Author Archive

There is so much talk going on this week across the country about the proposed $700 billion government bailout and it can be very confusing about what it all means to us who are buying and selling homes here in the San Ramon Valley.  There is particularly relevant discussion in US News & World Report about how the bailout would affect interest rates.  Here’s my view from the perspective of a real estate broker who has to advise my clients every day continue

“What can we do to get more people through our open house?”  Tilton & I were hoping to find a buyer for this simply gorgeous bank owned mansion at 554 Wycombe Ct. in Norris Canyon Estates so we were brainstorming ways to increase traffic.  I had remembered hearing about ugly yellow signs which is something one of the real estate coaching gurus had promoted at one time so I popped that idea into the mix.  Hmmmmm.. sounds worth a try.

So off we go to our local friendly Fast Signs in San Ramon and pick up 6 pieces of yellow corrugated sign stock.. really cheap to buy and then we found the largest chisel point black sharpie we could find and made our signs.

This is where we could have titled this article “Not in MY backyard“  continue

When have you ever NOT seen any marketing from your neighborhood Realtor’s smiling face on their monthly postcard touting his/her amazing “customer service?” It’s gotten so cliche.  With all the noise we’re bombarded with daily you probably just subconsciously tune it out.

Well today we have a benchmark for customer service.  Somebody actually took the time to measure it… J.D. Power & Associates’ recent study has given Keller Williams Realty top overall marks among all other brokerages for customer service to home buyers!

“…“When buying a home, customers particularly appreciate agent professionalism, responsiveness to calls and e-mails and the agent’s skill in locating and showing properties in the appropriate price range—all areas in which Keller Williams excels… continue

Sunday my partner, Tilton, and I did another open house in Norris Canyon Estates at the only bank-owned home left in the community, 554 Wycombe Ct. The other bank owned home which had been on the market 5 MONTHS went pending late last week, which was the huge 6650 square foot elite model, and it’s going to close at $1,700,000 so the one on Wycombe, at 5,312 sq. ft, currently listed at $1,699,000 somehow just doesn’t compare in my mind.

Yes Wycombe has one of the best locations in all of Norris Canyon Estates… but still, how much is a (unlandscaped) lot worth? With 14 other homes still available we had plenty of people out looking and it’s hard to believe all the media hype about the terrible market when we had a constant parade of people all afternoon looking to spend $1 1/2 million on new digs.

Normally our open houses run three hours.. from 1-4 PM. Yesterday we had people already waiting as I pulled up to open at 12:45 and the traffic was thick all afternoon so we ended up continue