Contest Winner-$50.00 Gas Card August 2008

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The winner of this month’s drawing for a $50.00 gas card is Kathy Schwarzbeck!

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Congratulations Kathy, we’ll be sending you your $50.00 Chevron®   gas card right away.

And just for fun, we drew two other names for a $5.00 Starbucks® card.Starbucks

Natasha Flaherty & Jeanette Weisinger your Starbuck’s card is in the mail.

Thanks for joining us for this contest and responding to The Morgan Report Newsletter. Remember you can always register for our on-line version of the Newsletter here and help save a tree!

Frequently UNASKED Questions–Dual Agency REVEALED!

We begin our series—Frequently UNASKED Questions in a real estate transaction starting with one of the most misunderstood aspects—dual agency. Unasked3

Many web sites offer a link to their frequently asked questions and usually they’re pretty helpful since chances are your questions will be in the top ten. But what about the questions you don’t know to ask?

If you are new to buying or selling a home you may not know the most important questions to ask. We’ve started a series called Frequently Unasked questions to help shed some light on questions which should be asked, but frequently aren’t.

Download the complete Podcast (Download dual_agency.mp3) or subscribe to our feed. We discuss the intricacies of dual agency in a real estate transaction including the potential pitfalls and limitations.

If you’re considering having an agent represent you in a transaction you should stipulate up front how to handle dual agency if it crops up. Most are aware that dual agency happens when an agent represents the seller and a buyer in a transaction but few know that two different agents can still create a dual agency relationship.

What to expect in this Podcast:

·         Explaining dual agency.

·         How one elects or creates dual agency.

·         How to know if you are in a dual agency transaction.

·         How it works—what to watch out for.

·         To whom your agent has a fiduciary duty.

We begin our series—Frequently UNASKED Questions in a real estate transaction starting with one of the most misunderstood aspects—dual agency.

The information contained in this blog and Podcast is educational and intended for informational purposes only. It does not constitute real estate, tax or legal advice, nor does it substitute for advice specific to your situation. Always consult an appropriate professional familiar with your scenario.

FREE Gas Giveaway!

GasWe’re just two days away from our drawing for a FREE $50.00 gas giveaway card. If you receive our print newsletter you’ve probably already sent in your form, but if you’re a blog reader you can still enter by sending in this on-line version of the form.

And don’t forget you can help us go green by subscribing to the on-line version and you’ll be emailed once a month with market updates and our quarterly newsletter. Don’t worry, your email address will remain annonymous and we’ll never share it with anyone for any reason.

With gas prices recently dropping, this $50.00 gas card will go a lot farther than it did just a few weeks ago.

Good Luck! The winner will be announced on this blog August 20th so hurry and register!

Real Estate Fees REVEALED!

Be sure and get our Podcast where we discuss how to negotiate the best listing fee with your agent and how our variable rate fee structure works. Download Fees.mp3


This chart illustrates the correlation between the price a seller receives of their asking price and the days their home is on the market. Note that the optimum time to sell a home is in the first 14 days. Listen to our complete Podcast for a detailed explanation on how pricing your home right can net you more for your home and reduce the fees we charge!



Belmont Real Estate–Values are holding steady.

Anyone trying to understand the wild fluctuations in Belmont’s median home price need look no further than this chart.

We’ve tracked the median home price in Belmont over the last year—ever since the mortgage crises. What we were looking for was the impact it would have on home values. We sure were stunned to see a $200,000 median price increase last December, which lead us to go back and track the median size home selling too; this way, we could adjust for larger or smaller homes selling in a particular month.

Now that we’ve plotted the data, it’s easy to see that the dramatic swings in median value correspond directly to the large fluctuations in the size of the homes sold during a particular month.

Belmont only has 20 or so sales a month—sometimes far less—so just a few larger than average homes selling can really skew the true median price.

(click on the graph for a larger view)

Data retreived from the Multiple Listing Service–ProListing of San Mateo County

Belmont’s Best Deal for July 18th 2008

Best_deal_soldThis home wasn’t some fantastic steal of a deal but it was a really nice home. I say was because it was on tour Tuesday and has already sold. Who said the days of fast sales are over!

1612 Clee Street, Belmont

$848,500 2/1 1300 Sq. Ft.

Clee Street is a little known side street off of Chevy, another obscure street. Not many homes trade hands on either street. The neighborhood is part of the old golf course. The area was developed in the 1940’s for returning veterans after the golf course went bankrupt. It’s one of the few neighborhoods in Belmont with sidewalks and level streets making it ideal for the stroller set crowd or elderly.  And of course it’s always nice to walk on over to Vivace for dinner.

Best_deal_7182008 So our best value vote goes to East Laurel Creek. What this home lacks in traditional architecture it makes up for in its bucolic setting. It’s situated across from Sugarloaf Mountain preserve and is more reminiscent of a Tahoe cabin than a traditional home. In fact, inside when you look out upon nothing but trees you might think you are in Tahoe.

3324 E Lauel Creek, Belmont

3/2 1700 Sq. Ft. $768,500

So there’s no garage. At $768,500 we think there’s some real value there and real quality of life living for someone lucky enough to snag this home.

Peninsula Real Estate-A Market Update 7/8/2008

San Mateo County posted some interesting numbers for June 2008. Looking at the entire county is valuable since it’s a large market representation. In other words, small market sample idiosyncrasies have less impact in skewing the numbers. That said, San Mateo County also is comprised of radically varying micro-markets and therefore the overall numbers do not reflect any one particular city’s true performance.

For example, while San Mateo County’s median home price rose 11.8% in June of 2008 over the prior month of May, in Menlo Park the median price rose 28% while in Daly City it dropped 5.6%. Compared to June of 2007 it’s still down 12% for the county as a whole. So while some areas continue to see appreciation and growth, other areas are dragging down the numbers. Of course another way to look at it is areas like Menlo Park are artificially propping up the drastic drops in areas such as Daly City.

This graph illustrates the huge difference in local markets located within a few short miles of each other. Chances are if you don’t live in either of these two cities, the statistics for your city fall somewhere in between.

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Median price comparison for Menlo Park and Daly City dating back six quarters. Source Multiple Listing Service San Mateo County. ©2008 Drew Morgan all rights reserved.

Belmont Buyers–Now’s Your Chance

                                                                                                                                            Dsc_3909hallmark_2007Lots of large homes are on the market in Belmont while the inventory of homes for sale is  reaching a high not seen since 2003. Just 22 of the 52 homes for sale are listed under $1,000,000; while the median home currently for sale is just over 2,000 square feet, the median home in Belmont is only 1550 square feet.

And Inventory levels have hit near all time highs. There are currently 52 single family homes on the market and only twice in the last ten years has there ever been more—both times the U.S. was in a business cycle trough—the 2001 recession and again in 2003 during a mid cycle slowdown. We expect inventory level to grow even more in May and June of 2008.

In the past ten years there never has been a month with fewer sales than last month—March 2008 where Belmont had only five sales, except for the month before when there were only four sales. Normally, Belmont will have on average 23 per month; percentage-wise that equals only 18% or normal.

If you’re a Belmont seller and trying to sell during the peak period to obtain the highest price that window of opportunity has already passed. If you are a buyer interested in Belmont, there’s plenty to choose from and we expect favorable buying conditions to continue for at least the next year and probably well into 2010. But timing the market can be a fool’s game. While waiting for home values to drop interest rates may rise, offsetting any monetary gain.

Plenty of buyers have been waiting years for an opportunity such as the current buyer friendly market conditions to purchase a home—well, now’s their chance.

IF WE AREN’T ALREADY IN A RECESSION, WE COULD BE SOON

Bad_news A front page article in the Sunday edition of the San Francisco Chronicle titled "Lenders Retreat as Market Plummets" (Sam Zukerman-staff writer April 6, 2008) may frighten some people into cashing their home equity line checks fast.

The article states that many banks such as Bank of America, Country Wide Financial and Washington Mutual are freezing homeowner’s equity lines in fear of losing more money to foreclosures. Let’s hope Wells Fargo continues to believe in the Bay Area like Bank of America used to.

This could spell a downward spiral as lenders cut back on honoring equity lines that might just be the thing which could keep some folks from losing their homes. The opportunity to tap into existing equity to forestall a foreclosure, even just pay the bills may be just the shot in the arm credit worthy people might need yet now many banks appear poised to pull the plug.

Of course bank don’t want people spending their equity line of credit like they used to-especially if home values in their area have dropped significantly; but cutting them off may just send many more of their customers to the front of the foreclosure line.

IF WE AREN’T ALREADY IN A RECESSION, WE COULD BE SOON

This could spell more doom and gloom in the economy as less available cash for spending-or simply knowing that emergency cash flow could be cut, will likely be the nail in the coffin for economic growth this year.

It’s a calculated risk on the part of the banks-at least we hope they have calculated it. They don’t want to throw good money after bad but by freezing equity lines when people need them most they could mean they end up taking back more property than if they left these loans in place.

Allow Me to Think Out Loud…

Thinking The San Francisco Chronicle just splashed more bad news about the housing industry all over the front page of the Friday (March 14th) issue. Sales are down-way down. Part of the explanation seems to be that tightening lending standards have made it hard to afford a home since qualifying at artificially low teaser rates is no longer acceptable. Stated income loans are only available for self-employed individuals and Wall Street stopped buying mortgage backed securities so rates are up too.

Of course buyers who have been priced out of the market are now waiting to jump in at the bottom, which only adds to the rapid decrease in sales activity.

Timing couldn’t have been worse for Congress to approve raising the ceiling on federally backed mortgages from $417,000 to $729,950 in the Bay Area. Many buyers considering purchasing a home are enticed to wait out the market a little more to see if rates will drop further.

So if we had a crystal ball, we’d say that when the new higher conforming loan cap goes into effect, it’s just possible that many buyers will get off of the fence. And if they all do that at the same time, there just possibly could be competition once again for housing.  The biggest fear if you’re a buyer is you get in the market too early and your home’s value could go down before it goes back up; that’s a horrible position to be in if you have to sell while it’s down. The alternative is to get lucky and time it perfectly, or wait to see values going up and be assured you didn’t get the best deal. I don’t know for sure, but history tends to repeat itself and I’ll bet home values go up again sometime in our future. While everyone’s trying to guess when the bottom is not everyone will get it right.

Maybe buying before that happens would be a good idea. If rates do go down further, one could always refinance…