Yesterday we had a look at a Redwood City house with a curious price history.  Today’s featured fortress has fewer data points, but don’t worry, it makes up for it in overbids! Thanks very much to Burbed reader LomaLuvr for launching this one.  And we’ve got fresh data to share!

548 VIEW St
Mountain View, CA 94041
Sold for $1,061,000

2 Beds
1 Baths
994 Sq. Ft.
$1,067 / Sq. Ft.
Built: 1924
Lot Size: 6,300 Sq. Ft.
Sold On: May 7, 2013
Property Type: Detached Single Family
Stories: 1
Community: Downtown
MLS#: 81308770

Great Location! 1924 cottage on approximately 6300sft lot two blocks from Castro Street! Mostly original cottage sits on this large lot, ideal for renovation or maybe rebuild. Excellent location two short blocks to Castro Street. Theatre, coffee shops, restaurants and train station all within blocks!

Actually, LomaLuvr sent this in long ago, before we started in with the A to Z thing all April. But it’s good news for you that we waited, because now we have the winning overbid, and it’s 18% over asking. Ha! You call that a bubble? Why back in our day, an agent could list a house full of crappy photos near the train tracks and the buyers would throw offers through the windows tied to gold bars!

Hey, wait.  You think the gold bars are back?

Let’s return again to our roots and feature one of the homes that Burbed was best known for. Have a look at this spacious place while we take a good look at some prices.

418 ALDEN St
Redwood City, CA 94063
$390,000

1 Beds
1 Baths
640 Sq. Ft.
$609 / Sq. Ft.
Built: 1925
Lot Size: 5,000 Sq. Ft.
On Redfin: 18 days
Property Type: Detached Single Family
View: Neighborhood
County: San Mateo
Stories: 2
Community: Lenolt
MLS#: 81312880

NEW KITCHEN WITH GRANITE COUNTER TOP, NEW WINDOWS, NEW BATHROOM. CONVENIENTLY LOCATED CLOSE TO SHOPPING, FREEWAY AND TRANSPORTATION.

For $390K, you’re only going to get one GRANITE COUNTER TOP and one NEW BATHROOM and zero photos of either. But that’s not the only reason we’re featuring this delightful dwelling.  Have a look at the listing from the last time it went on the market, as a short sale.

418 ALDEN St
Redwood City, CA 94063
Sold for $239,000

1 Beds
1 Baths
640 Sq. Ft.
$373 / Sq. Ft.
Built: 1925
Lot Size: 5,000 Sq. Ft.
Sold On: Jun 10, 2011
Property Type: Detached Single Family
Community: Lenolt
MLS#: 81053292
Stories: 2
County: San Mateo

SHORT SALE. SALES PRICE AND COMMISSION SUBJECT TO LENDER’S APPROVAL.

Just because the price went up 63 percent due to a GRANITE COUNTER TOP doesn’t mean we’re in a bubble. 

Why, just take a look at the price history for this palace.  We have a lovely little line graph for you as well as the screenshot from Redfin.

Obviously there’s no Bubble 4.0 in this part of Redwood City, because it was completely derailed after 2006. All the dots on the graph are sales except for the last one on the right, that’s the current asking price.

Do you have any doubt where this investment is heading? In case you don’t, the house itself has the answer for you.

It’s been far too long since we’ve heard from one of our favorite correspondents from the East Bay, Burbed reader A Lewis.  A (he says we can still call him A) writes in to let us know that there is still real estate worth following in his favorite city of El Cerrito. Let’s have a look and listen in.

6332 Barrett
El Cerrito, CA 94530
Sold for $1,200,000

3 Beds
2.5 Baths
3,441 Sq. Ft.
$349 / Sq. Ft.
Built: 1941
Lot Size: 0.54 Acres
Sold On: Apr 19, 2013
Type: Detached
Stories: 2
County: Contra Costa
Style: Colonial
Community: Miravista Highls
MLS#: 40608299

a classic Colonial Revival on a 1/2 acre estate. Custom built with lavish attention to detail. Features include a 2 story tall portico at the entrance a wide spiral staircase to the upper floor inside, and fabulous access to patios and gardens from various entry level rooms. Ideal for entertaining

Take it away, A!

Update 6:45 pm: A says it’s fine to include the following graf that we thought was social chitchat just for us.

** Sorry I abandoned the site – but I’ve been priced out forever, and Real Estater was right about the stock market, so I just had to admit my own limitations and tried to spend time thinking about things besides real estate. I’m still a renter. But I can’t stop myself from occasionally looking at Redfin in my neighborhood, which you will recall is the hills of El Cerrito – 94530 baby! **

Here’s a house I know that tried to sell in 2008 for $1.2M, failed pitifully because of the ‘crash’, but they waited it out, and lo and behold, they got their price last week! And I wanted to share the listing because the first pick has 6, yes 6 columns showing!

So in my mind, prices in the hills of El Cerrito are back to peak levels, and appear to be rising.

I don’t know if that qualifies us for RBA status, but we seem to be back to where we were in 2007 (oh, except for having about 25% of the inventory), a crazed over-bidding environment on places that need a lot of work. People writing letters with their offers to beg for the privilege of buying with no contingencies, etc…

I guess another difference is how much buying is all-cash – in 2007, I think there was a lot more leveraging.

It’s a great time to sell a house, that’s for sure. But I can’t afford to buy one – oh well! I’d say I missed my chance, which was about Q1 2012, but prices hadn’t dropped enough for me to afford things even then.

Maybe the next crash will be harder. Maybe not – I bought a lotto ticket last month as an alternative way to solve the problem…

Looking at how bekawlumned this house is, we don’t understand why A didn’t sell every vehicle, video, and spare family members to own this house. Every bedroom just screams, “Oh my God, I live here!”  Why this is almost as impressive as what you can get in Palo Alto for a similar asking price.

Can you imagine what you’d have to pay for kawlums in The Real Bay Area?

Here’s a press release from the “Lending Tree of Real Estate Agents.”

LessThan6Percent Revolutionizes How Home Sellers and Real Estate Agents Connect

Press Release: LessThan6Percent – Mon, Apr 29, 2013 6:39 PM EDT

SAN FRANCISCO, April 29, 2013 /PRNewswire/ — LessThan6Percent (http://www.lessthan6percent.com), the online marketplace where home sellers can compare commissions and marketing plans from local real estate agents, is exiting its beta launch in the San Francisco Bay Area and expanding into Southern California. Founded in late 2012 by serial entrepreneur Simon Ru, LessThan6Percent provides home sellers a convenient platform to streamline the process of finding the best agents to represent their home.

"The problem home sellers face is that there are thousands of agents in any given market," says Ru. "It is difficult for home sellers to compare agents to find the best match. They don’t know what questions to ask, what to look for in a marketing proposal, or how to start the awkward conversation of negotiating services & commissions." This is where LessThan6Percent steps in.

LessThan6Percent differs from traditional agent-matching service such as Trulia (http://www.trulia.com/) and Zillow (http://www.zillow.com) by matching sellers to proposals submitted by agents rather than agents’ profiles. Instead of directing sellers to call agents’ numbers on a directory, LessThan6Percent transforms the matching process by having agents compete for sellers’ business. With a click of a button, home sellers would know exactly what services they are going to receive and how much they would cost. This level of transparency is unparalleled in the real estate industry.  

You may have noticed that LessThan6Percent is one of our newest advertisers, featuring that oversized entry form on the right. We’re certainly in accord with their business model. Some home sales are pretty routine, and there’s no reason why the six percent commission rate has been enshrined as unchanging. Personally, we’d like to see home sales done as flat fees, because that would mean the buyers’ agent wouldn’t have a financial incentive to advise you to bid more than a home is worth.

Then again, we are in Bay Area Bubble 4.0, every house is worth more than it’s listed for, and you couldn’t possibly pay too much for a place in the Real Bay Area. That means your agent was right to tell you to overbid by 85%.

Meanwhile, LessThan6Percent says you can specify what you want in an agent and look over the proposals you get in response.

And if their algorithm predicts you may be likely to sell, watch for their ads appearing wherever you surf.  This reminds us of that creepy datamining prediction that Target became infamous for: figuring out you were expecting before the rest of your family knew.

But LessThan6Percent also expects to reel in many leads through an algorithm that the company has created to identify people who are likely to sell. Ru said the algorithm scours a wide array of information sources, including social media, and then turns up likely sellers, like people who it’s discovered are having children soon.

The company then uses printed materials, cookies and keyword advertising to invite those people to use the site, Ru said.

- See more at: http://www.inman.com/2013/04/08/new-website-lets-sellers-see-proposals-from-listing-agents

According to Ru, the comments on this article were “getting heated” once a NAR official showed up. It appears Inman removed them by moving the article to a new location and conveniently neglecting to bring any comments along… or even allow them to be made.

LessThan6Percent envisions having agents slug it out for the right to sell your house. Why not have a good fight in comments on what you think of this idea? 

Are you looking at any Open Houses next to a farm?

Photo credit thanks to Galen Ward.

It’s Friday! That means here comes your weekend, so we’d like to present a great location for a Silicon Valley stay-cation!  Thanks very much to Burbed reader Swan for sending this one in before the A to Z challenge (THANK GAWD THAT’S OVER IT WAS HARSHING OUR CRAPBOXEN). Fortunately the property is still very much on the market.

18157 WAGNER Rd
Los Gatos, CA 95032
$7,499,000

5 Beds
8 Baths
8,517 Sq. Ft.
$880 / Sq. Ft.
Built: 1999
Lot Size: 25 Acres
On Redfin: 45 days
Property Type: Detached Single Family
Stories: Tri-Level
Community: Los Gatos/Monte Sereno
MLS#: 81308591
Style: Traditional
View: Mountains, Canyon, Valley, City Lights
County: Santa Clara

Spectacular transformation! Vastly improved property from two years ago. Complete remodel of existing home with added sq footage, brand new 3100sf toy barn/garage, new 800sf pool house cabana w 500+sf covered patio, over an acre of new cabernet vines, bocce ball court, lacrosse field/sport court, wine cellar, 3car garage, workout facility, 600sf storage rm, outdoor entertaining paradise w pool!!!!

Let’s check in with Swan on this swank setting:

I have many properties I’ve been planning to send you, but I came across the following this morning and it rose to the top of the list:

At first, I thought I’d submit this home because of the realtard’s line, "Vastly improved property from two years ago." What is that realtor speak for?  Then, in looking at the pictures, I realized I’d seen this somewhere before!  

Yes, a finished home is a vast improvement!  Landscaping helps too!  From the pictures, it seems someone has been living there. The listing history goes on… Be sure to check out photo number 24 of the storage room.  An 8500 square foot home and you need 600 square feet of storage?  The current occupants have sure put the storage room to good use!

Have at it…

Yes, this place looks familiar, doesn’t it?  Or maybe not, since they finished painting and put all those ladders in the 600 square foot storage room.  It sold in May, 2011, for $5.75 million, and these listing photos look a little different than what we covered here.

Although we miss the ladders.  Made the place look like part of an Edgar Martins exhibition.

Also, we found the before before pictures.  Don’t miss them (kitchen pictured at left).  They might have asked for $3.95M that round, but they got $1.8.  You really have to check out the property history, because before that it was foreclosed on, maybe even twice in two weeks, and before that it was listed for $7.8M.  Good luck figuring out if it sold for $5.6M, or $7M or both or neither!  This house and its grounds have been nothing but a big and very expensive game of Hot Potato going back all the way to 2000!

So, Burbed readers, why is this amazing estate still on the market after an eternity of 45 days? Do you think the flippers are waiting to collect even more overbids?  Now that would be an even happier ending.

Surprised it’s still there, what with all that value in the land.  Thanks to Burbed reader LomaLovr for the find.

1950 LEGHORN St
Mountain View, CA 94043
$799,000

3 Beds
1.5 Baths
1,456 Sq. Ft.
$549 / Sq. Ft.
Built: 1966
Lot Size: 0.52 Acres
On Redfin: 7 days
Property Type: Detached Single Family Community: Rengstorff MLS#: 81313653
Stories: 1
County: Santa Clara

Rare opportunity to own this half acre lot with a single family home grandfathered on it. Zoned MM40 for commercial or industrial use. Single family home can be used as an office upon ok by city for business purpose. 200 sq ft basement. Property can not be developed into other residential aspects. Property can not be subdivided. Easy access to 101. Property will not last, this is under valued.

Upcoming Open Houses

Sunday, May 5: 1:00-4:00 pm

Buried in the cached copy are these comments:

Investment Property Possibilities Endless .51 acre lot Can be commercial property. Zoned MM40 Grandfathered Single Family Home on lot.

We are done with the April blogging challenge, so let’s get back to what made Burbed what it is: ridiculously overpriced crapboxes! And what better place to find it than in our very favorite city, Palo Alto?  Thanks much to Burbed reader Pizzawillcome for this, um, thing you could seek shelter in if you absolutely had to.

3375 STOCKTON Pl
Palo Alto, CA 94303
$1,299,900

4 Beds
2 Baths
1,716 Sq. Ft.
$758 / Sq. Ft.
Built: 1958
Lot Size: 6,400 Sq. Ft.
On Redfin: 52 days
Property Type: Detached Single Family
Community: South Palo Alto
MLS#: 81307408

Classic Eichler home with central atrium. Nice backyard. Large utility room can also function as a den, office, or playroom.

Here’s why Pizza sent in this house:

I didn’t pull the trigger on this one, and now it is back! Same pictures as a month ago. Gotta burb-alert it now.
Unfolded laundry on the couch and floor, littered stuffed animals and toys. When I get bored with overly staged houses, I think of this one.

Fortunately, the Redfin agent has some useful comments to share as well!

Original condition! That’s excellent news! None of those second-rate replacements of vintage pressboard walls.  But these photos just sell the house, don’t they?

And note how the use of light draws your attention in to all the details.

That is, if you can see them. This technique seems to work just as well in the outdoor shot of the yard, demonstrating just what kind of a professional we’re dealing with.

So, if a house is for sale in the Real Bay Area, but it’s on a street named for somewhere that is Most Certainly Not In The Real Bay Area, how high will the overbids be?

Zoinks! Today’s the very last day of the Blogging from A to Z Challenge, and it’s also the last of the Triple Threat of Cityless Letters! There are no cities or towns in the Bay Area that start with Z. There aren’t even any neighborhoods in our two largest cities willing to cooperate. What to do, what to do?

We could discuss the complete fail that is the Zero lot line home. (How can you water your own lawn when there’s a house in the way?)  We could really Zone you out by digging deep into tl;dr territory with some Zoning violations! Or how about our favorite series on this site, ever? Yes, Zillions of Zip Codes!

Fortunately, we’re not going there. Instead, let’s drop by one of our favorite real estate sites.

5866 Zileman Ct
San Jose, CA 95123
Pending: $650,000

Est. Mortgage: $2,274/mo
Bedrooms:4 beds
Bathrooms:2 baths
Single Family:1,846 sq ft
Lot:6,534 sq ft
Year Built:1968
Last Sold:Dec 2012 for $565,000
View virtual tour

Construction Quality 6.0
Garage Size 439
Last Remodel Year 1969
Lot Depth 113
Lot Width 58
MLS #81309066
Parcel #69215003
Roof TypeAsphalt
Room Count 8
# Stories 1.0
Structure Type Contemporary
Unit Count 1
View Mountain
Zillow Home ID 19828550

Description

Modern beautiful sparkling remodeled home,spacious and bright, freshly painted inter and exter. approx 1846 Sf of living space,6554 sq.ft.lot , warm and cozy 4 largebedrooms and 2 new baths, dual pane windows,recessed lighting,central air,indoor laundry, living room with fireplace, finished 2 car garage,updated kitchen w breakfast nook. Nice curbappeal

Zestimates

Value: $570,609
Range: $428K – $605K
30-day change: +$25,268
$/sqft: $309
Last updated: 04/28/2013

Rent Zestimate $2,591/mo
Range: $1.1K – $3.4K/mo
30-day change: -$8
$/sqft: $1.40
Last updated: 04/29/2013

Market Guide

Zillow predicts Santa Teresa home values will rise 5.8% next year, compared to a 5.9% rise for San Jose as a whole. Among Santa Teresa homes, this home is 21.1% more expensive than the mid-point(median) home, and is priced 9.3% more per square foot.

Zounds! That stormy sky is no Zephyr! More like dialing the HDR up to 11 when Zero would have been more appropriate. Yeah, photographer was too Zealous. And when we Zip inside, best bring your Geiger counter, because there’s particle decay in them thar bedspreads. Watch out for Zeta rays (there’s no such thing, but it sounds all science-y and danger Zone if you get Zapped by them).

Most of all, Z is for Zestimate, Zillow’s best known feature. This home’s Zestimate is $570K, when it was listed for $650K and went pending in 3 days. What do you predict this house will end up selling for?  Don’t forget the curbappeal.

Yes, we’re getting near the end of the Blogging from A to Z Challenge. Aren’t You thrilled? Today we’re heading up to the whine, whoops wine country to see what prices are doing far from the SF/SV axis of insanity.

And, Yoiks! This doesn’t look much different!  A generous but not ginormous house, on a comfortable, but by no means estate-quality lot. Perhaps the owners thought they were in Saratoga or something?

6761 Jefferson St
Yountville, CA 94599
$3,100,000

3 Beds
2.5 Baths
2,600 Sq. Ft.
$1,192 / Sq. Ft.
Built: 2006
Lot Size: 0.27 Acres
On Redfin: 116 days
Status: Active
Property Type: Residential, Detached, Single Family
Stories: 2
County: Napa
Style: Craftsman
Community: Yountville
MLS#: 21300060

Extraordinary custom-built California craftsman style home. Two-story main house with 3BD/2.5BA; pool house with kitchen & full bath; pool/spa plus numerous special features. Top quality throughout. This is the finest residential property in Yountville.

There isn’t much for sale in Yountville right now, and we wondered which best exemplified the market.  There’s a snouty looking condo, two cottages crammed onto one lot, a brand new place with some really tired-looking pix, a tornado-watch of charming trailer mobile homes, and this Extraordinary custom-built California craftsman style home. 

Or should we say this Extraordinary custom-built California craftsman style home that’s been sitting on the market for 116 days.  Built right when the bottom was Yanked out of the exurban market in 2006, Yet.

Yikes, what to do? How about You let us know what You’d pick if you had to live in Yountville?