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Forbes Top 10

May 16, 2009 By 5 Comments

foster-city

Many thanks to blog reader Jessica Morales for tipping me to this story. Last week Forbes magazine came up with a list of America’s Top 25 towns to live well. Foster City ranked #10 on that list. Pretty cool! Oddly enough, we ranked higher than Belmont and Hillsborough, but lower than Mountain View.  It’s all good stuff actually and it was sort of fun to see this ranking. Humorously, while they said plenty of really nice things about Foster City…here were the drawbacks:

“Drawbacks: There isn’t much happening in Foster City. There are plenty of office parks, but it offers few cultural institutions and restaurants.”

I can’t resist mentioning that #1 on Forbes list was Boulder, CO. Home of my alma mater the University of Colorado. I totally agree with that ranking!

Anyway, here’s a link to the Forbes piece. Have fun!

Forbes Top 25 Towns

Filed Under: Foster City, Saturday Fun!

Funky Foto Contest Week 56

May 15, 2009 By 25 Comments

goose

What type of duck is this…just kidding! I really don’t care about the duck (is that a duck?), I really do care about where this guy is choosing to live. This weeks question is…where is this lagoon? What’s the name of this project? This weeks winner will finally be the recipient of the Otake Japanese gift card that couldn’t be given away a few weeks ago. All the rules of the road are available to view on the left hand margin as well as on the bar above. The winner along with all other correct answers will not be published until Monday morning. All jokes, quips, irreverent banter and all wrong answers will be published immediately. Good luck and have a great weekend!

Filed Under: Funky Foto Contest

Ongoing Movement

May 14, 2009 By 3 Comments

optimism

Last Thursday I copied some pretty positive numbers about where the market had been in the prior 24 hour period. During that time there had been 22 pending sales out of 51 total properties experiencing a change of some kind. I couldn’t resist doing this same exercise again today. Honestly, there’s nothing particularly special about Thursday…it’s a random day that’s really no different than any other in terms of activity, with the possible exception of Monday since that’s the day most listings come on the market so that it can be included in Tuesday’s broker tour. Anyway, here’s yesterday’s numbers:

58 properties experienced a change of some type.

25 were pending sales.

6 closed escrow.

11 were new listings.

5 experienced a price reduction.

8 listings were canceled, expired or withdrawn from the market.

2 listings had their deals fall apart.

1 listings increased it’s price (go figure!)

Let’s hit this one again….there are 25 pending sales in the last 24 hours. It’s becoming a trend. It’s not an aberation.

In Foster City there were pendings at 998 Laguna, 842 Grenada, which had been on the market 271 days, and 1051 Beach Park #201 which had been on the market 244 days.

Today, there are 41 pending sales in Foster City in all classes…up from 39 last week.

Last night I showed fellow blogger Vicki Moore’s listing at 245 E 40th in San Mateo Village listed at $560,000. There were 6 other agents showing the house while I was there with my clients. It felt like a party! Reminded me of 2004! There’s no doubt in my mind that this house is getting multiple offers and in fact Vicki has set a date to review them next Wednesday. Again, it felt alot like the good old days.

The worm has turned folks…and I’m not just looking at the market through Rose colored glasses either.

Filed Under: Buyer info, How's The Market?

Auctions

May 12, 2009 By Leave a Comment

canis

On April 18 I wrote a post about an online auction taking place for the property at 857 Canis in Isle Cove. It’s still a pretty fascinating subject to me and I thought it was worth an update. There have been 39 bids so far on this property that began it’s auction life at $300,000. It’s now up to $474,000 with 11 days left.

This property initially came on the market last November for $718,000 and experienced 2 price reductions down to $650,000 before being withdrawn at the end of March. The auction company plainly states that the “final bid/sale amount is subject to sellers reserve” so there would appear to be a point that the property can’t be sold?

The auction company, USA Auction Advantage, charges the buyer a fee to purchase. Here’s their wording:

A BUYERS PREMIUM OF 2% WILL BE CHARGED TO THE BUYER AS A CLOSING COST, DUE AND PAYABLE AT CLOSE OF ESCROW. THIS FEE IS PAID DIRECTLY TO US AUCTION ADVANTAGE AND IS NOT INCLUDED IN THE PURCHASE PRICE. 

 

In addition, there’s a large assessment at Isle Cove currently that presumably will need to be taken care of by the buyer. I’m fascinated by this process, there’s still plenty of time left but $474,000 would be a fantastic deal on this place. I have no doubt that it’ll go over that too. May 23 is the final day and I’ll let you know how it all ends up…assuming I can find out!

Filed Under: How's The Market?

Funky Foto Contest Winner Week 55

May 11, 2009 By Leave a Comment

charter

It is, of course, the Charter Square sign on Shell just before Beach Park. Note Mr. Toler’s comment on Friday as to the future of this little shopping center. This week’s winner was Nicole Fabris who get’s the $30.00 gift card to Sweet Basil Thai at Beach Park Plaza. Also arriving with the correct answer was Erika, Priya, Francis, Brenda, Michael Sit, Steve Toler and Mary D’asaro. Great job folks! A big comeback from last week! Come on back on Friday when we’ll do it all over again too!

Filed Under: Funky Foto Contest

Happy Mother’s Day

May 9, 2009 By Leave a Comment

happy_mothers_day_ez2319

Things My Mother Taught Me

My Mother taught me LOGIC…
“If you fall off that swing and break your neck, you can’t go to the store with me.

My Mother taught me MEDICINE…
“If you don’t stop crossing your eyes, they’re going to freeze that way.”

My Mother taught me TO THINK AHEAD…
“If you don’t pass your spelling test, you’ll never get a good job!”

My Mother taught me ESP…
“Put your sweater on; don’t you think that I know when you’re cold?”

My Mother taught me TO MEET A CHALLENGE…
“What were you thinking? Answer me when I talk to you…Don’t talk back to me!”

My Mother taught me HUMOR…
“When that lawn mower cuts off your toes, don’t come running to me.”

My Mother taught me how to BECOME AN ADULT…
“If you don’t eat your vegetables, you’ll never grow up.”

My mother taught me ABOUT SEX…
“How do you think you got here?”

My mother taught me about GENETICS…
“You are just like your father!”

My mother taught me about my ROOTS…
“Do you think you were born in a barn?”

My mother taught me about the WISDOM of AGE…
“When you get to be my age, you will understand.”

My mother taught me about ANTICIPATION…
“Just wait until your father gets home.”

My mother taught me about RECEIVING…
“You are going to get it when we get home.”

and my all time favorite thing- JUSTICE
“One day you will have kids, and I hope they turn out just like YOU…then you’ll see what its like.”

Filed Under: Random Musings, Saturday Fun!

Funky Foto Contest Week 55

May 8, 2009 By 16 Comments

sail

Will it be 2 weeks in a row without a winner? NO WAY! Week 55 starts a whole new string of victories for you guys, I’m sure. I have to warn you though…there’s alot of new pics coming with symbols from FC neighborhoods as the theme! Nothing like a challenge. Anyway, today’s foto begs the question, where is this sailboat logo? Today’s winner will receive a $30.00 gift card to Sweet Basil Thai at Beach Park Plaza. All the rules of the road are available to view on the left hand margin as well as on the bar above. The winner as well as all other correct answers will not published until Monday morning. Any and all semi humorous jokes, smart aleky quips and all wrong answers will be published ASAP. Have a great weekend!

Filed Under: Funky Foto Contest

Light At The End Of The Tunnel

May 7, 2009 By 1 Comment

tunnel

The more time goes by the more certain I am of this. There really is light at the end of this tunnel. The MLS has lots of great tools and one of them is the ability to run a daily, or even hourly, update of activity in a given area. Here’s some facts from this mornings update as it applies to Foster City, San Mateo, San Carlos, Redwood Shores, Belmont and Redwood City:

* 51 properties experienced some type of change in the last 24 hours

* 22 of them went pending (sold) during that time.

* 8 closed escrow.

* 4 were new listings.

* 8 experienced a price reduction.

* 3 had their deals fall apart and were put back on the market.

* 6 listings were canceled, expired or withdrawn from the market.

Not that I want to beat a dead horse or anything…but there were 22 sales in the last 24 hours. That was just yesterday. 22 sales.

It was particularly interesting to note that several of them were listings that had been on the market for a long time. 396, 259, 251, 238, 205 and 181 days respectively. I think that’s a good sign as well and I have no doubt that those buyers got good buys too.

In Foster City there are currently 39 pending sales in all classes. That’s a cumulative high for 2009 so far. Having said that, there’s still 37 single family active listings and 61 condo/townhouse actives today, but those are both down from the highs of a couple of months ago.

It’s going to be an interesting summer.

Filed Under: How's The Market?, Real Estate

Stay in Front

May 5, 2009 By Leave a Comment

indy

In spite of how scary this all was for Indy, if you’re a seller in this current market the best thing that you can possibly do is to stay ahead of the rolling boulder that are home prices in this 2009 market. It’s been interesting to note how this lesson has played out recently when it’s come to recent sales. Take for example a house in the San Carlos hills that closed last week. The house was initially listed in late September for $1,349,000…in retrospect a price that was too high for that marketplace. They dropped it 3 weeks later to $1,250,000 and then again a month after that to $1,195,000. It went off the market for the holidays and came back on again in January for $1,149,999. In late February it reduced again to $1,125,000 and again in early March to $1,099,000. Finally at the end of March they dropped it one more time to $1,075,000 and it finally ratified five days later. It closed last week at $1,015,000. The sellers paid $1,050,000 for this house in 2004.

What I mean by staying in front is simply this. If the sellers had been able to swallow the painful medicine earlier in the listing’s life they would have sold it for much more money. What if they had started at $1,249,000 instead of $1,349,000? That price would have seemed cheap in September. What if they had dropped the price from $1,349,000 to $1,195,000 in November? I don’t think there’s much doubt that the house would have sold sooner and for significantly more that $1,015,000. Hind site is this fabulous teacher, I know! I also know how hard it is for sellers and listing agents to come to terms with a meaningful price reduction…simply because nobody want to  lose money on their home.

 The market is like a flowing river with plenty of ebbing and flowing and it’s critical to pay close attention to the nuance of comparable prices. The market is also teaching us that the aggressively priced home sells much faster than the conservatively priced one…and in the long run pays off for the seller.

By the way…Happy Cinco De Mayo!

Filed Under: Seller Info

Funky Foto Contest Winner Week 54

May 4, 2009 By Leave a Comment

bayporte

Finally, after 54 weeks we do not have a winner…sort of. Actually Erika Jahnke nailed it on Friday but she’s inelidgable to win the prize since she won a couple of weeks ago. So nobody wins it. Maybe I’ll use the gift certificate and check out Otake myself. Friday’s pic was the symbol for the Bayporte community over next to Catamaran Park.pizarro Below is a photo of a listing on Pizarro from Bayporte that’s on the market right now for $1,050,000. Anyway, sorry about Friday! Come on back this week when we’ll do it all over again. Have a great week!

Filed Under: Funky Foto Contest
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