The Holidays are here….

Wishing you all the very best at this time of year in this most unusual year! The new year is sure to bring better things for us all!

Happy Hanukkah, Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! However you celebrate at this time of year, you are surely doing it a bit differently than in years past with the COVID lockdowns again in full force!

This month, again (since last month’s newsletter go to you too late for Thanksgiving), to say “Thank you”, I would like to offer a pumpkin pie to you. Simply contact me via text, (916-295-4151), email, or through my website to request the pie by December 20^th, and I will deliver it before Christmas!

Please enjoy my daughter’s favorite cookie recipe. She will be home for Christmas baking with me soon

I hope you enjoy this month’s gardening tip and ideas for getting your house ready to sell or getting ready to buy a home! Please let me know if there is any content you would like to see and I will do my best to include it in future editions!

Please contact me if you have questions about the market or buying or selling your home. I am always here and am honored to be your Real Estate resource.

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Sacramento Area Real Estate Market Update -Through Nov. 2020

Here’s what’s happening in our area’s real estate market

With the super low inventory and continuing fierce buyer demand home prices are rising!

Sacramento, Placer & El Dorado County Market stats:

Includes year over year comparison

FOR SALE

PENDING

SOLD

Days on Market

Avg SOLD $

1,576

(-52.6%)

2,293

(+31.7%)

2,285

+20.6%

(-47.0%)

$544K

(+17.5%)

Despite the amazingly low inventory of available homes on the market, home sales in our market continue to be well above last year! With this high demand and low inventory we are seeing prices rise with an over 17% increase from this time last year! This shows it is an amazing time for sellers to sell. It is also a great time for buyers! With rents at all-time highs and interest rates so low, it is less expensive to buy a home than to rent one in most price ranges – even with the increased prices we are seeing.

The most incredible thing we are seeing is how low the number of homes on the market is. We currently have fewer that half as many homes on the market compared to this time last year! Yet sales are up by large numbers! That is CRAZY!! This rate of sales cannot be sustained unless more people put their homes on the market.

Here’s a look by county:

	FOR SALE	PENDING	SOLD	Days on Market	Avg SOLD $
Sac	849 (-51.2%)	1,468 +25.6%	1,449 +16.4%	15 (-48%)	492K +15.5%
El Dorado	300 (-59.5%)	289 +63.3%	282 +42.4%	28 (-50.0%)	635K +15.2%
Placer	427 (-49.2%)	536 +35.7%	554 +22.6%	22 (-46.3%)	632K +18.6%

If you are thinking about selling your home or buying a home or have any questions about your home’s value or the market, please contact me! I am here to be your resource! You can subscribe to my e-newsletter at www.NanDanford.com or send me an email.

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The top 6 things to do before listing your home for sale

All homes tend to sell for

money after they are

prepared properly for the

market. These few things

will have the most impact

with the least amount of

investment.

You may be looking at your house and asking where you should improve and what is okay as it stands. After you live in a home for a while, you might not see the things that will distract home buyers. Your agent can help you determine what needs to be done.

Improvements Start With the Exterior

First impressions count and can only be made once! That's why your yard needs to be inviting. Trim back the bushes and trees, especially if they block views from the windows and make your home difficult to see from the street. Some ways you can give your home some low-cost curb appeal improvements include:

· Keep the lawn mowed, preferably on the diagonal.

· Plant flowers along the walk or by the front door. Color sells.

· Wash the exterior windows.

· Paint or replace the front door and buy new hardware.

· Power spray the house to get rid of dirt and cobwebs.

· Buy a new welcome mat for the front steps.

· Paint or replace the mailbox.

· Paint your house number on the curb or buy a plaque displaying your house number and install it near the entry.

· Wash or replace front porch light fixtures.

Remove Clutter and Excess Furniture

Many homes contain too much furniture. You may benefit from removing two to three pieces of furniture from each room. Less furniture will make the rooms appear bigger. If you aren't sure of where to put the furniture you end up removing, you can always place it in the garage or rent out a storage unit temporarily.

· Remove all personal photographs from tables and walls. Patch holes in the walls or hang non-personalized artwork over the existing nails.

· Pack up your bookcases.

· Clean out the closets and store non-essential items. Have your closets at about half full if possible.

· Rearrange your kitchen pantry, kitchen cabinets, and bedroom closets in an orderly manner.

Thoroughly Clean the House

You can hire a professional cleaning crew for about $300 or do it yourself for free. Be sure to wash the inside of the windows.

· Rent a carpet steamer to clean the carpets. You may find they do not need to be replaced.

· Dust the tops of your doorways and window frames.

· Polish all wood floors and clean ceramic flooring and the grout lines.

· Wash all light fixture coverings and ceiling fan blades.

· To give your home a more open feeling, consider removing a few doors that open into each other or otherwise block the flow of traffic.

Do a Budget-Friendly Kitchen Update

Kitchens are the most important room in the house. It's considered the heart and soul of the home. Even if a buyer is not much of a cook, the kitchen is still where family and friends tend to gather.

· If new granite is out of your budget, consider either re-grouting the kitchen counter tiles, which is often surprisingly cost-effective, or covering them with granite tiles instead of granite slab.

· For wood cabinets, stripping the finish and re-staining or painting will save you more money than re-surfacing the cabinets.

· You can also buy new knobs or pulls for the cabinet doors. If you have 40 or so knobs on your kitchen cabinets, at a cost of about $5 per knob, your total outlay for new hardware will be about $200. New hardware will often transform the appearance of your cabinets.

· You can replace a worn kitchen faucet for around $100 to $200.

· Also, consider buying new kitchen sink basket strainers, which usually cost less than $25 each.

· Consider installing kitchen pendant lights over the sink.

Paint the Interior

Professional painters will likely charge anywhere from $300 to $500 to paint each room, but with a little patience, you can paint the rooms yourself. By putting in the effort to re-paint several rooms in your house, you'll freshen up the space and make it feel new and inviting.

Here are some tips for doing the paint job on your own.

· Choose a soft color in a light brown tone (never white) and paint every room the same color.

· The painting will go faster if you paint the ceilings the same color, but ceilings really pop if they are a lighter color than the color of the walls. Lighter colors also make the ceilings appear higher. If you go that route, choose 2 shades lighter or white.

· For a 10-foot x 10-foot room, you will need two, one-gallon cans of paint. For the amount of money a professional painter will charge you to paint one room, you can probably paint the entire house yourself. Eggshell finish is great for kitchen and bathrooms and flat finish is the look you’ll want for other rooms.

Freshen up Bathrooms

If you have wallpaper in the bathroom, there's a good chance that it's peeling (or will peel) and it should be removed. You can rent a steamer to remove the wallpaper or strip it yourself.

· Consider replacing the toilet and vanity, especially if they are stained or particularly outdated. Many home improvement stores have vanities which include the countertop, sink, and faucet. It will lower the cost and is typically easy to replace.

· Buy a two-light wall fixture or a light bar for over the sink.

· If the tub is stained, hire a professional to refinish it.

· Replace water-stained shower doors or clean them with a lime dissolving detergent.

· Buy a new shower curtain and tie it back with ribbons.

· Hang fresh towels and lay down a new bath rug.

· Place scented candles near a basket of tightly rolled washcloths to create a spa-like environment.

· Stash all personal items under the bathroom sink.

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What to do in your Northern California Garden in December

Buy

Bypass crowded malls and head to nurseries this month for plants that the gardeners on your list can enjoy long after the holidays. For an edible treat, tie a bow around a dwarf citrus tree or a cluster of strawberry plants. For something in bloom, choose a camellia, Christmas cactus, cymbidium, kalanchoe, or moth orchid

Plant

For best selection, shop for bare-root roses this month.

December’s not too late to plant bulbs such as tulips that have already been prechilled for 6 weeks. Unchilled tulip blooms may be smaller, and bloom on slightly shorter stems.

Camellia sasanqua and early-flowering varieties of C. japonica are blooming, making now a good time to choose them for flower color. Sasanquas tolerate more sun than japonicas, and they make good espaliers, groundcovers, informal hedges, and container plants. White ‘Setsugekka’ and red ‘Yuletide’ are upright growers. White-and-pink ‘Hana Jiman’ has open growth; deep pink ‘Tanya’ is a good groundcover. Use japonicas singly, as accents, or train them against a fence or wall as espaliers. Look for ‘Alba Plena’, ‘Daikagura’, ‘Debutante’, ‘Elegans’, and ‘Wildfire’.

For winter color in containers and garden beds, stock up on cyclamen. Flowers come in a rainbow of colors ― from bright pink and coral to lavender, red, and white ― some with ruffled petals. Give cyclamen a spot that gets part shade or morning or late-afternoon sun. To plant, set crowns (base of plants) slightly higher than the surrounding soil. If possible, protect blooms from rain, which causes spotting on petals. Zones 1-2: Grow cyclamen in a cool bright location indoors.

Distinctive blooms in shades of pale lime, burgundy, pink, and white add much-needed color to the winter and early-spring garden. Plant in well-drained soil in shade or part shade. Shop locally or order online from Big Dipper Farm.

In December, most nurseries sell a wider than usual range of conifers suitable for growing in containers as living Christmas trees. Choices include Colorado blue spruce, deodar cedar, Douglas fir, pines, and redwood. Before bringing a potted tree indoors, water it thoroughly and hose off the foliage. Once indoors, set the pot on a waterproof saucer in a cool, bright location away from heat sources. Check soil moisture daily and water as needed; keep the tree indoors no longer than 10 days. Then plant outdoors or transplant into a larger container.

Maintain

Winter rains can be unpredictable. If they’re light, continue to irrigate plants when the soil dries out. Also frequently check containers and plants growing under eaves where rain doesn’t reach to make sure they’re getting enough water. If rains are adequate, turn off the irrigation system’s automatic controller (or install a rain shutoff to do it for you).

For the freshest tree, look for one that is stored in water at the Christmas tree lot. After you get it home, remove an inch off the bottom of the trunk with a saw, place the trunk in a bucket of water, and store the tree outdoors in a shady area overnight. Before setting the tree in a stand, saw another inch off the bottom (you may need to remove some branches, if they start low on the trunk). Use a stand with a large reservoir and keep the reservoir full (check it daily the first week).

Protect

Young citrus trees are more prone to frost damage than older trees. Also, immature fruits up to ½ inch in diameter are damaged at higher temperatures (around 30°) than larger, ripe grapefruit, lemons, mandarins, and oranges, which can tolerate temperatures down to 26° for short periods. If a heavy freeze is predicted, cover citrus trees with burlap draped over stakes, if possible; keep the fabric from touching the leaves or fruits.

Apply dormant spray to smother overwintering insect eggs and pests such as aphids, mites, and scale, on deciduous flowering and fruit trees as well as roses with dormant oil after leaves have fallen. For complete coverage, spray the branches, branch crotches, trunk, and ground beneath the dripline. Also, rake up and destroy any remaining fallen fruit and leaves. To control peach blight and peach leaf curl, spray with lime sulfur mixed with dormant oil after leaves have dropped. Repeat in February, just before buds show color. Spray on a dry day and follow label directions carefully.