Yesterday was a milestone, it marked the 1 year anniversary of FosterCityBlog! During that time we’ve seen over 78,000 hits from 89 countries. I can’t tell you how much fun it’s been to do this blog…maybe as much fun as anything I’ve done in Real Estate. It’s just a blast! Many thanks to all of you for taking the time to read and participate in this work in progress. There’s all kinds of new stuff coming too, so stay tuned! Have a great weekend…and have agreat 2009!

I actually used this pic a week ago in the photo montage I did and the great and powerful Mr. Toler e-mailed and asked why it wasn’t a Funky Foto. He was, of course, correct…it’s a perfect one! The question is, where is this hole? This weeks winner receives a $30.00 gift card to Noahs Bagels over there next to Jamba Juice. All the rules of the road are available for viewing on the bar above and on the left hand margin. The winner and all correct answers will be published on Monday morning. All silly jokes, semi rude comments, fun banter and all wrong answers will be published ASAP. This is a big weekend with both Foster City’s official Chinese New Year celebration and that other little event…the Super Bowl! Have a great time!

In yet another example of the wonderful world of technology and it’s applications to real estate, I ran across some websites that can be very helpful when contemplating painting a home. One of the big challenges anymore when painting is choosing from an enormous selection of colors! It’s really kind of unbelieveable as you can choose from shades with names like Dove Wing, Western Accoustic and Swiss Coffee…and these are all shades of White! It’s bizarre! Some clients of mine painted their house colors called Cottage Walk and Echo. Who knew?

Well, there are some really interesting and useful websites right now that can be tremendously helpful when making these choices and I thought it would be useful to pass this info along.  The first is a site called Colorcharts.org and it’s great because it utilizes color selections from several different companies. You can also upload photos of rooms in your own home with your own furniture in it and actually then see how different colors go with your stuff. It also allows for you to match paint across companies and thus you’re not locked into one companie’s pallette. One caveat of this site is that you’ll need to register and there’s a fee of $9.95 for 30 days to use it.

Another great site is Behr Color Smart . Of course you can pick colors from a large pallette and find pre set combinations ideas easily but the best part of this site is that you can put in a color you like and it will automatically find accents that match it. You can also put in the colors of your appliances and the site will match them too. Small tip…you’ll need to click on the little “color smart” tab on the Behr home page to get to the color selection tool.

I went to a listing appointment the other night and I think the sellers had 7 or 8 different colors on variious walls in their home. They all looked good too! It’s a truly different age right now and websites like these…and many others are a very valuable tool. Have fun!

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines Oscillation as ” a single swing (as of an oscillating body) from one extreme limit to the other”. Below you’ll find a great example from our current, and kooky 2009 Real Estate market.

This house, located at 3046 Del Monte in San Mateo, came on the market in September of 2004 listed for $569,000. There’s no interior photos to prove what I’m saying here but I remember it clearly. The house inside was reduced to the framing. There were a few plywood boards laid out so that you could walk around inside. It was basically gutted and needed bathrooms, kitchen…etc. My fondest memory is that, since there were many areas without flooring, you could see directly into the crawlspace. The interesting thing about that was the little detail that the entire rear foundation wall on one side had fallen over…and natural light was pouring in (probably along with vermin in all shapes and sizes too). Oh, by the way…it’s on the corner across the street from Hillsdale High School. To call it a fixer upper would be to grossly misrepresent the property. It was a shell! Never the less, it got 8 or 10 offers in it’s first week on the market and closed escrow, AS IS, at $630,000

Now, let’s fast forward to the wonderful world of 2009 and look at this gem:

It’s the house at 209 Miramontes in Half Moon Bay. It’s in a fantastic neighborhood, a block and a half from the state park and the Ocean. Check out those pictures…it’s stunning! It came on the market late in 2007 for $1,625,000…and didn’t sell. They relisted in in 2008 for $1,385,000, then dropped it to $1,285,000, then dropped it to $1,100,000…then dropped it again last week to $999,000!!  The house is 3330 sq ft on a 7500 sq ft lot and you can walk to both the Ocean and downtown Half Moon Bay. There are several comps in the last few years in the $1.5mil and up range and there’s a house at the end of the block currently listed for $1,985,000. Several potential buyers were circling it this week but only one materialized and it sold at the asking price yesterday. The other potential buyers felt like it was a little “risky”. What? $999,000 reflects a 45% reduction in value…and  it’s risky? In 2004 it wasn’t uncommon to pay 20% over the asking price, yet nobody talked about how risky that was.

Thus the oscillation concept. Why is it risk free to buy an uninhabitable shell in 2004, and pay over the asking price to boot, yet you can’t give away this kind of palace in 2009. Wild!

It was a tad bit harder this week…but not for our winner, Alex Ousherovich who nailed it early. It being the sculpture at Killdeer Park. Alex’s keen eye earns him a $30.00 gift card to Diamond Harbor Seafood at Edgewater Place. Great job Alex! Also coming in with the correct answer were Linda, Kali, Jeff and Ed. Good knowledge folks! Come on back this Friday when we might have an easier one…or not?

The truth is…I didn’t have time to go shoot Parks pictures this week. Thus here are some great shots Lesley took in the last several months that I’ve always wanted to use. I’m glad to be able to publish them.

Now, this week should be a little harder…I think. The question is, where is this thing? A general description of what it is wouldn’t hurt either. (How’s that for painting with a broad brush?) This weeks winner receives $30.00 worth of gift cards to one of Foster City’s newest restaurants…Diamond Harbor Seafood Restaurant in Edgewater Place. It used to be Mr. Fong’s. All the rules of this game are available to view on the bar above or on the left hand margin. Just place your answer in the comments below and you’re entered. If you’re first, you’re the winner. All correct answers will be published on Monday morning. Any and all silly jokes, funny stories, smart alecky quips and all wrong answers will be published immediately. Have fun and have a great weekend!

In the almost 20 years since I’ve been a realtor, there’s one phenomenon that I seem to see happen over and over again. It goes something like this…The  Jones’s decide they want a bigger, nicer, better, smaller…whatever home. They then start looking, both online as well as at weekend Open Houses. It’s at that point that something strange happens…they kind of like a place! What follows typically is the inevitable phone call to either me, or to a lender I know who then refers them to me.

For some reason there’s this funny sort of common thread among these buyers who feel that they would like to make an offer on a new place before selling their existing place, usually via an offer contingent upon the sale of said place.  Why not? It’s logical and it sure seems less painful than the perceived alternatives…but what are those alternatives? Here’s a few:

1) The seller has plenty of cash on hand and doesn’t have to worry about selling their original place. There are certainly people like that out there…there just aren’t many of them.

2) The seller has a ton of equity in their original home which they can pull out and use for the new down payment and then sell the house later if they want to. This is occasionally possible but for folks moving up it’s difficult…particularly in this current lending environment. 70% loan to value is the rule now and often it’s hard to pay two mortgages as well.

3) You sell your house first. This idea seems to feel a tad intimidating to people because there’s always a fear that if and when they get an offer on their home they won’t be able to find what they want before it closes…and they’ll be rendered homeless.

Thus…the contingency offer. What this means is the buyer asks the seller to accept an offer that allows them to sell their original house before consummating the deal and closing escrow. The buyers feel safe because they feel like they’ve gotten the home they want. Herein lies the trap. The simple truth is that sellers don’t like contingencies…even the sellers who’re making the contingency offers don’t want a contingency offer on their place! There are just too many questions about the saleability of the buyers property! A seller who is willing to consider a contingency offer is certainly going to be far less flexible on price and terms than they would be with a non contingent offer. A buyer making this type of offer loses an awful lot of leverage by making this choice.

In my experience, selling your place first is the best, and most stress free choice. You’re not going to feel like a gun is at your head to have to sell in order to get the “dream house”. One of the biggest lessons most of us learned during the boom years was the fact that the “perfect house” comes up again…and again! In addition, once you receive the right offer you can always rent back after close of escrow, giving yourselves more time to shop for the new place. 90 days is not unheard of for an escrow and rentback combination and during that amount of time I’ve never seen a buyer be unable to find the right new place. Avoid the trap…be patient and sell first.

So I was thinking about writing a post this morning about contingency offers, either that or about the construction project at Foster City School, and I stopped for a minute and thought..WHO CARES! Not today at least! What an amazing day this is! Congratulations to the Obamas and the Bidens, and most of all congratulations to us! I write this as a long time dyed in the wool Republican, yet on January 20, 2009 it’s exciting to say “Yes, We Can!”

Another big week! Of course it’s the bridge on Foster City Blvd next to the dog park. Congratulations go to Manoj Narayan who arrived first on the scene with the right answer. Manoj wins the $30.00 gift certificate to Waterfront Pizza. Also arriving with the correct answer was Dana, Kali, Ryan, Asif, Craig, Bill, Trisha, Francis, Gordon, Jim S, Erika, Vitaliy,Harish and Priiya. Great job you guys!! See you this Friday!