980 Cera Drive, San Jose, 95129
March 16, 2012 by admin · Leave a Comment
Sold in 9 Days. Listed for $788,800 and Sold for $825,000
This Beautiful 1,341 square foot home sits on a 6,000 square foot lot in West San Jose and was built in 1964.
It has beautiful gourmet kitchen with 3 bedrooms and 2 baths.
It was previously listed at $828,000 and expired unsold.
It was then relisted at $788,800 and sold for 4.5% over the asking price.
 Great Moreland Schools. Walking distance to Easterbrook Discovery School. Complete high end remodel in 2008. New Kitchen, Master Bath, Guest Bath, Living Room, Family Room and Significant Bedroom Upgrades$190,000 in upgrades and improvements stun the eyes.
**No Imagination Needed – Just Bring Your Furniture and Move in!
Property sold in only 9 days at 4.5% over the asking price. |
EXPIRED: How to Sell a House that Didn’t Sell
February 8, 2012 by admin · Leave a Comment
“…before you put your home back on the market, take a step back and review your situation…“
4 Important Points that Will Get Your house Sold!
If your home has just come off the market and hasn’t sold, don’t be discouraged. The reason it didn’t sell may have nothing to do with your home or the market. In reality, your home may have been one of the more desirable properties for sale. If your listing has expired and you still want results, before you put your home back on the market, take a step back and review your situation.
Q. Where should you begin?
A. Start by making a commitment to do what it takes to market your house to get it sold. With the right system, the home sale you want is still well within reach.
Q. Why didn’t your home sell?
A. Review your previous selling plan and you’ll discover that an expired listing usually reflects a problem in one or more of these four major areas:
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Teamwork,
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Pricing,
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Condition of Your Home, and
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Marketing.
1. Teamwork
Your home is a major financial investment, and your relationship with your Realtor®should be a full partnership where your needs and wishes are heard, and you receive detailed and dependable feedback on the progress of your sale. Your agent has a responsibility to source this feedback from the agents who have shown your home, and to communicate this to you so together you can make the right decisions about what to do next. How well did this occur the last time you had your home up for sale?
2. Pricing
Did price work for or against you? The “right” price depends on market conditions, competition and the condition of your home. Pricing it too high is as dangerous as pricing it too low. If your home doesn’t compare favorably with others in the price range you’ve set, you won’t be taken seriously by prospects or agents.
You’ll get the facts when you see the statistics!
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To help you establish a realistic selling price for your home, ask your agent to provide you with an up-to-date competitive market analysis to give you:
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a review of comparable homes recently sold or currently for sale,
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an idea of how long other homes have been listed, in order to calculate an average time in which a home can sell in today’s market,
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a review of homes whose listings have expired, to understand what issues were at play.
Note: There is no mention of how much you paid for your home or its improvements. Like any other investment, the market value is determined by what a willing buyer will pay and a willing seller will accept.
3. Condition of Your Home
Show Case Quality!
Is your house someone else’s idea of a dream home? When buyers enter are they inspired? Do they think, “I love this house!” Remember, the decision to buy a home is based on emotion, not logic.
A house in move-in condition invites a sale. You need to consider:
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fixing all the little squeaks and cracks
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keeping it clean for all showings
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making it uncluttered
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brightening it up
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what your home shows like from the street concentrating on outside curb appeal.
Plus – Consider taking care of major items, such having your home painted. Offering an allowance to your prospective buyers, so they can have painting completed is not the same as having done it for them. Now, as they’re trying to imagine what that new paint job will look like, they may also be discounting the price even further because of the less-than-perfect look of those walls.
Remember….
A house that presents well, sells for the best price because it outshines the competition. Ask your agent if they can arrange a no-obligation inspection of your home to help you assess the above.
4. Marketing
….Marketing Your Home To Sell! Some Questions You Should Be Asking!
One of the first steps in your marketing plan involves finding an agent who will best represent you. When interviewing agents, test and compare their knowledge and ask each to demonstrate how they will market your home to buyers. Also compare how much money each spends on advertising the homes s/he lists, in what media (newspaper, magazine, etc.) and the effectiveness of one medium over the other. Remember, it’s not just how much they spend, but how they spend it.
Say goodbye to any real estate agents using old, traditional methods to sell your home because they don’t work in today’s market!
To be competitive in today’s marketplace, agents who use new and innovative, non-traditional marketing approaches are the ones who are getting more homes sold fast and for top dollar.
Buyers are Out There…And They Will Come!
Before You Put Your Home Back on the Market remember:
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Effective communication is vital between you and your agent.
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Price your home according to market conditions, competition and the condition of your house.
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Be sure your house is in showcase, buyer ready-condition.
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Have an innovative marketing plan firmly set in place. Not intended to solicit property currently listed for sale.
Great! I Can’t Lower My Price Any Further – What’s Next?
December 21, 2011 by admin · Leave a Comment
by Alan Kauth
I really believe that in starting any project that you begin with the end in mind. When I’m working with a client, it’s important to go into any listing of a home with an idea of the ‘bottom line’ for the owner. But, to always have “success” the Plan B is also just as important as the Plan A. Often I will go to a listing appointment and while the ‘bottom line’ is clear for a seller, they may not have a Plan B to fall back on.
In today’s real estate market, perception of value may vary dramatically. For example, the home seller that at the hey day had a value of $1,200,000 at one time, may have a hard time believing they are looking at a market value of $975,000. And the buyer, who may still believe there is room to fall in this market, may see the value at $850,000.
As we know, the seller’s “needs”, the seller’s desires, doesn’t have ANYTHING to do in determining a property’s value in the eyes of the buyer, the lender or the appraiser. So what happens when you can’t achieve your bottom line?
Your listing agent should have this discussion with you on the very first appointment – even if your bottom line number seems achievable. What is your Plan B?
Plan B’s rarely are fun and they generally involve some tough decisions that you hope to avoid. But avoiding the questions and the possibilities, won’t help avoid having to deal with the reality eventually.
Possible Plan B’s:
- Don’t sell. If you don’t have to sell and you are determined to get a particular price, stay. Or move on and rent the property if you’re willing to deal with landlord headaches.
- Bring in cash to close. If you know that you will not be able to cover all the costs in a particular price range, do you have the money to bring in if this is the only option and you MUST sell?
- If you don’t have the cash to bring, and you owe more than it’s worth, can you do a short sale?
- Can you lease out the property until the market appreciates enough for you to get your price?
- If the loan is part of the need to sell (creating affordability problems), can you qualify for a loan modification? Will that allow you to stay?
These are some thoughts to get you started in the Plan B conversation. Again, I recommend that these tough questions are asked prior to ever listing your home. If you get what you need – super! If not, everyone knows the plan and is on the same page as to “what’s next”.
Only my best,
Alan Kauth
A Common Seller Mistake – “They Can Always Make An Offer”
December 20, 2011 by admin · Leave a Comment
‘They Can Always Make An Offer’
by Alan Kauth
One of the great things about a well marketed property is that the real estate market sets the price, the price doesn’t set the real estate market. It’s an automatic process.
I really wish I had a dime for every time I’ve heard these words when sellers want to price their home too high and deep down they they even know it. Here is the advice they give about potential buyers:
“They can always make an offer”.
It’s a justification for not pricing a home at or under the likely market value and they know it. The property is very likely to be overpriced. Why? Let’s examine this just a bit.
First a disclaimer of sorts. This may piss you off because sometimes the truth stings. I know. This conversation generally pisses people off but I’m committed to telling people the truth even if they really don’t want to hear it. They’re a whole lot more understanding and trusting in the long run. I frequently hear “I should have listened to you in the first place Alan. You were right all along”. (I USUALLY am, but not every time….)
Most people are polite with me but I know they aren’t loving these tough conversations about price. Because of my nature, sellers seem to always keep it extremely polite, but sometimes they clearly don’t like the frank nature of our conversation about the dangers of overpricing a home. But, if you hire a good Realtor like myself, you’ll have someone that’s willing to have the Tough Talks. It’s not a great service otherwise. I treat others the way I want to be treated and one of the first rules my Mom ever told me was “to always tell the truth – even when it’s uncomfortable”.
The reality is that these words about “making an offer” are nothing more than a way to justify pricing on an overpriced listing. The truth (especially in today’s climate): no one writes offers on overpriced listings. They just don’t. Maybe they want to be polite and not offend the owner. Clearly it’s huge miscommunication.
But why? Several reasons, but for the purposes of this conversation, I want to ask you to be the buyer. As a seller this may be tough but really try to see if from their side. Be the buyer for the following scenarios and don’t sneak in how your situation is the exception to the rules. Trust me, it’s not. Let’s look at the scenarios:
- I’ve seen 10 homes today. Some are in rough shape. Bank owned. Short sales. There were a couple of traditional sales I liked but they seemed high. If they were realistic, maybe. But, I’m not in a hurry. I’ll just watch them to see what happens. In the meantime, something else may come up that’s more in line with where the market should be.
- I’m torn between a couple of homes I looked at today. There was one that priced a bit higher than the others. It definitely was the nicest but I’d rather buy one that is cheaper and put in the finishes that I want.
- My agent told me that there is a house that meets my criteria perfectly but it’s priced just over my budget. She thinks we should take a look – maybe they’ll come down in price. I just don’t want to stretch. There’s plenty to see and I don’t want to stretch my budget, especially in this market.
- I love this house but it seems priced too high. They must not be that motivated to sell.
- I love this house but there are others in this area that are less money. Let’s go look at those.
- This home has something that is tough to find (big yard, view) so I would prefer this one. I just don’t want to pay (x) more for it. I think that if I can wait, there may be a bank owned home that will come on the market that might have a (big yard, view). Like I said, I’m not in a hurry.
I have heard some version of every single one of these remarks from recent buyers. Think about the nature of today’s buyers. They aren’t in a hurry. Many of them have been waiting on the sidelines for months, even years, for the market to come down. There is no hurry.
Relocation buyers are often opting to rent for a while. Years ago they needed to hurry and buy before they were priced out. Today, that sense of urgency does not exist. First time buyers are as careful and as selective as they come, getting advice from every source you can imagine – parents, friends, coworkers, media sources, all telling them to search for a ‘good deal’. Buyers that have been on the fence renting, watch for the ‘deal’. That opportunity is what gets them off the fence; otherwise they will continue to rent.
If you take that buyer perspective back to your own home, you will realize that, “they can always make an offer” will not bring you an offer.
BE CLEAR about why you are selling. If you don’t have to sell and you have a long term plan to own this property – great. I really don’t like to get involved with “testing the market” and I always look at how I can possibly help you keep your current property while buying the new one you want. Real estate is still one of the best investments that is surpassed by only a direct investment in yourself and your earning power or your own company.
If you do need to sell – let’s create a winning strategy that is in-line with today’s buyer. Price it to be the best home at the best price so I can do my part in helping position the property and marketing it to the maximum number of people so that we’ll receive the maximum payoff possible to you. Good Luck.
Home Selling Tips
December 2, 2011 by admin · Leave a Comment
Here are some great Home Selling Tips that will be of value to anyone selling a house. Of course, this advice is something we provide automatically to our clients but in a specifically customized manner for their home alone. Enjoy this video, it’s worth a watch.
Since I’m always on the lookout for ways to increase my value and efficiency, if you come across any videos along the way that you thing would be worthwhile for me to highlight to others as well, contact me akauth@interorealestate.com to let me know.
14840 MONTALVO ROAD, Saratoga 95070
October 23, 2011 by admin · Leave a Comment
Sold in under 5 Months. Listed for $2,750,000 and sold for $2,540,000
This Beautiful 4,000 square foot home sits on a 21,000 square foot lot in the Montalvo area and was built in 1956.
It has 4 bedrooms and 4 baths.
  Phenomenal Remodeled Home w/ Gorgeous Grounds in Amazing Villa Montalvo Area! Stunning Gourmet Kitchen that is open to the family room. Fantastic floor plan w/ access to back patios creates a perfect setting for entertaining. Fantastic features throughout. Excellent natural & artificial lighting. Two master suites. Amazing back yard w/ inviting black bottom pool & flagstone patio. Immaculate!!.
Schools:
The Property is was offered at $2,750,000 asking and sold in 5 months for $2,540,000 |
1478 SHARON MANOR CT, San Jose 95129
June 27, 2010 by admin · Leave a Comment
Sold in 23 Days For 99.7% of List Price for $1,146,000
Previously on the market for 2 months and withdrawn unsold!
This Beautiful 3,101 square foot home sits on a 4,791 square foot lot and was built in 1992.
It has 4 bedrooms and 3 1/2 baths.
Great Family Home with award Winning Cupertino Schools. Only 17 years old and is very bright and Airy. There is a ground floor suite. Very desirable and quiet Cul De Sac location. Large bedrooms with Lots on Sunlight. Covenient Laundry room upstairs. Huge Master Suite with Jacuzzi tub. Prime Location. Property was sold for 99.7% of the $1,149,888 asking price in only 23 days! |
Market Metrics Ending February 2010
March 27, 2010 by admin · Leave a Comment
Market Metrics for Los Gatos, Los Gatos Mountains, Campbell, Monte Sereno, Saratoga , Cupertino, Sunnyvale, Santa Clara, Mountain View, Los Altos, Los Altos Hills, Palo Alto
2 Year Supply and Demand Monthly Ending Feb 2010
2 Year Supply And Demand Ending February 2010
3 Year Supply and Demand Quarter Ending Q4 09
Supply and Demand
2 Year Median for Sale vs Median Sold Ending February 2010
2 Year Median for Sale vs Median Sold
3 Year Median for Sale vs Median Sold Quarter Ending Q4 09
Pricing Equilibrium
2 Year Number of For Sale Properties Ending February 2010
Number of Units For Sale 2 Yr Ending February 2010
3 Year Number of For Sale Properties Quarter Ending Q4 09
Units For Sale
2 Year Number of Properties Sold Ending February 2010
Units Sold Ending February 2010
Units Sold Ending February 2010
3 Year Number of Properties Sold Ending Q4 2009
Units Sold Ending Q4 2009
1264 OAK KNOLL DR, San Jose 95129
September 30, 2009 by admin · Leave a Comment
Sold in 7 Days For 97% of List Price for $1,160,000
Previously on the market for 8+ months and expired twice!
This Beautiful 2,156 square foot home sits on a 7,360 square foot lot and was built in 1965.
It has 6 bedrooms and 2 1/2 baths.
Nice, 6 Bedroom, 2 story home in great location makes for a great property! Walk to nearby Murdock park. Attend great schools: Lynbrook High, Joaquin Miller, Nelson Dilworth Elementary
Property was sold for 97% of the $1,199,000 asking price in only 11 days! |