Want to take advantage of the current housing glut and get a good deal on a bigger house? Afraid of getting stuck with the old house? What to do? What to do?

Here are three things to consider when considering moving up in the current market:

• Leverage the buy side. Don't get fixated on the sale price of your existing home. The more important consideration is that the current market conditions favor those with cash in hand and good credit. Move your exisiting house quickly through aggressive pricing and take advantage of the negotiating power you will have as a serious pre-approved move-up buyer.
• If you have significant equity in your existing property, check into using your home equity line to purchase the new home. Home equity is usually cheaper than a bridge loan, which wold be another consideration.
• Look for a Realtor that offers to buy your existing home if you buy one of their listings. In the current market, this may be difficult as agents usually use this type of attention-getter in hotter markets. The gist of this type of offer is that you have to come to agreement with the agent on the selling price they feel will produce results. They will then offer to buy your house at a price maybe 10 percent below that price if yours doesn't sell within the agreed upon length of time. While you may not get your price, you can move up knowing you will sell your home in a specified amount of time. The Realtor doesn't lose, they sell you a new home and list yours at the price they paid minus their commission which means the house should move quickly as it will be aggressively priced…

Which brings us back to the key ingredient in not getting stuck with two homes – price your house to sell quickly and get on with life!

Lani Anglin’s brother’s children lost their father yesterday. Here’s what you can do to help…

Lani Anglin lost a brother yesterday, and his children lost their father. April Groves has the details at Lani’s site.

We can count the beads later, but now is the time for practical action.

Aaron Anglin is survived by a wife and two very young daughters. The way I’m reading things, he died without life insurance, which puts those three ladies on a very hard road.

You can follow the links to make a donation – click on the image above.

With the help of over $20,000 in donations from Contra Costa and Alameda County residents and businesses, almost 3000 students are now equipped with school supplies more than sufficient enough for the present school year and next.

Project Ready to Learn, the annual school supplies drive spearheaded by the Contra Costa Times and partners like VESTIA and Tools 4 School, had gotten such a response this time around that they are well on their way to meeting next year’s intended goal.

Brand new backpacks filled with notebooks, pens and other school supplies have been given away to local students throughout the county. Jansport contributed 550 of the new packs.

It’s nice to hear about local businesses and residents pitching in to help ease the blow that families feel from sending their kids to school. There are over 4200 needy children in the region and each pack of supplies being given away has an average value of $94. A little help here and there is a large gesture to For some Bay Area families.

- Joseph Natividad

California Home Sale Price Medians by County and City

Reporting resale single family residences and condos as well as new homes
 % Change is from the same month last year

(November 7 Update) I got a call from Sean Jordan today. Sean advised me that some people are not reading the entirety of this post and thus are not aware that MoversPackMan decided to keep an office open in the East Bay Area. Since this post comes up high on Google, I don’t want to delete it as we can use it to help promote Sean and MoversPackMan. Thus I am adding this paragraph. I will be interviewing Sean in the next week or so to provide a more complete update. In regards to Alliance Title, they have closed some offices; consolidated others; had some staff reduction, but are still in business.

I ran into a friend the other day in line at Domenico’s in Danville, CA while ordering a sandwich. He told me that he is soon to be out of work. His company, Mover’s PackMan is pulling out of the Bay Area.

I mentioned this to Tracey, who responded that she had heard a rumor that Alliance Title was closing its doors as well. If you do to Alliance Title’s site , their tag line reads – Closing the California Dream.

Could the California Dream with all of the easy money subprime loans may be closing down Alliance’s dream?

We expect to see more ripple effect like this.