Coastal Real Estate and Lifestyles

Every Tuesday is the Half Moon Bay coastside’s ”Tour Day”.  What that means for local SAMCAR members is starting the meeting at the Community Center, but today it was at the Oceano Hotel at Pillar Point Harbor.  If you’ve been reading my blog you know that I’ve gotten a sneak peak before today!  The local Realtors were treated to warm scones, fresh cut fruit, coffee and juice, in one of the harbor view conference rooms, followed by a tour of a few ocean view suites, the ballroom, and the shopping village…a fun change of pace from our normal weekly meeting location.

The meeting is typically led by one of the local Realtors.  We go over announcements, review the printed tour sheet (new listings entered into the MLS since the prior week) and agents announce any additions or deletions to the day’s tour.  Other important announcements are made also.  George Mozingo, SAMCAR’s Government Affairs Director announced that anyone is welcome to attend the public meeting in Sacramento tomorrow (4/30/08) on AB1991, a single-issue bill written by Assemblyman Gene Mullin in an effort to help resolve the City of Half Moon Bay’s Beachwood judgment.

If a Listing Agent has a home on tour, they leave to arrive at the home before the 50+ agents get there.  Some have food and some don’t.  Today, homemade focaccia bread wafted from Grant Walters’ Moss Beach listing.  Ina and Terry offered “to go” snacks at their El Granada home, and Bob McCahon spent hours rolling and dunking (kidding!) the infamous donut holes…but agents didn’t drive to his Pescadero listing for more sweets today!

This special country property is about an hour south of San Francisco.  Or land your private plane at the HMB airport and drive 15 miles down Highway 1.  With pastoral views to die for, plenty of outbuildings, beautiful swimming pool, hot tub, entertaining nooks around the property, caretaker’s cottage, and direct access to riding/hiking trails, it is waiting for one lucky family to create memories.  Thanks, Bob, for bringing us this great property to offer our clients!

One of the view scenes.

A trailhead and one of the outbuildings.

Caretaker’s Cottage.

5785 Pescadero Creek Road, Pescadero, CA

A mid-day walk along one of the wide lower El Granada avenues.

I had to capture this lovely scene as I was recently driving around town on a recent Tuesday morning Broker Tour of new listings.  Glad I had my camera for this one.

It brought back memories of when I was the parent of a preschooler - a few moons ago…  My daughter attended Marty’s Alameda Station in El Granada and even now, as a college student, has continued friendships from the buddies she made while at Marty’s.

 More about El Granada neighborhoods HERE.

Another post about an El Granada neighborhood:

Quiet neighborhoods reaps the benefits of P.O.S.T.

Coastside Preschool Directory 2008, by Coastside Mother’s Club

As part of my journey into real estate investment education,  I decided to visit the San Mateo County Courthouse “steps” to watch a trustee sale a few weeks ago.  I have seen a private auction but never this final step in the foreclosure process before the property becomes bank-owned (REO) - the Trustee Sale.  This link shows where the Trustee’s Sale is in the foreclosure process.  More about the link below.

It was surprisingly low key when I got there on a recent early Spring day (sorry Michigan friends!).  Then a few more people showed up for a total of about 10 people.  Most of the people there were seasoned investors.  By seasoned I mean, they are there all the time with their dog-eared list in hand and have mega millions to work with.  I know this because one of the Foreclosure Agents shared some information with me about who buys, how they buy, where the foreclosure market is heading in San Mateo. 

That day 20 properties were up for auction; 5 were postponed and new dates given; and 15 went to the respective banks because nobody bid on them at the minimum auction price.  The sheets were getting updated right then and there.  Sadly, one homeowner was desperately trying to hold onto her home at this eleventh hour; as far as I could tell, her home was not sold to the bank while I was there.  It is my understanding that the lender with the primary lien establishes the minimum auction price.  (My CB training in this starts Monday.)  In other words, none of the investors and bidders there thought the properties were enough of a “deal” to bid at the minimum price.  This is one day’s activity and Trustee’s Sales happen throughout the week depending on the number of properties available.

This experience was totally worth the 90 minutes I decided to allow myself.   There is NOTHING like first-hand education, as reinforced by seasoned investor Jeff Brown, whose blog I follow at BawldGuyTalking.  I also took the time because I wanted to find out what’s really going on in San Mateo County.

Bottom line:  There are foreclosure properties out there, and probably more coming through the remainder of ‘08.  Buying such a property requires research, patience, ready cash…and a bit of a stomach!  Support of your team may be helpful to some and crucial for others (be it contractor, accountant, real estate professional, loan consultant, or parents).

If you’re interested in starting your own online research, I just got this tip from Kevin Boer about foreclosureradar.com.  I’ll be tracking it along with where I currently have an account, Realtytrac, to look for San Mateo County trends.  My Realtytrac research has shown their properties to be pretty out of date so I may try to find another one to use as a comparison to foreclosureradar.  If you know of another good one, make a comment to share with everyone.

Colleague Sam Benson in Contra Costa County updates us on foreclosure property activity there. 

Colleague Pam Buda in Sonoma County told me yesterday that there are over 200 short sale or foreclosure properties just in her office.  Did I hear that right?

5:30 p.m. - Elaine Carlson from the Palos Verdes Peninsula writes an open letter to buyers on this subject if you’re thinking of investing in her area of southern California.

Many Realtors, Mortgage professionals, Title and escrow representatives, and others in our industry know Carol.  I’m writing this post to give you a way to send your well wishes and keep up to date on her progress.  In case you don’t know Carol Icard, she is the Manager of the North American Title office in Half Moon Bay.  She brings years of knowledge and experience to her clients, offers classes on various topics to her colleagues – such as a class I attended last year that she prepared for us on short sales, and does this all with humor and grace. 

Carol needs us now as she fights for her life with a recent extremely serious diagnosis.  Her daughter Arwyn, who works at North American Title in San Mateo, also needs our support and encouragement.  A website has just been launched to provide updates and give us all a way to share encouragement, stories, well wishes, etc. to Carol and her family.  Here it is:  http://friendsofcarol.org/

There will soon be a major shift in local advertising dollars.  The huge spread that Coldwell Banker Northern California spends tons of $$$$$$ to advertise its listings each Sunday in the Peninsula Edition of the SF Chronicle will be no more as of this weekend, April 20, 2008.  This new development is another step up into the future that local (Peninsula) ”Real Estate Section” readers of the Chronicle will notice starting this week.

In the Peninsula Edition, the Half Moon Bay & Montara offices are limited to 10 spaces - 1 featured listing across the top of the page and 9 “liners” listed in columns by city.  That’s because we share the entire 2-page spread with the other Peninsula CB offices.  Our Peninsula Edition listings are not advertised in the San Francisco or other Bay Area editions.  Listings in South SF or Pacifica that may be best suited for a San Francisco buyer will not be seen in the SF Edition of CB’s big ad.  Of course, agents can pay to have their listings included in the Open Home Guide by County. 

More and more people are using the web to search for their dream home.  We’ve all been watching this shift occur for years now.  Any why not when you can see multiple pictures, maps, detailed descriptions, neighborhood video, property blogs, and more.  It is comforting to pick up a newspaper and peruse the real estate ads, but the number of people that pick up the phone from newspaper ads has got to be pretty small.  We, the agents, have to get our copy & photos to the advertising reps several days before it goes to print.  So some information can be out of date by the time the paper lands on your front step.

I suspect those company advertising dollars will be going toward new online pursuits.  CB has already spent millions developing its online presence in places such as CaliforniaMoves, Trulia, Google, and Yahoo Real Estate, but as we all know, real estate marketing, real estate technology, online advertising, and new media industries can be interwoven and are changing rapidly.  A great place to watch this unfold in on Transparent Real Estate.

At some point this had to happen, it was just a matter of when.  I’ll still be reading the Real Estate Section as long as the paper still has one.

The trends in listing price is broken down by quartile in the above graph to show market segment movement.  The second, third and fourth quartiles are trending similarly - slightly downward with leveling showing within the last month, and the first quartile trending slightly upward.

Pacifica’s inventory overall has come down a bit from the peak of the fourth quarter 2007 following the dramatic lending market meltdown; however inventory is still elevated over a year ago meaning sellers will have an easier time of it if they approach the market very competitively.  This is the overall tone.  Each neighborhood has its own unique plusses or minuses and you’ll want to take those into consideration with your Realtor.

I am not a road warrior.  I like the idea of travel, but I am not fond of the travel-related logistics.  We’re currently checking out colleges for our son, a high school Junior, in Oregon and Washington.  When Dad met up with us in Eugene, Chris couldn’t wait to tell him ALL the things that went wrong in the first day and a half that he and I were on our own!  Such as…me losing my driver’s license…twice. (well they make you take it out of your wallet and I don’t think very clearly on 4.5 hours of sleep); almost missing the plane because “I didn’t call him”, even though the loud speaker kept reminding ”LAST CALL FOR FLIGHT ### - I mean I was begging them to not close the doors. (I guess his brain wasn’t awake either.)  Then, of course I kept trying to turn onto one way streets in Corvallis (every street is a one way street).  Typical travel adventures…so Dad just laughed and put it in perspective.  I asked him to share some wisdom, so he wrote the following for my readers:

I’m one of those “Road Warriors”, travelling by air for business on a very routine basis.  With elite level frequent flier membership in several different airlines I think I’ve earned my stripes – I passed a million cumulative miles a long, long time ago.  This aspect of my life often seems interesting, exciting, or even exotic to non-business travellers, but I most commonly disabuse them of that notion, for several reasons.

 

First:  Customers who purchase my company’s product don’t tend to be in interesting, exciting, or exotic locations.  They settle in real places, where real people live, and tend to be less spectacular locations than here in the San Francisco Bay Area. Visualize Hackensack, Wichita, Omaha, or pretty much anywhere in Minnesota and you can get my point.  Sure, there’s no nightlife, but that feeds into the next paragraph.

Second:  If you’re doing business travel right, you’re squeezing productivity out of every available minute, primarily to avoid having to make a second trip to the same location if possible.  Having nothing to do outside of the hospital I’m visiting, no travelling companions, and only an empty hotel room (with HBO) to look forward to – well, that makes 15-hour workdays all that much easier.  Let’s just say that when I get home on Friday night after a 2 or 3 city trip for the week, I’m not a sparkly and refreshed man.

Third:  When you’re on the road you’re eating retail food at every meal.  My company has a daily budget for meals on the road, enforced by financial bean counters with attitudes.  This, combined with elements from the first reason, above, mean that I’m generally eating a free hotel-provided continental breakfast (read: no protein or variety), an inexpensive lunch, and dinner at some deep-fried chain that takes their supply deliveries by semi-truck.  Savoring a triumph of business acumen over a fine, three-course chef-prepared meal (with a glass of just the perfectly matched Pinot Noir) seems to only happen in movies with Richard Gere or George Clooney.  They’re not working for the same company as me, I guess.  And their suits stay freshly pressed, somehow.

Fourth:  I’m not the only one doing this.  I have fellow travellers packed in with me on flights like cars during rush hour on Bay Area freeways.  Have you noticed while driving that there are pros on the road commuting smoothly, and then there are amateurs who tend to mess up the commute for everyone else?  The same is true with business travelers.  On a recent flight I had stowed my carryons after boarding, taken my seat and was starting my crossword puzzle while the passengers streamed by in the aisle.  Without warning, I was drenched.  One guy had been squeezing by with a precariously balanced plastic cup of fresh-squeezed orange juice on top of other things he was carrying.  I got soaked from my chest to my thighs (but at least it was ice cold).  Over the course of the 2100 mile flight it did dry out, and I actually got used to being sticky.  On the plus side I was citrusy fresh all the way to Detroit.  I also see travellers who simply aren’t prepared for the unexpected…Oversold flight?  I can’t be bumped!  I’m special!  I have a reservation!!…  I also see other travellers who just can’t adapt to the changing circumstances and fall victim to their own air rage.  I sometimes think airports might have secret, padded cells hidden behind false walls on each concourse…

Last reason:  I’m basically a homebody at heart.  Cross-country conversations with my wife at home aren’t nearly the next best thing to being there with her.

Thanks to Gene Wilkins, our office’s Advertising & Marketing Coordinator Extraordinaire, who shared this recent piece involving disclosure “confusion” from ABC News/Good Morning America.  I had to pass this article along about an unfortunate Arizona transaction involving a neighbor who “yells and screams”.   The buyer

“contends that the neighbor is a nuisance and that he later learned that she had called the police with complaints hundreds of times and was arrested for disorderly conduct after pelting the home’s seller with potatoes just five days before closing.” 

Statutory transfer disclosures vary by state.  In California we use the Transfer Disclosure Statement (TDS).  This is a very important document that the seller (in most cases) must complete, along with the participating Agent/Brokers in a timely fashion.  This document’s importance is not only in what is completed but also when it is completed.  In addition, anything that may affect the desirability or value of the property is considered a material fact and must be disclosed.

From the TDS:  Are you aware of any of the following:…Neighborhood noise problems or other nuisances?  A simple YES or NO answer is asked.  Except that if you answer YES, you are required to explain your answer.  They even offer plenty of room, if needed…

When I’m sitting across the table or desk from a seller, I tell them that I want to know the good, the bad & the ugly.  I’ve probably heard it before.  If you have to ask a question “do I need to disclose this?” or “is this really important?” - even to yourself, then disclose it.  In this situation, being overly protective is better than second-guessing an unknown.

By the way, the comments in the referenced article above are better than the article.