Realty World – Bianchi & Associates

Image via Wikipedia

 

Palo Alto is a city that has an international feel with a large percentage of the population who are international citizens.Why do people come from all over the world and the United States to live in this wonderful city called Palo Alto?

The answer is varied but here are a few of the most obvious reasons. They come to attend or work at Stanford University, Stanford Hospital, Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, Facebook and the varied professional companies that reside within this hub of job growth in Silicon Valley

Yet the residential streets are charming memories of the past. Properties both commercial and residential close to the Stanford campus offer everyone beautiful parks, excellent schools, restaurants and shopping in small neighborhood shopping areas.

With the wonderful streets of Palo Alto you see people biking from their homes to work on Page Mill Road and to Stanford University or riding the Marguerite (Stanford Transportation) or Caltrain make living or working in Palo Alto very accessible to cities from San Francisco to San Jose

To get a better flare of this beautiful city to work, live or own property just sit back and go to my City Video Tab at the top of my Website and see other areas of interest in Palo Alto or other neighboring cities.

Many people Stage their property in order to appeal to the greatest number of people who will preview their property

Easy steps include making the property look large, bright and without personal clutter.

Here are simple and inexpensive ideas in creating a look of staging without a lot of additional cost for a successful sale or rental of your property.

For the owners of an Apartment Building here are my ideas that always work:

Interior Painting should be Warm, Bright and Easy to work with all types of furniture and colors; therefore my recommendation is Kelly Moore, Navajo Beige for the Wallsand Swiss Coffee for all the Trims.

Add Crown Molding and Baseboards even in the Kitchen area to add style and differentiate your apartment from others that perspective tenants or buyers will preview

Light Fixtures are so inexpensive but often overlooked and new modern Light Fixtures throughout the unit will make all apartment homes look “New”.

A simple enhancement to all Eating Areas and Bedrooms is a nice White Ceiling fan that accents the room and keeps an apartment home cool.

Granite Counters in the kitchen are the answer for updating any kitchen as well as saving on labor costs to install. Unit turnaround time will be less.

To enhance cabinets often just updating the hardware makes a kitchen look “New”.

Another secret to an inexpensive upgrade is to install a Built -In Microwave instead of the old kitchen hoods; this will add more room to the counter space and a convenience to the tenants.

If possible always remove carpeting if there are hardwood floors under current carpets.

These are the best kept secrets to simple but successful enhancements to your property.

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

Why are some professionals successful and always have clients who refer them to friends, family and business associates. The answer is very simple because they go out of the nine dots and perform what they say they will accomplish and in the end their clients are extremely happy.

This is true in Real Estate or any other services where customer satisfaction is extremely important. In Real Estate you must always be professional and have a team of experts who can accomplish one main goal and that is a Successful Close of Escrow for your clients.

The experience needs to be easy for your clients by having your team at the escrow company, the mortgage company, inspection companies all meeting their respective deadlines.

Your availability and easy access to answering all of your clients questions is the key to meeting their exceptions.

I am always pleased to hear from my clients that they had a great experience because often times they hear that purchasing and selling a property can be a hassle.

The most rewarding feeling for me is when a potential client calls to discuss selling, purchasing or exchanging their property because they have been recommended by one of my clients because they had such a positive experience.

I always make sure that my First Time Buyers understand the importance in reading and understanding all the reports, their deadlines for contingency removals and the importance in meeting all required deadlines in the contract because it is extremely important that they understand the entire process.

I have also had great experiences working with other agents on transactions and because of my expertise and successful close of escrows; they refer me to their clients when they need my expertise in an area or for a specific type of property.

I am extremely fortunate because I have a passion for Real Estate and enjoy every minute in helping my clients achieve their Real Estate goals and they tell other friends, family and associates.

There are various stages in people’s lives. For many it is reflecting back on their first home purchase and their business career starting and then building a life for their family.

As the year’s pass and the empty nester have children that either go off to college or have graduated from college and have moved out on their own,

Now this generation of Baby Boomers is now apart of a new sub-group called “Empty Nesters.” Their new life will often include a shift of life style and priorities. This often will affect their real estate properties.

Many of my clients have decided to retire and begin traveling and therefore a large home is no longer required or wanted and they choose other alternatives for their real estate holdings. They often sell their personal residence and many have purchased investment properties that provide an income stream.

Another scenario is that they would like to help out their children and believe investments in multi-family apartment buildings provides a good niche. They can rent one of the units to their children while renting the others to help pay the mortgage or property taxes.

For others they might be on a fixed income and want to sell their personal home and decide to buy a duplex that offers them a home with little up keep in a great area and they can rent the other unit for added income. Often when clients retire they might want to sell their business and possibly their commercial office or warehouse property. Leasing is also a great option if they do not want to sell their commercial property and they can get a favorable lease.

There are so many alternatives for the empty nesters shift of life style that will impact their need to purchase, sell, or lease their personal, investment and commercial properties.

As a professional Real Estate Broker it is extremely rewarding when clients ask for my assistance in finding them alternative properties so they can embark on this new journey in their life.

It appears that in every city we are currently doing business in we are seeing real life domino effects when a city changes and enforces new policies.

One example recently was a client requesting me to find him commercial space in another city due to a very hefty water usage surcharge that was having a negative financial impact on his daily business. The result was to move out of that city and change the location he conducted his daily business and thus having to lay off several employees.

Another city is thinking of adding a business license tax and although most cities already have this requirement it will bring added cost to business owners who are currently feeling the economic crunch. If approved the tax will be a fee-based type of tax with surcharges according to the number of employees, units if an apartment building and square footage if a commercial business. Even the large non-profit organizations will be charged per employee if this business license tax is approved.

The other day I observed the closure of a government office two-days a month due to budget cuts thus slowing the process and ease of doing business in that city.

Another city has imposed extra costs associated with garbage pick up A local apartment owner had to incur added charges as a surcharge was being placed per garbage can to come on the property to remove. This was in addition to the regular garbage bill that the residents are paying. The resident would have to pay the surcharge or remove the cans to the curb each week. The owner did not want to impose this surcharge on the residents and then have to police whose garbage can was assigned to what unit and then expect them to bring the cans curbside.

When a friend asked the other day, what are your best memories of the Fourth of July? My reply came very easy as I drifted back over the decades to my early childhood.

The celebrations were at a local park called Blackberry Farm in Cupertino. We would spend hours in the pool, playing games where I would always win a free Italian Salami. Then came the best part when families would just sit for hours on the picnic tables talking and enjoying each other while a few would BBQ. At the end of the day we went home and then the neighbors would all meet in the streets with fireworks and sparklers.

As the years passed the traditions stayed the same and sometimes the location would change. From Cupertino we went to Palo Alto and the years passed and soon we were old enough to enjoy our own celebrations.

The fireworks were always great on Clear Lake, California and after boating and skiing we would stay at Konocti Harbor Inn and have BBQ’s once again.

Traditions of fire works and BBQ’s always stayed the most important traditions. As the children grew up we made a new family tradition to go to Reno, Nevada and just watch the downtown hotels send off the beautiful display of fireworks from their rooftops. All celebrating another year of our country’s traditions.

Our venue once again changed with the event of sports and All Star Tournaments that always were played on the Fourth of July. So once again as the generation before us had had their special BBQ’s with family and friends, we too now celebrated with our baseball families. The kids played in the pool, shot hoops and had fun while the adults cooked a great BBQ for them.

I think that traditions make our country special and I’m sure everyone has their own special memories.

Have a fun Fourth of July Weekend.

College students need to work during the summer and like many millennial this generation utilizes the Internet and often they search online to find that job

opportunity for summer work. Many of us from the baby boomer generation found work in our local neighborhood. This generation of students is faced will different challenges they are competing for jobs with many who have experience and have lost their regular jobs in a rough economy. The other issue is that many are just home for three months and will return to colleges outside the area. They are faced with a difficult time to find summer employment.

So we need to educate these trusting students many of whom have just began working to help pay for their education. My friend’s daughter was about to reply to e-mail for a nanny position that she thought sounded interesting and she was very excited to respond and take the job.

She did say she thought the way the payment would take place sounded unusual from other jobs she has had in the past few summers.

With experience in posting our rental properties on the Internet, I too had a similar response to one of our rental ads in regards to how payment would occur.

The person sounds very sincere in their e-mail and in her case a father wanted a qualified nanny to watch his son every afternoon while the mom was recuperating from an illness. It sounded interesting and she loves watching children, but he specified how payment would be sent. The cashier’s check would be $500 over the agreed compensation and she would in return need to mail the extra money in a form of a cashiers check and mail it to a specific location.

I explained that this was not the correct way to be paid and from others getting this type of e-mail as well as myself I knew this was a scam. We try to protect our children by always stressing safety but how do we educate them against people who can take advantage of them financially. My friend instructed her daughter to never give home addresses, social security information and try to find work from a company that we can verify is legitimate. In the case of the nanny position she should only take a position if she meets the people and checks references from the people who have worked for them in the past.

She decided not to respond to the e-mail and realized that this was a scam. She will continue to look for a summer job.

Real Estate will always be a great investment here in the Bay Area.

When you have an “A”, location with a well-maintained apartment building you can rent in these difficult times.

People are very educated and know what they want and often it is the reason they come here to California and especially to the Bay Area.

With a building just a few miles from Stanford University we see very intelligent people from all over the world who come to learn and work here locally.

Flexibility and good common sense says that when the market you are in demands creativity because of the individuals in your market having creative work schedules you to must meet their demand.

Our conventional leases have always been One year with an option to renew for another year if both parties are happy with the lease.

We now find a very interesting situation that worked out extremely well at one of the properties.

The unit was beautifully remodeled and we had multiple offers for people who wanted to begin renting in early July. Instead of remaining vacant and without income for two months we decided to approve the tenants for a shorter time period.

The applications were taken and everything checked out house according to our house rules and we rented the apartment.

Our success story is that going out of the box and meeting the requirements of your target market you to can be very successful in a challenging economy and rental market.

Silicon Valley has for decades attracted businesses and with the beginning and growth from the “dot com mania”, our population has grown.

The weather and climate along with excellent healthcare facilities has also allowed our aging population to live longer to enjoy living here in Silicon Valley.

It is an international magnet for professionals all over the world to come and work and raise their families.

What has changed over the years is the dynamics and geography of the area. Our local cities all began to prosper by being towns of orchards and ranches with, horses and buggies traveling along the dirt roads.

Businesses began in the late 1880’s and continue to flourish as specialty stores from lumber stores, canneries and factories to modern day businesses today.

But with the new chain stores many of these mom and pop businesses are struggling against the big box stores today.

These old time businesses are in ideal locations and therefore we see in many of our cities like Los Altos, Mountain View, Palo Alto, and Sunnyvale just to mention a few locations that large real estate developers are purchasing these businesses.

Many of these developers have and will continue to build new apartments and homes as well as commercial shopping locations all in close proximately to the downtown shopping area and locations close to VTA light rail, caltrains and bus transportation.

With opposition from neighbors and many asking why would they build more units in this economy?

The answer is simple, our economy will recover and as in the past Silicon Valley will thrive for the same reasons it has over the past century.

The key factors are location with an excellent climate. Excellent healthcare and education attracting people from all over the world.

With limited land to build new housing our cities must focus on these issues to assure adequate housing within the cities and transportation to work for our growing population.

My only hope is that when we lose one of these mom and pop businesses that a sign or some relic of the past allows us all to drive by and say to our next generation here once stood “XYZ” Company.