Los Gatos, California
Los Gatos real estate, neighborhoods, condos, houses, homes, market trends, history, events, lifestyle, parks, events, businesses, home, Mary Pope-Handy
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Apr. 5, 2008
 Is there a "best time" to buy or sell a home in Los Gatos, Saratoga, or San Jose? That's a question I get a lot. The answer is not so clear as many people would like.
Often we have some seasonally predictable patterns. Let's look at them.
Winter: inventory tends to be very low in winter (from late November until somewhere between New Year's, the Superbowl, and Valentine's Day). Each year it's slightly different, but in that "dead of winter" (as much as we have it here in The Valley of Heart's Delight) is usually the time with the lowest number of sales, the best prices for buyers, the most "absorption" for sellers, the best interest rates, but the LEAST inventory to choose from. So you may get a good price as a buyer, but may not have much to choose from. Sellers may have the best odds of selling a home during this time because there are so few homes to choose from, and some buyers are anxious to close during the calendar year for tax or other reasons.
Spring: What's best for sellers? Most years (but not all) that "best window" is from February through April. On a good year, it may continue into May. Some years, that "best window" for sellers is just a couple of weeks in March. Other years, it moves around and could be earlier, later, longer or shorter. Or just not happen at all. For buyers, spring brings a new influx of inventory and often decent rates. As more buyers come on the market, interest rates tend to creep up most years (a supply and demand issue).
 Summer: Somewhere around June, though, the tide begins to turn and by mid to late summer, sales have slowed considerably and sometimes prices even drop by about August. It varies from year to year. This can be a great time for buyers - lots of inventory to choose from, Interest rates may not be their cheapest, though.
Fall: Many years, there is a second rally (besides the one that happens near March) with a mini flurry of activity between Labor Day and Halloween. That can often be an excellent time to sell or to buy (more inventory than August or November/December).
There are pros and cons to each time on the market for both buyers and sellers. Depending on your home, any time can work. Traditionally, spring is viewed as best for both because there is a good supply of inventory but it doesn't linger too long. So in some ways, spring is the most balanced market. Any time of year CAN work, though. So do not tie your buying decision soley to something like the school year, the interest rates, or the holidays. Call me if you'd like to discuss your individual situation.
Mar. 10, 2008
The San Jose Mercury News was a Realtor's close friend in the 50s, 60s and 70s. It was more current than the multiple listing book (which at that time was updated about once a week with tearout or replaceable pages) and scanning the ads was crucially important to know what was going on back then. Each morning, my mother, Pat Pope (a Realtor from '56 to '96) would pour over the Merc with her morning coffee to stay current on the market.
 Most of the ads were pretty plain. One stood out for its frank humor - and it ran for what felt like years. The "old timers" in the industry may remember it. In large letters, this San Jose fixer-upper was listed boldly as "EL DUMPO". It eventually did sell but while being marketed, gave a lot of folks the chuckles.
So what makes a home a "fixer"?
In my real estate practice, I find that buyers, sellers and agents can all have a different idea of what constitutes a "fixer". It comes down to a matter of degree.
Simply put, a fixer is a home that needs a lot of work.
At one end of the spectrum, there are homes that have been updated now and then over the years - perhaps with a kitchen remodel that's now 20 or 25 years old - but not recently. The carpet and paint need replacing and the look could be newer, but the home is well maintained and clean. Is it a fixer? The sellers won't think so and may be offended if that label is applied to their home. The agents may view it as borderline. Buyers may view it as "liveable but needing work". Or maybe not - perhaps they will wonder how the current owners could live in a home with that condition. They may consider it a fixer.
 At the other end of the range is the "bulldozer". These are homes that have not been kept up at all: not updated, not even cleaned. They may have dysfunctional floorplans, illegal additions. They may need more than fixing; they may need replacing.
Once when my kids were out of school (vacation or inservice day) on a real estate board tour day, I took them along with me to see a few homes. We pulled up to one in Monte Sereno. The structure was sitting on a perflectly flat view lot close to Daves Avenue. The house was the kind of thing that makes a person say "ewww" when opening doors and seeing unpleasant, moldy surprises. My daughter, then about age seven, saw it and proclaimed wisely "Mommy, it's a 'dozer'".
Here are the types of things that will make virtually all buyers and Realtors view a home as a "fixer" (not just one of these, but multiple issues):
- major systems in need of being replaced, such as the roof, electrical system, plumbing, heating
- floors badly out of level (foundation work needed, drainage work needed)
- baths and kitchens that are 40 years old
- fireplaces and chimneys that need rebuilding or extensive repairs
And here are a few more that may invoke the "fixer" label (or the milder "cosmetic fixer") among homebuyers and real estate agents:
 popcorn or textured ceilings - paneling or (most older) wallpaper on the walls
- single pane windows
- cracked and stained concrete - driveways, walkways, patios
- lack of in-ground sprinklers
- ugly landscaping (obviously a little subjective)
- baths and kitchens more than 20 to 25 years old or in out-of-date colors
- old (or stained) carpeting or other floorcovering
For agents, it's helpful to clarify with buyers what they mean when they say "I want to buy a fixer". They may mean "replacing carpet and paint is OK" but nothing else. Or they may be willing to tear down a house and rebuild a new one for the right lot and location.
 For buyers, it's important to be clear with your agent what kinds of things you'd be willing to do for the right price, and how much is too much.
For homeowners who may be thinking of selling, don't worry about completely updating your house because someone may view it as a fixer upper. You won't get your money back in the short term if you replace your kitchen cabinets, for instance. But it's a mistake to take the stance that "the buyer can fix it" for everything extreme. Many buyers cannot envision how nice your kitchen would be without the brown and white flowered wallpaper and without the brown vinyl or linoleum flooring. Some fixes will make you money when you sell and some won't. Floorcoverings and paint are often a good investment.
Please call me if you'd like to discuss your particular situation and how to maximize buying or selling a home that may be a fixer.
Mary Pope-Handy, Realtor, CRS, ABR, e-PRO, SRES, ASP, RECS, CNHS, ACRE
Helping Nice Folks to Buy & Sell Homes Since 1993
Co-Author: "Get The Best Deal When Selling Your Home In Silicon Valley"
Keller Williams, Cupertino, CA (Silicon Valley)
877 397-5391 (Direct/Toll-Free/Fax); 408 204-7673 (Cell)
www.PopeHandy.com www.ValleyOfHeartsDelight.com
Mar. 1, 2008
We all like easy answers, preferably with a short list. That's why titles like "Five Easy Ways to Make Millions" seem to sell so well. With that in mind, let me provide a few very simple rules of thumb for staging your Silicon Valley home to sell in any real estate market. But let me warn you: I'm going to be painfully, brutally blunt.
The first rule for "staging your home to sell" is the topic of today's post and it involves landscaping and curb appeal. The front of the house needs to look great. Seriously. If the front doesn't look wonderful (or at least really good), the buyer will never go inside to see how great your home is. Especially now, when the majority of homes are not selling.
Here's Mary Pope-Handy's "Simple Rules for Landscaping to Sell Your Home":
 Get rid of juniper. I'm not kidding. And ivy too, while you are at it. These two plants are hated by most buyers and tend to give them the sense of "if they've lived with that, what else have they lived with?" There are front yards which consist of nothing but ivy and juniper. Tear it out. - Make sure the door(s) and windows are fully viewable and not at all obstructed from the street. This is dual purpose. First, it allows the buyer to see the home as uncrowded from the outside, and it lets a maximum of light get inside. If your bushes are growing over any part of the window, beat it back. I mean, trim it back. Mature landscaping is good. Overgrown is bad.
- Have a healthy lawn in front. Fresh sod is nice, but a nearly weed-free, inviting patch of green will do. (In ground sprinklers required. Timers and auto drip a plus to buyers.)
- Plant colorful flowers near the walk way and near the front door.
- If you have a porch, make it appealing with good furniture - but not overcrowded. Think uncluttered. If it's a tiny porch, use tiny bistro-like furniture.
- Keep garden hoses rolled up and tidy, keep walkways clear of debris, keep all the living things healthy (unless you've got moss - get rid of that living thing!).
- Clean your windows, door, porch, exterior. A power washer is a good friend - it'll help you clear cobwebs. Make sure the door opens easily and the hardware is clean.
- How's your mailbox? If it's tired, replace it. Ditto that for the front mat.
- When selling, make sure to keep your garage door closed (and that it operates properly). If the driveway, walkway or sidewalk is badly cracked or damaged, consider repairing or replacing it. This is particularly true if there is any tripping hazard. (Imagine a buyer getting hurt while viewing your property - you want to eliminate this possibility.)
That's it for the exterior. Not too painful, was it? (Well, not if you didn't start with a heavy load of juniper and ivy.) If you can make your front yard approachable and welcoming (no walls of ivy, no overgrowth), it will do wonders at beckoning people to see the inside of your home too.
Jan. 12, 2008
.jpg) On the eastern edge of the town of Los Gatos, there sits a neighborhood of about 500 homes that most people refer to as simply "Belwood" but in fact is comprised of three different neighborhoods: Belwood of Los Gatos, the Belgatos area and the Surmont subdivision. Collectively, they enjoy close access to fabulous Belgatos Park and the use of a great neighborhood pool and cabaña.
Being partial to this region of town since my family and I reside there, I provide a small website, BelwoodOfLosGatos.com (also Belwood-Belgatos.com points to it), which includes hyper local information about that neighborhood's homes and real estate, Belgatos Park, the cabaña and also an area-specific blog to which I occassionally post. Today I blogged about the three parts of the area and homes for sale there - what is currently on the market and a hint about an upcoming listing (not mine, but one I'm aware of). Additionally, there's a link to the "home info" section, which includes sales prices of homes in Belwood, Belgatos and Surmont in recent years.
Interested in the Los Gatos real estate market? It's not "one market", but many micro-markets. What applies in one region or price point (or even school district, at times) may not be true in another. The Belwood area homes in east Los Gatos is one of those many markets. Pop by my blog and site there and get to know the neighborhood! A photo slideshow is available too.
Jan. 5, 2008
Silicon Valley is not alone in being pounded by a fierce Alaskan storm this weekend. The Friday rains - which we desperately need - came in a short period of time, together with strong winds which apparently gusted close to 100mph in the Santa Cruz Mountains.
 It's a mess out there, and it's not over yet. The roads are filled with fallen leaves and branches. In the Almond Grove District of downtown Los Gatos, a bough actually blocked off an entire street and damaged a car. This is not an uncommon story from one end of the state to the other. Fences are down all over. Emergency personnel are working overtime to handle the accidents and weather related problems. In Southern California, they face mudslides after the fires a few months ago - homes are truly at risk there.
Not surprisingly, power was lost to over a million P, G & E customers in northern California alone. Additionally, cable and internet services are out for many of us too. At our house in the Belwood area of east Los Gatos, we have Comcast cable for high speed internet and television. But they are both out. (The town of Los Gatos requires the cable boxes to be below ground, at least where we live, and every time we get a heavy rainfall, the boxes flood and those services go out. Our neighbors used a sump pump on theirs, and helped us use it on ours, to no avail. We keep dialup as a backup here since my husband and I both work from home and can't afford to not have internet access.)
The end is in sight. By Monday, the rain should have stopped. Then it will be time to do the cleanup.
Once you take care of the immediately obvious items, let me suggest a few others to protect your home while they are on the top of your mind.
(1) Water Against Your Home: Get It Away
 Did the water pool up against your house, or come very close to doing so, during these storms? If so, it's imperative to get the water away from the house. If you live in Los Gatos, Monte Sereno, Saratoga, Almaden Valley, or any of the regions close to the coastal foothills, you may be getting hillside runoff. Or you may have a very high water table - both which are much more serious and will require expert help. (Call or email me if you'd like a recommendation for an inspector.)
Often water pools for two very simple, and easy to remedy, reasons. Fist, it may be there because the downspouts don't extend away from the house and/or secondly because the dirt around the soil is not properly graded.
If your downspouts don't have extenders, go get them! They are ugly but functionally very important. They are cheap. Ace Hardware in Los Gatos carries them and the folks there are friendly and will assist you. Next, see if you need to work on the grading around your home to carry the water away from your home's foundation. (If you lay a marble 1' away from your house, would it roll toward or away from it? You want it to go away from your house.)
Here in Santa Clara County, in the San Jose area generally, we have clay soil. It expands when wet and is extremely strong - much more powerful than the concrete and rebar in most homes' foundations. Foundations can be very costly to repair, and a moving foundation can put your home out of level and cause other problems too - most of which are not easy or inexpensive to fix. So if you care about your real estate as an investment, protect your house's foundation: get the water away from it.
(2) Leaves On Your Roof and In Your Gutters: Get Them Off
 We love our trees, especially here in the west valley communities. When they are too close to our residences, though, they can be an issue. (In the photo here, the house has a shake roof, which is dark gray. But there are so many leaves on the roof that it's almost not visible at all.)
Overhanging branches can be a superhighway for rodents to get onto your roof. Depending on your roof type, from there it may not be a whole lot of effort for them to get into your attic, and then down into your walls, too. Rats munching on electrical wires can spark a fire. The list of why you don't want your home to be a habitrail go on and on.
But the leaves themselves are a problem too if they pile up on your roof and in your gutters. On the roof, they can trap moisture and cause accelerating aging to the shingles, or encourage the growth of moss (also ages the roof faster). Perhaps worse, when the roof and gutters fill with tree debris, it can cause actual roof leakage as the water does not drain properly but instead backs up into your home from between the shingles or tiles.
Meanwhile, though, we need to wait out this series of storms. Our total rainfall has been off by about half of last year's, and last year's was low too. (Not unlike the real estate market...) If we don't get more rainfall, the folks at San Jose Water are saying we may have a full on drought and rationing next summer. So we are thankful for the precipitation - just wish it wouldn't all come at once!
Jan. 4, 2008
Is January a good month to list your home, or to make an offer on one, in Los Gatos? When is the best time to buy or sell? In auto sales, it's said that making an offer on a car the last day of the month, especially if it is a rainy, "slow day", can result in a good bargain. Is that true in buying a house in Los Gatos too?
Auto sales and real estate sales are not the same, but they can respond to the same economic factors, among others. Predictions for 2008 are very mixed. The weather, though, also impacts sales in both areas.
What about the weather? As I type this, it's pouring rain, the wind is howling and my power here in Belwood has browned out 3 times in the last 2 minutes. This is not the kind of weather that brings most buyers out to shop! So competition will be less for the best homes. Interest rates, too, often rise in mid-February as demand increases. There's not a ton of inventory at the moment, but it's very possible that the "best deal of the year" for getting that condo, townhome or house here in the west valley will be had right now. No one can say with any certainty whether the realty market will be more or less favorable in a month, but I would say to buyers who are serious about purchasing a home this year: do look now. If you see a home you like, make an offer. And sellers, most of your competition will wait for fairer days. Right now, that's not much of an issue.
What's the inventory? And sellers, is this a good time for you? Right now,inventory is low: there are exactly 95 single family homes that are on the market in the 95030 and 95032 zip codes. There are just 22 condominiums or townhouses in the same parts of town. Winter is not usually known as the best season to sell, but there is also far less competition now than there might be later in the year. And buyers who come out to view homes in the middle of January's weather are usually very serious about writing a contract to purchase a house.
What about pricing? Home sales have been plummeting for 34 solid months. Most homes in most parts of Silicon Valley are not selling. (Believe it or not, even in a hot sellers market, not all homes sell. A percentage are always overpriced, in poor condition, or marketed so badly that they do not procure an offer that goes through.) Los Gatos, and neighboring Monte Sereno, Saratoga, and Almaden Valley, are stronger than many parts of the valley - in large part because of the quality of life in these areas, the low crime, the well-kept neighborhoods, and the great school scores. Those factors make some areas desirable in any market. So while you might find a foreclosure emporium in some parts of Santa Clara County, you won't find it in this part of the Valley of Heart's Delight! Short sales and foreclosures pull prices down, perhaps by as much as 10 percent, in areas where those occur. But prices in the town of Los Gatos and the lovely areas adjacent are continuing to rise.
The future of real estate sales in Silicon Valley is a bit uncertain for this new year, perhaps especially since it is an election year. We truly don't know how long the sales slump here will last. If homeowners need to sell, it is probably best to get the home on the market sooner rather than later since the competition is not very great at the moment. Buyers can gain on this market now by purchasing when no one else is looking and while interest rates are good and before prices rise any more. (I have often heard buyers say "I'm waiting for prices to go down" but in most markets within Los Gatos, they are simply not falling.)
"The Market" is a broad term, and really even within our fair town, there are micro-markets from east Los Gatos to downtown to the areas bordering Monte Sereno, and that is also true as relating to school districts and price points.
Right now - even with this inclement weather - can be a great time to buy and sell in Los Gatos or anywhere in the west valley areas of Silicon Valley.
Please call or email me if you'd like to discuss your particular circumstances.
Best regards,
Dec. 7, 2007
The Condo and Townhome market in Los Gatos is a mixed bag. Values are holding and appear to even be rising slightly, the "days on market" are short (a mere 14 days in November), and the list price to sales price ratio is amazing at over 101%. But just as with single family homes, the number of sales is way down.
Is this seasonal or is it "the market"?
One way to check against a seasonal fluctuation is to look at all recent Novembers and see how this one compares. Let's have a look:
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As you can see, the 5 closings in November is the least number of sales over the last decade. Sales are way, way off. And, like with single family homes viewed the same way (see yesterday's post), it's about half of what's average.
If we look at the months of inventory, or the absorption rate, does it look any better?
The condo market remains under 6 months of inventory, which is the point at which the National Association of Realtors would say it moves from being a sellers' market to a buyers' market. These numbers are much better than those for the single family home market in Los Gatos (which had 8.79 months of inventory for November - and those numbers appear to be rising steadily, wheras these numbers are up and down so they appear less predictable).
As of today, there are 5 pending condos or townhouses in Los Gatos (zip codes 95030 and 95032) and a total inventory of 26 available townhomes or condominiums in town. So approximately 20% of the homes on the market are selling. Those that do sell, sell fast and apparently for a great ratio.
But that leaves 80% of the homes that aren't selling at all. So all the good news about "fast days on market" and "great list price to sales price" is not very heartwarming to that 80% whose homes don't seem to want to sell.
In a market like this one, buyers are passing up homes (whether houses or lofts or anything else) with "issues" like busy roads, deferred updating, and of course especially overpriced homes. The property which is fixed up, in a superior location and priced aggressively - the gem, the deal - is selling fast.
This is not a market to see if you can get a price. It's a market for people serious about putting a home in top condition on the market, and pricing it to attract a buyer who's frankly looking for a good deal. Your home needs to be that good deal to sell right now.
Will it be better in the spring? Possibly. The market is really not bad now. There are always overpriced homes in less than ideal locations and with less than perfect condition that don't sell because the price isn't low enough to compensate for the problems. So don't let the failure of some properties worry you about yours. Just get it in the right shape and price it for what today's market will bear (not what you want it to be worth, not what you need, not what someone else told you it is worth).
 If you are buying another home after selling the condo or townhome, you are in luck. The market gets softer as you move up the ranks, and there's a good chance you will make up for any felt loss on the next purchase. But hurry. No one knows whether it will suddenly become a different kind of market in the new year!
Call me if you'd like to chat about your real estate needs. I'm around and working through the holidays with just a couple of days off near Christmas - and I have time to visit with you and strategize to help you get the best deal when selling your home.
Wishing you and yours a very Happy Hanukkah, a Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year (and anything else you might be celebrating in these days)!
Best regards,
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