Real Estate for Sale

In Scott’s real estate website, you’ve found a great resource for all your home buying or selling needs when it comes to the wonderful communities in the Stanislaus County region. For anyone looking to buy or sell property in Oakdale, Riverbank, Waterford, Valley Home, Knight's Ferry, Escalon and other nearby communities, this is your ultimate real estate resource. Bookmark the site and return often for timely information.

Scott Abell has become known as a problem solver, both in his real estate career and within his community. His credo is Success Through Effort, and his ability to envision practical solutions, combined with an intense inner drive to make things happen have helped build his reputation into the area’s top agent for well over 15 years.

Scott’s knowledge of the local market, including new construction and ranchettes, is unmatched. His business savvy helps both buyers and sellers maximize their return on investment. He approaches each transaction as if it were his own, tenaciously guarding his clients’ best interests at all times.

For Scott Abell, the eagle is a symbol of the spirit that makes this country great. It’s a spirit of eternal optimism, backed by hard work and the fortitude to always do the right thing.

If you’re ready to make a move, you’ll be glad you called Scott Abell.

Well, are we out of the drought? Are we going to still focus on water conservation? The truth is: ‘THEY’ are going to charge us more money for the water we use,  WHAT EVER WE DO! Here are some steps we implemented at our place and it saved us 27-35% in water consumption per month. Our lawns, flower beds and trees are thriving, even in the 100 + degree summer weather and we remain in compliance with all the 2014 drought regulations.     Step #1: make a decision, commit to a course of action. Do I like my landscaping or not?     Step #2: What kind, California lawn, trees and plants or Arizona cactus with rock and gravel? If you choose or chose Arizona rock and gravel/bark with no lawn, trees or shrubs – that’s as drought friendly as you can go and still have landscaping.  For most of us in the area, we already have the California look - lawn, trees, plants, flowers and maybe a little garden area.  Assuming that we will be either on a 2 or 3 day lawn watering rotation per week, here are some of the tips on how we got more results with less water. Lawns: Get a good multi station timer (the Orbits brand is a good one, there are others) with a minimum of 10 stations.  Identify your individual water circuits, most homes have 3 lawn circuits in front and 2 in the backyard. Check your pop up sprinklers, make sure that the grass is not blocking the water spray, you may need to cut away grass (dig them out a little) or raise the pop up head by adding a small riser.  Clean them up so they are 100% efficient. For each day that you are allowed to water your lawn: Set each circuit for 8-10 minutes, for 2 or 3 times per day early in the morning with at least a 45 minute break in between.  The short watering times (8 – 10 minutes) with at least a 45 minute pause in between allows the water to seep into the roots, reducing run off and maximizing the effectiveness of the water used. The early morning watering times provides the lawns with a deep root quenching to start the hot, dry days ahead.         Circuit 1. Front Lawn.  1st Start Time 2:00am for 8 minutes   2nd Start Time 2:45am for 8 minutes        Circuit 2. Front Lawn.  1st Start Time 2:30am  for 8 minutes  2nd Start Time 3:15am for 8 minutes If your lawn requires the 3 times per day make the last one 4-5 minutes to avoid water runoff on the sidewalk.   Flower beds, gardens, & trees: DRIP THEM. There are NO daily restrictions on drip. They make a ‘pop up sprinkler head to drip’ conversion KIT that comes with all the pieces you will need.  If you have ridged pipes with spray heads they have KITS that convert each of them to 6 feeder lines. It’s really slick, and means you can start laying out the drip lines without having to dig. Just use your existing spray pop ups and modify them for drip according to the kit’s instructions, choosing as many sprinkler heads as you need to provide a drip line to each of your plants and trees.   To decommission the unnecessary pop-up heads, take a small screw driver and tighten down the screw in the center of the pop up spray head, they will pop up but they won’t spray. For those with ridged pipes, just remove old unused spray heads and cap them with ½” PVC threaded caps.               SPECIAL NOTE:  Drip systems work best when you use filters or membranes to keep out the seeds and dirt   that is in our clean water.  Installing a filter on a drip line circuit at the valve is a great way to protect against plugged up emitters. Setting the circuit time:  We water our plants at night every other day. 30 minutes in duration. Here’s a quick visualization exercise that will help you determine the best emitter size for each plant and the amount of time the water circuit should be on. Get a ½ gallon milk jug and fill it. So, a 1 gallon per hour emitter, on for 30 minutes will fill that milk jug just as you did. Not all the plants need that much water so you can adjust the duration time down or lower the emitter volume, using a ¼ or ½ gallon per hour emitter.  Just a little bit of math and you are a professional. Last item: in my travels around Oakdale I see more home being hit by misdirected or broken spray sprinklers. Sad, the stucco discolors and cracks, the wood trim and siding fade, crack and get dry rot, all of these conditions diminish the look and value of your home and cost you money and time to fix. As Always, Enjoy Your Castle & Keep It In Great Shape!

My 1st Quarter 2017 Oakdale Area Market Update How is the Real Estate Market in Oakdale? YOU ASK Well it is fascinating, simply because we are a relatively small market that does not tend to react to outside forces. We just keep moving forward & pressing on. Those who need or want to sell are succeeding, but those who want or need to buy are having a little trouble getting what they want. NORMAL, why? It’s simple, supply and demand, lots of demand and not a lot of supply! Prices are up, but the question is - HOW HIGH UP?   The truth is: Sellers, who need to sell, are finding that the Buyers think the prices are too high and for now the appraisers are still agreeing with them. The values are up, but certainly NOT the pre-recession ballistic. I review the homes on the market for my buyers and sellers constantly. It’s critical that we know our competition. So I see the number of price reductions for homes on the market as soon as they are updated. Generally, price reductions are due to sellers wanting to push towards those pre-recession values. This market is solid, sustainable, moving upwards, yet certainly not the bubble from days of yore.   The truth is: A buyer’s ability to buy is a function of affordability, they are reaching up to the seller’s price, but today’s lending criteria, income verse debt ratio and interest rates are eliminating a growing percentage of these would be Buyers. A little known fact; a ONE percentage point rise in the mortgage lending rate (4% to 5%) eliminates over one million buyers from the housing market, nationwide. Many of today’s buyers are contingent on the sale of their current home. If their home is priced to high for the market – their offer on your home is not sound. I see both of these forces at work as I review the number of homes that show Pending and then go Back on the Market. Fortunately for all of us, there are still lots of people who think Oakdale is the Diamond of Stanislaus County and have heard that Oakdale Is “A Great Place to Grow Kids” and they keep coming!   The truth is: We are still in a level market, that is to say the Buyers and Sellers are still struggling to find a mutually agreeable sales price. Neither one has any distinct advantage over the other. One wants more and the other wants to pay less, Normal! As Always, Keep Your Castle In Great Shape!

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