More info on the geothermal energy system at 633 Amherst Drive

Thank you to all who toured 633 Amherst Drive last Friday afternoon.  We had a nice turnout and many guests were intrigued by the geothermal system, so I thought I’d provide a link to the informative website of the system’s manufacturer, WaterFurnace.

Newsweek article on green homes

The March 17th issue of Newsweek features a piece on green building titled, “Not Just for Tree Huggers.”  Energy efficiency, water consumption and healthy air quality are discussed, including one Texas family’s creative system of filtering rain water from the roof to use for household use.  According to the National Association of Home Builders, home buyers would be willing to spend nearly $9,000 more on a home if it reduces their energy bills. 

If you are thinking of buying or selling your Yolo County residence and would like the expertise of an agent familiar with energy efficiency and green design, contact Joe, Yolo County’s only Certified Ecobroker.

Davis’ Green Home and Garden Show, March 15th and 16th

Discover what’s new in green design and green materials for your home and garden this weekend at the UC Davis ARC Pavilion.  Over 200 exhibitors will be there with many solutions for energy efficiency and reducing our carbon footprint.  The show is presented by the Davis Enterprise. Here’s the link to learn more:

 

http://www.davishomeshow.com/

633 Amherst Drive: Magnificient geo-thermal and solar home in Central Davis, $674,900

Just listed! 

Open House on Friday, March 14th, 3-6pm hosted by Joe.

You must see this updated and expanded Oeste Manor home with four bedrooms, two full baths and 2,216 square feet of living area. The home boasts photovoltaic plus a geothermal ground source heat pump for energy savings. Livable indoor and outdoor spaces. The Central Davis location is stellar, with an easy walk or bike to campus and downtown. This is a truly green home in energy efficiency and use of materials.

What is Solar-Geo?

Plenty of homes have photovoltaic panels, and some have geothermal. But 633 Amherst is a unique combination of both clean energies. Since the owners had already completed similar projects, they remodeled the fifty-year old home to combine solar photovoltaic electricity generation with geothermal ground-source heat pump technologies. The WaterFurnace geothermal system uses the renewable energy source in the earth to heat and cool the home, instead of gas and electricity. The system provides cleaner indoor air quality than combustion of fossil fuels by using the Earth and Sun as the energy source.

Attention to detail, energy conservation and sustainable choices:

633 Amherst was designed to include many details sensitive to comfort and sustainability. For example, the flooring is made from ecological forest thinning, using no harmful additives and adding to a natural and healthy room climate, and is particularly recommended for people with dust allergies. The home takes advantage of natural daylighting and ventilation, with French doors and operable clerestory windows. Motion sensors, timers and efficient lighting reduce and automate energy use. As a result of the sustainable design of the home, the total energy bill for 633 Amherst is less than comparable homes.

Listing agent is Cynthia Gerber, a colleague at Coldwell Banker Doug Arnold Real Estate. To schedule a private tour, please contact Joe Kaplan today at 530.304.5978.

Real estate values in college towns like Davis, CA should prosper

I’ve been beating this dead horse for over ten years.  Investing in real estate in Davis, CA is a safe bet relative to other areas within the Sacramento area due to the influence of UC Davis.  Prices in Davis have fallen 10-15% from the peak of the market in 2005, whereas in some communities like Woodland, West Sacramento, Natomas, Elk Grove, etc. home values have tumbled over 30%. It’s a matter of supply and demand.  A recent article in Newsweek, (Feb. 18) illustrated that as student populations continue to increase, (enrollments are increasing twice as fast as the general population), combined with the attractive lifestyles, good healthcare and employment these communities offer, it’s a bright spot on the real estate radar.  ”Activity around college campuses should really hold up, better than the market as a whole,” says Walter Molony, a spokesman for the National Association of Realtors.

Over the years, I have assisted countless parents of incoming or returning UC Davis students investing in the Davis market. Condos, split-lots and affordable starter homes are all wise choices, and they’re sprinkled throughout the city. There’s no one student ghetto in Davis where students are aggregated.  Housemates often pay rent to help defray the mortgage costs, and by the time of graduation, looking three to four years into the future, values could certainly be much higher than today, creating a nice profit when the home is sold.

Davis condo market seems a bit sluggish

Per MetroList MLS, in the last thirty days only two Davis condos have closed escrow (compared to a meager three  for the same thirty days last year) , and there are only five condos with pending sales. Currently Davis has 27 active condos on the MLS.  The market has perked up in other categories, most interestingly, homes over 700k.  Just an observation.

Turn you lights off for one hour on March 29th

On March 29th, people around the world will be turning their lights off at 8PM.  Let’s join in, Davis.

From earthhour.com:

Created to take a stand against the greatest threat our planet has ever faced, Earth Hour uses the simple action of turning off the lights for one hour to deliver a powerful message about the need for action on global warming.This simple act has captured the hearts and minds of people all over the world. As a result, at 8pm March 29, 2008 millions of people in some of the world’s major capital cities, including Copenhagen, Toronto, Chicago, Melbourne, Brisbane and Tel Aviv will unite and switch off for Earth Hour.

Davis Buyers: Write a Winning Offer

Joe’s fab five 

Congratulations!  You’ve scoured the online listings (Realtor.com, Trulia.com, LiveInDavis.com, etc), toured Davis area properties with Joe, (some more than once), and you’ve found your potential dream home. Let’s help turn this dream into a reality.

1. Get pre-approved for your loan

Before writing an offer to purchase, meet with a local lender, (see the Expore Davis! page for lender links), and get pre-qualified or pre-approved for your mortgage, as your first step. We may prefer to have the lender wait on delivering the letter to us, via email, fax or hand delivery until a property is chosen, since the letter includes specifics  (purchase price and/or loan amount) that are dependent on the particular property. The important point is that you know you -and the seller knows – that you are financially ready to close the transaction. Choose a lender with a solid reputation, one that the listing agent and, or the seller knows will fund the loan, and fund it on time.  Be wary of out-of-town, or internet-based lenders who have no reputation to uphold here in Yolo County. If they’re based in LA, or San Jose, it’s not much skin off their back if they reject your loan (after initially pre-approving it), potentially imploding the transaction.

2. Know the comps 

Even though the average home in Davis may sell for 97% of its most recent asking price, the actual purchase prices form a wide bell-shaped curve around this figure. List prices are often subjective – agents like myself arm our sellers with as much information as possible regarding recent solds, pendings, and active listings that have similar characteristics and are in like neighborhoods as the subject property, and we advise our clients on pricing strategy, but we don’t ultimately set the prices, the sellers do. 

It is imperative as a buyer, therefore, to know the real estate market. Does this potential dream home seem fairly priced based on the comparable sold properties during the last three months?  Does it seem overpriced when stacked up against other active listings? Never write an offer for 3-5% under list price simply because that’s the average selling price. Some homes are truly underpriced to attract multiple offers, and quickly, and may be worthy of selling well over their asking price. Other homes – I’m sure you’ve seen them collecting proverbial dust online - are so overpriced that to present an offer price of even 97% of the asking price would be an unwise endeavor for any buyer.  When assisting my buyers, I always provide as much information as possible regarding the comparables, so together, we can make a well-informed decision.

3. Know the seller’s interests

Asking the right questions to a seller prior to writing an offer can often make the difference between an accepted offer and a stalled negotiation, or in the case of a multiple offer situation, it could determine whether you win the negotiations, or spend the night licking your wounds. 

Some contract terms may be of great significance to the seller, whereas only a slight inconvenience for you. For instance, we want to learn if the seller wishes to rent back from you after the close of escrow, and for how long – a few days, a week, a month or more. Perhaps you’re in a month-to-month rental and your move date is rather flexible. Years ago, a couple I represented held firm on their initial offer price, when we countered the seller’s counter offer. The offer price was $370,000, which was $33,000 below the asking price of $403,000, but my buyers smartly offered the seller a few months of free occupancy after the close of escrow, and the seller accepted. We knew this “free rentback” was invaluable to the seller.   

Other times, we may discover that the seller is eager to get their proceeds as soon as possible, so we can write an offer with a very short close of escrow - we’ll allow enough time to schedule and perform our inspections of the property, and provide the lender with sufficient time to fund the loan. In late 2006, I represented the buyers on the purchase of a property in Covell Park with a seven day close of escrow – and the lender funded on time. Ocassionally, the seller may desire a very long close of escrow of two months or more. Again, if the timing is no more than a nuisance for you, the buyer, accomodate the seller’s wishes and you might reduce the purchase price by thousands of dollars.

4.  Make a strong earnest money deposit

You’ll want to submit an earnest money deposit to me when writing an offer. Payable to the escrow company that we select, (there are many reputable title and escrow firms within a block of the Coldwell Banker office), I present a photocopy of the deposit check with your offer. The check is eventually delivered by me to the escrow company no later than three business days after the acceptance of the offer. In Davis, it is customary that this initial deposit, together with an additional deposit, (usually made 17 days after acceptance) total 3% of the purchase price. Often buyers don’t have such liquidity, so they may offer 1% up front, with an additional 2% at 17 days. This remains a strong deposit.  Even when crafting a lowball offer, make the deposit a strong one if you can, and it will pay dividends in the end.

In Woodland and most other cities within the greater Sacramento area, a smaller earnest money deposit is the norm. Davis is a bit of an anomoly. Regardless of location, a higher deposit will strengthen your negotiating power with the seller.

5.  Provide an appropriate time for the seller’s response

Time is of the essence once you decide to take the plunge, especially regarding a newer listing in which the risk is high that other offers may soon arise. Ideally, you don’t want to find yourself in a multiple offer situation, competing with other buyers – heck, this is YOUR dream home we’re talking about.  On the standard purchase contract, the seller is given until 5PM on the third day from receipt of the offer to respond, unless we write in a different date and time.  If our offer is a relatively strong one, by all means speed up the time for the seller to respond – if we learn from the listing agent that the seller will be available to review the offer around 8PM tonight, we write the offer with a 9PM expiration.  From experience, I know that some sellers will drag their feet, and not respond until close to the expiration date and time, partly out of hope that an even stronger offer will surface in the meantime.  So, it behooves us to shorten the seller’s response time considerably. The point is to reach acceptance before any other buyers get in the way. Period.

That said, if you write a lowball offer on a property that been ripening on the vine for weeks or months, our best strategy is the reverse, allowing the seller plenty of time (three days) to wait for other offers to surface. If the end of the three day period nears and you remain the only offer, the seller may respond with a favorable reply. In this case, patience is a virtue.

I enjoy writing offers with my buyers and negotiating on their behalf. Feel free to call me at your convenience to discuss writing an offer, or any other aspect of the home buying process.

Davis Sellers: spend 1-3% of the sale price on staging & reap 8-10% more in proceeds

One key I have always preached to Davis sellers: the most important part of the home to prepare for market is the front exterior and front landscaping, (curb appeal). If a potential buyer drives by your property unimpressed with the presentation, or views a less-than desirable front exterior online, then based on your offer price, why would they want to schedule an appointment with their agent to tour the interior? Interior staging is a boon, as well. By spending 1-3% of the sale price upfront, you’ll likely net 8-10% more at closing, and reduce your days on the market by 50% on average. 

The following helpful suggestions appear in an article on staging, on MSN:

Staging takes some effort and some money — but it works. According to a study of 2,772 properties sold in eight California cities in 1999 that was done by real-estate broker Joy Valentine, staged homes remained on the market less than half the time that unstaged homes did — about 14 days versus 31 days. The average difference in sale price over list price for staged homes was 6.3%, versus 1.6% for unstaged homes. You stand to gain $9,000 on a $200,000 house, Dana and co-author Marcia Layton Turner point out in their book, “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Staging your Home to Sell.” 

Here’s what you need to understand about staging: “How you decorate to live in your house and how you decorate to sell your house are very different,” explains Dana. Decorating implies adding. But staging is all about paring away personal decoration. Why? Because the driving idea behind staging is to let people imagine themselves living in your home, leading the good life. It’s NOT about you and your stuff and your taste.Nearly everything in staging sprouts from this basic idea. The tips1. Declutter. This is staging’s golden rule. Clutter isn’t just your average mess. Clutter is the so-called “visual dandruff” — newspapers, mail, laundry, knickknacks — that accumulates in a house that’s well-lived-in.  “The way that we kind of word it is that clutter eats up equity,” says Wendy Van Cott Speight, owner of DECO-The Design Company in Bloomington, Ill. “If there’s a bookshelf, I’m going to pack up two-thirds of those books and put them away and basically just arrange the rest in nice little displays.” This mantra also applies to furniture. A good rule of thumb is that a staged living room should have half of its furniture removed, to give a better sense of spaciousness and movement, says Van Cott Speight. What to do with it? You’re moving, so pull a storage pod into the driveway and pack it up. And when you do rearrange, make sure you highlight the focal point of the room, such as arranging chairs around a fireplace in an inviting, approachable scene, experts say.

Streamline the kitchen counters, too, says Sally Ann Possidente-Ruiz, a real-estate agent and staging professional who works mostly in New York’s Westchester and Putnam counties. “I’ll give you a coffeepot. But put away the toaster and the toaster oven. You don’t need it. You want sleek, clean lines. And you want them to say, ‘Wow, look at the counter space.’ ”

2. Be a neat freak. This may go without saying, but the only thing as important as decluttering is having an immaculate house. That means steam-cleaning the carpets. Walls should be painted if needed. Pressure-washing outdoor decks and aluminum siding can do wonders for a home’s first impression and boost a home’s value, Dana says. One place homeowners can never clean enough is the bathroom, stagers say. Toss out that bath mat; it’s probably a wreck. Declutter it ruthlessly, add a few candles, and hide all but one or two of the shampoo bottles, says Possidente-Ruiz.

3. Hide the sword collection. Another name sometimes used for staging is “blanding,” and there’s a reason for it: Now’s the time to sell your space, not your personal tastes, because you never know what may turn off would-be buyers. “It’s got to appeal to everyone,” says Peggy Selinger-Eaton, one of the founders of professional staging and author of “Staging your Home for Profit,” as well as founder the Web site “Peggy’s Corner.”

Remove family photos and religious items. Possidente-Ruiz remembers one Jewish home buyer who visited a condo and came away with little impression except of the crucifixes and pictures of the owner’s First Communion that were inside. He bought a condo in the same complex that needed more work, she says.

Van Cott Speight recalls a different challenge with a house: “They had themed bedrooms – one room was all clowns, another was superheroes.”  Were there kids? “Actually, there weren’t,” she says. That superhero-themed room was the master bedroom. She helped them pack up all that and repainted the master bedroom with “grown-up” colors to appeal to a broader audience. “In order to appeal to a broad audience, you’ve got to take that away, or it will not sell,” she says.

4. Search and destroy odors. A popular saying coined by Schwarz of StagedHomes.com is, “If you can smell it, we can’t sell it.” A house that smells odd to a prospective homeowner — whether because of a cat’s litter box, or dogs, or exotic food — can easily be a deal breaker. Ask someone you trust to give you an honest answer whether your home has a distinct odor. Then tackle the problem, by steam-cleaning the carpets and furniture, moving litter boxes elsewhere, scrubbing the kitchen, etc. Finally, don’t try to mask anything with potpourri, or by baking cookies. Just open windows a few minutes before a showing to let in fresh air.

5. Spend the money where it matters: out front. Use your time and money wisely. Studies show that the front porch is where prospective home buyers spend the most time, as they wait for the door to be unlocked. “A lot of times I’ll suggest painting the front door,” says Selinger-Eaton. She also often suggests replacing the brass light fixtures on the front porch if they’re too badly tarnished, or at least painting them. “Right now I’m doing a lot of black,” she says. Certified master stager Barie Pinnell, president of WRE Interiors in Dallas, recommends placing planters on each side of the door, as well, with flowers in vibrant colors that excite the eye. (She often recommends fuchsia and white.)

And to make sure all this work isn’t for naught, be sure your real-estate agent’s lockbox is on your front door. Some agents will put it on a side door or back door. But your front door and entryway usually make the best impression. Make home buyers experience your house the way you want them to.

Once inside, the foyer or entryway — if you have one — is where people will linger the longest in the house, say the pros. “Wow them now!” writes Dana. Make sure the paint is a creamy neutral and fresh, and the flooring looks great. All you need for décor is a thin table, a lamp, a vase of fresh flowers. “If you have a limited budget and can only afford to replace the entryway flooring or the guest bedroom carpeting, choose the foyer. It is the first impression,” write Dana and Turner.

6. Use fresh flowers. Throughout the house. Always fresh. Only fresh.

7. Make it current. As much as possible, you want your home to give off a feeling of being up-to-date, trendy even — regardless of how long it’s been since you’ve bought furniture. But how do you do that? Sometimes professional stagers bring in rented furniture and lamps to impart a better vibe; the staging of multimillion-dollar homes can even involve bringing in “rental” artwork from museums. You can get some of the same effect, though, just by paring down your belongings and looking at what’s current these days.

Pick up magazines such as Domino, InStyle and Better Homes and Gardens to get ideas, advise Dana and Turner. Then pick and choose your furniture, and camouflage accordingly, if necessary. For example, what’s in today is a more streamlined, clean look; the so-called “lumpy/bumpy” look is out. What to do with that puffy loveseat? Toss a slipcover over it to give it a sleeker appearance. Got a particularly ugly couch? A few big, well-placed cushions from Target can distract the eye and hide it in a pinch, says Selinger-Eaton.

Consider this cautionary tale: A man was selling his home in an exclusive gated community in Danville, Calif., for $2.7 million. But there was a problem, says Selinger-Eaton: While the house had an East Coast look — yellow, with a big, white porch — inside the home was festooned with lots of very heavy, ornate Italian drapes in white with bright turquoise. Despite Selinger-Eaton’s prompting, the owner was committed to keeping the drapes up. Nine months later, the house remained unsold. The homeowner hired a new broker ­ who agreed to take on the house only if the man did whatever Selinger-Eaton said. “He took the drapes down and the house sold in seven days,” she recalls. 8. Think spacious. People often move because they want more room, so make your house feel as spacious as possible. “Closets should be half full, and you should be able to see the bottom of the closet,” says author Dana. Show people a jam-packed closet, and they’ll think it’s too small for them, too. Similarly, bedrooms should contain only a bed, nightstand and dresser — or perhaps a comfy reading chair in the master bedroom. (Banish that StairMaster to the basement.) Want to make the master bedroom feel even larger? Swap out the king-size bed for a queen-size bed, Pinnell says. Another tip: Stagers used to push all the furniture to the walls to try to make a room feel bigger. Today, Selinger-Eaton says to pull furniture two or three inches out from the walls. When possible, allow the corners of a room to be visible. 9. Think vignettes. Vignettes are groupings of accessories, usually in threes. “It could be three pieces of art on the wall; it also could be candlesticks, something tall, medium and short,” says Pinnell. “It’s about shapes and color,” she says of the vignettes, which help draw the visitor through the room and make the room visually interesting. “I call them eye candy.”10. Lighten up. “You want as much light to come in as possible,” says Possidente-Ruiz. Remove unneeded blinds. “If there’s drapery, I try to make it as sheer as possible, or pull it to the side,” she says. “You want people to come in and say, ‘I could live here. It’s nice and bright.’ “

Should you hire a pro – and how much should you spend?

Now that you know some of the work and thought that goes into staging, perhaps you’re considering hiring a professional stager instead. Professionals can offer a variety of levels of service, from consultations to full-service stagings in which contractors are arranged to make home repairs and rental furniture is brought in.

There’s no industrywide accreditation process. However, several organizations — including the International Association of Home Staging Professionals and the Interior Arrangement and Design Association — offer staging certifications.

Costs can vary depending on services and the part of the country. Buffalo-based Dana charges $130 for a walk-through consultation on a house. For hands-on work thereafter, she charges $69 per hour. To rent furniture and accessories that she provides costs roughly $700 per month per house. Dallas-based Pinnell, who will visit a home, take photos, then return with a 35- to 55-page report, charges $350 to $550 for that consultation. Staging is extra. To stage an empty home, Pinnell usually charges 1% to 1.5% of the list price, including three months of furniture and accessories rental.

A general rule of thumb: According to the National Association of Realtors, the best return on a homeowner’s investment for staging is when between 1% and 3% of the home’s asking price is spent on staging, which typically gets a return of 8% to 10%.

Now start your decluttering. And be ruthless.

Joe’s Tour of Davis Neighborhoods – South Davis

SOUTH DAVIS 

South Davis, the portion of Davis which lies south of I-80, is a veritable smorgisborg of desirable neighborhoods connected by greenbelts. No one master planned community dominates, a la Mace Ranch in East Davis.  Even though separated by I-80, traveling by bike to and from South Davis is a snap. The most scenic route is the path leading from the south end of Davis Commons (Borders, etc) parking lot and the eastern edge of the UC Davis arboretum. The route, which includes a $4.5 million I-80 bike underpass, constructed in 2000, follows Putah Creek, and is arguably the most beautiful path in all of Davis. This author frequently straps on his skates and breezes along the Putah Creek path – 20 minutes round trip from Putah Creek Park to the cul-de-sac at Da Vinci Court.

For those who prefer bridges to tunnels, a pedestrian/bike overpass will transport you to and from South Davis. The bridge connects Cowell Blvd. (just north of Willow Creek Park) in South Davis with a path extending north of Second St. leading to Mace Ranch Park.  The Pole Line Road I-80 overpass nicely accomodates all forms of transportation, while the other two links over I-80 into South Davis, Richards Blvd. and Mace Blvd. are best left to pedestrians and autos.

The Oakshade neighborhood, built in the early 1990s, lies to the north of Putah Creek and its path. Oakshade’s many cul-de-sacs and quiet U-shaped streets feature exsquisite southern views of the mature trees along the creek.  The neighbood of custom and semi-custom residences is dissected by a greenbelt running north-south. Homes on Oakshade’s eastside can be accessed via Montgomery Ave., and auto access along the western side utilizes Valdora St.  Marguerite Montgomery Elementary School and Walnut Park sit to the north of Oakshade homes. 

As you follow Montgomery Ave. to the east, over a narrow bridge, you find yourself removed from suburban-esque Oakshade and Davis, more generally.  To the north lies the oldest section of the Willowbank neighborhood, technically in unincorporated Yolo County. To the south is Solano County farmland. Old Willowbank homes are eclectic in design, with large shady lots. Like the elegant ranch homes of the El Macero Country Club community to the east of Davis, Willowbank is within the boundary of the Davis Joint Unified School District. Newer Willowbank homes are to the east, abutting Mace Blvd.

There is a wonderful little pedastrian/bike bridge over the creek connecting Willowbank with the Woodbridge neighborhood, a nature trail, and a park to the north. Other older South Davis neighborhoods connected to the path are Rosecreek, El Macero Park and Rancho Macero. Newer neighborhoods sprinkled among South Davis include Diamond Park, (so named as it lies adjacent to the ball fields of Playfields Park), Willowcreek and Parque Santiago.

South Davis continues to the east of Mace Blvd., featuring older homes from the 70’s, Pioneer Park and Pioneer Elementary School. Traveling east along Cowell Blvd., you’ll find a neighborhood of large, newer properties, most of which were built by Warmington Homes in the early 2000’s, along Davis’s most eastern edge. To the east, a vast stretch of farmland and the seasonally flooded Yolo Basin (Yolo Bypass) featuring its incredible variety of shorebirds, ducks and bats. At the eastern horizon one glimpses the Sacramento skyline, and on a clear day, the majestic Sierra Nevada Mountains.