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January 18, 2007
I was looking at the list of yesterday’s most-clicked houses and found a surprise at the top. The most-clicked house in the Redfin Bay Area only went on the market yesterday.
This relatively new 3 bedroom, 2.5 bath town home is in Mountain View, and price is right for the area at about $100 lower per square foot than the surrounding neighborhood. It seems like you get a lot for the list price of $799,000 including a big master, vaulted ceilings, and 1,620 square feet of living space. The amazing thing to me is that Redfinners found this property in droves when it has just one posted external picture and the marketing text is cut off mid-sentence.
If you are interested in seeing the home first-hand, it sounds like it will be open this weekend both days from 1:30-4:30.
December 27, 2006
Yesterday’s most-clicked house on Redfin San Francisco is a bright little condo in San Antonio, a neighborhood not far from Mountain View. Sure, I could say that it got three times the clicks of the next most popular property on the site. Sure I could say that that is rare for a property on the market for just 20 days. Perhaps, I should first disclose that it’s a Redfin-represented property and promise to everyone that no deck-stacking was involved in the production of today’s results?
After a quick conversation with Rose, our agent for the property, I found out why this place is so popular: Location, location, location (oh, and the recent remodel.) The home is close to Google’s headquarters, Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s, and other good places to spend your time. There’s a nice park nearby with tennis courts and there are plenty of amenities in the complex as well. For the list price of $449,000 you get a 2 bedroom, 1 bathroom home that was very recently remodeled. The home is priced at the average $/square foot for the complex of $480 but is below its Zestimate of $472,087.
December 20, 2006
Yesterday’s most-clicked house on Redfin Bay Area was a condo up in Walnut Creek that has been on the market for 94 days. The marketing copy from listing agent wastes almost no space talking about the home. It is all focused on the surrounding area, the condos nearby, and then says both “Fun to Show” and “Easy to show.” Usually, this type of statement is reserved for the hidden information so I can’t imagine why someone would put it twice in the public description It really made me want to click through the pictures to try to prize more information about why this place is such a hard sell.
The condo is on the market for $533,000, or $493, square foot. It was built in 1984 and has two beds and two baths along with some reasonably nice updating apparent in the pictures of at least one of the bathrooms. The place has a really nice looking deck that would make me want to eat outside all year round.
Won’t someone please go check this place out for us and leave a comment letting us know what the big mystery is?
December 13, 2006
I read an article in the SJMN today about the just-announced plan to improve stock options for Googlers and it occurred to me that a lot of folks down there are probably thinking about buying a house soon. I began to wonder if real estate near the main “Googleplex” was as out of control as it is elsewhere in the Bay Area. It turns out there’s actually some great deals within just a few miles of Google’s homebase (at least 20 homes close to the complex are less than the average neighborhood $/square foot of $711.) The best deal I found is in Whisman for just $499/square foot. I was amazed that a house just 70% of the average price for the neighborhood looks this good.
This recently built home has three bedrooms, 2.5 baths and is on the market for $899,950. I loved the landscaping, big kitchen with built-ins and the bathrooms (I also liked the mounted flat-screen TV, but I guess that probably goes with the seller…). I haven’t actually been out to this house yet, but would love to go see it if I worked down that way. If you want to check it out yourself, drop us a line at tours@redfin.com and we’ll make sure you get in.
August 4, 2006
Today’s most popular home is located in Burlingame and listed at $849,000. With 2 bedrooms, 1 bath and almost 1200 square feet, I almost think everything inside the home will be pink, but it’s not. What’s even funnier is all we can really see from the front is the garage and the roof. The nice thing is that the front of the home is neat and manicured which is what you also get from the inside. It seems like the owner is extremely proud of their garage (see the photos) as it looks like they’ve created another living area of some sort. Interesting.
Last sold in 2003 for $631,000. This home is in a neighborhood where the average list price is over $1,000,000. The prices here still amaze me.
August 3, 2006
Today’s most popular home is located in Campbell with 5 bedrooms, 3 baths, and 1898 square feet. Priced at $819,000, this home has been remodeled with hardwood floors, newer windows, two-toned paint, and closet organizers. It’s a typical Campbell home that makes you feel like you’re in Pottery Barn with a little country flavor.
Known for its condos, it’s amazing that the average list price for a home in Campbell is over $900,000.
August 2, 2006
Today’s most clicked-on home is in Fremont’s Warms Springs area. The house has 4 bedrooms, 2 baths, and 1692 square feet. Listed at $789,000 this house looked overpriced at first, but I quickly learned it may not be. The exterior looks like it needs a little makeover – a new garage would be nice as well as a trim and some flower power in the front yard.
The inside is a different story and looks great as it has been professionally staged. I think it’s a new trend to place your furniture diagonal – a sign that the home is staged. The interior looks naturally bright and well maintained. The kitchen opens into a living area which is great for entertaining. Although it does look a bit odd that it still has older appliances. The lesson for the day is that a little investment can go a long way, especially when you are selling your home.
June 13, 2006
We received another fantastic entry for our War Stories feature this week. This one is from Redfin commited user and longtime booster Peter C. He and his wife were making a big move to the East Coast in 1999 and came up with a creative trade that sealed the deal. Here it is, in his own words:
In 1998, I traveled to the Boston-area from California to find housing for my wife and I during grad school. On the school’s intranet I found a post by a graduating student who wanted to sell her condo/townhome a few blocks away from campus.
I stopped by the house unannounced,introduced myself and discovered over normal chit chat that the seller was coincidentially moving to our neighborhood in California after graduation, but didn’t yet have housing in the uber-competitive bay area housing market.
I asked about buying the Boston condo (it was perfect for us) hoping for an inside-deal, but the seller wisely said that the Boston market was as frothy as California and that she was planning on simply taking the highest price (and she had already engaged an agent) based on offers received the next day. She had had indications that at least 6 offers were forthcoming.
My wife (who was back in California and hadn’t seen the place) and I quickly determined we wanted the condo, but couldn’t afford a bidding war. Therefore, we made an offer and we included a clause that obligated the buyer (us) to provide the seller 4 months free housing at the buyer’s home in California.
The risk we took is that the seller could’ve been an axe-murderer (we didn’t know her at all other than my “drop-by” meeting the day before) or merely obnoxious as a four-month roommate. We also risked paying a few extra months of our California mortgage before selling, but that was far less than what we would’ve needed to increase our bid to win the deal solely on price.
The seller did in fact get 7 offers, most higher than ours, but we won the bid anyway because the seller was worried about her California housing situation and we solved that for her. And a month later we had a random stranger as a roommate for the entire summer.
Thanks Peter for the excellent story and a great lesson for all of us about how important it can be to make sure you take account of all the factors when you make an offer. Sometimes, there are elements even more important than money when you really want to the seal the deal. For his effort, Peter gets dinner at the restaurant of his choice. Do you want us to buy you dinner? Just share your great offer story with us and, if we post it, we’ll give you $50 towards dinner at your favorite place. Just email it to eric.heller (at) redfin.com.
May 19, 2006
We continue to get great responses from our call for real estate war stories. The following, from Betsy, of West Seattle certainly ranks as the strangest one that we’ve received. While it might be strange, its certainly interesting, and Betsy makes an excellent point about how a good connection with the seller can sometimes be even more important than the final offer price. Take it away Betsy!
It took us two years to find our dream house: enough bedrooms for our family and home office, plus enough yard for my vegetables and my husband Jerry’s dream orchid greenhouse. The house was only on the
market for four days. We visited every day, managing to corner the owner each time and barrage him with questions about the property.
Betsy’s House:
I wrote a lovely letter outlining our hopes for the house and including a picture of our children. When we made a bid, there were eight competing offers. Our agent came back to us and said, “They have two questions for you. One, would you be willing to give them the washer & dryer? And they want you to know that their daughter’s placenta is buried under the apple tree. You just need to know that.”
Jerry and I looked at each other and burst out laughing. We both told our agent: “Our son’s placenta is buried under our fig tree!” Bill grinned and sprinted back to the meeting room. Two seconds later shouts of laughter erupted from the meeting room and he came racing back. “Sign here, sign here, here’s the price, you’ve got the house.”
The sellers sold us the house at $65,000 more than the asking price — but our escalator went up to $87,000 more than the asking price. We could hear the other agent shrieking, “My client will pay more! My
client will pay more!!” (Our strategy was — we had an escalator clause of a very weird number, something like $1,118, and we had a very high (for us) ceiling). The other person was willing to top $487,000, but the seller chose us because of the placenta.
This was a case of absolute karma — the sellers were the kind of people we would have liked to have hung out with. They wanted US to have the house, not because we could pay top dollar, but because we clearly respected the craftsmanship of the house and wanted to treat it with love for the next 30 years.
We’ve been in the house for almost a year and every time I drive up our road, I pray to myself, “Please let our house still be there, please let it still be there.” We love it that much.
Thanks Betsy, for your story and example of how even the obscure can make the difference when it comes to winning the bid on the perfect house. As a thank you, Betsy gets dinner at her favorite restaurant on us. Got a great war story? Send it on to eric (dot) heller (at) redfin (dot) com — we’ll post it up and send you out for dinner as well!
May 11, 2006
We’ve received some great responses from the call we put out last month for real estate offer war stories. One of the first to come in was from Sue M. She originally moved to Seattle as part of a corporate relocation package and, during one of her house hunting visits, found a house that she just had to have at any cost (literally!) Read on and discover the power of persistence and a blank check. 
Here Sue’s story, in her own words:
I was at an open house and my realtor could tell that I REALLY wanted the house. So she got the conversation going with the owners. We found out that the current owner and I had run the Chicago Marathon the same year and that she was due to have a baby girl in just two months.
We were to present our offer the next evening as one of 10 offers (!). I told my realtor that I’d rather pay too much for the house than lose it. We debated how far over list price we needed to go to win the bidding war. We decided on a strategy to just go in with a blank check and I went to the store to buy little pink running shoes for the soon-to-be-born baby girl as a sweetener to the deal.
We gave them a signed contract with the amount line left blank and told the sellers to fill in whatever amount it would take to get the house. I was a bit nervous, but my realtor’s lawyer assured us that they couldn’t put in a ridiculous amount without my consent. So we waited at a nearby restaurant for them to review the other offers and let us know the outcome. Oh, and my realtor presented the little pink running shoes to the delight of the soon-to-be-parents.
Here’s a picture of the house:
We got a call at the end of the presentations asking what our offer would be. We offered well above the highest offer, but also well below what I was willing to pay. Thinking we had it wrapped up, we paid the check and walked down to the real estate office. We waited some tense moments in the parking lot, eyeing suspiciously any cars that looked like they might be pulling into the parking lot to steal away “my” house. We got another call saying that the other buyer matched my offer and could I do anything to make the decision easier for them. We threw in another $5k and went back to waiting for the final call.
We got the call that I’d won the bidding war. The strategy of the seller setting the price low to prompt a bidding war seemed to work in my favor–the buyers who could go as high as I could didn’t bother to check out the house because at the list price, in my neighborhood, one would assume the house must be a fixer. And the folks who did look at it evidently couldn’t (or wouldn’t) pay what I did. I’ve been in the house for 3 years and cheer every time I see data that indicates the house has appreciated significantly. I feel very lucky…
Thanks Sue, for your excellent story and lesson on persistence when it comes to finding hidden jewels in this crazy housing market. As a thank you, Sue gets dinner for two at the Dahlia Lounge on us. Got a great war story? Send it on to eric (dot) heller (at) redfin (dot) com — we’ll post it up and send you out for dinner to your favorite restaurant!
