Below are the housing stats for the city of Pleasanton, Dublin, San Ramon and Livermore. If you have any questions or would like any detailed information, please let me know .

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Driving around the Trivalley, you will notice a lot of open house signs during the weekends. Open houses have been a staple of real estate marketing for a long time. In more recent years, as the technology of virtual tours and videos have progressed, the effectiveness of open houses could be questioned. Nonetheless, many real estate agents still hold open houses and many home sellers today request them from their agent.

What home sellers sometimes fail to consider, are the dangers behind holding open houses. As most everyone knows, open houses are open to the public. Guests of open houses do not need to be accompanied by their real estate agents, as they would be when they make appointments to come see your home at a specific time and place. As a result, you are exposing your home to complete strangers. While some of these strangers will be legitimate buyers in the market, others will be neighbors just curious to see the inside of your home, individuals killing the afternoon and looking for decorating ideas, a potential buyer or seller wanting to meet a real estate agent–or worse of all–a possible thief looking for your valuables.

With so many unknown variables, here are some must take steps a homeowner should take prior to opening up the doors for an open house:

Ensure that your real estate agent meets and greets everyone at the front door to serve as the first line of defense against suspicious individuals.

Put away all of your medication drugs and empty the medicine cabinet. It has been known for individuals to go through bathroom medicine cabinets looking for pain killers and the like.

Any item of monetary or sentimental value should be boxed and put away. Small valuable items such as jewelry, cash and watches that typically sit on top of a dresser or on the bathroom counter are too tempting to just leave out.

Family photos should also be put away to protect the privacy of your family members. Not only will this depersonalize your home and help the potential buyers feel more ‘at home’, it will make sure that the wrong stranger does not have specific information about your family.

Put away all mail and bills. Identity theft is a major problem in our country, and by leaving your personal account numbers in view, will open yourself up to this issue.

So while there are some advantages of getting exposure to the market with open houses, there are also some dangers which all home buyers should be aware of to avoid any misfortunes.

Chris Kamali is a TriValley Real Estate Agent, helping clients buy and sell homes in Dublin, Pleasanton, San Ramon and Livermore.

The inventory today is under a 6 month average which is much better than most of the country and even some other parts of California.

Below are the housing stats for the city of Pleasanton, Dublin, San Ramon and Livermore. If you have any questions or would like any detailed information, please let me know .

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What’s the biggest change in the economy lately that truly affects us all…the price of gas. If you are like me, you have been keeping a close eye on the ever dropping gas prices we have been experiencing in the past weeks. I bet the company that sells those large numbers displays that the gas station use is busy sending out the number “two” as I am seeing what was once $4.55 per gallon down to $2.95 per gallon. (I heard yesterday that Costco in Livermore is $2.76)

So what do gas prices have to do with the real estate market? Well directly, probably nothing! Although the argument can be made that people can again afford to commute and thus secondary markets outside of the main business centers will thrive again. Or someone can argue that the lower prices in fuel will help the economy and as the economy improves, so does the job market and with the government lowering interest rates, buyers will again be able to afford homes and this will be the spark we need in consumer confidence.

While all of the above may be true for the market, what I take from the situation is much greater and valuable.

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With all of the waves in the financial market as banks are being purchased and companies going under, we are comparatively stable as a real estate market in the Trivalley. As you can see from the below graph, we had a increase in total homes sold in the Trivalley in May and have been hanging pretty steadily from there. I imagine that we will see the activity decrease in the final months of the year as we typically do.

The inventory today stands at about a 6 month average which is much better than most of the country and even some other parts of California. If interest rates continue to decline, we may see a bounce up in activity as a result. However, if rates increase because of the volatile market, we may see things slow down again heading into the end of 2008.

Below are the housing stats for the city of Pleasanton, Dublin, San Ramon and Livermore. If you have any questions or would like any detailed information, please let me know .

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Below are the housing stats for the city of Pleasanton, Dublin, San Ramon and Livermore. If you have any questions or would like any detailed information, please let me know.

  Continue Reading

Sets and Writes Down His Goals - It is said that a year ago Michael Phelps handed his Coach Bob Bowman a piece of paper with his goal for the year — to bring home 8 Gold Medals home from the Beijing Olympics.  Any professional in sales knows that goal setting is a must and writing any goal down only increases the probability of it happening.  I wonder how many homes Michael Phelps could sell in a year…and would he specialize in selling only homes with pools?

Works Nights and Weekends - This goes without saying.  What’s the number one thing that real estate agents wish they could change?  It is most likely the schedule of having to work on nights and weekends.  But as in any industry when you are dealing with the working public, you have to work when your clients are not working.  Based on the grueling schedule that has been featured on TV during these Olympics, it is obvious that Michael Phelps would do well working around the clock.

Does Not Give Up - Another attribute that a good real estate agent has is persistency.  It may take months to find the right house for a client and having a persistent agent on your side can guarantee a positive result.  Other times, a listing on the market may take months to sell and not giving up on the ‘race’ to sell the home is something that a real estate agent must attain.

Works Well Under Pressure - While the general public may not give Realtors credit for this, most agents have to work extremely well under pressure and on their toes.  With so many moving parts in the real estate transaction and the ever evolving changes in the financing industry, it is vital for agents to perform under heat.  Continue Reading

Below are the housing stats for the city of Pleasanton, Dublin, San Ramon and Livermore. If you have any questions or would like any detailed information, please let me know.

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Below are the housing stats for the city of Pleasanton, Dublin, San Ramon and Livermore. If you have any questions or would like any detailed information, please let me know.

As the graph shows, activity has continually increased in the Trivalley for real estate sales in 2008.  A combination of attractive pricing and increased rent has brought back many of the buyers.  The entry level market has certainly heated up and with time this will eventually lead to the mid range and higher priced homes to follow.  Whether we are–at the bottom, several months away from it or just passing it–buyer confidence in the market is back and homes are selling.  If you have any specific questions about your Trivalley neighborhood or the neighborhood you would like to move to, feel free to comment or contact me.  

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Buying or selling a home is a very large decision and can be filled with difficulties and complexities.  One common form of interference that I often experience is when home buyers and home sellers over rely on their friends or family members for advice on what they should do.

While I am a proponent of getting feedback from those you trust when you are making a large decision, you must keep in mind that the advice you are receiving is solely based on that person’s personal experience with the matter and not a well rounded responce (unless the person has gone through the same situation several times).  Continue Reading