Author Archives: Karen

Just Sold in Fremont for $505,000…

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For this condo I just sold in Fremont for $505,000, I was the agent for the sellers, who bought this condo with me as their buyer’s agent about 3.5 years ago! They were ready to make the move from a condo to a SFR.

The condo market during the pandemic has not been as predictable as the SFR market, condos are not as ‘hot’ as they used to be, even though the SFR market is crazy. Also, this condo is technically a 1 bedroom, but has a great room upstairs that can be used as another bedroom/office/den/etc. I really wanted to make sure with the marketing and advertisting that buyers didn’t miss that there was indeed a 2nd room and would consider this condo who may need that 2nd room, but see the 1 bedroom in the main specs and just pass it by.

So, I advertised it as 2 bedrooms, but disclosed right in the listing itself that it was actually 1 bedroom with a 2nd room, and let buyer’s decide if that 2nd room worked for them if they truly needed a 2nd bedroom, or that the 2nd room worked for their needs.

It was a hit and success to advertise as such because it brought out many buyers who would have not even given it a chance if they would have thought it was just 1 bedroom with no other usuable 2nd room to utilize as a bedroom/office/den/etc.

We received multiple offers and sold for OVER the listed price, which is very impressive for a ‘one’ bedroom condo in the pandemic market! The transaction itself was super smooth and seamless. The buyer waived ALL contingencies and had a huge down payment. I feel we received a higher price than if we would have advertised just the 1 bedroom and hoped for the best, that buyers would actually look a little deeper to click on the listing and notice the 2nd room on their own…I was pretty doubtful buyers would do that if they were looking for at least 2 rooms.

Sold in Fremont for $505,000!

Sold in Fremont for $505,000!

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Just Sold in San Jose for $982,000…

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For this townhome I just sold in San Jose for $982,000, I was the agent for the sellers. They actually bought this townhome with me about 3 years ago as their buyer’s agent, and recently had the opportunity to buy their parent’s home who moved to Arizona. Lucky!

We received a very strong offer after the open house weekend and the sellers jumped on it. The buyers were really excited about this home and came in over the listed price and waived ALL contingencies. The transaction itself was super smooth and seamless. Such a wonderful transaction there’s actually not much to say. haha. The best kind!

Just Sold in San Jose for $982,000!

Just Sold in San Jose for $982,000!

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Just Sold in Hayward for $900,000…

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For this home I just sold in Hayward for $900,000, I was the agent for the buyers. The buyer’s father who I sold a home to 18 years ago referred me his daughter! I remember her as a young child and now she is all grown up and buying her own home! Amazing!

The search was intense because at this price range, it’s super hot and competitive and getting harder and harder to find a home under $1m. In fact, we started more-so in Fremont, and went a little East to Hayward to find the right price point in order to get the type of home they wanted and needed.

For this home we were neck and neck with another buyer. My clients wrote a very compelling letter to the seller and I feel that also helped us lock in this home. I also begged and pleaded with the listing agent to work with me since the search was so tough in this range and they had already lost out on a few homes.

The transaction itself was basically horrible when it came to the loan. The buyers chose Quicken and it was a nightmare. I am always concerned when buyers choose online lenders and lenders that are not local who bounce buyers around to different points of contacts throughout the process. I did warn them that I was concerned about this choice, but apparently, the person that referred them had good success and they were offering a great rate so they wanted to stick with Quicken.

They sent out a horrible appraiser, not even local to the area, and the appraisal came in low. We tried to fight it. I sent my own comps. I tried to go up the ladder, see if we could get a 2nd opinion, etc, etc. The buyers also tried to stand their ground. And Quicken would not budge. And, in fact, the buyers had to change around their loan program to not as good of a deal, in order for Quicken to close on the loan. I did offer for the buyers to talk to my loan officer, but at that point, they were just done and wanted to close and get their home.

It all worked out in the end, we closed, but the frustration and stress of working with Quicken Loans was an ongoing misery and battle until closing day. And, the original loan officer who initiated the loan and was the first point of contact, just completely disappeared from the scene and was no help at all, whatsoever.

They were excited to get their keys! They gave the seller a free month of rent back, so when we closed, they still had to wait a month for the keys. When they finally got into their home, they were really happy!

Sold in Hayward for $900,000!

Sold in Hayward for $900,000!

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Just Sold in Monte Sereno for $2,088,954…

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For this home I sold in Monte Sereno for $2,088,954 I was the agent for the buyers. This was the 5th time we have worked together! Wow! Love it! This is a new community so the transaction was quite smooth and seamless. We were able to work in some things that the buyers wanted that were not part of the original upgrades, so that was nice to be able to get a few things the buyers wanted that weren’t part of the intial plan and the builder was willing to work with us. And, we were able to negotiate on price, which is unheard of these days and in this market.

I wasn’t expecting the call from my clients that they wanted to buy a home locally. I had recently sold their home in Fremont and they mentioned they may be going out of state. Their plans drastically changed, so to my pleasant surprise, they bought this home and are staying in the area. 🙂

Just sold in Monte Sereno for $2,088,954

Just sold in Monte Sereno for $2,088,954

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Just Sold in San Mateo for $1,320,000!

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For this home I sold in San Mateo for $1,320,000, I was the agent for the buyers. This was our 2nd time working together. They wanted to buy a bigger home with a yard. The market for this area and price point is super hot, so competition is fierce. We got lucky on this home. The seller was pretty attached to her home and the personal letter from my buyers really made an impact. We also wrote a solid offer, of course. We did face fierce competition, but we got it! The transaction itself was super smooth and seamless. All went very well!

Just Sold in San Mateo for $1,320,000!

Just Sold in San Mateo for $1,320,000!

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Just Sold in Saratoga for $4,550,000…

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For this home I sold in Saratoga for $4,550,000, I was the agent for the buyers and this was our 2nd transaction together. The actual search was a long one in that they were looking for their ‘forever home’ after over 10 years in their first home, it took about 10 months of looking, but they finally found ‘the one’.

After all those months, they actually only made 2 offers! This home was a very hot home and super competitive, there were 10 offers, and we were not even the highest offer, but we were decently close. I got super lucky in that the agent, who was also the seller, and this was her first transaction ever as an agent, on her own home, wasn’t too thrilled with the agent who submitted the top offer.

Apparently, she didn’t really connect with that agent and preferred to work with me, so gave us the opportunity to match the highest and best bid, and we got it! We had to go $770,000 OVER the listing price, no, that is not a typo. And, of course, as with most offers, the buyers  had to waive ALL contingencies, loan, appraisal and inspections.

The transaction hit a snag when 1 of the appraisals came in low. In this price range, the banks require 2 appraisals, 1 came in just fine, the other came in quite low. The appraiser who did the low appraiser was just absolutely horrible and very unprofessional. So, we had to fight that appraisal, which of course, no appraiser likes, but this appraiser actually used a pending comp, using the list price, not the sale price, which happened to be hundreds of thousands of dollars higher. He also used a very old 2020 comp, the comps were just a mess, and he even had flat out incorrect data on the report.

So, we had to go back and forth and it took a group effort for all involved to get the appraisal up. I’m assuming he was bitter, because even in the end, he didn’t bring it up to the full value, but he did raise it a LOT. And, we were able to muddle through the drama and successfully close the transaction. But, it did cause delay and then last minute 11th hour rushing to close on time.

Just Sold in Saratoga for $4,550,000

Just Sold in Saratoga for $4,550,000

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Just Sold in San Jose for $1,610,000…

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For this home I just sold in San Jose for $1,610,000, I was the agent for the seller. This was our 2nd transacton together, in that he also bought this home with me 10+ years ago!

This was such a crazy one! As many know, pretty much every home sells after the first weekend with mulitple offers and high levels of competition, which of course, we anticpated as well. It’s a great home, great neighborhood, great floor plan, desirable schools, great zip code, has a pool which is super popular these days, and just checks all the boxes, basically.

After the first weekend, I received a number of calls, interest, etc, but no offers! Agents saying they were writing, etc, etc, but then 1 by 1, they just bailed and/or went MIA. My only explanation was that maybe buyers felt the competition would be too fierce, and then there ended up being none at all after the weekend.

So, the next week comes along…mind you, this would have been a major shoe in for any buyer to NOT compete…and all of the sudden, I get 3 offers all at once! And, the competition ended up being super fierce between those 3 parties, all of which fighting to the death for this home. 2 buyers of which had seen the home the weekend before when we ended up with no offers! Any of which if they would have written an offer ANY sooner, could have bought this home for a LOWER price since there was no one competing. How crazy is that???

Of course, the seller was happy, in that we were both just blown away after the first weekend wondering where everyone went…but then we ended up with the level of competition we expected to get after the first weekend and also the price we hoped for, so thank God, it worked out so well.

It was such a hard decision for the seller because all 3 offers were so close in price and terms, and it was just so hard to choose, going back and forth, and then just getting that last highest and best offer in, and the seller just made the call. Luckily, it all worked out for the seller and the price he wanted to achieve.

The transaction itself was very smooth and seamless, the buyer waived ALL contingencies, loan, appraisal and inspections, and at that point, the buyers were very relieved to be the ‘chosen one’ after such fierce unexpected competition.

Just Sold in San Jose for $1,610,000

Just Sold in San Jose for $1,610,000

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Just Sold in Fremont for $2,480,000…

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For this home I sold in Fremont for $2,480,000, I was the agent for the sellers. This is our 4th time working together and they also bought this home with me! We received about 10 offers on this home and 1 offer stood out from the rest and was truly the ‘golden ticket’. The transaction itself was super smooth. The buyer waived ALL contingencies (loan, inspections, and appraisal), and offered $285,000 over the listed price, so it was a smooth ride all the way to closing.

Just Sold in Fremont for $2,480,000

Just Sold in Fremont for $2,480,000!

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Just Sold in San Jose for $450,000…

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For this condo I just sold in San Jose for $450,000, I was the agent for the seller. This is my 2nd time working with this client in that she bought this condo with me about 8 years ago and just moved to Texas.

The condo market is not crazy hot like the SFR market, so things aren’t as much as a ‘given’ when it comes to pricing and selling condos these days. We tried to price on the aggressive side in hopes for more than 1 buyer to compete at some level to get good price and terms. But, with the condo market, you just never know.

Luckily, the sale of this condo ended up going quite well. We did have an offer and a buyer we were just about to work with and then this better offer came in at the 11th hour, so both the seller and I were happy to see this offer come in and be able to work with the better offer in the end. So, we did indeed end up with more than 1 offer.

The transaction itself was fairly smooth, with a couple of bumps, but nothing too dramatic. Overall it was ok, not the easiest transaction ever, but nothing too out of control.

This client moved to Texas, and for the amount she sold this condo for, she’s buying a brand new huge SFR for about the same price…actually, I think it may be even lower!

Sold in San Jose for $450,000!

Sold in San Jose for $450,000!

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Just Sold in Sacramento for $1,175,000…

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For this property I just sold in Sacramento, this transaction was a 1031 exchange, the buyer selling a SFR for a multi unit property. This property has 6 units with a possibility of 7. We were lucky in that the seller was willing to accept an offer contingent on the sale of the SFR, which we knew would sell fast, but still not always an easy task convincing a seller to take a sale of home contingency.

The transaction itself was pretty smooth for the most part. This was kind of a flip sale, the seller only owned it about a year, but did a lot of work to the property and then filled it with tenants. He initally wasn’t planning to sell so soon, but apparently, the more work he did, and the longer he was a landlord, he decided to sell. We expected that the home and termite inspectons would go really well, since he is a contractor, and had done a lot of work, but we were a little surprised at how much work still needed to be done as well as some things we felt he kind of cut corners or didn’t complete how we would hope for.

We did go back and ask for some repairs to be done by him, he did some of the items, not all that we asked for, but we negotiated back and forth until we came up with something both parties could agree on.

Overall, it’s a great property, at a great price, and great rental opportunity. There was more work to be done than anticipated, but still a definite win.

Just Sold in Sacramento for $1,175,000

Just Sold in Sacramento for $1,175,000

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