Silicon Valley Real Estate Blog – 1SiliconValley.com

There it was.  The orange house.  The bright orange house.  The newly-painted bright orange house.  The neighbors stood aghast as they watched each stroke cover more of the nondescript color, the one nobody could remember now.  That lost color may as well have been green because they couldn't imagine themselves living next to the Great Pumpkin, much less convincing someone else to pay for the privilege.

This story doesn't happen to come from Silicon Valley's real estate circle but it's an illustration of individual property rights.  Whose, though?  As you can see, the story is different if you're the painter or the onlooker — and because Silicon Valley has such limited space geographically, what one person does with their property often affects many others positively or negatively.

When you purchase a home in a homeowners association (HOA), you get a set of benefits in exchange for your monthly HOA fee.  (See the article The Impact of Homeowners Associations on Purchasing Decisions.)  But you also explicitly agree to play by the set of rules established by the HOA, in the cryptically-named CC&Rs: it's covenants, conditions and restrictions.

For many people, judging an HOA by benefits versus the monthly dues is sufficient.  Others prefer to pay a lower HOA fee for fewer services.  It's a topic deep enough for there to be companies that specialize in evaluating homeowners associations, but with an hour or two of scanning and reading HOA documents, usually included a home's disclosure packet, you can evaluate how well an HOA will work for you.

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Aug.16.2007 [ Filed under: Home Buyers, Silicon Valley News ] 2 Comments »

Not prejudging.  Some things are pretty easy to quantify: number of bedrooms, number of bathrooms, price range, and cities.  Then when you plug those parameters into a home search, you can usually find a pretty long laundry list of homes that meet the criteria you put in.  What’s difficult (actually, impossible) to tell the real estate search engine is why you chose those parameters.

You have reasons that are important.  It might be that you need the extra bedroom as a home office, or that you’d prefer another master bedroom because you have a lot of house guests.  It might be that when you come home from work, you want to feel like you’re in a completely different world, but actually have only a ten minute Silicon Valley commute.  It might be that your child has special needs and that school district provides an exceptional environment.  It might be that you need a prestigious address in order to maintain or establish your status in your profession.

Some reasons are easier for my clients to talk about than others.  (See the article Determining Your Must-Haves When Buying a Home.)  And that’s the reason why I feel it’s critically important to look at your home search from your perspective, without bias or judgment.  After all, ensuring your goals are met (and that delirious happiness that I’m always referring to happens) first requires a discovery phase of sorts to develop a true understanding of the issues at hand.

My clients often ask themselves a number of questions before they contact me and I’d like to share with you some of their thought process.

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Jul.31.2007 [ Filed under: Home Buyers, Silicon Valley News ] 1 Comment »

It's all about proximity.  This month, I took a look at the semi-annual statistics aggregated for the first-half of the year so that my clients can get a good look at the overall trends, as opposed to the bumps in the road.

The story isn't about the median prices, which are charted further down in this article; what's interesting is the consolidation of pricing power around the center of Silicon Valley.  I alluded to this increase last month, but the half-year figures distinctly highlight this strength, with the epicenter squarely in Mountain View.

In the first-half of 2006, an average single-family home sale would command 101.98% of the list price — about 2% over the asking price — but in the first-half of 2007, that percentage jumped to 104.56%.  The increase in Mountain View's neighbors Palo Alto, Los Altos and Sunnyvale, is less drastic, but still pronounced, as illustrated below. 

In fact, inventory of single-family homes in Mountain View and Los Altos is at its lowest point in ten years, with Mountain View equaling the low it reached in 2005 (lower than any other point since 1998).

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Jul.23.2007 [ Filed under: Market Updates, Silicon Valley News ] 2 Comments »

I've updated my book on buying a home in Silicon Valley with what the Silicon Valley real estate market cycle has looked like over the last decade and how to prepare your money when buying a home.

Thanks to everyone who's written kudos for the book on its download page and the initial announcement.  Since it's first publication on May 1, 2007, the Silicon Valley Home Buyers Book has been downloaded just over 1,000 times!

Jun.17.2007 [ Filed under: Home Buyers, Silicon Valley News ] Comment Here »

It's out there.  And if you're going to spend more than a quarter of what you make each month on it, we're going to find the right one for you. 

But it doesn't end there.  The process of buying a home in Silicon Valley is considered by a lot of folks to be stressful — and part of the stress comes from the shrouded mystery of the process itself.  Some people want to know all the details behind the process, others just want to know what the terms are and where they need to sign.  But neither wants anything to go wrong.

The process simple to talk about.  From a buyer's perspective, finding what you're looking for is the first step.  After which, there's making an offer and getting it accepted by the seller.  Then, come the appraisal and inspections.  And if everything checks out, you're ready to lift any contingencies, write a check for the down payment, and get your keys.

Simple!  Wink.

Which is really the crux of the matter.  It's simple to talk about but there are a lot of moving parts.  My clients know, though, that I grease the wheels and let them know where they have both the control and influence to help the process go more smoothly.  It's not always easy but there are ways we can make it less stressful. 

After all, buying Silicon Valley real estate should be simple, and it starts with a good property search.  (I'll cover the other phases in future articles.)

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Jun.13.2007 [ Filed under: Home Buyers, Silicon Valley News ] Comment Here »

It's a job interview, for a position that lasts for anywhere from the next few years to decades into the future.   And there are hundreds, if not thousands, of candidates eager to be the chosen one.  Some candidates don't make the cut because they're too far from work or they don't have the right school system. 

Others get first interviews, with the traffic that new resumes tend to attract on the MLS, but they get few callbacks and what offers drop in are filed where they belong.  The proud parents: they tap their feet anxiously as they shift uncomfortably on the increasingly hard bench in the waiting room, wondering why.  

I knew her Silicon Valley home wouldn't be like that.  Hers was the second on the market and the two weren't apples and oranges.  We spoke at length about the alternative home in the neighborhood, and the analysis was pretty simple because, while this was a prestigious subdivision, there were precious few differences between the floorplans of any of these Silicon Valley homes.  The appliances, the granite in the kitchen, the marble in the bathrooms — all were included upgrades at the same quality, if not the same color.  

But she felt the very thought of it was insane.  "That home has been sitting on the market for weeks now.  I went to an empty open house there just last week.  How are we supposed to get a better price than the other one without upgrading everything?"  The devil is in the details.

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Jun.02.2007 [ Filed under: Home Owners, Silicon Valley News ] Comment Here »

"That’s a lot sooner than I expected," she said as we walked out of the open house towards my car.  He nodded and I mentally went back over my notes about their priorities.  We hadn’t seen that many homes so I wanted to ask a few gentle questions to make sure they were getting what they wanted before putting in an offer. 

This wasn’t their first time buying a home.  Their family had done it a couple times before, here in Silicon Valley and in a different state.  But each time, there was a mad dash.  "It was never clear when we needed the money," she intimated after taking a sip from her water bottle.  She and her husband looked at each other with a knowing glance and he chimed in, "We lost a couple places because of liquidity before."

There are a lot of moving parts in buying real estate, but for the buyer, the lynchpin for the transaction — and the greatest source of stress — is getting money to the right place at the right time.  I want to ensure that my clients have a transaction that’s as stress-free as possible, and part of that is reducing the uncertainty in the process. 

Here are some of the tips I provide my clients on how to prepare their money for buying a home and they impact the strength of their purchase offers.

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May.30.2007 [ Filed under: Home Buyers, Mortgages, Silicon Valley News ] 3 Comments »

They found it.  Sort of.  Sure, most of the buzz in the area goes to Santana Row and Westfield's Valley Fair, and it gets overlooked when driving to eBay's distinct presence on the other side of San Jose's border.  Add the fact Campbell doesn't carry the obvious prestige its neighbor to the south, Los Gatos and it's easy to think that the city is just easy access to 280, 85 and 17.

Campbell is a hidden gem of Silicon Valley real estate — a place with an undeservedly brusque reputation, relatively inexpensive homes, a strong town center at the Pruneyard, and an improving historic downtown area.  Yes, there are pockets of Campbell which a lot of folks are put off by, but builders are betting on a very bright future there as evidenced by the Onyx and Park Town Place developments. 

The two schools Campbell Union High School District, Del Mar High and Branham High, recently received their first California Distinguished School award.  And the numbers say that Campbell is completely hidden no longer.  But that big spike in townhome and condo prices isn't what most people think.

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Apr.30.2007 [ Filed under: Campbell, Silicon Valley News ] 1 Comment »

One Macy's, one Target and one very unused shopping mall on 25 acres of prime downtown real estate.  The City of Sunnyvale approved the demolition of the long-shuttered Sunnyvale Town Center Mall not long after Friday sale of the 25-acre site to Downtown Sunnyvale Mixed Use LLC, a partnership between real estate investment manager RREEF and Sand Hill Properties (see my previous article Downtown Sunnyvale Revitalization Gets Desperately Needed Kickstart).

Bolstered by the recent success of the Vallco Mall re-branding to Cupertino Square, the downtown Sunnyvale project includes the creation of a "Redwood Square" which features the six stalwart redwood trees whose preservation is a critical component of the new revitalization. 

The complete redevelopment area includes (basically) the area enclosed by Mathilda, El Camino Real, Carroll, and Evelyn.  Macy's and Target will remain open during the process, and a new single-story Target built above a parking structure is planned to replace the current double-decker Target.  No word yet on what kids in the store will do for fun without the shopping cart escalator.

Apr.29.2007 [ Filed under: Silicon Valley News, Sunnyvale ] 1 Comment »

I confirmed that, beginning Monday next week, Cupertino Square will be holding several charity events (not open to the public) leading up to the ribbon cutting at the AMC Cupertino Square 16 movie theater on Friday, April 27.

The Cupertino Chamber of Commerce is offering previews on Wednesday during its mixer from 5:30-7:00pm, with movies at 7:10.  Tickets are $5 and they're advertising free popcorn.

Apr.20.2007 [ Filed under: Cupertino Square, Silicon Valley News ] 1 Comment »