East Bay Realty Pro Blog

My Sunday day off was all planned in my mind: watch the last two NCAA basketball games before the Final Four and spend the rest of the day spiffing up our garden. So, when my wife, Sonia, asked if I would like to join her and a friend on a hike in Joaquin Miller Park, [...]

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More and more slimy operators are crawling out of the woodwork to offer apparent help to homeowners in financial distress. This supposed assistance usually comes with illegal, up-front fees. These scam artists are not out to help anyone.
To assist homeowners avoid becoming victims, the California Association of Realtors has posted a list of red flags, [...]

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I’ve been into photography for many years. One of the things I enjoy about my hobby is how photos provide a different perspective. I get to see things I may otherwise have missed. An example is how, with macro photography, I experience the face of a spider or the inner beauty of a rose. Pictures [...]

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I just responded to a question about possible mold in the home. The homeowner wondered if her health issues were related to mold in her basement, spreading through the furnace. I am not a mold expert, but shared what I know as a long-time Realtor.
I asked her if she regularly changes her furnace filter(s). If [...]

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If not in financial trouble themselves, most people know others in dire straits. Those who have lost their job are pushing a boulder uphill in trying to get their lender to refinance a home loan.
An online article on CNBC today (“No Job? Can’t Refinance? How to Talk to Your Bank”) gives some ideas on what [...]

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I’ve just sent a new article to press.
EXCERPT:
“As a Northern California real estate expert witness, by the time I get involved with a case, many people are upset and it has already cost big bucks for both the plaintiff and defendant. My opinion and testimony commonly involves the agents’ standard of care and adequate disclosure, [...]

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Yesterday morning, as I was finishing up my shower, the pan started filling with water. It occurred to me it could be either a sewer line backup (bad news), or a simple case of too much goopy stuff in the shower drain.
I eliminated the sewer line as the culprit since we have replaced the lateral [...]

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“One in Five U.S. Mortgage Borrowers Are Underwater,” is the headline in an online Reuters article today. This amounts to over 8.3 million homes and represents a nine per cent increase since September.
California is mentioned as one of three states (the others are Florida and Nevada) that are “particularly stressed.” According to the article, other [...]

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