Category: Real Estate

How’s The Weather/Market?

It’s that time of year where one day feels like summer and the next winter. Last week I put away my outdoor furniture, only to want to haul it out just a few days later to enjoy the warm sunshine! And today the forecast was for over an inch of rain and it’s looking like we won’t even get half that. It’s tough to plan with such wild weather swings!

The real estate market is similar at the moment. After an encouraging September where home sales surprisingly increased year-over-year in most parts of the state, October showed disappointing figures. With such inconsistent trends, identifying the vibe of the market is harder than ever. The government shutdown, high cost of living, and unpredictable mortgage rates are all impacting the real estate market in unpredictable ways.

You can read the signs

and still get it wrong!

I have a number of clients hoping to sell their homes in the coming months, and many of them are trying to time the market. They ask me questions like,

“Should I list for sale now before the holidays?”

“Should I wait till Spring?”

“How much more will my home be worth in 2026?”

Just ask me if it’s going to rain on Christmas while you’re at it! In all honesty, timing the market is a lot like timing the weather. You can read the signs, but ultimately its impossible to pull off every time. Here’s a throwback video I shot discussing this analogy.

Even though I’m an expert and live & breath market statistics and trends, I can’t predict the real estate future with any certainty. That’s not what you should expect of me or any real estate professional. What you should expect is help identifying what is most important in your next real estate transaction and navigating through it without losing sight of your priorities. Sellers often get caught up in timing the market that they forget why they are selling in the first place.

I have a client who lives in a home that no longer suits her and the property is bleeding her money in repairs. There are 2 homes that sit on 10 acres and require a lot of upkeep, so this widower recognizes she needs to live in a simpler, low-maintenance home. That is the priority; to change her lifestyle that will improve her health and finances.

But sadly, the quest of maximizing her sales price based on market timing has taken over. And during this quest, she has changed her mind several times, questioned herself, and ultimately is shackled in indecision. All the while, the property expenses are piling up and she loses sleep worrying about what to do. She keeps asking herself “when,” while the most important question she needs to ask herself is “WHY.” Why am I selling my home?

Does this sound familiar to anyone you know? Perhaps your own situation? When toiling over an upcoming home sale, ask me these questions instead:

“What is my home worth right now?”

“Where should I put my focus on improving my home for a sale?”

“Who can help me make this process as easy as possible?”

In short, control your controllables, and most importantly…FIND YOUR WHY. Why are you selling your home? Allow me to help you never lose sight of that.

3460 El Dorado Road, Placerville

This listing is sure to knock your socks off!

3460 El Dorado Road – Placerville, CA 95667

4 bedroom | 2.5 bathroom | 3.5 car garage | 2670 sq ft. | 1.47 acres | $1,199,000

Firewise Certified | Owned Solar | 1000G Rainwater Catchment Tanks

Visit www.3460ElDorado.com for full details

No Oops…WE Did It Again!

For the second year in a row, The Blue Waters Group earned the Top Spot as the #1 Best Real Estate Team and inched up to #2 as the Best Mortgage Broker in the Folsom/El Dorado Hills region of Style Magazine’s Readers’ Choice Awards!

These awards are based entirely on votes that come from community members. THANK YOU to our many clients who recognized us with top marks in both our real estate and mortgage services.

Check us out in the October issue of Style Magazine; on newsstands now!

Our track record of earning these distinctive awards as both a Mortgage Broker and Real Estate Team show we are truly a unique business in our region. From helping you find AND finance, buy AND sell, refinance AND invest, The Blue Waters Group is capable of handling ALL of your real estate needs.

Big News! 🎉 We’ve Been Nominated—AGAIN!

We’re thrilled to share that we have been nominated again as Best Mortgage Broker and Best Real Estate Team in Style Magazine’s 2025 Best of the Best Readers’ Choice Awards!

You may recall we earned awards in both categories in 2024, and we are looking to repeat these high honors. As a small (but mighty!) team, we pour our hearts into helping you buy, sell, and finance your home—offering top-notch service and interest rates that make you and your wallet smile. It’s our passion, and it means the world to be recognized for what we love to do.

Now we need a quick favor that’ll only take a couple of minutes—but gives you lifetime bragging rights for helping us achieve the highest honor: 1st place in both categories!

👉 To cast a valid vote, you’ll need to vote in at least 10 categories.

To make it easy, we’ve put together a cheat sheet with other incredible local businesses we admire and think are vote-worthy, too. But of course, feel free to choose your own favorites!

Your support truly means everything to us. Thank you for being such an important part of our journey—we couldn’t do this without you! 🏡💛

Click here to Vote

(You do need to create a sign-on, its quick and easy)

You can search going through the category tabs or you can also type in each businesses name in the search bar.  

  1. Home & Finance – Best Mortgage Broker: Blue Waters Mortgage & Real Estate Group
  2. Home & Finance- Best Real Estate Agent : Blue Waters Mortgage & Real Estate Group (Please vote for both categories)
  3. Home & Finance – Best Accountant: Clint Herndon @ Next Peak CPA
  4. Community- Best Charitable Organization: Hand4Hope  (honestly, they are all really good)
  5. Arts -Best Performing Arts Center: Harris Center
  6. Drinks- Best Coffee/Tea Spot: Coffee Republic
  7. Drinks – Best Bar: Gaslight Company
  8. Medical – Best Dental Practice: Dimariano Family Dentistry
  9. Medical – Best Doctor: Robert Debruin MD
  10. Personal Services – Best Barbershop: Redwood Barbershop

GET REAL – Marketing

Let’s Get Real about Marketing in the Real Estate Business. It’s common for professionals to automate their advertising by subscribing to marketing content that is created and published by a 3rd party.

But this style of marketing gives zero insight to your brand, skills or personality, and can often backfire when many of your competitors are copying & pasting the same generic marketing materials.

I make a point of creating all of my own marketing content. Call me old-fashioned and inefficient for doing so, but it also makes me genuine and authentic.

GET REAL – Commissions Revisited

What’s Happened To Buyer Agents’ Commissions??!!

We are now 7 months into our industry’s practice of decoupled commissions, meaning a seller cannot be forced to pay a buyer’s agent. Are buyer’s agents still earning commissions in today’s market? Have the industry’s rule changes revolutionized real estate transactions like so many people prophesied?

Redfin reported last month that the average commission earned by a buyer’s agent in the final months of 2024 was 2.37%. Similarly, in all of my team’s transactions since the settlement, the average buyer’s agent commission has been 2.4%, with nearly all of them being paid by sellers not buyers. These are similar to historical levels earned pre-settlement, meaning sellers are still seeing value in buyer agent’s efforts and paying them appropriately.

Exactly one year ago on a prior Get Real episode, I calmly said “sellers will continue to compensate buyer’s agents at similar levels as they do today.” This stoic prediction was right and the loud fear-mongers were wrong.

In this era of sensational social media, please be wary of listening to the loudest people in the room. They may be the most entertaining, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they are the most trustworthy.  Bottom line, the role and revenue of Buyer’s Real Estate Agents is alive & well.

We are being copied…AGAIN!

I am very excited to pass along a big announcement from two of my biggest competitors. Why?!? Let me explain.

Earlier this week, Rocket Mortgage, one of the largest mortgage companies in the country, spent nearly $2 BILLION to acquire Redfin, one of the biggest names in real estate. You may recall that Re/Max (the largest real estate brand in the world!) did something similar back in 2016 (I wrote about it then too).

They aim to create a “one-stop-shop” experience for clients so they can buy, sell, and finance homes from a single source. Hmmmm, why didn’t I think of that? 😉

The biggest brand names in real estate are joining forces and copying my one-stop-shop business model. Some may say this trend of big companies creating end-to-end consumer “ecosystems” is bad for my business. Should I be concerned about my market share?

Perhaps, but the overwhelming feeling I have is one of flattery. I’m absolutely flattered that the likes of Rocket Mortgage and Redfin, publicly-traded companies valued at BILLIONS of dollars, are trying to emulate us!

The Blue Waters Group has believed from our very beginnings that the customer benefits from competent and compassionate advisors who can offer both mortgage and real estate services. With Rocket Mortgage & Redfin literally spending billions of bucks, no longer is our business model the obscure alternative; it is the one that leading industry players are striving for. No longer is our platform one that I need to defend with blog posts titled Is What I Do Legal?; it is the one that’s copied by others.

We are still unique from these big company aspirations in that our associates are able to offer both mortgage and real estate services (all of us are licensed both as mortgage loan originators and real estate agents) while Rocket simply hopes to pair mortgage and real estate services more efficiently by providing them under the same corporate umbrella. Nevertheless, this week’s move by Rocket Mortgage & Redfin further validates the craft I’ve been honing for nearly my entire career.

Working as both a mortgage broker and REALTOR is not an easy task, but with a 22-year head start on these firms and others who are sure to follow suit, I’m confident The Blue Waters Group will continue to be imitated but never duplicated!

GET REAL – Buying A Brand New Home

Lets Get Real! Buying a Brand New Home can seem like the easy option in today’s real estate market. Picking your finishes and having tons of incentives thrown at you by a big builder sounds like quite the treat!

But that’s not what my latest client experienced. He called me last month really anxious because he had lost trust in the nationwide company building his new home. The worst of it was the in-house lender that was supposed to be giving him a great deal in fact wasn’t and clearly were inept at doing their job.

I was able to offer him an interest rate comparable to the builder’s advertised “unbeatable” offer, and more importantly ease my client’s nerves by having someone they trust involved in the process. They are set to close today and move in just in time for the holidays.

Here’s the take-away…even when buying a new home you still need your own real estate and mortgage advocates. Remember, the sales office is employed by the builder, so who do you think they’re looking out for first.  I’ll give you a hint…its not you!  And these in-house mortgage companies created by the builders are operating as loss leaders to get buyers in the door, which means they are probably not compensating their mortgage consultants very well, which probably means you’re not working with the sharpest knives in the mortgage drawer.

So, if you are thinking of buying a brand new home in the coming year, hit me up before even heading out to their model homes.  We’ll discuss what you need to watch out for, and I’ll explain to you why having me involved in the process as either your REALTOR, mortgage broker or both is a huge benefit for you, and how you can have my representation services when buying a new home.

GET REAL – Zillow

Zillow operates as an advertising platform rather than a public information service. Higher search rankings for houses or agents do not imply quality; they reflect the amount spent on advertising. Users should be wary, as top results may simply be influenced by financial investment, much like Google’s advertising model.

GET REAL – Loan Assumptions

Let’s Get Real about Loan Assumptions. With current mortgage rates holding steady at their highest levels in decades, some believe a way to afford their next home purchase is to assume a seller’s existing loan at a much lower interest rate. Sounds like a great life hack, right??!! Why take out a new mortgage at 7% or more when you can assume an old one at 3% or less? While it is true that some loans are assumable, the odds of one being available on a home that you actually like and end up buying are next to zero.

I helped a recent client locate a home in Fair Oaks that was perfect for them. The seller was a veteran; my buyer was a veteran. VA loans are one of the few types of loans out there that are assumable; seemed like a match made in heaven!

But here’s the unfortunate reality…the loan assumption application process is cumbersome and takes time; often 1-2 months. This particular seller wanted a clean, fast sale, so even though the listing promoted the assumable nature of the mortgage, the seller ultimately selected a buyer who could purchase the home without assuming the existing VA loan.

Very few listings will have an assumable loan. And those that do will likely be very popular, and the seller may not be inclined to go through the assumable application process. Sure, I can help you filter home searches based on assumable loans (there’s 14 for sale in all of Sacramento County at the moment & 21 sales in all of 2024), but I wouldn’t recommend hanging all of your homeownership hopes on an assumable loan.