Did you like the photo of a free house when you buy a dishwasher?  It was too good to be true, as that offer was only good in Maryland.  So here’s another “free” gift with purchase.  Thanks to Burbed reader Overheard in San Carlos’ Friend for this find.

First, the Craigslist ad, which has been yanked:

Here’s the relevant text:

I will find a reasonably priced house/condo for you, and will give you back a rebate 0.5% from purchase price ($1,500-$5,000 on average), PLUS purebred Ragdoll kitten to people who buy or sell a property with me:

But this amazing offer is on the agent’s website too.  Look at the photo in the upper left!

Here’s the cattery the agent uses for the “free” kitten, Ragdoll Palace.  Think about that name while considering the palaces we looked at in the upper tier of the Case-Shiller Index earlier this week.

Elena explains why she’s giving away a FREE KITTEN with every home transaction:

According to a popular belief in Europe and Russia, new homeowners should first let a cat walk into their new house, then the owners can cross the threshold. The cat will bring good luck and wealth to the new home. I love beautiful superstitions and want people, whom I help buy a new house or a condo, to have a very good luck in their new homes. That is why I am offering Buyers my appreciation gift of the cutest Ragdoll kitten to step into their new home for good luck.

Go ahead, click on that link to beliefs above.  It takes you to a list of Russian folk traditions, not one of which mentions anything about having cats walk into a new home.  It does say this, though:

When giving an animal as a gift (a cat, dog, bird, etc.), the receiver should give the giver a symbolic sum of money, for example one Russian ruble.

Returning the promised rebate check to Elena will easily accomplish the same thing.

It’s another weekend in the Real Bay Area, so what better time to discuss anything you want about real estate, or all the sites that went on strike Wednesday, or anything at all. 

Here’s a photo sent in by Burbed reader nomadic to get you started. Photo source here.

It’s been far too long since we’ve heard from Burbed reader Petsmart Groomer.  PG has been sending in some great finds that are often pulled off MLS by the time we’re ready to give them some good ol’ Burbed lovin’.  But this one was willing to stay put long enough for a big ol’ sloppy Burbed kiss.

651 E MEADOW Dr
Palo Alto, CA 94306
$1,267,000

BEDS: 5
BATHS: 3
SQ. FT.: 2,438
$/SQ. FT.: $520
LOT SIZE: 6,572 Sq. Ft.
PROPERTY TYPE: Detached Single Family
STYLE: Contemporary
STORIES: 2
YEAR BUILT: 1956
COMMUNITY: Midtown
COUNTY: Santa Clara
MLS#: 81200978
SOURCE: MLSListings
STATUS: Active
ON REDFIN: 9 days

Welcome to this spacious home featuring 5 bedrooms & 2 separate offices with 3 full bathrooms. This special home has a large living room and a fireplace, a convenient separate family & inside laundry room. Attached one car garage w/ ample extra storage. Nice sized patio and fenced yard with mature landscaping and fruit trees. Close to parks & excellent Palo Alto Schools – buyer to verify schools.

This house is Special, the listing copy says so.  The above pictures showcase the luxurious living you get for one and a quarter million dollars.

Or as PG says, “Simply beautiful.”  Let’s see if the Redfin agent agrees.

But the closest schools are a fifth of a mile away, if we go by Redfin’s own school information.  Could the agent have been referring to this place directly across the street?  It looks a church-run day care center.

Oh good, they take older kids as well as babies.  So you’ll be guaranteed to be running into extra traffic at both ends of your commute, and most of the time in between.  It’s the little touches like these that make this house so Special.

Plus, the current owners are taxed on a $100K assessment.  Buy this house, remove one more Prop 13 entitlement boomer, and help balance the City budget!

Today we have a guest post from Burbed reader A Lewis.  Burbed tends to spend too much time in Silicon Valley, so it’s good we’ve got a frequent contributor to remind us that there’s listings full of Burbed Win all over the Bay Area, not just within three miles of Google.

Please give A a big, warm, Real Bay Area welcome as today’s guest blogger, revisiting his very first Burbed posting.

One of my favorite features on Burbed is follow-up stories from previous listings.

Cast your mind waaaaaaay back to the dim past of March, 2011 (just think how much the Republican primary field has changed since then! And who would have bet the 49ers would have clinched their division?) and this thread:

We actually ended up with a pretty good conversation full of East Bay Love (TM)!

Well, I’m sure you will be as excited as I am that 8190 Terrace was not snapped up by an ordinary buyer who intended to live in it for years…No, it was clearly a flipper who has renovated it and is ready to pass the instant equity on to you at the low low price of $849K $799K! 

Have a look inside to see what they did!

(more…)

Burbed should have gone dark on Wednesday, January 18th, to join the SOPA protest.  And despite the presence of Google and Facebook and Twitter and everything that makes the Internet awesome here in our back yard, supposedly both our Senators are supporting this terrible bill.  I do hope you give them a piece of your mind.

Here’s what you had to wait a day to read due to our solidarity with the web-wide blackout.

What can you get in Silicon Valley for $579,803?

On Saturday, we heard from Greg Fielding on Case-Shiller tiers.  On Sunday, we saw some examples of just how much house qualified for the “upper” tier (the top third) in the counties that make up the SF index.  Now here’s what you could get if you bought a house that’s an easy commute distance to some major Silicon Valley employers.

1729 MORGAN St
Mountain View, CA 94043
$585,214, sold on 12/14/2011

3 BR/2 BA, 1,104 sf on a 5,300 sf lot

Built in 1955, and it shows, and what’s more, the house sold in a month above asking!  Doesn’t feature much other than its proximity to Google and LinkedIn, but every minute you don’t sit in traffic means you can enjoy more time in this spacious home.  Okay, it’s got hardwood floors, but still.

18770 PENDERGAST Ave
Cupertino, CA 95014
$591,700, sold on 12/29/2011

3 BR/1 BA, 1,134 sf on a 5,130 sf lot

This isn’t the least expensive sale in Cupertino within the last 3 months, but it is the least expensive house where they dared show a photo.  Who knows what kinds of problems lurk behind that fence?  Don’t complain.  It’s close to Apple.

Bring your decorator’s eye to this place, because the interior photos show you get a blank slate!  And of course it’s in Rancho Rinconada!

255 HEDGE Rd
Menlo Park, CA 94025
$625,000, sold on 11/2/2011

3 BR/1 BA, 1,190 sf on a 5,500 sf lot

Not only is it close to Facebook’s new location, it has Menlo Park schools!  And we had to jump into the $600s to even find this house, because there weren’t any SFH sales under $600K in Menlo Park or Palo Alto.

And for $625K, you get a house that backs up to US-101.  What do you think the upper tier means, Larry Ellison’s neighborhood?

3401 PARK Blvd
Palo Alto, CA 94306
$672,000, sold on 11/4/2011

2 BR/1 BA, 1,048 sf on a 5,500 sf lot

Speaking of Facebook, this is the least expensive SFH sale in Palo Alto and it isn’t too far from its current headquarters.  Better yet, it doesn’t back up to a freeway!  Instead, it backs up to CalTrain, but you can’t have everything.

But you can have the satisfaction of knowing that the sellers wanted $750K for this well-situated 66 year old house, and didn’t get it.

191 S PASTORIA Ave
Sunnyvale, CA 94086
$608,000, sold on 11/9/2011

3 BR/1 BA, 1,100 sf on a 5,550 sf lot

Sorry we had to jump all the way to the $600s, but there’s a big gap above $570K for the last quarter’s sales in Sunnyvale.  This house is in a decent part of town, although you will get plenty of traffic from nearby Washington Park (which has a swimming pool) and the library a few blocks further away.  But it’s a good commute distance to Lockheed, Yahoo! and even Intel.  And in an even better position to see how good the homes thrown up right after WWII ended are wearing their years.

1774 BRIARWOOD Dr
Santa Clara, CA 95051
$585,000, sold on 11/18/2011

3 BR/2 BA, 1,212 sf on a 9,454 sf lot

The further east you travel, the cheaper the houses get.  Palo Alto costs more than Mountain View, which costs more than Sunnyvale, which in turn costs more than Santa Clara.

That’s why this house may not look much more palatial than any of the others above, but it comes on a lot almost twice the size.  It’s a good commute to Intel.  And one of the fun things about the Silicon Valley market that people outside the area don’t get is that most of the cost of any existing property is the land, not the house.

Don’t get too excited about this place.  It’s near the intersection of Lawrence and El Camino, and was sold “as is.”  I wouldn’t expect much from the neighborhood, either, as the agent bragged it was a “regular sale.”

In the future we’ll see what you can get for a million dollars, but don’t expect any gold-plated bathroom fixtures.

That was a little jingle I remember from ages ago for Ohio-based burger chain White Castle, which made the tiniest (and not particularly good) hamburgers I’ve ever seen.  I suppose today they’d be called sliders, but back then, a square-stamped piece of beef product that looked like a die’s five-spot was what you got at a White Castle.

White Castle Service, It takes just a minute
For the classy little box with the hamburger in it
For you health we never fry them, we steam them on a bun
Buy White Castles by the sack cuz nobody eats just one!

Now if you’re from White Castle territory, maybe you had some thoughts of setting up a franchise on the West Coast and vacuuming up all the nostalgia-seeking East Coasters who moved here but miss the bad food of their youth.  If you see this as a reasonable business model, here is the perfect house for you.

This home has been noticed by several Burbed readers, including Swan, Tracy, and Lucia, thanks very much for lowering the drawbridge.

 

1905 QUAIL MEADOW Rd
Los Altos, CA 94024
$1,648,000

BEDS: 4
BATHS: 3
SQ. FT.: 2,911
$/SQ. FT.: $566
LOT SIZE: 0.49 Acres
PROPERTY TYPE: Detached Single Family
STYLE: French
STORIES: 1
VIEW: Mountains, Neighborhood
YEAR BUILT: 1972
COMMUNITY: Country Club
COUNTY: Santa Clara
MLS#: 81138713
SOURCE: MLSListings
STATUS: Active
ON REDFIN: 130 days

Unique 1/2 acre property nestled between the beauty of the mountains and closeness of town. Main house is a 3/2 with 2112 sq ft and Castle is a 1/1 with 800 sq ft. 4 open-space areas shared with 2 neighbors adds another 6/10th acre to main property. New carpet and paint in main house. Close to highly regarded Waldorf School.

This house comes with its own fracking castle.  I mean, did you take a look at that thing?  Holy crap.

I realize the flag is a bit of an anachronism, since our royalty prefers buildings with mawbul cawlums instead of crenellations, but you can always substitute something more appropriate, such as some heraldic beastie on its hind legs, or better yet, a White Castle Burger Flag, if they made any. 

Lucia notes:

There’s a fully functional, to code (I’m guessing) tower in the backyard. Perhaps it’s going so inexpensively because it once housed a poor adoptee/kidnapped girl who was never allowed to leave or cut her hair??

Tracy thinks it’s too bad this castle is so close to 280, but there’s more castles being catapulted into the Burbed queue via trebuchet.  Finally, here’s Swan’s observation why you should immediately buy this property.

The dude is upset that he put in a pool and not a guest castle like the house below. Who needs a guest cottage, when you can have a guest castle?

Note, this is a “must buy.”

The observation deck on the castle will come in handy when those nasty invaders start scaling the walls of 280. Should the invaders storm the castle, the open space shared with the neighbors will come in handy as a battlefield.

Or you could start up the franchise in your back yard and wait for Harold and Kumar to show up.  Plus this place is a lot more defensible than your standard burger franchise, which is something to think about if you’re going to stay open until 3 in the morning.

Today’s find is a high-end listing, courtesy of Burbed reader Overheard in San Carlos.  Now, if you read yesterday’s feature based on price tiers in the SF Case-Shiller Index, you might be thinking that means a property that costs more than $579,803.  This property indeed qualifies as costing more than not a lot of money.

16100 GREENRIDGE Ter,
Los Gatos, CA 95030
$2,900,000

BEDS: –
BATHS: –
SQ. FT.: –
LOT SIZE: 36 Acres
PROPERTY TYPE: Residential Land (Single Family)
VIEW: Bay, Green Belt, Mountains, Canyon, Neighborhood, Valley, City Lights
COMMUNITY: Los Gatos/Monte Sereno
COUNTY: Santa Clara
MLS#: 80930783
SOURCE: MLSListings
STATUS: Active
ON REDFIN: 934 days

The finest estate land left in Los Gatos with unparalleled privacy, views and proximity to Town amenities. 36 pristine acres just minutes from downtown. Potential for subdivision with multiple view lot possibilities. Adjacent to the desirable Highlands of Los Gatos subdivision. Fresh air, wildlife, beautiful oaks, privacy with views of the valley, city lights, and views all the way to the Bay.

Here’s what OSC had to say about this property flyer.

Wow.. having to reduce a property’s price by over 50% to get it sold is NOT something to brag about…

Price slashed 50%, after two and a half years on the market. If you’ve been waiting for a big open space to hide lots of bodies, this could be what you’re looking for!

Yesterday, we had a guest post from Greg Fielding on Bay Area Case-Shiller tiered data.  In case you haven’t been reading any real estate sites ever, a Case-Shiller index tracks home values by comparing sales of the same homes over time.  The index is arbitrarily set at 100 at the first quarter of the year 2000, so watch out if you ever see a two-digit C-S index for this or any region.  There is also a national C-S index.  Monthly updates represent sales from two months previous.

The counties included in the “San Francisco” regional index are the aforementioned City and County of San Francisco, as well as Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, and San Mateo.  That’s right, it’s not a full Bay Area index and note the absence of Santa Clara County, that engine of high-paying job creation.

Today, we take a look at the magical cut-off point to qualify for the top tier.  According to Fielding, any house selling for more than $579,803 is in the top tier (there are three of them).  Let’s see what kind of palatial abodes you could have for this kind of money.  All homes shown today are at selling prices rather than the wishing ones.

2916 SOMBRERO Cir
San Ramon, CA 94583
$585,000, sold on 12/8/2011

If you’re looking in San Ramon, here’s a 3 bedroom, two and a half place for you. It’s not a new house, though, this was built in 1980.

The development it’s in sits hard against the freeway (and there’s only one in San Ramon, I-680), but the property itself does not. Instead it backs onto what is now open space.  Given how many new homes went up in San Ramon, the new owner will have some quiet over the back fence until the next bubble starts boiling up.

5205 MANILA Ave
Oakland, CA 94618
$580,000, sold on 12/24/2011

This cute little bungalow is in the Rockridge district, desired by hipsters and yuppies alike.  It’s a 2/1, but at over 1200 square feet it doesn’t qualify for the Burbed “cozy” tag.

There’s absolutely no information about previous sales on Redfin, but with a $43,000 assessment, this obviously wasn’t a flip.  The sellers went all-out with the staging and photography, so enjoy.

122 Crescent Rd
Corte Madera, CA 94925
$594,000, sold on 12/22/2011

Wow, what a home, complete with extra rooms the county obviously didn’t know about.  Listed as a 3/2.5, but recorded as a 2/1.  This place hiding in the woods of Marin County against a hill is going to be a contractor’s retirement fund.

Be sure to check out the sales history on this former REO puppy, it’s crap-tastic.

2051 SULLIVAN St
San Mateo, CA 94403
$585,000, sold on 11/30/2011

Everything in this price range in San Mateo is on the east side.  “Bunus:” This 3/2’s near the 101/92 cloverleaf, which is why it needs the doublepane windows.

This house sold for $795K in 2006, but at least it went for above asking this time around.

328 Monticello St
San Francisco, CA 94132
$583,000, sold on 10/19/2011

Amazingly, this Merced Heights house doesn’t directly touch walls with its neighbors.  And if you decide it isn’t for you, there are plenty of SF State students to rent it to.  Anyway, you or your tenants are going to have loads of fun with the tandem parking garage.

The house last changed hands in 1989, for $271K.  Quite the investment that doubles its value in 22 years.

We won’t bother with Santa Clara County, as it’s not in the Case-Shiller SF Index anyway.  If it were, that top tier would be a bit higher and way more Special.

Today we have a guest post from Burbed reader Greg Fielding.  Greg has a real estate blog, Bay Area Real Estate Trends, and even though he’s a real estate agent, he is not a Realtard.  If you check out his site, you’ll find it rather free of Now Is The Time To Buy.  For someone who makes a living helping people buy or sell houses, he sure spends a lot of time over on patrick.net.

Greg is based in Contra Costa County, which we haven’t covered enough on this site.  Be sure to let him know if you think his analysis is relevant to the Real Bay Area (if anyone can figure out where it is in 2012).

Anyway, please give Greg a big, warm, RBA welcome to the front page today. 

Tale of Two Markets: Breaking Down Case-Shiller Tiered Indices

Following up on the latest Case-Shiller Home Price Index report for the Bay Area, let’s break down index into top, middle, and lower tiers. The result shows two distinctly different markets since the price lows in the Spring of 2009.

Just as Wall Street has diverged from Main Street, high-end neighborhoods are enjoying a different reality than the rest of us.

The lower and middle-tiers are generally following the same pattern. When the supply of foreclosures was turned off, interest rates dropped, and buyer incentives kicked in, both market segments rallied. Then, when that temporary stimulus was exhausted, they resumed their declines at a paces of roughly 10 percent per year.

However, the top-tier – homes priced above $579,803 – are only declining at a pace of roughly 3-4 percent per year.

Why?

There are lots of possible reasons. Among them, that higher home prices are more directly tied to the stock market, which has performed remarkably well. In April of 2009, the S&P 500 Index was in the 800′s. Today it is at 1,277 – an increase of roughly 50 percent. Also, higher-paying jobs have survived the recession better than lower paying retail-type jobs that are more directly tied to consumer spending and sentiment. Or, that wealthier homeowners with higher-paying jobs were more likely to be able to refinance their homes to avoid foreclosure. And there are probably a dozen other reasons that all contribute to the divergence.

One other note: high-end home prices are holding relatively stable in spite of the reduction in conforming loan limits. Buyers literally need 100K+ more of cash to buy the same high-end home, and they are still doing it. So far, anyway. Honestly, I am shocked by this.

One thing is clear: this circle will square itself at some point. Either the mid and lower-tiers will rally (or stabilize) and the gap will narrow over time. Or, the pillars holding up the high-end will eventually give way and prices will begin to fall at a pace that matches the other tiers.

Written by Greg Fielding. This article originally appeared on Bay Area Real Estate Trends on January 4th.  Republished with permission, nay, encouragement of the author.

Here comes a three day weekend!  So let’s travel a little further away from the US 101/I-280 Axis of Specialness, and see what’s over the mountains, through the woods, and down by the bay ocean.  Fasten your seatbelts, it’s going to be a bumpy night find.

Thanks very much to Burbed reader The Klek for this beachy little number for a quick little getaway.

 

794 FRANCISCO St
El Granada, CA 94018
$346,800

BEDS: 3
BATHS: 2
SQ. FT.: 1,270
$/SQ. FT.: $273
LOT SIZE: 2,800 Sq. Ft.
PROPERTY TYPE: Detached Single Family
STORIES: Bi/Split Level
VIEW: Neighborhood
YEAR BUILT: 1960
COMMUNITY: Lower El Granada
COUNTY: San Mateo
MLS#: 81144716
SOURCE: MLSListings
STATUS: Active
ON REDFIN: 81 days

LOOK AT THIS PRICE HURRY WON”T LAST!! GREAT LOCATION!! 3 Bedroom 2 Bathroom is priced to sell * . Wood burning stove. Split level with Master Bedroom. Hot Tub. Property needs TLC. Close to the beautiful Ocean Beach enjoy walking along the seaside. Close to the Princeton Harbor and restaurants. Enjoy the sites of watching the surfers. COME BACK and SEE THE Painting exterior/Interior Plus * * * *

Here’s what The Klek had to say about today’s fine listing:

Here’s a good example of some lazy work on the part of the realtor who couldn’t be bothered with turning on the lights before taking pictures and editing those same pictures to remove any duplicates.

Still, I suppose the shadows and general darkness really underline the cozy quality. The grammar of the description needs work but I like how she mentioned the local sights (all at least 1/4-mile away) confusing the reader that the house offers views of surfers curling on a wave. Views of your neighbor couch surfing is more likely.

Oh, the poor buyers, thinking they’re signing up for volleyball and shell-collecting, when this is what they’re going to be looking at every day.

And have a look at the neighborhood.  The Klek was right about how close the beach was (that is, not yet in the big picture).

There is something seriously hinky going on over on Redfin when you try to look at the house on Streetview, probably because, for some reason, it’s classified as being in Half Moon Bay.  You’ll find yourself a block and a half away, and on the wrong street as well.  But Google Maps had no trouble finding it right away.

Now that we’ve found Home Sweet Home, guess it’s time to soak in the hot tub.

¡Perfecto!