It’s almost that time again! We San Brunans love the summer music series at San Bruno Park! It’s held every Friday in August. It begins at 6:00 and ends around 8ish!

Every year my kids sell bags of my homemade, gourmet popcorn. It’s freshly popped in a pot, salted, buttered and parmasian “cheesed”! The kids walk around with a metal bucket full of bags, come back to refill, and they run out every time! Usually, kids of all ages play “sand lot” style baseball at the diamond behind the crowds of adults listening to their old 60′s, 70′s and 80′s favorites!

The concerts are FREE and a really great way to meet people or enjoy a group of old friends! Many of us bring bread, cheese, and other snacks. Some have pizza and some bbq at the picnic tables beforehand and then walk over to the concert! Here’s the schedule for this August 2010:

Aug. 8: Double Funk Crunch(Disco and 80′s)

Aug. 13: City Rocks (60′s-80′s SF Rock)

Aug. 20: The Refugees (Tom Petty Tribute Band)

Aug. 27: Just For Kicks (Classic Rock & Roll and R & B)

I love forward to seeing you there! Enjoy the rest of your summer!

www.Facebook.com/SanBrunoLife

"Great starter home"

Have you ever looked at a real estate ad and wondered if they were exagerating a little bit? Here are some funny descriptions and translations of some ads that makes one wonder….

Cute- small

Cozy- see cute

Charming-see cute, cozy then throw in “old”

Good starter- fixer upper

Old World Charm- OLD

Period details- OLD

Close to transportation- noisy trains and busses nearby

Low maintnance yard- no grass, no flowers, no trees    

Meticulously maintained in the original condition- hasn’t been updated in over 50 years

Ready to move in- painted with a coat of really cheap paint

Desirable neighborhood- the house is overpriced because the neighborhood has a snobby reputation

1 car garage- no room for your Suburban

Partial ocean views- you can see part of the ocean if you lean out the window

Build sweat equity- house in uninhabitable

Doll house- tiny house filled with ugly old knick knacks

Must see inside- the outside is ugly

AND LAST BUT NOT LEAST….THE ALL TIME QUESTIONMARK OVER THE HEAD AD…..

Needs TLC -you will be out of pocket before you can move in!

I hope these made you smile!

www.KarinCunningham.com

San Bruno’s 70th Annual Posy Parade is this Sunday, June 6th at 1:00 and it’s going to be a blast this year! The theme is “Green Transportation”.  The annual “Festival of Flowers” started in 1941 as a tribute to children. The parade, traditionally for kids 14 and under has acheived both state and national fame for San Bruno.

Each year, the community gathers along San Mateo Ave. and Crystal Springs Rd. to watch marching bands, decorated floats from schools and service clubs, sports teams, dance troops, and the Posy Parade Princess and her court. The mayor passes by on a fire truck and police cars pull up the rear!

At the end of the parade we are entertained by a few baseball games including an all 8th grade game of St. Robert’s and Parkside and an all 10 year old game. We usually have great weather during the parade and it looks like we will be lucky again this Sunday! This is an event you won’t want to miss!

Karin Cunningham
http://www.facebook.com/sanbrunolife 

San Bruno house in the "Belle Air" neighborhood $399,000

San Bruno, Ca is an affordable and charming city on the San Mateo peninsula. Snuggled on a long. wide slope between San Francisco and Burlingame, the weather is usually in the 60′s with a little wind and hardly ever any fog!

We have the best public schools around, as well! As the PTA President of Allen Elementary School, I can give first hand testimonials, as I meet with the other PTA presidents monthly. We are a close knit bunch with all the same goals in mind, to keep our San Bruno children in the best learning environment possible! San Bruno parents really care about their city! Just ask the San Bruno Mother’s Club!

Summertime brings with it a whole bunch of fun things to do in San Bruno! Beginning in May, the San Bruno Chamber of Commerce puts on the San Bruno Farmer’s Market every Sunday from 9:00-200 pm on San Mateo Ave. at Jenevein Ave.

San Bruno”s famous outdoor swimming pool in San Bruno Park opens to the public on June 1st with lessons for all ages! San Bruno Park is filled with people watching baseball on 3 diamonds all summer long. There are a lot of picnic areas, tennis courts, basketball courts and a rec reation center with classes buzzing every day! I can’t wait until August when we start our “Concerts in the Park” series!

One of San Bruno’s main events of the year is the anual Posy Parade which started in 1941. This parade is put on by the San Bruno Lions Club and celebrates the children in our community! There are floats, marching bands, baseball teams, cheer clubs, service clubs, and a Posy Parade Princess who rides on a float with her court. Nobody over the age of 7, please! SO cute!

People flock to San Bruno for other reasons, too, such as our shopping mall, the Shops at Tanforan, Bayhill Shopping Center next to YouTube, Inc., awesome restaurants and the airport!

Real estate inventory is always in demand here because of all the wonderful things San Bruno has to offer. We have a variety of small affordable homes to large, brand new homes to choose from. We also have two big condominium complexes, Shelter Creek and Peninsula Place. Most recently we have the new Archstone Apartments across the street from the Shops at Tanforan that have the most beautiful rentals you have ever seen!

3 BR 2BA home in Downtown San Bruno $524,950

As you can tell, I am quite partial to San Bruno as I live AND work here! Everything I need is within walking distance and I should really do just that, WALK..but I don’t, usually.

If you are thinking about moving here and you are still not quite convinced, let me know and I can send you some links, get you some testamonials, or even show you around.

Your San Bruno resource,

Karin Cunningham

www.Facebook.com/SanBrunoLife

I write this post to encourage those, who would like to have a successful career in real estate AND have a family, to give it a try. It can definately be done!

December 20, 1999 was the day my first child was born! I lived in a studio condo that my husband and I had recently bought in San Bruno. He worked in a hotel as a waiter and worked most evenings and weekends! I was a new real estate agent with just one year in the business. I wondered how I was going to pull off a successful career with a newborn!

I made a pit stop at my office in San Bruno on the way home from the hospital to pick up a cradle for the new baby boy. He was a month early so I hadn’t even made a nest! Luckily, I had a friend who brought me her hand me down cradle for him to sleep in. I looked pretty funny walking in my office to pick it up in a hospital gown and bracelet still on my wrist! That was the day that I realized that I was going to make it in this business, baby or no baby! I could take the ridicule of looking funny and winging it when time didn’t allow preparation as long as I kept moving forward.     

On week two, I discovered: A newborn fits comfortably in a desk drawer with fluffy blankets and a pacifier. I got some funny looks but we were fine. We were ready to hustle and nobody was going to stop us.

We would drive across town to meet first time buyers, write contracts, and show property! I kept him in a snuggly front pack and never used a carrier. I always had a trendy diaper bag stalked with bottles, baby food, and of course, diapers. I had 13 sales in the first few months of motherhood!

My first tip as a new mother with a real estate career: If the baby fits in a desk drawer, make sure you pad it with fluffy blankets!

Stay tuned for Part 2…I have more fun stuff and tips to share!

www.KarinCunningham.com

www.Facebook.com/SanBrunoLife

Since its passage, Proposition 13 prohibits property tax increases until property ownership is changed.

If either spouse is over age 55 (when the old home is sold), PROP 60 allows replacement of a primary residence with a new home of equal or lesser value (but see below) within the same county and transfer of the Prop 13 assessed valuation from the old home to the new property.  This is allowed once in your lifetime, and a spouse who has done it before ‘taints’ both spouses.

PROP 90 allows counties to elect to accept transfers of Prop 13 values for moves from other counties when a primary residence is replaced with a less expensive (but see below) home. If you are over 55 and move into a county which accepts Prop 90, you may take your old, lower Prop 13 value, regardless of from which county you move. 

Using Prop 90, you can sell your $400,000 San Francisco home [assessed value $80,000] and move to a new $300,000 home in San Mateo; the new San Mateo assessed value will be $80,000! 

7 COUNTIES WHICH ACCEPT PROP 90 (Current as of 6/1/2008)

Alameda,  Los Angeles, Orange, San Diego, San Mateo, Santa Clara, and Ventura. [Contra Costa, Inyo, Kern, Riverside, Modoc, Monterey, and Marin have dropped out of the Prop 90 program.] 

Props 60 and 90 apply if you “trade down” (i.e. the new home costs less than the sales price of the old home).  

  >  If you buy New Home 1^st; then sell the Old Home, you must go down in price. 

  >  If you sell the Old Home1st; then buy the New Home:  

•         In 1^st 365 days after the sale of Old Home, you may go up 5% in the purchase price of New Home.  
•         If you buy New Home more than 1 year from the sale of Old Home, but less than 2 years, you may go up 10%.  

Some buyers can pay the commission outside of escrow to lower to sales price.  Example:  I sold for $100,000 and then want to buy next week for $120,000.  The seller will owe a commission of $7,200. The seller will owe $2,800 of other expenses 

 I sold 1st so I must buy for no more than $105,000.  If I pay the seller’s expenses of $10,000, the price is down to $110,000.  Hmm.  If I buy the stove, refrigerator, and lawn furniture for $6,000, it looks like I qualify.  WARNING:  I do not suggest this is a valid idea. 

This information is courtesy of Marc Weissmann of 

Weiss and Weissmann
San Francisco and Foster City, CA 

http://wwlaw.com/index.htm

Save Our Schools Daily Journal Pic

I attended an insightful meeting the other night of PTA/PTO Presidents in San Bruno. I learned that ALL of the public schools in California are expecting a lot of teacher and counselor layoffs next week. San Bruno’s only middle school, Parkside Intermediate will possibly have the most layoffs cutting out music (they have an awesome marching band), art, leadership, counseling, and more. Our elementary schools will have no art, music, PE, large classroom sizes of 30+ kids per class, no English tutoring, GATE programs, loss of funds to improve libraries and to supply instructional material like BOOKS and one school, I hear, will loose up to 7 teachers, leaving them with 4!!

On March 4th, 2010, our PTA/PTO’s organized a peaceful rally along El Camino Real and at San Bruno’s City Hall. All of our public schools participated by holding signs that said “Save Our Schools!” Our guest speakers included students from Rollingwood Elementary School, Assemblyman Jerry Hill, and our Mayor Jim Ruane.

Even if one doesn’t have children or children in school, communities are affected! The governor’s proposed budget cuts to education changes the whole dynamics of a school and the city it’s in. I even heard that in this challenging economy, there are some people who can’t afford to keep their kids in private schools and are depending on public schools to be there! If schools struggle our property values will go down because some won’t want to live near a school in trouble! Crime will go up and residents will get nervous! It could potentially be a BIG change in our lives and not for the better, either.

We are so proud of our public schools! Parents, teachers, and friends spend a lot of time and energy working together to keep our children’s schools a safe and fun learning environment for this to happen! We want our children and our cities to thrive, not be suppresed.

A date to remember are Wednesday, March 17, 7:00 Crestmoor Elementary School – A follow up budget meeting where decisions will be made to determine the future of our schools. 

Feel free to pass on this link to other people you know who might find this news interesting.  The website below is the California Teacher’s Association website that talks a lot about what’s going on with the budget cuts.

http://www.cta.org/Issues-and-Action/Budget-Crisis/Index.aspx

Ok, so I love to help people buy and sell houses but still I need to eat! I LOVE to eat and I love to cook! I love to dine out and I love family and friend gatherings at home over a large home cooked meal. Since I live and work in San Bruno, I like to dine locally. Sometimes I go to San Francisco, my hometown, but most of the time, when we have the opportunity to dine out, we go local!

A few of my favorite places are Don Pico’s for Mexican fine dining, La Paloma Taqueria, Hon Lin for Chinese, Sushi House, Famous Johnny’s for pizza and beer, Amma’s Kitchen for Indian, and the West Coast Cafe for Italian. All of these places are walking distance from my house.

Living in San Bruno is really super convenient. From my house, I can walk to the Mexican market, the dry cleaners, the library, and the corner grocery store. Not to mention I can walk to my kids’ school, our friends’ houses on Friday nights for “family fun nights”, and my office, if I am so inclined. I always drive and it’s just 6 blocks away!

I love Don Pico’s a lot! I mean a lot lot! My favorite dish is the crab enchiladas with green sauce made with “real” crab! I could live on the chips and salsa. I love spicy salsa with good flavor! I also love the ambiance at Don Pico’s. It’s a warm, comfortable room with a lot of traditional Mexican decorations and some impressive ones, too! My favorite being a big framed picture of Frida Khalo! The booths are from Original Joe’s on Powell Street in San Francisco! The proprieter is Isaac Mejia. He’s great! He is welcoming, enthusiastic about his food, and keeps his menu delicious and interesting. He’s currently the president of the San Bruno Lion’s Club. His sisters help at the restaraunt, too. They are fantastic! On Friday and Saturday nights there is a live guitar player/singer. It’s just awesome!

Check out their website: www.DonPicosBistro.com

Do you have a favorite San Bruno restaraunt?

www.KarinCunningham.com