This is the ForeclosureRadar chart for all of San Mateo County foreclosure filings for the past 12 months and you can see the Notice of Default (NOD) and Notice of Sale (NOS) are almost equal.  Unless your head has been in the sand, you’re likely aware that the major banks stopped issuing NOD’s several months ago because of Robo Signing issues.  These issues aren’t totally cleared up the the major banks are gearing up to send out the notices in 2011.  So hold on to your hat when the flurry of NODs hits the mail.  It will be a storm of activity.

Now let’s look at the same data for  the city of San Mateo. It looks a little different than the County’s data.  More activities here but there are NO deals. Those are gone.  You can buy a foreclosed property in San Mateo under market price but not dramatically so.  The banks want to see these properties listed near to market so they can recapture as much of their losses as possible.  One really can’t blame them as they’ve lost billions of dollars due to the stupid  lending programs they pushed, can one?

What this chart isn’t showing you is that there are currently 46 properties in foreclosure in San Mateo, 134 properties that are going to go to auction sometime soon, and 136 properties in pre-foreclosure (those receiving NODs).  These are the hidden numbers for the City of San Mateo today, 450 properties that may show up for sale by banks.  I use the word may because some will find funds to pay the bank back and some will sell on the market before the bank forecloses. These properties are in all of the zip codes for the city of San Mateo and are comprised of condos, townhouses and single family houses.

San Mateo,CA – Foreclosure Filings

Let’s take a look at Burlingame and Hillsborough data.  The two towns are combined because they share the same Zip code and ForeclosureRadar’s data is zip centric for this chart.  NOD’s are up over sales by November 2010.

Now for the hidden numbers for Burlingame and Hillsborough.  Burlingame has 5 foreclosed properties, 22 going to go to auction soon, and 21 in pre-foreclosure, for a total 48 distressed properties.  Hillsborough has 3 foreclosed properties, 11 going to go to auction soon, and 7 in pre-foreclosure, for a total of 21 distressed properties.  In Burlingame there are a few condos in this total but mostly single family homes.  In Hillsborough, all are single family homes of substantial size.

94010 – Foreclosure Filings

Finally, let’s not forget Foster City. It too has had activity this past year.  NODs are up but NOS are down.  For the moment that is.  Foster City has 8 bank owned  properties, 26 going to go to auction, and 39 in pre-foreclosure status, for a total of 73 distressed properties. These properties are made up of condos, townhouses and single family houses.

The big question is what’s coming.  We know of Shadow Inventory, a term for houses that have been foreclosed and are bank owned but not on the market.  The banks are holding them off, for some unknown reason.  Perhaps it’s the same reason they’re giving for making lending so impossibly difficult today.  We also know that prices for the bank owned properties are going up from last year’s incredible bargains.  If you are an investor and have cash, you might do okay, and something pretty good deals.  If you’re the average buyer who still needs a loan, should you try to buy a bank owned rather than a short sale?  I’d go for the short sale right now.  Those prices are generally better, you negotiate with the owner and not the bank but you must be patient and be willing to wait it out for the bank to approve the offer and if there are more loans on the property than the mortgage expect it to take even more time as the listing agent must negotiate with all banks connected to the property.  It can be a great way to get a property under market value today.  As for tomorrow and 2011, my crystal balls are a little cloudy today, like the weather.

Four of the original mansions still stand today.  Harriet Pullman Carolan, the heiress to the Pullman Railway Car fortune, built Carolands and it as one of the largest private residences in the United States today.  It’s often opened for fundraising events.  William Randolph Hearst built the “Western White House” within the town.  It’s a mansion of similar structure to his Heart Castle, and is currently privately owned.

William Crocker, grandson of Charles Crocker, built Skyfarm in 1930.  Today it houses Nueva Day School.  Crystal Springs Uplands School, originally the Uplands mansion, was a gift of Templeton Crocker to his fiancée Helene Irwine , heiress to the C&H Sugar fortune in 1912.

Today, Hillsborough is still renowned for its wealth and diversity.  It’s currently number 25 in Forbes most expensive zip codes ranking.   The trees and wooded hillsides add to the towns beauty.  The three elementary schools and one intermediate school score among the highest scoring in the state.  The town sits just above El Camino Real and below Highway 280.  Most homes are in the hills and many have beautiful views of the bay, San Francisco and the canyons.

Hillsborough has no downtown, no industry, and only one park.  When the town incorporated in 1910, they passed zoning laws forbidding any business and practically none exist there even today.  There is one golf course west of Highway 280 abutting the Crystal Springs Reservoir, a racquet club and the two private schools.  Residents are orientated to Burlingame or San Mateo for most of their shopping and recreational activities.  Hillsborough is truly the bedroom community of the Peninsula.  Close the the bio-tech capital of the world, South San Francisco, major financial corporations in San Francisco and Silicon Valley residents tend to commute to their offices or travel for business through SFO.

Search homes in Hillsborough.

Charts are great but you need hard numbers to really understand them so take a look at the real picture of Hillsborough CA’s market this past year.  We saw about 10% of the listings sell and it takes a long while for these listing to sell.  The houses for sale 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.

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.

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.

Last week Hillsborough CA saw 1 house sell and 41 others sit on the market for sale.  The median price for a home was $3,700,000.  The average price was $4,72,256.  For that money you do get something… you get the median house with 4.9 bedrooms (okay let’s call it 5 bedrooms) and 4 baths and 4400 square feet.  This median house sits on anywhere from a half acre to an acre lot, with trees and possible views of the Bay and beyond.  The median age of this house is 50 years old and she’s likely been totally remodeled within the past few years.

Only 20% of the homes on the market in Hillsborough CA have seen a price reduction, unlike most of our other communities.   Why this is, I can’t really know but I can guess that the owners of these homes believe that they are above the credit crisis, want their price, and will wait it out.  What it is showing is that only one house sold last week, yes it was New Year’s week, but only one sold and it is hard to get funding for jumbo loans today so some of these sellers will have a long wait unless the banks really open up their purses, as they are supposed to do!

As you can see, the Inventory today is down from a high only few months ago.  A lot of this is seasonal.  Real estate does run in seasons and we see a diminishing of listings during late 4th quarter and through to Super Bowl Sunday.  For some reason, Super Bowl Sunday is the start of our spring market – don’t ask me why, it just is.

Our research comes from Altos Research and they divide each market into Quartiles, 1 is the top tier, 2 the top middle, 3 the lower middle, and 4 the lower tier.  By looking at the Characteristics per Quartile you can get a great picture of what’s going on in a market.  By no means is Hillsborough CA a poor community!  Look at the median price for the lower tier and you see a median price of $2,475,000.  No one is going to cry for these people but it shows you and me that our Fantasy Island, the San Francisco Peninsula, is still an island in comparison to the rest of the State of California.

Altos Research has a measurement called the Market Action Index and today I’m using their Index per Quartile.  What it says is that the highest quartile, the one with a median price of $7,150,000 is also the one least affected by the market.  Sure it is suffering but not the same way the lower quartile is, and this is because the people buying homes in this price range usually do so with cash.  They are unaffected by the bank freeze-up.

Hillsborough CA is a beautiful community with fantastic schools, great weather, exclusivity, easy commutes north to San Francisco, South San Francisco and the Bio-Tech industry, or south to Silicon Valley.  Near SFO it attracts people from other cultures as a second home.  There is no downtown and no commercial business anywhere in the town.  It sits next to Burlingame and that’s the shopping core for Hillsborough residents.  We would be pleased to help you find a home in this lovely town.  Call us at 650-696-2820 or pop us an email using the link to the right.  Our Altos Research is a helpful tool when you are looking at real estate for sale.

If you’re like me, you look forward to the annual Dickens House Holiday Boutique shopping extravaganza every fall.  It’s always fun to go see the house that was selected and then decorated and filled with gift ideas for family and friends.  This year you can have the opportunity to see the house in all its glory prior to being laden full of gifts.  The Dickens Design Tour runs for two weekends in September and it starts this Thursday, September 11th running through September 15th, and then again the following weekend, Thursday, September 18th through September 22nd.

The house selected this year is a newly constructed 5000 square foot, 4 bedroom, 5 bath French-style home located at 333 Uplands Drive in Hillsborough.  Seven local interior designer have each taken at least one room to design with their own personality and creativity. Here’s your chance to see the house and the rooms unencumbered with gift items on every surface and crowed with shoppers.

Meet the Designers

Emily Taylor Interiors designed the Entry, Living Room, and the Dining Room.

Melodie Rubin, of House of Ruby, used all American colors of Red, White and Blue for William’s Room.  Featured in the corner is a tent hanging from the ceiling.  What a perfect place to play hide and seek!

Anne Fifer Interiors designed both the Jessie’s bedroom with a beautiful chandelier and canopy behind the bed in lovely shades of pink.  She also designed the Master Bedroom retreat.

Partice Bevan’s Interior Design took on the design work for the Media Room and Wine Cellar.

Kim Lee and Carmen Grey designed Henry’s room, a Guest room.

Christine Sheldon Design is responsible for the Family Room and Kitchen.

Shannon & Company took on design of the Powder Room.

Dickens House wouldn’t be complete without staging a magnificent patio area for all of the fun outdoor gift items they’ll carry.  McGuire Furniture Company is responsible for this outdoor living room.

The tickets for the Dickens House Design tour are available here and are $40.  You can still get tickets to the Opening Night Premier for $150 if you hurry.  The Holiday Boutique begins October 18th and runs until November 2.  Tickets are $30 in advance or $35 at the door.  All proceeds go to St. Matthews Episcopal Day School.

So, you’re looking at that house for the third time and saying, ‘it’s not quite right.”  It needs
a new….  And, then you ask me what does it cost to do….?  You get the idea.  Whether it’s a new kitchen, windows, bathroom, roof or an addition to make the house perfect for you and your family, you need to have an idea of cost.  And then, what your ROI might be.

I am asked this kind of question fairly often.  What will it cost me to replace the windows?
Or, how much does a new kitchen cost?  My answer always is “it depends”.  It depends on quality.  It depends on vendor.  It depends, especially when it comes to that kitchen, on the appliances you choose and the kind of cabinets, or both.  Remodels and additions can be pie in the sky when it comes

Just in case you’re thinking about doing a little remodeling once you close escrow, here’s my 2008 guideline on what to expect it to cost.  Plus, when you get ready to sell your home, after doing everything to it to make it just perfect, what you can expect to re-coup.

Let’s begin with likely moderately priced additions to the
house.

Now let’s look at a moderately priced remodels of the house.

But, what happens if you want to go First Class with your remodel?

The costs above are for additions or remodels that are done with medium prices appliances and fixtures which are perfectly fine for most of us.  If you’re living in a more upscale neighborhood, where doing only the best works, then prices are considerably higher.  The first are to give you an idea for additions to that future home you’re considering.

Now, what if you only want to update the house because it’s such a great buy?

For an idea of what it might cost going whole hog, Full Monty or where money’s no object look at this.

Here’s the surprise in comparing the moderate projects versus the high end projects, the ROI on the higher end isn’t always as good as it is on moderate.  Isn’t that interesting?  So if you want to do something to that house you’re considering buying, only do what you really want to do, and not what you think will give you the best return when you sell.  Your idea of the perfect kitchen, bathroom, office or deck, might not be the next buyer’s idea.