Today is a very special day if you love romance and lovers and all that twaddle.  Our featured home was suggested by Burbed reader Tracy Tea House, who thought it was perfect for February 14th. We went along with it because we really weren’t up to finding yet another pink house for this year.  Thanks very much and please give Tracy a big, warm Real Bay Area welcome as today’s Guest Blogger!

And also some chocolate.  This stupid Hallmark Holiday does have an upside.

1048 Arlington Ln
San Jose, CA 95129
$1,598,000

4 bed, 3 bath
2,415 sqft
Single-Family Home
10 Days on Trulia
187 views
Status: For Sale
MLS/Source ID: NON
4 Bedrooms
3 Bathrooms
2,415 sqft
Single-Family Home
Built In 2007
Lot Size: 8,712 sqft
Zip: 95129
Neighborhood: West Valley

Beautiful Home in Top Cupertino School – Rebuilt in 2007

1048 Arlington Ln Rebuilt in 2007. 2415 SF of living space on a 7068 SF lot Hardwood flooring and recessed lighting throughout home. Fireplace in family room. Custom Cherry wood Kitchen cabinet and granite counters. All New Appliances. Master Suite with Sunken Jacuzzi Tub. Top Cupertino Schools.

Maybe a good house for Valentine’s Day as the Realtor is really trying hard to romance this house. Let’s go picture  by picture shall we?

Number one, bleak and dismal, focus on the stained and cracked concrete.

Number two, the desk will not fit in this small room so we will try to make you a believer by turning it diagonal.. Problem solved!

Number three, we are really proud of the stock door, and the paint. Pictures 3-5 are making the most of it.

Pic six, how to show the shower and tub in same photo? We wouldn’t want to waste an extra shot that could involve the commode. And, what makes the Jacuzzi sunken?

But my favorite is the last one. Like a set from a film in the San Fernando Valley. Imagine, an empty room, a bed, a bottle of wine and two glasses. And practically new remodeled 2007, and trying to get that back.

And we’re done with another exciting week of properties, finishing off in the “Capital of Silicon Valley”!  Today’s featured home was sent in by Burbed reader Tracy Tea House.  Sit back and relax as we bring you yet another San Jose Special, after we let Zillow and Redfin duke it out over what neighborhood it’s in.  Is it in West San Jose?  Is it in the Campbell area?  You decide!

456 Ardis Ave
San Jose, CA 95117
Sold for $1,285,000 on 7/27/2012
Sold for $437,000 on 2/3/2012

Beds: 4
Baths: 4.5
Sqft: 3,700
Lot: 9,300 sq ft / 0.21 acres
Type: Single Family
Year built: 2012
Last sold: Jul 2012 for $1,285,000

Public Facts:
Beds: 3
Baths: 1
Sqft: 1,032
Lot: 9.300 sq ft / 0.21 acres
Type: Single Family
Year built: 1951

BRAND NEW CONSTRUCTION, this “Estate Quality” home features a wonderful open floorplan and so many designer features that include a “Chef’s Kitchen w/all stainless appl incl. refrigerator, wine chiller, wet bar, walk-in pantry and more! Fully landscaped! 10′-11′ coffered ceilings, crown/baseboards, 1,200+/- sft attic w/engineered flooring and so much more! A must see! Open Sa/Su 1-4!

Here’s why Tracy sent us this house:

Look quick cause this one shows the pictures from pre-flip. They bought the house in Feb. I think tore it down, built a new house  in six months and are trying to sell it for double the purchase.

Guess we didn’t have to look that quick, because Tracy sent this in 3 weeks ago, the day after it was listed.  The house went pending 2 days later.  It must have been a cash deal, because the sale was recorded just one week after that.

Now we could be party-poopers and show you the fancy pictures on Redfin, or we could be Burbed and revel in the cognitive dissonance between the listing copy above and these lovely photos still available on Zillow from the February listing.  We are talking “Estate Quality” in every room.

Also fortunately for us, Redfin saved the pre-flip listing so we can share that description with you too!

New listing! Large 9,300 +/- SF lot. Perfect starter home or for investment! Attached 1-car garage with washer/dryer hookups. Close to Santana Row, Westfield Shopping Center, and entertainment. Close to highways 280 and 880.

Yeah.  Definitely close to 280.

Bunus: Even closer to Winchester Ranch Mobile Home Park.

It’s been too long since we’ve checked in with Burbed reader Tracy Tea House and her amazing collection of what-the-heck-is-THATs from the East Side. 

Today she’s back with another San Jose special for all you would-be Silicon Valley millionaires, but this one’s on the other side of the Valley.  Tracy likes Trulia for all her househunting needs, so let’s check in with them.

1454 Bing Drive Bing Drive
San Jose CA 95129
$998,000

Bedrooms: 4 24 days on Trulia
Bathrooms: 2 
Property type: Single-Family Home
Size: 1,650 sqft
Lot: 6,098 sqft
Price/sqft: $605/sqft
Year built: 1965
MLS/ID: 81224226
Zip: 95129
Listing agent: Michelle Carr-Crowe, ABR,ACRE,ALHS,ASP,CDPE,RECS,SRES, Top 5% US RE Agents
Broker: Just Call (408) 252-8900 Michelle Carr Crowe at Keller Williams Cupertino 

HURRY! Special Fourth of July HOT BUY! 1454 BING Dr., San Jose 95129, Open Sat. & Sun., 1:30-4:30 You and the people you care about are invited to see our HOT BUY! Effortless Elegance & Entertaining can Easily be Yours in this Lovely & Upgraded Lynbrook High Home. Featuring a Formal Foyer, Separate LR & FR & Skylight-Illuminated Dining, a Custom Tile & Oak Kitchen, 4 Light & Airy Bedrooms, and 2 Jaw-Droppingly Gorgeous Remodeled Baths, it all add up to Fabulous! Quality Upgrades include Dual Pane Windows, Copper Plumbing to the Main and Cement Tile Roof. COOL Central Air Conditioning, Wet

Put your best foot forward, invite the reader into your book with a great cover photo, you’ve got one chance to make a great first impression so always lead your listing with a terrific all-over picture of the house.  A photo of the house.  Not a photo of the flyer for the house.  Wow, this is worse than confusing Call by Name with Call by Value.  And in this listing the facade shot at left doesn’t appear until the fourth photo, but don’t worry, the agent put in another one right next to it in case you skip past.

See that green thing above the flyer and left of the price?  This property is “Active Contingent,” which means an offer was accepted but you just never know which contingency could derail the whole deal. That’s good news for you, because that means you can submit your own backup overbid!

For old times’ sake, head over to Redfin, where’ you’ll find:

• Different first photo, plus photos of school signs (this one is second)
• All home photos repeated
• But the street name isn’t
• Lot is 124 square feet smaller
• San Jose address in the “Cupertino” community (while being 1.1 miles from Cupertino)
• Pending Without Release (can’t figure out if that’s the same as Active Contingent since Redfin doesn’t define Without vs With Release)
• A Virtual Tour link!
• And different listing copy:

Effortless Elegance & Entertaining Can Be Yours! Fabulous Floor Plan Features Sep. LR & FR! Custom Tile & Oak Kit. Boasts Garden Window, Roll-Outs, Custom Details! Skylights! E-Z Care Laminate, Hardwood, Quality Carpet! E-Z Walk to Rainbow Park! E-Z Walk to Nat. -Recgnizd Cupertino Scls! Miller-API 981 & Lynbrook-API 943! Cool Central A/C + Private Hot Tub for Summer Family Fun!

It’s not enough to name the schools, now they also include the API scores. But the listing copy on Trulia is more deserving of the Burbed Seal of Approval.

Here is a little news that will have some of you quaking in your boots: You could lose your prestigious 408 area code.  Oh noez!

Santa Clara County’s 408 will spin off a new area code: 669

By Bruce Newman, SJ Mercury News
Posted: 03/07/2011 06:18:25 AM PST ; Updated: 03/07/2011 01:51:36 PM PST

There are 8 million phone numbers in the naked city. And no matter who you were calling in San Jose — or large swaths of the South Bay — for the past half century, you’ve had to dial this: area code 408.

But with the explosive proliferation of cell phones, wireless IP addresses and 4G-enabled baby pacifiers, the area code that has served San Jose since neighbors could listen in on each other’s party line calls is officially "exhausted."

That conclusion — arrived at by the Orwellian-sounding North American Numbering Plan Administration, or NANPA, in December — means some South Bay phone customers will start being assigned area code 669 by the end of next year.

Deciding who gets to hang onto their 408, and who becomes a 669, is the job of the California Public Utilities Commission, which will convene hearings March 16-18 in San Jose, Los Gatos and Morgan Hill to explain the switch.

Brie is 415, Velveeta is 408.  Columnist Herb Caen played the Area Code Game in the SF Chronicle, back in the early 1980s.  That was before all those other area codes bloomed in the little family tree above.  Now I guess Brie is 650, Velveeta is 209, Kraft American is 925, Vegan Gourmet Cheese Alternative is 831, and ten pound blocks of government cheese is 510.  Oh, 415 and 408?  415 is Myzithra.  408 is whatever you put in front of them, it’s not like they’re tasting it while they’re writing iOS device drivers.

The new area code will be arriving by October 2012.  So, who’s going to go to the CPUC meetings to complain about losing their Silicon Valley area code?  There are a couple of proposals, one of them where everyone keeps their numbers and new ones are assigned the 669 code (the overlay), and the other where there is an area code split.

Next up for this kind of torture will be area code 510, forecast to run out of available phone number blocks by 2016.  415 should follow a year later.  And bet you didn’t know this: a new area code should have kicked in ten years ago, but by pooling phone number blocks everyone has been able to keep their area code and their seven digit dialing.

Below is the map of the proposed 408-669 split.  It comes from the CPUC, who obviously don’t care much about geographical features such as city borders, streets, freeways, or rivers.  So good luck figuring out whether this map actually affects you.  Also note how they don’t commit to who gets to keep the coveted 408 identity, but I’ll tell you who: it’s the B People.

But don’t get too upset, after meeting with the telephone providers,the CPUC is inclined to go with the overlay plan anyway. And that means instead of turning Los Gatos, Campbell, Saratoga, and San Jose West into 69ers, instead the newbies are going to have that 669 area code.  It also means that you’ll have to dial eleven digits when making phone calls, even to next door, or for that matter to the fax machine in the same room.  Have fun reprogramming just about anything you have that calls phone numbers, and hoping that your alarm company and your cable company and anything else doesn’t forget to switch over to 1-408+number dialing.

And what this means for Burbed readers is that Silicon Valley area code jokes are going to get a lot more raunchy.  Have fun figuring out what kind of cheese they are.

Here’s an opportunity that doesn’t come along every day!  Wouldn’t you like to enroll your teen in Lynbrook High School, in the “we’re actively throwing nonresidents out of our schools” Fremont Union HSD?

Of course, there’s a catch.  To take advantage of this amazing offer, you have to already live in the FUHSD attendance area.  Talk about the rich getting richer!  Here’s the most recent test scores, for those fortunate enough to consider this amazing (and very limited) opportunity.

*Located right at Cupertino/Sunnyvale border and the vast majority of students are from Sunnyvale, with remainder from Cupertino and Los Altos.  Hey Fremont, the “growth” API means it’s supposed to get BIGGER than the “base” score.  That means the growth number is supposed to go UP.  You know.  MORE.

And some other wanna-be high schools are almost as aggressive about removing “illegal students” as FUHSD.  What a sincere form of flattery, hiring a private detective to ferret out people living on the wrong street.

Here’s another delightful find from Burbed reader sonarrat, who only comments, “One of the oddest listings I’ve ever seen.”  And sonarrat has certainly found us some odd ones before!

1566 Duckett Way #19, San Jose, CA 95129
$1,598,888

BEDS: 5
BATHS: 2.5
SQ. FT.: 2,776
$/SQ. FT.: $576
LOT SIZE: 4,620 Sq. Ft.
PROPERTY TYPE: Detached Single Family
STYLE: Colonial
STORIES: 2
VIEW: Green Belt, Neighborhood
COMMUNITY: Cupertino
COUNTY: Santa Clara
MLS#: 81050795
SOURCE: MLSListings
STATUS: Active
ON REDFIN: 99 days

This beautifully restored Colonial Revival home in new home community combines the character of the past era while offering all the luxuries of today’s lifestyle. 2 story home plus sunroom, detached artist studio and basement/wine cellar. Gourmet kitchen with viking appliances. Large redwood deck off master overlooking wooded creek! Top Cupertino School District (Blue Hills, Miller, Lynbrook).

Odd?  It’s a listing with Cupertino schools and there’s 8s in the price.  That sounds downright normal!  What is odd is the small lot size and all those extraneous buildings.  Which ones are yours and which are merely situated really, really, really close to yours?

You know what else is odd?  Upwards of a million and a half for the house and not one interior picture.  Are they still restoring it?  Guess they don’t want you to know, because they conveniently left the year built off the listing.

But the satellite view might give us a hint.

Heck, the $175 a month HOA fees are needed just to sweep up all that construction mess.  Well, other than the unspecified townhouses or condos on the site, let’s see who the neighbors are!

Definitely a million plus view!  So, is this a convenient location?

You betcha!  This house is within 1000 feet of three gas stations, four shopping centers, a bus line, and the world-famous California 85 freeway, which goes directly to Google! 

Now all the seller needs is the economy to do a Revival along with this Colonial.  Then some lucky buyer, somewhere, will say, “Honey, do you know what I want?  I want to live in a big Colonial Revival right next to a bunch of attached housing!  Then they will all know that WE live in the Big House, even if it has an apartment number!”

Plantation boss lifestyle without the kudzu!  What are you waiting for?  Think of the fun your kids will have giving out their new street address!

This listing was sent in by burbed reader sonarrat.  Here’s what sonarrat had to say about this absolutely sparkling home:  “Sparkling isn’t really the first thing I think of when I look at this house.  More like manufactured home.”

1039 Alderbrook Ln, San Jose, CA 95129
$988,888

Beds: 3
Baths: 2
Sq. Ft.: 1,330
$/Sq. Ft.: $744
Lot Size: 7,313 Sq. Ft.
Property Type: Detached Single Family
Style: Ranch
Stories: 1
View: Neighborhood
Year Built: 1957
Community: Cupertino
County: Santa Clara
MLS#: 81039029
Source: MLSListings
Status: Pending With Release 
On Redfin: 17 days

This absolutely sparkling home uplifts you the moment you lay your eyes on it. How often you get inspired by a home? With an amazing curve apreal, you will feel right at home. This home is warm & inviting. Newer roof, new crown molding, hardwood flooring, fresh paint, Huge Corner, New window and Front Patio ect. Top cupertino schools!

How often do you get inspired by a home?  Plenty of homes on burbed have been inspiring, as in leading to some incredibly snide copy and even better reader reactions.  Usually they have something notable about them, such as being insanely expensive, or having a lousy location, or not bearing much resemblance to a residential structure.  This one?  I am having a reaction all right, but uplifting doesn’t describe it.  It’s closer to ennui crossed with sticker shock.

Yawn.  Another million dollar crackerbox with Cupertino schools, San Jose services, and five 8s in the asking price.  And it’s pending after only two and a half weeks.  Must have been that amazing curve apreal or the Huge Corner.  I’m kind of amazed that it sold so fast when they only put in one New window.

Wait, 7300 square feet is a Huge Corner?  Maybe it is compared to the zero lot line of a manufactured home.  This picture provided by the agent certainly seems inspired by the trailer park.

What do you think?  Is this house absolutely sparkling?  Are you uplifted?

4881 MIRAMAR Ave San Jose, CA 95129

$848,888

Beds:	4
Baths:	3
Sq. Ft.:	1,249
$/Sq. Ft.:	$680
Lot Size:	5,800 Sq. Ft.
Property Type:	Detached Single Family
Style:	Ranch
Stories:	1
View:	Neighborhood
Year Built:	1956
Community:	Cupertino
County:	Santa Clara
MLS#:	81008438
Source:	MLSListings
Status:	Active This listing is for sale and the sellers are accepting offers.
On Redfin:	20 days

Lovely ranch style home with CUPERTINO SCHOOLS! Garage converted to one-bedroom, full bath, kitchen apartment, currently tenant-occupied. Private yet convenient location to ever popular Stevens Creek shopping. Fruit trees galore–White & Yellow Peach, Avocado, Asian Prunes, Apricot, Nectarine, and many more! New roof & hardwood floors. Sunroom & apartment non-conforming and not included in sq ft.

Hey it’s a lovely ranch style home with Cupertino Schools and a lucky price.

Did I mention CUPERTINO SCHOOLS? What about CUPERTINO SCHOOLS?

Even better, it comes with an apartment… can you say cashflow? You could easily rent it out to someone who is looking to spend big for CUPERTINO SCHOOLS.

But what really caught my attention was the idea of a tree growing Asian Prunes. Um… Just how do you grow prunes? Any agricultural experts here who can help resolve this mystery?

1360 JOHNSON Ave San Jose, CA 95129

$925,000

Beds:	3
Baths:	2
Sq. Ft.:	1,247
$/Sq. Ft.:	$742
Lot Size:	6,200 Sq. Ft.
Property Type:	Detached Single Family
Style:	Ranch
Stories:	1
Year Built:	1957
Community:	Cupertino
County:	Santa Clara
MLS#:	80957608
Source:	MLSListings
Status:	Active This listing is for sale and the sellers are accepting offers.
On Redfin:	8 days

Opportunity knocking! Excellent Cupertino schools, convenient location, easy walk to Lynbrook high school, fresh interior paint. May be available on a lease with option to buy.

Knock, knock.

Who’s there?

Opportunity.

Opportunity who?

Opportunity to send your kids to Lynbrook high school!

Let’s check out this amazing fresh interior paint:

Oh… it’s a little too dark there. Let’s try this one:

Oh… that’s a bit too dark too. But check out that light fixture. You know why that’s going to be helpful? In the event of an earthquake, you’ll know that the ground is moving because the light will be swaying! I hate when an earthquake happens and I don’t notice – this light will make sure you know. Especially when it hits the cabinet and shatters.

But let’s look at the finance aspect of this house – lease with option to buy.

Should you do it? Should you lease with option to buy? Or should you just buy it outright?

Pros/Cons?

1681 PROVINCETOWN Dr, Cupertino, CA 95129 | MLS# 80926285
1681 PROVINCETOWN Dr Cupertino, CA 95129
Price: $1,549,888

Beds: 5
Baths: 3
Sq. Ft.: 2,800
$/Sq. Ft.: $554
Lot Size: 6,500 Sq. Ft.
Property Type: Detached Single Family
Style: Mediterranean
Stories: 2
View: Neighborhood
Year Built: 2009
Community: Cupertino
County: Santa Clara
MLS#: 80926285
Source: MLSListings
Status: Active
On Redfin: 23 days
Gorgeous new custom home in great neighborhood of 3 new home subdivision! Reputable national award winning schools: Lynbrook High/Joaquin Miller Middle/John Muir Elem. Custom design/built exterior and interior with high end materials and appliances. Elegant taste makes the house stunning and most desirable for living. A definite rare opportunity in the neighborhood! You don???t want to miss it.

Thanks to Burbed reader sonarrat for this find.

Why did he send it? Because he noticed this:

Um.

Maybe this is disputed territory, like Kashmir. That said, it does seem peculiar that all the RE listing sites allow this to be classified as Cupertino. Is this an indicator for some sort of future land grab? Annexation? What’s the deal?

Maybe, it’s a reference to the fact that Cupertino is now a state of mind, and not just a geographical area!

BTW, what awards have these schools won nationally that distinguish them?

Anyway, buy this house, and then provoke Cupertino into becoming an occupying force. And watch as your equity instantly soars!