Author Archives: Karen

Just Sold in Citrus Heights for $460,000!

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For this home I sold in Citrus Heights for $460,000, I was the agent for the buyers, who were referred to me. This adorable couple is moving from San Jose, and wow, what a difference a 2 hour drive from San Jose makes when it comes to home prices!

This is a super cute home in a good neighborhood, 3/2, almost 1500 SF, and I was able to negotiate the price DOWN to $460,000 AND get the buyers a $10,000 credit for closing costs…so a net price of $450,000! Also, ALL contingencies were in place, the buyers had a loan, appraisal, and inspection contingency. And, the buyers were able to put a 10% down payment and the rest of their expenses were covered using the $10,000 credit from the seller.

The transaction itself was super smooth and seamless. And, the buyers are very excited to own their first home!

Just Sold for $460,000!

Just Sold for $460,000!

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Just Sold in Valley Springs for $320,000

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I am going to start with…The buyer got into this home for about $1,400 out of pocket!!!!

For this townhome I sold in Valley Springs for $320,000, I was the agent for the buyer, who was referred to me by good friends. Amazing how vastly different the real estate market is as one goes further out of Silicon Valley. This is a beautiful townhome in a wonderful golf course community. This townhome is surrounded by beautiful and quite large custom homes. And, it is also very close to a lake.

This townhome had been on the market for almost 4 months! Mostly, she was initially priced way too high, and over time, the seller dropped the price little by little. The seller already had a home she wanted to buy, and it was contingent on selling this home, so she was motivated to lock in a buyer so that she could complete her home purchase.

She was still priced on the high side, but we were able to negotiate and ended up getting a great price. My buyer almost passed on this home because of the price, but we figured, let’s give it a shot. So glad we did!

We were the only offer, so the seller wanted to make this work and not lose the buyer so that she could get into the home she really wanted.

The buyer had ALL contingencies in place, so the buyer had an inspection, loan, and appraisal contingency. And, the offer was just overall a buyer friendly offer, since there was no competition with a very motivated seller.

How did the buyer buy this home with only about $1,400 out of pocket costs? There are special loan programs available. For this case there is a 1st and 2nd loan, which took care of the down payment completely. And, I negotiated a $10,000 seller credit for closing costs, which basically covered practically all out of pocket costs for the buyer. He is a very happy homeowner!

Sold for $320,000

Sold for $320,000

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Just Sold in Morgan Hill for $1,420,000…

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For this home I sold in Morgan Hill for $1,420,000, I was the agent for the sellers, who were referred to me by another client that I sold a home to many years ago! And, this home happened to be in the same community and walking distance to another home I sold to my friends about 10 years ago!

The home itself is gorgeous and immaculate! We had a cash offer the very first day it was listed within just a couple of hours! It was a little too soon, in that we planned for an open house weekend and to make sure that there was an opportunity for all buyers who were interested to have a chance to view the home and make an offer. We were really prepared to accept an offer within hours of being listed.

I had explained to the buyer’s agent prior to receiving the offer that the seller was adament about continuing with the open house weekend and ensuring that all interested buyers have a chance to make an offer. But, these buyers and agent were quite agressive and sent the offer to us anyway.

It was a great offer! The price was over list price, ‘as is’, 2 week closing, 2 week free rent back, ALL cash, waived ALL contingencies. It was a pretty golden offer, but there was just that question for what was the right strategy in this situation since they were the very first buyers to see the home on the very first day it was listed.

The sellers decided to take the gamble and tell the buyers they really did want to continue with the open house weekend before making a final decision on their offer.

We held the open house weekend, and the buyers waited, and they ended up being the best offer after the open house weekend. Even though they were still the best offer, it was good to play it out just to make sure and not have the lingering question of if the sellers made the right choice. So, it worked out well. The buyers still got the home and the sellers didn’t have to question their decision for what to do on the very first day.

The transaction itself was super smooth and seamless.

Just Sold in Morgan Hill for $1,420,000!

Just Sold in Morgan Hill for $1,420,000!

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Just Sold in San Jose for $1,999,900…

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For this home I sold in San Jose for $1,999,900 I was the agent for the buyers, who were referred to me by their brother, who I also sold a home to a few years ago. The home search was a journey. The market very hot and there were homes we competed for that had up to 45 offers! Insanity!

For this home, it’s located on a busy street, so the competition was much less fierce. The home itself is big and beautiful, really the only downside being on a very busy road. Even the competition for this home was fierce, we were neck and neck with another offer that was apparently the exact same offer, and apparently, the only difference was that we put in a 21 day closing, rather than a 30 day closing. I was told by the listing agent that was the only real difference between us and the competition and they chose our offer.

One thing I want to point out is the sales price, because this may be helpful for other buyers and sellers in the city of San Jose. San Jose has a luxury city transfer tax called Measure E. For homes sold over $2m, there is an addtional transfer tax added that the buyer and seller typically split 50/50. For $2m-$5m the additional tax is $7.50/1000. So, it’s not chump change. The balance of using sales price and this luxury tax calculation is only going to be a benefit when the sales price is very close to $2m for the numbers to be beneficial to sell under $2m, otherwise, it won’t even matter. So, there are some strategies that will work when the price is close to $2m to take advantage of maybe using some terms and such to avoid this luxury tax and still net out the same or better.

First and foremost, trying to close a transaction that needs a loan in 21 days is typically going to be a stressfest because frankly, even if the lender says it can be done, it’s very hard to get a deal closed with a loan in less than 30 days. Yes, it can be done, but it’s going to be a bumpy ride in most cases. And, this case was a roller coaster ride to the finish with the loan.

When you are buying a house, leave your money alone! It’s best not to move money around. Every single move to/from accounts needs to be tracked, explained, etc. And, that goes for within the US and also internationally, if you have money in banks and such outside of the US. Banks track every single penny and you have to explain every single transaction. And, for anyone that moves around money, that can turn into a logistical nightmare.

Also, a loan preapproval that is “underwriter preapproved” can be really essential in these strange times with banks being pretty picky in our current environment, where the ‘standards’ are not so ‘standard’. In this case, the underwriter decided not to use bonus income, which was quite a shocker, and can impact the loan amount.

The loan part of this transaction was quite stressful and it was just one thing after another with the underwriter overseeing this file, but at the end of the day, we got it done and now the buyers own this beautiful home!

Just Sold in San Jose for $1,999,900!

Just Sold in San Jose for $1,999,900!

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Just Sold in San Jose for $2,260,000

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For this home I just sold in San Jose for $2,260,000, I was the agent for the sellers. I sold this home to them as their buyer’s agent 23 years ago and now they are retired and moving out of the area. I’m always just so excited when clients come back to me after so many years. It’s just so incredibly awesome!

We had multiple offers and the home went for OVER asking price, the buyers waived ALL contingencies, and the buyers gave the sellers a FREE rent back for a couple of weeks. It was a very smooth transaction. The buyers and their agent were lovely to work with and the experience was great.

The sellers are buying a home and the timing was just perfect, both sales/transactions lined up so well and smoothly. The sellers are able to move out of this home and right into their next home.

After 29 years as a realtor, it’s crazy how I am still learning new things that just ‘come up’. For this transaction, I learned that it’s best for the seller to just let escrow pay off the mortgages/HELOCs and for the seller to not pay them off during the transaction. It’s not a huge deal if a seller does pay it off during the transaction. And, it did not affect our closing. But, apparently, per the title company, it’s just a bit of a challenge on their end for some logistical reasons. Moral of the story…when you sell your home and are in contract, just let the title company pay off the mortgages/HELOCS at closing. 🙂

 

Just Sold in San Jose for $2,260,000

Just Sold in San Jose for $2,260,000

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Just Sold in San Jose for $3,350,000…

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For this home I sold in San Jose for $3,350,000, I was the agent for the buyers, who I also worked with back in 2010 when they bought their first home! They were looking to buy a bigger home.

There were multiple offers on this home and it was HIGHLY competitive. In fact, we were NOT the highest offer, but lucky for me, I know this agent and she worked with me to get this home for my buyers. Coincidentally, the seller of this home was a buyer for my listing back in 2016 and used this same agent as their buyer’s agent at the time, who they now used for their listing agent for this home.

Apparently, and I don’t even remember this situation, but back when I had my listing in 2016, this buyer/agent competed for my listing that had over 20 offers at the time! And, this agent was apparently grateful to get the home for her buyers back then…and then consequently wanted to return the favor to me this round in 2023 for my buyers.

What are the chances? The exact same buyer/agent that bought my listing back in 2016, now has a home to sell (not the same home) in 2023 and I have a buyer for it. Crazy!

Praise God, my buyers got this home with the help of the listing agent…and likely the sellers…in that the listing agent told her clients that they owed me one for the home they bought back in 2016.

The transaction itself was smooth overall. The main hiccup was mainly loan related surprises. I had mentioned to the buyers that when a loan is over $2m there is typically 2 appraisals. But, when we locked in the home, the loan officer didn’t mention it, and apparently didn’t even know the home would need 2 appraisals, but it did! Mainly, no one likes surprises mid transaction. Luckily, both appraisals were fine, but it just adds another layer of stress when 2 are needed.

And, a few other quirkly items with the loan, like asking for irrelevant info that was clearly not needed or even applicable, having to deal with things that were just a waste of time. And, a couple last minute items that should have been addressed weeks in advance. But, we got through it and were able to close on time.

Just Sold in San Jose for $3,350,000

Just Sold in San Jose for $3,350,000

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Just Sold in Fremont for $750,000…

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For this townhome that I sold in Fremont for $750,000, I was the agent for the seller, who was referred to me by our family friend. This was an interesting time to be selling, to say the least. We initially started communication in November, when the market was slow, nothing happening, homes sitting on the market, interest rates shockingly high to buyers after such low rates, buyers that were looking wanting a bargain, etc.

The seller told me her target price and I was not convinced in the least that I could make that happen. So, I asked her if she could wait out the market, see how things go, and I would let her know when the market started to pick up and when I felt I could hit the price she wanted to get for her home. She was not in a hurry to sell.

And, that is what we did! I watched the market, waited to see what would happen after the first of the year. January picked up a bit, and then in February, the market was really starting to change and become more of a seller’s market. And, once I thought I could hit that price, we connected and got the home prepped for sale and on the market!

The timing was great! We received 4 offers after the open house weekend. We had a great offer with a buyer that WAIVED all contingencies and was super strong. And, we were able to acheive getting the price she wanted for the home! Yay!

The transaction itself with the buyer was great! It was super smooth. The main issue was the HOA. The HOA dragged their feet big time on multiple occasions and nickeled and dimed the seller. It was horrible. At the end of the transaction, I was mainly thankful to not have to deal with the HOA anymore.

One thing I do want to bring up about this sale that may help others in the same situation, is that this home had a fire in the past. And, one thing that did come up for the buyer was securing insurance. The buyer was able to get insurance and in the end, it was all good. But, that is something a buyer may want to work on quickly once in contract, if a buyer buys a home that had an insurance claim to get a jump start on it.

Just Sold for $750,000

Just Sold in Fremont for $750,000!

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Is It a Good Time to Buy?

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If it is a choice between renting vs. buying, I tend to advise buying for all of the reasons I put in my last post that I wrote.

Inventory is still SUPER low, which keeps the prices from doing a complete free fall and keeps the real estate market relatively stable.

Mortgage rates aren’t bad, I checked today and I am seeing rates at about 5.25% and even lower for shorter term fixed rates. Before we were so spoiled, that interest rate would be quite good actually.

There is no competition on MANY homes and that typically opens doors to some negotiation for an even better price than the list price, especially if the home has sat on the market for some time.

Most homeowners that are selling in this market need to sell, so are motivated to do so.

This time of year is also typical for not as many buyers to be looking for a home regardless of the market, which gives those buyers looking even maybe more opportunity for a better price and terms.

The lower price will be locked in forever, the interest rate can be refinanced when the rates go down.

Renting is an 100% interest rate. No benefits at all to renting.

This market is especially good for buyers who typically can’t otherwise afford to buy with the softening of prices and/or can’t compete with other buyers when the market is hot. Also, buyers that want/need special programs, FHA, VA, low down payment buyers, first time buyer programs…this is the time.

Once the real estate market settles and it becomes more obvious that it is a ‘good time to buy’….guess what? You and EVERYONE ELSE will be ready to buy at the same exact time…and the market will be hot yet again, and there will be lots of competition and prices will rise quickly.

So, for those people that can’t compete at ultra high levels, you will once again, lose an opportunity to buy.

This is also a good time for all cash buyers that do not need financing because then the mortgage rate does not affect you, and there are some good deals to be had at this time.

This is my 27th year as a realtor. I have seen this cycle a few times and in my 27 year career, the lows don’t tend to last very long…but the highs tend to last for many years.

 

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My 2 Cents on the Real Estate Market…

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Yes, interest rates are up, but they are still considered overall not that high. And, at this point, the market for prices has come down enough to compensate for the higher rate. The other factor that is keeping the real estate market in the Bay Area fairly stable is that inventory is so incredibly low, there are not very many homes on the market, so that provides a sense of stability, the market didn’t become flooded with inventory.

Yes, inflation is a factor, although it seems to be leveling out.

Yes, Twitter and Meta and whoever else are laying off employees.

Yes, there are also currently more jobs than people seeking employment. Albeit, maybe not all of the available jobs are what people are seeking, but there are still a lot of jobs out there and an opportunity to lock in a job in a less competitive job market, that may have in the past been harder to obtain.

Renting a home is like paying a 100% interest rate, basically paying for a roof over your head with no other benefit. Over time interest rates tend to come down with stability in the market, so at some point, when the time is right, those who buy homes at these rates will be able to refinance. So, a buyer locks in a home at a lower price, due to the softening of the market, and that’s fixed. And, as a bonus, will be able to in the future, refinance for a lower rate. Locking in a home at a lower price also locks in lower property taxes.
Also, over time, owning a home is the best financial investment one can tend to make in years to come. It’s how the majority of people build their wealth, through homeownership and building equity and stability, and being able to have a good tax write off. Overall, most people want to own a home and have that stable life, make their home their own, maybe have pets, or whatever it may be for that more independent lifestyle as opposed to having a landlord that makes all the rules. Most people prefer to own once they can afford to do so, as opposed to renting forever.
Once you buy in a home, unlike rent, the payment is fixed, and won’t go up over time like rentals do. Renters have very little control over rent prices and increases.

 

So, just some food for thought. For those with a stable job and feel financially secure, it’s still a good time to buy, regardless of the increase in interest rate, since the prices have come down to compensate for the rate. Now that the home prices have softened, and the competition is mostly gone, I am seeing more buyers come out that could not afford to buy in the hot market, taking advantage of being able to lock in a home, as opposed to when the market was hot, prices were high, and these buyers just could not compete.

Some buyers that do not have the highest paying jobs now have an opportunity to squeak into homeownership. For those buyers who have stable jobs and feel financially secure, it may be a good opportunity to lock in a home, while prices are soft and buyers are more in control of negotiations and such.

I have found over the years that taking the oppportunity to buy when most people are not buying, really pays off in the end.

On the flip side, in my opinion, the only reason to sell in this market, is to have the opportunity to get a contingent sale through and also buy low and lock in the next home at a lower price. And, often when the market is hot, a buyer who has to sell a home in order to buy, just can’t even get their offer accepted. This would be a time in which more sellers would likely be open to negotiations and taking a contingent offer if they have no other options.

Otherwise, it’s not a great time to sell…unless there is a real need to do so.

Rent or Buy?

Rent or Buy?

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Just Sold in San Jose for $675,000…

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For this condo I sold in San Jose for $675,000, I was the agent for the sellers. I sold this condo to the sellers as their buyer’s agent back in 2007! And, I believe this is the 5th time working with these clients over the years!

Where do I start??? This listing was a doozy!!! Ahhh, so much to say, but I’ll try to keep it to the highlights.

Craziness happened even before the condo was listed. When my clients first reached out about selling this condo, the market was questionable at best for sellers. It was a hard call whether they should even list it for sale or just keep it as a rental until the market was more predictable.

We were going back and forth on if it was even the right time to list it. Another condo came up for sale in the community, the exact model and was getting little to no activity. So, we had a discussion that we surely did not want to compete with another condo just like theirs in this market and if they weren’t getting activity, there’s no logical reason we would do any better. So, we were on the road to not listing at all.

Then one day, the listing agent of that condo said she has a better than normal weekend and had 2 offers at once, and actually was able to get OVER the listed price. Come to find out, 1 offer was over the list price due to the competition, but the other offer was under the list price.

So, they took the over list price offer of course. And, that meant there was an actual buyer interested in this model! So, I went back to these clients to let them know the developments. And, that buyer was interested in the condo, so we thought we had an easy buyer!

Well, turns out, not so easy…The buyer was a VA buyer, and did make an offer, but I personally know that a there are certain things that need to be in order for a VA loan, so I advised my clients that we should not accept the offer until we know the VA will give a loan in this community.

I asked the agent to talk to the lender and make sure the VA would approve this community and that it would be a solid deal.

In the meantime, we decided to list the condo on MLS, knowing we had this buyer who wanted to buy the condo and then to see if there was anyone else out there in case this didn’t pan out.

The open house weekend was extremely slow, basically no real buyers even showed up, so we were very hopeful for the VA buyer. Come to find out, the VA has a requirement that the community is at least 50% owner occupied. And, this community falls short by literally 2 units!

The pending unit was going to be owner occupied, and then this VA buyer was going to be a owner occupant which would bring it up to 50%, but that’s only if the VA would accept this buyer to make it 50% AND we would have to wait for the pending sale to close.

Well, the VA buyer’s agent went MIA, just pretty much stopped communicating, which I thought was a bit rude, but also tells me that they didn’t want to move forward.

So, back to square one. At that point, we were getting just random showings, buyer’s agent calling with questions, and a few saying they thought they would be sending an offer, but then nothing would come of it. And, we did get a low ball offer that we countered, and then they changed their mind and nothing came of that offer.

And, then it went to just basically no showings at all. And, nothing was really happening.

So, once the listing was about to expire, and the sellers didn’t want to lower the price to see if that would spark interest, it seemed to just be a sign to take it off the market and rent it out again.

The listing expired, and within 1-2 days, a buyer’s agent calls me asking about it! He said his buyers had been looking for some time, were very interested, and my thoughts were…Where have you been the last 60 days??? Apparently, they were looking in a lower priced budget, but not finding anything, so were looking a bit higher in price for more options.

I had literally just removed the staging and was about to grab my lockboxes. I let the agent know he was welcome to show it, but the staging was gone, they could check the MLS photos and tour, but physically, it was empty.

He showed it, they loved it, and they made an offer. We negotiated a bit and then came to an agreement.

The transaction itself was a HUGE headache at multiple levels, it seemed nothing went smoothly. The buyer’s agent put in various contingency removal dates, rather than just have all contingencies removed on a date, or maybe 2 dates, but there were like 5 different dates! Who does that??

The buyers wanted updated HOA info since we didn’t have a most recent copy because we were taking it off the market. So, we had the bulk of the HOA docs, but not the last couple months in which we didn’t think we would even sell the place. The HOA was HORRIBLE in getting us the updated docs, so that took FOREVER and many calls, emails, texts, etc.

And, that caused delays in contingency removals not only for HOA, but also the loan.

Once we received all of the HOA docs, the buyers asked for a ridiculous credit because they claimed that the HOA was not financially strong. The HOA gets everything needed done, all is in order, the seller said they are always maintaining the community and it looks great. The sellers are not responsible for the health of the HOA financials, so the answer was a hard “no” for the seller to credit the buyer due to the HOA!

Also, the buyers had a home inspection, which is perfectly fine, but they were SUPER picky about nothing items. I understand if something reasonable comes up, but if it’s just small little maintenance items, not cool! And, they asked for a crazy credit for these little items. The sellers gave a generous credit, just to show they cared and proceed in good faith, but surely not what they asked for, and frankly, they should have never asked.

Also, I was chasing the buyer’s agent to remove their contingencies. None were removed on time, and since there were too many, I was reaching out for every single one, on multiple occasions to get me the contingency removals, or extensions, or whatever applied.

One of the sellers was out of the country, so he had to sign his final docs at the American Consulate. And, the other seller was mostly in the area but travels frequently. So, with all this extra paperwork floating around due to the contingencies and such, it was a lot for myself and my clients to have to sign more than usual paperwork and keep this contract together.

I worked on this listing even well before it was listed. And, then worked on the transaction pretty much every single day until the closing day. It was just one frustration after another. It’s in my top ‘worst transaction experiences ever’ category. The sellers were troupers going through this whole experience from pre-listing, listing, and then this crazy transaction.

But, in the end, we got it done! Praise God!

Just sold in San Jose for $675,000

Just sold in San Jose for $675,000

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