Monte Verde Student Wins Doodle for Google
Our very own Monte Verde School wins big. Monte Verde is in San Bruno but is part of the South San Francisco School District. It serves Monte Verde area of San Bruno and a portion of Westborough area of South San Francisco. What did they win? Monte Verde Elementary School won a $25,000 technology grant and 7 years old, second grade student, Mateo Lopez won $15,000 college Scholarship. This is the results of “Doodle for Google” contest. 107,000 entrants ranging from Kindergarten to twelfth grade and a second grader from our back yard won. San Bruno and South San Francisco residents should be proud of the Monte Verde School and home grown Mateo Lopez. Hurray!!! Congratulations!!!
For additional information please click on the link: http://digitallife.today.com/_news/2011/05/20/6676677-doodle-4-google-winner-matteo-lopez-7
Lee Ginsburg
www.leesellsmore.com
“It is Better To Own Real Estate and Wait Than Wait To Own Real Estate”
Is a Home Warranty Beneficial?
In a Real Estate transaction quite often the buyer or seller discuss with their agent the cost, the coverage, the pros and the cons of a Home Warranty. Many people think Home Warranty is the best creation since chopped Liver. I am not a fan of the Home Warranty Companies. I have found they try to find any excuse not to pay. With a Home Warranty you must pay a service call of approximately $50.00. The cost of a home warranty from most of the major companies is about $500 with a few options. Let’s say you purchased an older home and needed service 3 times. That would be a cost of $650.00. When I have called a service technician to my home with no warranty the cost is usually $150 for a total of $450 for 3 calls vs.. the $650 with the warranty. If the buyer can negotiate for the seller to pay for it then you come out a winner but if not it is not the best financial investment although it could be very comforting. Please do not get me wrong, I have had a client get a water heater replaced so it can be beneficial.
The following article was in the San Jose Mercury News recently and I thought it had some very good ideas on the search for good Home Warranty Companies.
http://www.mercurynews.com/real-estate/ci_18060185?nclick_check=1
The following are some of the major Home Warranty Companies servicing the San Francisco Bay Area:
http://www.homewarranty.com/
http://homewarranty.ahs.com/
http://home-warranty.firstam.com/?code=BM51
http://www.orhp.com/
http://www.hiscohw.com/
http://hghw.com/
“It is Better To Own Real Estate and Wait Than Wait To Own Real Estate”
Lee Ginsburg
www.leesellsmore.com
Is Your Smoke Detector Helping
Nearly 95% of California families are living on the brink of a tragedy. And this isn’t what you are probably thinking. I am not talking about an earthquake. It is the smoke alarms that most of us depend on in a fire.
Like most, I always believed that smoke alarms were pretty much all the same. After all, every smoke alarm sold is required to be tested and approved. The smoke alarms most of us have at home are either Ionization or Photoelectric type alarms. The reality is that all smoke alarms are not the same. In real world fires, these two types of alarms will react very differently. In this case – different is not good. Knowing the difference could very well save your life.
Back in the 1970′s, smoke alarms were largely unknown. Back then, the residential fire death rate was about 7 to 8 fatalities per 1,000 US home fires. Between the 70′s and now, we have installed hundreds of millions of smoke alarms in US homes. Yet today, your chances of dying in a fire still hover around 7 or 8 deaths per 1,000 home fires.
Clearly, something is terribly wrong here. “I estimate that at least 10,000-15,000 people have died unnecessarily in smoldering house fires since 1990 because they relied on ionization detectors” Jay Fleming, Boston Deputy Fire Chief. The smoke alarm marketers tell us that the alarms are the same and more recently that we should have both types. It is true that an ionization alarm responds marginally faster to an open or “fast-flame” fires than a photoelectric smoke alarm. On average, ionization alarms will react about 30 to 90 seconds faster to this type of fire. However, nearly 100% of residential fire fatalities are from smoke inhalation and not from the actual fire. Most deadly fires occur at night while you sleep. Read more
Is the Bay Area Home Buyer Obsessed with School Scores
Many homebuyers in San Mateo, San Bruno, Burlingame, Millbrae and up and down the peninsula purchase their homes based on school scores. I am not sure if API, Academic Performance Index, (http://www.cde.ca.gov/ta/ac/ap/ ) scores is an accurate evaluation method to determine a young person’s education. I find the API scores of a school to determine the college you child goes to as reliable as a City’s Median home prices is in determining the value of your home. Homes in a city are varied and encompass a large diversified area just like a school’s diversified student enrollment and have high and low performing students.
Many of our public schools have a large population of intelligent non- English speaking immigrants. Teachers are trained and cater to that specific group and they also teach to the more advanced student by offering enrichment classes, honor classes, etc. Both of my son’s went to a public High School in San Mateo that possibly has the lowest scores amongst the San Mateo High Schools. They both graduated and went to very good schools. In their graduating class several students were accepted into Harvard, Stanford, MIT and more of the top schools. Some of their friends went to a private high school, were not happy, did not perform well and transferred out. A peninsula high school with a rating of 10 has had an epidemic of suicides. Top scores is not the final answer. Read more
2010 Remodeling Cost as Compared to Resale Value
Remodeling Magazine annually researches the cost of remodeling with the help of Home Tech Information Systems. They also research the value remodeling adds with the help of the National Association of Realtors. They put this information together by regions. For a complete report please go to http://www.remodeling.hw.net/2010/costvsvalue/national.aspx
Below are the results for the San Francisco region.
A small difference in the size or scope of a project, or in the quality of finishes and accessories you choose, can dramatically affect the cost.
The “value” of a project at resale is always subject to forces that are difficult to predict. Changing how a space is used may meet the immediate needs of the current homeowner, but may be at odds with what prospective buyers are looking for. How the value of a remodeling project is perceived also depends on a variety of factors that traditionally affect home values, including the condition of the rest of the house, the value of similar homes nearby, and the rate at which property values in the surrounding area are fluctuating. Comparable values are particularly difficult to judge in the current economic climate, in which the effect on the value of surrounding homes of foreclosed properties and short sales are part of the equation. The mere presence of a large number of unsold homes, whether new or existing, well-maintained or distressed, can have a constricting effect on surrounding home values. Read more
Holiday Shopping for a Home? The next 10 days are Black Fridays In Real Estate!
Are you serious about buying a home? Do you want to take advantage of record low interest rates and the lowest home prices in 5 years? If you answered YES to either question: Then do it now!!!
Why do I say that you might ask? You have much less competition. The people not so serious are fighting the crowds in the malls, (I hope at my son’s store Designers Center at “The Shops at Tanforan”) not at open houses. Sellers that have their homes on the market now are serious (desperate). Who wants people coming through their home during the holidays? Banks are even more motivated to get rid of these homes before the end of the year. The sooner they get them off their books the better. Now that the foreclosure moratorium is basically over they will have plenty more to sell. They want to get rid of these now. Make an offer. They will listen. They might even gift wrap it for you at no extra charge. Read more
Is the Giants Victory Similar to Buying a Home?
How can the baseball World Series be anywhere related to Home Buying you may ask. Let me explain…
The San Francisco Giants won as a team, and that is the only way to successfully buy a home. You need a team. A great mortgage broker; Tim Lincecum. An excellent Realtor, who is not just a real estate agent (follow this link: http://ow.ly/39GSe); Cody Ross. A hardworking assistant; Edgar Renteria, an experienced inspector; Aubrey Huff, a dependable escrow officer; Busty Posey, and of course a reliable management team; Bruce Bochy.
Now you see the importance of a team. Without one player you may not get the home. A good Realtor has a good team.
Another correlation to the Giants TEAM Victory is the Team of Low Interest Rates, Low Prices, and Motivated Sellers. That leads to the Victory of Closing on a Home; Brian Wilson.
Foreclosure Baloney
I don’t get this foreclosure moratorium stuff. I don’t understand why the press and politicians are putting so much into it. I can assure you the banks are not foreclosing on anyone current on their homes. Many of these home they are foreclosing on are vacant and some inhabitable. 
A sad fact I heard recently is many homeowners are losing their homes due to medical bills. That should not be.
Making the banks review additional papers, re-file, and delay the inevitable is only getting revenge and that is not healthy. No good comes out of that.
We should be putting pressure on the banks to modify the loans of homeowners who are good, honest, hard working people. Many of these people for whatever reason can’t make payments at the current payment but can and want to make modified payments. I don’t understand the need for a bank to go to the expense and foreclose on a home with a $500,000 loan and a month later sell the home to someone else for $300,000. The original owners would have been capable and extremely happy to make payments probably on $350,000. The banks would have been $50,000 + expenses better, with less property on the market values would be up protecting their equity in all their portfolio.
I have another idea to deal with this foreclosure cancer. Equity Share. Read more
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