- Happy Fourth of July to Everyone!
-
Last Saturday's golf outing was a great day as is any day on the links. Aside from a hiccup in everyone's start times the day went off without a hitch and everyone had a good time. The
Chuck Corica municipal course was a hub of activity that day. There were two other
tournaments being played and we had to wait
for those in the earlier to tourney to wrap up so we could get their golf carts. With the temperature around the mid 70* at tee time we weren't sure just how warm it would get but it seemed to stay below 85*. We had an excellent foursome, not out to set any records, not that we could even if we tried anyway, but a leisurely group with lots of jokes and laughing. In our foursome was my buddy Rick who introduced me to the game nine years ago and a couple of the Alpicella club's members one whose name John Ratto graces the Bocce Ball courts at Lincoln Park and the other John from San Leandro who has played the last couple of years in our foursome. It was such a good time the four of us agreed to preserve our group for the coming years.
I ended up with a score of 75 with the blind bogey scoring and that was down from my original play of 117. This was the first year we got back to the meeting hall before most other players and what a spread was laid out to enjoy on the appetizer table, homemade frittata, salami, chips and dip and alongside that table was the open bar for those wanting to wet their whistle. I was holding out for the main course, garlic with a barbequed New York steak underneath it. I do word it that way for a reason; it's an Italian club and the top of the tray the steaks came out in was a sea of freshly chopped green garlic. Oh, of course the meal started with plates of salad, rigatoni with meat sauce, and the steak was accompanied by more garlic in the roasted potatoes and green beans and mushrooms. Dessert I didn't have room for but plates of biscotti replaced the appetizers at some point in time. The day ended about twelve hours after it began at 9:30 and once my head hit the pillow it was lights out.
Onto business, I was asked to assume the Ambassador Chairperson position at our local Chamber of Commerce on Thursday 6/26. The former Chairperson had some business to attend too and was finding the time requirement a little tough to keep up with. This will be my third stint in the position having filled it for two consecutive years in a row about four or five years ago. The Ambassador committee is a group of Chamber of Commerce members that assemble at ribbon cuttings and grand openings greeting the new business owners to town. We also assist at the monthly mixers, greeting new members, selling raffle tickets and carrying on the raffle (my favorite). We are known as the public relations arm of the Chamber of Commerce.
Mark your calendars.
The Alameda Animal shelter is having their annual benefit event on July 24th from 6 to 9PM at Autobody Fine Art Gallery at 1517 Park St (Next to Lee's famous auto supply). The event includes a silent auction, a viewing of the art, Hors D'Oeuvres and cocktails and is always a fun event AND it is for a wonderful local cause.
Whats going on in the market this week? Click on the headings below.
NEW
| LIST PRICE: | SOLD PRICE: | DOM: |
| HIGH | LOW | AVERAGE | MEDIAN | TOTAL PRICE | LISTING COUNT | $1,600,000 | $3,255 | $631,764 | $602,000 | $11,371,765 | 18 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | 12 | 0 | 5 | 4 | | |
|
PRICE CHANGE
| LIST PRICE: | SOLD PRICE: | DOM: |
| HIGH | LOW | AVERAGE | MEDIAN | TOTAL PRICE | LISTING COUNT | $939,000 | $274,900 | $578,608 | $512,000 | $6,943,300 | 12 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | 149 | 6 | 57 | 47 | | |
|
PENDING
| LIST PRICE: | SOLD PRICE: | DOM: |
| HIGH | LOW | AVERAGE | MEDIAN | TOTAL PRICE | LISTING COUNT | $10,400,000 | $165,000 | $694,849 | $517,500 | $65,315,826 | 94 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | 340 | 0 | 48 | 22 | | |
|
SOLD
| LIST PRICE: | SOLD PRICE: | DOM: |
| HIGH | LOW | AVERAGE | MEDIAN | TOTAL PRICE | LISTING COUNT | $789,000 | $3,000 | $491,480 | $507,000 | $10,812,580 | 22 | $760,000 | $2,900 | $480,013 | $500,500 | $10,560,288 | 330 | 0 | 53 | 20 | | |
|
ALL AVAILABLE
| LIST PRICE: | SOLD PRICE: | DOM: |
| HIGH | LOW | AVERAGE | MEDIAN | TOTAL PRICE | LISTING COUNT | $1,899,000 | $180,500 | $624,937 | $572,250 | $109,988,920 | 176 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | 346 | 0 | 66 | 43 | | |
|
Ciao for now, Chuck
- What's on Broker's Tour today?
-
I sure wish there was a good and easy to use speech recognition software available. I mean the kind you don't have to retype half of what you spoke over. I've toyed with the built-in program under windows accessibility but maybe I just hadn't fine tuned it. The way I pick and peck on a keyboard anything have decent would be a timesaver, lol.
Oh well I may have discovered a new breed of bird a week or so ago, I call it the "Chimney Duck" wouldn't 
you agree. I caught this duck standing guard over the neighborhood a few weeks ago; it must have given the boot to one of the many crows that normally mount their watch from the same pedestal.
The Buena Vista Ave triplex and duplex are now on the market, mosey on over to our website for more information on them. Unfortunately there's not an awful lot to say about them. We have been dealing with upset tenants for the entire last week and have not been allowed to set foot inside a unit yet. Hopefully that will change at 11am Wednesday when we supposedly are going to be able to lead a tour for 7 agents and their clients thru both properties. I have my fingers crossed.
So what's on broker's tour for today? Click right here and you'll be taken to a page that shows all 9 homes open from 11am this morning until 1 pm.
Ciao for now, Chuck
- What a strange week it's been
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It certainly has been a rough week in the entertainment industry starting with Ed McMann, Farrah Fawcett 
and hopefully ending with the iconic Michael Jackson. May they all rest in peace! It has been another busy week for Nancy and I. The three residential income properties are listed now and on waiver while 
details are being worked out with the tenants. As I mentioned earlier in the week there are two duplexes and one triplex all listed between $450,000 and $580,000. I would classify all three as extensive fixer-uppers which I consider a notch above the typical contractor's special, all units are currently rented. These will be sold strictly in as-is condition, the out of state seller has no intention of modifying any of these properties as a condition of the sale.
Myself, I'm still recuperating from my sunburn from last weekends camping trip and already looking forward to another day in the sun this coming Saturday. I'm sounding like a glutton for punishment this week. This Saturday is a golf tournament at the Chuck Corica course right here in Alameda and has been 
plenty of fun in the many years past that I have played in it. What makes it the most fun for me is the scoring; who ever came up with the blind bogey scoring system is a genius. If you've ever seen me play you'll know I need all the help I can at scoring. I don't mean counting my shots either. It's a scoring system that sometimes works in my favor. I expect to be near the bottom of the list but occasionally in years past its allowed me to rise to win the tournament one year. The day wraps up with a New York steak barbecue back at the Saint Phillip Neri hall and awards to everyone regardless of finishing place.
Now onto Real Estate for the latest activity in Alameda, I have compiled the information for a period of 14 days due to my absence during part of the last week, click the links below to be taken to the information.
NEW
| LIST PRICE: | SOLD PRICE: | DOM: |
| HIGH | LOW | AVERAGE | MEDIAN | TOTAL PRICE | LISTING COUNT | $1,600,000 | $3,255 | $640,091 | $549,750 | $19,202,755 | 30 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | 17 | 0 | 8 | 7 | | |
|
PRICE CHANGE
| LIST PRICE: | SOLD PRICE: | DOM: |
| HIGH | LOW | AVERAGE | MEDIAN | TOTAL PRICE | LISTING COUNT | $999,000 | $195,000 | $618,092 | $632,500 | $16,070,400 | 26 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | 405 | 22 | 89 | 65 | | |
|
PENDING
| LIST PRICE: | SOLD PRICE: | DOM: |
| HIGH | LOW | AVERAGE | MEDIAN | TOTAL PRICE | LISTING COUNT | $10,400,000 | $162,900 | $692,493 | $525,000 | $69,249,331 | 100 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | 340 | 0 | 48 | 22 | | |
|
SOLD
| LIST PRICE: | SOLD PRICE: | DOM: |
| HIGH | LOW | AVERAGE | MEDIAN | TOTAL PRICE | LISTING COUNT | $1,200,000 | $298,000 | $653,947 | $658,000 | $13,732,900 | 21 | $1,146,000 | $250,500 | $632,113 | $680,000 | $13,274,390 | 279 | 0 | 36 | 17 | | |
|
ALL ACTIVE LISTINGS
| LIST PRICE: | SOLD PRICE: | DOM: |
| HIGH | LOW | AVERAGE | MEDIAN | TOTAL PRICE | LISTING COUNT | $1,899,000 | $215,000 | $657,784 | $620,000 | $89,458,675 | 136 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | 340 | 0 | 70 | 52 | | |
|
Call Nancy or me if you have any questions on the properties above.
Ciao for now, Chuck
- Back to work
-
What a great time I had at this years camping trip to
Lake Camanche. A few years ago I was invited by a friend to attend an annual camping trip called the Grand Poobah which is organized by a family from Auburn, Ca. It always has a theme and this years was called the "Trailer Park Poobah" other themes have
included the Gods and Goddesses and a Hawaiian theme. My first time attending was in 2007 for the Gods and Goddesses. Beings I have not been able to attend the trips since that year, I found out this past weekend that the 2007 year was the hottest temperature wise in over 20 years of the trips. I recall the temperature in my truck showing 113* that Saturday afternoon as I drove around the countryside just to take advantage of the air conditioning. I am very happy to report that this year's temperatures were much more tolerable despite what the weathermen had predicted. While it was still warm
in the mid 90*'s Thursday afternoon I got up there early enough to set my camp area up before it got to the 90*'s but not by much. I was done by 1:30 if I recall correctly. I immediately set out to relax and that is exactly what I did for three solid days. The only mistake I made was not remembering to reapply sunscreen after jumping into the lake to cool off. So I paid the price the remainder of the trip and when I got home was told I looked like a lobster. The photo on the left is not my campsite as mine was far more generic. The photo on the left is my lake view from in front of my tent. I really had thought I had beat the heat this year by setting the tent in between two small oak trees that were probably 30' tall and separated by about 12'. The idea worked to a point, the trees were young so I was shaded from early morning and late afternoon (almost dusk) sun. But being young trees their leaf cover had not closed in much of the gap. What that left me with was midday sun I couldn't escape, but that's what the lake is for, right. That's where I got into a little trouble. I sat my lounge chair in the lake up to my waist to sit back and enjoy. So when I'd jump into the lake to cool off my sunscreen washed off. You can guess what happened and why I look liked a lobster for days afterward. If there were any records set this year they would have to go to the coolest evening and morning temperatures and without a doubt the windiest. With the afternoon winds kicking up you could see the lake empty of boaters and jet skiers pretty quickly. I'm not talking about afternoon breezes, I mean winds, the kind that flip sailboats and topple weakly staked tents, both of which happened. But I had a great time besides what Mother Nature had in store for the weekend and made some new friends and saw some old.
On the real estate scene Nancy and I will be putting three listings on the market soon. These listings are residential income properties near the Park Street shopping district. We're waiting for the tenants to be notified of the sales and any repercussions that may result to be ironed out. The properties, all close to one another include two duplexes and a triplex. We have not viewed the properties yet but expect to do so in the coming weeks. Prices have been tentatively set but until we actually see the interiors I'm not going to give out any inaccurate information. So, you will see it here first.
What is on the Brokers Tour for tomorrow morning? Just click here to see all 12 as of 5pm Monday afternoon.
For an update on all 139 available single family residences for sale just click here. They are sorted by building type, such as condominium, detached, duet and townhouses.
Ciao for now Chuck.
- Running out of time
-
I'll first start by apologizing for the tardiness and briefness of today's posting. We're having a lot of showings on the
listing at 1115 Via Alamosa after a good
weekend of open houses. I don't think it is going to be around too much longer but we will see. Click on the picture for a virtual tour and you will see why.
Yesterday I received a call from an attorney friend who is working with a gentleman that has a duplex and a triplex that need to get listed and sold. So last night was spent sorting thru rental agreements. I will have more on these in the coming week. You will read about them first here.
I won't be posting at the end of this week because I will be out of town on a camping trip to Lake Camanche in the Sierra foothills. It's a themed camping trip with this year's theme being "Trailer Park Poobah". A photo of a previous "Gods and Goddesses" trip is to the left. I may or may not have cell phone contact. The last time I was there I barely had a signal and drained the battery in my Treo by accident by not turning it off in the evening. Nancy will be taking care of business in case anyone has any questions, she can be reached at 510-814-4819.
Onto the Brokers Tour for today and here they are. It includes 2 condominiums, 2 town homes, a duet and 8 single family homes. One townhome on Solomon and one home on Castlebar are repeats from last week. As always if you have any questions feel free to contact us with your questions.
Ciao for now Chuck
- Annual Alameda sand castle contest on Saturday 6/13/09
-
Past contestants have sculpted replicas of the Posey 
Tube, a Mayan temple and even Godzilla. Still others have opted for traditional castles with towering turrets, crenelated walls and saltwater moats. What can be entered during the 43rd annual Sand Castle and Sand Sculpture Contest today is limited just by the imagination - and judging by past years, contestants will have plenty of it on display.
The free event at Robert Crown Memorial State Beach is an Alameda tradition. But it also attracts participants from throughout the Bay Area.
The rules are simple: Only material found naturally on the beach can be used, such as shells, stones and driftwood - and sand, of course.
Contestants can use shovels, hoes and spatulas to sculpt their work. They also can use buckets, milk cartons and other items to help shape forms.
Registration will be 9 to 11 a.m., and the deadline to finish sculpting is noon, when judging will begin. Entries will be based on design, detail, neatness and technique. Awards will be presented at 1 p.m.
The three contestant categories are ages 12 and under, ages 13 and older, and family.
The Alameda Recreation and Park Department, the East Bay Regional Park District, the Bayview Women's Club and the Alameda Youth Committee are sponsoring the contest.
The beach is located at Westline and Otis drives.
- Busy, Busy and the Market Watch for the Week
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It's been a busy week and that's good, even though interest rates didn't just rise in the last week, it was like they took the express elevator. While 4.6% is good 5.3% isn't bad either and that's just about where they're hovering today. I bought my home in 1980 for under $120,000, it rose and declined and rose in value until its value peaked into the mid $500,000. It has cooled off by a $100,000 roughly but I know its value will come back in time. Can you imagine though what I was saying in 1980 when interest rates were in the mid teens? Yes, cost of living was lower, yes home prices were lower, but do you really want to wait for rates to increase before taking that piece of the American pie? I wish I had a crystal ball to tell you what rates would be like in 3 or 6 months. Those that think they can predict are only guessing, they may claim they have the information to make an informed decision today, but their information changes, sometimes weekly, sometimes daily.
With regards to lending industry, and more importantly the appraisal situation they have in place that is affecting everyone from buyers to sellers to lenders and realtors. I encourage everyone to view and sign this petition and maybe we can put an end to the cancelled contracts, inaccurate appraisals. It is a short petition and takes all of two minutes to read. You don't have to work in the industry to sign it either.
I have to share an idea I thought of last weekend. After the For Sale sign post was planted last Saturday
at 1115 Via Alamosa I wondered how to illuminate it, and in the shortest time possible. I remember reading in my periodicals of a company that sold lights that mount on a sign post and would illuminate a for sale sign at night by solar power. Not that an illuminated sign is going to draw people to our listing from miles away but it could get noticed by people driving by just a few yards away. See the listing is just inside a courtyard and not viewable from any regularly traveled public street.
Nancy and I already have solar powered LED walkway lights leading to our door, but I knew they wouldn't work because of the direction the light is directed. But what about a LED spot or floodlight, do they make them? Well ordering the lights online is going to take a week or more. So I gave it a little thought and decided to head over to the nearest Home Depot store not totally sure I had a solution. Well, I have good news Hampton Bay makes a one piece unit that includes a solar panel, 3 led spotlight, two rechargeable batteries and stake that was selling for under $15. I planted one on each side of the For Sale sign and there you go, a lit for sale sign at dusk all through the night. I tried to find a link to the light on the Home Depot or Hampton Bay websites and had no luck so, you'll have to hope for the best and drive over.
You may have noticed your reading this second blog post of the week on a Friday instead of the Thursday I started out with. I think it gives a better perspective of the week to stretch it out an extra day to Friday. How much could change between Tuesday and Thursday? Well sometimes a lot, but for the weekend house hunters reading this an update of homes for sale on Friday is going to be more accurate than Thursday.
With that here are the links for the end of the work week.
NEW
| LIST PRICE: | SOLD PRICE: | DOM: |
| HIGH | LOW | AVERAGE | MEDIAN | TOTAL PRICE | LISTING COUNT | $1,250,000 | $2,500 | $553,476 | $550,000 | $14,943,875 | 27 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | 9 | 1 | 4 | 4 | | |
|
ALL AVAILABLE
| LIST PRICE: | SOLD PRICE: | DOM: |
| HIGH | LOW | AVERAGE | MEDIAN | TOTAL PRICE | LISTING COUNT | $1,899,000 | $265,000 | $666,046 | $622,000 | $90,582,325 | 136 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | 326 | 1 | 68 | 48 | | |
|
PRICE CHANGE
| HIGH | LOW | AVERAGE | MEDIAN | TOTAL PRICE | LISTING COUNT | $1,200,000 | $1,500 | $520,900 | $410,000 | $9,376,200 | 18 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | 241 | 1 | 71 | 52 | | |
|
PENDINGS
| LIST PRICE: | SOLD PRICE: | DOM: |
| HIGH | LOW | AVERAGE | MEDIAN | TOTAL PRICE | LISTING COUNT | $10,400,000 | $162,900 | $717,215 | $549,500 | $70,287,081 | 98 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | 352 | 0 | 50 | 26 | | |
|
SOLDS
| LIST PRICE: | SOLD PRICE: | DOM: |
| HIGH | LOW | AVERAGE | MEDIAN | TOTAL PRICE | LISTING COUNT | $750,000 | $445,000 | $569,633 | $564,450 | $3,417,800 | 6 | $735,000 | $436,000 | $557,500 | $539,000 | $3,345,000 | 197 | 14 | 47 | 18 | | |
|
RESIDENTIAL INCOME (All activity since 5/1/09 up to 5 units)
| LIST PRICE: | SOLD PRICE: | DOM: |
| HIGH | LOW | AVERAGE | MEDIAN | TOTAL PRICE | LISTING COUNT | $2,345,000 | $410,000 | $746,702 | $650,000 | $21,654,371 | 29 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | 430 | 1 | 117 | 95 | | |
|
If you have any questions on any of the properties included in the links above please contact Nancy or I.
Ciao for now, Chuck
- Isn't there a law against that?
-
I bought my Bluetooth device many months before the law went into effect saying I could not hold my cell
phone to my ear while driving. It's been pretty easy to get use too although I don't always take calls while driving unless I'm expecting information regarding what I'm on my way to do. But I could not believe what I saw on the freeway Sunday afternoon. Talking about standing out like a sore thumb, picture this on a windy afternoon, a bright red convertible, top down, hair blowing in the wind, car swerving in its lane from the wind (it was one of those land yachts of the 1970's) and the driver with a cell phone glued to his ear for at least 4 miles at 65mph. We were wondering where the CHP were while this dope cruised down the freeway probably thinking how slick he looked as he passed the Oakland Police Department. Whether he made it to his destination without being pulled over I'll never know, but how could he not?
How people text while driving is beyond me, I struggle with the little keyboards when that's all I'm doing.
Oh, if you missed last Thursday's "Hot Rods at Harbor Bay" car show sponsored by LaVal's Pizza d
on't worry there is another scheduled for the first Thursday in July on the 2nd. The turnout was huge for last week's event. I'd say it was the largest turnout I have seen.
So what's on Brokers Tour for Tuesday? These are. We will have our new listing at 1115 Via Alamosa open from 10am thru noon. If you happen to be in the area stop by for a muffin and glass of orange juice to get you thru the morning.
This week's tour consists of our townhome listing, a condominium near the beach and nine single family homes. One was on tour last week, the home in Promontory with the elevator to all 3 floors that broke last week. Remember, I couldn't comment on it last week because there were no pictures and I had not seen it yet? Well now there is 
a picture, just one though. It must have been too much trouble to snap a few more pictures while it was open last week. You would think the agent might just try to project a nicer image for a $1.9 million dollar home. For $1,899,000 the home shows a lack of maintenance in my opinion from the exterior peeling paint on the south facing side to the drought resistant landscaping that appears in some spots to be dying. I mean just because its drought resistant it still needs an occasional watering.
- REO Games
-
It sure seems the bank we are dealing with doesn’t care how quickly they get their properties off their books. Our escrow on Windsor has been dragging on for a week now. Initially we were supposed to close escrow and hand the keys to the buyers this Friday. Well, that isn’t happening as much as the bank thinks it is. It seems the left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing.
It started with waiting almost a full week from verbal acceptance before we had a ratified contract. The bank then chose an escrow company in Texas, then changed they’re mind after not finding a branch in the bay area, duh! But wait, isn’t that a RESPA violation, it’s the buyers choice to choose the title company, well it’s a bank that owns the home so apparently anything flies. Someone’s getting a benefit somewhere. Seems all the real estate laws or legal wording in the purchase contracts are nothing but words to the asset managers handling these REO’s for their bank.
We asked early this week for a price reduction based on the buyer’s reports that show some damage and also asked for an extension of a week for the close of escrow. They granted the extension but no price reduction or credit.
The excuse they gave our buyers for not granting a price reduction or credit towards the $42,000 in repairs is what really disturbs me and should any buyer. Their excuse was that the verbal “highest and best offer you are willing to make” should have taken into consideration the repairs noted on the reports because they would have been noticeable without the reports. I’d agree with them if I was a licensed contractor or had the reports outlining the damage when our buyer made the initial and subsequent “highest and best” offers. Although I may have a construction and property management background I am a Realtor now and I have to be careful about how I comment on visual damage. Some visual damage may not be what it seems on the surface and may point to costlier repairs. Remember the bank received five offers on this home, four were called to submit their verbal highest and best offer which included our buyers. Nothing was in writing as in a regular transaction where notice that a multiple counter offer was given. How do we really know if the other three or any were actually called to resubmit their highest and best offer? No one will ever know.
My opinion is, had the banks taken a different stance and worked with their customers on re-negotiating their loans we would not be in this predicament. I wonder just how many of these homeowners will ever make a deposit in the bank that kicked them out of their homes. I think these lenders are just digging themselves into a bigger whole in the big picture. When the economy turns, the tens of thousands who lost their homes while trying to save it will remember how their previous mortgage company handled their plight.
Don’t forget tonight, on Thursday 6/4 LaVal’s Pizza in the Harbor Bay Landing Center will be hosting the first of two “Hot Rods at 
Harbor Bay” Car shows of the year. Admission is free to view the approximately 50 plus cherry cars owned mainly by Alameda residents although there are plenty of cars from neighboring cities too. There is also a raffle and if you get thirsty or hungry and need a break there’s always LaVal’s Pizza nearby.
So what’s the market in Alameda doing this week? See for yourself by the graphs and clicking on the links below.
NEW
| LIST PRICE: | SOLD PRICE: | DOM: |
| HIGH | LOW | AVERAGE | MEDIAN | TOTAL PRICE | LISTING COUNT | $1,899,000 | $329,900 | $671,244 | $587,000 | $12,082,400 | 18 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | 10 | 1 | 5 | 6 | | |
|
PRICE CHANGES
| LIST PRICE: | SOLD PRICE: | DOM: |
| HIGH | LOW | AVERAGE | MEDIAN | TOTAL PRICE | LISTING COUNT | $1,199,800 | $199,000 | $565,614 | $479,000 | $8,484,221 | 15 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | 382 | 20 | 93 | 82 | | |
|
PENDING
| LIST PRICE: | SOLD PRICE: | DOM: |
| HIGH | LOW | AVERAGE | MEDIAN | TOTAL PRICE | LISTING COUNT | $10,400,000 | $162,900 | $753,865 | $584,000 | $66,340,190 | 88 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | 352 | 0 | 49 | 25 | | |
|
SALES
| LIST PRICE: | SOLD PRICE: | DOM: |
| HIGH | LOW | AVERAGE | MEDIAN | TOTAL PRICE | LISTING COUNT | $600,000 | $335,000 | $495,215 | $525,000 | $3,466,510 | 7 | $605,000 | $336,000 | $503,000 | $520,000 | $3,521,000 | 84 | 8 | 30 | 10 | | |
|
ALL RESIDENTIAL INCOME (activity for the last month)
| LIST PRICE: | SOLD PRICE: | DOM: |
| HIGH | LOW | AVERAGE | MEDIAN | TOTAL PRICE | LISTING COUNT | $2,345,000 | $425,000 | $747,812 | $654,500 | $22,434,371 | 30 | $520,000 | $520,000 | $520,000 | $520,000 | $520,000 | 421 | 1 | 110 | 85 | | |
|
If you have any questions feel free to contact Nancy or me.
Ciao for now, Chuck
- Tour Tuesday and Midweek fun
-
It’s was a busy week for Nancy and me. We have been wrapping up the work on the new townhome listing. The painting is done 
except for some touch up that will be needed after the hardwood floors are refinished which begins Tuesday. The rose garden is looking great. We are planning on it being open this coming Sunday from 2-4 pm. Come on by or send your friends by to see this clean “F” model in Casitas, located in Bay Farm Island area of Alameda.
Now for some fun, on Thursday 6/4 LaVal’s Pizza in the Harbor Bay Landing Center will be hosting the first of two “Hot Rods at Harbor Bay” Car shows of the year. Admission is free to view the approximately 50 plus cherry cars owned mainly by Alameda residents although there are plenty of cars from neighboring cities too. There is also a raffle and if you get thirsty or hungry and need a break there’s always LaVal’s Pizza nearby.
With regards to the Brokers tour for Tuesday morning as of 9:30 pm Monday night it’s looking like a quiet Tuesday morning for me. There are a total of 7 homes on tour Tuesday two which have been on tour before, all are single family homes three in Harbor Bay/ Bay Farm and the remainder on the main island. The most intriguing of the homes on tour has to be 7 Castlebar in Promontory, listed at $1,899,000 it has what the county assessor’s office says is 4,953 living square feet including an elevator making it easier to get to the four bedrooms and five bathrooms spread over three floors. Unfortunately the listing agent has only one photo so I can’t describe much more of the home until after I tour it tomorrow.
For a look at all 132 available homes click here.
Ciao for now, Chuck
- Market News from around Alameda
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Are you getting tired of that old wallpaper that’s been on your computer screen? I found this site years 
ago called Molecular Expressions. They have photographed almost everything known to man at the molecular level. The photos make for great wallpapers. How about a diamond, a moon rock, a pearl or a 7-Up or a Coca Cola? One of my favorites is my birthstone, the Peridot.
Okay, I know you didn’t come to this blog for some fancy pictures so let’s dig right into what has happened in the marketplace since last Wednesday in Alameda.
We are seeing more of the homes for sale going pending much quickly then they had been. What were once the slow movers the townhome and condominium segments have been gathering steam. Even the bank owned homes are going pending in record time. By record time I mean within days of coming on the market. Escrows however are taking a little longer, in some cases up to forty-five days, but not all of them. If you think you are going to get a bargain trying to buy a bank owned (REO) in Alameda, think twice, multiple offers are back, occasionally in a big way. I’ve heard rumors of some of these homes receiving up to nine offers and the bargain hunters aren’t being included in the verbal “submit your highest and best offer by X amount of days”.
So what’s new or old this week? Here’s the information.
NEW IN THE LAST SEVEN DAYS
| LIST PRICE: | SOLD PRICE: | DOM: |
| HIGH | LOW | AVERAGE | MEDIAN | TOTAL PRICE | LISTING COUNT | $1,300,000 | $2,500 | $495,329 | $475,000 | $8,420,600 | 17 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | 9 | 0 | 5 | 6 |
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PRICE CHANGE
| LIST PRICE: | SOLD PRICE: | DOM: |
| HIGH | LOW | AVERAGE | MEDIAN | TOTAL PRICE | LISTING COUNT | $1,095,000 | $199,000 | $520,153 | $488,880 | $4,681,380 | 9 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | 199 | 34 | 101 | 100 |
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PENDING
LIST PRICE: | SOLD PRICE: | DOM: |
| HIGH | LOW | AVERAGE | MEDIAN | TOTAL PRICE | LISTING COUNT | $10,400,000 | $165,000 | $756,290 | $531,305 | $62,015,810 | 82 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | 352 | 0 | 48 | 25 |
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SOLD
| LIST PRICE: | SOLD PRICE: | DOM: |
| HIGH | LOW | AVERAGE | MEDIAN | TOTAL PRICE | LISTING COUNT | $729,000 | $258,000 | $505,250 | $517,000 | $2,021,000 | 4 | $688,000 | $258,000 | $508,000 | $543,000 | $2,032,000 | 25 | 7 | 15 | 15 |
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ALL AVAILABLE HOMES (excludes most Residential Income properties)
| LIST PRICE: | SOLD PRICE: | DOM: |
| HIGH | LOW | AVERAGE | MEDIAN | TOTAL PRICE | LISTING COUNT | $1,799,000 | $162,900 | $647,411 | $599,500 | $85,458,310 | 132 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | 310 | 0 | 69 | 51 |
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RESIDENTIAL INCOME ACTIVITY (since the start of the year)
| LIST PRICE: | SOLD PRICE: | DOM: |
| HIGH | LOW | AVERAGE | MEDIAN | TOTAL PRICE | LISTING COUNT | $2,345,000 | $380,000 | $759,900 | $658,000 | $46,353,950 | 61 | $696,000 | $241,000 | $524,681 | $520,000 | $5,771,500 | 414 | 4 | 117 | 94 |
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Wow, if you didn’t catch the news Wednesday night interest rates jumped almost a full point into the mid 5% range. There’s a big ouch to those sitting on the fencepost.
Ciao for now, Chuck
- Three days of glory!
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We hope everyone had an enjoyable and relaxing Memorial Day weekend. We did around our house for sure, and that explains why this post is a day late.
Our weekend began with a little more preparation of the listing coming up. While Nancy worked in the garden, I was at the computer Freecycling more goodies to the public. All is just about gone with the exception of a couple closet and hollow core doors. Where theses doors came from is anyone’s guess because they surely didn’t come with the house. My neighbor was an antiques dealer 
and I think she may have used these doors as table tops on some of her tours of years ago. If you’re thinking I Freecycled the antiques, I didn’t. The more expensive items were sent to her San Francisco Antiques Collective, while some made its way to Harvey Clars . She was not a small dealer either, she reached a point where homeowners insurance was not an option including a quote from Lloyd’s of London. She chose burglar and fire alarms as an option.
With that the painters are back and the flooring contractor is scheduled for Friday. We have used Bay Area Contract Carpet for just about all of our needs, they’re competitive, efficient and fast and they do great work the first time, so if you need any type of carpet or flooring our suggestion is call them first, just let them know you got their information from Chuck and Nancy Bianchi. Call them second if you prefer to waste your time with another appointment.
Saturday I waxed both of our vehicles and was alerted to a fireworks show at the Oakland Coliseum after the A’s game. Not having 
watched or listened to the game before heading to our favorite spot to see the shows in the past I found dark sky over the coliseum. Apparently just prior to what looked like the end of the game it went into extra innings, so I sat for ten minutes, waiting and then finally left.
Saturday night Nancy baked her new favorite dessert a Kahlua infused chocolate cake to bring to my brothers house on Sunday for dessert.
Monday was just one of those lazy relaxing days, finally the skies turned blue after being gray both Saturday and Sunday. We finished the holiday with barbecued Chicken and Beef shish kabobs and corn on the cob.
Which brings us to the Tuesday Brokers Tour this morning, better late than ever. It’s a small tour today with only six homes to see. They include a duet, condominium, townhouse and three single family homes. They’re all on the main island except for the (IMHO) overpriced townhome in Bay Farm here. Today’s range is from $395,000 too $869,000.
For a look at all 131 listings currently on the market today click here.
Ciao for now, Chuck 
- No luck here and an early Memorial Day family tradition
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I’m referring to how some business is conducted and who is working for whom?
On Monday a client asked to see a home near downtown San Leandro that had just come on the market that afternoon. We made an appointment for Tuesday afternoon.
Our client liked the home so much that we were going to bring her mother and sister to see the home on Wednesday prior to writing an offer.
While talking out front of the home a friend of mine from one of the Italian clubs I belong to pulled up and tapped his horn. At first I didn’t recognize him because I never thought I would run into someone I knew in San Leandro, as it turns out he lives around the corner. As we were talking he mentioned having seen people strolling in and out of the open house’s over the weekend and how he wanted to also stop by and see what the work over the last few months entailed.
I told him it was a hot property by the 17 business cards on the newly remodeled kitchen’s granite counter. The price, $330,000 for three bedrooms and one bath on a large lot. We had to act fast to be in the running for our client. I left two voicemails and Nancy left another before finally getting a real person on the fourth call.
All sounds pretty good up to this point, right? Wrong!
You see, the open house my friend wanted to visit last weekend was held before the home was put on the MLS which is a violation of our MLS’s rules The MLS is where it’s seen by Realtors who then tell their clients about the home.
The home was put on the MLS Monday afternoon, about 24 hours after the open house, that’s when we first saw it.
The call we made after showing the home and less than 24 hours after it was loaded on the MLS was even more disheartening. We were told that we had until 5:00 pm that evening to submit an offer and that they already had more than one offer; it was already 5:30 pm.
This story gets even a little more disheartening from this point. Who is the Realtor working for? There’s more, the seller is a Realtor himself, but not the listing agent who should know better. There is no rule against doing something like this, but it’s typically not in the best interest of a seller or in this case the Realtor/Owner. The listing agent in this case is probably double ending the listing creating dual agency situation to get all the commission rather than splitting it the usual four ways and intended to do so from the start, otherwise the home would have appeared on the MLS prior to the open houses over the weekend.
It’s frustrating for us when you run your business ethically as Nancy and I do and come across these types. The bright side of this story is that when the neighbors here of how this sale was carried out by this national real estate companies realtor, he probably won’t be receiving many phone calls from the neighbors or their friends anytime soon. In my opinion the neighborhood and its homeowners get the last laugh here. Would you want someone selling your home that’s in the business for himself? Not me.
If you want your home sold for the highest price the market will bear, handled fairly and given full exposure to the market call Nancy and me.
Now if you want to skip to what’s new on the market just skip the next two paragraphs and go straight to the bottom.
What comes next is a little bit of Memorial Day tradition in my family.
Off of real estate for a moment, Memorial Day is approaching. A tradition dating back to the days when my grandfather was alive was to visit the graves of past members of our family. I have to admit it wasn’t one of those days I looked forward too and to be honest I dodged many of the invites. This year however it was a different story. On Halloween of this past year I lost my father to congestive heart failure, and I told my mother a few weeks ago I wanted to visit the Chapel of the Chimes niches where our family is resting at. So in an effort to beat the crowds over the coming weekend we decided to visit today, Thursday. Mom bought the faux flowers for the vases and off we went to visit. I had something else in mind also while we were at the site. I also lost a neighbor of twenty-nine years a year and a week ago and had yet to visit her niche either. Adding to this, my late neighbor’s mother just passed away less than two months ago as well. I wanted to locate their niches as well. It turns out all of them are on the floor below my family and on the same end of the building, a hop skip and a jump away.
I know all of this sounds a little morbid but it was actually a very nice experience.
When all was done we set off for lunch at Italian Colors restaurant in Montclair, one of my parents favorite restaurants close to their home. They have a beautiful chop salad loaded with chunks, not slices of salami, which my mother and wife had. I talked myself into their half pound burger with mozzarella and caramelized onions and also managed to talk my wife out of a little of her chop salad. This lunch may have taken care of dinner too. All in all, a beautiful day!
Now you probably want to know what’s new in the real estate market in Alameda. One word sums it up “Brisk”. We’re awaiting a few signatures before having an accepted offer on a REO property in the Fernside area of town. It’s the same home I wrote about earlier in the week that we were told the bank wanted held open. I didn’t get a chance to verify whether or not it was open over the weekend and it wouldn’t have mattered. You see we sent our offer off almost two weeks ago. After the proposed open house this past weekend Monday’s news was there are four more offers on the home. Four were verbally responded too, I don’t know who else if anyone besides our clients responded.
All that matters is that we got the call that our clients offer prevailed after lunch today. With that bit of good news this past week’s market activity is as follows.
NEW LISTINGS
| LIST PRICE: | SOLD PRICE: | DOM: |
| HIGH | LOW | AVERAGE | MEDIAN | TOTAL PRICE | LISTING COUNT | $1,300,000 | $3,750 | $558,353 | $534,305 | $10,050,360 | 18 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | 45 | 0 | 6 | 3 |
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PRICE CHANGE
| LIST PRICE: | SOLD PRICE: | DOM: |
| HIGH | LOW | AVERAGE | MEDIAN | TOTAL PRICE | LISTING COUNT | $1,275,000 | $2,500 | $549,440 | $554,500 | $5,494,400 | 10 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | 304 | 10 | 92 | 92 |
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PENDING SALES
| LIST PRICE: | SOLD PRICE: | DOM: |
| HIGH | LOW | AVERAGE | MEDIAN | TOTAL PRICE | LISTING COUNT | $10,400,000 | $165,000 | $741,872 | $519,900 | $60,091,700 | 81 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | 352 | 0 | 45 | 21 |
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SOLDS
| LIST PRICE: | SOLD PRICE: | DOM: |
| HIGH | LOW | AVERAGE | MEDIAN | TOTAL PRICE | LISTING COUNT | $929,000 | $395,000 | $615,250 | $597,000 | $7,383,000 | 12 | $860,000 | $395,000 | $583,500 | $578,500 | $7,002,000 | 156 | 8 | 57 | 33 |
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If you are interested in reviewing every home on the market just click here to see all 133.
If anyone wants to see what’s available in the residential income click here.
Ciao for now, Chuck
- What a weekend it was!
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Before I get to what is showing up on Brokers tour on Tuesday I want to share with you how the upcoming townhome listing is coming along, we’re just weeks away from putting it on the market. The painting should be completed next week. The floors will be refinished, carpet and vinyl floors laid shortly thereafter and then it’s time to sell.
We met with the sister in law of the late owner Thursday afternoon who was deciding on how best to get rid of a relatively new and complete queen size Sleep Number bed, a ladder, a TV stand and some plant stakes, everything else was going to the auction 
house. Freecycle is the first thing that popped into my mind. For those of you unfamiliar with this yahoo group there happens to be over 4,450 members in Alameda alone. How it works is, after you subscribe to the yahoo group (and there’s probably one for your city or close by) you can post in brief form items that you are offering, the format is ; “Offered-5 gallon paint cans-Bay Farm etc;” or wherever you are located, don’t give the address out yet, you do that after the responses come in. I ask for a date and time for picking up to be included in the responses. Once you select the recipient then you can give out the address to that person. Many times I’ll just leave the item outside 15-30 minutes from the pick up time and voila it’s gone, usually. Sometimes you may have to offer via email to the next response for various reasons. The items must be for free, no money is to be exchanged. Some items are not allowed such as alcohol or medicines. Aside from that, almost anything goes here. Now you wait for the moderators to review your posting before allowing it to be posted and watch the email responses come in. I’ve seen toilets and windows from remodels to the kitchen sink, freezers and everything in between, foods, toiletries, laundry items, top soil, dirt, broken concrete and clothing. It’s just amazing how well this recycling group works. I was done by Sunday morning. I have emptied many a home of undesired items that either a seller or buyer don’t want any longer or don’t want to inherit. Why hire a hauling company?
My favorite story with regards to this group is a couple of years ago a buyer wanted the indoor/outdoor carpet in the garage that the car was parked on removed, a 12’ x 12’ gazebo in a backyard and at least a dozen rusted cans of dried and fluid paints. You guessed it everything was taken within a couple of days.
It gets better, it works in reverse too, and if you need something you can post a “Wanted” request and hope for the best.
Maybe I’ll be able to help you out in the future or vice versa, happy recycling err Freecycling!
Now onto business, Tuesday 5/19’s Brokers tour is at six homes. One home originally on the tour earlier today at 101 Payot Court has dropped off the list, but I’m going to post the link showing the original seven homes just in case the dropped house tour was an error. Of the seven homes, two are condominiums, four are single family homes and the last one listed as a fourplex is actually two duplexes on the same lot. If you’re a buyer or a seller reading this and have questions call Nancy or me.
Ciao for now Chuck.
- Yes I'm touting Alameda again
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The phone calls over the past week in Alameda got off to fast start but has slowed over the last couple of days. Maybe it’s the calm before the storm?
Nancy and I both have a number of buyers we are watching the market for, while preparing a new listing for the market in the coming weeks. What we did enjoy were the conversations with a couple of owners contemplating sales. You just never know in this business when your next business opportunity will arise.
We wrote or I should say Nancy wrote an offer for her clients on a home in the East End that is an REO. Of course the frustration of dealing with an REO started almost immediately. It began with the initial showing, she was given the combination to the lockbox to show the home, but there was no key. To our favor the front door was unlocked. That’s not the best way to keep your listing available for showings by the way. Later that night after meeting with our clients we get an email from the listing agent that she had gone over to the home to secure it and was wondering why the key was not in the lockbox. Gee, I wonder when she last checked on the home. We told her it wasn’t there to begin with. We emailed the offer to the agent on Tuesday morning at her request; there were no other competing offers. Twenty-four hours later we get a call from the listing agent that the five day response time requested by the bank was now going to be seven because the bank wants the agent to hold an open house before reviewing any offers. I’ll drive by Sunday to see, just because I haven’t seen many out of the area agents holding REO’s open on the weekends. I believe they see it as easy money with not much if any outlay of time involved. Why these banks can’t stick with a plan is anyone’s guess. They all say via the media that they want to get these homes off their books as quickly as possible but they tend to build their own stumbling blocks too doing so all too frequently.
Oh well onto better things to happen this week. We celebrated mother’s day three times this past week. Last Saturday was spent with my in-laws and Nancy’s family; Sunday was for Nancy and I as I held an open house at 146 Basinside Way until 4 pm. Then Tuesday’s Mother’s Day celebration at the Colombo Club in Oakland was a fun and filling affair with my mom and my family and some old family friends, the menu included salad, rolls, rigatoni with a creamy tomato and ground veal sauce followed by Italian pot roast that was fall off the fork good with roast potatoes and veggies. To top off the dinner they served Tiramisu from Dianda’s bakery in San Francisco.
This morning (Thursday) I met with my B2B business networking group and gave my take on the real estate market in town and exchange referrals. I spoke about the REO I mentioned above and about the recent upswing in market activity.
So here is a brief glance at the market activity in town over the past week. If you didn’t notice in last weeks blog post you can click on of the headings (new, pending, etc ;) above the graphs and a link will open to show you the MLS detail of those homes.
There are twenty new and not so new homes, the not so new are again homes renewed on the MLS for one reason or another. They include a five unit building, a gardener’s delight-a nursery, two condominiums, three townhomes and fourteen single family homes in all. The way to recognize the “new or not so new” is in the small gray box on the left just below the map labeled Cumulative days on the MLS. If the number next to that is over 7 then you know it’s a retread as we call it.
NEW
| LIST PRICE: | SOLD PRICE: | DOM: |
| HIGH | LOW | AVERAGE | MEDIAN | TOTAL PRICE | LISTING COUNT | $1,425,000 | $325,000 | $675,690 | $647,500 | $13,513,800 | 20 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | 212 | 1 | 18 | 4 | |
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PRICE CHANGE
| LIST PRICE: | SOLD PRICE: | DOM: |
| HIGH | LOW | AVERAGE | MEDIAN | TOTAL PRICE | LISTING COUNT | $1,049,000 | $449,500 | $659,928 | $569,000 | $4,619,500 | 7 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | 155 | 32 | 91 | 83 | |
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PENDING
| LIST PRICE: | SOLD PRICE: | DOM: |
| HIGH | LOW | AVERAGE | MEDIAN | TOTAL PRICE | LISTING COUNT | $838,000 | $249,500 | $456,118 | $445,000 | $5,017,300 | 11 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | 117 | 5 | 32 | 17 | |
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SOLD
| LIST PRICE: | SOLD PRICE: | DOM: |
| HIGH | LOW | AVERAGE | MEDIAN | TOTAL PRICE | LISTING COUNT | $659,000 | $235,000 | $508,000 | $630,000 | $1,524,000 | 3 | $630,000 | $235,000 | $483,666 | $586,000 | $1,451,000 | 108 | 0 | 46 | 30 | |
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For a look at all 131 available homes in Alameda click this sentence. You will notice inventory is up a little from last weeks 121.
Lastly on a good note, if you follow me on Facebook you probably saw a few posts weeks ago criticizing my ISP Comcast for not coming to my home office to check on an intermittent connection problem. To recap, the technician called instead and refused at my request to come to my door, blaming the issue I was having on my wireless router according to his equipment. Two days later I had the router replaced by Alameda Business Machines, no resolve to the problem, another two days later, and another tech comes to our door and discovers the cable modem as being the problem, it was replaced then and there. Of course I had already spent $236 on a new Linksys wireless N router.
Now the happy ending, one Twitter comment to the Comcast folks in Philadelphia on Twitter and an email to We_Can_Help@cable.comcast.com and seven days later I’m reimbursed half the cost of the wireless router and my monthly charge for internet service is reduced by half for the next six months to make up for the difference and then some. This social networking really does work! Have a great weekend, and if you are close by Saturday or Sunday stop and say hi at the home we will be holding open on the lagoon at 146 Basinside Way.
Ciao for now, Chuck