If it is important to you to sell your Oakland home quickly, and you have an interested and qualified buyer who is not quite ready to take the final step to purchase it, there are some steps that can be taken to engage your buyer to buy your home over the others on the market.  Most of these motivating steps involve a financial reward to potential buyers, and, if you can afford to offer one or more of these options, you may be pleased at the response. Here are a few ideas to consider:

1. Offer To Pay The Closing Costs: These are all the fees associated with the purchase of the home.  Fees are assessed by the escrow company, the lender, the county, etc.. So, while is is traditional for you as the seller, to purchase title insurance on behalf of the…

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Before you make plans to buy or refinance a home, you should know some of the things that lenders will consider before offering you a mortgage rate.  While interest rates are quite low right now, compared to many years past, they are still important in determining how much you can afford when considering your Berkeley or Oakland home purchase. 

While the marketplace always plays a strong role on the lending and financing issues of the day, the general considerations are:

a. Your Credit Score: This is certainly a key way for lenders to determine how responsible you are about acquiring debt, and paying it back in a reasonable and efficient manner.  Obviously, you will be offered a much lower, more appealing, mortgage rate if your credit score is…

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When you put your Piedmont home on the market, potential buyers are looking for many attractive features that interest them.  However, one of the most attractive things to them is space.  The more space that you can show them, the larger, and more appealing your home can become.  Space and room allows them options--the option to fit in their new furniture, redesign the dining room, or perhaps make a bedroom into an badly needed office.  

Your goal, then, should be to present them with an open, uncluttered, visually appealing home, that allows them to envision their things in that space, and encourage them to want to live there. One of my roles as your Piedmont and Oakland real estate agent, is to assist you in carrying out this plan. 

After living…

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You are planning to move into your new Oakland home, but find that you have an overwhelming amount of things to move from your older Alameda home.  The projected moving costs seem quite high.  Here are some tips to saving money on your moving costs:

1. Weed Out Your Junk:  While this may seem obvious, it is a very difficult thing to do.  It is made more difficult by sorting through things that have accumulated over years and years.  The best policy is to have each family member tackle their room first, then move to the common areas like the living room, family room and kitchen.  Set out three criteria for each room, and label boxes accordingly.  The three boxes should be labeled "Throw Away", "Donate" and "Garage Sale".  You might be able to…

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When living in your newly purchased home, whether in Berkeley, Oakland or Piedmont, you must always make plans to maintain it.  You want to do this to keep its present value, and hopefully, increase its resale value when it comes time to move on.  Recently we gave you three inexpensive steps to keep your newly purchased home in tip top order.  Here are some addtional very inexpensive maintenance steps that you take that are quite simple, and can be very effective:

1. Have your HVAC system inspected yearly (HVAC is your heating, ventilation and air conditioning system)--The inspection cost is usually under $300, depending on area, and keeping tabs on the condition of your heat pump or blower may save you thousands of dollars  in repair, and avoid a…

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After you have lived in your Oakland or Piedmont home for a while, and invested money its repair and restoration, you are convinced that you have the very best home in the neighborhood.  While this may or may not be true, when it comes time to put it on the market, you need to take a truly realistic look at your competition before you decide on a final price.  As your Oakland/Piedmont agent, it is my job to assist you in coming to a price that will move your home in a reasonable amount of time, and allow you to realize a realistic profit at the same time.

Why is it important to price correctly?  Here are the reasons:

1. Brokers and Agents Will Not Show Your Home to Their Clients:  With the large amount of real estate web sites on the…

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You have just purchased your new Oakland home.  You are more than satisfied with its condition, and are looking forward to many years in your new neighborhood.  You also know that in order to keep your home in its present condition, you are going to have to invest in maintaining it.  That is one of the expected costs of home ownership. 

The good news is that while there are many things you can do to maintain your home, there are three inexpensive, yet valuable steps that you can take that will give you the biggest return for your dollar:

1. Keep Your Carpets Clean--This seems a simple step, yet keeping by keeping your carpets clean, you can save thousands in replacement and repair costs of your current, and possibly brand new current…

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At the end of every quarter of the year, the research division of Better Homes and Gardens Mason-McDuffie Real Estate analyzes the area Multiple Listing Service data to try to determine the direction of home buying and selling in Alameda County.  They develop a valuable review for current homeowners, and for future homebuyers, and give a clear cut picture of where the residential real estate market has been, and where it is going.

The key to the present statistics this quarter is the lack of inventory of home for buyers to purchase. This lack of inventory has pushed the prices of the available homes higher than expected, and created multiple offer situations. To illustrate, in the last quarter of 2012, the median price of a single family detached…

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My new listing just came out today. www.3609VictorAve.com in Redwood Heights.4 bedroom and 2356 Sq Ft for $799,000 Please feel free to drop by the open house this Sunday 2-4:30pm.

 

Beyond the beautiful garden entry, 3609 Victor Avenue sits grandly on a corner lot with many architectural details and stunning bay views. Built in 1927, this English Tudor features 4 bedrooms, 2 baths, an open floor plan and abundant light. Inside, the original wood work, hardwood floors, and arching brick fireplace, set the stage for this warm and inviting home. The modern kitchen, dining room, and adjacent sun room all have bay views. A bedroom and updated bath complete the main level. Up the balustrade staircase, lies the master bedroom with another large sun room,…

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In Part 1, we talked about general questions that a home buyer of Alameda homes, or Alameda Bay Farm Island homes might ask themselves as they begin their search for their new house.  In Part 2, I am going to give you a suggested checklist of items that you might want to use to narrow your search more effectively.  As mentioned yesterday, the sooner you locate your ideal property, the sooner we can move ahead as a team to fine your special place.

Here are some suggested questions for a working checklist. Take this with you as you begin to view potential homes.

A. What Kind Of Home Do You Want?  Here are some items to consider:

1. Is there a special style of home that appeals to you?

2. How many bedrooms and bathrooms will you need?

3. Do…

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