Homescopes

In an attempt to be provocative, on May 17th I recently did a post entitiled “Are Newspapers Dead?“, discussing that the vast majority of visitors to my recent listing in Mountain View found it from online sources, with only about 0.7% coming from the ads I ran in area newspapers. The home is in the [...]

Palo Alto high schools refuse to join Newsweek survey of best schools - SJ Mercury News, May 21, 2007  When I saw the above article in yesterday’s Mercury News, I nearly spit a perfectly good latte all over the paper. The schools in Palo Alto are a major driver of real estate values in the city and are consistently [...]

This post is in honor of the citizen journalists at Redfin, whose months of efforts at writing witty, insightful property reviews were brought down by an over-zealous MLS association bent on maintaining the rightful balance of power in the real estate business — ie, that the listing agent is at the top of the pyramid, [...]

It was inevitable. First this, and now word from the Seattle Post Intelligencer is that the NWMLS is fining Redfin $50,000 because its “Sweet Digs” property review blog apparently breaks “rule 190″ — you know, the one that says you can’t “advertise” another agent’s listing without their express permission. It was only a matter of [...]

I wanted to have a compelling title for a little experiment I recently did with my listing at 206 Palmita Place in Downtown Mountain View. It’s a newer construction home and I thought the location and price would appeal to couples or small families. Based on that demographic, I assumed more people would be searching [...]

You’ve made the wise decision with your Realtor to stage your property before sale, but now what?  How do you find that special person who’s going to make your property jump off the market? Besides reading blogs and finding knowledgeable stagers that way :), there are many sources to find and compare qualified stagers.  If you [...]

Hi again, I received another update on changing guidance in mortgage lending from Rachel Van Emon at Opes Advisors. While she consistently seems to be the bearer of bad news lately, she is actually a delightful person! So . . . don’t shoot the messenger. A key point she brings out in her latest article is mortgage [...]