Wine Country And Horses

I heard a great story from one of my wonderful colleagues, Delia Nieto at Coldwell Banker yesterday.   I spotted her meeting with clients in the office so that they could remove all contingencies on the purchase of their first home, priced well under $500,000 in Santa Rosa.   They have rented the same tiny apartment for 6 years and are bursting at the seams with 3 children.  Two years ago at the peak of the frenzied Sonoma County real estate market, the median home was priced around $600,000.  Although this family worked closely two years ago with Burbank Housing , a Sonoma County non-profit that works with low-income residents to get them into affordable housing, their jobs as a special needs teacher and landscaper did not quite qualify them to buy at the peak prices.    But the downward spiral of entry level prices and their diligence over the last two years, as well as the Acorn Housing Loan program offered in this case in conjunction with Bank of America  are enabling them to buy their first home.  Through the Acorn program they each took numerous classes in home ownership and responsible credit management.   Meanwhile, the house they would have paid $540,000 for two years ago, will now cost them $460,000!    Astonishingly, Bank of America’s appraisal for this same house for their CURRENT loan, came in at a hefty $530,000.  Delia and I are both puzzled but this occurence, but her very happy clients will take it.   Meanwhile, yesterday’s Press Democrat newspaper’s front page story, confirmed my little anecdote as a trend.  

Buyers’ market

People priced out in recent years jump in as costs fall, supply rises

 Nice to see the press making some lemonade (along with smart first time buyers) of the current market.

Some local MLS’s (multiple listings services) are now starting to enable consumers to search “sold” listings as well as actives and pendings.  This has been a controversial move for the old guard in real estate, stemming from the days when the licensed realtor high priests held data to themselves and were able to pronounce as from the Oracle of Delphi, what property values might be for a given potential listing or buyer purchase.  Not hard to hold that data tight to your chest when the only access was the printed MLS book updated weekly.  A little impossible to defend in the days of Zillow, etc.   Personally, I want my clients to have as much information as possible so they can make informed decisions, and we work as a more powerful team that way.

… we noticed that the claw foot tub in the guest bathroom was supported by foam blocks and the home inspector had not noticed.  My contractor husband came by to inspect the property informally with me as I performed my agent’s visual examination.   This was a new home in the country outside NW Santa Rosa, with fantastic style and my clients fell in love with it on-line and we wrote an offer after they flew in from San Diego to see it in person.  It stood up at first glance and matched their on line infatuation.   Kind of like a successful first encounter after meeting on Match.com!

Anyway, the home had been built on spec by an architect and built by himself and his buddies, we later found out.   Something didn’t seem right somehow–it had never been occupied and had been finalled by the county inspectors earlier in the year.    When Bruce (my husband) came by to look at the property (unofficially–i.e. not retained by my clients) he was able to point out a large number of items that had either been done improperly or were never finished.  For the most part, they were minor but added up to a huge punch list.  Given that the property had been “finished” nearly a year earlier, that was cause for concern.

The most egregious item was the aforementioned claw-footed tub.  Bruce was able to easily tap the foam supports away and said, “Can you imagine what would happen the first time the tub was filled with water?”  Apparently the only thing supporting it was the exposed drain pipe running down to the subway tiles!    While we called for an official plumbing inspection to further investigate, my clients tossed and turned and lost a lot of sleep until we decided that the best course was to cancel the escrow due to the results of their investigations.   That was in August of 2007.  The house is still on the market, but on November 30, my clients closed escrow on a FANTASTIC new home in Healdsburg built by a very successful and conscientious builder.  There was a happy ending after all.   My husband, the contractor, said that oftentimes in new construction, it takes a large cast of inspectors to really evaluate a property.   I am not so sure, and have changed home inspection companies.