The Wilkas Group » Cyberhomes

Looking For a Burlingame Bargin? This one might be one!

lenorewilkas — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 10:31:40 +0000

If you’ve dreamed of living in the Burlingame hills this weekend might be your chance. A seller there, who has had his home on the market on and off since June of 2006 where it was originally listed at $2,498,000 is going to auction his home off to the highest bidder on Sunday evening, November 16th. The minimum bid must be $1,595,000. There are no catches here but you must sign in during one of two viewings on Saturday afternoon and Sunday afternoon.

If you are pre-approved to purchase a home in this price range, this 4 bedroom, 3 1/2 bath 20 year old home might be the greatest bargain in Burlingame right now. The home is 2555 square feet and sits on a 11,495 foot lot on Summit Drive. Cyberhomes says the house has an estimated worth $1,730,938, a decrease of $17,978 just this past month!

Is this enticing to you? It’s an interesting approach to selling a property and the owner is willing to carry the paper on the house. Not a bad deal if you are well qualified. Want more info? Call 800-421-2680 x111. Remember, you must have gone to see it in person either on Saturday or Sunday afternoon and then you can bid. This auction is a for sale by owner, but it’s being done a little differently.

Should you win this auction, be sure to receive full disclosures from the seller the not only covers the ususal requirements for the State of California but also for the City of Burlingame. Don’t expect the seller to assist you with this. Don’t expect the title company to do it either. It will be your responsibility to make sure you have all necessary documents to protect yourself.

How Do You Determine What Your House Is Worth?

lenorewilkas — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 07:01:42 +0000

Okay, it’s been all over the press these past weeks. San Mateo County has finally joined in the price decline. Hum. Maybe yes, and maybe no. There is still a shortage of housing in San Mateo County, especially in the mid-county area where we work, Millbrae, Burlingame, Hillsborough, San Mateo, Foster City, Belmont and San Carlos. Everything is just about filled in so if you want to live here you pay the piper.

How do you determine what your house is worth on the open market today? You can go to Zillow or Cyberhomes but they only estimate its worth from old county records and if your home hasn’t sold recently, it truly is only a guess. Since we don’t have many cookie cutter homes around here, what one house has done inside is very often dramatically different than its neighbor so those estimates are often worthless, which is why I always roll my eyes when clients mention them.

The simple fact is you house is worth what the market says it is. You might want it to fetch what your neighbor’s home did even last summer, but alas, the market and the buyer’s offer determines its net worth. Many years ago, I had a property that I was going to list and my agent, as so many are wont to do, asked me what I wanted for it. She was so surprised when I told her what ever the market will bear.

If you want top dollar for house today you must present it in pristine condition. Buyers are in no mood to go out and have to upgrade a home when there are others around that give them what they want. Now, here in San Mateo County, we don’t exactly have a huge supply of homes for sale. Part of this is because we’re in fourth quarter and there is always a decline in listings now, but the other part is a perceived housing crisis. Well folks, guess what. Between Millbrae and San Carlos there are a total of 400 single family homes for sale as of this posting. Millbrae has 43, Burlingame has 52, Hillborough has 40, San Mateo (the largest city in our area) has 146, Foster City has 12, Belmont has 47 and San Carlos has 60.

If you want to buy a home on the Peninsula now is the time to do it. The homes for sale today are there because the seller wants to sell and if you make a reasonable offer you might buy a new home. Reasonable is the key word here. People who think they can bottom fish are mistaken. The prices on the Peninsula are finally correcting but not the way everyone hoped they would. Why would they when we don’t have new housing stock? Why would they when we are between the BioTech world capital of South San Francisco and Silicon Valley? If you
want to live here, be prepared to pay the piper but make a reasonable, well constructed offer and you might be playing a joyful tune.

There’s Competition with Zestimates. Do Check it Out.

lenorewilkas — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 03:57:58 +0000

I’m asked quiet often about Zillow and their property valuations. Most of the time I laugh when I’m asked
this question because the data is generally wrong. It’s either too high, or too low, but very rarely correct. Now it’s really not Zillow’s fault since they comb public records for their data and unless a property has changed hands recently they are only “zestimating” what they feel the market value should be. Their engineers have written code to do this. Well, guess what! Zillow has competition and it’s pretty good. Take a look at the website Cyberhomes and see for yourself.

To be fair, Cyberhomes gets their data from their own records as they’re owned by the huge title company Fidelity National Title Insurance Company. Fidelity is almost the largest, if not the largest, title company in
the country so they have access to a whole boat load of data and they’ve put out a very nice product to play around with.

I did have a laugh though, when I looked at the estimated value of our next door neighbor’s home. It is
estimated to be valued at about $150,000 more than market value. That’s why when you look at this kind of website, do so with a grain of salt. A Realtor is in the market daily and knows what house values generally
are in your own area so do rely on their expertise. You pay the big bucks for their intelligence and instinct so don’t underestimate what a good Realtor brings to the table when you talk with them, or with me.

Check out Cyberhomes and see for yourself. It’s a fun tool and isn’t cluttered up with all of the other stuff Zillow has.