Comments on: Bad MLS Photos Redux

By: Jim Minkey

Jim Minkey — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 16:42:57 +0000

Funny that you saw that Nicole!! I did too…it must be the secret house on Albacore, huh?

By: Nicole

Nicole — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 16:11:32 +0000

On another note about pictures, what about the agents who post pictures for the wrong house or even put the wrong address? It actually happened to my parents once, they got a flyer in the mail about a townhome that was for sale and looked at the address and it was theie house! They called the agent and he didnt understand what they were talking about.

Also, I was just looking at the MLSlisting and I noticed a “townhome” for sale on Albacore however the home in the picture could not be on Albacore.

By: Jim Minkey

Jim Minkey — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 17:27:50 +0000

This may be worth a post at some point…if I can find out a couple of answers. The story is that when Foster City was created the idea was that you could buy a single family house cheaper than in San Mateo, Belmont…etc by paying for the house and leasing the land from the developer. The original lease was something like $25.00 a month and it went for 30 years. There was also an option to buy the land, inexpensively by today’s standards, but still alot of people leased. All of these folks had lots of opportunities to buy the land over the years. When the lease ended it was restructured at over $1000.00 a month and at that time some people got caught. Many people had retired and were on fixed incomes…the land was still offered for purchase but it was over $100,000. Last year there was a waterfront on Flying Mist that was on leased land and the cost of the land was $200,000. I’m constantly surprised that there are any leased land homes still out there. They’re rare at this point and they’re randomly located too. There’s no specific neighborhood that are exclusively leases. It’s safe to figure most of the earlier phases in Foster City had this lease component…but how many remain? I have no idea, but I’ll try to check.

By: Nicole

Nicole — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 17:09:18 +0000

Hi Jim,

Do you know what streets/houses are on leased land? I would love to learn more about it.

Thanks,
N

By: Lottie Kendall

Lottie Kendall — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 04:25:25 +0000

Hi Jim,

Thanks for the evening laugh! The other ones that get me are the teeny, tiny photos about the size of a postage stamp.

See ya,
Lottie

By: Jim Minkey

Jim Minkey — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 00:21:47 +0000

Thanks Anurag!!

Flying Cloud would be OK if it was $869,000….the problem is that it’s on leased land. You have to buy the land too and that pushed the overall value way over where it should be for that house. (in my opinion at least)

By: Anurag

Anurag — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 23:21:38 +0000

Hi Jim,

These are funny! Maybe these are the ones which stay on the market forever!!

By the way, very informational and occasionally funny blog. I am a long time lurker, but posting for the first time. I have gained a lot of information about Foster City from your website (blog), so thanks for the excellent work. I would to hear your thoughts on 150 FLYING CLOUD Isle, what;s going ion with that one. It may be bank owned, but it has been sitting on the market for almost 6 months now!

Anurag