Sometimes when I meet prospective clients who are thinking of selling their home, I hear immediately, “we only want to sell As Is”.  In the next breath, they tell me, “and we want top dollar for our house”.  Those two are often mutually exclusive desires - that is, getting one usually means you won’t get the other.  But not always, and I’ll show you how to increase the odds of doing both.

To get top dollar, a Silicon Valley home for sale must appear to be the best value for the money and attract the most qualified buyers who step forward with a strong offer.  There are a number of things which must be done for that to happen, but one of the most important has to do with the condition and appearance of the property. Confident buyers write stronger offers than buyers who are concerned about the house or condo and potentially unknown risks.  Home buying is both a business decision as well as an emotional decision.  To get top dollar, your home has to make sense and appeal to buyers on both levels, and we’ll discuss both in this post.

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Yesterday I attended a property inspection in San Jose and we found an unwanted resident in the garage: a black widow spider. In case you haven’t seen one, I thought I’d share the pic here (photo courtesy of home inspector Duane Serrano of Tri Star Inspections).

Needless to say, she’s not there anymore!

In Santa Clara County, as in much of California, we have adobe clay soil and it’s expansive.  That is, when the dirt gets wet, it expands, and when it dries out, it contracts. Hence it’s sometimes referred to as “shrink-swell” soils.  (Every state in the union has areas with this problem - a color-coded map on geology.com shows areas with more and less expansive soils.)

Why is this an issue for homeowners and would-be homeowners in Silicon Valley? 

The trouble is that the expanding and contracting soil is far stronger than concrete and the foundations upon which a home sits. A well written and illustrated six page paper can be found online explaining the mechanics involved for those interested in more detail on the hows and whys of expansive soils. (It states that the ground can life as much as 5,500 pounds per square inch!)

What I’d like to focus on here is mitigating the risks and preventing the problems associated with expansive soils. 

The trouble is not so much that the soil is wet or dry.  The problem is in the back and forth, the movement. When the soil is kept at an even amount of moisture, it does not expand and contract.

Obviously, rain is seasonal and we cannot control all moisture on or near the house. We can, though, work to move water away from the house and away from the foundation.

Winter storms can bring an enormous amount of water onto a home’s roof, and when it channels down gutters and downspouts, there can be a large amount of water exiting in just a few places.  Where does that water go?

In 95% of the homes I see in San Jose, Los Gatos and Saratoga, the water simply dumps out at the base of the downspout - right up against the home.  This is typical, but is unwise, as it causes the soils to become excessively damp in one spot.

Ideally, you want to move the water away from the house and foundation, at least by 6 feet or so.   Solutions can be expensive (underground and run all the way to the street) or can be very inexpensive (a plastic extender added to the end of the extra long downspout) as in the photo below.

Leaks that are untended can wreck havoc on your foundation. This photo below displays a foundation crack that includes efflorescence (the white powdery stuff) and rusty discoloration, which is most likely a bad sign for the rebar inside the foundation. The source of the trouble? Probably a combination of a leaky hose bib and water that got under the house from a kitchen faucet leak or from grading issues and heavy rains.

Another main culprit is grading. Too often, a walk around the house in question reveals that the land is sloped toward the house rather than away from it.  When it rains, or when sprinklers run, the water in the yard will come careening toward the house - exactly what you do not want to happen.

Sometimes, it’s inevitable, as in the case with hillside construction. What to do? Specialists find a way to grade the soil closest to the home away from it and to intercept the hill-driven water before it gets close to the home.  Imagine making a tiny valley between the home and the hill, and the small culvert catching the water so it can be diverted. That’s essentially how it works.

High water table areas will require the help of specialists too, as these can cause water to bubble up under or near the home and again create havoc on the home’s stability.

If you’re a current homeowner or home seller in the Bay Area, have a walk around your property and see what’s happening with your downspouts.  In some (few) cases, the downspout may empty onto concrete that is sloped away from the structure, and it may be OK as is.  In many cases, though, that downspout just termitates at the base of the home and empties into soil or landscaping that’s waiting to absorb the moisture and expand.  A home inspector will “call” this.  Are your floors inside out of level? Are the hardwood floors cupped? These may be the result of water not being diverted away from the home - you’ll want to address this immediately, before it worsens.  Having this work done will also give homebuyers confidence that your property has been well maintained when and if you do go to sell it.

If you’re a current homebuyer in the area, watch for this detail. Does the home have downspouts and gutters? If not, you’ll want to add them and then the extenders. If the downspouts are like most I’ve seen and stop at the base of the home, pay particular attention to the concrete nearby, any exposed foundation (watching for cracks), floors inside (looking for “out of level” and if hardwood, any cupping).  Hopefully the floors are level and undamaged.  If undulating, though, you may need to speak with a structural engineer about solutions.

Most homes in Silicon Valley come with some type of parking space for cars beyond street parking.  Home buyers want to know that there will be a place for their vehicles (and often their “stuff” too).   Garages and parking are sometimes under-appreciated aspects of evaluating real estate, so it will be the focus of today’s topic. 

Because a real estate purchase is a big ticket item, it is always important to consider the ability to sell it later.  (Always buy with selling in mind!)  Will it be hard to sell it in the future if it is not a red-hot sellers market?  Parking can greatly impact “resale value” and overall desireability to a large portion of consumers.   If you are evaluating a condominium, townhouse, or planned unit development home with private roads and parking, there will be some special concerns that may be a little different than if you were purchasing a single family home. We’ll consider both.

General principle:  In all types of housing in the San Jose area, usually the most highly desired type of parking arrangement is an attached garage.  This is not true in all cases but is generally true.  You would not find homebuyers interested in historic homes (Victorian, Spanish, Craftsman) wanting a prominent two car garage at the front of the house, commanding the lion’s share of the view from the street. (So don’t expect to see that in Japantown, Naglee Park, or the the Rose Garden.)  But for the typical buyer of the more common ranch style home, the attached garage is expected and appreciated, and if it’s missing it’s a challenge to sell the property later because as sellers you’ll be appealling to a far smaller pool of buyers.
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Readers,

Today I am running a guest post by Asbestos.com. This company approached me a couple of weeks ago and asked to be able to provide some information on asbestos and its abatement and alternatives on this site. Since we find what is likely asbestos laden materials in many homes, I agreed, and have done only a little editing for clarity. (This is not a paid blog post, by the way.)

Asbestos is not hazardous if it remains intact and does not become airborne. If you have a home with asbestos products (often found in heater duct insulation and in “popcorn ceilings” of older Silicon Valley homes), you can either remove them by hiring professionals who follow rigid guidelines to ensure everyone’s safety, or you can leave them alone but encase them and you should have no problems whatsover. Many buyers, of course, would prefer that it be entirely gone. This is not a “do it yourself” project, though. Attempting to do this on your own is potentially quite dangerous. If you wish to find and eradicate asbestos, you will need to call in the experts, who know how to handle hazardous materials.

Guest post written by Joe Lederman of Asbestos.com

Although manufacturers and mankind has known of asbestos’ health hazards for a long period of time, it wasn’t until 1990 when the California Air Resources Board (CARB) began to regulate the amount of asbestos used in surfacing applications. Due to the widespread use of asbestos throughout the 20th century, it is essential for those involved in real estate to take the proper measures in inspecting and removing the harmful product. With the consistent growth in technology and public awareness, there are currently a number of products which replace the need for asbestos.

Renowned for a large industrial history, California’s economy has had success in areas such as ship-building, mining and power generation. These industries found many usages for asbestos, as the material has fire and heat resistant qualities. Homes, workplaces and public facilities built prior to 1980 can still harvest asbestos. Asbestos exposure has resulted in the development of severe lung cancers such as mesothelioma. Typically, signs of this illness will not turn up for 20 to 50 years, making it difficult for physicians to diagnose potential carriers. Mesothelioma treatments vary from chemotherapy, radiation and experimental procedures. Although medical technology continues to improve, mesothelioma claims thousands of victims every year in the United States alone.

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 If you are contemplating selling one home and buying another in the same general area, it may be that you need more space - or it may be that you simply want a home that’s updated and you’re not sure you want to experience, first-hand, the joys of remodeling.

Not too long ago, I stumbled upon a website to help folks work through this question:  www.RemodelOrMove.com.

Have a look. I think it’s pretty unbiased information that can help with this angle of the “move up” question.

This morning brought a chilly 35 degrees here in Silicon Valley. Rain was threatened and kids everywhere across Santa Clara County have been hoping that the snow will come low enough to play in easily today.

The nippier-than-usual weather brings not just hope of very unusual snow, but also a chance to learn something about your home (or your future home, if you’re in escrow to buy a San Jose area home).

My Los Gatos street is like a lot of other residential areas in Almaden Valley, Cambrian Park, Campbell, and Willow Glen - homes are clustered together and closed up tightly against the cold. Look at the rooftops. What do you see on an icy morning?

Frost graces all three of the roofs above. But how much of the roof has the white blanket? In this case, more is better.  The homes where there’s little or no frost are essentially “defrosting” their roofs with escaping heat. Homes that hold in the heat better do not have warm roofs and thus have a good amount of frost on top.

Of course, places where air or gas is meant to escape, such as at the vent pipes, are going to warm up the area immediately around them.  If there are just patches of melted ice with no such pipes nearby, perhaps your insulation has been disturbed and it’s worth a visit to the attic.

Buying a home? Drive by early on these cold winter mornings to see how frosty the roof is.  Selling a home? Make sure your insulation is good - it is a selling point that cost-conscious homebuyers will appreciate!

So if you want to go green, have a look at your roof on an icy morning and see if your heat is staying in the house or defrosting your roof.