Buyer's on a Buying Spree

Boy oh boy has it been a busy week. Unfortunately it hasn't been all positive news. Last week I wrote an offer on a home in Hayward as did many many others. It was listed at $264k and my client offered just under $300k on this 3 bedroom, 2 bath "flipped" home with a pool near Tennyson. After a multiple counter offer and an additional counter we were in contract having beat out 16 others. That's the good news on this home. Unfortunately I received a call from my buyer this morning that one of his largest accounts who contracts with his company was filing for bankruptcy and that this would dramatically affect his buying power. So be it, I sent him the cancellation and called the agent on the other side of the transaction and was told no problem. Surprisingly no sooner did they accept our offer then 30 minutes later they received an all cash offer that they had to turn down because we already had a ratified contract. So while they will be fine my client gets his deposit back and will have to find some new accounts to sign up. What is really surprising is the amount of offers some of the properties we were looking at are receiving. One of the homes he was interested had over 40 offers on it and another was at 39, while many others were in their teens to 20's. Buyers are really on a buying spree in the San Leandro to Hayward areas, it's incredible. I was just happy that the way my client allowed me to structure his offer that he was able to beat out 16 other offers. I'd have been much happier if he didn't make the call he did this morning, but everything happens for a reason and another door will open for him in the future. We will be in touch in the future.

Some good news is that Nancy also got into contract on a home in Harbor Bay late last week also. That seems like it will close without a problem

Work is still progressing on our new listings. The home in the West End listed for $499,000 I think will come on the market before the home in the Gold Coast which is listed at $599,000.

I promised I'd fill you in on the Sunday activities at the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance we attended a couple weeks ago. The day began early with breakfast at 8 am and then a short drive on the 17 mile drive the area is known for besides its golfing. You have to catch a shuttle bus from one of the make shift coastal parking lots which takes you passed all the trailers and crates used to ship the cars to the event to the equestrian center where you catch another shuttle to the Lodge. Once at the Lodge we scurried around the side and down to the entrance picking up our programs and lanyards to keep our tickets in around our neck. Once on the lawn we staked out our spot not far from where we were in 2007. As we were waiting for girls to return from restrooms my friend Bill recognized Indy race driver Rick Mears standing chatting with a few people. A few seconds later I looked up at the walkway and said to myself that guy looks familiar, after a double take I leaned over to Bill and said there's Jerry Seinfeld (he had 3 Porsches in the show) just strolling thru the crowd. Finally our wives returned and off to the 18^th we went, me snapping pictures like crazy to the tune of about 400 of them. So noontime rolled around after seeing about 90% of the cars on the fairway and we headed back to our chairs for the start of the unveiling of the new Bentley Mulsanne. While waiting Jay Leno pops out of the crowd and strolls down to the staging area to our right shaking a few hands along the way. Soon the wood crate opens and out drives an antique Bentley that had just been restored, hmmm, everyone wonders what's up. After the introduction of Bentley's chairman of the board and his description of the car we hear bagpipes in the distance, lots of them. Everyone stands and looks behind towards the far right and rounding a corner is about 7 bagpipers followed by two gents holding swords escorting the new car around the crowd up onto the stage to lots of oo's aw's. You can see photos of it by clicking the link above "snapping pictures". On with the parade of cars rolling past us for a couple hours including Seinfeld driving one of his Porsches and parking in front of us waiting to find out if he won 1^st, 2^nd or 3^rd place, he won 2^nd place. I did a double take as he was driving up, I was taking a video thinking I would catch the sound of these Can-Am race car category coming by, only later did I find out my camera doesn't record the sound. I quickly switched to still mode and got a couple of good shots of him in his car. Nearly 4 pm now the announcers began the raffle with Jay Leno leading the way and introducing the Governor, everyone was surprised to see Arnold stroll out to the microphone. While Jay and Arnold entertained the crowd with their bantering back and forth two cars quietly made their way into the staging area below and to the right of us. I saw them both earlier in the day and had already chosen in my mind the winner and low and behold it did.

FRAUD Alert
The Alameda County District Attorney's office has received information that individuals may be targeting Real Estate sales agents for a version of "Advanced Fee Fraud." You are urged to be alert for these individual attempting to run this scam in your area.

The individuals will pose as interested home buyers of high-end homes. They will target mostly new developments, and homes listed for more than one million dollars. The suspects will approach REALTORS® and claim to have several million dollars coming to them from "overseas accounts." After developing a relationship with the REALTORS® over the course of several weeks or months, the suspects will tender an offer for a property, but claim that the money is being held up overseas due to various excuses. The suspects will then ask the REALTORS® to loan them money for the down payment, plus money to help them pay customs fees to free up their overseas money. The suspects often give fake documentation to support their claims. In exchange for a loan by the REALTORS®, the suspects will promise a 100% return on their investment within 48-72 hours of the loan.

Now onto the frenzied real estate market in Alameda.

BROKER'S TOUR

NEW

LIST PRICE: SOLD PRICE: DOM:

HIGH LOW AVERAGE MEDIAN TOTAL PRICE LISTING COUNT $998,000 $374,900 $703,995 $717,450 $7,039,955 10 $0 $0 $0 $0 $0 7 0 6 6

PRICE CHANGES

LIST PRICE: SOLD PRICE: DOM:

HIGH LOW AVERAGE MEDIAN TOTAL PRICE LISTING COUNT $945,000 $278,000 $558,612 $534,500 $8,937,800 16 $0 $0 $0 $0 $0 326 2 92 75

PENDING

LIST PRICE: SOLD PRICE: DOM:

HIGH LOW AVERAGE MEDIAN TOTAL PRICE LISTING COUNT $1,987,000 $180,500 $570,519 $499,000 $65,609,720 115 $0 $0 $0 $0 $0 235 0 45 27

SOLD

LIST PRICE: SOLD PRICE: DOM:

HIGH LOW AVERAGE MEDIAN TOTAL PRICE LISTING COUNT $10,400,000 $314,275 $1,488,904 $599,000 $26,800,275 18 $9,650,000 $293,000 $1,428,886 $614,500 $25,719,950 158 5 49 36

ALL ACTIVE

LIST PRICE: SOLD PRICE: DOM:

HIGH LOW AVERAGE MEDIAN TOTAL PRICE LISTING COUNT $1,799,000 $204,900 $664,991 $644,250 $77,139,059 116 $0 $0 $0 $0 $0 406 0 73 49

Ciao for now, Chuck