Racoons on the Roof

Most mornings, the alarm goes off in our Los Gatos home at 6:30am. I find my way to the coffee pot, flip it on, and sit down at my desk to see what emails may have come in overnight. My home office looks out to a small front courtyard; ours is a pseudo-Spanish style home and the view to the street goes through a small covered archway that connects one part of the U-shaped house with another.

As I sipped on my coffee and waited for the email to load today, a shadowy four-legged creature meandered across the archway roof. It was in siloutte - all shadows as the sun hadn't risen high enough to illuminate it. A cat? A squirrel? A possum? It sported a long snout and a fairly thick tail. Seemed to be a racoon. While I was still processing the possibilities, a second animal waddled right behind.

They were so cute!

I squealed with delight at these cartoonish animals so close. Jim and I hustled outside to catch a better view of them. The dog treated this like a four-alarm fire and raced around the house barking, and even when we returned inside and told her to hush, she wouldn't abandon her duty of announcing a huge danger. The neighbors must have wondered.

After about 10 minutes and the return of calm, I got a second viewing as one of them retraced its steps along the crest of the arch in better light and a second one snuggled under the overhang between the archway and the bedroom wing. It was so funny to look up and see the racoon eyes studying me from under the eaves!

In truth, they're adorable as visitors but we wouldn't want them to stay. I'm not sure how they got there, or what they expected to find on my roof. Perhaps a neighbor leaves pet food outside that attracts them? Or maybe they like one of our fruit trees? I don't know. We have seen possum in the peach tree, squirrels everywhere and sometimes a rat tries to take up residence with us. Never before racoons, though. I hope they nest somewhere else in Belwood...and just come back to visit once in awhile.

Thinking of Selling Your Silicon Valley Home?
How Early Do You Prepare, Contact an Agent?

If you are thinking of selling your home sometime in the next year or two, how soon should you really start to address this project? A real estate agent can have listing paperwork signed by a homeowner and put the house on the market (and on the MLS) within a couple of hours. But that's not usually the best way to proceed.

It's best if you can "hit the ground running" so that the day your home goes onto the multiple listing service, everything is in place and you've arrived at that day in an unhurried way if at all possible. When your home goes "live" and "on the market, ideally the lockbox is on the house, the color flyers are ready, the disclosures are completed, the pre-sale inspections are done (and any corrections or improvements finished), the virtual tour online, etc. And perhaps most importantly, when your home is exposed to the pool of buyers, it needs to be staged - decluttered and spotless above all.

So when to begin?

(1) Decluttering, thinning out possessions:
however long it takes

Because few of us in Santa Clara County have basements, a lot of times our extra stuff ends up in the garage. It can be a magnet for not only holiday decorations, but boxes of unopened items from the last move and things that are on the "to deal with" list. Closets and cabinets can be similarly stuffed and all of these need to be fairly well thinned out for the purposes of showing and selling your house, townhouse or condo.

The weeding out process can take quite a while for some people. Take a look at your garage and then your closets and start a plan for what to do with all the items you seldom or never use. If you haven't touched something in several years, it may be time to part with it.

Each situation is different, but some sellers need months to do this difficult process of thinning out possessions in the garage and closets. For some, it's more acute and there are too many possessions everywhere (countertops, tables, desks - home offices can also attract too many items for the space).

(2) Six weeks ahead of when you'd like to be on the market, begin to interview for your real estate professional (ideally a Realtor since members of NAR adhere to a code of ethics that goes beyond what the law requires). Allow enough time to meet, check the Dept of Real Estate's website for the license status and check the agent's marketing materials, web exposure, experience etc. (You can always select your agent first, but normally that's not necessary.)

(3) About four weeks ahead of your desired to-market date is a good amount of time, an unhurried and comfortable amount of time, to sign the listing paperwork, order inspections, complete disclosures, finish staging, and get the photos and virtual tour and marketing & advertising pieces ready. This allows you enough time to address any surprises that might come up in the pre-sale inspections so that you can better control the outcome of your sale.

Some people contact me years ahead of when they actually decide to sell. I once got a call from a woman who asked me to come right over and list her house (I had never met her before but she was close friends with a past client). These are the extremes. More often, people aren't sure how their timetable will exactly pan out and they may start a dialogue with me about selling their home in Los Gatos, San Jose or Saratoga or elsewhere in Silicon Valley several months ahead of when they will actually do it. And that's fine. Most real estate professionals will be happy to speak with you well in advance of when you actually sell because they want to establish a relationship with you so that when you do sell, they are "top of mind". That's certainly how I view it: I would like to be the go-to resource for home selling in Silicon Valley (especially in Los Gatos).

Please call or email me if I can help you with your selling questions, whether for now or in the distant future.

Mary Pope-Handy, Realtor
CRS, ABR, e-PRO, SRES, ASP, RECS, CNHS
Helping Nice Folks to Buy & Sell Homes Since 1993
Co-Author:
"Get The Best Deal When Selling Your Home In Silicon Valley"
Intero Real Estate Services, Los Gatos, CA (Silicon Valley)
408 357-5760 (Direct); 408 204-7673 (Cell); 408 715-0201 (eFax)
www.PopeHandy.com www.ValleyOfHeartsDelight.com
email: Mary@PopeHandy.com

Trees Near the Property Line:
Who Pays to Trim in California?

If you live in Los Gatos, or anywhere along the Santa Cruz Mountains like Almaden, Saratoga or Los Altos, you probably live with trees very near your home, as the San Jose area values its "urban forest". And often enough, those trees arch over fences and property lines.

Ever wonder how tree ownership works in regard to property lines? Well, last week I found out. I had a tree and property line question here in Silicon Valley so called the California Association of Realtors legal hotline and spoke to an attorney about it. (The lawyer referenced case law and sent me info on it: Miller and Starr §§ 14:15, 14:16.)

If the tree trunk is located wholly on one property, the tree is "owned" by that property owner. Even if the branches go over the property line. If the trunk straddles the property line, you have a shared tree.

What about trimming those branches that go over a neighbor's yard?

First of all, this is the wrong time of year for trimming trees. It is best to do it in spring. But if tree branches are an issue for someone now, the neighbor with the branches reaching onto his or her yard has the right to trim those branches back to the property line (and pay for it himself or herself). The neighbor cannot demand that the tree owner pay to trim the branches. And the neighbor cannot harm the tree or kill it (or chop it down). If the neighbor harms the tree, he or she could be liable for damages.

This is also true of the roots. The neighbor can trim the roots if they are really causing a problem, but cannot harm the tree. Cutting back roots can cause trees to die or become so unstable as to fall down, so trimming roots should be the last resort.

The tree owner's responsibility regarding the tree and the property adjacent to it is simple: if the tree harms the neighbor's property, the tree owner could be liable for damages. So enormous oak trees with limbs hanging over a neighbor's roof could spell disaster (oak trees are known for simply dropping big branches on hot summer days). Tree branches interwoven with phone lines could be a problem in a winter storm too.

It's always best to talk with the neighbor before doing anything, of course, and to give them a little notice. If you're the neighbor, ask when the tree owner wants to trim the tree.(It will probably be in spring.) If you're the tree owner, ask your neighbors when you plan to trim your tree if they'd like you to trim the part hanging into their yard too. Some will say yes, and some no!