Most people who are thinking of selling their home realize that "staging" is important. What many don't realize is vital this concept is to the front yard especially. When buyers see the exterior of your home, they decide whether or not to go inside. Or as the saying goes, "you only get one chanc
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03/01/2008
This week I wrote more offers for short sale buyers in San Jose. My clients, who must be the nicest people on the planet, commented that they felt badly that I had to write so many offers to try to get them a house.Right then it struck me how very similar this experience is (in some ways) to when
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02/24/2008
Los Gatos is a charming town nestled into the base of foothills of the Coastal Range. It's an upscale community in Silicon Valley, with good schools, low crime, and well maintained homes overall. In general, the market is "fair" in town. But real estate is always local, and things aren't always a
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02/19/2008
Saturday was my 15th anniversary of selling real estate, and what a memorable day it was! My new buyer clients and I visited six houses in three adjoining districts in San Jose: south San Jose, Santa Teresa and Blossom Valley. They are looking to buy a single family home for close to a half mill
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02/11/2008
It is a buyers' market in Los Gatos, and a strong buyers' market in most of San Jose, California. There is an 80-90% chance that any given home that is listed will NOT sell this month. Even so, sometimes, you want or need to sell despite the market. If that's the case, what are some basics to pa
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02/09/2008
Los Gatos is an upscale town nestled into the foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains. The perception sometimes exists that folks who live in Los Gatos are all wealthy, live in huge homes on enormous lots (and many envision oversized pools, vineyards, and views). While that is accurate for a portio
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01/16/2008
The numbers have been crunched for December and for all of 2007 and it's not a lot different than what we expected.Overall, sales are WAY down. And overall, prices are UP. How does that work? In a nutshell, only the best homes are selling - homes that are in ideal locations (no busy roads, no hig
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01/09/2008
It's January, it's pouring rain and the wind is howling here in Silicon Valley as a giant Alaskan storm is dumping water by the bucket. This is the largest storm since 1995. We are thankful for the water since precipitation has been low and there's talk of a drought and rationing by next summer.
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01/04/2008
Silicon Valley has a bifurcated market, and has for many months now. Some areas are hot sellers markets. In other areas, you can't seem to give away homes. What about Los Gatos?The market is cooler than is seasonally normal. Last week I did some serious numbers-crunching at my Live in Los Gatos
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12/15/2007
The Los Gatos market for condominiums, townhomes, and similar clusters of homes is experiencing a seasonal slowdown - and then some. Recently I put a detailed post about this subset of the housing market on my Live in Los Gatos blog. If you'd like to see the hard numbers and get some historical p
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12/15/2007
