The Los Angeles County Office of the Assessor has made an important announcement. 

If you receive mail from private companies offering to pursue a reduction in your property taxes for a hefty fee please contact the Los Angeles County Department of Consumer Affairs by phone at (800) 973-3370 or visit their website.

There is no reason to pay for a review that has been done for free.

Property owners should be aware that their property may be included in a review the Assessor's Office has done for 2009. The review included single-family homes and condominiums purchased between July 1, 2003 and June 30, 2008. In some particularly hard hit areas of the county, the review included properties purchased as far back as 2000. 473,000 properties were reviewed, resulting in lower assessments on 333,000 homes and condos. Please click here to see if your property has been reviewed for a decline-in-value.

All 473,000 owners whose property was included in the proactive review will be notified of the results in writing by the end of June. Owners who disagree with the results of the review or were not included in the review, may file an application through December 31. The Decline-In-Value form is simple to complete and readily available online or at one of the Assessor's District Offices. We will review the application and if a reduction is warranted, the taxable value will be reduced. Please note that there is no charge for a review. Owners are urged to wait until July to decide whether to file an application.

• Click here to see Public Service Announcement with Assessor Auerbach and County Supervisor Gloria Molina.
• Click here to see public service video, "Don't Get Ripped Off."
• See related news stories on KNBC Channel 4, KABC Channel 7, KCAL Channel 9 and Fox Channel 11.
• Click here to read Assessor's Op-Ed article in the Daily News.
• Click here to see if your property has been reviewed for a decline-in-value.

Read Also:

• Property Tax Relief for Long Beach and Los Angeles County Homeowners?  Not Without An Appraisal!
• Property Tax Reassessments in Long Beach & Southern California

Laurie Manny Professional Group

244 Redondo Avenue
Belmont Heights
Long Beach, California 90803

(562) 212-5420

Are you looking for a Downtown Long Beach Home and finding them just out of your financial reach?  Have you considered a duplex?  Yes they often cost a bit more than a single family home, but the rental income can make the difference between being able to afford a home or not.  There are actually a few very nice duplexes available at this time, for very reasonable prices.  

The lender will consider the rental income and increase the amount you are qualified for making it possible for you to purchase. 

If you think this idea might work for you, it would be my pleasure to assist you and explain how this is a real possibility for you.

Listed below are all available Downtown Long Beach Duplexes.  Some of them are in the Willmore Historic District, a few of them are actually very nice and the prices aren't too shabby either:

Downtown Long Beach Homes For Sale 90802 and 90813

Direct feed from the Socal MLS - Always up to date

More Information:  Downtown Long Beach Duplexes For Sale 90802 90813

Read Also:

Downtown Long Beach Homes For Sale 90802 90813

Duplexes For Sale in Long Beach California-Long Beach Real Estate For Sale

Chasing the Market Down - Are You Guilty?

Contact us for further information on any of these Long Beach properties.  It will be our priviledge to assist you in your next real estate purchase. 

Laurie Manny Professional Group

244 Redondo Avenue
Belmont Heights
Long Beach, California 90803

(562) 212-5420

90802 - 90813

Homes in Downtown Long Beach have become very affordable once again.  Buyers who waited too long in the hot sellers market and were priced out of it have a very real opportunity here to finally realize their dream of home ownership.  Some of these homes can be purchased for the same price as a condo. 

First time buyers can actually afford to purchase homes now.  It is still possible to obtain home loans, FHA loans are flowing and assistance programs exist. 

Some of these homes are short sales.  Short Sales provide buyers with a great opportunity to purchase Long Beach homes for a really good price.  Short Sale purchases can take many months to be accepted by the banks, the banks are inundated and are very backed up so the process is often a long one and not always successful.  

Some of these homes are bank owned foreclosures or REO's.  Bank owned homes can close escrow quickly once an offer is accepted and are highly desirable. 

Buyers should know that short sale and bank owned or foreclosed homes are often not in the best of condition and usually require an infusion of after purchase cash for repairs and upgrades.  Foreclosed properties are purchased in "AS IS" condition, banks will do no repairs. 

Read:  Long Beach Homes-Issues for 1st Time Home Buyers

Some homes are conventional purchases, some are in Long Beach historic districts and a few have a rental unit. 

Available homes in Downtown Long Beach:

Direct feed from the Socal MLS - Always up to date

Read Also:

Downtown Long Beach Duplexes For Sale 90802 90813

Chasing the Market Down - Are You Guilty?

Contact us for further information on any of these homes.  It will be our priviledge to assist you in your next home purchase. 

Laurie Manny Professional Group

244 Redondo Avenue
Belmont Heights
Long Beach, California 90803

(562) 212-5420

Property Tax Relief for Long Beach and Los Angeles County Homeowners?

Not Without An Appraisal

The Los Angeles County assessor's office on Monday announced completion of their automatic "decline-in-value" reassessments that reviewed 473,000 homes purchased between July 1, 2003 and June 30, 2008. This review resulted in 330,000 county residences qualifying for automatic reductions in their October 2009 tax bill.

Homeowners with qualifying properties will be notified of the results in writing by June 30. Those who were not reviewed can file for free with the Assessor's Office until December 31.

According to the assessor, the average reduction in assessed values for single-family residences was $126,000, for an average tax savings of $1,400 per year. Condos saw averaged reductions of $96,000, for savings of about $1,100 per year.

Just how generous the savings will be on an individual basis is hard to say. Presumably, homeowners that purchased between 2005 - 2007 will see the bulk of the savings, while others may not see as large a reduction. But with budgets on the brink throughout the State, should anyone should expect assessor largesse?

Not without your own appraisal.

Two reasons:

1. The assessor's automatic valuation used market data in 2008-pre January 1 2009 cut-off.
2. Homeowners applying for review can submit their own appraisal with sales data through March 31, 2009.  

If you've been watching the news, you know prices continued sliding into this year. So homeowners accepting their auto-assessment might not be maximizing the savings they otherwise could see.

In two recent tax-reduction cases, the homeowners handed me their reduced-assessment notices sent to them by the assessor. Both assessments were --- get this --- high by about $150,000. (Which explains why they called me to begin with.) If either case reflects at all the data the assessor's using to calculate 2009 taxes, you want to get a second opinion.

To know if you property was reviewed, click here. If your property was not reviewed, or you didn't qualify even though you bought your home between June 30, 2003 and July 1, 2008, download a copy of the Decline-in-Value Reassessment Application then call for us a consultation-it's free.

PS. You want to get your options out of the way quickly, the deadline to file an appeal with the Assessment Appeals Board is November 30.

Also see: LA Times: Property tax relief coming for more than 330,000 L.A. County homeowners

Read Also:

Property Tax Reassessments in Long Beach & Southern California

Newspapers are DEAD!          Long live the WEB!

Newspaper readership has been dying on the vine for several years now as more readers abandon print versions for news on the web.  Recent announcements by the Long Beach Press Telegram stating that the PT plans on charging for their online news version have stirred up a bit of controversy.  Yesterday the LBpost published an article wondering why anybody would pay for an online version that contained mostly articles from the Associated Press (AP), and they are right, many locals piped up and left their opinions in the comments.  

Back in February of 2007 Arthur Sulzberger, owner, chairman and publisher of the NY Times was asked in this article:

Given the constant erosion of the printed press, do you see the New York Times still being printed in five years?

His response:

"I really don't know whether we'll be printing the Times in five years, and you know what? I don't care either," he says.

When asked if it would be free Sulzberger commented:

No, Sulzberger says. If you want to read the New York Times online, you will have to pay.

Fast forward to September of 2007, just a few months later, and the Times announces that it will no longer charge for its online version siting for the reason:

The move is an acknowledgment by The Times that making Web site visitors pay for content would not bring in as much money as making it available for free and supporting it with advertising.

"We now believe by opening up all our content and unleashing what will be millions and millions of new documents, combined with phenomenal growth, that that will create a revenue stream that will more than exceed the subscription revenue," Schiller said.

If the New York Times realized that a pay to read model wasn't going to work, the Long Beach Press Telegram doesn't stand a chance!

In response to the February article I wrote an article and posted it on a large social networking site, open for comments, The article received 72 comments - some hilarious, all with very interesting viewpoints on pay for online news and the future of print news and advertising. 

Do you really think it is not possible to find reliable news for free? I cannot imagine anybody paying for news service or feeds five years from now, we can already access this information through feeds for free. I can only imagine the innovations in the tech world in the next five years.

The news industry has a long history with the real estate industry nationwide.  A huge chunk of their income has traditionally been earned from real estate and related companies and Realtors® placing ads for services and advertising clients properties. This is occurring on a vastly smaller scale currently and continuing to shrink.  One would immediately think that the reason real estate advertising and marketing revenues have dropped is because of the current state of the economy and the real estate industry.  While this would be partially correct, the real estate industry began to gravitate away from print marketing and advertising long before the current state of the economy and the industry.  The advent of the Internet and the reception and adoption by the general public/consumers is staggering. 

In 2006 Time Magazine's Person of the year was "YOU"!  An interesting observation from the article:

It's about the many wresting power from the few and helping one another for nothing and how that will not only change the world, but also change the way the world changes.

Before the economy and the real estate industry began its decline it was becoming painfully obvious that paper advertising and marketing were no longer having the impact or garnering the reception they had in the past, the effectiveness was waning at an incredible rate.  Business was dropping off rapidly making it an expensive and undesirable form of promoting both businesses and client listings.  Consumer contact from print media had dropped to a dribble making this an ineffective business tool and expense.  Many in the real estate industry realized that major change was in the wind, the way we marketed and advertised our business and client properties was about to undergo a major overhaul. It was time to start investigating other options and avenues.  

As the real estate industry began to crumble the news industry, having problems of its own, made matters worse by sensationalizing the troubles of the industry and reporting their misguided opinions as facts adding further fuel to the fire.  The real estate industry, feeling scathed by the media found themselves no longer wanting to pay to advertise in their rags and began to turn to the Internet.  So did the consumer. 

While it is entertaining, sensationalized news is not informative and skews real facts.  A great example of this can be found in this fantastic article involving Stephen Gandel a senior writer for Money Magazine, where he completely misguided real estate buyers into "going it alone", infuriating the real estate industry nationwide, and sending the market into an absurd tizzy for weeks.  Be sure to read the comments, they are very enlightening. The discussion regarding Mr. Gandel's faux pas continues in this article from the blog site of one of the agents he interviewed for the aforementioned article (one of Spencer's top read posts).  It's a really good read if you are interested. 

Dennis Miller joked about this as well. From The O'reilly Factor :

Used to be "All the News That's Fit to Print."

"Now it's "All the News That Fits," We Print!"

Maybe better stated as "All the news that's fit to twist"!

As a result of all of this turmoil surrounding the news industry, the real estate industry moved online as did the real estate consumer, further drying out the revenues of the news industry.  Today it is said that over 80% of all buyers are searching the web for both homes and Realtors®. The heavy traffic received on our consumer sites is a testament to this. 

If you are considering selling your Long Beach Home or Condo, it is imperative that your property is found on the Internet.  You will need to hire a tech savvy Long Beach Realtor® to promote, market and advertise your property.  Internet marketing is what drives traffic to your listing.  Traffic is what you need to drive offers in. 

We at the Laurie Manny Professional Group enjoy organic positioning at the top of the engines driving massive buyer traffic to your Long Beach and Southern California listings.  If your Long Beach home or condo is properly priced and presented, professionally marketed on the Internet and you are represented by a seasoned and well versed Long Beach Realtor®, you have best positioned yourself to sell your Long Beach home.  If you are considering selling your Long Beach home or condo contact us today to learn what we can do for you which is above and beyond what all others can and why. Or just call to find out what is going on in the Long Beach Real Estate Market, we would be happy to chat with you. 

Laurie Manny Professional Group

244 Redondo Avenue
Belmont Heights
Long Beach, California 90803

(562) 212-5420

Related Articles:

• Long Beach Own Your Own-OYO-Owners Are Organizing for Condo Conversion
• Long Beach Home Staging - What is Home Staging? The Interview
• Long Beach Home Staging Affordable & Effective
• Long Beach Home Kitchen Remodels
• Long Beach Home Bathroom Remodels
• Space Saving Ideas for your Long Beach Homes
• Small Living Space Solutions for Long Beach Homes
• Curb Appeal On A Budget
• Summer in Long Beach California - Reduce Your Energy Costs and Stay Cool
• Long Beach Home Kitchen Remodels
• Are YOUR Granite Countertops "HOT"?
• Unusual Mailboxes