The town of Hillsborough, formed in 1910, and named by William Davis Merry Howard because he originally came from Hillsboro New Hampshire. The town sits on land that was part of Rancho San Mateo, Howard’s vast property purchased from the Mexican Governor, Pio Pico in 1846.

We saw about 10% of the listings sell and it takes a long while for the listing to sell. The listings are seeing price reductions in most, but not all cases. The difference between the Median list price and the Median sold price is 23% so someone hasn’t figured it out yet and that’s the seller. Be patient and you’ll get your deal but be sure your house has been sold before even making an offer in today’s market.

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.

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.

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!