Great Tips for Home Sellers from Elizabeth Weintraub over at About.com. 

Selling a House with Pets at Home

Almost everybody loves pets except the home buyer who is buying your house. Don't ask me why, but that's often how it works out. Home sellers who adore their pets — and I count myself as a huge pet lover — have a hard time imagining the negative attitudes others harbor against pets. So, while this might be a bitter pill to swallow, if you want to get top dollar for your house, pay attention to how much you might lose with a dog or cat in residence.

Top 10 Home Showing Tips

How to Show Your Home to Buyers

When you show your home, you want to engage the buyer emotionally because the decision to buy is based more on emotions, and less on logic. Give the buyer permission to say, "Yes, I want to buy this home," by staging, accentuating your home's positive attributes, and do not draw any attention to the negative aspects.

Top 10 Myths About Real Estate Agents – Debunking Real Estate Agent Myths 

The Truth About Agents: What's True and What's Not

Just when you think you've found out everything you need to know about the "dirty, little secrets agents don't want you to know" from a bazillion of misinformed and, in all fairness, probably well meaning Web sites, here's what you really need to know:

Forget the hype. Forget the books you need to buy, the online services you need to subscribe to and start looking at what's really going on. Here's the straight story:

The Harper Team specializes in residential real estate in the communities of San Ramon, Dublin and Pleasanton, CA. We work out of the Danville office of Keller Williams Realty.

You can chat with us in real time through the Instant Messenger widget in the side bar of our blog.

Thanks to Jim Cronin over at The Real Estate Tomato for this introduction to Elizabeth Weintraub

I was so impressed that I have declared this to be Elizabeth Weintraub Day at The Harper Team Blog and am doing two posts to celebrate. This post is for Home Buyers and features some of Elizabeth’s great posts for home buyers.

If you are a looking to buy a home in San Ramon, Dublin or Pleasanton, CA., then you will want to read these posts by Elizabeth:

Buying Strategies for a Slowing Market

Forget the Year of the Boar, which is the Chinese New Year Animal for 2007. This is the Year of the Buyer. Many agents are saying, "If you are a buyer, come sit by me! You can relax on a soft leather chair, and I'll get the title guys to give you a foot massage. Would you like a glass of champagne?"

Yup. You real estate buyers can snap your fingers and everybody in the industry today will snap to attention. You run the show. And I don't mean YOU in a Times Magazine sort of way. The world of real estate, as we know it in 2007, belongs to the buyer. Buyers rule.

Before You Buy Your First Home – Tips for First-time Home Buyers

It's not uncommon for a first-time home buyer to say to me, "Gosh, just last week I called you about buying a home and now I'm in escrow! How did this happen so fast?"

The answer is it didn't. First-time home buyers start the search long before most even realize it.

When is the Best Time to Buy a Home? 

Which Days of the Year Are Buyers More Likely to Get Low-Ball Offers Accepted?

When is the best time of the year to buy a home? There are at least two days of the year that give buyers the edge. Would you like to guess which two days are best for buying a home? 

Buying a Home in a Down Market 

Should You Wait to Buy in a Down Market of Falling Home Prices?

Everybody wants to know how to best time the market when buying a home. It's just natural. Especially if you're thinking about buying in a down market where homes prices are declining. You wonder how low they will go and whether you should wait, right?

I'm also throwing in this post by Kent Palmer @ Realty Blogging as it is also on target.

The real estate market right now is, without a doubt, easier on buyers than it is sellers. There is an over abundance of property on the market, especially in the Denver market. This gives buyers hope that they will be able to find the perfect home, at the right price in no time at all. The problem is that there is an over abundance of crap. Abused, under appreciated, lender owned and abandoned properties. The kind of place nobody wants to call home.

Buyers quickly get frustrated. Viewing, property after property and finding nothing near the perfect home. And don't forget about, the always frustrating… "I'm sorry that just went under contract this morning." call that usually follows your client proclaiming "we finally found it!" All of these things lead buyers to wonder, is it really a buyers market?

The Harper Team specializes in residential real estate in the communities of San Ramon, Dublin and Pleasanton, CA. We work out of the Danville office of Keller Williams Realty.

You can chat with us in real time through the Instant Messenger widget in the side bar of our blog. 

Recently, I had the opportunity to sit down with Stacy and Rodney Kennedy of Pacific Auction Exchange (PAX) in Pleasanton, CA. I know Stacy from the Realtors Marketing Association and the Valley Marketing Association meetings.

Stacy is another blogging convert. That Pat Kitano is a blogging evangelist!

It took about 4 minutes of listening to Rodney and Stacy to realize that I had a total misconception of what the PAX business model was. I had assumed that Pacific Auction Exchange dealt with clients who needed to auction their properety under financial duress.

As it turns out, PAX auctions all kinds of property in all kinds of situations. They have had some terrific results auctioning properties that were sitting on the market and seeing no action for more money than the original asking price. 

PAX made the front page of the Contra Costa Times on Nov. 14, 2006 when they succesfully auctioned a Discovery Bay home. The auction took 4 minutes and, according to the article, left the sellers happy with the price and PAX.

Stacy and Rodney are great people.

Yesterday, when updating our Industry News page, I found this little tidbit included in the report from the National Association of Realtors®: 

Existing-home sales eased but prices stabilized as inventories tightened in December, while 2006 was the third-highest sales year on record, according to the National Association of Realtors®.

It got me to thinking about Rick Geha of Keller Williams over in Freemont, CA. Rick is owner and part owner in several KW franchises in the East Bay area of California. He is also one of the elite trainers in Keller Williams University. Rick travels around the country helping KW agents build successful careers in real estate.

I attended two Rick Geha trainings last year – the year of continued "doom and gloom" from the media about the real estate industry. Rick started both classes asking, "How's the market?" As you might expect, he got varied responses as some agents actually parroted the media. The first thing Rick did was set everybody straight – "It's unbelievable!!" is his reply.

And then he goes to work to show you why it really is. Rick Geha has been selling real estate in the East Bay area almost as long as my buddy Jim Walberg. He's been through blood-letting of a couple of real down markets and he knows the market as well as anyone. When he tells you the market is unbelievable, he's not blowing smoke up your …

All along, he was telling us – It's the second hottest market in history for this area. It seems to have been, or close to it. The wildfire market of 2003 – 2004 is going to make any other market look extremely bad.

This has raised a couple of interesting thoughts in my brain. Many people think today's interest rates are not so good, but they're comparing them to the interest rates of post 9/11 when they were lowered to help the country move through some difficult times. Historically, interest rates are a great deal right now.

The other point is how attached we become to "paper profits." Many property owners are holding on to the thought of having money in the bank that was never there. Property values fluctuate and until you sell it, the money is imaginary. Just ask all of the millionaire investors of the dotcom era that woke up one day a lot poorer than the day before. Many had still realized great profits from their original investments, but it was interesting to watch them suffer losing their "paper profits." 

One situation we are seeing more and more of these days – clients attached to a home valuation that is a year or two years old. We often hear – an appraiser told me… Rick Geha's advice is call the appraiser and see if he/she will buy it for that.

That Rick, he's a funny guy and one hell of a trainer. He's the reason you see us putting so much time and effort into "knowing our market" and communicating to our clients so we're all on the same page – current reality. 

The weekly Valley Marketing Association meeting in Pleasanton, CA was another big success. I can’t say enough positive things about how Roy Dronkers and his team are evolving the meeting and the association. The VMA represents hundreds of professionals associated with the real estate industry working in and around Pleasanton and Dublin, California.

Many of the members of the Valley Marketing Association are also members of the Realtors Marketing Association, representing Alamo, Danville and San Ramon; Contra Costa Realtors in Motion, representing Walnut Creek, Concord and surrounding communities; and the Castro Valley Marketing Association.

These associations provide the network of Realtor and real estate agent connections that result in the successful sales of property. Combined with the MLS’s that serve these areas, these networks are probably responsible for 80% or more of the real estate transactions (my opinion).

Additionally, these associations are the community liaisons that provide the channels for the association members to give back to the communities and offer support to those in need. As I stated in one of my first blog posts, I was totally surprised by how much the marketing associations and the individual members give back to the communities.

My first pic is of Roy kicking off the meeting. What you can’t here is the rock and roll… maybe some day I will video the proceedings.

Phil Vermont, a local attorney, took the stage to lend his years of experience to members:

• Keep a full photo log of property inspection for disclosure report
• Have a neutral witness attend property inspection
• Keep a clear paper trail
• Background checks on all persons involved in the transaction – at the very least Google them
• Use CaliforniaCourts.com for checks of litigation histories
• Use registered mail
• Be sure to get FAX and Email confirmations
• Surpass the minimal education requirements and keep a log

Phil noted that “water issues” are at the root of most litigations.

There were many more new listings presented today at The Valley Marketing Association than there were at the Realtors Marketing Association in San Ramon yesterday. New listings included:

• 7586 Stonedale Drive, Pleasanton
• 849 Montevino Drive, Pleasanton
• 8952 Marwick Court, Dublin
• 4693 Augustine Street, Pleasanton
• 5824 Sterling Greens Circle, Pleasanton
• 3144 Cranwood Court, Pleasanton
• 3005 Stonegate Drive, Alamo

We can help you with buying any of these or other properties for sale. We offer a written buyers guarantee and a cancellation guarantee.

The most moving segment of the meeting was the presentation of a video interview of  Bono of U2 fame and then Otto Catrina of O’Laughlin Realty talking about his upcoming trip to Africa to add his support to the fight against AIDS. I hope to have more on Otto in a future post.

The question I have for Roy – How is it that Pamela Ellis comes in late and gets the big stuffed dog?