Often when people buy Santa Clara Real Estate they may be considering some major remodel on at some point in the near future. These days buyers expectations of a dream home coincide with a 3000 square foot property with formal dining, living, office, spacious master suite, and separate family room. My new listing on 3045 Notre Dame Drive in Killarney Farms Santa Clara. Has undergone such a remodel. The owner purchased this home back in the 80′s and did the remodel in the early 90′s.

The converted a 3 bedroom 2 bath home to a 3 bedroom 3 bath home with formal dining room that flows well and has the spacious family room, and large master suite. The home features a number of skylights and vaulted ceilings. In this particular home they even added a 386 square foot work shop that can be used as a 3rd garage which is quite rare in Santa Clara.

For details on this home download the property brochure. 3405 Notre Dame Drive – Flyer

The Killarney Farms neighborhood situated near Pruneridge and Pomeroy is a vibrant neighborhood which boasts a local swim center and is walking distance to Sutter Elementary school, and several parks. The subdivision was first developed in 1963 by Lacey & White, and features several different floor plans and good quality construction.

This video tour will show you some of the great surrounding features this neighborhood has to offer.

Real Estate in Santa Clara is typically old.  Like many of the surrounding communities Santa Clara was predominately developed in the 50′s and 60′s.  However, there are small pockets of new or newer homes.  In this case, my latest listing resides in one of those pockets.

3110 Membrillo Corte is part of a small development of 6 homes.  The advantages of new homes over they typcial 50 year old homes is the layout.  Sometime in the late 70′s and 80′s builders started to experiment with higher cathedral ceilings.  Now standard ceiling height is 9 ft. instead of 8 ft.  This particular home was built in the early 90′s and features about 20 ft. ceilings in the living room and high vaulted ceilings in some of the bedrooms.

Newer contemporary styled homes also benefit from larger room sizes, garages, and more closet space.  Just take a look at my latest listing and see the bright and open floor plan.

It appears that Laurelwood Elementary is bursting at the seems with kids, and with the new school taking over the current Milikin Campus, something is going to have to give.

Late 2011 the school board met to discuss some changes in to enrollment boundaries affecting Pomeroy, Sutter, and Laurelwood Elementary.  Although no decision has been made and plans to make a decision have be put off to a later date, the proposed plan called for removing certain areas from he Laurelwood Enrollment area.

The area around Kohls shopping center which currently falls under Laurelwood is to be rezoned to Pomeroy Elementary.  Also the Westwood Oaks area that falls under the Santa Clara Unified School district will be moved to Sutter Elementary.  For those of you considering purchases in any of these areas understand that property values are likely to drop if such a move actually occurs.

There has been no talk of these changes affecting the Peterson Middle School boundaries.

With the advent of the internet in Real Estate came the virtual tour. It seemed like overnight, virtual tour companies sprouted up to provide a virtual experience of being in the actual home. Many of these companies used software to create a panoramic or 360 degree views of  properties.  Most still use panning and zooming of stills with background music that are little more than slideshows providing additional pictures than the MLS.  The end result was an experience for the end user that was more beneficial and entertaining than standard still photographs.

Its a wonder that video tours never really caught on back then. Video has been around a lot longer and seems more practical than the virtual tour experience. For one there is little distortion in video compared to emulated virtual tours.  After viewing a virtual tour, it may still be difficult to get an idea of room sizes and distances since the perspective is never accurate. With video you typically see an accurate portrayal of the subject with a more accurate perspective.  Distance and space is easier to discern with video and the end result is a more accurate rendering of your subject.

With video you can demonstrate mechanical features of appliances, windows, cabinets and other unique features a home may posses that you can not capture with still photography.

Video tours are easier than ever to share with video sharing sites like Youtube.com, Social Network sites like Facebook and real estate centric websites like Realtor.com all showcasing videos of homes.

With all the benefits that video provides over traditional virtual tours one would think that video tours would have replaced virtual tours a while back. However, one factor still remains and that is the time and cost of production. Video tours compared to virtual tours, will take 3 to 4 hours to produce from shooting to editing to full production on the web, and requires the use of specialized video editing software. A virtual tour can be shot and uploaded online in less than 30 minutes, by virtually anyone knowledgeable in taking digital photographs and uploading them. A typical virtual tour can cost $100 to produce, a video tour about $500.  So for most the virtual tour will likely remain, but for those that can the video tour should be preferred.

Its been nearly 5 years since home inventory in Santa Clara’s real estate market has been so low. Considering the additional inventory from short sales and bank owned homes, inventory among regular sellers is very low. Its not just Santa Clara but other cities in the Santa Clara Valley. Homeowners for one reason or another are deciding to put off selling. As a result, the market is experiencing multiple offer situations and homes that were languishing are going pending.

In just a matter of months the market has changed dramatically. If the inventory level’s persist expect home values to rise. Buyers seem to be getting anxious, as rents have risen 20% in the last year alone. For some buying a home would result in a lower monthly living costs then renting. Here in the valley the job market has remained steady and some hiring has even picked up. As more buyers enter the market and wait for more homes to come the market is likely to turn more to a seller’s market. So if you are considering selling, this current real estate climate is a good opportunity to list your home.

More often these days I am being contacted by Trustee’s to sell a home that belonged to their parent or family member.  Working with trustee’s or administrators of an estate is quite different than working on other sales.  As an agent, one has to be cognizant of the correct documents and contracts to use, as well as additional disclosures.  In these type of sales there may be some form of court confirmation necessary or direct communication with the attorney handling the estate.  In addition to the legal details I am often confronted with a home that is showing signs of neglect and is in need of updating.

In this current market sellers should be aware that they are competing with bank owned and short sale properties.  Whether its a probate or an estate sale, if the sellers expect to get a good price they need to differentiate their property from the competition.  The way to do that is update.

When I meet with these clients I go over the estimated cost of the updates and the price they could realize before and after the updates.  If they see the value we go on and discuss timelines. As a service to them I interface with the contractors to make sure the work is being completed, procure all the materials, and manage the project from start to finish.  The seller’s responsibility is solely to pay the workers and reimburse me for the materials. In many cases the trustee’s are out of the area and I send them photos of the progress of the work and how its coming along.

In the end we go from a fixer upper to updated and stylish in about 3 weeks. The market responds favorably and the home generally receives multiple offers and sells quickly, higher than list. There was one instance where a home was on the market for 5 months and the sellers had dropped the list price from $599K to $520K and still received no offers. My client needed to put his late father’s home on the market which was two doors down, and in similar if not worse condition. He was convinced that he should improve the home’s condition before listing. Once the home had been updated and we put it on the market for $535K. Ten days later after listing the home we had 3 offers and sold it for $550K. Thirty days later we closed escrow and the other listing was still lingering on the market just 2 doors down.

Here’s a video clip of a home.

I recently had the pleasure of working with Vinicius Brasil to sell my father’s house. I chose Vinicius as one of the realtors to interview because I have lived in the area for a long time and noticed that his listings were well presented and seemed to sell quickly. After talking to him, I could see why. I was impressed with his knowledge of the market, his specific knowledge of the houses in the area, his ideas for marketing the house, and the additional work he was offering to do to prepare the house for sale.

The house was very outdated, and Vinicius did an excellent job of analyzing the needs of the house and recommending which updates would bring the biggest returns. The information he presented included detailed cost estimates as well as the potential impact on the sales price. Once I decided on which updates to make, Vinicius took care of the rest. He arranged and managed all of the work that was performed, designed the updated rooms, and took care of buying the new appliances and materials, all in a timely manner. The results of the updates were outstanding. I am convinced that all the effort he put into preparing the house is what led to the quick sale above the asking price.

Working with Vinicius was a pleasure; he was very professional and responsive, and he provided a lot of good information which made it easy to make decisions. During the entire process, Vinicius kept me well informed of the progress and what to expect next. I would highly recommend Vinicius Brasil.

-Steve

To view this and other reviews visit Yahoo local:

http://local.yahoo.com/info-66675262-vinicius-brasil-coldwell-banker-realtor-santa-clara?tab=reviews#reviews

Rare opportunity, a short sale in Santa Clara’s finest community, San Tomas Woods. There are less than 100 homes in this wonderful development and consider it a busy year if more than one comes on the market in any particular year. In this case its a distressed sale, an opportunity to get a “good deal” or more realistically a better deal than a normal sale.

I don’t expect this to be on the market long at this price, even considering the home border’s San Tomas Expressway. For those of you who are looking for a good quality home in Santa Clara, it doesn’t get much better than this.

2609 LINDENTREE LN – SANTA CLARA
	List Date: 01/23/12 Price: $749,950 Area: 008 – Santa Clara Bedrooms: 4 Bathrooms Full: 2.5 Approx. Sq. Ft.: 2095 Approx. Lot Size: 7,315.sf Year Built/Age: 1974