Silicon Valley Real Estate Blog - 1SiliconValley.com

The Santa Clara community of Rivermark might be considered the jewel of the Santa Clara real estate market.  Where else in Santa Clara’s Silicon Valley can you find so many amenities for home buyers? 

Rivermark offers among other things, a central, self-contained community in Santa Clara of newer single family homes and townhomes intermixed with urban amenities like shopping centers, major restaurants, retailers, service providers, schools, parks, walkways, paths and bike trails.  All within a stone’s throw of major Santa Clara commute routes on highways 101 and 880.  

You can see many of these amenities in a video we put together for a listing we sold recently on Billings Circle.  Despite a much cooler Rivermark real estate market we sold 4467 Billings Circle in 23 days using a conservative pricing strategy and aggressive marketing campaign.  

Rivermark of Santa Clara was a master planned community of the City of Santa Clara built on 152 acres of state land that was once the home of the Agnew’s hospital complex.  Rivermark is located in Santa Clara between Montague Expressway, Lafayette Street, Hope Drive and the Guadalupe River.

One of the most appealing features to Rivermark is its newness.  Rivermark represents a fresh and timely approach to community development with new homes, shopping centers, public buildings and business parks.  Unlike most homes in Santa Clara country, many of which were built post WWII, construction began along the Guadalupe River in Rivermark in 2002.  Since then major builders like Centex, Shea Homes, Lennar, Greystone and others have built a variety of real estate projects appealing to homebuyers of all ages and in all price ranges from upper end, single family detached luxury homes to basic, first time buyer townhomes and condominiums. 

All of these amenities combined with relaxed market conditions make Rivermark a good value for the savvy buyer.  Consider the Rivermark listing I mentioned at 4467 Billings Circle, gem of a home with one of the largest backyards in the development and a great family friendly floor plan.

During the frenzy of the Silicon Valley dot com boom buyers were outbidding each other for an opportunity to live in Rivermark.  Despite stormy real estate market news, well-located, properly priced and marketed Silicon Valley real estate is a good investment. 

Although some of the homes in Rivermark are similar in style and size, 4467 Billings Circle was priced at $1,099,000 taking into consideration the additional value of location and lot size in comparison to another home with the same floor plan on a smaller lot and less desirable location which had languished on the market for months priced at $1,010,000.  

Today’s home buyer is tech savvy and looking online for homes so in addition to the usual open houses, MLS and agent tour, 4467 Billings Circle had a starring role in it’s own video debuting on many popular social media sites including YouTube.

December 22, 2008 | Filed under: Neighborhoods

The shops on Lincoln Avenue have never been flashy, and in contrast to Santana Row and even downtown Los Gatos it is quite tame.  The residents of Willow Glen are proud and protective of their strip and can be quite vigilant when it comes to new development because of the fear of change.

However, lately there have been a lot of businesses on the Ave that have not been able to survive, especially in this economic downturn.  I was surprised to hear that two businesses recently have thrown in the towel and will close:  Vin Santo Ristorante and Willow Glen Liquors.  I am especially saddened to hear Vin Santo is closing because this is where my husband proposed to me. 

Willow Glen Liquors who is looking to stay in business but relocate off Lincoln, always has a wonderful selection of wines and as my personal mission to support local retailers, I buy my wines here instead of the BevMo directly across the street. 

The Ave is all abuzz this holiday season with holiday shoppers and faithful local residents supporting Willow Glen businesses, but what is going to happen once this flurry of shopping is over, when the decorations are boxed up and the excitement of Christmas is over?

Here are the plans.

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December 22, 2008 | Filed under: San Jose

I anticipate lower interest rates but they are going to be in limited supply and you will need to be prepared in order to get one of these favorable loans.

There are many who won’t get these loans, not because they can’t qualify or they have no equity — which remain the two biggest obstacles currently shutting people out of the finance market.

They won’t be able to get the low rates because they won’t be ready.

They will, in typical consumer fashion, be too busy, wait until the last moment, when funds are exhausted.  In my experience, they would have gotten their lower rate and payment, and had a great experience doing it by following some simple guidance.

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December 18, 2008 | Filed under: Mortgages, Silicon Valley News

US News and World Report published its list of best high schools and according to the report, the looked at "more than 21,000 public high schools in 48 states" to come up with a list of the top 100.  Three Silicon Valley high schools made the list:

73.  Monta Vista High, Cupertino
74.  Henry M. Gunn High, Palo Alto
80.  Saratoga High, Saratoga

These awards were based on how well-prepared students are for college as measured by Advanced Placement (AP) tests. 

California, as a state, did very well in the rankings, placing #4 out of all rated states — this means that out of all the high schools rated by US News and World Report, California has a higher percentage of silver and gold medal recipients than all but three states, based on the same criteria above. 

Of California’s 1,999 high schools rated, 126 (6.3%) received silver or gold.  The number one state, Massachusetts had 338 high schools rated and 29 (8.6%) silver and gold medalists.

US News’ rating by AP score is different from California’s standardized testing and Academic Performance Index (API), which focuses on California’s own standardized tests.  It’s no surprise that Bay Area high schools Monta Vista, Gunn and Saratoga each have API scores that are some of the best in California, exceeding 900 (out of 1000).

December 06, 2008 | Filed under: Schools, Silicon Valley News

[Steve Leung:  I’m proud to introduce this article by my friend Dan Noble, a mortgage expert with 26 years of financing experience.  The real estate financing world is obviously a different place now, especially for buyers looking to move up, and Dan describes some of the changes.]

It’s Sunday morning, and the coffee you’re sipping not only smells great but tastes extra good.  Your husband has the main section of the paper and you have the real estate section: it’s been your habit since the two of you have been so captivated by all the great deals everybody has been talking about.

Sure enough, once again this week’s paper is filled with even more and now new home builders have joined in big ads.

You’ve had your first home for a little over 4 years and the original plan was to hold it for five and leverage into another, moving up the quality of living scale.  Appreciation was part of that equation and although there’s been some recent deterioration in value, the property is worth nearly half again as much as you paid for it.  The two of you have secure employment and last year’s bonus was the biggest ever.  Your 401k is building and the company matches your contribution. 

Life looks really good right now but will it continue, what about all this trash about the economy and the bailout, and what’s up with banks that even you recognize failing, what does that mean with new home financing?

I own a personal finance coaching and consulting business named Satori Alliance.  Having 10 years experience selling real estate, 26 years financing it, and 4 years working strictly with real estate investors, please understand THIS IS A DIFFERENT GAME than ever before. 

If you think about it, act, or have the same expectations as before you will soon be boarding down a black diamond slope with an avalanche behind you that you cannot outrun!  Here are some of the changes that you need to consider.

Continue Reading »

September 28, 2008 | Filed under: Mortgages, Home Buyers, Home Owners

Too often, when people complain about the services they’re receiving — whether it’s from contractors or real estate agents — the problem arises from a misunderstanding about each person’s role in the transaction.  As the famous line from Cool Hand Luke goes, "What we’ve got here is a failure to communicate."

That’s why it’s important for agents to educate consumers about both of our roles in a real estate transaction.  The Internet has more than enough information to help buyers identify neighborhoods they’re interested in exploring further, so I explain to clients that they don’t need an agent to begin the first part of their property search.  From that point on, however, an experienced, professional agent is invaluable.  Here’s why:

1/  The best agents are market experts, and continually renew their expertise by having their ears to the ground at all times. 

Consistent tracking on the pulse of the real estate market is a trait of any good agent: we’ll provide current, sometimes up-to-the-minute, information on schools, neighborhoods, and even tracts of homes and builders.  Many times it’s information you will never find on a website.

Recently had a client that had been monitoring a luxury development in Emerald Hills.  Persistently keeping track of the activity in the neighborhood early and often helped my client purchase a bank-owned property before the property was put on the market — and for several hundreds of thousands dollars less than he would have paid otherwise!

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September 17, 2008 | Filed under: Home Buyers, Home Owners

The California Department of Education has released its 2008 Growth API scores for Santa Clara County and San Mateo County, which measure yearly improvement from the state’s 2007 Base API scores. The API (Academic Performance Index) scores are considered the cornerstone of California’s Public Schools Accountability Act of 1999, and measure the academic performance and growth of the state’s schools according to a range of academic factors.

The Los Altos, Saratoga, Cupertino, and Palo Alto elementary school districts all maintained district API averages above 900, an excellent score (which is par for the course in these districts).

The competitive Cupertino Union schools improved from an already-elite score of 930 to 941, and its border school Stocklmeir Elementary — which students who are living in Sunnyvale can attend — notched up 13 points to 959. To offer some perspective as to the strength of these scores, the average state API for all grades is 742, up from 728 last year.

This year’s score report also reflects improvements at both Cumberland and Cherry Chase, the two top elementary schools in Sunnyvale. Both broke the 900 mark once again, with respective scores of 920 and 909.

Also emerging are up-and-coming schools to watch. Take Ellis Elementary in Sunnyvale, which entered the 21^st century with a score in the mid-700s and now consistently scores in excess of 800. This year, Ellis improved 17 points with a score of 831.

The Campbell Union Elementary District’s Forest Hill is another school on the move. At a 2008 score of 888, Forest Hill is inching closer to breaking the 900 barrier. Up from 879 last year, Forest Hill was a low-800s school in 2000. We’ll continue to keep an eye on these continually improving school systems as they maintain their march up the API ladder.

September 08, 2008 | Filed under: Schools

Recently, reporter Kate Thompson of KRON 4 contacted me to get our on-the-ground experience with how home values and school qualities in Silicon Valley relate to one another.  We’ve put together a number of articles on real-life stories as well as an entire section for schools, dedicated to statistics and tips for understanding what those school rankings really mean.

We sent agent and Silicon Valley Real Estate Blog writer Alex Wang to talk about the details of a recent transaction he was a part of and he recounts how the demand for good schools pushed that sale to go faster and for a higher sales price.  And you can see what he had to say starting at 01:30 of the KRON 4 report below:

You can also see the report through its direct link.

August 22, 2008 | Filed under: Silicon Valley News

The July issue of The Registry, the popular Bay Area real estate magazine, features the Silicon Valley Real Estate Blog, 1SiliconValley.com saying:

"…the site offers many well-written articles on a variety of relevant subjects, from school API scores to new developments built or approved in a particular neighborhood."

"…a great source of information for South Bay first-time buyers."

Our own Alex Wang is featured in their Residential Market Report on page 40, "Boom and Bust Still Exist Side by Side".  In an interesting anecdote about the lending crisis, he offers a story of a self-employed client with a $200,000 annual income who had to endure a complete third-party audit before his loan could close.

July 19, 2008 | Filed under: Silicon Valley News

Home photos can deceive. Depending on the photography, great houses can seem ho-hum and ho-hum houses can seem great. 
 
And though professionally-photographed homes on real estate sites aim to woo you, don’t allow oh-ah photography to limit your choices. By ruling out a house just because it’s less photogenic than the competition, you may lose out on some truly terrific finds.
 
For instance, a client relocating from Canada was living in corporate housing while he searched for homes, and he’d been sending web links to his wife to preview properties.
 
It seemed like they’d found the right house. The photos were knock-outs and really showcased the property well. Before the wife arrived, I prepared a contract so we could put in an offer right after she saw it. But the property didn’t show well. The sellers hadn’t staged it and the home wasn’t in top shape.
 
I recommended that we take a look at some other comparable houses that she’d seen online. Its images weren’t heart-stopping, nor did they do the home justice. They didn’t, for instance, help people to envision the space and layout.
 
But when the client saw the property, she loved it. For one thing, it featured 400 square feet more than the first house she’d seen. The extra square footage was ideal because the couple had two children. We ended up writing an offer on this second, larger house.
 
Had the client automatically eliminated this home because of iffy pictures or I, as their agent, had discouraged her from even visiting it, the family would have lost out on a spacious property that turned out to be ideal. 
 
As you’re choosing properties to visit, do weigh the images in your decision-making process, but don’t make them the sole criteria. And be sure the agent you’re working with is open to showing you homes that may not feature the most striking photos.
 
Sellers’ tip: Buyers do place a premium on good photos. Sometimes you won’t get an opportunity to make a second impression, so be sure those first images wow viewers. 

Related: Choosing a Home Inspector in Silicon Valley

July 08, 2008 | Filed under: Home Buyers