Not sure exactly what this ad is for…but it’s hilarious!

For alot of us, when your ship comes in…it often looks alot like this one. Filled with kids of course. This weeks foto begs the question…where is this boat like looking thing? If you’re the first to answer correctly you’ll win a $30.00 gift card to Noah’s Bagels over there by Starbucks. 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 The winner as well as all other correct answers will not be published until Monday morning. Any and all jokes, quips and all wrong answers will be published immediately if not sooner. Have a great weekend!

OK, maybe it’s a little more than being a little out of touch. Maybe it’s really a case of burying one’s head in the sand. I say that, in all sincerity, without judgement or malice of any kind. I’ve been guilty more times than I can count of precisely the same thing. It’s the human condition.

What am I talking about, you ask? A few days ago I had a conversation with a client of mine who’s been planning to sell sometime this spring. They’ve been in the middle of a pretty large project (for a long time) remodeling the second story of their house. When the work is done, it goes on the market. My client called to ask if I knew anything about the way foreclosures worked…because they had gotten a notice of some kind that told them they had one scheduled for next month. They were not sure exactly what the notice was or who had sent it. She went on to explain that they had been doing a loan modification and this sort of hit them out of the blue.

“Have you been missing your mortgage payments?” I asked. “Yes” She replied.

“How long has it been?” I asked. “Not quite sure” She said. “The loan mod people have been working for a long time on this thing, but communication with them is problematic…to say the least. We’re not really sure what’s going on”.

She asked me if 1) it would be possible for a foreclosure to actually be scheduled for a couple of weeks out and 2) if they made a mortgage payment or two could they delay the action until the construction work was completed and the house could be sold.

I, honestly, didn’t know the answer to either question. I suggested they call their lender and talk to them about it.  Put your cards on the table and see if they can help you work through this. She said they were worried that it would blow the loan mod opportunity and they had been afraid to make that call.

Ultimately we agreed that it was probably a better situation to blow the loan mod (if that’s even possible?) rather than have the house be foreclosed upon in a few weeks. She said she would call the lender.

It was actually a great wake up call for me. It’s so easy…and so human, to rationalize or put off potentially painful choices and decisions. So very many people have lost their homes because of embarrassment or fear of confronting the hurdles that are unavoidable. Often, an honest discussion with your lender will go a long way toward a solution.

City Council Recap – 1/19/10 from Foster City TV on Vimeo.

There’s two very important reasons to watch this FCTV video highlighting the most recent City Council meeting. First, because it’s possible to see our good friend, perennial Blog participant, and Foster City’s new Finance Director Steve Toler wearing a nice dress shirt and a tie. I told him I’d refer to him here as a stud, but I promised not to go that far, so let’s just say that he’s looking “studly” and be good with that. Secondly, and possibly of slightly greater importance, is the actual content of what he’s saying. In a nutshell, the City’s finances are in pretty darn good shape. There’s actually a significant reserve and financially Foster City is a very well managed community.

It also means that if you live in Foster City you’re pretty spoiled to tell you the truth. Many of Foster City’s sister communities here in the Mid Peninsula are not even close to the position that FC finds inself in right now. Let’s take a look at San Carlos for example. San Carlos is quite possibly the most coveted community in the area. It’s shown wonderful growth, it’s schools rank well (though not as good as FC’s) and it’s downtown has become a Mecca for shopping and dinning. I like San Carlos, don’t you? Guess what? Because of severe budget shortfalls the Parks and Rec department have recommended that 6 parks be closed by July 1 of this year. Not only that, the plan is to actually fence off these parks to prevent their use.

Sound bad? That’s not all. It’s also recommended that the youth center be closed for 10 months out of the year. The other two months will be open only for revenue generating activities. In addition all off season sports will end. Spring soccer, fall baseball and softball will receive no field time at all.

Imagine this scenario in Foster City. Catamaran and Boothbay parks closed…and fenced off! Not only can you not use the fields but the tennis and basketball courts are off limits too. Ketch, Turnstone, Killdeer, and Sunfish Parks closed as well. The Vibe closed for 10 months out of the year. Half Moon Bay, San Bruno and Millbrae are a mess too for what that’s worth…and their restaurants aren’t as good as San Carlos either.

No matter where you live it’s not uncommon to hear some bashing from time to time of local government. In my opinion at least, Foster City has done a remarkable job in managing it’s financial situation and they should be commended.

Jeez…it was sure nice to see all that participation! I guess it was a tad too easy. Great job everyone! It would appear that Baja Fresh is a pretty popular place after all, huh? Congratulations to Debbie Yueng who wins the $30.00 gift card to Kobe Japanese! (Not Baja Fresh) Great job Debbie…who actually answered it twice finishing first and second. Also answering correctly was Alex O, Sandy Hughes, Suju George, Kavita, Pak, Lyndsey, (Sandy, Suju and Lyndsey came over from facebook!) Suresh, Asif, Bill Hastings, Divine, Trisha, Lilian, the Chamber’s own Penny Mika, Nancy, Chris Hsiung, The Great and Powerful Toler, Erika Jahnke, Sheetal and last, but not least, Brian. Again…great job folks!!! Thanks for playing, see you again on Friday!

This is actually kind of cute and fun.

I’m sure this won’t come as any big surprise to anybody…but this photo was not taken this week! When I saw it I sort of yearned to be out there…right now! Even though none of us has been to this place the question for today is, where is this plaza? This weeks winner will receive a $30.00 gift certificate to Kobe Japanese at Edgewater Place. All the rules of the road are available to view on the left hand margin as well as on the bar above. The winner and all other correct answers will not be published until Monday morning. Any and all silly jokes, semi amusing quips and all wrong answers will be published immediately. Have a great, dry weekend!

OK, I know it’s early but 2010 sure seems to be off to a good start…at least if houses selling is of interest to you. It’s probably not that good of a start if you wanted more significant price erosion. It’s just that it seems like every house I’ve shown since the first of the year has gotten multiple offers. In one case, I had a client interested in a little foreclosure at 960 3rd Ave in Redwood City that got 20 0ffers last week. That’s a pretty good turn out if you ask me.

What really surprised me was my own listing at 18 Dory Ln in Nantucket Cove in Foster City. My clients and I had contemplated listing it last fall but for several reasons decided to wait until this month to put it on. The townhouse category had shown improvement but it still was fairly sluggish. Other similar floor plans to ours had sold at Nantucket Cove last year for less than ours was going to list at ($748,000) and while I had hoped that 2010 would bring some energy I was a liitle concerned.

It came on the market last Friday afternoon, by Saturday morning I had an agent who had written an offer. I told him I wasn’t looking at offers until Tuesday…and on Sunday at the open house I had 80 to 90 people. By Monday afternoon I had handed out 14 disclosure packets. We looked at offers on Tuesday afternoon and we had 7 of them. Four of them were over the asking price. Needless to say, the sellers and I were very happy. There’s very little doubt in my mind that this outcome would not have happened if we had listed in November.

I recall other sluggish markets, the fall of 2001 comes to mind, where the market shifted from asleep to fully awake virtually overnight right after the first of the year. 2009 was a difficult and frightening year for many people. There had to be demand that’s been pent up. For now at least, it sure feels to me like the market is moving forward. Of course it’s way to early to crown the market back again…but we’re off to a good start.

When you buy a home you’re going to, at some point, have the inevitable conversation about the need for a Home Warranty policy. What is a Home Warranty policy you ask? It’s an insurance policy that covers lots and lots of issues that can, and will, come up after you begin your residence in your new home. The basic policy covers most appliances, electrical, plumbing, furnaces, hot water heaters, garage door openers…etc. Inevitably, right after you move into your new home something breaks. When that happens you call an 800 number given to you by the Warranty company and they send out a local professional to fix it. You pay a small service charge but the bigger portion of the repair is covered by your policy. Some items that you routinely use (and probably ones that break easiest!) are not covered under the basic policy but can be added for an extra charge. These items include washer/dryers, refrigerators, central AC, roofs, spas and swimming pools. The basic policy is under $400.00 in most cases.

Here’s some of my observations about Home Warranties:

* They’re essential to have…you’ll use them, I promise!

* The Home Warranty company rarely sends you the policy or any information after you close escrow. At least it seems like that to me because I frequently am asked by clients for the relevant info when they discover they need it and they never seem to have the policy around.

* It’s the darnedest thing…the issue you need help with is the one thing that’s not covered under the basic policy. (Your ice maker breaks on the fridge door, the plumbing main line ruptures)

The most important thing to remember about the Home Warranty…is the fact that you have one!  I can’t tell you how many times a client has called me after a few months in the house and says something like “Hi Jim, our hot water heater ruptured a couple of days ago and so we called a plumber and had it fixed…how do we use our Home Warranty for that?” Umm…bottom line? You’re screwed. You have to call the Home Warranty’s 800 number, they have to send the plumber out.

Even with all the potential headaches accounted for these things are worth it. As a buyer, they’re usually provided for you at closing without you paying for it. Sellers are smart to provide these since they greatly minimize hassles for them after close of escrow. They last for a year after COE and you can always extend them at that time. We used ours five times in the first month we lived in our house when we bought in 2004. I love these things.

I knew this one was going to be hard! Naturally, it took someone who actually lives in Alden Crossing to nail the image on the Alden Crossing sign. Congratulations to Francis DeGuzman who wins the $30.00 gift card to Sweet Basil Thai! Congrats also to Sheetal for answering correctly too…just a bit later than Francis. Thanks for playing folks! See you Friday.