Like our other communities last year didn’t see a lot of sales, even after the banks opened up their lending and gave out loans rather than moths, but prices have been pretty good.  There haven’t been a lot of short sales or REO’s, yet.  We know there will be some, but not sure how many.  Foster City is one of the few places one can buy entry level, and move up within the community.  If you are thinking about buying a short sale or REO in order to get to Foster City from somewhere else, you need experienced agents working these tricky deals.  The Wilkas Group is experienced and trained in the nuances of short sales and bank owned sales.  Whether you are buying or selling we know how to help you achieve your real estate needs.

In 1958, developer T. Jack Foster purchased the land with the idea of creating a planned community, a popular idea at the time.  But there was one major problem; the silty clay mud sat at sea level which wasn’t good.  The Army Corps of Engineers estimated it would take 45 million cubic yards of fill to raise the land to bring it up to eight to twelve feet needed to build on.  But a local engineering firm came up with a novel solution – raise the land four or five feet and create a central drainage basin to impound the water before it was pumped back into the bay. The concept worked and Foster City now has, as its centerpiece, a 218 acre lagoon that winds its way through the city.  The drainage basin still works perfectly even with severe storms battering the area some winters.

Foster City, named for T. Jack Foster, was incorporated in 1971 and is now is home to about 30,000 residents.  It’s the home of several major bio-tech corporations and has high-tech companies as well.  It was the first planned community in the western United States.  There are single family houses, townhouses, condominiums, and apartments running in various areas of the city and many of them sit along side the water with beautiful views.

The city is half way between San Francisco and San Jose making it a great place to live,  if one commutes.  The San Mateo Bridge is at the eastern part of the city and when the bridge first opened the 12-miles span was the longest bridge in the world.  Foster City is is only 20 minutes away from Half Moon Bay making its location central to everything on the Peninsula.

The elementary schools belong to the San Mateo-Foster City Elementary District and with three elementary and one middle school they all test high.  There is no high school in the city so students have their choice of two of the San Mateo Union High School schools nearby in San Mateo.

There are parks everywhere in Foster City, and several of them have beaches allowing for water play.  Boating on the lagoons is only done with electric power, sail boats or paddle boats.  The Bay Trail wanders along the shoreline of the bay and is well used all year long.

Foster City is a great place for families with much to do outdoors.  There is a wonderful Library and Recreation Department in the center of the city.  A new teen building offers teens activities just for them including a skateboard park.  Many of the tennis courts around town have lights enabling night play.

Check Out Some Homes Currently For Sale In This Area

[listingpress citystate='Foster City,CA|' zipstate='' proptype='Single Family|' beds='0' baths='0' minprice='0' maxprice='0' features='' /]

Just about every homeowner wants to improve their home so that it shows its best to the world.  Well, maybe not everyone, but most normal people do.  I was in an unnamed North County city while out on Broker’s tour and I happened to drive down a street that looked like no one took any pride in ownership of their homes.  And, I mean NO ONE!  It looked like a slum but a slum with homes worth $600,000 to $700,000 if these houses were in good shape.  It got me to thinking about what must go into someones mind when they just stop taking care of their property.  The front landscaping turns to weeds, trees and shrubs die and the place looks, well it looks like a slum. I just don’t get why people have no pride of ownership when a house is the single most expensive investment anyone is likely to make in their lifetime.

So what are the five easiest ROI in landscaping your home?

1.  Lawn.

This is the first, and easiest, ROI in landscaping your house.  If it’s dead, pull it out, and either seed or roll out a carpet of sod (instant gratification, believe me).  The investment on this can be as little as a weekend of labor in rototilling the dead lawn, adding top soil, leveling it smooth and spreading seed.  Then water daily and watch it sprout.  Or, if you want to spend a little more money, rototilling, adding top soil, leveling it smooth and rolling out the sod.  Late Fall is a great time to do this because Mother Nature will do the watering for you.

2.  Trees and Shrubs.

Having too many on a lot is as bad as not having any at all.  We all like to see a couple of trees, especially the shade variety if one has a western exposure.  If you have a lot with too many trees planted too close together, get one or more of them out.  That is easier said than done, believe me, since I have had a yard like that in my lifetime.  I often wonder what the people were thinking planting 3 trees within four feet of each other.  They weren’t thinking, and probably knew they weren’t going to be living there when the trees matured and were entangled into each other!  Here’s how to remove the dead trees and shrubs on your own and save money.  If it’s a big tree, many cities in our County have heritage tree ordinances and you must get permission to remove trees, even dead ones.  They often require that you plant a new tree in place of the old one, but you may chose where to plant it on your lot.  Double check with City Hall before removing those trees, just to be safe.

3.  Flowers.

We all like to see color in a garden and flowers marching along side a entry walkway are welcoming.  Take an afternoon and plant some.  Don’t plant them too close to each other, and allow for space to grow.  Plant bulbs in the winter so you have spring flowers.  Plant fall flowers for color into winter. We are very lucky to have a climate that gives us 12 months of flowers and plants, so talk to the nursery about what’s flowering each season and plant a little of each for year round color.

4.  Bark.

When you see a home that has been staged go on the market, inevitability the yard has fresh bark (or mulch) spread in the garden.  This inhibits weeds, covers blank spots by filling in the earth between plants, and just finishes off the look.  it’s a true do-it-yourself project and takes only a little bit of time to spread the mulch around your garden.  Voliá!

5.  Fencing.

If your fence is falling down by all means fix it.  If you are going to ask a lot of money for your home, the least you can do is fix the fence.  If you have neighbors surrounding your property you can ask them to split the cost as it’s a benefit to them as much as one to you. If they don’t want to do that, bite the bullet and fix it yourself.  You’ll be happy that you did, and  it will enhance your property values.

That’s it.  The top five things you can do to enhance your home and see an ROI on the investment of money and time.  Take a look at this house now.  It has curb appeal and makes someone want to go inside to see the rest of the house.  No one wants to see a dump, unless it is a fire sale, and even then many won’t go inside to look because they make an assumption that the inside looks as bad as the outside.  Keep that in mind when you’re doing your yard work.  There really is a pay back when you have a nice looking yard.

Getting back to my drive down the North County street.  There was one house there that stood out from the rest so I lied about there not being any nice homes there.  It was painted.  It was inviting.  It had neat landscaping.  And, it was For Sale.  But, I did not stop to look at it because of the neighboring houses.  I could not show a client the best house a the block of slum houses.  I can’t do it.  And now you know why.

Check Out Some Homes Currently For Sale In This Area

[listingpress citystate='Foster City,CA|' zipstate='' proptype='Single Family|' beds='0' baths='0' minprice='0' maxprice='0' features='' /]

The answer is maybe the deal will be a good buy and then again, maybe not.  Here’s the reason why I say this.  If a property is being sold as a Short Sale it means that the loan on the property is for more money than the property can be sold for.  There is a shortage of funds due the lender.  Sometimes a lender will forgive this amount and sometimes it will not.  If the amount is forgiven it may not be a win for the seller because they may have to show this amount “forgiven” as income in their taxes the following year.  It must be shown as income because it was money that was owed by the seller through a note to buy the property, but not paid back to the lender and the IRS looks at this as money in your pocket even though you never see the money.  Update:  The IRS has put a hiatus on the tax due for a short sale in order to assist sellers.  This may not last forever but it is helping them today.

A Short Sale may save the home owner from going into foreclosure but there are potentially major tax consequences in doing one.  If you are a buyer looking for a deal is this the way to find one?  Maybe if the price being asked for the property is  where it should be in the market.  If the seller is trying to break even, pay off his loan, pay the commissions to the Realtors involved in the transaction, and then move on the price might be “at market”.  But if the market today says the property is over priced, it sits and sits and sits.  Sometimes we see these properties have been listed for hundreds of days and with no appreciable price reduction.  If the seller is truly anxious to sell, they aren’t reducing the price right way unless they are working with an agent who is specifically trained in foreclosure and short sale, like Alex, a CDPE.  If you need to sell you need to price aggressively and be willing to take the hit in order to get out from under.

Selling a home prior to it going into foreclosure when it is worth more than the loans on it involves a lot of steps and isn’t easy to do.  One has to swallow their pride and talk to the lender about their situation, follow every step the lender requires and price the home aggressively in order to sell it.  Many people do the first part but forget to do the latter part, the price aggressively part. You need an attorney and accountant as a part of your team.  You must follow every step you are told to or you’ll find a foreclosure on your credit record and that’s a 5 year hit.  A short sale is only a maximum of a 2 year hit and sometimes even less than that.  Think about it, which would you rather have on your credit report?  Your FICO score drops about 50 points with a Short Sale and 150+ with a foreclosure.

Buying a property during a Short Sale could also mean that you also buy past-due taxes owed by the seller and any other liens that might be placed on the property such as homeowner association fees that are past due.  In effect, you get it all — the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Around San Mateo County, for some reason we haven’t been seeing a lot of aggressively priced listings so these short sales sit and sit. We know there are a great number of homes close to default and these homes should be put on the market but when is the $64,000 question.  People are afraid to face the inevitable and unfortunately it’s often human nature not to do what is necessary before it becomes a panic.  A CDPE Realtor, like Alex Wilkas, can help facilitate the many steps necessary to price a home and get it sold.

Truthfully there is about a year’s gap between a buyer and a seller’s understanding on what’s happening in the real estate today.  Buyers are always ahead of the curve because they are out there looking at property a lot and they begin to see the pricing trends way before sellers do.  Sellers only see what their neighbor sold their home for and they want to sell for that same amount, or more and what the news is telling them.  They’re looking in the past not in the future, or even at today.  That past could be six months ago or longer.  They don’t understand what is happening to the market today unless they are actively out there looking to buy, and when they do figure it out they may find their mortgage is for more money than they could sell their home for today.  They are then  “underwater” because they owe the bank more than what their home is currently worth.  Is this bad?  Yes if you can’t afford the payments and can’t refinance to bring them down to where you can afford them.  It’s not bad if you went into your home with a fixed rate loan and you don’t plan on moving any time soon.  You keep on making those payments and hopefully by the time you are ready to sell your equity has moved back into a positive position.

The biggest issue in looking at buying a short sale is understanding that you may not get the property you place an offer on and the reason is complex.  Generally most lenders are huge operations with thousands of loans in their portfolios.  If some of those properties are “underwater” the lender isn’t concerned about this as long as the payments are current.  They do become concerned when the homeowner stops making those payments.  After several months the lender issues a Notice of Default to the owner and tells them they have a certain period of time to pay up what is owed or the property will be foreclosed upon.  How long this takes depends on the lender.  It is during this period of Notice of Default that one begins to see a home listed as a Short Sale.

The banks generally have several departments that handle these properties and if after a length of time the home has not been sold, it is bundled up along with hundreds of other properties and placed on a Notice of Trustee Sale notice where these properties are auctioned off, and yes it happens on the steps of the San Mateo County Court House in Redwood City.

You might be in escrow to buy one of these properties, but only one half of the bank knows this and if the other half decides to sell the place off and the Notice of Trustee Sale takes place, you lose your prospective home.  You do not lose your deposits but you have, in effect, wasted a lot of time trying to buy something at what you hoped was under market.  If you are willing to wait it out, and if the house you hope to buy doesn’t have a lot of mortgages against it, you will get a great buy.  Patience is a virtue and this is one you want to make sure you have.

One of the first questions we hear when a property has been on the market for 30 days and has seen no offers is why isn’t my house selling.  Why?  Well, it might be a price issue, but then again, it might not. It might be a marketing issue.   The most difficult thing to do when listing a property is to price it right.  Especially in this kind of a market, a softening market.  Prices didn’t really drop in all of our areas. Sure, they did in some areas of the Peninsula, but not by much in Burlingame, Hillsborough, west San Mateo, Foster City, Redwood Shores and San Carlos.  These areas  aren’t dropping as much as buyer’s want them to although they have softened. If you, Mr. and Mrs. Seller, have priced your home well, done the necessary work to make it shine, repaired major flaws, painted, removed clutter, cleaned up the garage, cleaned the yard and landscaped neatly your home should sell. Not in a couple of days but within 45-90 days.  This is a normal market.

Let’s pretend you are trying to sell your house by yourself – a FISBO (for sale by owner). You don’t want to pay a commission to any Realtor, you only want to sell directly to the buyer. You know your house.  You love your house and everything that you have done to make it special. You think you have the nicest house on the block. You know what the one across the street sold for last year and you think your house is better and worth more and therefore, you price it above the one across the street. You do flyers on your own (Microsoft is so nice to provide those templates, aren’t they?).  You advertise in the paper.  You throw up pictures on Craig’s List and forsaleby owner.com and wait for the open house.  You’ve got it listed on Zillow’s Make Me Move at a price you want.  People do come through. They comment. They touch. They open up doors and drawers. They look at your belongings, and open the medicine cabinet to look in there, too.  My, what a nosy bunch and mostly neighbors, too!  Then they ring the doorbell at all hours to see it, because you have a “For Sale By Owner” sign in your lawn. They want to see it then and now, and you have dinner on the table or your kids are screaming, or the laundry is spread everywhere.  What do you do?  Turn them away or let them in?  They are an intrusion to your life but since you don’t want to talk to a Realtor,  you must make a split second decision on what to do.  You are so turned off by the thought of selling with an agent that you’ve gone so far as to write Principles only in everything you’ve advertised.  It’s all yours baby.

You really haven’t done any kind of inspections to assure a potential buyer that the house is in good shape. You figure that the buyer will do this once you have negotiated the price.  You don’t have written disclosures of any kind done. You answer all questions and figure that’s all that’s required.  This is your house, after all, and you need every penny you can get out of it in order to move. You know you’ll need to open up an escrow account once you agree on a price with some company but you don’t worry about that because you assume they’ll help you.  You’ve even gotten a contract from the Stationary store or have downloaded the one Microsoft has in their Templates area on their website.  You’re all set. Right?

Tell me, what pitfalls, if any, do you see with the above scenario?  Can you tell me the ones that open this seller up to a law suit? Can you tell my what misjudgments they have?  Can you tell me if you think this property will sell at the price they’re asking?  For more?  For less?  Are they looking through rose colored glasses?

Stay tuned for my answers tomorrow.

Would you like to learn more about it?  There’s a free seminar in Foster City Tuesday, September 15th.  It’s going to be at the Foster City Park & Rec Department’s Lagoon Room and you can come, hear how it works, find out if you even qualify, and find out what the local real estate market is doing right now.  It will start at 6:15PM and last no more than 2 hours.  You should register prior and you can do that by phone.  Give a call to 650-696-2800 to let us know you’ll be there.

You can hear lender Lilyette Uriate explain the credit, meet me and listen to the latest information about the local market and hear Carole Rodoni one of the most respected local real estate experts in San Francisco Bay Area talk about real estate, how to take advantage of what the government is offering first time buyers, or if you’re interested in investing in property, we can talk about that as well.  There will be time for questions and answers so you’ll have all of those pesky questions answered to your satifisfaction.

This is a free seminar with no obligation on your part.  There’s even going to be light refreshments to tide you over until you can grab dinner.   The seminar is at the Foster City Park & Rec Department at Shell Blvd. and East Hillsdale Blvd. at 6:15PM.  It will be in the Lagoon Room.  There’s tons of free parking,  Bring your friends along, too.  Please register to give us an idea of how much food to have. 650-696-2800.

See you there!

One of the best ways to see the picture of a local market is by dividing it into quartiles by price.  You can immediately get an idea of which price point is selling and which is not.  The houses taking the least amount of time, in fact almost a normal amount of time, to sell are the Third Quartile with the Median Price of $954,500.  This is the “move up” house.  These houses are between 3 and 5 bedrooms on 5000+ foot lots and allow the buyer to send their children to the top rated Foster City Elementary Schools.  The bottom quartile is the next most active followed by the top two tiers.  If you want to live on the water, and many people do in Foster City, you’ll be in the top two quartiles.

Another way to see how the market is doing is looking at pricing trends.  We are back to 2005 prices.  If you bought between 2005 and 2008 you’ve lost equity but don’t fret about that unless you have an Alt-A loan, or need to sell because what goes down will come back up but it will take a while.  So if you love your house, what does it matter if the equity is less today.  It’s what the equity is the day you need to sell it that will matter.

What matters is how the market is today and Foster City has moved upwards and is now a Warm Buyer’s Market and moving towards an equal market for buyers and sellers.  This is GREAT NEWS!  The Market Action Index places Foster City at 25. That line sitting at 30 is the divide between a Buyer’s Market and a Seller’s Market.  We haven’t seen this in well over a year.  What it means to the seller is the market is stabilizing.  What it means to the buyer is the bottom was a long time ago.  You missed it so stop asking when it will hit.  You can clearly see it in the chart above as the last time Foster City hit bottom was perhaps in February.

If you’re interested in buying in Foster City as a First Time Home Buyer come to a seminar I’ll be participating in on Tuesday, September 15th.  It will be held in the Lagoon Room of the Foster City Park & Rec Department on Shell Blvd. between 6:15PM and 8:15PM.  It’s FREE.  You do need to register and can do so here.  If the 15th isn’t a good day for you we’ll be offering this a couple of other dates.  Remember to say you came from the Wilkas Group.

For Sale

Is  this you?  Your house has been on the market for two and one half months.  You’ve been a good member of the Clean Counter Club but it’s getting harder and harder to do it everyday.  Days get interrupted.  Dinners are interrupted.  Saturday open houses.  Sunday open houses.  Keeping the house picked up is a chore.  Keeping the toys off the floor is almost impossible now.  Keep the kids clean?  It’s summer and oh, so impossible to do!   Is the laundry done?  Forget it.   The newscasters keep saying the real estate market has slowed to a trickle but appears to be rebounding.  But where, it doesn’t appear to be happening here in Burlingame.   You’re worried you home won’t sell.   And then….

Your Agent calls you one night and says,  “We have an offer coming in.”   He calls again in the morning and says,  “We are getting a second offer.”  You’re very excited.  Two offers!  Then he tells you that he wants the offers faxed into his office so he can select the best one of the two, and then he’ll come over and show it to you.  This is a RED FLAG Warning! Stop.  Do Not Pass Go. Do not let your agent do this.  This is why.

A Buyer’s Agent has a fiduciary duty to her client to present their offer to the seller in person. That way the Agent can tell you, the seller, about her clients, about what their offer is, and to be there to negotiate the best deal possible for you and her client.  A Listing Agent who does not want to have the other agent present their offer to you in person could be trying to hide something.  It might be financial or it might be insecurity in showing you how poor they are in negotiating.  It makes no difference.  It’s bad for you. And that agent might be in violation of the National Association of Realtors ethics rules.

In our area part of our offer consists of an Agency Agreement and the Contract.  Prior to presenting the contract we present the Agency Agreement that has been signed by our Buyers and me, their agent.  At the time I present an offer I sign this agreement, date it, put the time I am presenting this offer to you, the seller and  I then ask you to sign, date, and place the time you are hearing my presentation.  Our contract also has a place for you to sign a rejection of my offer, should you do so.

If the Listing Agent either refuses to let me present my offer directly to you, or is unable to do this because you are not in the immediate area, I try to present to him in person.  I sign the Agency, date it and time it and expect to receive it back with the Seller’s signature, date and time.  I need this back whether or not we prevail with the contract.  I can not tell you how many times I have had to call and call and call and beg to receive my Agency and Contract returned to me because they refused to let me present to their clients in person.  I am required to have these two documents for my files and to show my Buyer’s that I have, indeed, presented their offer.

So, Dear Seller, don’t let your Listing Agent suggest that you don’t need to have a face-to-face presentation and listen to  any of the offers that the Buyer’s Agents bring to you.  In fact, if the prospective buyers come along, don’t be afraid to meet them and listen to their story.  You might find that they are very much like you and just the people you would like to buy your home.  And even if they are not, you will know that you’ve done the right thing.

Remember selling your house is a financial decision and you need to treat it like one.  After all, we all want the same thing for you and that’s to see a Sold sign in front of your home.

This Saturday morning, between 10AM and 11:30AM, the Career Closet is offering a free Image and Impact workshop for any woman seeking ideas on how to Dress for Success.

If you have ever wondered why some people succeed faster than others, or need a boost to your self image, this workshop is for you.  You will find out what employers are looking for, and at, during hiring interviews.  You will find out what your best colors are and how to maximize your wardrobe without spending any money.

This workshop is designed to highlight the important role that image and appearance makes for your success in the workplace.  You’ll learn proven techniques in how to polish your image, and how that will get you into the door for hiring or promotion.  You will also gain tips on proper behavior amd communication.  These are tools we all can use in these precarious times.

If you have a closet full of clothes that you don’t wear and don’t know how to mix and match what you have, this workshop is for you.  You will come away with a complete guide to your success for 2009 and beyond.

This workshop will be held at the Career Closet in Foster City at 1163 Chess Drive, Suite A.  To register you must call the Career Closet at 650-572-1368. Did I mention, this is FREE?  Well, it is.  Call now.  It’s for anyone in San Mateo County so pass this on and come with friends.

We want to see that the title on that property is held free and clear by the seller.  We don’t want any surprises such as liens that can prevent the seller from actually selling this property.  We also want to be sure that the seller really owns the property free and clear, that there are no others listed on the deed that will need to give permission to sell.  I can’t tell you how often we find someone listed who is dead and then we need to go through all kinds of hoops to clear title.  This can delay a closing by days if you are lucky, or weeks if you’re not.  One of the most common liens is a Mechanic’s Lien.  My friends at North American Title are allowing me to republish this description of a Mechanic’s Lien for your education.

A mechanic’s lien is a security interest in the title to property for the benefit of those who have supplied labor or materials that improve the property and is called by various names, most often a construction lien. It is also called a material mans lien or supplier’s lien when referring to those supplying materials, a laborer’s lien when referring to those supplying labor, and a design professional lien when referring to architects or designers who contribute to a work of improvement. Mechanics liens on property in the United States date from the 1700s.

Mechanics Liens exist as a legislative public policy to protect contractors. More specifically, the state legislatures have determined that, due to the economics of the construction business, contractors and subcontractors need a greater remedy for non-payment for their work than merely the right to sue on their contracts.

Under the statutes, the lien is usually created by the performance of labor or the supplying of material that improves the property. Some common examples are:

• Laborers, carpenters, electricians, and plumbers working on the project site
  
• Lumber yards, plumbing supply houses and electrical suppliers
  
• Architects and civil engineers who drew up the construction plans and specifications
  
• Off-site fabricators of specialty items that are ultimately incorporated into the project

The statutes creating mechanic’s liens usually give them a higher priority with respect to other interests in the title than the law gives most real property security interests. Special provisions are made in some states for determining the priority between a mechanic’s lien and the lien of a mortgage that is financing the construction on the land. Some states, like California, provide priority for a construction loan mortgage recorded before the visible commencement of construction where the lender is obligated to disburse the funds.

Mechanic’s liens are enforced exclusively through judicial foreclosure sales. Once all requirements have been met the court can order the property sold and the proceeds of the sale applied to the liens in the order of their priority.

This is why we look at Preliminary Title Reports.  In fact we see several of them before close of escrow.  We look at the one the selling agent has ordered.  We look at the one the title company the buyer selects has ordered.  And, finally we look at one just prior to close of escrow.  We dont’ want to find anything slipping under the cracks and someone filing a lien just prior to close of escrow stopping the sale.

This is one of the biggest reasons you need to have an experienced Realtor on your side.  We know what to look for and how to make sure you find a clear title.  Questions?  You can reach me at 650-696-2820.

Thank you North American Title Company for a great explanation of the Mechanic’s Lien.