Category Archives: just sold

Just Sold in San Jose for $1,405,000…

Leave a reply

For this home I sold in San Jose for $1,405,000, I was the agent for the buyers, an awesome couple, who were referred to me by another client. The market was in the midst of changing from not so hot, to getting hotter, when this home came up for sale, in which some homes weren’t selling right away, or maybe getting 1 offer, and some homes were going pretty fast. For this home, it was a hot home. It is a great home, in great schools, and a great neighborhood, so there was a lot of interest.

We competed with about 5 offers, my clients wrote an amazing letter to the seller, which DID help us to get the home, coupled with my begging, pleading, and every negotiation skill I could ponder up with the listing agent. 🙂 We were not the highest offer, but the listing agent/seller gave us a second chance to come up to a price and terms that would be competitive with the top offer and we were able to lock in the home! Yay!

To lock in this home, the buyers had to pay well over list price and waive ALL the contingencies (loan, appraisal, and inspections). It was a very competitive bidding process, mainly due to the top rated schools, so buyers really wanted this home.

The transaction itself went very smooth and the buyers were excited to close the transaction and start making the home their own.

Just Sold in San Jose for $1,405,000

Just Sold in San Jose for $1,405,000

1,094 total views, no views today

Just Sold in Los Gatos for $2,200,000…

Leave a reply

For this home I just sold in Los Gatos for $2,200,000, I was the agent for the sellers, who were referred to me by a client I have worked with 2 times in the past, and a family member to the sellers. This home had been in the family for many years, I believe about 60 years, the sellers grew up in this home, so as you can imagine, it was a very emotional sale for everyone involved. The owner of the home passed and that was the reason for the sale. The sellers are siblings and such amazing people, they were such a pleasure to work with for the sale of their beloved home. It was so amazing how well they get along and worked together. They have such a great relationship, so heartwarming.

The market was slowly, but surely changing, so that was on our mind. We priced the home at what we all felt was a really good price for the home. The home is super unique, the location is amazing, walking distance to downtown Los Gatos, Daves elementary, Vasona Park. And, the lot is HUGE and so serene. The house itself is very unique, it’s not the type of home for all, but if it’s the type of home for you, there is instant love there. So, the big question of the day, since we knew location and lot size was superb, was more a matter of how many buyers would fall in love with this unique home.

We ended up with 3 offers for this home, all of which were below the listed price. I was a bit surprised the home did not reap at minimum list price, but at the same time, I realized the home itself, as amazing as it is, was really for the right buyers. And, it also needed TLC. The bones are great, but it has not been updated for decades, and these days, most buyers like a more modern look and remodeled homes and such.

The transaction itself was a little rocky. Once we were in contract, it seemed as if the buyers didn’t care about contractual dates, so I was constantly chasing down the buyer’s agent to keep things rolling and contingencies removed and such. And, response time from the buyer’s side was very slow, I often felt that I was being ghosted, unless there was something that the buyers wanted, and then all of the sudden things turned into now, now, now.

So, it got a bit draining to have the buyers go MIA and lag and have to continuously chase things down for the contractual obligations. And, then to appear out of nowhere and want something immediately. But, we managed to roll with the punches and get it done.

It was a bitter sweet moment to have the closing a success, but the end and closure of the ownership of the home for my clients, who had so many memories for so many years. When the home closed, I almost cried with the seller. It was a happy, but also emotional time.

Sold for $2,200,000!

Sold for $2,200,000!

1,162 total views, no views today

Just Sold in San Jose for $1,449,000…

Leave a reply

For this home I sold in San Jose for $1,449,000, I was the agent for the buyers. This is the 4th time I have worked with these clients over the years! The purchase of this home was contingent of the sale of their townhome, which didn’t exactly go as expected, but we got it done. Coordinating the purchase of this home with the sale of the townhome was a bit of a balancing act, but in the end, we were able to get the 2 lined up to make it happen.

Just Sold in San Jose for $1,449,000

1,004 total views, no views today

Just Sold in Santa Clara for $930,000…

Leave a reply

For this townhome I sold in Santa Clara for $930,000, I was the agent for the seller, who actually bought this townhome with me as well. Fun story, I sold his wife a condo some years back, she referred me to this client, they ended up getting married, and now they were selling this townhome to buy a SFR together.

When the market is changing and a bit uncertain, there are certain things that come up and become more important to buyers, than when the market is hot and buyers are competing and seem to buy anything they can get their hands on. In this case, we thought this home would sell for at least $1m. It’s a great home, great location, all signs point to a hot home that will sell fast with competition. In fact, it was registering as a hot home on the consumer sites.

But, what became a bigger issue than ever possibly anticipated here were the HOA dues. The HOA dues for this community are $546/month and it was literally a deal breaker for a number of buyers. I realize it’s on the higher side, but I’ve sold numerous communities with high dues before with no issue whatsoever, but in this market, paying that price point plus those HOA dues just kind of tipped people over the edge and it was a bit shocking.

The bummer for the seller was that there is actually going to be a meeting to lower the dues and take out a ‘perk’ that no one seems to want anyway. But, of course, we can’t guarantee that will happen and the dues will decrease. And, the sellers found a home they really wanted to buy, so they wanted to move forward and not wait around for that meeting to see if the dues would indeed go down, so it was a Catch 22. There just seemed to be this balance with buyers where they tapped out at this price range in order to compensate for the high dues, and that sale price is where it seemed to tap out.

Since the sellers found a home they loved and really wanted to buy, they didn’t want to wait for the HOA dues to go down, or the market to go up, and decided to just move forward so they could buy the home they really loved.

The transaction itself went fairly smooth, there was some frustration, the buyers were somewhat difficult to deal with, but we muddled through it.

At the end of the day, it is often difficult to buy and sell at the same time. If a client has to sell a home in order to buy a home, this type of thing can easily come up, where the clients are in a stressful situation on either the buying side or the selling side…or both sides frankly. I realize in many cases it feels like the only way to make the transition, but anytime one has to sell in order to buy, there can be a lot of pressure and the negotiations can be tough and sometimes end up not in their favor.

Sold in Santa Clara for $930,000

Sold in Santa Clara for $930,000

1,800 total views, no views today

Just Sold in San Jose for $845,000…

Leave a reply

For this home I just sold in San Jose for $845,000, I was the agent for the seller, who bought this home back in 2012, at that time, I was also the listing agent! They bought this home with their own buyer’s agent back in 2012, and it was so exciting when they contacted me to tell me that they felt I did a really good job representing the home last time it was on the market, that they wanted me to be the listing agent again for their sale! It was so amazing that they remembered me as the listing agent from years ago and that I made such an impression on them to want to work with me. So, this is the 2nd time I have sold this home.

The market is a little more unpredictable than usual, but this home was HOT! In combination with the location, views, home itself, lot, and price point, I had a HUGE turnout for the open house weekend and many offers on this home. In fact, this home had the busiest open house weekend that I have had for some time since the market slow down. It was a special home that is just one of a kind, where buyers were just really attracted to it, plus the views are amazing, and at this price point, it was super popular.

The sellers picked an offer that was well over list price, ALL CASH, 7 day closing, ‘as is’ sale, and the buyer waived ALL contingencies. It was a VERY smooth escrow process and closing. And, the buyers were a super sweet family, so I was excited to see them get it.

1,278 total views, no views today

Just Sold in Santa Clara for $2,100,000…

Leave a reply

For this home I just sold in Santa Clara for $2,100,000, I was the agent for the sellers who are moving out of the Bay Area. It was a long process from start to finish, in that they needed their kids to finish the school year, and do some things for prepping the home, so it took months to prep and also have the home ready at a time in which they could work with the timing of the school year ending.

Over that time, the market was shifting, and we just paid close attention to try to best capitalize on the right timing for selling and also realistic timing for staying until the end of the school year.

It was a bit of a rocky ride monitoring the market, because we were noticing the market changing and we wanted to make sure we made this all work. The sellers did a lot over the course of time to prep the home, so it really did look amazing when it was ready for sale. Some key things they did to really dial it in for curb appeal made a huge difference. They had already spend a lot of money on upgrades over the years when they were just living there and not in the market to sell. So, the upgrades truly were over the top and super high end.

One thing that I personally noticed prior to listing the home was that the county records did not match the actual house in that the bedroom count was off. The county records were showing 4 bedrooms, when the home is actually 5 bedrooms. So, that was something I asked the seller get corrected right away so that there were no questions about it. And, it truly is per the county, a 5 bedroom home, so the county just simply made some kind of error and did update their system to get that corrected. That can take time, so anytime county records are incorrect, it’s a really good idea to get that corrected, so that when one does go to sell, they aren’t dealing with that at the 11th hour. It takes time for the online sites and records to catch up to the county records, sometimes many months. So, it’s good to get that taken care of well in advance.

When we listed the home, due to the superb home condition and location, the expectations were high for this particular home, so when the open houses were not as busy as expected, it really was a sure sign that the market was slowing down. Thankfully, we did get a full priced offer after the first open house weekend, and a buyer that would work with us for the timing of the school, and we also had some additional interest. It just didn’t go as it would have last year at the same time, where we would have likely had 10+ offers. But, luckily, the right buyer came along and it was all good.

I know not to say “I have seen it all in my 24 years as a real estate agent”, because every time I feel I have been through basically everything, and really have seen it all, something new happens. And, in this case, there were 2 things that popped up that were quite stressful frankly. Thank God, both of these things came up BEFORE we accepted the offer and went into contract, so that we could alert the buyers of the situation BEFORE everything was said and done, so really, that was a true blessing. I felt very thankful for finding out in advance.

I received a call from the City of Santa Clara telling me there had been a complaint filed in regard to the shed, actually, it appeared the complaint was something about a water pipe on the shed, or something of that nature. Apparently, someone saw a water pipe on the shed during my open house weekend, and called the city about it. But, to this day, I don’t know if the complaint was truly about that water pipe, or the people were trying to get the City out to see that shed too close to the fence without the proper set back. Mind you, this is a VERY nice shed built on a foundation! It wasn’t old or raggety, it was really nice and no way did the seller or buyer want it to go away. But, the City called it and made the sellers remove the shed. The shed had been there for years and the seller told me that when they bought the home over 10 years ago, the shed was there, and that’s how they bought the house. They didn’t build the shed. So, that was SUPER stressful for the seller to get the shed removed and we also had to let the buyer know, that they were buying this home without the shed, sorry! Ugh!

And, since the City had been contacted with the complaint in regard to the shed, apparently, the City Inspector was reviewing the file for the home itself for some reason and noticed that there were never final permits filed on some of the remodel work that was done to the house. This work had been completed a couple of years ago, and it was done by a licensed contractor who assured them all was in order, everything was signed off, and they had permits. The sellers had all the paperwork and there were initials and things looked in order, but apparently, the actual final sign off was not complete, which means the contractor did not complete his job and the sellers had no idea. So, not only did the sellers have to remove the shed on a whim, but now they had to get a final permit on all the remodel work they did a couple years ago, the contractor was nowhere to be found, and they have to scramble to make this happen, while also dealing with the shed situation. So, it was a stressful time for the seller, to say the least.

I will say, and I did explain this to the sellers, that really, we were VERY blessed to find this out in advance, and not during the transaction when there would not be enough time to correct the issues and/or having to give this new info to the buyers during our transaction. And, to top it off, it was best that this happened while they were still the owners, and not have the buyers close on the transaction, and then find this info out months later. That would have been all bad. So, as frustrating as it was, I really felt we were lucky to get this all resolved and be able to pass over to the buyers, a home that had everything in order and no surprises down the road.

I think that once the sellers left the area, they were relieved to put this all behind them. It was a LOT to make such a big move, selling this home, buying out of the area, these surprises to pop up out of nowhere. It was just a LOT! But, now it’s all over and they can move on to the next chapter of life!

I guess the moral of this story, is when you think you are getting work done with permits, make 100% sure that everything if signed off and finaled by the city inspector. If you don’t know where to look, then go to the city and have them show you that it’s complete, don’t rely on the contractor. And, when you have a shed or any kind of structure really close to a fence, know that it very likely does not have the proper set back, and you just never know when someone may tell on you.

Just Sold in Santa Clara for $2,100,000!

Just Sold in Santa Clara for $2,100,000!

1,266 total views, no views today

Just Sold in Capitola for $1,100,000…

Leave a reply

For this home I sold in Capitola for $1,100,000, I was the agent for the buyers, who wanted to buy a vacation home. This is my 2nd time working with these clients. Years ago they bought their first home with me in San Jose.

I won’t even sugar coat it, this sale was frustrating from Day 1 and continued to be frustrating to the very end and beyond. The sellers were completely off radar for the reality on the current value of the home. They listed the home for $1.2m, my clients were interested very soon after the home went on the market and we made an offer for $1.1m, being the max the buyers felt the home was worth.

Well, come to find out, the sellers listed at $1.2m, expecting to get at least $1.4m, so they would not even consider the $1.1m offer. Ok, no problem, it was newer to the market, so we just sat back and waited. We figured, if it was meant to be, it would be. I reached out to the listing agent periodically to see if the sellers achieved a reality check over time. Well, not only did they not have a reality check, but were upset and felt they listed to low, even though they only got our 1 offer and nothing else! So, they actually raised the price to $1,350,000. How well do you think that went??? Not good…so they again lowered the price to $1.2m and then did manage to get an offer higher than our $1.1m offer, but lower than the $1.2m list price.

So, we figured it was not meant to be and moved on. Well, come to find out, that deal fell through, and it was back on the market. The sellers at this point felt more motivated to sell, and 93 days later…they accepted our $1.1m offer and we were in contract.

The transaction itself was rocky at best. The sellers were just not easy to deal with and frankly I had hoped another property would come along that was the perfect match, because I personally didn’t want to deal with these people. But, emotions aside, the buyers loved the home and location, so we needed to make this happen, regardless of who we were dealing with as sellers.

Long story shorter, through trials and tribulations, we managed to get through it all, including a sewer lateral upgrade during escrow that almost wasn’t completed in time, the seller wanting to leave things behind so that they didn’t have to go back to pick them up, and then when the buyers didn’t want all their stuff left behind, but would take some of it, the sellers decided to get back at them by taking items that the buyer said they could leave and actually wanted.

The good news is it all worked out and the buyers are really happy with the home and excited. It’s their dream to have a home near the beach. It’s an amazing location. And, I’m sure they will make countless wonderful memories there.

Just Sold in Capitola For $1,100,000

Just Sold in Capitola For $1,100,000

1,602 total views, 3 views today