All Blog Entries by Sam Smith

Sam Smith understands the luxury real estate market in Dana Point and educates his clients on the many communities and choice they have when buying a luxury home.

Found 229 blog entries published by Sam Smith.

Aug 28

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The lantern village area is well known for having great single family homes that can overlook the Pacific Ocean.  This area is also a great place to find residential condos that are within walking distance to the Dana Point Harbor with some ocean and harbor views.  For those looking for a large view then look for the condos located on Green Lantern street.  The street has arguably the best views in Dana Point with jaw dropping views of the Dana Point Harbor and coastline.  The cliffside that goes up to Green Lantern street is pretty steep but the views are really great from this elevated level.  

One of the most popular condo communities in the Lantern Bay Villas.  This is a great place to find an ocean view condo in a well organized gated community

Jul 27

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Dana Point has a wide range of residential homes and condos on the market at any given time.  One of the best features in a home to give the feeling of extra space is having cathedral ceilings.  Having tall ceilings is one of the best thing you can find in a home since it doesn't take up extra space and really gives the illusion of having a bigger place than what you have without paying for the extra square footage.  The Ritz Cove community is a perfect example of this as many of the homes that were built here do feature cathedral ceilings and really make the homes feel like mini-estate homes.  Of course, these homes are often price above the five million dollar range and this is what you expect in a home in this price point.  Another great place to look

Jun 19

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One of the more popular places to live in Dana Point is the Capistrano Beach area.  Near the bluff that overlooks the ocean is a well known Pines Park that tends to be a gathering place for many of the locals that live in this area.  Homes in this area will command a premium in price due to the close proximity to the water and being all of the homes are custom built.  In fact, you will see some homes here that were built in the 1920's that have all the charm and character that you would expect.  There are also a good mixture of Mediterranean, Spanish, Traditional and Contemporary homes here.  If you say you live near Pines Park many of the locals will know the exact area that you are talking about and know the unique homes that exist in this area.

Real

May 19

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Seller Financing is a great way to buy a home that doesn't involve a traditional lender.  These are typically hard to come by and more often than not you need to inquire with the property owner if they are willing to finance either a portion of the entire amount of the purchase price.  The first thing to look for is the amount of money the current owner owns on the property.  This way you will be able to figure out the approximate amount they will be able to finance.  For example, if the home is worth $1 million dollars and they owe $200,000 to the mortgage bank then have an approximate $800,000 amount to finance.  These numbers are approximate since sellers often have fee's associated with closing costs, real estate commissions, etc that would be

Apr 8

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Dana Point is well known for having wonderful panoramic views from many locations throughout this beach town.  While having an ocean view is always a selling point an upgrade to this would be having a sit-down ocean view.  What exactly does this mean.  A sit down ocean view is where you can be sitting down in your home and have a nice view of the ocean.  Many real estate properties online that advertise an ocean view can range from a small peek-a-boo view where you have to stretch to see the ocean while other views can be seen while you walk through the home but not when sitting down.  When you have a sit-down view it's considered a premium view in the eyes of real estate agents.  There are several places to look in the Dana Point area to find these kind

Mar 24

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Finding a home located on a corner lot has a lot of value to certain real estate home buyers.  A corner lot usually means that you only have neighbor to the side of you offering an extra level of privacy in the backyard.  Inside the home this often also means that you might have windows that overlook open spaces instead of looking at a neighboring house.  Some of the cons for buying a corner lot is that the location might be near a busy street where there is a lot of thru traffic adding to extra noise.  For the most part, having a home in this kind of location is a selling point that many sellers like to advertise when putting a home on the market for sale.  We did a quick search for current homes for sale in Dana Point and found 9 properties that were

Feb 11

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What makes a good investment property generally comes down to how much income the property will generate plus how much appreciation can you expect from the home.  These are the two factors every real estate investor looks at when looking to invest in a property.  Some prefer to have a property that will appreciate in a much faster pace which results in more equity as the property is worth more at a later date.  Others prefer to have a higher net income coming into the property on a monthly basis to cover any mortgage payments, taxes and insurance.  There are several properties in Dana Point which are currently being advertised as good investment homes.

One of advertised properties is located in the Marinita gated community.  The 3 bedroom townhome has

Jan 10

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Have you ever taken a vacation and stayed at home that you could imagine living in year around.  Believe it or not, this happens a lot to buyers looking for that perfect vacation property.  For some it may be some exotic location, to others a home near a ski resort while others prefer the year around warm weather of Southern California.  Dana Point offers the best of both worlds with one of the best climates in North America where it never gets too cold and never too hot.  The seaside town is known for it's spectacular harbor with luxury yachts and outdoor water activities.  These are some of the best places to look for your ideal vacation home.

First, it's hard to start any conversation about a year around vacation property without mentioning the

Dec 13

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Every December we will look back at what has sold in the city of Dana Point and every. year we are not surprised to learn that some of the most expensive homes were sold in the Strand at Headlands community.  In fact, 2 of the top 3 highest sold properties this year were sold at the Strand but for far less than 2018 which topped over $23 million.  This year the top 3 properties range between $8 and $14 dollars which is far less than the previous year.  This does not negate that this was a very busy year with over 500 homes sold with a very strong economy helping the cause.  Here is a quick run down of the top 3 sales.

It's no surprise that the highest sale is located at the Strand at Headlands community.  21 Beach View Avenue was on the market for

Nov 11

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Dana Point has featured several brand new communities like South Cove and Ocean Del Rey Estates which features brand new constructions homes and condos.  South Cove is a perfect example of a new community that selects several condos to feature as what potential buyers can upgrade their homes to.  These are used as open houses from the sales office to try and sell other condos that will be coming on the market for sale.  In order to do this they typically do a lot of work to the home with trendy design work and countless number of upgrades to kitchen and baths.  It's often a far cry to what most buyers will end up buying but allows for the consumer to imagine what could be done with the right amount of money and time.

From time to time we do see these