Tuesday, December 23, 2014

Tidy up and get ready for the New Year!!!

So here we are at the turning of the year. We have just passed the winter solstice, and the days will begin to lengthen. We are also in the middle of Chanukah and Christmas is fast approaching. It is the time of year when things begin to come in to our lives. It also the time of year when we begin to take stock of what we want to carry forward into the future.

Moving creates an opportunity to confront the things we have accumulated and can force us to decide what to keep and what to get rid of...I think of possessions as being comprised of two categories: "things" and "stuff". Things are what we ascribe meaning while stuff is disposable. We also create levels of value to the things we are disposing of by deciding whether to gift a person we know, donate, or send to the dump.  Seven years ago, I moved out of my large home in the country into a 1300 square foot home near the beach. It was a deep experience to confront everything from books to cookware to canning supplies, art materials and things such as leashes and pet bowls. The dog items are a great example of how the decision process worked. As I looked at the materials which had been necessities of life for years, I was forced to decide about keeping them "in case" or getting rid of them. I no longer had a dog, but one day, might wish to again. My decision was easy. I did not have room to store stuff I didn't need in the present, so out they went. What was harder to dispose of were the years and years of art work created by my children. I could not possibly keep everything, so I kept one sculpture and one painting from each of them.When you are down-sizing you are faced with either a crisis or an opportunity, as you get to confront your past, and decide what your present and future selves truly need.

I had some clients who literally spent six months emptying their home on the West Side to prepare for going on the market. They were overjoyed when the process was done. A client who owned a 5000 square foot mansion on Ocean View Avenue waited to sell her things until after we were in escrow. The antiques dealer held the sale in the house. When the sale was over, I stopped by to check on her. "Are you O.K." I asked. "Oh, Anina!" she said. "Why didn't you make me do this sooner!" She was delighted to be freed of the memories and items which tied her to her past.

I was recently visiting a dear friend, who at 95, is still healthy, lives in her own home and is dancing in both the US and overseas. She and her husband had great collections of art and momentos of her travels as a performing artist. She even has a real Yoda which was given to her husband by Steven Spielberg! Her husband passed away several years ago. I was surprised to find many empty shelves in her home. She explained that she is in the process of sorting every drawer and shelf and giving away her possessions. She is deciding which of her things will go to her daughters, which to museums and archives and which she will keep for now. She described the task as an act of both mourning and of celebration.

My mother is a musician and a dancer. She now lives in a six hundred square foot apartment on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. In the living room of her one bedroom flat, she has a baby grand piano which was given to her on the day she was born, an upright piano for jamming with friends and, stored under  her baby grand lives a stand up base. Her kitchen is the size of a closet, which it once was and she just got rid of her sofa so that she could put up work tables to be able to more easily reach the current compositions on which she is working. Both her bedroom and the living room are lined with floor to ceiling built in bookshelves, in which are stored compositions created over her years as a musician and dancer. At 88, she is constantly de-cluttering and she complains about the extra papers and stuff she doesn't need. What is striking to me though, is how her life is pared down to what she does need- her piano and her compositions, both in process and extant, and the seven books she has published since she retired at age 75. Her things are not "stuff"; they are alive and vibrant and necessary.

I know that I for one will enjoy my time in early January better if I can de-clutter now. My friend, Shannon McGinnis, has a website and a book called "The 10 Minute Tidy". You can see an example of one of her lists on my Anina Van Alstine Facebook Page, or you can look up her app here.

If you are thinking about moving any time in the future, this is a good tip... start early. You can work in layers. But, when I come to "stage" your home, I will tell you this. Any closet, no matter how large, looks small if things are crammed in to it topsy turvy. Any closet, no matter how small, looks big enough, if things are orderly and in their place.

So happy new year, and if you want to have a great laugh, watch the attached youtube video of George Carlin, talking about "Stuff".

Saturday, October 11, 2014

Fall update: People who live in Santa Cruz are buying second homes here!

What an incredible fall it has been! The market in Santa Cruz has finally opened up, with sellers deciding that this may be the time to sell and people who need to sell to buy taking the leap when they see that homes which are priced right and marketed properly will sell and close in 45 days.

A couple I met at open house almost a year ago, who had been afraid to sell because they were worried that they would never find a replacement house, trusted the process and just sold their home on the West Side. They worked hard to prepare for the market, and received a multiple offer. They are now waiting to move in to the wonderful new  home I found them on the West Side.

A new trend I am seeing here in Santa Cruz, is people who are established in their homes, who are deciding to purchase a second "get away" home within the county! I just sold a home in the Aptos Hills to clients who currently live on the West Side. The Aptos house is less than four miles to the Freeway, and was completely redone from the bottom to the top by its former owner. It is a little nest; a get away they can reach in less than fifteen minutes, and provides as much privacy as if they were in Lake Tahoe, without the drive.

Last year, I sold a beach house, near the gate of "Privates" to a couple who live in the hills of Soquel, and then, two months later, another Soquel couple did the same thing. Neither of these people are moving; they are simply investing within the county for their change-of-pace home. Another example; a couple who commute internationally, who live in Seabright in a house with a great ocean view, but heavy traffic on the weekends, bought a beautiful home in Aptos, with a pool and a vineyard, as their get away. ( They also host international guests and use it for her business).

All of these people are very smart in business. They see these choices as a solution which keeps their options open and are combining the pleasure of having a second home in a different environment, with a good decision, building equity in diverse real estate investments within the county.

As traffic gets heavier, this solution seems to work for some people. They do the ultimate " stay cation".

Interest rates remain low... if you are thinking of making a move, please call or email me and we can discuss your vision. It is both a great time to sell and to buy.

Friday, May 23, 2014

Confusing Times for Buyers and Sellers- May 2014

Dear Real Estate Readers and Mansion Mavens, Hovel Hoarders and Beach House Bathers,

I hope that you are well and that you will forgive my long silence. The market has made its demands and I have had a hard time sitting down at the end of the day to share my thoughts.

2014 is a confusing time for buyers and sellers in the Bay Area and particularly in Santa Cruz! Everyone is trying to determine if this is the new highest market and if they should get in and buy quick, or if they should wait until prices go down. Sellers, on the other hand, have seen the upsurge in prices over the past four years and wonder if they should hold and wait, or sell now- as most Realtors are saying this is the new highest point of the market (I am in this camp). 

Having been in business over thirty five years, I have experienced the effects even a rise of a 1/2 percent in the interest rates can have on prices. I can not imagine interest rates remaining where they are now for more than another 6 months to a year, and when they do rise, if things go as they usually do, prices will drop. It is true that some houses, the "irreplaceable" houses, hold their value better than "average" houses. But even houses in a superior location or with a higher quality of design and construction will be affected as the market as a whole drops.

But here is the rub! Just the fact that we are talking about a market in Santa Cruz (or San Francisco, or Palo Alto, or anywhere in the Bay Area) gives us one factor that is unchangeable. We live where so many people wish to live! So how do we know what effects the coming rise in interest rates will have? We can only guess.

On Monday, a friend, who is a retired mortgage broker, sent me this letter from the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, which states that housing prices are coming down in the Bay Area, and that they will continue to do so! They talk about investors getting out of the market and cite great statistics. Tell that to my client who recently tried to buy a 1000 square foot house on a postage stamp lot with no view in Capitola. Although they offered significantly over the asking price and they were pre-approved for their loan, they lost out to an all cash offer which could close in ten days. They were moving from North Carolina, where their home, in a great neighborhood, was over twice the size on an acre lot. They jumped in with all their hearts and then got their hearts broken!

With the instant awareness that internet marketing creates, the second any home goes on the MLS, every buyer who is looking in an area and in a price range knows the house is for sale. Agents send the listing to the MLS, and through the MLS, it is distributed to sites like RedFin.com, Trulia and Zillow. Agents put their own clients on automatic searches, so that effectively the houses email themselves to the clients (This is so different from even five years ago, when as an agent I would have to find the property and email it to a client. It cuts out any delay in time!). 

This is why the Broker’s Tour is now so often flooded with Buyers as well as agents. The Buyers are sent the information, which includes the tour, automatically, and they go to try to perhaps get in a preemptive offer. It is why, unless the listing agent and seller plan intentionally to hold a house on the market for ten days (which means a Broker’s tour and two weekends of Open House), this is a five day market. If the agents choose to hold the offer process off, it is a two week market. The Buyers who understand this and think the price is right jump in. However, it also means that if all the Buyers think the price is wrong, they wait. This is what happens if a house is overpriced by as little as five percent!

So, as a Buyer, how do you proceed? As a Seller, what is your best strategy to get the highest possible price? I will be back next week to follow up. In the meantime, visit my Facebook page, or register on my website to get updates for the homes and prices you wish to track.

Thanks for reading,

Anina