Silicon Valley home buyers often state that they want to purchase a house, townhouse or condo which includes these attributes:

• inviting
• spacious, not cramped
• open (open floor plan)
• light, bright & airy – lots of natural sunlight inside
• has a good floor plan
• includes enough storage space
• well cared for (ideally, unless buying distressed)

In a nutshell, buyers want sunny, open, clean, uncluttered feeling spaces.

Rarely do they request cozy (implies small) or private (suggests flag lot or large hedges in the front, blocking view of the street), though most love a private back yard and some buyers really do want privacy in front as well as back (hence the great appeal to those who prefer an Eichler or other mid-century modern style house).  To get you the most money for your real estate sale, though, we don’t want to appeal to the few buyers who want one style; instead, to maximize your return we need to aim the staging at what the majority of buyers (or the most probable buyer for your property) will want.

How can you transform the home you live in to the house or condo you’re selling so that it appeals to these majority of buyers who want “sunny, open, and uncluttered” interiors and un-scary houses or homes?  Here are a few quick tips:

1. First, understand that you are moving from “your home” to a house or townhouse you’re selling – it is an item for sale and the main goal is to maximize what it will sell for. This is an attitude shift but is critical for getting you the best deal for your Silicon Valley property.
2. De-clutter: Anywhere from 1/4 to 1/2 of your belongings will probably need to go, whether to storage, to charity, to a garage sale, to a recycling plant or, all else failing, to the garbage.  A storage pod is a great help – they can take your stuff away and usually deliver it to your new place, if you are not moving too far away.  Most Americans have too much stuff in their homes. It’s fine to live that way but not so good to sell that way. (“The way you live in your home is not the way you sell it.”) Most of the “stuff” will come out of closets, hutches and cabinets but sometimes even walls need to be decluttered too. (Very smart to hire your Realtor BEFORE you do this so that you don’t get rid of the items you need the most and can get good advice on this action.)
3. Light, light and more light!  It’s so important to do everything you can to let the sunshine in from windows (pull curtains back, trim outside landscaping), have extra good interior lighting (add it if need be) and make sure that no room, hallway or area is dark.  Dark homes will truly cost you money!  Whether you need to increase the wattage of your light bulb or add a sun tunnel or two, look at every area of your house or home critically to see if it’s sunny and bright. If not, fix it!
4. Clean and scrub til it’s all shiny, including places where you never really look, like the sliding glass door or window tracks. Dirty homes cause buyers to worry about what is neglected, and worried buyers pay far less for homes.
5. Fix whatever doesn’t work well or is broken. Noisy fan – but it works? It’s usually inexpensive to replace it, so do! Loud fans and small things amiss tell buyers that you are deferring repairs, and they will wonder what else you’re not fixing that they’ll get stuck with, or worse, surprised with! That worry translates into lower offer prices.
6. Do pre-sale inspections. Confident, happy buyers write stronger, higher priced offers and back out of the deal far less often! Their happiness is contagious – you will sell for more and be happy too!
7. Offer and pay for a home warranty for the buyer. The buyers will feel better about paying top dollar when some fear is removed about expenses the first year after closing.
8. Don’t be there during showings. Buyers think it’s creepy if you’re there (sorry, but true) – they cannot talk freely and feel rushed to quit imposing and get out of your house. Plan to be gone!

If you hire a great Realtor to help you with pricing, marketing and negotiating your San Jose or Santa Clara County home for sale, you will have good help in making your property appeal to the largest pool of buyers and thus sell for more. Agents are not all alike, so hire carefully!

I’d love to be your first choice, so please call me, Mary Pope-Handy, for a no pressure, no obligation consultation on selling your home in Los Gatos, Saratoga, Campbell, San Jose are nearby: 408 204-7673 or email me at mary (at) popehandy (dot) com.

Every couple of weeks I update this post to bring fresh news and data on the Cambrian Park real estate market. On Dec 9th  I went onto the MLS and ran the “months of inventory” or absorption rate of houses and duet homes (what our MLS calls “class 1″)  in “area 14″ or Cambrian area of San Jose. This time I broke it down into price points as well as the type of sale (regular, short sale, bank owned)  so you can pinpoint the pricing for the various segments of the Cambrian market. (Reminder: months of inventory reflects how long it will take to sell a property if sales continue at the current rate. Six months or so is considered “balanced”. More is a buyer’s market and less is a seller’s.)

**please note – typo below – numbers were crunched December 9th, 2011, not December 10th.

Cambrian Park (San Jose) Months of Inventory by sale type & price point Dec 9, 2011

What’s selling? “Regular sales” – non distressed. Not faring so well? Short sales.  In many price points, although many are under contract or pending, FEW – sometimes none – are making it to the closing table.  We are hearing a lot about the streamlined processes for short sales, but these numbers hint at a different reality, namely that Silicon Valley and Cambrian short sales sell but often don’t close escrow.

What is the typical kind of home and price for these neighborhoods?  Of the homes which transferred ownership in the last 30 days, a typical house cost about $600,000, has about 1600 square feet and sits on a lot of around 6700 square feet (and is “partially updated”, not fully remodeled).  The price per square foot averaged $376 but ran from $205 (distressed and on a hugely busy road) to $513 (close to the hills near Almaden and Los Gatos).  If the home you want to buy or sell needs remodeling or is “all original” it’s probably going to sell for less. If it’s in a great area, is a regular sale and absolutely turnkey and fully remodeled, it’ll sell for more.  A beautifully remodeled Cambrian house with 3 bed, 2 bath and 1200 square feet can easily run $600,000 or more if it’s a regular sale and in a good area with no “issues” (high voltage lines, backing to busy road or school etc.).

What about the pending sales?

As of this morning, there are 95 houses & duet homes which are sale pending.  Of those, 39 are regular sales (a mere 41%!), 48 are short sales and 8 are bank owned properties (REOs).  How do the pendings compare to the homes sold?  Here’s a quick breakdown for all price ranges in “area 14″ of San Jose:

ALL types Pending – 95   Sold in last 30 days – 37
Regular sales – 39   Sold in last 30 days – 32
Short sales -  48   Sold in last 30 days – 1
Bank owned sales – 8   Sold in last 30 days – 2

This underlines the fact that the short sales are getting into contract…but just not getting to the closing table! Bank owned homes are better, but the ratio of pendings to closings is much, much better with regular sales.  This explains why the regular sales are the hottest ticket in Cambrian Park right now: buyers don’t want to just buy, they want to close!

Some sellers are borderline on being able to sell without either having to bring cash to the closing table or having to attempt a short sale.  What do these numbers suggest?  That if you really want to sell and can do it – you may be best off doing a regular sale, even if you need to bring money to the title company to make it work.   (This is general advice only, your own situation may be different – please consult with your Realtor, lawyer and tax advisor before deciding to do, or not to do, a short sale.)

Here’s a snapshot view what was happening in the 95124 and 95118 areas of San Jose as of December 2nd, 2011. (My last update for this part of San Jose -  a mini update.)

Cambrian Park (San Jose) quick real estate stats for houses Dec 2, 2011

Interestingly, the hottest segment of this market is not the distressed sales, but regular ones, which are being absorbed three times as fast as the short sales or bank owned homes on the market. And it’s understandable: REOs don’t provide any disclosures and may contain surprises after close of escrow, and short sales may never close.  Just look at the huge number of pendings as opposed to the short sales which actually become a finalized transaction!  We hear that the odds are improving on short sales closing, but this graph doesn’t validate that impression at all.

Cambrian San Jose Real Estate Trends & Statistics for Sold Homes

It’s been a “hot sellers market” in the Cambrian district of San Jose for many months now with most homes that sell going fairly close to list price (1-2% off on average).  That doesn’t mean that the best idea is to always offer less than list price, though, as many homes are selling at or above list price.

If we took a close look at what’s selling and closed recently, we would find that some Cambrian houses are selling for more than list price, some right at list price and others below or well under the offered price.  Some Cambrian real estate is listed strategically low in order to get multiple offers and drive the price up.  Some are overpriced and others are priced “right on the money”.

Data on real estate solds in Cambrian area of San Jose, for November, October, September and August 2011 among houses from my Real Estate Report:

Next, October:

September:

Next, August (note that prices were higher, pending prices were higher in August as opposed to September).

Inventory is down about 32% from a year ago.  Prices are down, too, both year over year and month over month. Even so, the Cambrian real estate market is fairly hot, a good strong seller’s market as long as homes are priced well, staged well, and marketed well.  That doesn’t mean that every home is selling, but those which are nicely staged and marketed and correctly priced are selling at a good pace – and many of them get multiple offers, as the overbids attest.

Just now I checked what has closed in the Cambrian area in the last 30 days. There were 36 houses that closed. Of them 9 sold over list price, a few sold right at list price but most sold under list (and a very few sold grossly lower).

Now let’s work with Altos Research’s graphs and get a feel for the Cambrian realty market in “real time”.  These use list prices, whereas my REReport uses sold data.

First, the statistics by quartile for houses in San Jose 95118:

Next, the stats and trends by price quartile for houses in San Jose 95124:

Median list price of homes for sale in 95124 and 95118:

Very interesting that the 95124 pricing appears to be swinging upward while the 95118 pricing continues to go down.  I believe that this is mainly because the schools in 95124 have been trending upward strongly with the API scores.  Prices are also at a higher level, and those are less impacted by short sales and REOs countywide.  So it may be the result of multiple factors.  (95124 is about 2/3 of the Cambrian real estate market.)

Inventory in Cambrian area of San Jose 95124, 95118:

Surprising, isn’t it, to see how differently these two San Jose zip codes are behaving from each other?

Average days on Market in San Jose’s Cambrian area

And again, really different trends on these neighboring zips, both in Cambrian!

Another anecdotal story to share: Recently I closed the sale on my listing at 5114 Nerissa Way in Cambrian with Union Schools and Alta Vista in particular. We were listed at $579,000 and received 4 offers and sold at $585,000. Interestingly, we received 2 nearly identical “best” offers, both at $585,000. One was completely As Is and the other was almost As Is (they wanted a fumigation and pest clearance provided).  That is usually a pretty good affirmation of market value, and the property did appraise at the sales price.  The other two offers we got were below list price.  One was all cash and it was extremely low.  Buyers who are purchasing without financing sometimes misunderstand the type of discount that their all-cash status will get for them, so sometimes the worst offers are all cash and that was the case this time.

Want more info on your neighborhood, your house, or your target home to buy? Please call me!

Showing properties 1 - 5 of 61. See more 95124 zip code real estate.
(all data current as of 2/11/2012)

1. $685,000 : 1671 Zinnia Ln, San Jose
   
   3 beds, 2 full baths

   Home size: 1,410 sq ft

   Lot size: 6,240 sq ft
   
2. $549,900 : 2423 Loment Pl, San Jose
   
   3 beds, 2 full baths

   Home size: 1,539 sq ft

   Lot size: 4,232 sq ft
   
3. $639,000 : 1695 Merrill Dr, San Jose
   
   4 beds, 2 full baths

   Home size: 1,396 sq ft

   Lot size: 7,200 sq ft
   
4. $748,000 : 1830 Curtner Av, San Jose
   
   5 beds, 2 full, 1 part baths

   Home size: 2,191 sq ft

   Lot size: 6,000 sq ft
   
5. $574,980 : 5003 Phileo Ct, San Jose
   
   3 beds, 2 full, 1 part baths

   Home size: 1,644 sq ft

   Lot size: 2,854 sq ft
   

Listing information deemed reliable but not guaranteed. Read full disclaimer.

Showing properties 1 - 5 of 29. See more 95118 zip code real estate.
(all data current as of 2/11/2012)

1. $829,000 : 5530 Le Franc Dr,
   
   4 beds, 3 full baths

   Home size: 2,020 sq ft

   Lot size: 3,356 sq ft
   
2. $575,000 : 3213 Gardendale Dr, San Jose
   
   4 beds, 2 full, 1 part baths

   Home size: 1,800 sq ft

   Lot size: 6,313 sq ft
   
3. $489,900 : 1349 Lyonsville Ln, San Jose
   
   4 beds, 2 full baths

   Home size: 1,692 sq ft

   Lot size: 9,583 sq ft
   
4. $499,000 : 3119 Santa Margarita Av, San Jose
   
   3 beds, 1 full bath

   Home size: 1,071 sq ft

   Lot size: 7,840 sq ft
   
5. $430,000 : 1560 Hillsdale Av, San Jose
   
   4 beds, 2 full, 1 part baths

   Home size: 1,654 sq ft

   Lot size: 6,890 sq ft
   

Listing information deemed reliable but not guaranteed. Read full disclaimer.

Browse lists of Cambrian & Cambrian Park homes for sale:
Houses for sale in the 95118 part of Cambrian
Cambrian Park Houses for Sale in 95124

Mary Pope-Handy, Realtor, CRS, ABR, e-PRO, SRES, ASP, CNHS, ACRE
Helping Nice Folks to Buy & Sell Homes Since 1993
Co-Author: “Get The Best Deal When Selling Your Home In Silicon Valley”
408 204-7673 (Cell)
emailto: Mary (at) PopeHandy.com
Blog: www.LiveInLosGatos.com & www.ValleyOfHeartsDelight.com

Are you thinking of selling your Cambrian Park home? If you live in San Jose’s Cambrian neighborhood (primarily zip codes 95124 and 95118), I have a resource for you: a page I created with TONS of information and links specifically for Cambrian home sellers. 

The page is Cambrian Home Sale (www.CambrianHomeSale.com). There you’ll find:

• current Cambrian real estate market activity
• Cambrian homes for sale
• recent sales of homes in Cambrian Park
• information on finding out your home’s current market value
• Cambrian real estate market trends & statistics
• FAQs by Cambrian home sellers
• links to relevant posts on the Cambrian market
• downloadable (pdf) pre-listing packet
• and tons more!

Please visit Cambrian Home Sale for loads of helpful information specifically provided for Cambrian Park home sellers.

You keep reading that it’s a “seller’s market” in Silicon Valley real estate.  You hear about multiple offers and home prices getting pushed up.  There are tax credits which cause buyers to fight to buy homes.

Should you jump in as a San Jose area seller now? 

Maybe, but if you do it, do it right!  The dirty little secret that no one talks about is that most Santa Clara County homes for sale are not selling.  They sit on the market, popping up on MLS searches for month after month.

There are quite a few common myths that home owners believe about selling their property. Believe these, and act accordingly, and your chances of selling are dramatically damaged:

• my price is high, but buyers can always “make an offer”
• it’s a seller’s market, my home does not have to be perfect
• if I fix up the home to sell, the buyer may not like the changes
• it was like this when I bought it, so I don’t have to improve it now
• I have lived with (fill in the blank) forever, there’s nothing wrong with it

Getting the staging and pricing right matter tremendously.  Today let’s just focus on staging.

Buyers often spend everything they have to get into a new home, and usually they can’t afford to improve it once they move it.  So the first thing to understand, if you are selling your home in Los Gatos, Saratoga or San Jose, is that your home needs to look “turnkey”.  This is what 90% of the buyers need.  If your home isn’t move-in ready, you will automatically eliminate most of your home buying audience!

Let’s look at some photos to drive the point home.  I won’t say where these were taken, only that it’s a Santa Clara County home for sale right now.

When buyers and their Realtors first arrive at your home, they get a first impression of what kind of shape your house is in.  What does the landscaping say? What does the driveway say?

This driveway has a lot of cracks.  Buyers view it as money they’ll have to spend to make it look right.  Real estate agents know that this is a “red flag” that the foundation may also be damaged and cracked.   Either first experience of your home is not positive.  If they’re doing a drive by, they may or may not come back to see what’s inside.  Usually a cracked driveway alone won’t kill showings, but if the rest of the front of the home is bad, that may be enough to stop traffic.  If they don’t see your home, they won’t buy your home – so getting good, qualified traffic is top priority.

The next impression isn’t better.  Here are the windows which also face the street on the same home. Are they dirty?  Has the seal on the dual pane windows failed?  No matter what – it’s a horrible “first impression”. 

Sure enough, when I went inside, it was consistent: the inside what just as bad as the outside.  The kitchen was “beat up” looking.  It had been cheaply remodeled and was treated badly by its owners.  Whoever buys this house probably will have to gut and replace the current kitchen. Below is a large, closeup of a kitchen drawer that exemplifies what’s seen in the home. 

What to do?  A seller could have refaced the cabinets (and replaced the countertop with an attractive formica or Corian countertop) to clean it up.  Few buyers worry about the inside of the cabinets – it’s the outside that they care about.

The back yard is the least important of all the areas to worry about, since buyers are braver about tackling a part of the property that isn’t visible to the world and that they can avoid going through for awhile if needed.  Even so, it’s best to at least cut down the tall weeds!

Most homes are not this bad, of course, and it doesn’t take nearly so much effort or money to really get a home in shape to sell.

Are there any general “rules of thumb” for preparing your home to sell? Yes! The vast majority of times, these items are needed to be done to maximize your home selling price:

1. Decutter – often we live with too much stuff in our homes, in our garages, in our bookshelves, closets and cabinets.  How much? Usually, to sell, about 1/3 of everything must go!  (Donate it, sell it, store it, but get it out of the home!)
2. Repair – if your door sticks, your bathroom fan’s too noisy, your faucet drips, get them fixed.  Small annoyances add up to a bad impression.
3. Clean – this is no time for dirt, rust, streaks or mildew!
4. Make it light – trim back bushes that grow in front of windows, pull back curtains (or perhaps eliminate them), add lights to dark rooms. Whatever the need is, make sure it’s handled so your home is light. Dark homes are a turnoff to buyers.  They often cannot imagine what it will take to lighten up the house.
5. Focus on an inviting front of the home, add color, make the pathways clear of hoses, debris, etc.   Declutter.  Add colorful annuals near the front door.  Make sure your front door is impeccably clean (it may need refinishing, repainting or replacing). 

I co-authored a book, “Get The Best Deal When Selling Your Home in Silicon Valley“, and would be happy to give you a copy of it when we meet to discuss selling your home (no obligation).  Or you can find it online or in local bookstores.  The book contains many more ways to get top dollar when you sell your Silicon Valley house or condo.  Please email or call me today to discuss selling your home in Los Gatos, San Jose, or Saratoga.

If you’re out to buy a Silicon Valley home this year, you may be tempted to look at real estate priced far above your ability to pay and hope that you can write a low offer that the seller will accept.

Don’t count on it.

Lowball offers are contracts written substantially below the list price (and often well below market price).  How low is too low? It really depends on the micro-market of the home you’re interested in (the neighborhood, price range, school district, etc.).  In most of Silicon Valley, houses, condos and townhouses sell within 5% of list price most of the time. The average list price to sales price ratio is usually closer to 1 – 3% of list price. 

My usuall advice to buyers is this: if you don’t think that the home is worth within 5% of list price, then keep looking until you find a home that is.  Most of the time, sellers aren’t prepared to come down more than a few percent. 

Once in awhile, of course, a million dollar home will sell for nine hundred thousand. But it is very rare that a home will go for 10% or more off of list price.  Most often, in fact, the seller will be angry about an offer that far off the mark and will simply write a high priced counter offer.  For example, let’s say a home’s listed at 1 million dollars (to use round numbers) and a buyer writes an offer for eight hundred ninety thousand dollars.  Most likely, the seller will volley back at something like nine hundred eighty thousand.    The best listing agents will tell the seller, “rather than take an offer more than 10% below list, let’s reduce your home’s price 4-6% and see if we cannot sell it for more than that”.  And usually, they can.

Buyers: if your budget is appx $500,000 or less, please don’t waste everyone’s time by looking at homes priced at $600,000.  Look at $500,000 or less – maybe a tad higher than five hundred, but not much.  Look within 5% over your budget, tops.

Sellers: if you are getting lowball offers but no “close” offers, the buyers are telling you something about the market conditions. Consider reducing your price so that your sales price can be reasonably close to list price.  Ask your agent for his or her unbiased opinion of your home’s probable sales price. (Some sellers browbeat their agents on price, feeling that if they can convince the agent the home is worth more, it will sell for more.  Give your agent the permission to be honest with you – that will be your best help.)

Many Silicon Valley home sellers want to sell their homes As Is. In the case of short sales, it is likely that the sale will be As Is, and with foreclosed or bank-owned properties, you can be fairly sure that it will be an As Is sale.

But what does that mean, exactly?

As Is means that the home will be conveyed to the buyer at the end of the transaction in the same general condition it was in on the day that the buyers wrote the offer. If the roof has leaks, the crawl space is full of termites, and the appliances do not work, that is how it will be on the day escrow closes.

What it does not mean is that the seller can let the property condition deteriorate. The seller must continue to maintain the home and land in the same general condition. So if the lawn was green and well trimmed, the seller cannot suddenly let the grass die and neglect to mow it. If a baseball breaks a window after the buyer and seller have a ratified contract, the seller must repair it. The condition will not have to be better, but it should not be worse, either, than on the day the buyer and seller agreed on the price and terms of the sale.

What do Silicon Valley home buyers and sellers think of the As Is clause? Ask and you will usually get very different impressions.

Silicon Valley home sellers may feel that the home is in good enough condition and they do not want to have to run around doing repairs in order to close escrow at the end of the sale period. They want guarantees going into the deal that they are not going to be surprised with a lot of demands to improve the home. They view that as coming straight out of their proceeds.

In other words, they know that if there are surprises, their net will be less, not more. Buyers never investigate the property and say, ˜gee, its in such great shape I will pay more than I initially promised! No, the sales price is usually the most the sellers will be able to get, and any further negotiations are going to be downward from there.

Silicon Valley home buyers will not be thrilled with a seller’s request for an As Is sale when there are no pre-sale inspections or if those inspections revealed a lot of problems, or even a lot of unknown further inspections. However, if the seller did the inspections and then made needed repairs, buyers will usually accept an As Is Sale. Buyers do not like surprises either. In fact, surprises are what usually kill home sales!

An As Is sale can work in Silicon Valley real estate sales as long as there is transparency and the sense of risk is minimized. It is crucial for sellers to have good pre-sale inspections before selling As Is. And it is just as important for buyers to be fully pre-approved so that sellers know they are not wasting their time with a buyer who may not really be qualified.

When both buyers and sellers do their work upfront and come to the negotiations truly prepared, the chances for a completed transaction rise, and so do the odds of everyone feeling like it was a ‘win win’ situation in the end.