Burlingame Real Estate - The Wilkas Group » homes for sale

Better Homes and Gardens-JF Finnegan Realtors Enters Burlingame, CA

lenorewilkas — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 03:48:13 +0000

Everyone knows the Better Homes and Gardens name from reading the magazine and watching the cable TV channel. We are excited to announce that we, too, are now part of the Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate ® family as our broker, John Finnegan, joins their real estate family. We’ve made a dramatic change without moving, changing contact information or meeting new colleagues. The entire Prudential family we used to belong to is now Better Homes and Gardens-JF Finnegan Realtors and we’re still in downtown Burlingame.

What does this mean for you? For me? For us? Well, lots of new toys for us to play with and therefore to present to you our readers and clients. If you’re a client we will roll out some new things for you in the near future. I expect to have some great tips to share with you about home buying and selling, decorating and landscaping.

We are very excited about this new adventure for us, and therefore for you,too. Keep coming back to see what we have to offer you, dear reader.

It’s Crystal Ball Time – What’s the Market Doing in the San Mateo CA area?

lenorewilkas — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 23:18:44 +0000

Last week I took additional course work on short sales. We don’t really anticipate seeing many foreclosures this year because the banks are beginning to work with their customers to stave them off. This year will see short sales. The Alt-A loans are almost all gone and now what will be coming up are some loans that should affect our market. The people who purchased homes in the mid to late 2000′s and who took out ARMs of 5 or 7 years are going to see them resetting this year. If they reset now, they’ll reset for lower then the original rate for the first year only. Should they reset once the Fed plays around with interest rates, then who knows how they’ll reset so they might be higher. How do I know this? Take a look at this great chart from Credit Suisse. We are currently in month 36 where the arrow is. You can figure it from there, that we anticipate seeing a peak number of short sales by the end of the summer, September to be exact.

If you are one of the multitude of homeowners sitting with this kind of mortgage you have a couple of choices. First, refinance it immediately. Second, if you are unable to do so, get your home ready for resale and get it on the market this spring. Yes, it will be under water, and yes you will need to go through the process of applying for a loan modification with your lender. If you are denied, as most appear to be, ask for a short sale and find a Realtor with suitable experience and training to help you. We are CDPE trained and SFR trained. These are the Cadillac of certifications for short sales. Do not wait to sell, get ready to do it this spring because there will be much competition for short sales.

Another consideration for you. If you sell you home in a short sale, you can buy a new one within 90 days using a conforming FHA loan. This means you will be in a home around $900,000 and there are many to select from in our area. You may have to swallow your pride in reducing your home size and location but at least you can still own a home without the tax ramifications of a foreclosure.

Do you want more information on how to do this? We’re here to answer your questions so go here for more help.

San Mateo Buyers: Be Sure to Ask Your Agent How Long the House Has Been For Sale – They Can Tell You

lenorewilkas — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 12:50:25 +0000

Beware of Shifty Real Estate Agents!

I was watching Nightline last week and they had a segment about real estate agents that re-list homes for sale to make them “fresh listings” in their MLS to fool the general public. In effect, they are resetting the amount of time a listing has been on the market. This was a big issue in San Mate County last year until the local MLS stopped it. Today, when you look for a house on our MLS not only can your agent see the history of the sales of that property, sometimes going back years, but so can you. But agents who do this kind of smoke and mirror re-listing are shifty agents.

Why is this issue important? To some people it isn’t but if you are the type of analytical soul who wants to understand the marketplace this data is extremely important for you and your agent. MLSListings, my local MLS, no longer allows an agent to cancel a listing and then re-list it under a new MLS number. Unless 90 days have passed, or the agent has changed brokerages, the same MLS number stays with the property, even if it’s re-listed for an expiration of the listing agreement. It’s very helpful to me, as an agent, and I always share the information with my clients. We can see if the property is about to become a Short Sale by how long it’s been listed and how the prices have been reduced over that time frame.

I applaud MLSListings for making the policy. It went into effect last October and there, truthfully, was a lot of grumbling going on by many seasoned agents. Today, there is nothing an agent can do to get around it, as the program we use to list property has been written so an agent must keep the same MLS number with that property.

If your agent isn’t sharing the historical data with you, shame on them! Ask about it and demand to see the data from them. If your agent isn’t in the same MLS as I am, they are still able to get their hands on the data. Don’t let them fool you. A good, professional agent, will give you this data without you asking, especially when you’re getting ready to write that offer. If they don’t, shame on them! Demand to see it.

What Are They Thinking? Remodel If You Must, But Do It Right! – Foster City, CA

lenorewilkas — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 15:24:23 +0000

Our MLS goes on our weekly Broker’s tours every Tuesday and as usual this past Tuesday we went to an unnamed town to preview one of the new listings there. This house has a lot going for it. It’s a 5 bedroom home with a very good view lot, which of course adds a lot of value to the house. The house has had some updating but some of it is really quirky. This wouldn’t be a posting if the house hadn’t had some things done to it that make me question What Were They Thinking?

Quick! A little kitchen update is supposed to be quick and cheap. What they did was put in a new counter top but they kept the old tile back splash in place and then painted the original cabinets. Painting cabinets is an inexpensive way to spruce up the kitchen, but when the property is listed at $1.5 Million, it’s the cheap way out and looks it. Oh yes, not replacing chipped tiles in the back splash is not only cheap but lazy. Now this house is priced at market value for a house that has been totally updated but, it hasn’t really been totally updated, at least not to the standards expected by a buyer of a home in the mid-one million dollar range, as this isn’t a tear down.

What should you do if you only have funds to do a small update of your home before listing it? Paint. Don’t try to do things half way. If I had this listing I would have advised the owner to leave the kitchen alone as it’s better to have the original kitchen then to do a new counter top over old cabinets. Now when the new owner comes in not only do they tear out the cabinets but the granite as well. Making it a costlier tear out for them. You are better off pricing your home a little below the others to reflect what it needs and watch how the market handles this. It will often bring in multiple offer if the house is in good shape but is only in need of updating.

Now, check this out….. This is the master bedroom. There are mirror doors on the closets. What is covering all of them? Window Shades! Both have window shades above the doors and as you can see, one of the shades is partially pulled down! Is this for privacy? Or so you’re not scared looking at yourself when you get up in the morning? Or to keep the light from reflecting back at you? It’s your call. Who knows?

What were they thinking?