Gloom to Bloom in 12 Days

This is one of the most exciting aspects of my profession — working on a tight 12-day renovation deadline to transform a worn-out home into a beautifully staged and photographed home just in time to go on market. This Mountain View listing located in the heart Silicon Valley brought together a lot of the expertise I’ve gained over the years, so we documented the entire process to show how I took the home from “gloom to bloom.”

Phase One

With a flea infestation and near dilapidated conditions, we hit the ground running on day one. First things first, we had to rid the home of the mountains of trash that had accumulated over time. The hauling helped us remove everything from the home so that we could get to work on renovations.

Multiple truckloads of junk were removed from the home with the help of our hauling crew.

The only way to tackle this much trash is with a shovel, and that's exactly what we did.

Phase Two

The second phase was undoubtedly the busiest, starting with flea bombing the entire property. From there, the landscapers and painters got to work while my assistant, Kris, and I went over the property with the handyman to ensure all repairs would be completed on time.

The landscaping crew rids the front yard of unsightly junipers to enhance its curb appeal.

Kris and I go over kitchen repairs with the handyman.

You'd be surprised how far a fresh coat of paint goes when it comes to making a property pop.

This phase was a blur of activity, and we made significant strides as a team in preparing the home for sale. See all of the action in the video clip below.

Phase Three

By phase three, the home had come to life. All that was left was to stage it so that prospective buyers could envision what it would be like to live there. Once the furnishings were in place, it was time to go over every last detail to ensure the home was ready for showing, and ultimately, move in. We also brought in a team of inspectors to prepare pre-sale inspections. After three days of hard work, this home was ready to hit the market.

The professional stagers put the finishing touches on the home.

To ensure the renovation was successful, I personally go over every aspect of the home.

A pre-sale property inspection helps to make sure there aren't any surprises during the sales process.

While the home’s initial conditions didn’t shock me, the final reveal did. The home turned out even better than I could have imaged. I went into the open houses with confidence, knowing that the work would pay off for my sellers. Check out the clip below to get a full look at phase three and see the finished product.

Securing the Sale

Preparing a home for market means nothing if an agent can’t deliver on the sale. Within a week of concluding the renovation process, I had received three offers. Ultimately, the sale was finalized in just nine days with an all-cash offer above asking price. All in all, it was a great experience for everyone involved, myself included.

When a client entrusts me with the sale of his home, he can be sure that I will take care of every aspect of the sale from start to finish.

If you have questions about selling your Silicon Valley home, let’s talk.

To see the full process from start to finish, check out the video below!

Silicon Valley Housing Market Trends – Fourth Quarter 2010 Update

Since the crash, the Silicon Valley has recovered faster than the nation on average. Narrowing the range to our four comparison cities - Los Altos, Mountain View, Palo Alto, and Sunnyvale - we have an above average group even against Santa Clara County (see graph below). Experts at DataQuick, an independent real estate analysis company, report that the median sales price and home sales have fallen in the Bay Area from a year ago. The same is true in our example cities. But in a post-crash economy the most important factor real estate professionals, buyers, and sellers are looking for is a stable market.

Prices in our four cities have remained stable, yet deprecated, for the past two years. What will really excite the housing market is a return of high-cost homes and increased buyer confidence found in areas such as gains in employment and relaxed credit standards from banks. While some have seen this as an opportunity to find a house for less, most of the market is collectively holding its breath.

So with anticipation of what 2011 brings, lets review how 2010 was for our four real estate cities.

Median Selling Price Q4 2010

We've also talked about the median selling price over the years here and here, and we're getting further away from the dump in housing prices that occurred late 2008. Like we mentioned in the opening, what people are looking for is stabilization, but also, at what price will that occur.

This quarter, Palo Alto nearly dropped to its lowest price since the bust, unusual for a strong market, but is expected when top-tier homes are not being put up for sale until the market improves. There is obvious demand in this city as it has the lowest average days on market of our comparison cities (see third graph). Currently, Palo Alto is around 2005-2006 levels, which is about 4% lower than the fourth quarter in 2006 compared to the same quarter in 2010.

But where Palo Alto struggled in the past two quarters, Los Altos has risen two straight quarters. Although the news is tempered by its current fourth quarter median sales price, which is about equivalent to its first quarter in 2006.

At a price point $500,000 or so lower are Mountain View and Sunnyvale. Continuing to be the most stable city of the group, Mountain View has reliably hovered at a median price of $900,000 for single-family homes -- equal to the first half of 2006.

Sunnyvale reflects the current movement of Santa Clara County, and moved back to levels found near the end of 2004.

Sales Price to Listing Price Ratio

The sales price to listing price ratio gauges buyer and seller expectations. (Consider that a 1% difference here on a million dollar home is equal to $10,000.) The first thing that jumps out is Palo Alto is the only city in our comparison where homes are selling higher than their listing price, a ratio above 100%.

With Palo Alto and Los Altos trends reversed from our last graph, Los Altos increased its median price but the majority of the home sales in the city have made pricing adjustments to fit the mood of the conservative buyer. Mountain View, which also saw a bump in the median price, faced a dramatic drop of about two percent to 98%, down from 100%. This could be a correlation with more aggressive sellers entering these markets, but they are not getting the bites they saw in 2008.

Sunnyvale remained similar to the previous quarter, nearing a balanced market between buyer and seller.

Interestingly, Santa Clara County has not realized a ratio above 100% for some time, unlike our four comparison cities. Going back to our 2000 to 2010 report, the county broke 100% in the beginning of 2004, peaked above 104% for single-family homes in spring 2005 and fell under again mid-2006. As a comparison, the average ratio for our four cities remained above 100% from 2004 until late 2008.

Average Days on Market Q4 2010

Average days on market is another good indicator of market health. So much so that sometimes buyers and sellers put unreasonable weight into days on market of a house listing. But in markets where emotions can play a large role in a purchase, it is not unexpected and something to be dealt with.

This graph mostly looks like a mess of weaving colored lines, with no consideration to housing prices. Signs of a bubble popping through a climbing average days on market were felt in Santa Clara County as a whole late 2005, whereas most of our four comparison cities kept an average days on market below 40 until 2009. The days on market of the county and our cities are more closely aligned now that the market has cooled, as we can see they are following a similar trend since late 2009.

Number of Closed Sales Q4 2010

In the number of closed sales graph we were able to put our four comparison cities on the left vertical axis and also include Santa Clara County homes sales using the right vertical axis. While county sales are not comparable in number to city sales, displaying both can help compare overall trends to the individual cities.

Traditionally, home sales dip during winter and peak during spring and summer. But looking at 2010, Palo Alto pushed up, Los Altos dipped, Mountain went up, and Sunnyvale followed the winter plunge. Buyers are out there combing for good deals, especially in valued markets such as Palo Alto. Though previous years have shown that the biggest dip happens during the first quarter of year, so we'll have to wait and see if these cities continue to break the trend.

One positive emerging trend occurring for all our four comparison cities and county alike, is a steady increase of sales, most clearly seen when you compare first quarters.

Where Are We Now? 2000 to 2010 Silicon Valley Real Estate Report

Real estate levels in 2010 appear to be either dropping or freezing nationwide during the usually active spring and summer months due to the wake of the 2007 housing crisis. But in Silicon Valley, where the characteristically warmer temperature seems to not only apply to the weather, the local real estate is making its way back from the extremes of a couple years ago. So from 2000 to the second quarter of 2010, where is the Silicon Valley housing market now? Pretty much where we started. Number of closed sales for single-family homes in Santa Clara County during the second quarter of 2010 are down 4% from the same period in 2000; and the average sales price is up 3%.

This post is an update of an earlier market analysis that we did in 2007. And in the graphs below we’ll be able to see the dot-com bubble burst, the effects of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the housing bubble develop and pop, and the current signs of a housing recovery. The data is collected from 2000 to the second quarter of 2010 from all 15 cities of Santa Clara County off of MLS listings Inc., looking at single-family homes and condominiums/townhouses._

Number of closed sales in Silicon Valley

The sales spikes we see every year are part of a natural market cycle that peaks in the spring and dips in the winter. Competition is greatest in the spring when the most inventory is available and the most prospective buyers are out looking.

Sales numbers were negatively affected by the dot-com bubble burst in 2001 but shot back up once the housing bubble formed. What’s closest to buyers and sellers minds alike is the housing crisis that bottomed out in 2008. Silicon Valley’s strong economy (that some reports say is losing its edge) has meant a swifter recovery than the rest of the nation.

If the economy continues its recovery, the housing market could return to a seller's market. But sales numbers are only one facet, where other areas of the market are still depressed.

Average days on market in Silicon Valley

Average days on market (DOM) is less influenced quarter by quarter from natural market cycles compared to number of sales. Homes were being sold at record pace in 2000 and between 2004 to 2006. The two recessions in the last 10 years pushed DOM to above two months, even up to three. Though desirable homes in good neighborhoods will always sell quickly, the housing bubble inflated everything, which resulted in a flood of overpriced homes during the crisis and pushed DOM upward.

Since low DOM numbers are attractive to buyers, they are sometimes falsified to make a house appear more attractive on the market. Or poor sales strategies can make an otherwise good home sit on the market for an extended period of time. So don’t let DOM be the final judgement when deciding on a house. But overall a low DOM is a good indicator of market health.

Average sales price in Silicon Valley

Here we can see how big the housing bubble really was. With the dot-com bubble, money was focused in the stock market. But when that crashed, homes became “hot,” lending requirements loosened, and real estate became the new investment trend.

The recession in 2001 dropped the average price for single-family homes 19% from its peak ($750,039) in the second quarter of 2000 to the low ($605,286) in the fourth quarter of 2001; compared to the 48% drop from the housing market bubble peak ($1,083,930) in the second quarter of 2007 to the low ($568,542) in the first quarter of 2009.

Currently, home prices in Santa Clara County are on the rebound and trending towards 2000 and 2004 numbers. Strong markets in smaller cities like Palo Alto and Los Altos faired much differently than the large city of San Jose because of a difference in demand and foreclosure rates.

Sale-to-list price ratio in Silicon Valley

The ratio compares buyer and seller perceptions, where above 100% is a seller's market and below 100% is the opposite. The bubbles and crashes are clearly seen here but reflected in a much different way than what is seen in the average sales price graph. The boom in the early 2000s shows that buyers where much more willing to pay over listing price until the 2001 recession. The ratio later peaked again in 2005. Sellers priced their homes much higher during the real estate bubble but the ratio stayed near 100%, meaning buyers believed the inflated prices were worth the investment.

In recession periods buyers are hesitant and sellers have to adjust their listing price. Today, the average listing price is increasing again with the ratio near 100%.

Takeaway:

The graphs above give a bird’s-eye view of the real estate market in Santa Clara County beginning to settle. Although it may be a very different perspective from an individual home buyer or seller, who could have gotten caught in either the bubble or the crash. The view can also be very different city to city, reflecting hyper-local markets, as we have seen in our second quarter 2010 analyses of Los Altos, Mountain View, Palo Alto, and Sunnyvale. The main idea of these graphs is to show that real estate markets, while unpredictable, are cyclical.