Found 73 blog entries tagged as Oakland Real Estate Agent.

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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To get the full value for your Oakland home, you will need to present it to potential buyers at its very best.  While this seems obvious, there is often, in some homes, a feature that will often deter many future buyers from seriously considering the purchase.  That feature is the presence of damage or odor due to problematic pets in the home--whether dogs, cats, birds, etc.. 

All of us have had puppies and kittens, and know that it takes time for them to settle into their new homes.  There is often a lot of damage that can be caused during this short period of time, however, and the issues need to be dealt with before the home is placed on the market.

Additionally, the day to day issues surrounding pets need to be prepared for as well.  Here are…

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It is typical for all of us to start a new year with high hopes and determined plans.  If your plan is to purchase an Oakland home this year, you should know what your options will be, so that you can move towards your goal sooner, rather than later, in 2013.

If you would like to have a general idea of the type of home that you can afford, there is a quick and easy way to determine this by going to www.bankrate.com, and then to their calculator section.  While the information here is very generic, you will have something to consider.  As your Oakland real estate agent, I will be assisting you in much more specific and detailed ways as we begin your home search in earnest. 

Here are the steps that you will follow:

1. Enter your expected mortgage…

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In Part 1, we talked about some practical tips designed to make moving day a bit easier for your move into your new Oakland home.  In Part 2 - we will consider some simple, yet, important personal and family issues that need to be part of the same plan.

1. Consider The Impact Of The Move On The Children: It is obvious that there is going to be a great deal to do in terms of a broad array of paperwork to be signed and dealt with, plus arranging for the children to attend a new school, addressing how the new home will be decorated, what needs to be bought to complete this, and who is going to do it.  Often in all of this, no matter what their age, the children are often just asked to be patient, and to decide what they want to take with them, and just…

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Once I have completed and processed any homes for sale in Oakland, CA I realize that the thought of moving can make the buyers anxious about the issues revolving around the actual move itself.  In Part 1, I will suggest some tips to assist you in the actual packing preparation.  In Part 2, we will talk about the family and pet preparations.

To pack and move in a way to protect all your goods, and save time and money in moving costs, take the following steps:

1. Make a Floor Plan: Your first step, before packing, is to make a floor plan of your new home.  On this floor plan, map out each room.  Actually measure out the room to decide what furniture will go where, and whether it will fit as you hoped.  Many new homeowners are surprised that their new…

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