PORTOLA HILLS LIVING by Kelly Turbeville

As a  Realtor  in Portola Hills, I believe it is important to understand the complete real estate market.  I work with many investor owners in the area who have been long term landlords as well new investors who are looking to expand their real estate portfolio.  In addition, tenant's who have become future homeowners. When I work with any client, my goal is to always understand their long term vision.   Often times, rentals are an aspect of the business many agents do not like to handle.     I view Rentals much differently.   If I want to be your trusted Realtor for life, then that means I handle the majority of your real estate needs, even the ones that "seem to be a lot of work"  Otherwise.. how can I truly be your Real Estate Adviser.  If you research, you don't read much on the rental market in various neighborhoods. So starting this month... we will begin writing a rental spotlight of the areas we focus in, i.e. Portola Hills, Foothill Ranch, Trabuco Cany

As we enter into the first month of January it's important to look at how the overall Portola Hills market ended.   As noted in my previous blog post, Portola Hills real estate closed transactions in December ended the month with a home value increase of 6%.  This is very consistent with the entire Orange County Real Estate market. Below is a quick look at the complete year.  The highest priced home sold for $1.1 Million and the lowest priced condo sold for $270k. Portola Hills 2015 Real Estate Sales Summary The number of closed sales (Volume) was up 7% from 2014.  Looking at the mix of properties the median price per home was up approximately 17%.   Of course, I always like to note this is a summary of all transactions. Each property type, have different levels of appreciation.   See our year end summary which includes each property type here Portola Hills 2014 Real Estate Sales Summary So what is on the horizon for 2016.   Looking at the current low inventory

Can you believe it, 2015 is over.  I admit I am a bit shocked how fast the year went by.   December wasn't just busy with holiday events it was very busy in the real estate world as well.  Many question, if winter is the time to list your home, well these home sellers decided to and guess what they received approximately a 6% increase in their sales price from 2014.   In addition to what homes officially sold, 7 properties went into escrow in December, leaving only 5 active properties available at the time of writing. Below is a quick look at what homes sold in Portola Hills in December 2015.   Portola Hills December 2015 Home Sales The overall number of sales has been greater this year in Portola Hills.  Both volume and sales prices are up.  It is nice to see our clients and neighbors recover from the downturn.  There still are some residual affects from the downturn, as we had one distressed sell in the neighborhood this past month.  Good news for that new homeow

Just a quick post to wish everyone a wonderful holiday.... We are a blessed to call Portola Hills home and serve such a great community.  We are also blessed to have some great clients who we are lucky to call friends.... Enjoy!!!

The weather is turning a bit cooler and the holidays are in full swing with Thanksgiving behind us, so you might think home sales are probably not on everyone's radar.   That might be the case for Portola Hills... as we saw dip in the number of homes that sold this year vs. what sold in 2014.   In addition, the number of available homes is pretty low with only 6 active properties on the market currently.                                                 Portola Hills November  2015  Sold Homes In 2014 14 homes closed escrow in November, this year 8 closed escrow. Though the number of sales decreased, the average price of homes increased in Portola Hills by 17%.  Interestingly the highest priced home sold in 2015 was a Crown Pointe home, which sold for $950,000.   The highest priced home that sold November 2014 was a JM Peters home, which sold for $980,000. Portola Hills November 2014 Sold Homes Based on the rate of sales over the last 6 months, the P

We recently had the pleasure of helping a resident find a new home....sadly it wasn't in Portola Hills.  But they found a lovely home in Laguna Hills that fit their needs perfectly and we wanted to share in case you are in the search for something similar.. The buyers criteria had two main must haves for their new home... First... it had to be a single level and second include a pool and of course priced in their price range of under $700k.  I will admit not the easiest task in South Orange County.  Single level homes with pools are hard to find and with the median price range over $727k, to find one as lovely as this was a great find.    The 3-Bedroom, 1742 square foot home was located on a private cul-de-sac street and recently upgraded throughout.   25011 Carol Ln. Laguna Hills Details included: Distressed Wood Flooring, Travertine Tile, Custom Lighting, Remodeled Gourmet Kitchen with Stainless Steel Appliances, Granite Counters, Farmhouse Sink, Fireplace in the L

If you haven't heard... El Nino is on its way to SoCal.  Actually it is already here, just the rainy part is projected to start and consistently happen from January through March and as you know Portola Hills and the Canyon areas of the South Orange County can get hit hard with rain and wind.   Personally I knew in the back of my mind, I needed to do some maintenance around the house.... but with no rain in site... yes I procrastinated.   Well today as I was having new satellite service installed, I looked up to see a lovely site (ugh) one of my eaves is having an issue.. Water, Termite, Clogged Gutter, not sure what... but what I know for sure... It is time to prepare for El Nino...   Over the last few years with the drought, things we didn't really have to worry about are about to hit us all. As I was thinking about my house,  I pulled together the following list of items to consider as you prepare your home for El Nino 5 Quick Home Maintenance Tips to do before El N