Pasadena Collection Modern Condo for Sale

Offered at $699,000

1,500 sqft – Built 2004 – 2 Bedrooms – 2 Bathrooms

This is Pasadena’s premiere modern condo located in the South Lake District. Throw away those dining menus and entertainment guides, because at the Pasadena Collection East you have an onsite concierge’s service waiting to serve. Entertain your guests before hitting the town in the open living area with dramatic views of the city and amazing 13’ ceilings. The adjacent kitchen features custom cabinetry with stainless steel details, galaxy granite countertops and a kitchen island with bar.  Enjoy your private retreat in the master bedroom with a custom built-in book shelf and full bath. The other spacious bedroom has a full bath conveniently located next to it.  Additional features and HOA amenities include flagstone flooring throughout, 4 parking spaces, a fitness room with plenty of modern equipment, association lounge, and a community surveillance system.  All close to shopping, Trader Joes, dining, entertainment, and the Metro Gold Line.

For Buying and/or Selling Real Estate, contact me:
Ramiro Rivas – Pasadena Realtor
626-497-4606
Ramiro@RivasEstates.com

Pasadena Collection, Pasadena Condos and Lofts, pasadena real estate, Pasadena Real Estate Blogs

Easy Ways to Cut Summer Energy Costs

With summer officially upon us, many Pasadena homeowners will be confronted with rising electric bills as fans and air conditioners kick into high gear in an effort to keep cool. Demand for electricity can also increase if you have house guests or children home for the summer.

As a member of the Top 5 in Real Estate Network®, I have access to lots of great ideas for planning ahead to control energy costs this summer. The following tips are from the experts at Public Service Electric and Gas Company (PSE&G):

• Use ceiling fans in the counter-clockwise direction to create a wind-chill effect, making you feel cooler. Also, whole-house fans that bring in cooler night-time air can pre-cool a house and reduce energy use in the daytime if heat is kept out by closing windows and shades.
• Install a programmable thermostat. If health conditions permit, raise the setting from 73 to 78 degrees. You can save 3-5% on your air conditioning costs for each degree you raise the thermostat.
• Close doors leading to uncooled parts of your home. If you have central air conditioning, close off vents to unused rooms and be sure to keep filters clean.
• Plant shade trees close to the house on the South and West sides.
• Seal holes and cracks around doors and windows. Eliminate air leaks between window air conditioners and windows with foam insulation or weather-stripping.
• Turn off power sources. TVs, computers and other electronic devices draw power when they are in standby mode or turned off but still plugged in. Plug electronics into power strips and turn off the power switch when the items are not in use.
• Switch to compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs), which use 75% less electricity and burn more coolly than incandescent bulbs. Keep in mind that CFLs are especially handy in hard-to-reach fixtures and won’t need to be replaced for about five years.
• Use timers and motion detectors on indoor and outdoor lighting.
• Delay heat-producing tasks such as laundry until later in the day. Wash full loads, using cold water whenever possible.
• Run the dishwasher at night, using the shortest cycle that will get the dishes clean. If manufacturers’ directions permit, turn the dishwasher off before the dry cycle or use the air dry feature if your machine has one.
• Take short showers as they use less hot water than a bath.
• Replace old appliances with new energy efficient Energy Star appliances.
• Unplug the extra refrigerator in your garage or basement and use it only when necessary. Refrigerators that are only 10 years old can use twice as much electricity as new Energy Star labeled models.

For Buying and/or Selling Real Estate, contact me:
Ramiro Rivas – Pasadena Realtor
626-497-4606
Ramiro@RivasEstates.com

cutting energy costs, pasadena, Real Estate

In business since 1982, Tarantino’s in Pasadena strongly resembles the east coast hole-in-the-wall Italian pizzerias. The red and white checkered tables are intimately placed next to eachother along the brick walls, which are lined with photos of Italian-American celebrities standing next to restaurant owner, Mr. Tarantino himself. The food truly lives up to it’s atmoshere of the quintessential Italian eatery. The New York style pizza is made from handmade dough and a pizza sauce that I am told takes hours to prepare. The restaurant offers a large selection of traditional pasta dishes and Antipasto salads, as well as an affordable list of beer and wine.  

CASH ONLY$!

Mon – Thurs: 11:00 am – 9:45 pm
Fri – Sat: 11:00 am – 10:45 am
Sun: 5:00 pm – 8:45 pm

ERICA SWANSON
RIVAS & ASSOCIATES
818-257-1054

Italian Restaurants, pasadena pizza, TARANTINO'S PIZZERIA

Stuck in a Pasadena house you can’t afford or can’t sell for more than you owe on it? Beware the Web, where you’ll see plenty of claims that short sales will save your credit, simple as that. But there’s nothing simple about deciding whether to sell your Pasadena house in a foreclosure or in a short sale, which means you sell the property for less than you owe the bank. And in most cases, going through either process will wreck your credit score. 

“Both short sales and foreclosures are considered negative by the score, because our data shows us it’s very predictive of future credit risk,” Tom Quinn, Minneapolis-based Fair Isaac Corp.’s vice president of FICO scores, said. “The claim that doing a short sale is not going to hurt your score is false. It’s inaccurate.” 

Notice of Forclosure

Credit scores, which are designed to assess how likely it is that consumers will uphold their side of the bargain, look at the severity (are we talking bankruptcy or a late car payment?), frequency (have you skipped a payment once, or have you missed a bunch?), and recency (did you miss a payment last month or last year?) of items on your credit report. 

That’s not to say that there aren’t some instances where short sales are better. If a borrower is current at the point of a short sale, for instance, then the consumer’s credit score won’t sink as far as it would have if he hadn’t made a mortgage payment for six months. Still, Fair Isaac says that the benefit from not having prior delinquencies on file pales when compared with the hit a score takes from a short sale. 

Dan Williams, program director for LSS Financial Counseling Service, says this widespread notion that short sales are better for credit is a big problem because it deters some people from going into foreclosure when that would be the best option for them. 

Breaking the Piggy Bank

Factor in the fact that many banks don’t start foreclosure proceedings right after the third missed payment, and families can potentially stay in a house for more than a year rent-free, hopefully saving that money to help them get back on their feet. This could amount to thousands of dollars. 

Housing counselors say that most clients have credit scores in the basement already. “If you’ve got a poor credit score and are doing a short sale to preserve your credit, it’s ridiculous,” Williams said. And it’s happening every day.” 

If you’re having mortgage trouble, seek help right away from a housing counselor or an attorney. Pasadena Realtors are the go-to professionals to learn about the local housing market and what it takes to sell your Pasadena home. But they aren’t credit experts, and I’d get a second opinion if anyone is telling you that a short sale will save your score. And don’t pay someone a lot of money if they promise to quickly rehab your credit score after foreclosure. Credit scores are forgiving—over time. 

Both FICO and its credit scoring competitor VantageScore have released estimates for what happens to consumers’ credit scores when they make mortgage missteps. In the VantageScore study, a homeowner with an otherwise clean record who then has a short sale sees their credit score drop between 120 and 130 points (on a scale of 501-990) compared with between 130 and 140 points if the same homeowner ends up in foreclosure. 

For a homeowner whose credit report is rife with late payments on everything from credit cards to car loans, a short sale would ding them between 15 to 25 points compared with 10 and 20 points for a foreclosure. Customers with rotten scores will see smaller point drops than someone whose score is good, because the score already has taken into account the lower-scoring customer’s risky behavior and adjusted the score downward. 

FICO’s example found short sales and foreclosures will set you back between 140 and 160 points if your credit score is a respectable 780 (on a scale of 300 to 850), or between 85 and 105 points if your credit is 680. 

Even if you do your homework, you ultimately can’t control how your housing woes are reported to the credit bureaus. For example, mortgage servicers may report your situation to the credit bureaus using different codes that could be interpreted more or less favorably by FICO, Quinn said. 

What if your circumstances change and you’re able to save your home from a foreclosure? “Once you’ve got a foreclosure starting to track on your credit file, you’re taking a major hit,” even if you ultimately save your house, said Sarah Davies, a VantageScore senior vice president. 

Credit scores play such a central role in consumer’s lives. Yet it’s so hard to understand them that people can end up making disastrous choices based on myths that are taken as fact. It’s certainly not a catchall solution, but Congress should at least grant consumers free access to their credit scores, an idea which is currently being floated at the capitol. 

For Buying and/or Selling Real Estate, contact me:
Ramiro Rivas – Pasadena Realtor
626-497-4606
Ramiro@RivasEstates.com

credit score, foreclosures, Pasadena Short Sales, SHORT SALE

Pasadena Real Estate for sale in the highly desired neighborhood know as Madison Heights.   Madison Heights features condos for sale, Pasadena townhomes, and houses of many different styles of architecture.

For Buying and/or Selling Real Estate, contact me:
Ramiro Rivas – Pasadena Realtor
626-497-4606
Ramiro@RivasEstates.com

Madison Heights, pasadena real estate, Pasadena Real Estate Blogs

Call to get loan approval at 818-355-7353

The Senate has passed a bill to give homebuyers another three months to close on their homes and receive tax credits up to $8,000. The Tax Extenders Bill would apply to homebuyers who met the April 30, 2010 deadline with a signed contract to purchase a new or existing primary residence. The amendment would extend the deadline to September 30, 2010 for homebuyers to close on their real estate transaction. The previous deadline was June 30, 2010. The bill now goes to the House of Representatives, where it is expected to pass.

Blanca Yanez with Wells Fargo Home Mortgage is committed to meeting your home-financing needs, and to answering questions about how the new law could impact you. Call her at 818-355-7353 if you have any questions, or if you would like to get started on a loan application today!

blanca yanez, tax credit extension, wells fargo home mortgage

Pasadena City Hall Night shot

This is a Pasadena Photo Blog of a night shoot I did at Pasadena City Hall.  Please enjoy.

Love the detail

View from within the romantic courtyard, weddings and events are held here often.

This is my favorite shot

For Buying and/or Selling Real Estate, contact me:
Ramiro Rivas – Pasadena Realtor
626-497-4606
Ramiro@RivasEstates.com

Pasadena City Hall, Pasadena Photo Blogs

Checklist for Improving Indoor Air Quality

June not only marks the commencement of the summer season, but more importantly for Pasadena homeowners, National Home Safety Month. While our thoughts turn to smoke detectors and child safety locks when considering a safe home, many homeowners often overlook the risks of poor indoor air quality—especially important as the temperature and humidity rise with summer.

As a Member of the Top 5 in Real Estate Network®, I’ve worked with many clients who have suffered from health-related issues due to poor air quality in their homes. Yet rarely do people think about the quality of their indoor air. Service experts recommend using the following checklist to ensure your air is as healthy as possible:

• Do you smoke in your home?
• Do your kitchen, bathroom, and laundry room have ventilation and exhaust fans?
• Do you change your air filters once a month?
• When cleaning or doing laundry, do you use bleach, ammonia, or aerosol spray cans?
• Is your gas fireplace and/or gas stove checked yearly for emissions?
• Was your home built before 1978? If so, has it been checked for lead-based paint?
• Do your bathrooms have carpet where moisture and dust can build up?

Indoor Air Quality, Pasadena Homeowners

Pasadena like many other cities in Los Angeles County, have many foreclosure properties on the market.  These properties are comprised of Pasadena Bank Owned (REO)homes/condos and pre-foreclosure MLS listings known as Short Sales.  View Pasadena Foreclosures below.

For Buying and/or Selling Real Estate, contact me:
Ramiro Rivas – Pasadena Realtor
626-497-4606
Ramiro@RivasEstates.com

Bank Owned, Pasadena Foreclosures, Pasadena Short Sales, REO

REALTORS® Help Send Local Students to College

Pfar Scholarship Recepients

High School Scholarships, PFAR