Absolutely Foster City

Welcome to the first ever FosterCityBlog Podcast! Today I thought I’d discuss where we’ve been so far in the first half of 2008. Just click on this little MP3 link, and off you go. Since this is a first time, if you’re having any problems opening this link please let me know. Thanks!

Click here for My Podcast

The Real Estate market this year in Foster City has been just like this…wavy! Up and down, peaks and valleys. Frankly, it’s made me a little nuts. Another thing that’s been true about it has been it’s unpredictability. Nothing will sell for weeks…and then 10 houses go all at once, and it’s been like that all year so far. What makes things even weirder is that in the upswing phase we’ve seen some pretty marginal houses sell, yet fantastic ones are just sitting there in a down period. In 2008 timing truly has been everything. I’m planning on doing something a little different later this week, I’m going to do a Podcast on the Foster City market’s first 6 months of 2008 and the numbers are really pretty interesting. In this post though I thought it would be worth while talking about what’s currently for sale.

Currently, there’s 30 single family houses on the market in Foster City. Between May 20 and June 10 16 houses sold. Between June 11 and today there’s been 3. I know I’m sort of going out on a limb here but, in my opinion, of the 30 active listings 9 of them are overpriced. If any of those 9 sold at their asking prices it would represent the most money ever spent for their floor-plans. I don’t believe that 2008 is a great year to pioneer a new price range. That has happened this year, but those houses (ie:763 Matsonia) were so extraordinary and unusual that the added value was understandable.

Of the remaining active listings some really stand out to me as worth mentioning and commenting on:

1128 Blythe listed by Ronda O’Leary of Cashin Company for $1,348,888. What a great job of preparation by these sellers and Ronda…it’s a great testament to them and the value of staging! Priced right in this great Ponderosa Shores neighborhood for a 5 bedroom house.

285 Duck Ct listed by Giovanni Bruschi of Prudential for $1,249,888. This is one of those houses I was talking about earlier. First of all, it’s stunning! Really a gorgeous house. It got multiple offers, ratified and the buyers couldn’t go through with the sale and it fell through after 13 days. Since then, no offers…it’s a real head scratcher to me.

1330 Ribbon listed by Mary Bee of Re/Max Today for $965,000. It’s the second lowest priced house in Foster City. It, too, is a very nice home…I’m surprised it’s still there after 52 days on the market. These houses are all good opportunities, I know I’ll show them.

Our last upswing came, in my opinion, following the Chronicle running a positive front page story about this market providing good opportunities for home buyers. They’ve run a dozen or more negative pieces since then, maybe they’re due to cycle around again and we’ll see something positive soon…and 16 houses will sell right away. Meanwhile, stay tuned for that Podcast on Thursday because the facts are really illuminating.

I know, I know…it was too easy. It certainly does prove the point that Chevy’s is Foster City’s preeminent landmark though! If you don’t believe me just check out some of those comments on Friday. Great stuff! If anyone else would like to check in with significant Chevy’s memories (but it has to be the Foster City Chevy’s!) please feel free. Sort of a Chevy’s support group…a free service of FosterCityBlog.com. Congratulations to Bill Hastings who nailed it first on Friday morning! Bill will receive a $30.00 gift card to Lucky’s Foods…across the parking lot from Chevy’s at Edgewater place. Thanks also to Janet, Jessica, Dana, Michael, Greg, Jodi, Asif, Gina, Erika, Steve, Joe, Linda, Dr. Mom, and Ak for also answering correctly! By the way, my wife’s going to be out of town tomorrow and I asked my kids where they would like to go to dinner…guess where we’re going? It’s their home away from home! Thanks for playing, see you this Friday.

The concept of an appraisal works like this…when a buyer purchases a home and gets a loan, their lender sends out an appraiser to verify the home’s value and make it safe for them to lend you money. In the very hot market we’ve just departed from, it seemed like homes appraised for whatever amount the buyer wanted to pay. For a long time, homes appraised well over comparable sales value. In 2004 I had a listing in San Mateo that we priced at $650,000, and at the time that represented the most money ever paid for a 2 bedroom, 1 bath house in that neighborhood. After receiving multiple offers we ratified with an offer of $778,000. I was secretly worried that these buyers would not be able to get an appraiser to bring that value in…but one did!

Well, that’s no longer the case. A seller can set a price and even if the buyer agrees to it the buyer’s lender will only finance the appraised price…and that may be lower than what was agreed too. What that means is the buyer will need to bring more money to the table or the seller needs to accept a lower offer. If the buyer has a contingency for that appraisal they can cancel the deal and get their money back if the seller won’t agree to negotiate downward.

Truly, it was crazy before and and I’m sure there was quite a bit of pressure placed upon appraisers in the past to bring values in on some of these crazy overbids. I remember in 2000 there were several sales in Palo Alto that came in $1,000,000 over asking…let’s hope they all paid cash! Can you imagine trying to appraise those? I think the return to sanity in the market we’re in is a good thing.

Look familiar? I submit to you that it’s the most famous landmark in Foster City…it’s OK to argue that point too. Nothing like the water…it’s what makes Foster City so unique and wonderful. So, tell me…where and what is this place? Submit your answers in the comments below. All the rules of the road are available for your viewing pleasure on the bar above and on the left hand margin. I won’t publish any and all correct answers until Monday morning but I will post all the semi obnoxious retorts and not too subtle jabs and shots that you would like as soon as possible, along with all wrong answers. This weeks winner receives a $30.00 gift card to Luckys Foods at Edgewater Place. Go buy some groceries. Thanks for playing…and good luck!

How about these before and after shots! Frequently, I’ll hear clients tell me that they would like a house that needs some work. They’ve heard, acurately, that buying a fixer upper is a great path toward building equity and thus maximizing their investment. The clients of mine that have bought and fixed up homes have made the most money of any of the people that I’ve ever worked with. Take the case of the house in these photos. This young man bought his first house in San Mateo Village in 2002 for $485,000…it was a fixer. He, along with his family, fixed it in stunning fashion and sold it in 2004 (with 26 offers!) for $778,000. He then bought this house in Hayward Park for $551,000…and did a whole bunch of work. We’re talking lot’s of work, roof, plumbing, electrical…you name it. I wish I could show all of the interior photos too! He sold it in 2006 for $1,288,000…and bought a fixer in Hillsborough where he lives now. From a 2 bedroom, 1 bath starter home fixer upper in San Mateo Village to Hillsborough in 4 years!

I have several other stories similar to this…and they all have one thing in common. Each individual had some degree of skill or other with being able to fix these homes up themselves. Lots of the folks that ask me about buying fixer uppers have no skill at all with repair. They would need to contract out everything. Keep in mind that there are fixers…and there are FIXERS! I’m not talking about a house with original kitchens and bathrooms that need updating, I’m talking about houses that need everything! One of these houses came up in San Carlos last week on the west side priced at $675,000 and some clients of mine got pretty excited about it’s possibilities. The problem is that what they would pay $100,000 for, a buyer who’s a contractor or other skilled person could do themselves for $30,000…plus they would be trying to live there in the midst of the work. A fixer is also not an ideal situation if you’ve got little kids either.

It’s something you really have to balance. I do think you can get some really good buys on homes that are cosmetically challenged as well…and you can live through a kitchen remodel. It might not be easy, but it’s do-able. In Foster City, recently, there was a 4 bedroom fixer on Chrysopolis that closed escrow at $838,750. I really thought that was a good buy, it’ll be interesting to see if they turn it in a few years.

OK, this may sound like a bit of a rant. (some of you are saying…”what else is new?”) Open House ads in the newspaper make me crazy. Last Friday morning I called the San Francisco Chronicle and placed an ad in the Sunday open home guide for a new listing of mine. During this process I create the ad itself, stipulate it’s length and pay for it at the time with either a credit or debit card. After we had worked through all of the details they gave me a confirmation number for the ad. Just for your info, a three line open house ad in the Sunday real estate section cost’s $118.00..slightly more if you want bold type. Sunday morning I went and got the paper from the driveway, pulled out the open house guide in the Real Estate section and guess what…no ad.

Of course, I called the Chronicle Monday morning to find out what happened and had to leave a message because nobody could help me…I’m still waiting for them to return my call.  I know from several past experiences just like this that it’ll come down to one of two problems…1) They (or I) transposed a number from my ATM check card and thus it didn’t go through (they never call you back when that happens, and who knows why they just don’t run your card while you’re on the phone with them)..and/or 2) the ad ran in the wrong community or county, oops! I’ve finally come to this conclusion…who cares?

Here’s one of the great secrets of the real estate business folks…Sunday Open House ads are worthless and Realtors buy them knowing that full well. They do it to appease their sellers, who want to be assured that they’re getting their monies worth out of the commissions that they’re paying. Many sellers think an Open House Ad is critical and we resisit illuminating them. We don’t want them to think we’re cutting corners on their marketing so we pay it, sort of like hush money. With each successive year of Internet technology, print ads have  gotten more and more irrelevant. In spite of missing the Chronicle’s ad on Sunday I had at least 100 people at my open house. They came from the directional signs, Craigslist and MLSlistings open house guide. For the last 3 or 4 years I’ve asked people at my open houses how they found the place…90-95% say from one of these 3 options. It’s rare to hear anybody mention a print ad. Yet I see 10 and 12 line ads in the Chronicle every weekend complete with photos of the houses…I’ll bet they cost $500.00 or more. There’s no way they bring one single person more than a 2 line ad will…if they bring anybody at all. Obviously, this is a very technologically sophisticated area where potential buyers see new listings instantly via multiple on-line resources, print Open House ads are an anachronism.

Last year I had a seller who called me at 8:15 one Sunday morning when he noticed the Chronicle didn’t run our ad.(Sound familiar?) He was really panicked that nobody would come to the open house. We ended up with more people that week than we did the week before with the ad! Once upon a time Sunday open house ads actually may have introduced a potential buyer to a listing…can you imagine that being said now?

You know what? I drove by it 4 times this weekend, kept meaning to get out and run over and check out the plaque at the base of this sculpture to be able to give you it’s proper name…but I choked in the clutch! It’s a kid (a boy I think, Bill) sitting on the globe reading. It’s appropriately sitting just outside the Foster City Public Library on Shell Blvd. Just like last week, Bill Hastings got there first but is still ineligible…so the $30.00 gift certificate to Lotus Garden Chinese Food goes to Dana Ferri who gave us the best correct answer. Thanks also to Susan for playing and getting it right too! See you again this Friday…by then I may have actually gotten out of the car and discovered the name of this kid too!

It seems like everywhere I turn any more in Foster City I keep running into the local public access television station, FCTV. I see it in the Foster City Islander and I see it on-line and I saw their cameras out at the Arts & Wine Festival so I thought I’d comment on it. Turns out Foster City Television has been around since 1981 when it covered live council and planning commission meetings. In the 90’s it had become your typical local public access channel with pre recorded programs, bulletin boards and plenty of council meetings. In 2000 FCTV produced it’s first original production, about the FC fire department, and was met with many compliments.

FCTV also hit the web in 2000 and we now have the ability to see council meetings and several other locally produced programs via streaming video on-line. Other than San Bruno (which runs it’s own cable system) there’s no other city in San Mateo County that has a full production staff for it’s local government access channel other than FCTV. Foster City has been a leader in the county for developing programing directly relevant to those in the community. Every week FCTV produces a local newsbrief that sort of wraps up events here and can be seen both on-line or on channel 27 if your a Comcast subscriber. I’m sort of hooked on watching these newsbriefs because the host, Leah Edwards, changes her hair style for every broadcast…and I’m always anxious to see what she looks like next! They also have some pretty interesting programing on other local issues called City Snapshots plus a little talk show format about local individuals called FC Cafe. If you would like to check it out, here’s a link:

www.fostercitytelevision.com

No, it’s not some new and creative picnic table at Sea Cloud Park. What is it actually? That’s for you to determine. Definitely extra credit if you can call it by it’s given name, but I’m OK with just what it is and where it is. This week’s winner receives a $30.00 gift certificate to Lotus Garden Chinese Food at Charter Square. All the rules of the road are located on the left margin and on the bar above. I won’t publish the correct answers until Monday but I will publish all snide remarks, lame attempts at humor (as well as actual humor!) and all incorrect answers ASAP. Just place your answer below with the comments. Have fun!