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Most Recent Additions/Changes - New Listings Report - REO Listings Report - Short Sale Listings Report - Blog Posts - Gas Cost Calculator for Trips - Market Snapshot Report - Just Sold Reports - Real Estate Market Statistics |
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a journal of real estate facts, experiences, and other stuff in San Luis Obispo County (ARCHIVE
- July 2004 and before) |
| July 28, 2004 |
A mixed-use project was approved for downtown Avila Beach. It will be a 15-unit condo complex located along First St. from San Luis St. to San Miguel St. Twelve of the units will be 2 bedrooms with one or two car garages. There will also be 700 sq feet of commercial space at the corner of San Miguel St. and First St. |
| July 26, 2004 |
A two bedroom twin home up behind the Pismo Beach Post Office came on the market today. It's priced at $425K and supposedly has ocean views. Looking for a Cal Poly investment? A 3 bedroom home on Hathway came on the market in a R-2 zone. Asking $569,000. Being sold "As-Is". Over 50% of the properties appearing on the Realtors Hot Sheet today DO NOT have photos attached! I am becoming less and less motivated to click on properties that don't have any photos to go along with them. Even for the most basic photo, it only takes a few minutes to take it with a digital camera and upload it to the MLS. I sure hope homeowners that aren't getting photos when their property goes on the hot sheet are getting a significant reductions in commissions!
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| July 23, 2004 |
A new 8-unit complex in Grover Beach came on the market today. 4 offices, 4 residential upstairs (with ocean views). Priced at $1.6M A 2 bedroom home on 12th St in Cayucos also came on the market today. Comes with a set of County approved plans for a second story. Price is $675K. Of the 61 new properties listed in the last 2 days, only 31 of them had photos as part of the MLS listing. I'm amazed how many properties are without photos!!
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| July 21, 2004 |
A 33 unit apartment complex has been approved in Avila Beach. There was a protest by a nearby property owner but the issues were worked out between the parties (isn't it great that you can still work out things without going to court!). When built, the people that were displaced when they tore down the buildings during the oil cleanup will have first opportunity to rent. Then, people working in Avila Beach will be given the next opportunity. The complex will be on Laurel Street. Did you check out the 30-year mortgage graph on my home page? Rates are continuing to go down!
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| July 16, 2004 |
MLS Activity 7/9-7/15 on the Central Coast: - 233 New Listings - 55 Back on Market - 134 Price Changes - 186 Pendings |
| July 15, 2004 |
Open House this Saturday at 124 Vista Circle in Arroyo Grande from 1-4 pm. See my Featured Properties for directions and info on the property. I went to the Bay Area yesterday. Driving through Fremont, I couldn't see the hills on the other side of the bay. It reminded of how nice it was to have clean air on the Central Coast! I sold a $1,150,000 property on Sevada Ln in Arroyo Grande on Tuesday, representing the Buyers. I negotiated the price down from the $1,250,000 asking price. If you're looking for a place that's minutes from the beach but far
enough away that you can keep 3 horses, give me a call. There is a
one-of-a-kind property in AG that the owner is asking $1.8 Million. |
| July 9, 2004 |
My wife and I recently celebrated our 19th wedding anniversary. We decided to get away from the kids for a night and stay at the Madonna Inn. I've stayed at numerous hotels/motels around the area over the years but this is the first time I've stayed here, although I've been to the Inn for weddings and other functions. My wife and I had a wonderful time. The room we had, Bridal Falls, had a waterfall shower in it. We also ate at their steak house where we had excellent food and service. Kudos to the staff at Madonna Inn for making our 19th anniversary a memorable one!
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| July 8, 2004 |
Some commercial updates: The San Luis Obispo city council approved the Marketplace shopping center at their Tuesday meeting (actually they approved it after midnight so technically it was Wednesday). Circuit City, Lowes, and Target are the committed retail stores as of now. It will be next to Madonna Plaza. A commercial property went on the market today in downtown SLO on Monterey Street. 3 lots where Mid State Electronics and House of Waterbeds is now. Asking price $2.25M. Just up the street from this commercial property, the Splash Cafe is doing construction of their soon to be second restaurant in the County (they are in downtown Pismo Beach right now). It's on the corner of Monterey and California where Ben's Burgers used to be. The Costco that's going in next to Home Depot on Los Osos Valley Road has been delayed until they can secure a permit from the Army Corps of Engineers because of the wetlands. This may put off the opening from this fall to next spring.
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| July 7, 2004 |
Here's the MLS activity since July 1st (through today at noon) on the Central Coast (SLO County + Santa Maria). Includes Homes, condos, lots, mobile homes: - 159 New Listings
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| July 3, 2004 |
Happy July 4th to you all! If you happen to be coming down to Pismo Beach to watch the fireworks, stop by my Real Estate Showcase Center in downtown Pismo, 4 doors up from Splash Cafe on Pomeroy. I'll be giving away Fireworks Glasses which are supposed to make the fireworks even more spectacular. I have 1000 to give away so make sure to stop by early... Panda Express opened on Grand Ave in Arroyo Grande. My goodness, you'd think we had a Krispy Kreme opening based on the people that were there. Other Chinese restaurants in the area take note...what is Panda Express offering that you aren't??
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| June 30, 2004 |
Fed raises short-term interest rates by 1/4% today.
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| June 29, 2004 |
The California Association of Realtors (CAR) released their annual Home Buyers Survey today. They found that 56% of buyers used the Internet when searching for a home. Some other findings from the survey:
A boardwalk is planned for Morro Bay. It will start at the Embarcadero
and go all the way to Morro rock (about 1 mile). Planned to be built by next
summer. |
| June 28, 2004 |
Interesting statistics in the Telegram Tribune today about how hard it is to get into Cal Poly. The entire 23 schools that are part of the California State University system rejected 15,000 student applications in fall of 2002. Of those 15,000 rejections, 12,000 were for Cal Poly! 13 of the 23 colleges accepted 100% of their applications. In 2004, 22,000 students were trying for 3,000 available spaces. Freshman in the fall of 2003 had an average GPA of 2.73 and scored 1196 on the SAT test and 27 on the ACT. The new Woods Humane Society animal shelter had its groundbreaking this
past weekend. It will be located next to the SLO County Sheriff's department
off of Highway One between San Luis Obispo and Morro Bay. It's scheduled to
be open by next summer. |
| June 26, 2004 |
A property listed at a condo in Oceano came on the market today for $212,000. When one of these units goes on the market, I know I'll be getting people asking about it that are searching the MLS listings on my web site. The "gotcha" with this property, is it's more like a motel room. The owner is restricted to a certain amount a days a year that they can use it. The rest of the time it's put on a round-robin list and rented out on a nightly basis. There hasn't been much appreciation on these units. Last year they were on the market at $200,000. I like the creative words used to describe listings. "Lots of Potential",
"Needs TLC", "Potential growth", etc. Just interesting to see these
describe some $600K homes now. |
| June 25, 2004 |
Inventory continues to climb. 77 New Listings over the past two days, 18 Back on Market, 12 Price Changes and 69 Pending Sales. Don't miss my Open House tomorrow at 124 Vista Circle in Arroyo Grande. From 1-4 pm. A 2 bedroom home in San Luis Obispo came on market today. It is in the
Laguna Lake area. 1250 sq feet on 6000 sq ft lot. Says it needs some TLC.
Asking price...$469,000. |
| June 22, 2004 |
I put a beautiful home on the market today. It's a 4 bedroom, 3.5 bath in the Oak Park Estates in Arroyo Grande. The view this home has is awesome. It's a country view looking at a valley and greenbelt, not rooftops and parking lots! And, it's only 5 minutes to the Pismo Beach pier! I also installed a Live web camera to show off the view this home has.
Check it out
here. |
| June 21, 2004 |
I found a product in Las Vegas that I've been looking for in long time. Do you have a lot of those "brick" power supplies that once you plug them into a power strip, you can't plug in anything to the other outlets near it?? Well, here's the solution. It's called the "Powerstrip Saver". Not rocket science, just practical. You can find out info here and order it online. I haven't seen it anywhere locally. I bought mine at Fry's Electronics for $2.49 but you can get it online for $1.95 . |
| June 20, 2004 |
The deli at San Luis Bay Inn in Avila Beach is for sale for $129,500. A 16-unit apartment in SLO close to downtown had its price lowered from $2.8M to $2.2M. Of the 35 properties listed within the last few days, only 17 had photos. Too bad these homeowners don't have at least one photo as it appears on the Realtor Hot Sheet. A missed opportunity to market their home that you only get one shot at!
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| June 17, 2004 |
Well I'm back from...LAS VEGAS! Thought I'd be like one of those poker players I see on TV but couldn't find a game that had deuces and one-eyed jacks wild. Lots of interesting things going on while I was gone. A report came out saying California real estate was slowing down but see no sign of that on the Central Coast. Since Monday, there have been 180 new listings, 33 Back on Market, 92 price changes, and 118 Pending Sales. Some notables: - A 3 acre lot came on the market within the city limits of San
Luis Obispo, asking $3.3 Million.
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| June 12, 2004 |
I'm taking a few days to celebrate all my daughters accomplishments in school this year. Will be back to blog-ing later this week.
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| June 11, 2004 |
Seeing some significant price changes (drops). One property dropped $600K (2.5M to 1.9M). There are also multiple $50K drops in the $800-$900K range. Price reductions are part of the process in some cases. Even in a market where prices are going up, it's hard to come up with that magic number that Buyers will pay. When you list a home, you also need to make sure that you have comparable data to justify the price to a loan appraiser. Some deals are killed because an appraiser comes up with a lower price and the Buyer can't get the loan. So, how do you know it's time to lower your price? Also, when you are choosing a real estate agent, don't be tempted if one agent says they can get lots more for your home than another unless there was comparable data to back this up. You don't want to sign a multi-month listing contract and then in a month, have the agent pressure you to drop the price at (or below) what the other agent originally recommended. You'll have lost a month and your home will start to appear to be "stale". You can see how much a real estate agent believes the price by how much they invest to sell your home, both in their time and out-of-pocket expenses. Because real estate agents get paid once your home is sold, the advertising and promotion for your home is funded out of the agent's pocket so they need to make sure your home is sold or end up with a loss. You can put the agreed upon marketing plan as part of the listing contract so if something isn't done as promised, you can terminate the listing agreement and find someone who will market your home.
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| June 10, 2004 |
Hah! Check out the latest issue of New Times, page 67, to see an article about my BLOG. I was standing on the arms of my front seats through the sunroof for the photo. I'm impressed that the arms on my PT Cruiser held my weight! Kudos to Chrysler. Lots different than the 1972 Plymouth Duster I had in high school (the Al Bundy car). I will soon be adding another
marketing tool for my listings...a live webcam! A soon-to-be-on-the-market
home in Arroyo Grande has a great view so I'm going to let everyone see the
view 24 hours a day. For those techies interested in what I'm using, it's a
wireless Panasonic outdoor webcam connecting via Wi-Fi. |
| June 9, 2004 |
Current # of Homes on the Market: Arroyo Grande - 83
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| June 6, 2004 |
A condo at the Cedar Creek complex in SLO came on the market for $345,000. This student housing complex hasn't appreciated like the rest of the area. The prices have been holding around $300,000 for awhile. A mobile home is on the market in Morro Bay for $78,500 with space rent of $382. It backs up to the State Park. Pretty reasonable these days... The Big Town Hero sandwich shop in Pismo Beach closed its doors recently. This is a bummer as they had really good food. Ken, the owner, wanted to get back to Oregon where his wife was and was unable to sell the franchise. My family will not only miss the good food but Ken and his smiling employees as well. A group of parents are wanting to open a technology-focused charter
school in the South County for 7th-12th grades. If approved, the plan would
be to start in 2005 with 40 students growing to 400 in four years. |
| June 3, 2004 |
WOW, lots of new listings following the Memorial Day holiday. 63 new listings and 36 going back on the market for whatever reason. Plenty of price changes too (40 of them). 68 properties went Pending Sale as well.
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| June 1, 2004 |
An article in today's Telegram Tribune written by a San Jose Mercury reporter, talks about the lack of resources at the Department of Real Estate to follow up on agent complaints. Realtors are expected to adhere to the Code of Ethics. If you're interested in reading what these are, here is a link to the Code of Ethics.
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| May 29, 2004 |
Welcome to the summer season! I'm sitting here in the SloLinks.com store in downtown Pismo Beach. What a BEAUTIFUL day on the Central Coast! Hope you all have a wonderful Memorial Day weekend!
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| May 28, 2004 |
A 3 bedroom/2 bath home with detached guest quarters just came on the market in North Grover Beach. It's on First Street, real close to the Monarch Butterfly grove and the Beach. You won't find many places this close to the beach under $500K. It's listed at $469,000. I don't think this one is going to last that long.
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| May 27, 2004 |
A 9-unit complex one block from the beach came available in Pismo Beach. If you're looking for a good investment, this may be it. $1,895,000.
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| May 25, 2004 |
When a property goes on the market, it appears on a "Hot Sheet" that the agents can access through the MLS system. This is a great opportunity to show-off a new listing and get agents excited about it. If they have a buyer for it, it's another way of getting interest in a new listing. Unfortunately, the majority of new listings don't have photos! For example, of the 19 new listings in the County since yesterday, only 5 have photos for them. This is a missed opportunity to do some marketing of the home and create some initial excitement and exposure for a new listing!! This is also frustrating for an agent. If I have a buyer looking for a particular type of house and one comes on the market, the first question they usually ask is "can I see a photo?". When I list a home, I make sure that there are MULTIPLE photos available the day the home is listed on the MLS and appears on the Hot Sheet. In addition, I put up a dedicated web page for the property that includes even more photos, virtual tours, and other information about the property.
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| May 24, 2004 |
A parody of a San Luis Obispo real estate web site is now up. Go check out Bucky Buthman Real Estate. On Thursday, the Cambria Community Services District will meet to discuss
the feasibility on making Cambria a city. It would take 2 to 3 years for it
to happen if the green light is given. |
| May 23, 2004 |
I updated the pages where I put sold prices for homes and condos in Central Coast cities. Go to the Home Page and click on one of the cities under "How Much Does Real Estate Cost in...? These pages show a sampling of homes that sold in the past several months. If you want to see what homes sold around a particular neighborhood, you can use my free home value service. All you have to do is go to this page and enter in an address for the neighborhood you're interested in. You'll then receive an email (almost instantly) that has sold prices in the past year. It will list homes in order of proximity to the address you entered. In addition to showing homeowners what the sold prices are in their neighborhood, Buyers can also use this service to see what the homes sold around a home being considered for purchase.
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| May 22, 2004 |
A 6600 sq foot home in Varion Ranch hit the market. Price....$3.3 Million. Also, a 20-acre coastal commercial center North of Hearst Castle on Highway One is also available. Has motel, restaurant, gas station, rv center, and more. All yours for $5.2 Million!
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| May 20, 2004 |
The 278-unit Woodlands project for Atascadero was approved. It's location is near Santa Barbara Road in the southern part of the city (East side of Highway 101). Some details about the project: |
| May 19, 2004 |
While this doesn't really relate to SLO County (and hope it never will), I found the following website to be very interesting. A russian girl takes a motorcycle ride through the Chernobyl area and documents her trip with photos. Check out "Ghost Town" here. |
| May 18, 2004 |
| America West announced it would have a non-stop flight between SLO and
Las Vegas starting in June. Went to their web site and it looks like the
fares will be around $200 round trip.
The Press Release about my appointment to the Pismo Coast Association of Realtors® Board of Directors went out today. You can read it here. 17 properties had a price reduction today, one more than 35%. I don't know if this means that things are slowing down or that homeowners are being a bit too greedy about their price of their home. Time will tell...
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| May 17, 2004 |
| MLS Activity Summary for the week of 5/10/04 (SLO County and Santa Maria
markets): - 262 New Listings |
| May 16, 2004 |
| The San Luis Obispo Real Estate BLOG is back in action! In today's (Sunday) business section of the Telegram-Tribune, there was an interesting article about the appreciation of home prices around the County. Cambria, San Luis Obispo, and Pismo Beach showed the highest appreciation over the past year (40-60%). It also showed that Nipomo had decreasing valuation. Sorry...don't think so. The problem with using median home prices is that our area has a diverse supply of homes and varying levels of inventory. To look at statistics from a single month is sometimes misleading. I've put the median home prices from the UCSB Economic forecast on my home page for over a year now and have seen large month-to-month fluctuations in the prices. From what I've seen, home prices have increased over the past year in every Central Coast town. |
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