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Archive for the 'Mountain View' Category

Pocket Listings – Are They a Good Way to Sell Your Los Altos Home?

By David Blockhus on 4.1.12 - Please leave a comment.

The Los Altos real estate market is sizzling. Buyers are out in force, multiple offers are the norm rather than the exception and as might be expected, inventory is limited. Given our current strong seller’s market, why would any seller want to limit the amount of exposure (and therefore money) their home would receive by selling as a pocket listing?

If you are thinking of selling your home “off market” as a pocket listing, you should watch the following video.

Los Altos School District to Detail Option For Bullis Charter School Students to Share Space at Egan and Covington

By David Blockhus on 3.19.12 - Please leave a comment.

At tonight’s LASD board meeting, board members will be discussing possible modifications to its facilities offer which include exploring the possibility of sharing Covington Elementary School with Bullis Charter School’s K-6 students. Bullis’ 7-8 grade students would remain at the Egan school site.

The public portion of the meeting will begin at 7:00 p.m. at Egan Junior High (note: not the district office or the Covington multi).

Per LASD website, background on the is below:

On February 1 the district presented a preliminary offer of facilities for 2012-13 to Bullis Charter School. On March 1 the charter school delivered a response to the district’s offer. The district is required by state law to take into account the charter school’s response when making its final offer on or before April 1.

In light of the charter school’s response and objections to the preliminary offer, and the recent Court of Appeals decision, the Board will explore as a possible solution an offer to share a K–6 campus with the charter school’s K–6 students, specifically the Covington campus, and leave the charter school 7th and 8th grade students at the Egan site. Below is a DRAFT example of a shared Covington campus, with portable buildings added to provide enough space for both Covington and BCS students and staff. It is important to note that this is just one of many possible configurations the Board is considering and will be discussing in open session as part of this agenda item. Also below are maps of Egan and Blach showing the placement of classrooms under the district’s preliminary offer.

Click for LASD Board Meeting Agenda 3:19:2012

Click for LASD Press Release over facilities sharing

See below for photos of the proposed site changes:

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Six Effective Strategies to Combat a Low Appraisal

By David Blockhus on 2.9.12 - Please leave a comment.

Low property appraisals can occur in any real estate market. In a rising market, multiple offers can create a final contract price higher than current comparable properties. In a declining market, appraisal values may not come in at value. Both buyer and seller want the home to appraise for the negotiated price, but sometimes it doesn’t. What can a buyer or seller do if a property doesn’t appraise at or above the negotiated purchase price?

1. The buyer can bring in additional cash to make up the difference between appraised value and contract value.

2. The buyer and seller can re-negotiate the contract price down to the appraised value price.

3. The seller can hold true to the purchase contract price and possibly carry a 2nd note for the difference between the appraised value and purchase contract value.

4. The lender could order a second appraisal that might come in at value and/or request to appeal the original appraisal. The appeal could be based on the appraiser using wrong or outdated comparable properties, the appraiser’s lack of knowledge of the community (comparing two homes from different school systems etc.) or the appraiser using incorrect information about the home (i.e. size, age amenities etc).

5. The buyer can kill the loan with the original lender and start fresh with a new loan and subsequently new appraisal. The seller must agree, this will take time and it might not yield different results. If there are questions about a property’s ability to appraise, one might double app with two lenders so you have a back-up in place should the first lender (do to low appraisal) not be able to perform.

6. Both parties can agree to cancel the transaction.

Since 1994, I have seen almost all of these strategies in reaction to a low appraisal value used. Renegotiating the purchase price and/or having the buyer bring in more cash seem to be most frequently used strategy for keeping the deal together. However, it really depends on the buyer, seller and real estate agents having a meeting of the mind to make it work.

Should you have questions about buying or selling a home, please call or text me directly at 650 465-0755.

Mountain View High School Finally Has a Real Swimming Pool!

By David Blockhus on 1.31.12 - Please leave a comment.

At 8:15 this morning things changed dramatically for Mountain View High School’s Aquatic program. For today is the day that Mountain View High opened its new state of the art swim complex. No longer will the water polo teams have to play every game away because it’s half shallow pool was not legal. No longer will the kids be unable to swim because the “moody” pool heater, pump, cleaner, etc was broken.

A huge thank you goes out to our entire Los Altos/Mountain View community for voting Yes on Measure A. For it was the Measure A funds that built this pool. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

See below for pictures of today’s ribbon cutting and “first swim” by the boy’s and girl’s varsity water polo teams.

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Great Hiking on Rancho San Antonio’s PG&E Trail

By David Blockhus on 10.17.11 - Please leave a comment.

Anyone who knows me knows I love to get outdoors and explore. One of my favorite local destinations is Rancho San Antonio County Park and one of my favorite trails is the PG&E trail. Last week I brought my video camera to capture the scenery.

3480 Bruckner Circle, The Best of Friday’s Broker Tour

By David Blockhus on 5.17.11 - Please leave a comment.

I thought 3480 Bruckner Circle (View Map), Listed by Alan Huwe of Coldwell Banker, was the best value on last Friday’s tour. Located in Mountain View, in a great west of El Camino Real Neighborhood, this spacious 4-bedroom 2.5 bathroom home will sell on Wednesday.

Why Will It Sell So Quickly?

It has the rooms that buyer’s desire – Separate living room, separate family room, separate dining room.

It has decent sized bedrooms – not the 8 foot by 9 foot rooms that you see so much of.

It has a decent sized eat-in kitchen that has had some updating done to it.

It has a good, usable backyard – space for outdoor entertaining, play set or even a pool. It will get a lot of afternoon sun.

It is in a great location – a stones throw from Oak Elementary and Mountain View high. Street signs prevent high school students from parking on street.

It has great schools – Oak Elementary, Blach Intermediate, and Mountain View High School.

It is priced well – $1,389,000 is what you would expect to pay for a home in this condition in the Mountain View-Whisman School district area of Waverly Park.

And The Band Plays On!

Buyer’s should be aware that the Mountain View High School band plays most mornings at 7:00 a.m. in the field closest to Truman at Bruckner Circle. Having grown up backing up to the baseball field at Mountain View High, the sound of the band can be great way to wake up or it can interfere with sleeping in.

According to the MLS, offers on this property need to be submitted to Alan Huwe by noon on Wednesday 5/18, 2011.

Craigslist Scam Uses Mountain View Property As Bait

By David Blockhus on 5.13.11 - 1 Comment »

I received a call yesterday from a woman who was looking for information about a rental property in Mountain View that she saw on Craigslist. The ad was offering a 4 bedroom/3 bath home in the Gest Ranch neighborhood of Mountain View for $2,000 per month. There was a property address but no further information was given. The ad also included a rental application that was to be submitted via e-mail.

Since there wasn’t much information about the home, the prospective tenant drove to the property to check it out. She saw our Coldwell Banker real estate sign (not realizing that it was a “for sale” sign not a “for rent” sign) and called to get further details and access. That is when I informed her that she almost had her identity taken.

Coldwell Banker does not have a rental in the Gest Ranch neighborhood of Mountain View and if we did, it would not be priced at $2000 per month (market rent is more than double that for a home of that size). What we do have is a home for sale (although it went sale pending immediately) that matches the subject rental property. So what happened?

Someone “hijacked” (took the online photo, address etc.) a new Coldwell Banker listing and entered it into the Craigslist rental database as their own. They were hoping that someone (or better yet, many people) would e-mail a completed rental application and/or someone (or many people) would send them money in the form of a deposit. Once they had the information, they would assume the person’s financial identity and go shopping.

How to protect oneself from online scams?

Things to think about:

Does the rent or asking price seem really low.
Is the text poorly written.
Do they ask you to submit personal information or a deposit before seeing the property.
Will they personally meet you at the property (If so, make sure that you go with a friend).
Can you verify that they are the owner of the property or a representative hired to market the property?
Google the property address to see if it is for sale/rent, vacant lot etc.
If it seems to good to be true, it probably is.

Craigslist has its own personal safety tips when using their site. They are:

You can sidestep would-be scammers by following these common-sense rules:

DEAL LOCALLY WITH FOLKS YOU CAN MEET IN PERSON – follow this one rule and avoid 99% of scam attempts on craigslist.
NEVER WIRE FUNDS VIA WESTERN UNION, MONEYGRAM or any other wire service – anyone who asks you to do so is a scammer.
FAKE CASHIER CHECKS & MONEY ORDERS ARE COMMON, and BANKS WILL CASH THEM AND THEN HOLD YOU RESPONSIBLE when the fake is discovered weeks later.
CRAIGSLIST IS NOT INVOLVED IN ANY TRANSACTION, and does not handle payments, guarantee transactions, provide escrow services, or offer “buyer protection” or “seller certification”
NEVER GIVE OUT FINANCIAL INFORMATION (bank account number, social security number, eBay/PayPal info, etc.)
AVOID DEALS INVOLVING SHIPPING OR ESCROW SERVICES and know that ONLY A SCAMMER WILL “GUARANTEE” YOUR TRANSACTION.
DO NOT RENT HOUSING WITHOUT SEEING THE INTERIOR, OR PURCHASE EXPENSIVE ITEMS SIGHT-UNSEEN – in all likelihood that housing unit is not actually for rent and that cheap item does not exist.
DO NOT SUBMIT TO CREDIT CHECKS OR BACKGROUND CHECKS FOR A JOB OR FOR HOUSING UNTIL YOU HAVE MET THE INTERVIEWER OR LANDLORD/AGENT IN PERSON.

If you are looking for a quick, safe and easy way to find your local dream home, click here?

Should you have any questions about the value of you home in today’s market, please contact me directly at 650 917-4250 for a confidential conversation.

Looking For A Bank Owned or Pre-Foreclosure Home In Los Altos, Mountain View, Sunnyvale or Cupertino?

By David Blockhus on 1.24.11 - Please leave a comment.

There continues to be a lot of press about the abundance of pre-foreclosure homes and bank owned properties available for sale. The discussion tends to focus on the “huge supply” of distressed properties that continue to erode housing values. Although it is interesting and may sell more newspapers/magazines, I think that it may be overblown…or at least overblown when it comes to the Los Altos, Los Altos Hills, Cupertino, and Mountain View markets.

Note: parts of Sunnyvale do have a larger than normal inventory of distressed properties

Below is a list of all the active short sale and bank owned listings that are for sale on our local Multiple Listing Service. Click on the links below for details. You can also elect to have these short sale and bank owned properties sent to you via a RSS feed.

Los Altos short sale or bank owned homes for sale:

Los Altos Hills short sale or bank owned homes for sale:

Cupertino short sale or bank owned homes for sale:

Mountain View short sale or banked owned homes for sale:

Sunnyvale short sale or banked owned homes for sale:

Should you have any questions about any of these properties or about the value of you home in today’s market, please contact me directly at 650 917-4250 for a confidential conversation.

Mountain View Real Estate Market Update – December 2010

By David Blockhus on 1.18.11 - Please leave a comment.

Mountain View currently has 27 single family homes for sale, one of these is a short sale. There are 16 properties that are sale pending with five being a short sales or bank owned properties. Twenty-seven Mountain View single family homes closed escrow in December.

Click on Mountain View Real Estate Market Update – December 2010 for a two year history 0f market activity in Mountain View. Click on Mountain View Real Estate Summary for details (address, sales price, size etc.) on the 27 properties that closed escrow in October in Mountain View. Note: all data was taken from our local MLS and is deemed accurate but not guaranteed.

Should you have any questions about any of these properties or about the value of you home in today’s market, please contact me directly at 650 917-4250 for a confidential conversation.

Below are all the current single family homes for sale in Mountain View.

You’ll Never Know What You’ll Run Into at Rancho San Antonio Open Preserve

By David Blockhus on 12.13.10 - Please leave a comment.

After a morning conference call, I felt the urge to get my running shoes on and head out to Rancho San Antonio Open Space Preserve for a run. Passing the upper parking lot and the model plane enthusiasts, I drove to the lower parking lot. Three laps around the parking lot, I finally found a parking spot. Note: the earlier you come the higher the probability of finding a parking space on your first attempt. Beware, the weekends can be extremely busy.

I headed out toward Deer Hollow Farm (which is closed on Mondays) and before I got to the tennis courts, I saw about a dozen wild turkeys eating under the large Bay Laurel Tree (I think this tree is one of the largest in California – before a chunk of it broke/fell last year).

Typically one can see Deer, Quail, Rabbits, Lizards, Turkeys and in the summer Rattlesnakes. On occasion, I’ve spotted Bobcats. I have never spotted a Mountain Lion, but I here it is their habitat.

My run took me past the farm onto the Rogue Valley Trail and out to the pond and back (I think about 4 miles). It was glorious. Quiet and peaceful, Rancho San Antonio is a great place to detox.

While stretching my tired legs, I had a quick discussion with some new mothers who had just finished their training with their Baby Boot Camp group. Go moms! You found an ideal place to exercise, bond with your child and have an adult conversation to boot.

If you need a great place to spend some time unwinding, I would highly recommend Rancho San Antonio. Click Here for a map of the Preserve.