East Bay Realty Pro Blog

Years ago, my wife and I had serious issues with our sewer line and had to totally replace it. One of our considerations at the time was to use the latest, trenchless technology. We ended up using traditional methods because a section of our pipes went through concrete and this does not work with trenchless.
I [...]

[Read more →]

If you are making payments on a house that is worth substantially less than your loan, you may have thought about how to get out from under this burden. Financial, legal, tax and credit ramifications are all important in deciding which route to take.
You might have approached your bank for a loan modification only to [...]

[Read more →]

My latest article, “The Changing World of Choosing an Agent,” must have struck a resonant chord because I have received numerous phone calls about it. Those who responded shared their experiences of both buying and selling real estate in this area and their disappointment with one or more of their agents. These agents had not [...]

[Read more →]

Two recent news bits reinforced my observation that people behave in ways that often can be considered irrational.
Item 1: An online story I read last week about a real estate survey that indicated, in today’s market, buyers have a significantly higher opinion of the agent who represents them than sellers have of their agent. The [...]

[Read more →]

According to an online real estate article, the Houston Association of Realtors (HAR), with 23,000 members, recently “pulled the plug” on a web-based application that allowed consumers to view which agents had the greatest number of listings and/or transactions in a given neighborhood or Zip code. This happened shortly after it was introduced because HAR [...]

[Read more →]

Would you read every word in the new, tightly printed, eight-page California Association of Realtor’s (C.A.R) residential contract? Probably not.
This contract, used by most real estate agents, has recently undergone its most extensive revision in the past eight years. Changes to this standard real estate purchase agreement can have a significant impact on the quality [...]

[Read more →]

In the overheated real estate market of 2004 to 2005, many buyers paid outrageously high prices for properties that were not special in quality or location. This included numerous ones that were decidedly underwhelming. Now, a plethora of purchasers are either victims of foreclosure, have sold for large losses or are paying mortgages on houses [...]

[Read more →]

Buying a home close to a school can be wonderful or a huge mistake. It depends on the exact proximity of the house to the school, the school’s size, and the administration’s policies regarding neighborhood relations. The agents listing or selling the home often are unaware of the actual or potential problems, which is all [...]

[Read more →]

Looking to buy a house is like trying to find a mate; you have to be willing to go through a lot of frogs before you find your prince or princess. Despite numerous changes in the business, one thing has remained constant – too many buyers in this area, either out of frustration or pressure [...]

[Read more →]

The typical buyer knows little about real estate contracts and less about how banks that own properties (REOs, Real Estate Owned, in Realtor talk) alter those agreements so they are much less friendly to purchasers.
If you are considering buying a bank-owned home, make sure to talk to your agent about the “addendum,” really a counteroffer, [...]

[Read more →]