Plesanton TriValley Realtors® Marketing Association

I attended the TriValley Marketing Association meeting yesterday (Jan 11) at Tommy T's in Pleasanton, CA. This was the first meeting of the year and was well attended. It was also the first time we've met at Tommy T's.

It was an energetic and enthusiastic crowd with many listing presented (see some of them below) and the "High Priestess of Poop" presenting the coveted Pink Flamingo to Pat Griffin for continued excellence in the field of "Home Mobility."

This month's room sponsor is the Pleasanton Weekly - many thanks to them.

New MLS Listings Presented at TriValley Marketing Association:

There were 22 properties listed on the tour sheet and we gathered flyers for the following properties. The Harper Team can help you with these or any other homes, condos or townhouses for sale in Alamo, Danville, San Ramon, Dublin, Pleasanton or Livermore, California.

In addition, we have an established network of professional Realtors we work with throughout the Bay Area and The U.S.

Here are some of the featured properties for sale:

• 5610 Belleza, Pleasanton, CA. Central location -1 bed condo w/garage. end unit w/lots of light.
• 3307 Touriga Drive, Pleasanton, CA.4 bed 2.5 baths Lots of updates
• 7409 Stonedale Drive, Pleasanton, CA 3 bed 2.5 bath Townhouse in the Gables
• 676 Concord Place, Pleasanton, CA  2 bed 1.5 bath Condo – end unit
• 439 Cabonia Court, Pleasanton, CA. 4 bed 3 bath home in Ruby Hill
• 4608 Inyo Court, Pleasanton, CA 3 bed 2 bath over $100K in upgrades
• 3537 Gulfstream Street, Pleasanton, CA 4 bed 3 baths
• 2756 Hartley Gate Court, Pleasanton 3 bed 2 bath single story home
• 7558 May Way, San Ramon, CA 5 bed 2.5 bath Updated kitchen
• 2377 Avalon Way, San Ramon, CA. 5 bed 5 bath in Windemere
• 6162 Bay Hill Court, Dublin, CA  5 bed 5.5 bath overlooks 9th hole of Dublin Ranch Golf Club
• 6410 Dijon Way, Dublin – Torrey Pines location 2 bed 2 bath condo
• 10708 Ian Lane, Dublin, CA  2 bed 2 baths Townhome w/garage
• 3934 Tamworth Court, Dublin, CA. 3 bed / 2.5 baths 2 car garage

Some of these are expired listings that are returning to the market. There is a fair amount of controversy in the real estate industry regarding the practice of re-listing which can give the consumer a false impression of how long a property has been on the market (DOM – days on market). Ask your real estate agent to check the listing history to verify DOM to strengthen your negotiating position.

Remember, as a buyer, it costs you nothing to employee the services of a professional Realtor®

In my short time in real estate, I have met agents who are doing fifty to one hundred transactions a year solo. They do, of course, rely on an assistant or other staff in the brokerage. But the majority of the Realtor work is being done by them. I applaud them, but I'm not looking to go that route. 

In fact, I wasn't even thinking of getting into real estate a year ago. I was into my 32nd year at Delta Airlines and things in the airline industry were deteriorating faster than a Country/Western-song relationship. So,I bailed out of that and took my brother, Craig, up on his offer to move to San Ramon, California and join him and his wife, Tracey, in their real estate business - The Harper Team at Keller Williams in Danville, CA.

It turns out that we have different, yet at times, overlapping skills and talents that create a great foundation for teamwork. I read a lot in blogs and books that the move toward teams is the future of a successful real estate business. I'm sure there will always be the Lone Rangers, but it seems to me if you want a life beyond the cell phone, a team makes more sense. 

Of course, working closely with people has it's rewards and challenges and there are those times when one needs to seek guidance outside the conventions of your local office water-cooler-therapy group. I found The Five Dysfunctions of a Team to be a worthwhile read. When you throw a few family dynamics into the mix, things can get very interesting at times. Fortunately, as the older brother,I learned to be respectful of a younger brother who taught karate!

Let me introduce you to each of us and give you a little background. I do this because we want your referral business. I think there is great potential in networking and we want to make it clear that we are looking for other like-minded business people to work with.

Tracey Harper, the good looking one in the middle, puts the REAL in Realtor. Tracey grew up in the area, so she brings the invaluable asset of intimate knowledge of the local area to the team. Tracey's business background is as a bookkeeper. That's another big plus.

She worked for Standard Pacific Homes, a big builder out here in the San Ramon Valley. Tracey moved up to assistant comptroller and decided it was time for a change. She went into sales and closed escrow on over 300 homes for Standard Pacific before deciding to move on.

To me, Tracey is a little weird - she loves contracts! Tell me that isn't an asset in this business. I've never seen anyone get excited about going to a seminar on lender fraud.

Tracey's biggest asset to the team is her - her personalness, her soul. She is just a nice, friendly, engaging person which makes it easy for my brother and me because all we have to concentrate on is getting clients in front of Tracey. It takes about ten minutes for a client to start offering Tracey all future business from their young children.

In the next segment we will discuss what sibling rivalry brings to a team.

San Ramon – Dublin – Pleasanton – Danville, CA

The Associated Press reports - The worst of the housing slump might be over, although some pain is likely to linger, an adviser to President Bush suggested Tuesday. In terms of the crumbling housing market, "most of the action has already played out," Edward Lazear, chairman of the White House's Council of Economic Advisers, told reporters.

Rex Nutting from Market Watch gives us the recent national stats:

• Construction on new homes rebounded in November, rising 6.7% after a whopping 14% drop in October, the Commerce Department reported Tuesday. Starts fell 8.1% in the West to the lowest level in five years.
• Building permits, considered a leading indicator of the economy and of the housing market, fell 3% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.506 million, the 10th straight decline in permits, from October's 1.553 million pace.
• Building permits are down 31.3% in the past year and are down 14.1% in the first 11 months of 2006 compared with the same period in 2005.

When asked to rate the importance of factors that might affect their decision to purchase a specific home, 80 percent said price was the most significant factor. Other considerations included:

• Potential for the new home to appreciate in value, 71 percent
• The prospect of selling their current home at a fair price, 70 percent
• The level of mortgage interest rates, 69 percent
• Personal life changes 60 percent

From Inman News

Doug Duncan, chief economist for the Mortgage Bankers Association, expects the 30-year mortgage rate to hover around 6.5 percent for the remainder of the year, but climb to 6.8 percent by the end of 2008. Duncan is "optimistic about a rebound" in the housing market next year, citing still-low long-term interest rates, robust capital expenditures, and rising equity prices, among other factors.

Meanwhile, the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® expects existing-home sales to slip to just above 6.4 million in 2007 from an estimated 6.47 million this year. But a pullback in construction will spark an 8.7-percent decline in new-home sales to 975,000 from 1.07 million over the same time span.

The President has signed into law a bill making mortgage insurance premiums tax-deductible.

• Mortgage insurance premiums will be 100% deductible for households whose adjusted gross income is $100,000 or less.
• The law is effective for the 2007 tax year on purchase and refinance loans closed on or after Jan. 1, 2007.

Every week we update the local real estate market stats for the communities of San Ramon, Dublin and Pleasanton, CA.

The Harper Team monitors over 50 Real Estate and News Feeds daily to bring you information pertinent to the San Ramon Valley & TriValley real estate market including the communities of Danville, San Ramon, Dublin and Pleasanton. We welcome suggestions.

Search our blog articles via the Tag Cloud - just click on a word that interests you.

I keep seeing example after example in the MLS expired listings for San Ramon, Dublin and Pleasanton that are following the market down and the seller in this California market is losing big bucks that they did not have to.

The MLS history looks like this:

• Property listed at top dollar price
• 60 days later - price reduced to top dollar price for current market
• 45 – 60 days later – price reduced to top dollar price for current market

Are we beginning to see a pattern here?

If the price had been set somewhere between the 60-day & 100-day price, the escrow would be closed in eight out of ten cases and the owners would be on to the next phase of life with more money in their pocket than they are going to get now.

Instead, many sellers are going to do one of three things:

• Continue the pattern
• Pull the home from the market and wait for better times (6 months? 12 months?)
• Keep the price fixed at what they must get and play revolving Realtors

As professional Realtors, we do not serve the best interests of our clients if we do not understand our market, keep abreast of the trends, and have the hard talk with them when taking a listing in a transitional market moving down.

Setting the right price to move the property and maximize the return for the seller takes skill, experience and knowledge. Setting the price often involves overcoming the gap between the utility value of the house and the market value of the house. The utility value is the value placed by the owner that reflects their emotional investment in the property and how the property suits their needs.

Getting the price right is one of the biggest headaches and hassles for someone going the FSBO route – For Sale by Owner. Using Zillow, tax records and the prices of homes sold three months ago most often result in mis-pricing a property.

I feel sad for all of these sellers I see in San Ramon, Dublin & Pleasanton following the market down. They are losing so much money unnecessarily and I can only think that part of the problem is their agent lacks the experience needed to price it right or the backbone to have the needed reality check with the seller.

The market is not going to change dramatically in the near future unless it is forced dramatically downward by unforeseen events. It is transitioning to reflect a realistic and needed correction to the manic bid-up of two years ago.

Our advice to sellers – reality is always better than wishful thinking.

The Harper Team monitors over 50 Real Estate and News Feeds daily to bring you information pertinent to the San Ramon Valley & TriValley real estate market including the communities of Danville, San Ramon, Dublin and Pleasanton. We welcome suggestions.

Search our blog articles via the Tag Cloud - just click on a word that interests you.

Pleasanton, CA Real Estate MLS Figures

The weekly stats are in from the MLS for Pleasanton, CA. Active listings on the MLS for Pleasanton (blue line) continue to decline. We see another sharp drop in the last week.

Pending sales (green line) show a slight drop over the previous week.

What can me make of this? Our opinion - considering the time of year - TriValley sellers want to wait it out through the holidays. Expired listings will remain off the market until the first week in January, then we expect to see a sharp increase in active listings while pending sales remain flat. Our advice to sellers who are motivated is - don't hope for improvement in the near future - January will see more competition for buyers returning to the market.

The Harper Team monitors over 50 Real Estate and News Feeds daily to bring you information pertinent to the San Ramon Valley & TriValley real estate market including the communities of Danville, San Ramon, Dublin and Pleasanton. We welcome suggestions.

Search our blog articles via the Tag Cloud - just click on a word that interests you.