Today's topic: real estate. Having just sold one house and bought a new one, we have now been exposed to many different real estate strategies. We learned that real estate agents price homes in one of two ways: a little low, to generate offers and engage buyers in the process, and a little high, in hopes of raising the eventual sale price.
We learned that if a home does not sell right out of the gate, it will start to look unappealing, like the last doughnut in a box full of crumbs and unstuck sprinkles, a doughnut that no one wants to be seen eating. Psychology will take over: no one else wanted that doughnut, why should I want that doughnut? And who ate all the chocolate covered doughnuts and the sugar glazed anyway? And why is the only doughnut left the one with avocado green bathrooms and a neighbor out of Deliverance? Then the agent must figure out how to bring that stale doughnut back at a later date and make it look like a whole new pastry. (Which is why restaurants invented bread pudding, by the way. Today's dry bread is tomorrow's dessert, and no longer free, either.)
In the case of selling our own house, our agent really surprised us. He started by hosting an open house on a Sunday, while we were out of town. Later that night we spoke by phone to find out how the event went and he told us lots of people came to the open house, lots and lots of people. He said he felt like he was having a party at our house. Come in, come in! He told us that at least one family wanted to make an offer that day. Oh, we exclaimed, that's great, an offer! Well, I told them we're not taking offers until next week, he said. Here, our heads cocked suddenly and we made the Scooby Doo "Rhooomph?" noise. We're not taking offers? Are you sure that's wise?
And of course he was right. The following week we started taking offers and we sold the house in a few days. Then we went shopping for our own pastry, I mean house.
Jun 22, 2011
Jun 21, 2011
Where to Begin?
Oh my! It's been seven weeks since my last blog entry! How did life get away from me like that? How did I neglect my bloggerly duties so egregiously? And what have I been doing for seven weeks, you may well ask, with a little tinge of hurt and bitterness. Well, I got my nails done; I bought three new shirts and two new bras; read five books; went grocery shopping and made breakfast, lunch and dinner many, many times; picked up a couple of things at the drug store, dropped off my dry cleaning, picked up my dry cleaning... Huh? What's that? Not the kind of thing you had in mind? You do those things all the time, too, and you're not interested? Well! (Picture Jack Benny.) Alright then, I'll tell you about my adventures.
Adventure number one is we sold our house. No sooner had we hired our (wonderful) agent than he walked through every room of our house and told us what to clear out before we let strangers with money into our home. Evidently we hadn't been living a photogenic life. He never said so out loud but I got the distinct impression we were more likely to be featured on Hoarders than in the pages of Better Homes and Gardens. So I rented a big storage unit and started boxing up our books and tchotchkes. Luckily, and this is true, the big week of manual labor coincided with my treatment for a sinus infection.
Now, why would that be a lucky coincidence, you may rightly ask. The answer is that when two rounds of antibiotics and nasal spray didn't stop the pain, my allergist put me on steroids to reduce the swelling and thus the pressure and pain. And I am here to tell you that when you have a whole week of manual labor ahead of you, steroids are your friend. Not only did they stop the pain, like turning off a faucet, they gave me boundless bouncy energy and optimism to spare.
I got more done in that week than I get done in whole months of my non-steroid life. And this was not a heavy-duty dose of steroids; this was just a tiny sinus-targeted dose. I can't imagine how much energy a Barry Bonds-size dose gives you. My husband Alan kept saying, and I quote, "Man, it's like you're on steroids!" Exactly. The house was ready in a week.
Also in the last seven blogless weeks, our daughter Molly's college graduation and a family trip to Spain. Many adventures on the trip to Spain so another blog soon.
Adventure number one is we sold our house. No sooner had we hired our (wonderful) agent than he walked through every room of our house and told us what to clear out before we let strangers with money into our home. Evidently we hadn't been living a photogenic life. He never said so out loud but I got the distinct impression we were more likely to be featured on Hoarders than in the pages of Better Homes and Gardens. So I rented a big storage unit and started boxing up our books and tchotchkes. Luckily, and this is true, the big week of manual labor coincided with my treatment for a sinus infection.
Now, why would that be a lucky coincidence, you may rightly ask. The answer is that when two rounds of antibiotics and nasal spray didn't stop the pain, my allergist put me on steroids to reduce the swelling and thus the pressure and pain. And I am here to tell you that when you have a whole week of manual labor ahead of you, steroids are your friend. Not only did they stop the pain, like turning off a faucet, they gave me boundless bouncy energy and optimism to spare.
I got more done in that week than I get done in whole months of my non-steroid life. And this was not a heavy-duty dose of steroids; this was just a tiny sinus-targeted dose. I can't imagine how much energy a Barry Bonds-size dose gives you. My husband Alan kept saying, and I quote, "Man, it's like you're on steroids!" Exactly. The house was ready in a week.
Also in the last seven blogless weeks, our daughter Molly's college graduation and a family trip to Spain. Many adventures on the trip to Spain so another blog soon.
May 3, 2011
High Speed Rail
All opinion today, no humor.
The high speed rail proposal is quite controversial here in California. We live in a community, San Mateo, through which the high speed trains would pass. All the communities down the center of the San Francisco peninsula would get high speed rail passing through: Daly City, San Bruno, Millbrae, Burlingame, etc. all the way to San Jose. Access to the system would be available in San Francisco, the airport, Redwood City, and San Jose. The accusation is that the wealthy communities on the peninsula are anti poor and crying not in my back yard!
So, let's look at some facts. Would high speed rail be disruptive to the communities on the peninsula? You bet. Downtown San Mateo sits along the Caltrain track. Several major streets cross the railroad track and access to 101 is on the Eastern side of the track. Long term construction of a new rail would cause traffic delays and noise in downtown. San Mateo's downtown is about a four block square so you have to wonder how much impact a high speed rail will have on such a tiny town. The same is true of Burlingame/ Hillsborough. Some peninsula communities, like Belmont and San Carlos, are farther from the Caltrain tracks and the tracks have underpasses for automobile traffic so they would be less affected by an addition or expansion to existent tracks.
Palo Alto has had a high profile in opposing the high speed rail. We are looking to move to Palo Alto. One home we are considering sits six doors from the existing rail track. The noise seems minimal from Caltrain but a high speed track might be elevated, placing the resulting noise above the buffer of trees and other, even closer, homes. The construction would of course take a long time and cause a lot of noise as well. The end result may be a reduced property value after putting up with the construction noise for years. All a big if. The end result may be aesthetically pleasing, who knows.
Is opposing high speed rail synonymous with denying the poor access to a community? Absolutely not.
I assume Caltrain is cheaper than high speed rail will be and Caltrain makes many more stops, including San Mateo, where high speed rail will not stop. High speed rail passes through, it mostly doesn't stop. So these supposedly nefarious poor people aren't getting off in my current or future community unless they jump.
Would the train at least benefit the peninsula towns and California overall? I doubt it. High speed rail will get you from San Francisco to Los Angeles in about two hours and forty minutes, longer than most flights. When you factor in how many people might use high speed rail and the cost of building the high speed rail system, you have to wonder if the impact on the affected communities, where a wide variety of people live, mostly middle class and working class people along the rail lines, is worth the cost. How about we put some shoulder and money into repairing roads, bridges, tunnels, all the existing broken infrastructure that so needs attention and would benefit all citizens, rather than putting our money into this section of high speed rail?
For what it's worth.
The high speed rail proposal is quite controversial here in California. We live in a community, San Mateo, through which the high speed trains would pass. All the communities down the center of the San Francisco peninsula would get high speed rail passing through: Daly City, San Bruno, Millbrae, Burlingame, etc. all the way to San Jose. Access to the system would be available in San Francisco, the airport, Redwood City, and San Jose. The accusation is that the wealthy communities on the peninsula are anti poor and crying not in my back yard!
So, let's look at some facts. Would high speed rail be disruptive to the communities on the peninsula? You bet. Downtown San Mateo sits along the Caltrain track. Several major streets cross the railroad track and access to 101 is on the Eastern side of the track. Long term construction of a new rail would cause traffic delays and noise in downtown. San Mateo's downtown is about a four block square so you have to wonder how much impact a high speed rail will have on such a tiny town. The same is true of Burlingame/ Hillsborough. Some peninsula communities, like Belmont and San Carlos, are farther from the Caltrain tracks and the tracks have underpasses for automobile traffic so they would be less affected by an addition or expansion to existent tracks.
Palo Alto has had a high profile in opposing the high speed rail. We are looking to move to Palo Alto. One home we are considering sits six doors from the existing rail track. The noise seems minimal from Caltrain but a high speed track might be elevated, placing the resulting noise above the buffer of trees and other, even closer, homes. The construction would of course take a long time and cause a lot of noise as well. The end result may be a reduced property value after putting up with the construction noise for years. All a big if. The end result may be aesthetically pleasing, who knows.
Is opposing high speed rail synonymous with denying the poor access to a community? Absolutely not.
I assume Caltrain is cheaper than high speed rail will be and Caltrain makes many more stops, including San Mateo, where high speed rail will not stop. High speed rail passes through, it mostly doesn't stop. So these supposedly nefarious poor people aren't getting off in my current or future community unless they jump.
Would the train at least benefit the peninsula towns and California overall? I doubt it. High speed rail will get you from San Francisco to Los Angeles in about two hours and forty minutes, longer than most flights. When you factor in how many people might use high speed rail and the cost of building the high speed rail system, you have to wonder if the impact on the affected communities, where a wide variety of people live, mostly middle class and working class people along the rail lines, is worth the cost. How about we put some shoulder and money into repairing roads, bridges, tunnels, all the existing broken infrastructure that so needs attention and would benefit all citizens, rather than putting our money into this section of high speed rail?
For what it's worth.
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