207 Seaview Drive is our most recently rehabilitated property listing. This 4 bedroom, 3.5 bath is located just up the hill from the Brickyard Cove Marina and the Richmond Yacht Club and Sailing School. The location provides commuters and explorers access to the entirety of the Bay Area —- the Richmond Terminal for the San Francisco Bay Ferry goes directly to The City, the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge to the North Bay, and Interstates 80 and 580 to everywhere else. A… read more →
As Bay Area real estate prices continue to climb, prospective real estate investors continue to widen their search for the perfect property. In fact, according to a recent report, a quarter of Bay Area buyers shifted their search to Sacramento, where housing prices are still 2 to 3 times more affordable than in counties like Alameda and San Mateo. And there’s a good chance that if you’re reading this, you’re among those people. But for some, what began as a… read more →
Often times, homeowners ask a specific question when selling a home: “Should we stage it?” And more often than not, the answer to staging a home is “no” or “only if we think it’ll be hard to sell.” In fact, fewer than 2 out of 5 agents regularly stage the homes they list. So does that mean that staging is just… window dressing? An unnecessary service that the homeowner might pay thousands of dollars for prior to selling a home?… read more →
A little while ago, a homeowner reached out to us who has a house in the Hayward Hills. He was having trouble getting rent from his tenant, and that was a problem because he lives in Virginia. We assisted him through the long process of getting the tenant out, and then assessing the damage that had come from years of neglect in the owner’s absence. Initially, we had thought about helping this homeowner rehab the home, but he has decided… read more →
If you live in Northern California, it’s probably no surprise to hear that Bay Area home prices continue to climb, seemingly with no end in sight. For homeowners, that’s great news, but for prospective buyers, that means the search for their next Bay Area home is often an overwhelming journey… but not only because of prices. Thanks to the fact that fewer homes are being sold, there’s less inventory and more competition between buyers. So why is it that when… read more →
There’s been a lot of talk lately about fraud of all kinds. We now have chips in our credit cards, two-step authentication to make sure our accounts aren’t hacked, and lately my email has been blowing up with notices about a new kind of fraud that’s been happening in real estate transactions — wire fraud. Here’s what’s happening: criminals are hacking email accounts and finding out the individual is involved in a real estate transaction. They then send emails that… read more →
As we approach the holiday season, we watch the market and ask ourselves: Could Dublin Ranch homes be cooling off? It began with an intense summer performance where Dublin homebuyers bridged a $100,000 gap between asking and closing prices and drove the average home value to nearly $970,000. Calling the record-high figures “impressive” was something of an understatement. They were phenomenal. Yet every summer is accompanied by a fall and a winter (even if the thermometer disagrees), and these cooler… read more →
The latest real estate data on the Dublin Ranch Housing Market (and Dublin in general) and its home prices is certainly encouraging for Dublin homeowners: Due in part to a considerable drop in the number of homes for sale since last summer (inventory is only 62% of July 2014’s) single-family home prices have appreciated significantly. Most recently, the median closing price soared to $967,500, which is the highest figure on record for the area. What’s more surprising, however, is that… read more →
If you’ve been following the news in Bay Area real estate, you might have heard that home sales have been dropping. A Pacific Union article attributed the root of this trend to inventory shortages and a lack of “move-up” buyers. The reasoning makes sense: Fewer homes are sold when there are fewer homes on sale, and there are fewer homes for sale because fewer homeowners are comfortable selling their current home and trying to find a bigger or better one… read more →
In June, I wrote about how the Dublin Ranch real estate market was outperforming a significant portion of the United States in home sales and market value. Now here we are, a month further into an especially hot summer wondering, “has anything changed?” The most straightforward answer is “not a lot.” Yet for most homeowners, those words are music to their ears. Here’s why: Dublin Ranch real estate’s median sold price barely budged in June… but that means it continues… read more →
The “Lifestyle Client Experience”. What does that mean to us? Well, in today’s fast-paced world, it seems like everyone has a smartphone permanently attached to their hand, everyone seems to have less free time than ever, and good customer service feels like a thing of the past. Most companies are trying to distance themselves from their customers, so tasks like checking your bank account balance or paying your electric bill involve complicated phone trees and customer support representatives who are… read more →
Every once in a while, I have a client who references the Zillow “Zestimate®” of a property as an accurate estimator of its value. Zillow.com has become a popular internet destination, because it gives consumers a place to go to estimate a property value without having to do a thorough analysis themselves and without having to talk to a salesperson. Sometimes, though, I get worried about the level of significance folks place in websites like Zillow. I thought I’d write… read more →
About six weeks ago, we presented several reasons why Dublin home sales, and the housing market in general, were on course to have another “hot seller’s market” in the coming months. Since then, we’ve been watching, working, waiting (and possibly hoping we wouldn’t be proven wrong). So with summer right around the corner, what’s the latest data show? The Bay Area’s housing market is on a healthy trajectory, according to Freddie Mac. The mortgage company’s most current “Multi-Index Market Indicator”… read more →
Good news for buyers and sellers of Livermore Real Estate! Amidst high housing prices and low inventories, an oft-repeated word of advice last summer was: “Look east.” Specifically, buyers who felt squeezed out of the hottest real estate markets—San Francisco, Oakland, San Jose, etc.—found something of a compromise in places like the East Bay, where prices climbed slower and supply was more reasonable. A year later, it appears things haven’t changed: Many parts of the Bay Area still lead the… read more →
While an S&P committee recently published a report with a lukewarm outlook on parts of the U.S. housing market due, in part, to seasonal slowdown, the San Francisco metropolitan area maintains its position as the nation’s leader in the housing recovery. Across the Bay Area, virtually every county has exhibited promising growth that suggests 2015 will be another strong year for the local housing market. With that in mind, some of you Dubliners may be wondering, “What does this mean… read more →
Early last month, we wrote about the housing market in the Richmond Waterfront (which consists of several communities, including Point Richmond, Marina Bay, and Country Club Vista) and highlighted conditions that indicated the area was likely “plateauing”. Among those conditions was a “days on market” figure that was twice the Bay Area average and a developing trend of homes selling for less than asking price. Essentially, while the area was projected to maintain most of the gains it made in… read more →
Will the Dublin Ranch housing market be opening up to buyers in the near future? Recent data hints at this possibility. In July, we wrote about how a number of single-family homes in Dublin were having difficulty selling, despite the average closing price (and number of properties sold) being some of the highest figures in a year. This begged the question: If the market is healthy, why do so many homeowners seem to have trouble selling their homes? Part of… read more →
With access to the same information, many real estate news sources come to similar conclusions when forecasting the housing market. In July, a relatively common opinion was that the Bay Area was following a trend similar to that found in other parts of the United States: Housing prices were leveling out. Part of this was based on slight dips in June’s data, which suggested the beginning of a gradual “cooling” effect. July’s report has served to challenge this prediction, however.… read more →
The latest news is that much of the United States’ housing market is regaining a healthy balance between buyers and sellers, with economists forecasting slowed growth as inventories expand. A larger inventory means more choices and flexibility on pricing. Thus, a whole group of prospective buyers—previously intimated by (or squeezed out of) the market—stop toeing the edge of the pool and choose to jump in. Meanwhile, prices in parts of the Bay Area’s housing market have reached pre-recession levels—a fact… read more →
When you make an offer on a property and it’s accepted by the seller, two things normally happen right away. First, you have to put your deposit in escrow, and second you (or, hopefully, your agent) need to order the inspections. In a typical transaction, we recommend our clients order three kinds of inspections: property, termite and roof. Of all three, the termite inspection is the most important; let’s talk a little about the details so you know what to expect. Read More →
