San Leandro, CA

Last night, Gary and I "graduated" from our dance class taught by The Realtors in Motion, Active Rainers and competitive ballroom dancers from San Leandro CA, Alexia and Antonio Cardenas who were gracious enough to invite us to join their class.

Now, when Gary and I attend some dance parties, maybe we won't end up being such wallflowers. I truly expect to be dancing in my late, late, late years.

Just to give you an idea of what dancing can do to and for you...take a look at this 80 plus years old grandma dancing an energetic salsa! Just keep watching. It gets really fast and furious later. It's almost unbelievable.





Now...doesn't that make you want to get up from that couch and start dancing?

I love San Leandro

I am deeply saddened however by the destruction of the 1950s mid century modern "googie" style EBMUD office on Washington Boulevard in the Downtown area.

What a cool building this "was". It had a precast concrete roof in a really interesting rolling wave pattern.

The water utility EBMUD gave up on selling the property and let the city tear down the building for a parking lot. This parking lot would serve the shoppers for the downtown farmer's market on Wednesday evenings.

Why didn't someone on the city council or the library's historical committee speak up and save this crazy googie mid century modern building.

To me San Leandro is only content on knocking down everything that is not Mission Revival stucco and with a red tile roof. I am not in favor of a fake hacienda look for Downtown San Leandro.

I would like to see a variety of styles downtown. Let's see some modern contemporary. Let's see some Art Deco. Let's see some Victorian. Let's see some craftsman. Let's even have some funky roadside vernacular.

I should run for city council and help preserve some of what makes this city such a nice place to live.

Hello again blog readers,

I've seen some great opportunities come up in the coveted North area of San Leandro come on to the market in the last few weeks.

The economy has finally hit our area hard and we are seeing some real affordability here now. If you are looking to shorten your commute or to get into Roosevelt Elementary School, now is the time to buy.

If you see anything that catches your attention, please give me a call and we can talk about it. Give me your email address and I will gladly forward you the complete listing. Let's set a date for a tour of these homes.

The Broadmoor has some interesting opportunites. Fortuna Avenue has a property listed for $299,900.00 Superior Avenue has a property at $349,950.00 Broadmoor Boulevard has two properties listed at $300,000 and $550,000.00 West Broadmoor Boulevard has two properties also listed at $229,000.00 and $349,988.00 Diehl Avenue has one listed at $254,900.00 Dowling Boulevard has one listed at $299,000.00 Herma Court has one for $349,000.00 East Merle Court has a home listed at $299,450.00

Some newer construction at Greenbrier Court and Cherry Park Square offer 3 bedroom and 2 baths and attached two car garages are being offered at $449,000.00 and $549,000.00

Bay-O-Vista has several homes available. Two properties are availble on Astor Drive with the asking prices of $535,000.00 and $599,976.00 One property on Benedict Drive with the asking price of $405,000.00, It could use some work but, at $405,000.00 it gets you into the Bay-O-Vista neighborhood. Graff Court has a listing for $839,000.00. Lakeview Drive has a listing for $999,500.00 Marineview Drive has a property listed at $895,000.00 Montrose Drive has a property listed for $699,976.00 Vista Grand Drive has a property listed at $1,275,000.00

In the older part of Bay-O-Vista you have the Lealand Heights area, which has two listings. One home on Parker Street is listed for $525,000.00. One home on Sandelin Avenue is listed for $499,976.00

In Estudillo Estates we have the following opportunities. Begier Avenue has one home listed for $518,000.00 Bridge Road has two properties listed at $625,000.00 and $649,950.00 Oakes Boulevard has one listed at $430,000.00 Arbor Drive has one listed at $1,195,000.00

Let me know if there is anything I can do for you. Give me a call. My phone nunber will appear somewhere on this blog page

I am sorry that I haven't been supplying you with my regular blog content. I have been a little busy. and for several reasons.

The first reason is that I was robbed at gun-point while with a client. We were looking at a property near Oakland's Castlemont High School. We had just seen the small two bedroom ranch house and were in the backyard looking at the detached garage when five armed punks came down the driveway and ambushed us. They stole from us our money, cell phones, wallets, my brand new GPS (worked so hard to get that). The leader of this gang was next to me and he specifically asked the car keys. With the keys, they then stole my mother's minivan and had keys to our homes.

The criminals then ran back down the driveway and departed in the aforementioned minivan. My client and I are very lucky to be alive. Just three days after our robbery three men were shot on the same street and same block where we were robbed.

I am just now limping back to real estate full speed. I have decided to no longer do properties under a certain price range for your safety and mine. Just between you and me, I am considering changing offices and working out of a Castro Valley based office.

Secondly, I have been busy with clients. I have teamed up with agent Michelle Lang and we have a nice ranch style home in Ashland in escrow. I am excited about this as our clients are very nice first time home-buyers. It's fun to share in their excitement.

We had been in escrow before but we were up against a big REO-mill agent who was really hard to work with. We even had to consult our Prudential legal department over some of the things she and her bank client had done. We finally canceled our side of the contract and asked to get the client's deposit returned.

That same bad agent would try to lecture us on "this is how REOs are done" in reference to her stalling tactics. Well, that maybe how she does business, but it is not how real estate is done as a whole. In the purchase agreement and joint escrow instructions "TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE" is one of the big clauses that state that we need to do everything in a very timely manner. RPA-CA section 24

We found a the replacement property that is in a better neighborhood, and in much better condition. So we are kind of glad that the other deal fell out of escrow. It opened up a much better opportunity for our clients.

I am here at the office today doing floor time. The phone hasn't rang once, it's raining outside and the foot traffic past our "storefront" is way down. So, I decided that I would catch you all up on the recent events and let you all know that I haven't forgotten you.

I believe that it is time for all of us to begin fighting back! Yes, we must fight for our jobs, our careers, our industry. We can no longer just sit and wait for better days. I would like to challenge everyone who reads this post to give us ONE idea that we all can use to spread the word to the general public that is really not as bad as it looks, help us get our economy back on track.

Can you think of something positive to do? to say? to write? and to publish?Can we all start printing newsletters with ONLY POSITIVE NEWS? I challenge EVERYONE to speak only good news about our real estate market for one week. ONE WEEK ONLY! I think that we could not only influence our audience, weather it be our family, friends, colleagues, and obviously home buyers and home sellers, but more important than that, we will start believing it ourselves! There are good news out there! Get out there on the streets, and chat about the good stuff with everybody who listens! Nobody in the press points this out, but here is a short list of what is GOOD RIGHT NOW:

• Interest rates are are one of the lowest points in years
• Prices are so low that first time investors could start their real estate portfolio
• The New Tax Break for First Time Buyers offers $8,000 back, some of them will get cash back!
• There are so many unemployed trades people that doing any renovation is cheaper than ever
• Home sales are higher than a year ago. Inventories are showing improvement
• Home buyers are purchasing their primary residence, which is good in the long run
• Fannie Mae is raising the number of financed properties for investors from 4 to 10
• The Federal Reserve ChairmanBen Bernanke says the recession will end in 2009 recovery in 2010

See some examples right here, take some ideas from there, find out more about them and give that information to others. Let's launch a strong COUNTER ATTACK! We must spread positive news, like if our Professional lives depended on it, because it does! This information is not only for Realtors, but everybody who's business is hurting, the contagious fear fueled by news of a recession prevents people who can spend some money from doing anything. If they stop going out for dinner, the restaurant lays of a worker who now has no job and might loose his house and that will be one more listing that the bank will have to deal with. That ONE house will be added to the inventory of homes for sale in your city. Multiply this dozens of times in your county and 100's in your state and you can see how it affects everybody.

How Much has this Market changed You? What Are You Doing Different? I challenge you to put on your thinking hat and tell us; What are you doing to help yourself? ourselves? our economy? Is there anything YOU, as an individual would like us to do? C'mon, you can think of at least one! We would love to hear it!

Antonio & Alexia Cardenas, "The Realtors In Motion" Alameda & Contra Costa Counties in CA. Proudly representing the beautiful San Francisco Bay Area Towns of: San Leandro, San Lorenzo, Oakland, Castro Valley and Hayward. Visit us on line at www.ListedByAntonio.com (510) 326-4263 Call us, we'll come and TANGO with you. Accepting Referrals 24/7