Silicon Valley Real Estate Guide

15, 10, even 5 years ago, the art of presenting an offer was a valued skilled that every agent tried to perfect.  There were benefits to both the buyer and seller.  A seller and his/her agent would meet face to face with the buyer’s agent, allowing the buyer’s agent to present his/her client and their […]

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The Multiple Listing Service is our most efficient means to sell a home and the most reliable source of local market information.  The following information was take from our local MLS and is deemed reliable but not guaranteed. 
According to our local MLS provider (ProMLSlistings.com), there currently are 108 single family homes for sale in Los […]

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Pricing a home to sell has always been somewhat of an art.  Price it too high and it will never sell.  Price it too low and you may leave money on the table.
During the last several years of our strong seller’s market, the mantra had been ”price them high watch them die,  price them low and watch them […]

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An interesting conversation broke out at our last Los Altos/Mountain View real estate tour meeting regarding an increase in a phenomenon we haven’t seen since 1999-2000, pocket listings.   Flash back to 1999-2000 when inventory levels were low and buyer demand was high.  Some real estate brokerages took listings and never made them public, opting to sell them in-house rather than […]

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About 2 months ago, I started to receive letters about refinancing my adjustable loan.  Apparently, I live in Refi-Hell and every lender in the country is attempting to get my business.  In total, I received over 40 solicitations.  Some lenders were straight forward, others weren’t.  Some were just pathetic.  Note, I’m not trying to bash lenders, just some of the bad […]

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According to research analyzed by John H. Vogel, a professor of real estate at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth, having a child is the single biggest indicator that someone will file for bankruptcy and lose their home in foreclosure. In this Inman TV video, professor Vogel explains some of the reasons and possible […]

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I recently read a post from The Front Steps blog on resetting the days on market (DOM) data field on the Multiple Listing Service (MLS).   Although the post was a request for comment (which I did), I thought I would give an expanded version of my thoughts on the subject.
The DOM data field in the MLS reports the amount […]

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The purpose of the single story overlay zone (or in builder speak, R1-S district) is to modify the height and number of stories permitted in any R1 zoning district to preserve and maintain single-family neighborhoods of predominantly single-story character.  Note, the definition of 1-story does not include basements.  Most of our local cities have some […]

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Earlier today, President Bush announced that he had reached a bipartisan agreement with House leadership on an economic package designed to bolster the U.S. economy.  An integral part of this package is an increase in Fannie Mae’s and Freddie Mac’s conforming loan limits from $417,000 to $625,000.  How will this impact our local Real Estate market?
For most […]

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My family moved to south Los Altos in 1964, having lived briefly in Sunnyvale and before that in Minnesota.  My parents bought a 4 bedroom home on a quarter acre that backed up to Awalt High School (renamed Mountain View). We were the second owners of the home.  The first owners having lived there for only about 2 […]

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