2622 Howard is listed by Thoolen Paul Real Estate. It may be sitting for a number of reasons. Don’t forget that one of the reasons people move to San Carlos is to be a part of the San Carlos School District. Another popular reason people are moving to San Carlos is for the ability to walk to a suddenly-hip Laurel Street with outstanding dining, shops and specialty stores. 2622 Howard does not offer either of these options (unless you wanted a longer walk). Finally, the home needs some updating. In my opinion, $1,495,000 is a very tall order given the limitations of the property.

261 Oakview has been on the market for a very long time. It was originally priced at $1,690,000 almost 18 months ago. It is currently being offered at $1,399,000. The home needs to be updated…in fact most of it is very “original”. It also appears to have some deferred maintenance. Oakview is also a narrow street and this particular property is on the side of the hill that slopes down from Oakview. Had this property been priced reasonably when it first went on the market in August of 2006, it most likely would have had a new owner quite some time ago.

As far as the stairs go, I really do not believe it has that much of an impact on potential buyers. The only time I have seen it come into play in San Carlos is when prospective buyers have an elderly parent who may live with them or a child with disabilities that may have difficulty with more than one or two stairs. Further, my impression is that most buyers expect stairs in the front yard for homes in the hills. Finally, I understand your slight frustration with some of the listing photos….I have been in some homes where I swear a different home is in the photos online.

Thanks again for your posts.

Bob

I have an additional question – How much of an issue is it to typical buyers to have to climb up (or down) a flight of stairs to get to the front door? Seems like the Pine property (and many others in the hilly areas) have that. Good photography tries to minimize that of course and it often not obvious looking at the listing photos.

Another solid question. Let’s look at the two properties you are referring to. They are 1733 Elizabeth and 1817 Elizabeth.

Let’s first take a look at 1817 Elizabeth. I saw a few issues here. First, the timing of coming to market was tough. Putting a property on the market during the last week of July will greatly reduce the number of prospective buyers. This is a family house, and the last week of July is right in the middle of family vacation season. Next, this home was updated, but it was not completely remodeled. For example, it had carpet, not hardwood floors. I did not think that the list price of 1.5 was totally off the mark, but it was very aggressive considering the time of year. The final sales price of 1.4 was a very solid deal for the purchasers.

1733 Elizabeth is an entirely different matter. I had one client make and offer on this home and I had another who pulled their offer at the last minute. There were some critical errors made with this property. First, the sellers bought the home in October of 2006 for 1.35 million. Eight months later, and with very little done to the property, they tried to list the home for 1.449 million in July of 2007. Prospective buyers in San Carlos are smart and informed. They are not going to pay a seller 100K more than the seller paid….when the seller bought the property only 8 months prior, and did not do any substantial renovations…especially in a very level market in the middle of summer. Reading between the lines you can see that the seller was most likely not intending on having to sell so quickly and wanted to sell without a loss by trying to recoup their real estate fees on top of their purchase price, plus build in some negotiating room. To most buyers, this was viewed as being “greedy”. Once a property gets this type of label, it can be very difficult to get buyers to seriously consider it. The result is a slight disaster. If the sellers had set the property at the purchase price they had paid a few months earlier, this home would have been sold in two weeks. Instead, they ended up taking an offer for less than what they had originally paid. Lesson learned.

21 Pine is an interesting property. Pine is a great street. I do not think that the price is that far off. Let me also say that for the purposes of this post, I will assume that there is nothing terribly wrong in the disclosures such as retaining wall or foundation issues.

First, let me say that Claire Earley is the listing agent for the property and she is a very solid agent and a great person. That being said the price is a little high, in my estimation. However, they could also be building in some negotiating room as well.

When properties are priced north of 1.2 in San Carlos, buyers are typically looking for a little something extra in the home, whether it be an outstanding location, view, large level lot…etc. This property really does not have any of those “extras”…in fact it is close enough to the Alameda where the future buyers will pick up traffic noise. Additionally, it has a sizeable hillside behind it which will always worry prospective buyers (or at least it should)…as retaining walls can be very expensive. The combination of the hillside location and the property’s proximity to Alameda are two fairly large items for a buyer in the 1.3 range to overlook. If I had a buyer interested in the property I would be closer to the 1.175-1.2 mark, again, as long as there are not any red flags in the disclosure documentation.