What are Mineral Rights? And Who Owns Them?

What Are Mineral Rights?

Mineral Rights: the rights to the natural resources lying below the earth’s surface. Any transfer of land may be accomplished with or without the transfer of the subsurface rights. Normally, the term “mineral” is considered to include almost anything of value found under the earth’s surface. However, the term ordinarily does not include commonplace materials such as soil, sand, gravel, clay, and water.

In the United States the law creates a difference between surface rights and mineral rights. Surface rights include the right to build or farm on the land while mineral rights include the right to mine the property.

The United States is one of the few nations that allow private ownership of underground mineral resources. When reserved the owner of the mineral rights can then enter into contracts and agreements to mine and extract the minerals which may or may not include royalty payments to the surface owners.

Now, Who Owns Them?

Starting in April of this year (2013) the FDIC (Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation) has begun to reserve mineral, oil, and gas rights in any real property it conveys in the US. This new policy applies to all FDIC owned residential and commercial property except for condominium units and real property valued at $50K or less. The FDIC’s closing instructions will have an addendum addressing the reservation requirement and require the deed to contain the reservation.

If you wish to purchase the mineral rights from the FDIC you may do so, however, a specific price must be negotiated for the rights separate from the rest of the property.

Seven Most Popular Styles of Homes

While countless people know that a single family home with a yard will cost more than a studio apartment, many of those people don’t know that the style of the house also has a large affect on the price. 24/7 Wall Street received data from the real estate site Trulia.com that gave insight to the popularity of different home styles around the country. The following is a breakdown of the most popular home styles across the country and respective prices.

Due to the free market nature of our country, countless styles of houses have been created throughout history. The style of house also depends largely on what area of the country you live. Colonial and Federal Revival styles homes are found more in the Northeast, Victorian homes are popular on the West Coast, and Ranch-style homes are found throughout the U.S..

Most Popular Home Style Categorized By Average Price:

1. Mediterranean | $1,315,177 | Most Popular Between 1920 and 1930
2. Tudor | $588,327 | Most Popular in the 1930s
3. Colonial | $457,026 | Most Popular in the Late 1800s
4. Victorian | $431,009 | Most Popular Between 1860 and 1900
5. Split Level | $295,529 | Most Popular in the 1950s
6. Ranch | $228,140 | Most Popular Between 1945 and 1970
7. Bungalow | $163,578 | Most Popular Between 1880 and 1930

Each home style has their own unique characteristics and features that led to them being popular in a certain eras.

This Week’s Argonaut

Check out the wonderful spread we have in the Argonaut this week! It features our current listings as well as the announcement that we have joined Remax. Pick up a copy around the Marina or you can view it online at http://argonautnews.com/.

New Abbot Kinney Parking Restrictions

Vehicles that are over 6 feet high are no longer allowed to park within 100′ of the intersections between Westminster and Venice on Abbot Kinney. The signage was approved and placed by the LA City Department of Transportation at the request of the Abbot Kinney Merchants’ Association to improve visibility at the intersections.

In addition to improving the safety at intersections, the new signage will also limit the amount of food trucks that will legally be able to park on Abbot Kinney during “1st Fridays”. Then again, if the trucks are not towed after the $58 ticket, the food truck owners may just write it off as the cost of doing business. We will see what happens tomorrow!

While a Range Rover with stock wheels will slide under the 72″ restriction by 1/2 an inch, some SUV’s like the Ford Expedition will not, as they are 77.2″ in height.

- Yo Venice | http://goo.gl/ZXUS4

Best Boardwalk in the United States

According to the Travel Channel’s 2013 “Best Beach Awards”, Venice Beach has been voted to have the best boardwalk in the whole country! “Our viewers, as well as our resident beach expert Marianela, were taken with the eclectic vibe of the Venice Beach boardwalk.” – Travel Channel

Contact us if you’re looking for property on the recently named best boardwalk in the US. We have a few properties that might just fit your criteria…

It’s Becoming A Seller’s Market

According to The National Association of Realtors it’s becoming a seller’s market, something that buyers in many parts of the United States have know for a while now.

According to several statistics the number of homes listed for sale in January fell by 4.9%, leaving around 1.74 million properties on the market. That’s the lowest since December of 1999, when there were 1.71 million homes on the market.

This is good news for sellers because that means home prices are also on the rise. In fact, home sales rose by 0.4% in January, to an annual rate of 4.92 million units. While that might not seem like a large increase, it is still up 9.1% from one year ago.

The reason for this price increase is that there is an increasing amount of buyers all pursuing the same supply of homes. If the trend holds, prices will keep going up.

While inventories typically increase in the spring, the Realtors’ group has expressed growing concerns that sales volumes are being held back by the lack of choice. This is good news for homeowners who have watched home prices drop over the last six years, but it’s bad news for buyers—and for anyone that makes their living selling real estate.

California, Arizona, and other markets have experienece the most dramatic inventory declines. These cities have large numbers of underwater borrowers—people who owe more than their homes are worth—while many others may have equity but aren’t willing to sell because prices have fallen so far.

Investors have also been aggressive in buying up properties that are selling for less than their replacement cost.

Home sales could rise to 5.2 million units this year, an increase of nearly 12% from last year, according to economists at Goldman Sachs. They base their forecast on household formation and demographics, which both suggest rising demand for housing in the coming years, and affordability measures such as mortgage rates and home prices.

But the economists note that there’s a considerable amount of uncertainty that could make those targets hard to hit, particularly if there’s nothing for would-be buyers to purchase.

- Wall Street Journal

Best Day to List Your House

TGIF! Thank God It’s Friday might have another new meaning and this pertains to real estate. Mansion on Friday reported that homes listed on Fridays sold for 99.1% of the seller’s original asking price, the highest percentage of any day of the week.

Interestingly enough, homes listed on Fridays were on the market for the shortest amount of time (81 days). Another daily fact was that homes listed on Tuesdays were viewed the most times with 2.41 home-tour requests, on average, according to an analysis by real-estate conducted by the Redfin brokerage.

Those were not the only aspects of real estate where Fridays and Tuesdays were superior to other days of the week. Here are some recent stats:

Last year, 57.5% of homes listed on Fridays actually sold, the highest percentage of any day of the week. Sundays were at the bottom, at 51.5%.

• Sun: 51.5%
• Mon: 52.5%
• Tue: 54.0%
• Wed: 54.7%
• Thu: 56.9%
• Fri: 57.5%
• Sat: 53.0%

This next fact seemed a little odd, but when you think about it there is definitely some weight to the theory. Homes listed on Saturdays and Sundays were seeing below average online page views during their first day on the market. Homes listed on Tuesdays fared the best, seeing 8.25% more page views than the average for a listing.

Page views for a listing, shown as a percentage above or below the average page views:

• Sunday: -8.5%
• Monday: 3.68%
• Tuesday: 8.25%
• Wednesday: 4.7%
• Thursday: 1.26%
• Friday: -3.17%
• Saturday: -8.11%

According to the CEO of Redfin, “the only reason sales volume isn’t higher is because there aren’t enough homes to buy, with foreclosures and now even short-sale listings rapidly disappearing.”

So now is the time to sell. The demand is high and the amount of buyers out there with money, who are already lender approved and ready to go, is increasing by the day. Just remember that when you list your home, make sure it’s on a Friday.

Cash buyers, investment uptick boost California median home price

California home sales and prices both posted gains in December, with the median price posting strong double-digit gains for six straight months, the CALIFORNIA ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® (C.A.R.) reported.

Making sense of the story

• Sales in December were up 0.8 percent from a revised 518,460 in November and up 0.9 percent from a revised 517,730 in December 2011.  The statewide sales figure represents what would be the total number of homes sold during 2012 if sales maintained the December pace throughout the year.

• The statewide median price of an existing, single-family detached home climbed 5 percent from November’s $349,300 median price to $366,930 in December.

• December’s price was up 27 percent from a revised $288,950 recorded in December 2011, marking the tenth consecutive month of annual price increases and the sixth consecutive month of double-digit annual gains.

• The substantial increase in price was due in large part to a significant increase of higher-priced properties, while inventory constraints continued to constrict sales of lower-priced homes.  Price increases are not expected to continue at a high pace into 2013.

• California’s housing inventory was further constrained in December, with the Unsold Inventory Index for existing, single-family detached homes dropping to 2.6 months, down from 3.1 months in November and a revised 4.3 months in December 2011.  The index indicates the number of months needed to sell the supply of homes on the market at the current sales rate.  A six- to seven-month supply is considered normal.

• The median number of days it took to sell a single-family home edged up to 38.1 days in December 2012 from 37.5 days in November but was down from 58.7 days for the same period a year ago.

- Los Angeles Daily News