Wonderful North Bay

Another great week here in the North Bay. After touring some great homes in Petaluma on Weds, I helped a client find her dream home. It is always so exciting when a client just knows. Too fun! Friday I spent 3 hours with my Mountain Bike and Mount Tam. This weekend my wife and I played tennis in the Novato city Championships and won the 3.5 mixed doubles division!
What a great place to live.

20 Mateo Drive

I was braving the crazy weather today at my new listing in Tiburon. It is a beautiful spacious custom Tiburon home located on a quite cul-de-sac. Truly a must see, this home has a wonderful flowing floor plan with 5 bedrooms including an Au Pair/Guest room, plus a home office and a media/playroom. I really Enjoy the Huge lot (almost an acre) w/ private tranquil seasonal creek and entertainment areas. It has been lovingly maintained by the current owners and it will appeal to your artistic side. Special features include: Hardwood floors, Stainless appliances and all new decks. Backing to Ring Mountain open space, the home has easy access to hiking trials. Everyone loves the award winning schools in Tiburon! Plus it is a great commute location only 15 minutes to the Golden Gate.

Please check out the tour:

http://www.Obeo.com/585769

The listings are coming!

As we leave the holiday season and head for the Spring our inventory here in Marin will increase more and more with each passing week until we peak in August or so. This week we had twice as many new listings as last week. Next week should be even better.

I promised a look into short sales so here we go! Short Sales have been very frustrating for buyers these past couple years. They can take anywhere between 3 months to 1 year or even more....there is nothing short about them! If a homeowner owes more than their house is worth (they cannot pay their mortgage anymore due to some sort of hardship) and they want to avoid foreclosure, they can attempt a short sale. Imagine if say "Bob Smith" owes 500K on his home in Petaluma. It is now only worth $350K. He puts it on the market and hopes the bank will eat the $150K (plus closing costs and back taxes). Once he has a Buyer he submits it to the bank along with his personal financial information and hardship letter. The bank then assigns someone from their loss and mitigation or short sale department who orders and appraisal etc... The process usually take a long long time...sometimes ending in foreclosure. The good news is that new government regulations are streamlining the process and soon (starting April 1st) the process is going to be standardized and much faster......we hope. I will keep you in the loop!

Whoa!

This week just flew by! Listings in Marin are just starting to come back on the market. Many Sellers take their homes off the market for the holidays and then re-introduce them in Jan. and early Feb. There were tons of new listings this week, but only about half were actually new listings. From here until August we will have more and more listings new listings.
Next week I will be explaining the mystery of short sales.

Windows for all

Thursday is Broker Tour day in Marin County. It was a beautiful day today....finally. I saw some great new listings in Mill Valley and Corte Madera today. Winter can be the best time for Buyers to find deals. There is less competition and the Sellers are usually motivated. 35 Carmelita Ave is just up from the park, and a few blocks from town. It is 3 days new on the market and a really nice 1906 Farm house with a HUGE grassy back yard at 1.149mil. I also saw 41 Sunrise in Homestead Valley...terrific views, new windows, great layout at 1.2mil. Lastly, I really liked 124 Stadium. It was beautifully remodelled, new windows, kitchen, baths, and great floor...not much yard but a great two car garage (something neither of the first two houses had).
OK - Today I want to talk about windows. We find many types of windows in Marin. They can be broken down into two groups dual panes or single paned...Here is an example of single paned windows from 1906:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bKUeZ37dUo

There are also windows from the mid century that are single paned and metal. These types are my least favorite because they really let the heat and cool right through. In the 80's dual paned windows took off...but they were still metal. Metal is a conductor, so the heat and cool still make there way into your home...they do insulate against sound though. Take a look at this type:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uATlK189OZw

In the last decade or so we have gone to dual paned vinyl windows....they are terrific. They insulate against sound and weather! You can spot them easily by the wide white borders. Take a look:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDrex5vlaTo

I am always free 7 days a week to answer your questions and show you property!

Cheers,

Jason

Heath Real Estate

Hello!
This is my second post of my Marin blog. I will be touring Marin Properties taking videos. Broker tours are full of tips and fun for my readers. I will be posting Thursday nights going forward.
This post is to introduce my new Brand: Heath Real Estate. A new face in Luxury Real Estate in Marin County. I also love working with first time buyers in Marin and Sonoma. There is no real estate question I can't answer, no transaction problem I can't solve, and no client I cannot help. I love real estate!!
I am very excited to get started. Tune in next week for my first Broker Tour Video!
Cheers,
Jason

My first post

Here is my first Blog for Marin Real Estate. This is a crazy time in Real Estate so this is going to be fun. Appraisers have gone crazy, Short Sales are long and painful, Foreclosures are frenzied, Money is tight....Marin Homes continue to sell. To every new lead I receive, I send out an introductory email. I thought that email would be a good place to start:

I would like to personally introduce myself as your local Realtor.

I live in the North Bay with my wife and daughters and I pride myself in being a reliable source of Real Estate information. Last year I was the #1 top producing agent for ZipRealty Nationwide. Please look at my profile and see what clients are saying:

My Profile: http://www.ziprealty.com/agent/jholmes

I have a lot of experience and I am free 7 days a week. Please feel free to contact me ANYTIME, if you would like to get together to see a property, or if you just have real estate questions.

I look forward to working with you!

Cheers,