The City of South San Francisco made a Boo-Boo

February 10, 2010 · Nicole Machado · 2 Comments

Incase any readers happened to get caught running a red light in South San Francisco prior to January 27th, you may want to read the following news story…

Vic Lee
More: Bio, E-mail, News Team

SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, CA (KGO) — Red light runners who were caught on camera in South San Francisco will get a legal break over a big, big mistake, and it is going to cost the city a lot of trouble and money.

“It’s a big mess,” South San Francisco Police Chief Mike Massoni said, referring to the red light cameras on two of the city’s busiest intersections — El Camino and Westborough, and El Camino and Hickey.

Since they were put in Aug. 15, the cameras have nabbed thousands of red light runners. The cameras were installed by the American Traffic Solutions (ATS) and they are working without a hitch, except for one thing.

“We didn’t go to a public meeting and have council formally ratify the contract between us and our vendor,” Massoni said.

So just what does that mean? Read more

SSF Proposed Sewer Rate Increase

June 14, 2009 · Nicole Machado · 3 Comments

Here is some information that South San Francisco Home Owners may want to know. I found this posting on the City of South San Francisco’s Website @ www.ssf.net & thought it would be useful to pass along..

Proposed Sewer Rate Increase

The City of South San Francisco provides your sanitary sewer service. For a number of years a fee has been collected for sanitary sewer service on your property tax bill. This fee shows on your tax bill as a line item titled SSF SEWER CHARGE.

Notice of Proposed Sewer Rate Increase and of Public Hearing -

This notices provides detailed information on the proposed rate increases and your rights as a property owner to voice your concerns or protests to the City. Please review the legal notice carefully.

The City has scheduled a public informational meeting on Wednesday, June 17, 2009, at 7:00 p.m. at the Magnolia Recreation Center, Multi-Use Room, 601 Grand Avenue, So. San Francisco. City staff and project engineers will be available to answer your questions about the proposed sewer rate increases. As this is an information meeting, the City Council will not be presiding over this meeting, and the City will not take any action on the rate increase at this meeting.

The City Council will hold a public hearing on the proposed rate increase on Wednesday, June 24, 2009 at 7:00 p.m., at the City Council Chambers, Municipal Services Building, 33 Arroyo Drive, South San Francisco, to take public testimony. Your written protests must be delivered to the City Clerk by the close of this public hearing in order to be considered.

Proposed Sewer Rate Increase Q&A -

This handout provides answers to some frequently asked questions about the rate increase, the City’s sewer program and the City’s rate collection methods.

SSF Sewer Rate Protest Procedures –

These procedures set forth the process for the completion, filing and tabulation of written protests for the proposed Sanitary Sewer Rate Increase for the City of South San Francisco (City).

SSF New Resident Contact Sheet

April 11, 2009 · Nicole Machado · 4 Comments

Are you a new resident to SSF? If so, the City of South San Francisco has developed a contact sheet to get you started off on the right track. This information was found on www.ssf.net and I thought it was useful information for people who have recently moved to the City. Click on the thumb nail picture for a full size image.

SSF Annual Easter Egg Hunt

April 8, 2009 · Nicole Machado · 5 Comments

The City of South San Francisco holds an Easter Egg Hunt annually at Orange Park in SSF, I found the below information at www.ssf.net and thought I would pass it along…

62nd Easter Egg Hunt
Saturday, April 4th – 10:00 A.M.
Orange Memorial Park Picnic

Preschool and elementary school children (8 years of old and younger) are invited to participate in our 62nd Annual Easter Egg Hunt. Children can search for eggs and hidden prizes as well as visiting with the Easter Bunny. The hunt takes place rain or shine at the Orange Park Shelter. There will be two hunts occurring at the same time for children ages 3 – 5 and 6 – 8. Participation is free!!! Parents don’t forget your camera. Thank you to our sponsors; South San Francisco Women’s Club and South San Francisco Friends of Parks and Recreation. For more information, call (650) 829-3800.

The “Runaway Buyer”…

March 12, 2009 · Nicole Machado · 9 Comments

pk-granny Just a quick post on a funny note… I have encountered a “runaway” buyer at two of my open houses in South San Francisco, two months apart from each other in two different neighborhoods. The first time I met her; she was so nice and friendly and seemed genuinely interested in the home. She said she liked it so much she wanted her husband to see it (he was waiting in the car). I didn’t think anything of it at the time, but once she went out to the car the husband slammed on the accelerator and took off down the street. I thought it was strange, but in this business nothing fazes me. It was about two months later Read more

SSF Real Estate becoming a competitive sport…

March 8, 2009 · Nicole Machado · 8 Comments

Get on your boxing gloves and jump in the ring, but don’t wait for the bell to ring or you’ll be knocked out of the competition. In the past few weeks homes in SSF have been flying off the market. I have been working with first time home buyers for about a month now that desperately want to purchase a home in SSF. They are solid buyers that have excellent credit and a good down payment, however they keep getting beat out on properties by all cash offers. The two most recent homes they bid on had a tremendous amount of activity. One had 18 offers and the other had multiple offers within a few Read more

Have We Hit the Bottom

January 24, 2009 · Nicole Machado · 5 Comments

I was reading the January/February 2009 edition of the California Association of Realtors Magazine and came across this article I thought I would share. The article has good facts with a positive economic forecast for 2009 and the graph is a great visual representation of the history of the market.

To read the full article click on the thumbnail image of the article below, then click once more on the article to make the content larger.

Open House drawing Black Friday Crowds…

January 12, 2009 · Nicole Machado · 8 Comments

With the Holidays behind us, buyers are back on the Real Estate scene scoping out the latest inventory. This weekend I held a home in SSF open. I had over 65 groups come through and even ran out of fliers & ended up staying well after 4pm as buyers kept showing up. I can’t remember the last time I ran out of fliers or had to stay longer then the open house was scheduled. I felt like I was at a department store on Black Friday and everything was 50% off!
The home was a single family fixer, in a desirable neighborhood. I figured there was an abundance of buyers because it was the first weekend of scheduled open houses, come to find out it wasn’t just my open house that faired well to the buyer’s scene, it was everyone’s.
Every Monday morning my office has its sales meetings. In the meetings we take count of how many people came through our open houses. Today the count was 400. Those are huge numbers which gives us all something to ponder… Buyers are out in droves, prices have come down and interest rates are historically at all time lows, has the market hit its threshold? What are your thoughts? All I can say is when it’s your time to buy or sell, it doesn’t really matter what else is going on around you. That’s the beauty of Real Estate.