A couple of days ago I attended a regional meeting of local REALTOR Association leadership. We had officers and staff from around the greater San Francisco Bay Area all gathered in a room. Folks from San Francisco, Contra Costa, Alameda, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, and Monterey counties all got together to talk about […]
Commentary
Selling a Home in 2019 vs. 2020
One of the most popular pages on my website in 2018 was an article where I addressed the perennial question, “Is it better to sell my home this year, or next?” In that posting, I opined that the preponderance of evidence is that 2018 was shaping up to be a pretty good year for home […]
Why It’s Better to Sell Your Home Early in 2019
If you’re thinking of selling your home in 2019, it’s something you’ll want to do sooner rather than later. Our market is almost a year-round market; things slow down for the holidays but they pick right up again half way through January. The market, though, has softened considerably. My advice to sellers is to have […]
California 2019 Real Estate Forecast
It’s that time of year, and high-profile prognosticators are breaking out their crystal balls to come up with their California 2019 real estate forecast. For the past couple of years or so, I’ve given you a blow-by-blow video of Leslie Appleton-Young’s California market forecast (Leslie is the Chief Economist of the California Association of REALTORS, aka […]
The World’s Greatest Realtor 2018 Award Winner
Sebastian “Seb” Frey is the The World’s Greatest Realtor 2018 Award Winner! This prestigious award was granted to him by one of his clients upon the successful sale of their family home in San Jose, California. Closing gifts are common in the Santa Clara county real estate market, but it is unusual for a client to […]
How to Flip Your Own Home
Hey here’s an idea for you – flip your own home! These days, house flipping is like a national pastime. It’s happening from coast to coast, and, in fact, it’s probably happening in your neighborhood (or very close to it). The real estate website Trulia reported that in 2017, 6% of all homes that were […]
Time for a Lowball Offer?
It’s been quite sometime since I wrote anything about lowball offers – the last time was way back in 2006. In 2006, the market had noticeably cooled from the frenzy in 2005, and it was just a year before a historic real estate market meltdown began in 2007. Of course, hindsight is always 20/20 and […]
Housing-Related Measures on November 2018 Ballot
This year there are a number of very important measures that will appear on our November 2019 ballot. Today I want to talk about three that will affect California housing: Proposition 1, Proposition 5, and Proposition 10. Proposition 1 This initiative seeks to raise $4 billion to pay for affordable housing throughout the State of […]