Wandering Down Memory Lane
I’m in the mood to share today. I’m hoping that this act of generosity will help at least one person who is contemplating a home purchase. This is a story about “location, location, location,” and “head over heart,” two tenets of real estate that I ignored. To my detriment, I might add.
The year was 1987 and I was buying my first home. This was a seller’s market, when multiple overbids on day one of a listing were a common occurrence. My husband and I and our two small children were living in a duplex on Alma Street in Palo Alto. The passing trains caused the windows to shake and rattle and speeding cars were a constant concern with two toddlers. We needed to move, and the offer from a family member to help us purchase a home made us dive right into the fray.
We concentrated our search in Palo Alto, keeping our eyes on homes up the Peninsula to San Carlos. Months of traipsing to open houses led to us make several offers on homes, all of which we lost out on to higher bidders. Determined to get in the game, we made an offer of $200,000 o n a 3/2 fixer in south Palo Alto, on the first day it came on the market, after seeing it for less than 30 minutes. Sloping floors, an outdated kitchen, and a very funky layout didn’t deter us. We knew Palo Alto was a hot market, ever popular, and we were young enough to put in the sweat equity.
However, my heart derailed the process shortly after our bid was presented. I fell in love with a turn-of-the-century home in Redwood City. The house, on the market for several months already (ding, ding, ding—warning bell), had character and charm and was situated on a large corner lot where my children would love to play. It was also located in a mixed neighborhood, with homes, duplexes, and apartments, and just 2 blocks off a major retail thoroughfare. Only a 2/2, it could also be had for $200,000 and would require no work on our part.
Against the objections of our realtor (ding, ding, ding), we cancelled our offer on the south Palo Alto fixer and bought said charming home in Redwood City. And the house served us well for 7 years. There were numerous families in the neighborhood, lots of friends for our children, and easy access to freeways. The store was within walking distance, as was a school. But the time came when we outgrew the house and adding on was not an option.
The year is now 1994, and again we enter a seller’s market. Well, it’s a sellers market for some people. Apparently, we were not part of that “some.” For 18 months, we cleaned, we mowed, we tidied up. We held open houses, saw people come and go, but no offers, I’m not sure how many re-listings we signed, but I do know that our children began calling our realtor Auntie Val, because she was around so often. We lowered the price when we were told to lower the price, removed all the clutter, gussied the place up, in short, we did everything a good seller should. But no luck. What made the journey so painful was the number of houses that we put offers on that we lost because we could not find a buyer for our home. Oh, and the fact that the Palo Alto house was now worth twice what we would have paid, while in the end we only made about $25,000 on our “charmer.”
So the hard lessons learned are:
➢ Find a realtor you trust, and listen to them. Take their advice, as that is what you are paying for.
➢ If a home is long on the market, analyze why. Is it location? If so, think again or you could end up in the same boat when you sell.
➢ Be practical. Don’t let your emotions and heart rule your decision. This is the biggest investment of your life and it’s best if your head is in the game.
The one blessing in all of this was our realtor. She stuck by us, working diligently trying to sell our house and spending an inordinate amount of time searching for a replacement. And for the last 13 years, she has not only been a close friend (and sold two other homes for me), but my children still call her Auntie Val.
