My Piedmont and Oakland Real Estate Adventures. History, Architecture and Homes - Oakland Homes for Sale

Four Overlooked Items When Searching for Your Oakland Home

Whether you are searching for an Oakland home, perhaps in Redwood Heights or Rockridge , there are four items that you may want to consider that are often overlooked when viewing potential homes.  Here are things to pay attention to:

1. The Parking Situation:  In many of the older Oakland neighborhoods, street parking is a challenge. Many of these homes were built when the family had only one car.  Today, with family teens getting their own cars, one home can require 2-3 parking spaces. It is often something that is not considered when viewing the home initially.  It is important to check to see if your car fits into the garage of the house, as well, so you can be assured of at least one parking spot in addition to street spaces.

2. Your Commute:…

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Four Important Steps to Take When Buying Your Oakland Home

When buying your home in the Oakland Rockridge area, or the Redwood Heights, or even the Trestle Glen area, you will find that some things are common among all home purchases.  It is important that you place yourself in the best possible position to purchase the home that you decide you want to have.  Here are some suggestions to put you at the top of the list:

1. Do All Your Financial Homework First--Make sure that you have enough funds to qualify for that purchase.  The rule of thumb followed by most lenders is that your total debts including housing costs, should be no more that 38% of your gross income(before taxes), and your ultimate housing debt alone should be no more than 33% of your gross income(before taxes). While there are other issues,…

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How to Choose The Best Sales Price for Your Piedmont Home

When you have finally decided to sell your home, you will be surrounded by all kinds of advice from friends and family as to the best selling price.  Much of this advice is well meaning, but it is not the best source of information to arrive at for this valuable point of information.  Whether your are considering selling a Piedmont home or perhaps an Oakland home, there are three very effective sources that you should use if you want to be assured that you are pricing your home at its best.

1. My Website--www.brucewagg.com--With its comprehesive Multiple Listing sources and search engines, you can search by city, town, price, etc. to see what homes in and around your home are selling for.  It will show you pictures of the houses, and, in most…

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Working With Your Agent to Purchase Your Oakland Home

With the large amount of websites available with information regarding Oakland homes for sale, it seems that picking out your new home should be easier, because there is so much to choose from.  However, with the variety of choices offered to you, my job as your real estate agent is to assist you to find just the right home in the most efficient manner.  Here are some ideas to consider in working with me as your agent:

1. Be as specific as possible about your needs--  No one wants spend hours touring homes that are not suitable.  Once you decide your price range for purchasing, it is worth your time to look through the matching choices on my website, and then spend time analyzing what appeals to you and why.  You will soon see things that are…

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Upgrading Your Oakland Home For Sale--The Four Fastest Ways

It would be ideal if you had plenty of time and money to upgrade your Oakland home before you put it up for sale.  Realistically, the odds are that you might not have either one.  If it is important to get your house on the market in a short time period, and still be able to make it attractive to potential buyers, there are some ways that are flexible in terms of both time and money. 

Four Quick and Reasonably Priced Ways to Upgrade Your Home:

a. Paint Your House--One of the quickest, and most effective ways to give a facelift to a tired home is by using paint.  You can choose to paint all the rooms, or some of the rooms, or just concentrate on the exterior trim.  That is the appeal of paint. Take a complete tour of your home, and look at it as if…

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How To Encourage Buyers to Purchase Your Oakland Home

If it is important to you to sell your Oakland home quickly in this slower economy, there are many things that you can do to engage a buyer into considering your home first over the competition.  Most of the suggestions revolve around some form of financial reward. If you are in a financial position to do one or more of these things, you may be pleased at the response. While this is by no means a complete list, it provides some ideas.

A Few Ideas to Consider In Motivating an Interested Buyer:

a. Offer to Pay the Closing Costs: Closing costs are all the fees associated with the purchase of the home.  Fees are assessed by the escrow company, the lender, the county, etc..  While it is traditional for you, as the seller, to purchase title insurance on…

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What Are The Problems In Overpricing Your Piedmont Home?

One of my jobs as your listing agent is to assist you in pricing your home correctly in order to attract the most interest among potential buyers and area brokers.  It is important that you consider the problems that can arise if you overprice any home, whether it be a Piedmont home, a Berkeley home, or an Oakland home.

Here are the basic problems to consider before deciding on your final price. Should you overprice:

a. There Will Be No Showings:  With the Internet available to everyone, today's buyers are very sophisticated as to comparable pricing.  In fact, many real estate web sites will furnish them with comps at the click of a mouse.  They, and their broker, will know very quickly when a house is overpriced.  They will not want to see or…

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WHAT PIEDMONT AND OAKLAND HOME BUYERS SHOULD KNOW ABOUT CREDIT RATINGS

Sooner or later, every buyer has to submit information to a lender regarding their credit history.  This information will be critical as a means by which a decision will be made as to whether the potential buyer will qualify for the loan to purchase their future home.  This is a time that makes many people anxious because they are not quite sure how their credit is evaluated. So, whether you are considering a Piedmont home or an Oakland home, the format remains the same. 

Right now, 90% of the largest banks use what is called a FICO score to make that decision.  This FICO score is used throughout the industry to determine your mortgage rate, as well as your car loan and your credit card monthly interest fee. 

This credit rating is a number that is…

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Increasing your curb appeal of any East Bay home for sale.

Whether you live in an Oakland bungalow, or a large Piedmont mansion, you want your home to have the very best in curb appeal. The good news is that you can make things special, and do it on a budget. The hardest part is stepping away from your home, and seeing it as your neighbor or a future buyer might see it for the first time. That can be a interesting experience. What you see as cozy and cute, might be seen as crowded and small by an outsider.

Here are some inexpensive corrections to improve the approach to your front door

a. Clean up your walkway. Remove weeds between the cracks, level any paving stones.

b. Sweep and rake everywhere, removing all debris under the bushes and plants and in gutters.

c. Pull up all dead plants and outdated,…

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