Short Sale in Saratoga's Golden Triangle

This beautifully remodeled home is on a quiet cul-de-sac, 10,454sf lot in the prestigious Golden Triangle area of Saratoga. 1966 square feet, gorgeous pool and spa, great lot, excellent roof, remodeled, upgraded, etc. This home has it all. It's a pre foreclosure short sale and is a very good opportunity. Call to tour soon.

Great Short Sale Opportunity in Almaden Valley

This is a wonderful tri-level home in a great neighborhood of Almaden Valley. The home has a good layout, floorplan and lot. It does need some TLC to make it perfect though. Offered at $858,000, this is a very good value for its location and size. It is a short sale and the price could be negotiated better too, depending on what the bank is willing to do. Let me show you this great home.

360 Residences - New High Rise Condos Downtown San Jose

Another dramatic building in downtown San Jose. This building will put you in the heart of downtown San Jose next to the Fairmont Hotel and walking distance to all the restaurants, clubs and theatres. This is a landmark building designed by the same group which developed One Rincon Hill in San Francisco. The sales center is located at 170 S. Market Street. Call us for a tour.

City Heights San Jose Condo High Rise

Great incentive program right now for the impressive San Jose condos at City Heights in downtown San Jose. Up to $50,000 for upgrades, price buy downs, interest rate buy downs, closing costs, property taxes and more. The building is located at 175 W. St. James Place, San Jose. Great location walking distance to San Pedro Square and West Santa Clara Street. Check out the views from the penthouse units - absolutely stunning! Barry Swenson has done it again in San Jose. Units priced from the $400s to over $1.5M for the penthouse units. Call us to tour.

4,486 Single Family Residences on the Market as Active Listings
725 SFRs "in escrow"
6.2 months of inventory

1,527 condo/townhouses active
269 "in escrow"
5.7 months of inventory

The number of listings is starting to decline over the last 3 weeks for SFRs and over the last 5 weeks for condo/townhouses in Santa Clara County.

Great Time for Europeans Buying in the US

This is a wonderful opportunity for Europeans to use the strength of the Euro to buy real estate assets in the US. Many destination cities such as New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, Miami and even Las Vegas are seeing a strong influx of European buyers. If the Dollar is historically low, then when it adjusts back to a normal trading range, these US homes will make very good exchange rate returns. The homes don't even have to go up in value for Europeans to win in this situation. Of course, real estate values will rise over the next few years as we get out of the sub-prime mortgage situation - a key reason why our dollar is so weak now. That double whammy (a true real estate term) will make huge returns for foreign investors. Any Germans, Dutch or Brits reading this?

Housing Inventory vs. Interest Rates

We are seeing a great divergence between the cost of money for loans and the amount of homes on the market in Santa Clara County. This is a great opportunity to act now.

Open House this Sunday...Come and stop by....

Come visit this Sunday my new stunning listing in Silver Creek Valley Country Club at 5230 Birkdale Way, San Jose, CA 95138 open house from 1:30-4:30. 4 bedrooms plus an office, 3 full baths and one half bath, black bottom pool and spa, two story vaulted ceilings in the dining and living rooms, former model home, valley views, large master suite, spacious kitchen, two car garage plus offset one car garage - perfect for the prized weekend sports car, over 3,100 square feet, just painted, great flooring, etc, etc, etc. Come check it out this Sunday! $1,349,950

Open House this Saturday from 1:30pm-4:30pm

This beautifully decorated custom home has 4 bedrooms and 2 baths.
-Approx over 1,600 sqft of living space-cozy wood burning fireplace in the spacious living room and vaulted ceilings with customized skylights through out -kitchen has custom tile, stainless steel appliances with breakfast nook and breakfast bar-All bedromms have fan hook-ups-the roomy master bed has back door and large master bathroom- With so many more features to mention come and see it, I promise you will fall in love with it. P.S We also know of 53 other mobile homes in san jose for under $200,000 and 100 Condos and townhomes for under $300,000. Call Alexandria or Mario at 408-342-8694 & 408-342-3155 if you are interested in us helping you find a home....
OPEN HOUSE SATURDAY DEC, 1 FROM 1:30pm-4:30pm Come and stop by.........

See You There.....

Bay Area Commercial Real Estate Marketing Meetings

This is an updated list (as of June 2008) of commercial Realtor marketing meetings in the San Francisco Bay Area. If you know of another meeting that should be on this list, please let me know.

First Tuesday
Investment Marketing Forum (IMF)
7:30am Registration, 8:00am – 9:00am, $20 members, $25 non-members, full breakfast
Orinda Country Club, 315 Camino Sobrante, Orinda
www.imf1.com
Membership: Richard DiNottia 415-247-2470 rdinottia@landam.com
Moderator: Dave Carney 925-944-1031 dave@davecarney.com


Second Tuesday
Northern California CCIM
$60 non-members, $45 members - includes lunch
8:30-9:30 mentoring meeting, 10-1:30 Regular meeting & lunch
Location varies, typically is at the Sheraton Hotel , 5121 Hopyard Road, Pleasanton
Please verify location and RSVP before going.
Contact: Terry Shores 866-588-CCIM NCalCCIM@earthlink.net


Second Wednesday
Bay Area Apartment Brokers Forum
8:00am – 9:30am, no charge, coffee/pastries
First American Title , 1737 North First St., #100, San Jose
Apartment Investments Only
Chairman: Richard Domich 408-453-7466 rdomich@cbre.com


Second Wednesday
San Francisco Investment Forum
11:30-1pm, includes lunch; Contact Dena Cruz before attending
Embarcadero 4 in the conference room, San Francisco; Must RSVP
Contact: Dena Cruz 415-989-1300 dcruz@firstam.com


Second Thursday
Income Property Marketing Group (IPMG)
7:30am – 9:30am, $5 charge - free if presenting listing for sale
8 Presidio Terrace, San Francisco, CA 94118
Contact: Clifton Wong 415-346-2030 cliftonwong@fnf.com
Moderator: Stephen Pugh 415-345-3056 spugh@pacunion.com


Second Thursday
Commercial Broker's Forum
11:30-1:30
777 N 1st Street, San Jose, CA
Contact: Brad Wheeler 408-292-4212
wheelerb@ctt.com


Fourth Tuesday
Peninsula Investment Forum
7:45am – 9:00am, no charge for meeting, coffee/pastries
First American Title , 555 Marshall, Redwood City
Strengths: Good speakers related to the Peninsula region
Contact: Mary Kay Kennedy - mkkennedy@firstam.com

Every Other Fourth Tuesday - last one was May 2008
8:00-9:30am, no charge for the meeting, coffee/bites to eat
UCSC Extension in Cupertino on Bubb Road
Stregths: best commercial marketing meeting in the South Bay
Contact: Terry Shores 866-588-2246, ncalccim@earthlink.net

San Francisco 2 Units Mixed Use for Sale

2 units on Mission in San Francisco available for sale at a great price - $878,000. One residential flat above a commercial space. No rent control since there is only one residential unit. Due to a fire, much of the building was rebuilt in 1997. No parking although this is a great area for public transit and walking. The commercial lease only has a few months left on the lease. Strong rental market for clean commercial space such as this. Call before this hot deal sells to someone else!

Commercial Office Condo San Jose for Sale

Brand new construction commercial condo fully built out for an office user available in San Jose. Location is east of 880 between Brokaw & Montague. 1,416 square feet, 10 foot high ceilings in a new industrial - flex office condo complex. Offered at $399,000 or $281 per foot. This is a good value for an owner-user who wants to stop paying rent and start earning equity. Call for a tour this week. Larger units available too.

Silver Creek Valley Country Club Home for Sale

5230 Birkdale Drive is an outstanding value within the gates of Silver Creek Valley Country Club. 4 bedrooms plus a den, 3.5 baths, 3 car garage and over 3,100 square feet for just $1,349,000. Nothing else at this price or lower until you drop 600 square feet. Former model home that you will love to own. Call for a tour.

Santana Row Loft Condo for Sale

DeForest Building west facing condo available just above Straits Cafe and Cocolat. What better location can you ask for? This unit has - in my opinion - the best kitchen cabinets and flooring available when the units were built out. Also, situated on the quiet side of the building so you won't be up all night - unless you want to. At $579,900 - this is a very good price for this unit. Hurry before this rare, well priced unit gets snapped up. Call for a tour.

24 Duplex & Fourplex Pre Foreclosures in San Jose

Two fourplexes and 22 duplexes are on the market in San Jose in a short sale or pre foreclosure situation. With rents going up and vacancies dropping, this is a great time to invest. Let's take this opportunity to buy locally and watch equities grow over the next few years as this financial downturn stabilizes. Silicon Valley is hiring and we will lead the nation's recovery.

20 San Jose Condo Pre Foreclosures Available

If you want a good opportunity on these great condos in central San Jose, give me a call. From Ryland Park townhomes to condos in downtown San Jose, these units will be sold and at good prices. Call today for an appointment to see.

Street Address Price Beds Baths Bldg SqFt

30 RYLAND PARK WY SAN JOSE 550000 2 2 1/2 1375
218 GRAYSON TERRACE SAN JOSE 549000 4 2 1/2 1581
735 NORTHRUP ST SAN JOSE 538000 3 2 1/2 1450
2183 SONADOR CM SAN JOSE 498000 2 2 1/2 1860
1510 LIMA CT SAN JOSE 489000 2 1 900
800 N 8TH ST #00120 SAN JOSE 488800 2 2 1214
49 S 24TH ST SAN JOSE 475000 2 2 1/2 1242
1310 SADDLE RACK #343 SAN JOSE 469999 2 2 1131
1280 PREVITERA CT SAN JOSE 469000 2 2 1462
412 S BUENA VISTA AV SAN JOSE 450000 2 2 1/2 1055
167 E EMPIRE ST SAN JOSE 450000 2 1 1/2 876
414 COYOTE CREEK CI SAN JOSE 375000 2 2 849
1060 S 3RD ST #00333 SAN JOSE 345000 1 1 667
1227 COYOTE CREEK CT SAN JOSE 339000 1 1 633
1550 TECHNOLOGY DR#4092 SAN JOSE 333000 1 1 0
1060 S 3RD ST #00204 SAN JOSE 305000 1 1 667
433 COYOTE CREEK CI SAN JOSE 299950 1 1 633
25 MONTE VERANO CT SAN JOSE 289950 1 1 597
516 MARTHA ST #00205 SAN JOSE 239900 1 1 472

1031 Exchange into San Francisco Vacation Rental Condo

I just helped some clients of mine sell their Sunnyvale rental duplex and enact a 1031 tax deferred exchange into their dream location - a stunning condo in San Francisco. This will be a medium term exist strategy for them. They will initially rent out the condo for at least one year and then convert the use later to either their principle residence or to a vacation rental. With the latter strategy - which they could do right away - they would be allowed 14 days of personal use per year and the rest of the time they can rent it through a vacation rental company to tourists. Many times if you achieve only 50% occupancy with the much higher daily rates charged, the investment can be a home run. I have a similar set up in Sitges, Spain and it has been a wonderful investment with very little management from me.

CCIM - what does it stand for?

Certified Commercial Investment Member - essentially this is a Realtor designation given to those agents who have been taught how to analyze commercial and investment property. There are four one week courses - financial analysis, user decision analysis, market analysis and investment analysis. A candidate for the designation also must submit a portfolio of completed transactions with their applicable analysis work done. Finally the candidate must pass a national exam given only twice per year at the CCIM bi-annual conventions. Perhaps some 10% of all commercial agents ever achieve this designation. Those who do are assuredly experts in their trade. Whenever I look in different markets for help on transactions, I seek out other CCIM's for their deep knowledge.

San Jose Turkey Trot 10K

I did it! I ran my first 10K!!!!
This was a great event. The mayor of San Jose Chuck Reed was there as were many of the city council members such as Sam Liccardo. The mayor of Sunnyvale ran too as well. Warm up was with Santa Clara University soccer icon Brandi Chastain. This third running of the race was expected to have 4,500 participants - the number topped 6,000! All the runners entry fees benefit local San Jose area charities such as Second Harvest Food Bank.
Tell all your friends about next years race. Beating 10,000 runners would be very easy. This is a wonderful way to start your Thanksgiving morning. Now, I am off to eat turkey and find some pie!

Loopnet.com's map search feature

Wow I'm very impressed with this upgraded search feature. It allows you to designate a part of the map then sort for certain listing criteria. Then zoom in to see the listings or pass over the icons with your mouse and they pop up. Very cool when location is key. Maybe always, yes?