Foster City Real Estate...and so much more!
Now that one was indeed harder than usual, and I think you almost have to live right around there to know this Park. It’s Pompano Park actually. Congratulations to Larissa Lindval who arrived first and beat out Kevin Neilson to win the $30.00 gift card to Plaza Gourmet Deli. Everybody else missed it…or was out of town. Anyway, thanks for playing. See you again on Friday.
OK, I thought last week was going to be a hard one and it really wasn’t. This week however…we’ll see? If you’re first to tell me which Foster City park this is you’ll win a $30.00 gift card to Plaza Gourmet Deli 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 The winner along with all other correct answers will not be published until Monday morning. Any and all silly jokes, snappy quips and all wrong answers will be published immediately if not sooner.
Do you like Facebook? Does it drive you crazy? My wife Lesley hates it and won’t have anything to do with it…says what she really wants is “face time”. Not shallow relationships online. You’ve heard all that I’m sure. The thing is, no matter how you feel about FB it’s a significant force in our culture now and it certainly is a factor in our local economy. One thing I’m also certain that it’s doing…helping significantly to revive the local real estate market.
I noted, on Facebook actually, today that I’m busier right now than I’ve been in years and that I think the real estate market around here is hotter than I’ve seen it in the 22 years since I’ve been doing this. It’s absolutely insane right now…and I think alot of this energy is coming from Facebook’s IPO. everywhere I turn I hear people speculating about that…don’t you? Since the IPO I’ve seen SIGNIFICANTLY more buyers in the marketplace and multiple offers are the rule right now. Case in point. Today I presented an offer on a house at 919 Woodland in San Carlos. It’s a fixer upper 3 bedroom, 1.5 bath house that was listed for $699,000. My clients came in at $828,000 with a 30 day close and no contingencies of any kind. We weren’t even close. Turns out there were 28 offers! That’s crazier than 2004!
While were at it, I also presented an offer on a short sale at 702 Portwalk in Redwood Shores that was listed for $425,000. There were 11 offers on that place. On a short sale!!
How about in Foster City? Last fall I had a nice townhouse listed at 880 Carina in Isle Cove. It was on the market for 3 months and didn’t sell. All I heard was “The HOA’s are too high”, “There’s only a one car garage”, “The bathrooms aren’t remodeled”. We took it off for the holidays and relisted it again last Friday. Same place…even the same light staging! I had 200 people at the open house on Sunday. We got 6 offers tonight…5 of them went well over the asking price!
How do you explain this? Certainly, the inventory is ridiculously low on the whole Peninsula and certainly interest rates are low…but most of this activity began to really mushroom after Facebook announced it’s IPO. Seriously. It really seems to me that most of the folks out there who’ve been sitting on the fence just got off of it. 28 offers on a fixer in San Carlos? If you’ve been thinking of selling your home…now’s the time.
That bird above is none other than a Turnstone. That’s also the answer to Friday’s contest….Turnstone Park. Congartulations to Jeff Deeney who arrived first and wins the $30.00 gift card to Baja Fresh. Also answering correctly was Debbie, Shrikant, Ruchi, and Jenn. Thanks again for playing folks! Good job last week with the awareness!! See you again on Friday.
Nice day, huh. Looks like the weekend’s supposed to be like this. I hope. Maybe it will be a good opportunity to go to a park here in Foster City. A park sort of like this one. This weeks question, which Park is this? If you’re first to tell me this you’ll win a $30.00 gift card to Baja Fresh. 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. Any and all silly jokes, snappy quips and all wrong answers will be published immediately if not sooner.
OK, I’ve seen it be lean before…but this is ridiculous! As of this post there’s 9 whole active single family listings in Foster City and only 17 condo/townhouses. It’s bizarre, I’ve never seen it this lean! There’s 16 pending sales in Single Family and 22 condo/townhouse pendings. If you consider how many of these are problematic, or are short sales…etc then it’s actually even more lean. Who knows why it’s like this right now though. I have no doubt that we’ll soon be seeing more inventory. It just has to happen statistically. In this current climate I’ll bet even eichlers get multiple offers. Amazing! Here’s a new one to watch, just came up today:
269 Avocet listed by Sheryl Fleming of Alain Pinel for $1,179,000. This place is gorgeous…and has no competition! Really nice 4 bedroom house.
632 Matsonia listed by Sylvia Merkadeau of Coldwell Banker for $869,000. This is the Eichler I’m talking about…very nice and shows wonderfully!
While we’re at it….880 Carina, my listing, is coming back on tomorrow at $539,000. The place was on last fall and we took it off. I’m thinking now’s the time…it’s a really terrific unit!
Of course, that was too easy! The Foster City Sports Wall of Fame is in Sea Cloud Park. Congratulations to Dana Ferri who arrived first with the right answer and wins the $30.00 gift card to Chipotle. Also answering correctly was Nicole, Kevin, Dave, Debbie, Linda, Justin, Shrikant, Alex O, Bill, Juwan, Michael, Trisha D, Larry Shaine, J Kwan and Suresh. Thanks for playing folks! See you again on Friday!
OK, this’ll be hard…name 10 separate individuals named here on the FC Sports Wall of Fame. Just kidding!! Actually, this monument rests someplace in Foster City…this weeks question? Where is it? If you’re first to tell me that you’ll win a $30.00 gift card to Chipotle. 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. Any and all silly jokes, snappy quips and all wrong answers will be published immediately if not sooner.
Way back when, almost before life existed on Earth, I spent a fair amount of time hosting and attending parties. This was, of course, back before I got married and settled down dontcha know. My friends and I discovered a tried and true formula for having terrific parties and consequently when we had one they were always fun and successful. Here’s what we discovered…if we invited any guys the party stunk because the guys tended to outnumber the women 7 or 8 to 1. So, we stopped inviting guys all together. We created flyers and a week or so before the party we would hand them out…only to women! Women in bars, women at the health club, women in grocery stores, you name it. Never any guys though! Guess what…we always ended up with a party that consisted of 50% men vs women. Our events were really popular as a result.
You see the truth was that you could wad up one of those party flyers and throw it out the window of your car…and some guy would find it, tell all of his friends and they would ALL come to the party. If you invited 10 women, 2 or 3 of them might come. So if you invited 300 women and zero guys you would get 100 women and 100 men. It never failed!
Now…flash forward a couple of millenia and we have the 2012 Peninsula real estate market. That house in the picture is in South San Francisco. It’s a bank owned foreclosure. The bank ignorantly gave this listing to an agent from WAY out of the Bay Area. In Red Bluff or someplace around there. Said agent made small boo boo and listed the house in the San Francisco MLS…not the San Mateo County MLS. In case you’re unaware, there are two different databases and just so you know, South San Francisco is in San Mateo county. Since I,or any other local agent can’t see it in our local MLS it might as well be listed in Sacramento’s MLS. Are there any SF agents searching SM County in their MLS? No way. Right? Wrong!
This is the era of ZillowTruliaRedfinMovotoRoostSawbuckRealtor.com! They just buy the info from the MLS, regardless of which MLS! Everybody but us knows about this listing!! This clueless Red Bluff agent is going to review at least 10 offers on this property! 10 years ago this guy would have been wondering why nobody was calling or looking at his listing! It’s a weird feeling getting a call from your client who says they want to see this listing in SSF and I can’t find it to show it to him.
Honestly, you can’t hide good deals around here! It’s just like the wadded up party flyer that the guys found! Even if there’s a rumor of a deal…buyers will find it now.
It never fails. Seems like any time I get a new listing, in the first hour of the first open house somebody inevitably asks me this question. ” Is the seller flexible on price?” Honestly, that’s really an astonishingly stupid question…isn’t it? Is there anybody that you know on Earth who puts their home on the market for sale and expects to take a big price reduction…on the first day! I mean, do these folks imagine me sitting with the sellers and having a conversation like this?
Me: “Well, we’re off and running. I just put the house in the MLS and our first open house is tomorrow.”
Seller: ” Great! Remember Jim, I’m real flexible on price. Make sure those potential buyers and those agents know that, OK?”
Me: “Sure, no problem. How much under the asking price do you think you may want to go?”
Seller: “Oh, I don’t know. Maybe $100,000 or so. I just want to make sure those buyers feel like they’re getting a good deal. That’s my goal.”
Folks, if you believe any of this please call me because I have some really great ocean front property to sell you in Vacaville.
Seriously, I’ve never met a seller in my career who had any flexibility on the first day of the listing. If you like the house and want to make an offer on a listing that’s been on the market one day…get ready to pay at minimum somewhere close to the sellers price. Heck, the truth is most sellers entertain the fantasy on day one that they’ll get multiple offers and their house is going over asking. Even if it’s a complete dump! Now if you’re asking that question on day 72…that’s a different story.
Jim Minkey
Today Sotheby's International Realty
Email:
jim@jimminkey.com
______________
1250 San Carlos Ave. #101, San Carlos
Phone: 650-576-1732
Very adorable and large 2 bedroom unit, same sq ft as the … View this listing
Spotless, bright and clean end unit. Regular sale! Freshly … View this listing
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