seller agreed to credit me $18,000 for closing costs. The problem is that my bank will not allow a credit over 3% of the sales price, and the price is about $500,000. So theres $3,000 the bank wont
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San Diego Landlords
Sunday, 11 May 2008
“My wife and I just picked up a couple of rental condos a very good price. Weve never been landlords before. I know theres probably a landlording for dummies book. Are there any other books you can recommend?” ***ANSWER: Ive always liked “Landlording” by Leigh Robinson. Its an entertaining read, full of great advice. I
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Reduce The Price
Monday, 05 May 2008
“Hi Gary. I recently took my home off the market. Im very unhappy with my old agent. She kept telling me to reduce price, but I didnt want to lose all that money, so I refused. I feel she was very dishonest with me, dont you think so? Her name is XXXXX. Do you know
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Remodeling Without a Permit
Wednesday, 30 April 2008
“Is it a problem if you buy a home with a kitchen and bathrooms that were remodeled without a permit?” ***ANSWER: In my experience, most kitchen and bath remodels do not have permits. Be sure to have your home inspector check them out to be sure theyre done correctly, especially the electrical, plumbing, and gas.
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San Diego Loan Approvals
Saturday, 26 April 2008
“Hi Gary. We just talked with a mortgage broker and got mortgage loan approval. Buy my wife mentioned that youve said some loan approvals arent really approvals. What did you mean?” ***ANSWER: When is a loan approval not a loan approval? Sadly, the answer is: most of the time. I recently got an approval letter
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San Diego Home Value
Tuesday, 22 April 2008
“Id like to find out the value of my home. But you cant really use comps to determine the value. When can you come over? ***ANSWER: Uh oh. Thats short-hand for: Scrap the accepted, time-tested way of evaluating homes because that wont support the crazy price I want. Instead, get out the Ouija Board, tarot
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Trading Houses
Friday, 18 April 2008
“Hi Gary. Id like to trade down from my house to a nice condo in the beach. If you find someone whod like to trade, that would be great
” ***ANSWER: Id love to help you but
The odds of you liking a specific condo AND that owner liking your specific home AND them being willing
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Buying Foreclosures in Bulk
Monday, 14 April 2008
“Im interested in buying foreclosures in bulk from banks. Can you give me help getting in touch with some of the asset managers you work with?” ***ANSWER: Youre one of many people whove contacted me about this. Most are how-to-get-rich-quick-in-real-estate seminar attendees and/or in way over their head. I may be wrong, but I assume
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What Is An REO?
Wednesday, 09 April 2008
“Whats the difference between a repo, an REO, a bank-owned home, and a foreclosure?” ***ANSWER: A repo (repossession), REO (real estate owned by a bank), and a bank-owned home are all the same thing. The term foreclosure: could refer to any of the 3 stages of foreclosure: 1. When the owner is behind on payments
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Propositions 60 & 90
Saturday, 05 April 2008
“Can you tell me about Propositions 60 and 90 and how I can keep my low tax base if I sell my home and buy another one? ***ANSWER: Prop 60: If you qualify, indeed you can sell your San Diego County home and move your current low property tax base to your newly purchased San
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