This piece in Slate sums it up. I feel badly for my buyers, especially at the lower end of the market.
My new listing in Lafayette! /
I put new listings elsewhere on my site but this one is truly remarkable!
It’s an honor to be entrusted to present such a property. The client is also a friend and this was her father’s home.
Often a good Realtor isn’t just selling a property but navigating with a client through life changes. Some are expanding their families, others downsizing their lives. Marriages, divorces, relocations - all have an emotional impact on myself and my clients. I look to be a ballast, guide, cheerleader and empathetic source.
Just visiting this property is like taking a nature bath, ahhhh!
A Cautionary Tale /
Here's a cautionary tale, I get a text this morning from a client who bought a lovely house through me last summer. His home had been broken into at 2am last night. He's out of town - and has been for a few months. He left no timed lights on (a few dollars is all those cost), didn't have the yard maintained - the grass was way long and, he didn't tell his neighbors he was going to be away or how to reach him.
1. Make friends with your neighbors! You have moved into a nice neighborhood and it is a wonderful opportunity to know your neighbors. They look after you, and you look after them.
2. Sketchy people case nice houses!
3. Get timed lights and if possible, have someone park their car in your driveway.
These zombies took the Ring doorbell! My client never figured out how it works so it is unlikely he can retrieve the footage. I told him to contact his ADT rep. I'm annoyed that the police secured the front door but didn't secure the garage door. It was left ajar and when I went to close it fully, the alarm went off again. Fortunately he has interior sensors but it was a scramble for him to get ADT to turn it off and call off another police visit (false alarms cost $$$).
Forbes Compilation of What Experts Think About Housing in '21 /
Here’s my opinion: Being hyper-local to the North/East Bay of San Francisco, I think we’ll see many corporations and large companies stick with work from home moving into the future. Why rent 20,000 s.f. of downtown office space for employees when they are happier and more productive working from home?
The outlying suburban areas will see an influx of former SF, Oakland, South Bay people as well as the migration of local people moving out of California to other states.
Check out what others say
What President Joe Biden Means for Real Estate /
This article on Realtor.com might be of interest.
"One of the main planks of Biden's $640 billion housing plan... has been to help more Americans become homeowners. Now that he's president, he has the opportunity to turn that high-flying plan into reality as he tries to heal the divisions within the nation.
He plans to give first-time home buyers a down payment tax credit of up to $15,000 that they could actually use at the time of purchase. As home prices have soared in recent years, this could be a big help to many cash-strapped buyers." “
Oh Really... /
Articles like this just piss me off. Great, you have a publicist and wonderful Dave Phinney, you get some press but FFS, at least be accurate.
1. Northern California Town Without Restaurants. The what you say? Vallejo has restaurants. Mare Island does not but guess what, Mare Island IS Vallejo. Watch it folks, this is where they will start to individuate from Vallejo.
2. Note: no date or even year when this mythical venture may appear. Fried chicken, well that's gonna put us on the map!
3. "It’s a peninsula and home to Touro University in Vallejo, along with a smattering of small businesses and residences." Uh, the Western Regional Headquarters of the US Forest Service, Factory_OS are no small businesses.
4. "It can feel more like a dying steel town than Napa Valley." and "spooky" - gee, where did that come from? Careful with the descriptors here.
Read my earlier piece Nimitzville? if you want to know more. I recently heard that the COO and CFO for the Nimitz Group were dismissed. This makes me even more concerned where this group is headed…color me a cynic but I have seen much in my near 20 years in this town and I’m looking askance at this latest development.