Best of 2012
12/31/12
Some of the following is fact, some is merely opinion. Either way, we hope you enjoy. Here’s our review for the year 2012:
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Best Buy of the Year: 426 Avenida de la Vereda (sorry, no link available). We happened to be representing the buyer on this one. This was listed only in the Ventura MLS; it never made an appearance in the Ojai MLS. In addition, it was initially in the Ventura MLS under the wrong city. Good thing for our client. It was listed at $299,000, a price at which we knew this home was grossly undervalued. The home was clean, cute, had newer wood flooring, a new Trex deck out back, a huge back yard, and newer a/c and heat. Turns out, this home could only be bought via an online auction. So we registered for the auction, and with our client on speaker phone, proceeded to duke it out over the course of several hours with only one(1!) other potential buyer. Our client won the auction, ending up paying $316,000. So why was this the Best Buy of the year? Four weeks later they received an offer of $425,000 for the home, without having put a dime into it. If our client hadn’t been looking for something like this, we would have bought it ourselves.
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Highest Sales Price in Ojai: $3,700,000 – 4308 Hendrickson Road.
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Lowest Sales Price in Ojai (mobile homes not included): $100,000 – 113 Valley Road. (This was never listed in the MLS. It’s there only for comparative purposes.)
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Median Sales Price of All Homes Sold in Ojai: $580,124 (2011: $574,508).
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Average Percentage, Sales Price to Listing Price: .949% (2011: .934%)
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Lowest Interest Rate We Saw This Year: (30-year, fixed): 3.0%
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Highest Interest Rate We Saw This Year: (30-year fixed): 4.5%
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Lender/Mortgage Broker of the Year: Emily Wilson – Heritage Financial. (Thanks Em, we couldn’t have made it through the year without you!)
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The “I Can’t Believe It’s Still on the Market” Award: (Cheryl and I each got to pick one):
- 10934 Alto Court – listed at $1,995,000. Want proof that the “high-end” market isn’t moving? Look no further. 14 acres. 6,950 square feet of living space. A guest house. All in a great location. Say what you will about aesthetics, but no matter what your personal tastes are, ALL could be remedied (if you so chose) and you’d still come out ahead on this one.
- 10632 Encino Drive – listed at $879,000. This one is in the same neighborhood (Saddle Mountain) as the one above. What’s going on? We are shocked that this one is still available. Perhaps it could use some updating, but the home is clean and located on a 2 acre parcel. This feels like a great family home.
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Best “Worst” Fun Pic of the year:
I just can’t help it, this one totally cracks me up.
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Best Movie We Saw This Year (tie): The Avengers (Even if you’re not a comic book fan, which we aren’t, this one’s a hoot); Silver Linings Playbook (Unfortunately branded a “romantic comedy” – this movie is much more than that).
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Best Video of the Year:
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Cheryl’s Favorite Moment of the Year: Her surprise trip to Sedona, AZ. Neither of us had been there before. The funny thing was, my impetus for taking here there was the Out of Africa wild animal park, located about 20 miles south of Sedona – in Camp Verde. I completely zoned out that Sedona was nearby, and that it was so beautiful. Good thing I zoomed out when I was on Google Maps.
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Ray’s Favorite Moment of the Year: Meeting new friends, Martin and Luis. Just for clarity, they aren’t a “couple” (not that there’s anything wrong with that).
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Our Favorite New Restauarant: Cafe Firenze, Moorpark. The calamari is incredible.
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So that’s all for this year, folks. It’s been fun for us (and hopefully for you). The traffic on BBIO has increased 3-fold since last year, so thank you for visiting! Have a great 2013!