Buyers, sellers, investors, welcome back to another installment of Real Estate Jargon, aka, simple explanations of real estate terms not normally found in nature. Most of us know what a condo looks like, but for a specific definition we can use the American Heritage® Dictionary: "A building or complex in which units of property, such as apartments, are owned by individuals and common parts of the property, such as the grounds and building structure, are owned jointly by the unit owners." Simply put, we can own the condo we buy, plus we own a piece of the land, improvements, equipment and other assets that are typically called "common areas."  Condo complexes typically form a homeowners association (HOA) at the time of construction and each owner pays a monthly fee to manage and maintain... 06/23/2010

Buyers, sellers, and investors - welcome to another installment of Real Estate Jargon, aka, simple explanations of real estate terms not normally found in nature. In the Lethal Weapon movie series, Danny Glover and Mel Gibson did a recurring bit based upon the confusion created by a common predicament: "Do we go on 3, or count to 3 and then go?" In real estate, buyers and sellers are often faced by a similar situation.  When a listing agreement or purchase contract says "X days prior..." or "X days after...", what is the specific date that everyone can agree is the right one? Agents often prepare a transaction timeline with specific dates ("date certain" in legal language) to help buyers and sellers understand the dates that everyone has committed to.  To answer the question of how a da... 06/21/2010

Buyers, sellers, investors, welcome back to another installment of Real Estate Jargon, aka, simple explanations of real estate terms not normally found in nature. Today we're going to talk about supplemental taxes in California, that little surprise bill that homeowners receive a few months after buying a property.  In short, supplemental taxes are the difference between the amount of property tax that has been pre-paid prior to a sale and the amount of additional tax that is due after a sale because of the higher assessed value (usually the sale price).  Confused?  Here is a simple illustration. Joan bought a house a few years ago for $100,000.  The tax rate in her area is 1.2%, so her annual tax is $1,200.  In April, she paid her property tax for the period April through December. A k... 06/18/2010

Here's the latest update on the single family home market in Palo Alto, with a neighborhood twist!  Active Listings: 98 Pending Sales: 50 The market seems to be holding pretty steady, with a ratio of one pending sale for every 2 active listings. So this time, instead of breaking the numbers up by price range I did a neighborhood breakdown.  Are some neighborhoods more popular than others? If so, which ones?  So here's what I found when I crunched the numbers by neighborhood:  Downtown:  5 Active  3 Pending Professorville:  3 Active  2 Pending Community Center:  3 Active  4 Pending Crescent Park:  5 Active   3 Pending Green Gables:  8 Active  9 Pending Old Palo Alto:  11 Active   2 Pending College Terrace:  Active 10  Pending 4 Ventura:  4 Active  2 Pending Midtown:  9 Active  3 pending... 06/17/2010

Ever hear someone say something like this?  "I'd like to sell my home, but Junior has two more years of high school and we don't want to move until he graduates."  If we would like to buy that home and don't want to wait on Junior, is there a way?  You betcha! One of the most effective ways to purchase a home or rental property in this situation is to make an unsolicited offer than includes a leaseback to the seller.  The offer is unsolicited because the property is not formally on the market.  We might hear about the property from friends or relatives, or we might send introductory letters to selected homes in a neighborhood that meets our buying criteria.  Once we've reached a property owner willing to hear our pitch, we can off them two major benefits: •  The seller can stay in the p... 06/15/2010

Buyers, seller, investors, welcome back to another installment of Real Estate Jargon, aka, simple explanations of real estate terms not normally found in nature. Let's look at a term that you'll see in listing agreements, agency disclosures, and other places during any type of real estate sale:  "cooperating broker."  Simply put, a cooperating broker is the broker representing the buyer in a real estate sale.  In many states, brokers representing the seller and the buyer are both considered cooperating brokers because they are cooperating (working together) to get the deal done to each of their client's satisfaction. In a listing agreement, the seller authorizes the listing broker to compensate the cooperating broker a certain amount at the close of a successful sale.  For those of us i... 06/13/2010

Summer Fun in the Palo Alto Area Looking for things to do in the Palo Alto area this summer? Summertime is festival season around here (One of the many reasons Palo Alto is a great place to live).  Here are some upcoming festivals worth checking out: Palo Alto World Music Day Location - University Ave, Downtown Palo Alto When - Sunday, June 20, 2010 - 3:00 - 7:30 PM 50 professional and amateur musical groups will perform a wide variety of musical genres on street corners and plazas: jazz, pop, rock, classical, world music, choirs, etc. All performances will be FREE and open to the public. Website: http://www.pamusicday.org/ 29th Annual Summer Festival & Chili Cook-off Location - Mitchell Park – 600 East Meadow Dr., Palo Alto When - Sunday, July 4, 2010 - 12-5 PM Celebrate Independence D... 06/13/2010

The Palo Alto Real Estate Market continues to show strength in May 2010. The chart below shows a three month moving average of the Median Sold price for homes in Palo Alto. The median sold price continues in an upward trend. The median price for a home sold on Palo Alto in May 2010 was $1,409,000. The median price of a home for sale in Palo Alto during the same time period was $1,669,000. Palo Alto Homes for Sale - Supply and Demand - May 2010  The supply of homes for sale in Palo Alto in May 201 is down 43% over one year ago. At the same time, there was a 12% increase in the number of homes sold. This shows the continuing trend towards a competitive market for buyers in the Palo Alto real estate marketplace. The average number of days on the market for a single family home in Palo Alt... 06/13/2010

Living in Palo Alto during the work week and in Fairfield on weekends provides great opportunities for changes in scenery.  Today was the Library Sale at St. Clement Vineyards in St. Helena in northern Napa Valley, just 30 minutes from home.  Lots of great wines on sale and a chance to sit down for a few minutes and shoot the breeze with some people who really know wine and the wine industry.  Sad to hear that many wineries are struggling to move inventory due to the economy.  Bought some cases of chardonnay and sauvignon blanc for back porch drinking this summer, plus a bottle of 2004 Mt. Veeder cab for medicinal purposes (or so I tell myself).  I encourage everyone to partonize the California wines this year, they need the business and the quality is the best in world.  St. Clement st... 06/12/2010

As home buyers and investors, we sometimes shy away from properties that are in financial difficulty.  Unpaid taxes, HOA fees, or assessments can mean potential liens and could become our bills if we buy the property.  Unpaid utility bills can also pose a problem to restoring service, though they typically won't result in a lien.  Is there opportunity here?  You bet!  Problems for the seller usually mean great opportunities for the buyer. Since buyers want to reduce the purchase price for tax purposes, rather than just getting buyer credits, finding what will motivate the seller to accept a lower offer is the key.  Often, providing them a way out of nagging bills will get their attention. Here are two easy strategies for using the seller's debt to the buyer's advantage: 1.  Assume the d... 06/11/2010

This month's Mystery Photo Contest brought answers from near and far. For the first time, everyone who answered was correct and knew that this ---- ---- is a photo of the Hoover Tower at Stanford University near Palo Alto, California. Congratulations to Elsie Goss, a newsletter reader whose name was randomly picked from all the entrants. Elsie, I'll be delivering your 2 movie tickets to you today! Thanks for joining in the fun, everyone. Look for the next contest by the first of July. 06/11/2010

Hello buyers, sellers, and investors - thanks for stopping in to discuss another one of those obscure real estate terms that doesn't seem to have much meaning in the normal course of living. Let's look at a handy thing called a "tenant estoppel."  If you're buying rental property, you want one from the seller before you make an offer.  If you're a rental property owner and you want to refinance your property, the bank might ask for one.  So, let's talk about what it is. A Tenant Estoppel Certificate is a one page summary of a lease, signed by the tenant and by the current owner/seller.*  A copy of the lease is usually attached.  But it is more than just a summary of the lease, it is also an affidavit that tenant and landlord agree that the facts regarding the lease are true.  Here are t... 06/09/2010

There's a lot of chatter on real estate blogs about the steep increase in foreclosures and short sales in Palo Alto.Unfortunately many sites post stats from a company called Realty Trac which tracts everything from a Notice of Default through a listed bank owned property.  Many things can happen before a home with a Notice of Default actually gets to be sold by the bank, but unless you read the fine print carefully it is easy to confuse a house that is behind a few months in payments with an actual bank owned property on the market for sale. Most bank owned homes as well as short sales (where the seller owes more than the home is worth and the lender/lenders have agreed to accept less than the amount of the mortgage to release the debt) are sold through the MLS.  So to see how many of ... 06/08/2010

  I was walking around downtown Palo Alto yesterday and I noticed that the typically crowded Zibibbo is closed. Not sure if it's temporary or what, but it looked pretty permanent. Does anyone know anything about this? I've always heard great things about Zibibbo--it has over three hundred reviews on Yelp (most of them positive) and a few years ago it was one of Gourmet Magazine's twenty best American restaurants. Which I guess doesn't mean so much anymore, considering Gourmet's sad fate earlier this spring. Like Gourmet, Zibibbo may have just been too stranded in an earlier time--a time when people were willing to spend exorbitant amounts of money on dinner, when restaurant splurges weren't limited to special occasions. Whatever happened, it's sad to see that pretty restaurant with dark... 06/08/2010

  How good do these blackberries look? Few places in the world make me as happy as the Palo Alto Farmers' Market. Every Saturday morning (8AM to 12PM) from mid-May to mid-December local farms and artisanal food vendors line up along California Avenue, selling the freshest produce imaginable and other hard-to-find foodstuffs. This time of year is particularly wonderful, because it's the peak of cherry season (I LOVE CHERRIES) which means for a couple of months I have access to unbelievable cherries, cherries so good they ruin me for the rest of the year--seriously, it's hard to eat frozen cherries or even the delicious canned kind from American Spoon Foods (more on their fruit later) after tasting farmers' market cherries at the height of their natural glory. As frustrating as it is to k... 06/08/2010

  Here's today's snapshot of the Palo Alto single family home market:    103  Active listings 50  Pending sales   Breakdown of Price Points:   Under 1 million: 14 Active Listings / 10 Pending Sales 1 to 2 Mil:  48 Active Listings/ 28 Pending Sales 2-3 Million 27 Active listings/ 9 Pending Sales 3+ mil: 14 Active Listings/ 3 Pending Sales   What does mean? There is a pretty good jump in inventory for 89 to 103 active listings. Active to pending ratio is starting to increase in the under 1 million and 1-2 million dollar price points. It had already increased in the 2-3 million a few weeks ago.  Over 3 million is pretty much the same.  I am not saying the sky is falling, and there is always a increase in inventory right after Memorial week-end, but I think that there was a little appreciat... 06/08/2010

Hi there, buyers and sellers.  Welcome to another explanation of obscure real estate jargon.  Here's a term and a strategy that's not for real estate jellyfish. "Interim occupancy" is, in simple terms, allowing a buyer to move into the property they are buying before escrow closes.*  During this period they are tenants, usually paying rent, until they become the owners.  Most agents, including me, will tell you this is an extremely risky move that you could easily regret.  Yet, I've recommended it and it's worked.  But it can also cost a seller a lot of money if every risk isn't addressed. Let's say a paperwork problem regarding chain of title is discovered during escrow (yes, this happens, but don't get me started...) that will take a couple months to clear up.  But the buyer wants to ... 06/07/2010

It's Monday morning and the world continues to spin on its axis as it makes another loop around the sun.  Just as inevitably, the phone will soon ring and emails will arrive to launch the first day of a new week.  As have my forefathers, I meet the morning sun as all the things that I am, hero and demon, friend and foe, warrior and poet, real estate broker and investment counselor.  I step out the front door, stand defiantly, raise my cell phone to the sky and in the name of trusting clients proclaim myself... I, Landlord! My sword is an iPhone with multiple plumbers and carpet cleaners on speed dial, my shield is a sturdy laptop with mobile broadband Internet.  My legion of soldiers await me on the field of battle - repairmen, remodelers, gardeners, swimming pool cleaners, accountants,... 06/07/2010

Here's an update on small multi-family properties available in Palo Alto for under $1.5M.  These can be great starter properties for new investors. There are currently three properties on the market, all have been on the market at least two months and were also on my update last week.  "Days On Market" continue to increase, an indication that the seller may be ready to negotiate.             Downtown - 4 units; $1,450,000; 94 days on market             Midtown - 4 units; $998,000; 79 days on market             Stanford/California Avenue business district - 3 units, $1,070,000; 194 days on market If you missed my previous announcement, 740-748 Sutter Avenue (5 units) closed escrow on June 2nd: Listing Broker:  John A. Souerbry & Associates Buyer's Broker:  Alain Pinel Realtors, Palo Alto... 06/05/2010

Deposits are handy tools that can be helpful to buyers and to sellers.  As many investors and home buyers know, the larger the deposit the more committed they are to completing the transaction.  Sellers may take the amount of the initial cash deposit into consideration when comparing multiple offers side-by-side.  Just as the initial cash deposit is important to presenting a strong offer, an increased deposit can further support a buyer's commitment to the deal.  Let's start with a standard definition of the term: Increased deposit - An additional cash deposit made during the escrow period on a day specified in the purchase agreement (offer). Why make an additional deposit?  Here are a couple examples of how an increased deposit can be used to the advantage of the buyer or the seller. B... 06/03/2010