Feb

08

Interest Rate Watch!!

Posted In: Economy, First Time Home Buyers, For Buyers, General Real Estate News, Mortgage & Finance

Finally some good news for the housing market!  Mortgage rates went down again, with the 30-year fixed-rate down nearly a full point from November, when it peaked at just over seven percent!!  According to Freddie Mac research, this one percentage point reduction in rates can allow as many as three million more mortgage-ready consumers to qualify and afford a $400,000 [...]

Mar

17

Buy, Sell or Wait? What’s Changing and Isn’t? Coronavirus and the Real Estate Market

Posted In: Economy, First Time Home Buyers, For Buyers, For Sellers, General Real Estate News

Although we have weathered dramatic changes in the real estate market in the past, the unprecedented global health threat posed by coronavirus is unlike any other potential market disruption we’ve experienced before. In this time of uncertainty, our clients are asking a lot of questions. We want to try to address them the best we can, keeping in mind that [...]

Feb

12

Tis’ the Season For *Love* Letters

Posted In: First Time Home Buyers, For Buyers, General Real Estate News

It is February, and February means L O V E .  Well, for some it does- at least for the first half of the month! Have you ever written a love letter to a special someone?  Did that letter spell out what it was you loved about them, or how you felt?  I remember being in the 3rd grade and [...]

Sep

25

Should I Put My Property in a Living Trust?

Posted In: For Buyers, General Real Estate News

(as reposted from the Abio blog…) We have trust issues. When legendary singer Aretha Franklin died recently, she didn’t leave a will or a trust for her estimated $80 million estate. No instructions about how to split her assets among her four children or deal with creditors and extended family members who might claim portions of her estate. That got us thinking. More than half of [...]

Sep

10

Who Should Vote for Prop 5, Property Tax Law

Posted In: Alameda County, Contra Costa County, General Real Estate News, Legal, Taxes

(as reposted from the Abio blog) Proposition 5, a measure developed by the California Association of Realtors, is headed to the ballot Nov. 6, and advocates say it could ease not only the property tax burden on seniors, but also relieve the state’s housing crunch. Here’s what you need to know before you vote on Prop. 5, also known as the Property Tax Transfer Initiative: [...]

Jan

11

Tax Reform and Real Estate: Who Are the Winners and Losers?

Posted In: General Real Estate News

It’s a new year filled with new laws – from the useful, to the quirky, to the expensive. Pot is legal now in California, public diaper-changing stations must be accessible to men as well as women, the state minimum wage rose $.50, and President Trump signed a major federal tax reform bill. For property buyers and sellers, we boiled down the 1,097-page federal “Tax Cuts and [...]

Jan

09

Buying a Home as a Real Estate Agent: Unsolicited Advice for Buyers and their Agents

Posted In: First Time Home Buyers, For Buyers, General Real Estate News, Our Sales, Success Stories

I’ve been a real estate for 5 years and this past July my husband and I had the opportunity to buy a home for ourselves. We had been renting for the past 10 years partly because of neighborhood issues and partly because of the recession. After years of saving and some serious luck we were finally in the position to [...]

Apr

25

How Following Zillow’s “Best Time to List” Tool Could Hurt You

Posted In: For Sellers, General Real Estate News

Making recent news in the world of real estate was an announcement by Zillow about a new tool for home sellers. The listing portal’s “Best Time to List” tool estimates how much the timing of when a property is listed will influence its sales price, based on the sales history of the property’s local market. “Sellers can use this information to [...]

Jan

13

What Kind of Market is THIS

Posted In: Alameda County, Berkeley, First Time Home Buyers, For Buyers, For Sellers, Foreclosures & Short Sales, General Real Estate News, Investing, Listings, Local Market Statistics

Multiple offers, oh my!  No contingencies, oh my!  As long as you aren’t in Berkeley, Albany or Oakland, then it might be considered normal.  Normal is defined as a market where buyers and sellers have equal bargaining power.  Yah right, not here!  But all joking aside, even in these very competitive markets we are starting to see some normalcy.  Indeed [...]

Oct

19

Cost vs. Value Report 2016

Posted In: For Sellers, General Real Estate News, Green Living, Home Improvement, Home Maintenance, Investing

The 2016 Cost vs. Value report is out.  YIPPEE! Now let me set the stage: each year, right about this time, a little reminder pops up on my computer, notifying me to “Look for Annual Cost vs. Value Report.”  Well, last week it popped up!  I immediately stopped writing the email I was forming and popped over to Remodeling to [...]