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Click on the month to view the newsletter.
This is the 30th year of writing our own newsletter focused on news-you-can-use.
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November '08
Transformation...Last February, 2008, I was sitting in a hotel conference room in Ventura. It was 9:00 in the morning and the Landmark Forum was about to begin. |
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October '08
Market Update...According to Mark Schniepp’s economic forecast he does not believe the current Wall Street meltdown will affect us very much. |
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September '08
Excellence...Fifteen years ago I took an Adult Education course called, “Laughter for Living.” |
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August '08
Foreclosure Follies...We’re just wrapping up a successful foreclosure purchase for a six-time past client. |
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July '08
Foreclosure Fallacies...Buyers are in charge of the market, right? Not if you want to buy a bank owned home. |
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June '08
Scott’s Best Bits For June...Presidential Election Years ,What Are You Settling For?, The Game, Shaky Escrow, etc.
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May '08
The Market’s Going to Hell in a Handbasket...“No one wants to live in Santa Barbara these days. It is the perfect time for Realtors |
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February '08
Can I get my property taxes reduced?...Last month’s article produced as many inquiry calls as any article I have written in 31 years!
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January '08
Lower Your Property Taxes...If you purchased a home in 2005-07 you are probably entitled to a tax refund/reduction. |
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November/December '07
ANOTHER SUCCESSFUL CONFERENCE...We received so many positive comments from our 3rd Annual Prime Voyage Conference that we’d like to share some of them with you.
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October '07
Prime Voyage 3rd Annual S.B. Real Estate Conference...You won’t want to miss this! Join us Wednesday evening, October 24th from 7-9PM |
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September '07
Wall Street Bites Real Estate...Wall Street and Real Estate cooperate to supply money for the majority of mortgages issued in America |
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August '07
Real Estate Should be Fine by 2009...The good news is … South Coast house sales are up
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July '07
Retirement Living In Santa Barbara...No longer called retirement homes, these are Senior Living Communities.
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June '07
They’re Selling Your Name and Credit Information...The latest organized effort to buy and sell your personal credit information...
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May '07
Easy on The Realtors... When homes are hard to sell, Realtors are finally appreciated. Complaining is a national sport... |
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April '07
Montecito Changes Coming...Montecito is a hotbed of residential remodeling, and there has been relatively little commercial growth. |
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February '07
"Spotlight on Homes" becomes "Prime Voyage"... We have changed our name to Prime Voyage, reflecting changes in our real estate business... |
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January '07
Straight Talk about Risk in This Market... Rarely have I been so torn in two directions over reporting the good and bad news about the market... |
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November '06
“How’s the Market?”...Do you mean the condo, median priced single family, luxury homes, commercial, apartment... |
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October '06
Reserve Your Seat For the Conference...The Second Annual Williams Systems Real Estate Conference at Fess Parker’s Double Tree Inn, Wednesday evening October 18, from 6:30 to 9:30 PM... |
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September '06
Survey Says During Boomer Retirement Many Will Work...The coming retirement of 84,000,000 Americans born between 1946 and 1964 is affecting home sales.
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August '06
Second Williams Systems Real Estate Conference on October 18...Scott is teaming up with Mark Schneipp, from the California Economic Forecast for a lively evening of real estate news
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July '06
JR’s Gas Station to Become Giovanni’s Pizza...At 1905 Cliff Drive the JR’s Gas Station that occupied the Southwest corner of the central Mesa crossroads...
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June '06
Lompoc Wind Energy Project...In February, a permit application was made to the County of Santa Barbara to locate a major wind energy project...
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May '06
The Market Is Different... Real Estate markets are local and Santa Barbara is no exception. My analysis is a personal look, and should not be applied...
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April '06
Roger's Tract Rebirth... The Roger’s Tract was a 1920’s subdivision of hillside lots on the Mesa sold to the public for personal oil well sites. The Mesa oil boom promptly fizzled leaving the lots worthless for drilling...
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March '06
No Bubbles in our Bathtub ...Nationally - The National Association of Realtors predicts that 2006 will be the third strongest year on record nationally for home sales, behind 2004 and 2005. They expect 6.75 million homes sales and prices are expected to...
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February '06
Round-Up, Wrap-Up and Tune-Up for 2006...Death Tax Exemption Increases January 1 The Death Tax exemption is the amount of money you pass along through your estate without taxation. The exemption for the next two years ('06-'07) is $2,000,000, with a catch; to get the $2M you must have a living trust...
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January '06
Huge Home Gains Cap Remarkable 2005...Measure the market by any standard and 2005 was a stellar year in Santa Barbara. Flip over the newsletter to view the expanded market coverage focusing on statistics from the past 60 days. If you relied on the amount of Sunday open house signs, or the number of shiny Realtor faces...
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December '05
2005 and 2006, The Lion and the Lamb ...The 2005 real estate market came in roaring like a Lion and is going out like a Lamb. Now is a rare moment in real estate when the seasonal price slowdown after August is multiplied by a national economic pause caused by Katrina, Rita, and sky high gasoline prices. It is similar to the months after 9/11. It takes time to get your bearing as...
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November '05
Conference Clicks ...The First Annual Williams Team Real Estate Conference was a hit with over 250 people attending the event at the Double Tree Inn. It was a good first conference, and next year it will grow and be better. The 2006 conference will cost $49, but 2005 Charter attendees and regular recipients of Spotlight...
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October '05
The Conference is Wednesday, October 19th...Every Santa Barbara homeowner hoping to sell their home or invest in real estate in the next 24 months should attend this FREE conference. Journalists sell papers pushing the idea that the market must FALL. Yet, prices are UP 15% for the fifth year in a row. So who is right, the doom peddlers, or...
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September '05
Conference is Coming...Come to the First Annual Williams Team Santa Barbara Real Estate Convention. Schedule yourself for Wednesday evening, October 19, at the Double Tree Inn for a FREE conference on taking full advantage of the Santa Barbara real estate market. Discover why the Santa Barbara market is...
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August '05
What Happens When You Want to Buy A Friend's Home?...Occasionally I am called to help sell homes “informally.” Friends want to sell to one another, tenants wish to buy the property they are renting, or people hear about a home coming for sale and they want to make an offer before it goes on...
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July '05
What is a Bargain Property?...Everyone wants a bargain. My favorite definition for bargain real estate is, “Anything that you bought two years ago.” Rapidly appreciated real estate is as much about time as it is about money. When people bid $45,000 over...
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June '05
And Away Goes Trouble Down the Drain ...Not in the City of Santa Barbara, because the City is going to require video inspection of your personal sewer lateral up to the place where it joins the City main lines. They are looking for leaks or illegal connections and the homeowner is going to pay for necessary repairs...
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May '05
The Possibilities Are There... Have you ever had fantasies of real estate development? Maybe you won’t become the Condo King or the Apartment Guru, or Office Tower Mogul, but perhaps you have dreamed about the idea. Here’s a short primer about building in Santa Barbara...
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April '05
Psst…Want to see color pictures of…houses!? Interiors, exteriors, room by room, with prices, addresses… and everything? Then, we have built the best web site for you! At www.ScottWilliams.com you will find...
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March '05
Who's buying in Santa Barbara? Two surveys were conducted in 2004 for the California Economic Forecast. Scott, along with 17 other local Realtors®, contributed information from 276 home buyers (or roughly 20%) of all local transactions. The average sales price was $1.5M and the median was $980,000, both....
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February '05
Here’s a popular nightmare: the market is near the top, like in 1990, ready to begin sliding downwards into years of dropping prices. Month in and month out, I’m asked if the market is near the top of a bubble by Santa Barbarans who have convinced themselves that...
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January '05
Year 27, issue 225 marks the arrival of our new name, style change, and masthead. In Negotiation becomes Spotlight on Homes. We spotlight home sales information in every issue, and we shine a marketing spotlight on homes with our fix-up and staging specialty...
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