San Clemente Homes, San Clemente Condos, San Clemente Real Estate, Dana Point Homes, Dana Point Condos, Talega Homes, Short Sales, Foreclosures, Bank Owned

This is the section where additional information might be helpful with your upcoming transaction. Be sure to check back on a regular basis for new and valuable changes!

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SELLERS--Mike Set These High-$$ Neighborhood Records
San Clemente

Hillcrest

Hillcrest AGAIN

Hillcrest YET AGAIN (Fixer)

Hillcrest AGAIN (Per Sq. Ft.)

Pacifica

Broadmoor

Faire Harbour (2/1.25)

Faire Harbour AGAIN (2/2)

Villamar

Villamoura

Rancho Margarita

And in the City Of Irvine: Somerset (Danbury)
BUYERS--Mike Does It Like This
Check out this recent transaction:

This exceptional home hit the market at $1.2M, then the price fell to $1.1M, then to $1M50, yet the 7-month Listing Expired. But during that Listing Period something else happened: The house's competition sold, which made the new $999,000 price doubly attractive. All that first day I pestered the Listing Agent for an appointment (though his voice mail said he'd taken the day off). He finally got back to me and agreed to a showing, making me, I think, the first one in (of 12 that day). As I toured the house with my Buyers, agents could be heard on the answering machine asking to bring their clients. We wrote the Offer. Then, I pestered the Listing Agent again, because I wanted to present our Offer the old-fashioned way: face-to-face with the Homeowners. The Sellers agreed, and I made my presentation, at the kitchen table, at 4 p.m. "OK, we'll think about it." But, I responded, for many reasons we need an answer today. "Today?!" They needed to talk it over; I was asked to return in 30 minutes. While I paced outside, nervous as a cat, agents with clients continued to arrive. When I returned the Sellers had a Counter-Offer covering minor issues. At 5 O'clock--as 2 showings were in progress--I signed the agreement. Whew! Talk about tense!--within hours an Offer $19,000 higher came in (but because our Offer had already been Accepted that second Offer could only be a back-up). Details:

Mariner's Point-----855 Ave. Acapulco, San Clemente-----3777 sq. ft.-----4 Beds, 3 Baths-----Days On Market 001!-----Last List Price $999,000-----Sale Price $980,000!!

Just good luck? Had we not taken any one of the steps we in fact did take, our Offer likely would've been rejected or ignored. Had I not studied the market, had I not pushed to be the 1st showing, had we not made a solid Offer and quickly, had I not pressed to present our Offer personally, had we not asked for an immediate response, had my Buyers not agreed that I could accept the Counter-Offer for them, someone else would now own that property. Representing Buyer or Seller, a professional creates his own 'luck.'
Go The Extra Mile--ALWAYS
"Integrity"

Ethics (the moral choices of an individual in his relationship with others) was dinner-table conversation when I was growing up in small-town Virginia. I run my business life the same way I run my personal life, with simple integrity.

The word "integrity" comes from the word "integer," meaning 'wholeness.' An integer is positive, complete, and cannot be divided.

To me, professional and personal integrity are not separable. I put one face to the world. The businessman you see is the same man my family and friends see. (But in a transaction I can be one tough negotiator.)

Business Principles

I follow this business plan: Carve out your share of a market by being better at every stage. Examples:

--I don't use generic mailers; I create all mailers myself. Mine are not the garden-variety fill-in-the-blank type--my mailers have substance.

--I used to be the only agent I knew who did all his own photography, and created all his own advertising, including flyers and brochures (please call or write for a sample; I'll send along a client letter to show how they've worked). But with Coldwell Banker's recent hire of Western Exposures, the major residential photography firm in Orange County, I've finally been bested by genuine photography experts. But I still keep my camera with me, so I can keep re-taking photos when light, or an especially perfect sunset, allows me to make a better photo. By taking and re-taking the photos, I continue to improve the marketing.

--I don't hire telemarketers; if you get a marketing call from The Mike McLane Team it's from Mike McLane.

The Extra Mile

It might seem a simple thing, to attach a creative cover letter when submitting an Offer that can't be presented personally. Most agents, however, don't do it. I'm different than most agents. I studied for 2 years under a Pulitzer Prize-winning writer, and I've had many a success in writing, including quality cover letters. Such letters are the only way that's professionally proper for an agent representing a Buyer to communicate directly with the Seller.

In the example below, the property-in-question had 2 Offers besides ours. When I contacted the Listing Agent, she said, "Your people get the house! My Seller is already bonded to your Buyers because of that letter you wrote." Edited for confidentiality, the letter:

"Good talking with you this evening.

Here's a very sweet, clean Offer .... It is nearly Full Price, is Non-Contingent, and, importantly, the Buyers are flexible about Close Of Escrow, which will make finding a house for your Seller a comfortable task ....

I'd still like to present this Offer personally to your Seller, the old-fashioned way, if that can be worked out with your Seller. One of the points I'll make is how delightful a married couple the Buyers are. He appears to be in his late fifties or early sixties, and she appears to be in her late forties or early fifties. Dr. ... is a retired military officer. He's a physician who, after his military career, worked as a doctor in service to the Navajo Nation. Dr. ... is a psychologist who often works with youth. They haven't been married very long, though I'm not sure we can call them newlyweds. These Buyers have earned my highest compliment: They're 'contributors;' they've spent most of their lives contributing to society. Your Seller may be confident he'll be turning over his house to folks who will make an outstanding addition to San Clemente.

... Please give us every consideration. Your Seller has certainly put together a lovely home, and Drs. ... and ... are excited about the prospect of moving in.

Let's do business!"

The next day we were in Escrow.
Family Fun-2 Pages
Bedtime Stories

"Fences"

(Here in California most of us own fences jointly with our adjacent property-owner, so occasional fence repairs provide an opportunity to work with, and get to know better, our neighbors. This short poem is a fun read for families after dinner or as a bedtime story. See Notes below, followed by another short Frost poem.)

"Mending Wall"

Something there is that doesn't love a wall, / That spills the upper boulders in the sun, / And makes gaps even two can pass abreast. / ...The gaps I mean, / No one has seen them made or heard them made, / But at spring mending time we find them there. / I let my neighbor know beyond the hill; / And on a day we meet to walk the line / And set the wall between us once again. / We keep the wall between us as we go. / To each the boulders that have fallen to each. / And some are loaves and some so nearly balls / We have to use a spell to make them balance. / We wear our fingers rough with handling them. / Oh, just another kind of outdoor game, / One on a side. It comes to little more: / He is all pine and I am apple-orchard. / My apple trees will never get across / And eat the cones under his pines, I tell him. / He only says, "Good fences make good neighbors." / Spring is the mischief in me, and I wonder / If I could put a notion in his head: / "WHY do they make good neighbors? Isn't it / Where there are cows? But here there are no cows. / Before I built a wall I'd ask to know / What I was walling in or walling out, / And to whom I was like to give offence. / Something there is that doesn't love a wall, / That wants it down!" ...I see him there, / Bringing a stone firmly by the top / In each hand, like an old-stone savage armed. / He moves in darkness as it seems to me, / Not of woods only and the shade of trees. / He will not go behind his father's saying, / And he likes having thought of it so well / He says again, "Good fences make good neighbors."

Notes I was a freshman in a Virginia high school when Frost, winner of 3 Pulitzer Prizes, made his last major public appearance. He recited a poem at John F. Kennedy's 1961 innauguration. After the ceremony, at the huge gala, Frost was called to the microphone. "I've been a Democrat all my life!" he announced to rousing the cheers and applause, then added, to great laughter, even from JFK, "But I haven't been too happy about it since 1896."

_______________________________________________________________

For All Ages

No One Doesn't Love This

One of my favorite memories of working with little ones is when I coached a group of First Graders for a presentation to School Board members. This poem is easy--and very cute--for kids to act out. They LOVE it! Try it with the little ones you know. It's a fun project for kids in a group, too. After you've explained that this famous work is about a little boy or girl on the way home from a one-room schoolhouse, before cars and electric lights when most citizens lived on farms, picture it:

1, The first half of the first line focuses on the word 'woods,' so have the youngster imitate a tree, maybe like this: Begin standing, with head bowed and hands in front knuckle-to-knuckle; while the first 4 words are recited, gradually raise the head while bringing the arms up to open skyward like a tree; then, for the 2nd half of the line, the youngster gets a quizzical expression, maybe with finger touching his head. 2, The youngster points yonder. 3, The youngster points to the ground. 4, After repeating the tree gestures as in #1, the youngster's hands roll gently back and forth like a rifting-down snowflake all the way to the floor. 5, 6, The youngster grips with both hands the reins of his horse. 7, The tree gesture again, then one hand making a circle in the air to suggest the lake. 8, Peers with hand over brow like a sailor looks out to sea. 9, 10, Shakes the reins. 11, 12, Finger over mouth suggesting quiet, then hands parallel gently sweep back and forth, then the falling snow gesture again. 13, The tree gesture, then the sailor gesture. 14, The youngster smiles and pats his horse. 15, 16, As the youngster slowly walks away he smiles and waves good-bye.

"Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening"

Whose woods these are I think I know
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

--Robert Frost (1923)
Your FICO Score
At one time or another we've all been annoyed at Credit Reporting Companies and the way they keep records on us. This page attempts to take at least a little of the mystery out of how this business works.

Background   As you know, most mortgage loan packages are sold by the Lender to Investors. That’s one reason why Lenders are such sticklers for detail—a perfectly prepared loan package is the one an Investor will buy.



FICO Scores   To rate a loan, the Fair Isaac Company, specialists in “predictive modeling” and “decision management systems,” developed a formula for credit risk assessment. The formula assigns a number value for each piece of credit information. Credit information includes payment history (35% of the formula), amounts owed (30%), length of credit history (15%), new credit (10%) and types of credit (10%). (Thanks to our American laws, issues like race, religion, marital status, gender and national origin cannot be used as factors to determine credit worthiness.) Scores range from 300 to 850. A higher FICO score predicts a high liklihood that a borrower has the ability and willingness to repay the loan. A high FICO usually gets the borrower the best interest rates.

The FICO Basics   These credit factors are given serious attention: bankruptcies, late payments, collections, judgments, current balances, number of revolving accounts, finance company accounts, number of accounts opened in the last 12 months, and the number of credit inquiries.

The Score   Things like the quality of the credit information collected, interpretation of the data, even geographical reporting variations and simple mistakes, can impact the scoring. To review your credit status:

-Equifax   800-685-1111 www.equifax.com

and/or

-Experian (TRW)   888-397-3742 www.experian.com

and/or

-Trans Union Corp   800-916-8800 www.tuc.com

and/or

--www.myfico.com

Good News   If your FICO isn’t up to the level you wish it was, with the new loan packages you can still get into the home of your dreams. Yes, you may pay a higher interest rate in the beginning, but when your credit information improves and the FICO score goes up you can refinance the loan.

Mike McLane Can Put You In Touch With A Lender: 466-2332.
California Beaches
Talega - 120 Paseo Vista and official site link

Talega Homes

Located in the planned community of Talega, these homes offer access to miles of biking and hiking trails, swim and athletic clubs, championship golf course, nature preserve and (coming soon) upscale shopping center. Click on the link below to learn more about this planned community.

Search All Talega Properties
San Clemente
San Clemente and the Beach Cities
Dana Point
Dana Point

Coldwell Banker
409 Avenida Salvador • Dana Point / San Clemente, CA 92672
Phone: 949) 492-2323 • Phone2: 949( 466-2332
The Record-Setter

San Clemente

Check out this recent transaction:

"Integrity"

Business Principles

The Extra Mile

Bedtime Stories

"Fences"

For All Ages

No One Doesn't Love This

Background As you know, most mortgage loan packages are sold by the Lender to Investors. That’s one reason why Lenders are such sticklers for detail—a perfectly prepared loan package is the one an Investor will buy.

The FICO Basics These credit factors are given serious attention: bankruptcies, late payments, collections, judgments, current balances, number of revolving accounts, finance company accounts, number of accounts opened in the last 12 months, and the number of credit inquiries.

The Score Things like the quality of the credit information collected, interpretation of the data, even geographical reporting variations and simple mistakes, can impact the scoring. To review your credit status: