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.

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 .

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.

What we (again) learn from this situation is that the experts cannot predict anything correctly. Wasn’t gas going to be $8 per gallon by the end of the year like it is in Europe? Weren’t we all going to stop driving SUVs? I have listened to many economists provide their prediction on the real estate market, the fuel market, the job market and they are all as accurate as the weather man (who said it was supposed to rain today??) The truth of the matter is that no one knows what is going to happen next.

Just as quickly as gas prices went up, they came back down even faster. Just as quickly as home prices went up, they came back down even faster. So who is to say that things will not again ignite going into a buying frenzy as prices are at levels not seen in the past five plus years.

Whatever your crystal ball shows, stick with it. Don’t let the predictions set forth by the so called “experts” make your decision for you. Just as gas prices and home prices went up, they came down. And just as they came down, they will again go up. The market is a roller coaster ride that never ends - when you want to get on this ride is up to you.

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

"What Is The Difference Between A Condo and Townhouse?

The answer to the question comes down to legal ownership.  A more general, yet inaccurate way of describing the difference between the two is that in a condo, you may have a neighbor living above or below you, while a townhouse is a two story dwelling where you have neighbors to the side, but never above or below.  While this notion holds true for many examples, there are the exceptions.

Like the example of a townhouse style condo…confusing?  Let me simplify and explain!

A buyer of a condo owns the "airspace" in their unit plus a percentage ownership in the remainder of the development such as the common grounds and amenities.  The owner does not technically own the specific plot of land below their home as they may be "sharing" the land beneath them as there may be a direct neighbor above or below them.

A buyer of a townhouse buys the subject home plus the land beneath the home.  As a result, if you live in a townhome, you will not have any neighbors above or below you as you are the exclusive owner of the land.  You may also notice that it is much more common for a townhome development to have attached garages, when compared to condo developments.

And what about the exception, a townhouse style condo.  This is where the home is mapped as a condo, meaning that you do not exclusively own the land beneath the unit, however, there are no above or below neighbors.  So from the "naked eye" the home appears to be a townhome, but if you look at the way the home is mapped, it is technically a condo.

So what is the advantage or disadvantage to buying a condo versus a townhome?  From my experience…not much.  There are certain banks which will charge a bit more if the purchase is a condo rather than a townhome while others banks don’t make a differentiation at all.  The real advantages from my view have to do with the layout of the unit, regardless of if it is a townhome or condo.

Townhome Style Advantage:  No above or below neighbors.  You don’t have to worry about big foot making a bunch of noise upstairs and you don’t have to tippy toe around during evening hours if you are on the second floor…the whole place is yours to run around in.

Condo Style Advantage:  You have all of your living space on one single floor.  If you cannot go up and down stairs due to health issues, a bottom floor unit of a condo development is the solution to your problem.  Additionally, heating and cooling your unit is much easier and affordable when everything is on one level.

As you can see, both condos and townhomes have their advantages and disadvantages, the real question to ask yourself is what is most important to you.

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

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 .