- Open House in Bay Farm Island on Saturday
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Bay Farm Island, Alameda
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We invite everyone to visit our open house at 3111 La Cresta on Saturday March 20
from 2:00 PM to 4:00 PM.
Property information
- Open House in Bay Farm Island on Sunday
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Bay Farm Island, Alameda
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We invite everyone to visit our open house at 3111 La Cresta on
March 21
from 2:00 PM to 4:00 PM.
Property information
- Open House at 626 Ironwood Road in Harbor Bay Isle on Sunday
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Harbor Bay Isle, Alameda
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We invite everyone to visit our open house at 626 Ironwood Road on
March 21
from 2:00 PM to 4:00 PM.
Property information
- Park Webster Condominium For Sale in West End
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Views of Crown Park & SF Bay!
• 701 sq. ft., 1 bath, 1 bdrm single story
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MLS®
$209,000 USD
West End, Alameda
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This cozy one bedroom "Koi" model condominium on the lower floor has views of San Francisco Bay, Crown Memorial Park and Crab Cove from its living room, patio and good sized bedroom. The bedroom features one wall of built-ins making a great home office with desk and storage areas. The bedroom also has its own closet. The bathroom was remodeled in 2009. The previous owner converted the dining area via a partial wall to an enclosed area. It is currently being used as a sleeping area by the tenants. It would be easy to restore back to a dining area with the removal of the small wall into the living room.
This unit is tenant occupied and requires 24 hours confirmed notice to show, there is no lockbox. There will not be any open houses at this home. The tenants are very cooperative.
Property information
- Open House in Harbor Bay Isle on Sunday
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Harbor Bay Isle, Alameda
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We invite everyone to visit our open house at 626 Ironwood Road on
March 7
from 2:00 PM to 4:00 PM.
Property information
- Open House at 626 Ironwood Road in Harbor Bay Isle on Sunday
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Harbor Bay Isle, Alameda - We invite everyone to visit our open house at 626 Ironwood Road on February 14 from 2:00 PM to 4:00 PM.
Property information
- OPEN HOUSE-626 Baywood Road in Harbor Bay Open Sat & Sun 1/23 & 24; 2-4-PM
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Note that this information is outdated.
This home will be held open Saturday 1/23/10 & Sunday 1/24/10 from 2 - 4 PM
Escape to the mountains is what you will feel has happened when you turn onto Ironwood Road in Harbor Bay Island. Baywood Village has lush landscaped streets and walkways that lead to your front door or garage of your townhome.
This "Tern" model, a 3 bedroom, 2 and 1 half bath in 1,725 square feet according to county records is one of a few townhomes that do not share a living space wall with a neighbor. Only the garage shares a wall with your neighbor, making it very desirable. This home has beautiful tiled floors in the kitchen, family room and bathrooms. Natural light illuminates much of this home. A favorite spot for sure will be the private patio off the master bedroom for that first cup of coffee in the morning or that afternoon reading break.. Be sure to see this home this weekend rain or shine, we don't expect it to last long on the market.
When/Where: 626 Ironwood Road
- Open House in Gold Coast on Sunday
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Gold Coast, Alameda - We invite everyone to visit our open house at 1037 San Antonio Avenue on November 8 from 2:00 PM to 4:00 PM.
Property information
- Summer is Really Over
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Summer may not be officially over for another week or so but in my mind it does end with Labor Day here in the States. And Mother Nature didn't waste anytime in reminding us in the Bay Area that it was drawing to a close. Saturday morning the alarm via thunder and lightning awoke most of us just before the crack of dawn and what a show as it seemed to stall over us for about half an hour, maybe more. It was a drizzly weekend to say the least.
Luckily Nancy and I were able to make a quick escape earlier in the week up to the Mendocino coast to 
Gualala to end our summer. Nancy's sister had booked a two bedroom cabin at Serenisea, cabin five to be specific. It was relaxing and had a view you would not believe. The deck off the bedrooms was literally on the edge of a cliff. I mean standing at the fence line and two feet out you looked 100 feet+ down to the ocean. A little unsettling knowing this is earthquake country; but what's wrong with a little gamble? Thursday morning I woke before everyone else, threw my swimsuit on and headed over to the hot tub which was set up much like our deck but just a few yards away and sipped my coffee at the cliffs edge listening to the ocean. Now that's the way to start a day. After breakfast Nancy and I headed into town to see what there was to see in a few galleries and shops and decided to head back. While heading back we decided to pick up 
the others and drive up to the Point Arena lighthouse and took a foggy tour of it. It was interesting even without a view that day just to think of its history by looking at all the pictures on the walls. We were all a little tired after climbing the 100+ stairs to the top. So we returned to the cabin and lounged around until dinner at Cove Azul in Gualala. After dinner we lit a fire in the outdoor pit built into the deck and roasted marshmallows until it was time to call it a night. Friday morning we packed up and called an end to our summer travels.
An update to our business back home is that 737 Haight Avenue is now on the MLS and will be open tomorrow Tuesday 9/15 for Broker's tour 
followed by the public open houses this coming Saturday and Sunday. Our pre-MLS marketing has stirred a little interest in the home and we expect to see busy open houses this week. I'll keep you apprised of its status.
Our Buena Vista properties are still in escrow and are scheduled to close at the end of the month if I can keep the buyers agent on track with what he still needs to do. Its been tedious enough just working with all the tenants but then to have to continue to bug the buyers agent to do his job just builds upon any frustration. But I'm assured they will close at months end, cross your fingers, toes and eyes for me. Rarely is there a smooth escrow I keep reminding myself, and this one would take the prize hands down.
We also checked in Sunday with the progress being made by our sellers in the Gold Coast and have a tentative date of 9/22 before it will come on the market.
So what's new in the market for the past two weeks? Just click on the headings below.
BROKER'S TOUR
NEW
| LIST PRICE: | SOLD PRICE: | DOM: |
| HIGH | LOW | AVERAGE | MEDIAN | TOTAL PRICE | LISTING COUNT | $1,795,000 | $269,000 | $687,256 | $638,000 | $25,428,500 | 37 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | 33 | 0 | 8 | 6 | | |
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PRICE CHANGES
| LIST PRICE: | SOLD PRICE: | DOM: |
| HIGH | LOW | AVERAGE | MEDIAN | TOTAL PRICE | LISTING COUNT | $1,699,000 | $283,900 | $650,110 | $517,000 | $7,801,325 | 12 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | 151 | 27 | 76 | 52 | | |
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PENDING
| LIST PRICE: | SOLD PRICE: | DOM: |
| HIGH | LOW | AVERAGE | MEDIAN | TOTAL PRICE | LISTING COUNT | $1,987,000 | $180,500 | $555,432 | $509,000 | $60,542,175 | 109 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | 235 | 0 | 44 | 27 | | |
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SOLD
| LIST PRICE: | SOLD PRICE: | DOM: |
| HIGH | LOW | AVERAGE | MEDIAN | TOTAL PRICE | LISTING COUNT | $1,799,000 | $295,000 | $695,972 | $599,950 | $21,575,150 | 31 | $1,622,500 | $290,000 | $673,790 | $590,000 | $20,887,500 | 149 | 0 | 42 | 25 | | |
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ALL AVAILABLE
| LIST PRICE: | SOLD PRICE: | DOM: |
| HIGH | LOW | AVERAGE | MEDIAN | TOTAL PRICE | LISTING COUNT | $1,795,000 | $204,900 | $673,493 | $638,000 | $81,492,679 | 121 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | 420 | 0 | 69 | 49 | | |
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Ciao for now, Chuck
- Buyer's on a Buying Spree
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Boy oh boy has it been a busy week. Unfortunately it hasn't been all positive news. Last week I wrote an offer on a home in Hayward as did many many others. It was listed at $264k and my client offered just
under $300k on this 3 bedroom, 2 bath "flipped" home with a pool near Tennyson. After a multiple counter offer and an additional counter we were in contract having beat out 16 others. That's the good news on this home. Unfortunately I received a call from my buyer this morning that one of his largest accounts who contracts with his company was filing for bankruptcy and that this would dramatically affect his buying power. So be it, I sent him the cancellation and called the agent on the other side of the transaction and was told no problem. Surprisingly no sooner did they accept our offer then 30 minutes later they received an all cash offer that they had to turn down because we already had a ratified contract. So while they will be fine my client gets his deposit back and will have to find some new accounts to sign up. What is really surprising is the amount of offers some of the properties we were looking at are receiving. One of the homes he was interested had over 40 offers on it and another was at 39, while many others were in their teens to 20's. Buyers are really on a buying spree in the San Leandro to Hayward areas, it's incredible. I was just happy that the way my client allowed me to structure his offer that he was able to beat out 16 other offers. I'd have been much happier if he didn't make the call he did this morning, but everything happens for a reason and another door will open for him in the future. We will be in touch in the future.
Some good news is that Nancy also got into contract on a home in Harbor Bay late last week also. That seems like it will close without a problem
Work is still progressing on our new listings. The home in the West End listed for $499,000 I think will come on the market before the home in the Gold Coast which is listed at $599,000.
I promised I'd fill you in on the Sunday activities at the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance we attended a couple weeks ago. The day began early with breakfast at 8 am and then a short drive on the 17 mile drive the area is known for besides its golfing. You have to catch a shuttle bus from one of the make shift coastal parking lots which takes you passed all the trailers and crates used to ship the cars to the event to the equestrian center where you catch another shuttle to the Lodge. Once at the Lodge we scurried around the side and down to the entrance picking up our programs and lanyards to keep our tickets in around our neck. Once on the lawn we staked out our spot not far from where we were in 2007. As we were waiting for girls to return from restrooms my friend Bill recognized Indy race driver Rick Mears standing chatting with a few people. A few seconds later I looked up at the walkway and said to myself that guy looks familiar, after a double take I leaned over to Bill and said there's Jerry Seinfeld (he had 3 Porsches in the show) just strolling thru the crowd. Finally our wives returned and off to the 18th we went, me snapping pictures like crazy to the tune of about 400 of them. So noontime rolled around after seeing about 90% of the cars on the fairway 
and we headed back to our chairs for the start of the unveiling of the new Bentley Mulsanne. While waiting Jay Leno pops out of the crowd and strolls down to the staging area to our right shaking a few hands along the way. Soon the wood crate opens and out drives an antique Bentley that had just been restored, hmmm, everyone wonders what's up. After the introduction of Bentley's chairman of the board and his description of the car we hear bagpipes in the distance, lots of them. Everyone stands and looks behind towards the far right and rounding a corner is about 7 bagpipers followed by two gents holding swords escorting the new car around the crowd up onto the stage to lots of oo's aw's. You can see photos of it by clicking the link above "snapping pictures". On with the parade of cars rolling past us for a couple hours including Seinfeld driving one of his Porsches and parking in front of us waiting to find out if he won 1st, 2nd or 3rd place, he won 2nd place. I did a double take as he was driving up, I was taking a video thinking I would catch the sound of these Can-Am race car category coming by, only later did I find out my camera doesn't record the sound. I quickly switched to still mode and got a couple of 
good shots of him in his car. Nearly 4 pm now the announcers began the raffle with Jay Leno leading the way and introducing the Governor, everyone was surprised to see Arnold stroll out to the microphone. While Jay and Arnold entertained the crowd with their bantering back and forth two cars quietly made their way into the staging area below and to the right of us. I saw them both earlier in the day and had already chosen in my mind the winner and low and behold it did.
FRAUD Alert
The Alameda County District Attorney's office has received information that individuals may be targeting Real Estate sales agents for a version of "Advanced Fee Fraud." You are urged to be alert for these individual attempting to run this scam in your area.
The individuals will pose as interested home buyers of high-end homes. They will target mostly new developments, and homes listed for more than one million dollars. The suspects will approach REALTORS® and claim to have several million dollars coming to them from "overseas accounts." After developing a relationship with the REALTORS® over the course of several weeks or months, the suspects will tender an offer for a property, but claim that the money is being held up overseas due to various excuses. The suspects will then ask the REALTORS® to loan them money for the down payment, plus money to help them pay customs fees to free up their overseas money. The suspects often give fake documentation to support their claims. In exchange for a loan by the REALTORS®, the suspects will promise a 100% return on their investment within 48-72 hours of the loan.
Now onto the frenzied real estate market in Alameda.
BROKER'S TOUR
NEW
| LIST PRICE: | SOLD PRICE: | DOM: |
| HIGH | LOW | AVERAGE | MEDIAN | TOTAL PRICE | LISTING COUNT | $998,000 | $374,900 | $703,995 | $717,450 | $7,039,955 | 10 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | 7 | 0 | 6 | 6 | | |
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PRICE CHANGES
| LIST PRICE: | SOLD PRICE: | DOM: |
| HIGH | LOW | AVERAGE | MEDIAN | TOTAL PRICE | LISTING COUNT | $945,000 | $278,000 | $558,612 | $534,500 | $8,937,800 | 16 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | 326 | 2 | 92 | 75 | | |
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PENDING
| LIST PRICE: | SOLD PRICE: | DOM: |
| HIGH | LOW | AVERAGE | MEDIAN | TOTAL PRICE | LISTING COUNT | $1,987,000 | $180,500 | $570,519 | $499,000 | $65,609,720 | 115 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | 235 | 0 | 45 | 27 | | |
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SOLD
| LIST PRICE: | SOLD PRICE: | DOM: |
| HIGH | LOW | AVERAGE | MEDIAN | TOTAL PRICE | LISTING COUNT | $10,400,000 | $314,275 | $1,488,904 | $599,000 | $26,800,275 | 18 | $9,650,000 | $293,000 | $1,428,886 | $614,500 | $25,719,950 | 158 | 5 | 49 | 36 | | |
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ALL ACTIVE
| LIST PRICE: | SOLD PRICE: | DOM: |
| HIGH | LOW | AVERAGE | MEDIAN | TOTAL PRICE | LISTING COUNT | $1,799,000 | $204,900 | $664,991 | $644,250 | $77,139,059 | 116 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | 406 | 0 | 73 | 49 | | |
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Ciao for now, Chuck
- Busy as a bee
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It's been a few busy weeks since I've posted and I apologize. But it's been a good kind of busy few weeks. We are still massaging along the two income properties on Buena Vista Avenue. Slowly but surely
they are inching closer to a closing date in late September. All but the loan contingencies have been removed. We're still having a difficult time with one tenant that totally refuses to work us.
One the brighter side we have on waiver two new listings we expect to get on the market next month. Both are three bedroom homes, one in the west end of town and the other in the heart of the gold coast. The gold coast home is a tri-level split ranch style nested amongst the stately old homes of the area. The home itself has had many upgrades to its mechanical systems and is listed at $599,000. The other in the west end is an older home which still has intact all the architectural detail of the period including the hardwood floors, built in hutches with lead glass cabinet doors alongside the stone fireplace and beautiful stained glass windows, one in the living room and the other in the entry. This home is listed for $499,000. Watch for pictures and videos on our website http://bianchis.biz in a few weeks.
This is the year Nancy and I moved our anniversary trip by two weeks so we could attend the Pebble Beach Concourse in none other than Pebble Beach. We stayed this year again at the Seven Gables which we have stayed at every year on our anniversary and the first trip to the concourse in 2007. Let me tell you this is one of the finest Bed and Breakfast Inns you will ever see. Just click on the link above and see for yourself. Nancy and I spent our honeymoon doing research on places to stay after finding our honeymoon accommodations to be not as advertised at another B&B in town. I must say after finding the Seven Gables I don't think we could stay anywhere else. The views of Monterey Bay are top notch being across the street from the water and Lover's Point beach.
Our weekend began with an uneventful drive down to the area and directly into Pebble Beach for lunch at the Lodge's Terrace Lounge. After lunch it was off to view some of the cars on display. We were killing time while our friends were on their way to the Seven Gables to join us for the long weekend. Nancy and I checked into our room 
and then headed up the hill to Pacific Grove's Concourse on Lighthouse Ave, it reminds me of Alameda's Park St Car show in October. The evening came and off we went to Fandango's for our annual anniversary dinner, it also happened to be our friend Alison's birthday a day earlier and she was surprised to have special dessert at the end of the dinner. I just happened to mention it in my reservation on OpenTable. While dining another couple from the Seven Gables were seated next to us, so we chatted a little bit and noticed a gentleman at the end table in the dining room with a Speed TV polo shirt on it turned out to be Mike Joy who announces for the Barrett Jackson auctions on the TV. I had already found the Russo and Steele auction at the Monterey Marriott hotel but when mike Joy's group got up to leave the couple at the table next to us stopped him to ask about a Ferrari that her boss from Russia wanted her to keep an eye out for, he would have been willing to spend up to $7,000,000 on. When she was done I wanted to ask him if the Russo and Steele auction was the only auction that night which he confirmed for us. Now the excitement begins, see my friend Bill owns a classic car already. But he has really wanted a different style of his 
current car for a very long time. He mentioned earlier in the day how much he'd like to see the workings of an auction like the Barrett Jackson Auction that's on TV's speed channel. So Bill's wife Alison made the comment before we left "Honey, if you 
find your dream car here, you can bid on it". They had found this car on the internet in the past but it was always off in another state. Her statement would haunt her later that night. So off to the Monterey Marriott hotel we went. We parked right across the street from a fenced off parking lot and ventured in, we found ourselves among the cars that had just crossed the auction block and were told to go downstairs to see the cars going up for auction Saturday night. So down the stairs we went, starting on one side rounding the corner to the other I hear an "Oh my God!", Alison's head drops into hands and I look a few cars down and there's Bill standing next to a 69 Black on Black Chevrolet Camaro convertible RS/SS with hidden headlights, his dream car he's been searching for, for years. After giving it the once over he was set to return the next night and give it a shot at the auction.
While having breakfast Saturday morning we glanced up to see a pod of what we thought initially were whales that turned out to be killer whales breaching as they crossed the bay, there must have been 40 or 
more of them traveling right across the bay in front of us. Joining us at breakfast we found ourselves chatting with the same couple from dinner the night before from San Mateo County who were down not for the car show but to golf for the weekend. As it turned out they were the inventors of the PODS moving system, how exciting was that! They sold the company to another company in Dubai and of course are enjoying life today. After breakfast Bill and I set out to give the Camaro find another going over in daylight, the gent from the Russo and Steele auction started it up let us peek into the trunk, basically kick the tires a bit. Then we were off to register Bill for the event that night and back to pick up our wives and head back to Pebble Beach to stroll around a bit more and look at the exhibits. It was a beautiful not a cloud in the sky day as we were looking at Spyker's and a car from Spain built almost entirely out of carbon fiber the price of $700,000 reflected that also. Up a little further on the hill from a distance looked like a Lexus, but to our surprise turned out 
to be of all things a Hyundai. It wasn't even being sold in the states until next year sometime and only 250 would be sold for around $60,000-$70,000 we were told, it was the Hyundai Equus. This car was something else it reminded us of the S-Class Mercedes and the big Lexus. It had reclining rear seats with massage, champagne cooler, separate audio and monitors like a limousine or a Maybach.
Back to the Seven Gables we went to rest and prepare for the evenings activities. Nancy and I at the 2007 event met an artist from Hawaii, Niles Nakaoka who designed a Hawaiian shirt for Reyn Spooner that I bought that year. I own quite a number of Reyn Spooner shirts. I've stayed in touch with Niles via email and he sent me an invite to the AFAS art exhibition opening on Saturday night. So off Nancy and I went to the AFAS art exhibition opening while Bill and Alison headed to the Russo and Steele auction. We spent about an hour and a half at the AFAS art exhibition opening, took 
a picture with Niles and another gent with the same Reyn Spooner shirt he designed. It was getting close to our dinner reservation time so off to Carmel we went to meet up with Bill and Alison and another couple from Alameda who came down at the last minute. On the way into Carmel my cell phone rings, its Bill, I stick the Bluetooth in my ear and I hear "Chuck! I bought a car!" WOW I told Nancy, he got the car, and for a lot less than he expected it to go for with two others bidding on it. So dinner plans changed to celebration, we arrived at Il Fornaio and met up with Bill and Alison's friends from Alameda who told us Bill and Alison would be a little late because they were at an auction to possibly buy a car to which I answered, he got the car. Within a half hour all 6 of us were toasting Bill's accomplishment. After a couple of hours we were off to the Seven Gables for the night.
I won't even begin to describe Sunday in this posting so you'll have to come back next week for my stories on Jay Leno and Jerry Seinfeld.
So off it is to the Real Estate Market in Alameda. Because I skipped a few weeks of posting here so I'll go back three weeks.
BROKER'S TOUR
NEW
| LIST PRICE: | SOLD PRICE: | DOM: |
| HIGH | LOW | AVERAGE | MEDIAN | TOTAL PRICE | LISTING COUNT | $1,987,000 | $269,000 | $711,118 | $634,975 | $24,178,029 | 34 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | 34 | 2 | 11 | 10 | | |
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PRICE CHANGE
| LIST PRICE: | SOLD PRICE: | DOM: |
| HIGH | LOW | AVERAGE | MEDIAN | TOTAL PRICE | LISTING COUNT | $1,799,000 | $204,900 | $649,081 | $533,500 | $24,665,087 | 38 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | 357 | 7 | 65 | 45 | | |
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PENDING
| LIST PRICE: | SOLD PRICE: | DOM: |
| HIGH | LOW | AVERAGE | MEDIAN | TOTAL PRICE | LISTING COUNT | $10,400,000 | $180,500 | $696,229 | $506,750 | $79,370,115 | 114 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | 235 | 0 | 46 | 29 | | |
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SOLD
| LIST PRICE: | SOLD PRICE: | DOM: |
| HIGH | LOW | AVERAGE | MEDIAN | TOTAL PRICE | LISTING COUNT | $1,200,000 | $245,000 | $555,153 | $499,950 | $18,875,230 | 34 | $1,168,888 | $238,000 | $543,099 | $480,000 | $18,465,388 | 326 | 3 | 56 | 22 | | |
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ALL LISTINGS
| LIST PRICE: | SOLD PRICE: | DOM: |
| HIGH | LOW | AVERAGE | MEDIAN | TOTAL PRICE | LISTING COUNT | $1,987,000 | $204,900 | $671,569 | $628,000 | $83,946,184 | 125 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | 399 | 2 | 70 | 45 | | |
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Ciao for now, Chuck
- Broker's Tour and a new granite vendor
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Another week has passed and two more to go before I go on a brief vacation, (a long weekend). I hope
many of you reading this got a chance to visit
Alameda's Park Street Art and Wine Festival. It was packed, I hear upwards of 100,000 packed the 4 block long affair over the two days. While I'm looking at the gourmet food booths Nancy is looking at the colorful garden décor but we both stop in our tracks at home remodeling booths.
One of these booths really captivated us. It was a company called Granite Transformations. What sets this company apart is not only 
the cost but how and what they do. Of all the custom countertops I have seen, all required removal of an existing countertop which in the city of Alameda requires a 
permit which also will include an electrical upgrade by having to place electrical outlets within 2ft. of a stove or sink and then every 4ft which can get costly. Electrical boxes are no longer allowed in closets as some older homes were built so they may also need to be relocated. The way around the permit process is to install something on top of an existing countertop which this company does. The samples at the booth were about half the thickness of the standard one inch thick slab of granite so they were close to half an 
inch to maybe three-fourths of an inch thick and included a bull-nose end. Nancy and I just happen to be looking for a way of upgrading our bathroom counters and this probably will be the way we approach it. They also make a colorful "green" product that includes glass pieces for a real snazzy look.
At the show they were offering a sink to be included in the job but I'm sure that won't be offered after the fact, but who knows. Click the link above and check them out, they appear to be franchised across the country and if they do what they say I can see them getting busier just in Alameda. Oh I did ask for references from within our office's clients and did receive a couple of very positive recommendations.
Now I have a software question that maybe one of my readers can help me out on. I use Internet 
Explorer and Mozilla Firefox on my laptop. One happens to be faster than the other and my Multiple Listing Service (MLS) only works on the other. But while I browse with one browser and create bookmarks to save for a later date they aren't available in the other browser without doing an export and import from one browser to the other which includes having to clean up duplicate entries in the imported to browser. So my question to you is does anyone know of a software tool that easily adds bookmarks created in one browser to be transferred to the other automatically? I'd be interested to hear what you may have found. I'll also be posting the same question on the Yahoo XP group I belong to. Thanks in advance.
With that here's what's happening in Alameda's market.
BROKERS TOUR
NEW
| LIST PRICE: | SOLD PRICE: | DOM: |
| HIGH | LOW | AVERAGE | MEDIAN | TOTAL PRICE | LISTING COUNT | $989,000 | $297,900 | $541,796 | $499,000 | $7,585,147 | 14 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | 14 | 0 | 7 | 6 | | |
|
PRICE CHANGE
| LIST PRICE: | SOLD PRICE: | DOM: |
| HIGH | LOW | AVERAGE | MEDIAN | TOTAL PRICE | LISTING COUNT | $1,850,000 | $224,900 | $670,553 | $509,000 | $10,058,300 | 15 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | 378 | 11 | 89 | 61 | | |
|
PENDING
| LIST PRICE: | SOLD PRICE: | DOM: |
| HIGH | LOW | AVERAGE | MEDIAN | TOTAL PRICE | LISTING COUNT | $10,400,000 | $180,500 | $678,549 | $467,400 | $74,640,495 | 110 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | 326 | 0 | 46 | 25 | | |
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SOLD
| LIST PRICE: | SOLD PRICE: | DOM: |
| HIGH | LOW | AVERAGE | MEDIAN | TOTAL PRICE | LISTING COUNT | $769,000 | $419,000 | $552,842 | $549,000 | $3,869,900 | 7 | $777,000 | $410,000 | $551,350 | $540,000 | $3,859,450 | 115 | 7 | 32 | 20 | | |
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ALL ACTIVE
| LIST PRICE: | SOLD PRICE: | DOM: |
| HIGH | LOW | AVERAGE | MEDIAN | TOTAL PRICE | LISTING COUNT | $1,850,000 | $224,900 | $648,189 | $599,000 | $90,098,285 | 139 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | 378 | 0 | 70 | 49 | | |
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Ciao for now Chuck
- Feeling Blessed!
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I erased my blog post I originally had planned to post after I received a call Sunday night from a couple who are clients of mine. I received a call from my clients that recently moved into their condominium that they bought a few years back. This couple happened across my website about 3 years ago and called me about buying a condominium. They were moving from a large home (3,000+sq.ft.) in Texas and wanted a home that offered a bay view, it had to include San Francisco views because that's where their son's family lives and it had to have a certain square footage because they were drastically downsizing and somehow figured out just how many square feet they needed. Leave it to me, I found just the home on Alameda's Shoreline Drive with a view of just what they wanted. They were ready to buy sight unseen based on the photos I emailed them. I was able to convince them that they really should have a look themselves rather than just trusting my photos. So I apprehensively submitted the offer sight unseen which was accepted without a counter offer and I met them the following weekend to show them the home they had just gotten the accepted offer on along with a full tour of the island of Alameda, complete with lunch. They were thrilled with the home and at the prospect of moving to the island of Alameda upon retirement and they closed escrow. They rented the condominium to friend of their daughter in law until their retirement date, about a year and a half. They called me about 4 months prior to moving and asked if I might assist them in having their kitchen completely remodeled prior to their arrival. With that, my construction background kicked in and I happily put them in touch with a well known local contractor who wrapped things up just days before their arrival. The level of trust they put in me was flattering but I just couldn't be the one to select the color and type of cabinetry, counters and appliances although I could have based on their budget I didn't want to take that chance. It would have been different if they were selling.
In the end the call on Sunday was a first in my career. My wife Nancy and I were invited to a blessing of their new home preceded by a dinner with the rest of their family. With that invite, I feel blessed.
And the weekend just keeps getting better, my gosh. I just got an email from the San Francisco Jazz Musician of the year's (just one of many awards) wife inviting us to a birthday party for her husband and rising star Terrence Brewer. If you like jazz you've got to listen to the Terrence's group. He will be performing September 20th at the Monterey Jazz Festival.
At our last Wednesday morning office meeting last week we had a Real Estate attorney from a 1031 exchange company come in and deliver some interesting news around short sales and foreclosure properties. We were told that now if a seller approaches us and asks if they should do a short sale we can no longer give them the simple yes or no answer. It appears that the attorneys now have construed that as practicing law without a license, degree or whatever. With the lenders in the short sales now delivering promissory notes for the monies relieved during the escrow process we realtors are now showing up in court because we gave our clients legal advice. What's next?
So what's on Broker's tour on Tuesday? See below.
BROKERS TOUR
NEW
| LIST PRICE: | SOLD PRICE: | DOM: |
| HIGH | LOW | AVERAGE | MEDIAN | TOTAL PRICE | LISTING COUNT | $3,600,000 | $389,000 | $906,893 | $704,950 | $19,951,660 | 22 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | 11 | 0 | 6 | 7 | | |
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PRICE CHANGE
| HIGH | LOW | AVERAGE | MEDIAN | TOTAL PRICE | LISTING COUNT | $950,000 | $299,000 | $600,926 | $609,000 | $9,013,900 | 15 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | 291 | 11 | 72 | 43 | | |
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PENDING
| LIST PRICE: | SOLD PRICE: | DOM: |
| HIGH | LOW | AVERAGE | MEDIAN | TOTAL PRICE | LISTING COUNT | $10,400,000 | $180,500 | $693,106 | $499,000 | $71,390,015 | 103 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | 326 | 0 | 46 | 25 | | |
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SOLD
| LIST PRICE: | SOLD PRICE: | DOM: |
| HIGH | LOW | AVERAGE | MEDIAN | TOTAL PRICE | LISTING COUNT | $949,000 | $330,000 | $598,008 | $550,000 | $7,774,110 | 13 | $923,000 | $305,000 | $578,307 | $569,000 | $7,518,000 | 115 | 1 | 46 | 34 | | |
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ALL AVAILABLE
| LIST PRICE: | SOLD PRICE: | DOM: |
| HIGH | LOW | AVERAGE | MEDIAN | TOTAL PRICE | LISTING COUNT | $1,899,000 | $232,900 | $649,157 | $599,250 | $92,180,418 | 142 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | 371 | 0 | 65 | 42 | | |
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Ciao for now, Chuck
- Run of the mill week with a tech twist
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It's been a pretty run of the mill week for Nancy and I. Our townhome listing is set to close early next week. The activity on our triplex and duplex has been brisk. We received an offer on each property. Unfortunately neither was acceptable to the seller as written. Besides, the other agent wrote the offers on the wrong contract. When I asked him to re-write them on the residential income purchase agreement he answered back I thought the standard purchase agreement covered income properties of 1-4 units. That would be news to me I told him because the standard agreement does not talk about tenants rights or the estoppels. So once we received the contract on the correct form we generated the counter offers and are waiting to hear back from the buyer. We also reduced the price on both properties by $50,000 so we'll see just what the buyer's intentions really are. Are they looking for a bargain/fire sale or are they true buyers. More shall be revealed.
Mark your calendars.
The Alameda Animal shelter is having their annual benefit event on July 24th from 6 to 9 PM 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.
Nancy and I are excited about a new service being offered to sellers and marketed to Realtors. We have never been huge fans of staging a home simply because of cost. We have used existing furniture in the past and had good results. We just never saw the results add up at the close of an escrow in the net sheet. I know there is plenty to debate on the subject and I don't mean to upset any stagers that happen upon this post. But the Sunday Chronicle featured an article about "Virtual Staging" that really caught our eye. For a fraction of the cost we provide quality photographs that the stagers then furnish for use with web activities. It really suits the real estate market because I believe there are those buyers who cannot envision the home with their furniture in a furnished room and then there are those who can. So this new technology will allow us to put both pictures furnished and unfurnished on our marketing materials looking forward. How exciting is that!
So what's going on in the market this week? Click on the headings below.
BROKERS TOUR
NEW
| LIST PRICE: | SOLD PRICE: | DOM: |
| HIGH | LOW | AVERAGE | MEDIAN | TOTAL PRICE | LISTING COUNT | $3,600,000 | $239,900 | $696,342 | $592,000 | $19,497,600 | 28 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | 10 | 0 | 5 | 6 | | |
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PRICE CHANGE
| LIST PRICE: | SOLD PRICE: | DOM: |
| HIGH | LOW | AVERAGE | MEDIAN | TOTAL PRICE | LISTING COUNT | $1,569,000 | $289,000 | $632,406 | $542,000 | $14,545,350 | 23 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | 139 | 4 | 46 | 35 | | |
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PENDING
| LIST PRICE: | SOLD PRICE: | DOM: |
| HIGH | LOW | AVERAGE | MEDIAN | TOTAL PRICE | LISTING COUNT | $10,400,000 | $180,500 | $719,424 | $520,000 | $66,187,025 | 92 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | 326 | 0 | 49 | 25 | | |
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SOLD
| LIST PRICE: | SOLD PRICE: | DOM: |
| HIGH | LOW | AVERAGE | MEDIAN | TOTAL PRICE | LISTING COUNT | $850,000 | $165,000 | $602,992 | $599,500 | $7,838,900 | 13 | $855,000 | $135,000 | $595,069 | $582,000 | $7,735,900 | 340 | 0 | 63 | 20 | | |
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ALL AVAILABLE
| LIST PRICE: | SOLD PRICE: | DOM: |
| HIGH | LOW | AVERAGE | MEDIAN | TOTAL PRICE | LISTING COUNT | $1,899,000 | $215,000 | $633,578 | $579,000 | $95,036,838 | 150 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | 364 | 0 | 61 | 41 | | |
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Ciao for now, Chuck
- Broker's Tour Tuesday
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It has become apparent, that there are just not enough hours in a day to get everything accomplished. Both Nancy and I have a number of buyers we are currently showing homes to while managing our own listings. What I see suffering is my posting to our blog that I have been doing twice a week so I have decided once a week will have to do temporarily. I apologize in advance but our client's interests are just far more important than putting an article together. So with that, look for my posts on Tuesday mornings or Monday evenings until time allows or two- three more hours are added to the existing day. The latter I'm afraid we probably won't see until "hell freezes over".
Our Buena Vista Avenue income properties are getting a fair amount of showings. We are scheduling tours 
once a week and giving minimums of 48 hours notice to keep peace with the tenants. It is all working quite well for most with the exception of one tenant. Nobody has been able to decipher their issue with 48 hours notice yet. What we do know is that this tenant's son has really created a big problem for his mother. There are some things in life you just don't do, and one of them high on my list is to not argue with an attorney that has the ability to evict you. Last week it wasn't so much an argument as a show of force (lol) but the fact that the tenants son seemed to know more about real estate law than the attorney and he felt compelled to be sure the attorney knew his position on the law, ahem, which he found on an internet search. BIG mistake! After telling us we had just 5 minutes to show his mothers unit. He took it upon himself to block the doorway and not allow the others to tour for the last 3 minutes of what he construed from our 4 day notice was to be 5 minutes while he argued the point with the seller's attorney, see, we didn't put a specific timeframe in the letter just up to a twenty minute window. The result, he got his mother and he served with a three day notice to perform or quit, which I believe will be followed later this week with an eviction notice. It's too bad too, we just don't understand their irrational behavior.
This kind of reminds of those news reports when you here of someone charged with a crime who decides to defend themselves during court appearances. Anyone in their right mind just wouldn't consider doing so, and then there are the others willing to become the sacrificial lambs. Oh well another lesson to learn in the school of hard knocks.
We picked up a new GPS device on EBay a couple of months ago because we have been getting calls to show homes in neighboring cities to past clients. I like the fact that the GPS device we purchased allows you to create a tour. I add the addresses, set the route and it instructs how to get to the next place from 
the last, pretty neat. Oh it's also has voice recognition that works sometimes, it has to be quiet when you're speaking to it, I noticed the A/C in my truck skew what it hears. So I joined a Garmin Nuvi Yahoo group for tips and tricks and I want to share with you an idea I picked up off a contributors website. Yes, it's available for everyone to use. If you lock your GPS device for security reasons, this website made this photo available as a screensaver. What I did instead of deleting text was added text to the photo which covered the email address shown here with mine; I also added my home office telephone number. I especially like the line just below "THIS GPS IS LOCKED" for those of us that leave our GPS's in our vehicles throughout the day. Not all GPS devices allow you to add pictures to them, so I'd suggest checking your operating manual to see if your device allows this. Just click on the picture to the right and you should be taken to the website or just click here.
So what's going on in the real estate market in Alameda, just click on the headings below.
BROKERS TOUR TUESDAY
NEW
PRICE CHANGE
| LIST PRICE: | SOLD PRICE: | DOM: |
| HIGH | LOW | AVERAGE | MEDIAN | TOTAL PRICE | LISTING COUNT | $2,488,905 | $289,000 | $797,880 | $563,500 | $7,978,805 | 10 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | 175 | 0 | 68 | 73 | | |
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PENDING
| LIST PRICE: | SOLD PRICE: | DOM: |
| HIGH | LOW | AVERAGE | MEDIAN | TOTAL PRICE | LISTING COUNT | $10,400,000 | $165,000 | $708,341 | $525,000 | $63,750,725 | 90 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | 340 | 0 | 52 | 25 | | |
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SOLD
| LIST PRICE: | SOLD PRICE: | DOM: |
| HIGH | LOW | AVERAGE | MEDIAN | TOTAL PRICE | LISTING COUNT | $699,000 | $359,900 | $565,252 | $570,000 | $6,217,780 | 11 | $659,000 | $373,900 | $555,309 | $570,000 | $6,108,400 | 95 | 0 | 24 | 18 | | |
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HOT LIST
This is a new heading that shows all activity in the last seven days.
| HIGH | LOW | AVERAGE | MEDIAN | TOTAL PRICE | LISTING COUNT | $2,488,905 | $5,010 | $575,198 | $549,000 | $54,068,614 | 94 | $659,000 | $373,900 | $555,309 | $570,000 | $6,108,400 | 326 | 0 | 37 | 13 | | |
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If you have any questions on any properties attached to the links above please call or email Nancy and I.
Ciao for now, Chuck
