Cliff's Notes…on Real Estate

Has it been 6 months since you started looking for your new home?

Why have you not purchased your home yet? Are you a Lookie Lou?

Interest rates are at an all time low!
The selection of affordable homes to choose from is substancial!
This “buyer’s market” where sellers, give many concessions to buyers, is not going to stay around forever!

If you have been looking for six months, or longer, for your home and you haven’t purchased a home you should fire your real estate agent, fire your lender and fire yourself from the home buying process. You really don’t want to have the American Dream of homeownership. The perfect storm for home buying is right now.

Either stop kidding yourself that you want to buy a home or call me today and together let’s find that special home you have been seeking. You can call be right now by clicking the “Call Me” button on the left.

I am currently seeing a shift in the market towards a “seller’s market“. Interest rate have gone up .25% in the past week…that’s a lot however, still very much affordable! The government has started a program to infuse money into banks to help buyers buy their home. Sellers are starting to price their homes where multiple buyers want the same certain homes again. This points to something is a brewing out in the real estate world like multiple offers on the same home buy several buyers.

If you are looking in Redwood City I have a couple of new homes coming on the market within the next 30 days or so. Contact me and I may be able to get you into them before they hit the open market. Here is a link to a home in San Mateo under $650,000.

Stop being a Lookie Lou, you are wasting your time and efforts on something that will only bring you disappointment and despair.

Tags: buy a home, buyers, Buyers Tips, fyi, home for sale, Lookie Lou, perfect storm, Real Estate, Real Estate Market Trends, san mateo county

I just made myself the best tuna salad I have ever had!

Directions: In a bowl add a can of your favorite tuna, I prefer tuna in water, to that add, 1 tbs country mustard, 1 tbs sweet pickle relish or chop up dill pickles if you prefer not so sweet a taste, a couple of splashes of Worcestershire sauce, sprinkle garlic powder over content, black pepper to taste, 1 tbs chopped onion, 1 tbs chopped celery, 1/2 tsp chopped fresh cilantro from the garden and mayonnaise. Mix all together with a fork and taste…ummmm. Take tuna and place over a bed of lettuce chopped up that you have picked from your garden. Prepare to enjoy a salad and eat.

Ingredients:
One can of tuna in water
1 tbs country style mustard
1 tbs of sweet or dill pickle relish (your preference)
2-3 splashes of Worcestershire sauce
Garlic powder
Black pepper
1 tbs chopped onion, (your preference)
1 tbs chopped celery
1/2 tbs of chopped fresh cilantro
Mayonnaise to combined
Fresh lettuce from the garden

Tags: celery, cilantro, country mustard, garden, garlic, lettuce, mayonnaise, onion, pepper, pickle relish, tuna, worcestershire sauce

Redwood City, CA, So what! What does that mean to me? What the hay how can these interest rates benefit me?

Well let’s take a lovely townhouse in Burlingame just 1.5 from Burlingame Avenueat 119 Primrose Road unit #6. Without going into all the great things about this home what is the money figures on this home, if I invest in it?

119 Primrose Road in Burlingame is currently listed for sale for $619,950. Average rents in Burlingame for 2 bedrooms, 2.5 bathrooms is currently at $2600/month

As a non-owner occupied property the bank will require you to put a down
payment of 30% or $185,985. With current 30 year, fixed rate interest rates being at a historical low 4.375% your monthly principal and interest amount will be $2,166.72! If you add
Property Taxes, HOA dues, and Inside insurance it brings your monthly payment up to $3136. This give a differential of <$536.00>.

However, your depreciation would be approximately $1,315/month plus you get to write off the property taxes just like you do on your own personal resident. So at years end you may be in the positive.

Additional positive aspects would be appreciation and increase in rents over the long haul.

This might just be a good investment you might want to give serious consideration. It could be the
way to pay for your children/grandchildren’s college education in future years.

Obviously, interest rates are not going to stay at these low levels for a long length of time. Act today before this opportunity get away from you. Do it now.

Tags: Burlingame CA, investment, investment property, monthly costs of home ownership, non owner occupied, redwood city ca homes, rental

Redwood City, CA: Redwood City’s deficit is currently at $3,600,000 and is expected to go up higher for the next few years.  The funds needed to pay this deficit are coming from an $18.7 million dollar City reserve fund.

 Are City workers overtime costs the culprit?  City payroll this year increased $1,500,000 or 2.7% compared to the Nation’s inflation rate of –0.4%.  To be fair to the City of Redwood City they have cut back on overtime costs from FY ‘08 to FY ’09 by just a tad over 1.5%

 It seem the big brew ha ha is over two City fire fighters, Patrick Cunningham (4^th highest paid City employee), and David Thielmann who both were paid over $100,000 in overtime pay above and beyond their average base pay of $106,646.  Fire captain Adrian Stuart Anderson earned over $60,000 in overtime pay above his base pay of $128,425.  No one is claiming fraud or being away at a “crap feast” like in San Francisco a couple of decades ago.  However, it appears these few fire fighters were on the job…ready to go.  IMHO, I hope they bought real estate with the extra money.

 Here are some other Redwood City employees’ salaries:

City Manager – Peter Ingram – $238,919

City Attorney – Stan Yamanmoto – $229,289

Police Chief – Louis Cobarruviaz – $213,874

Captains – $196,752 base

Sergeants – $153,837 base

Senior Building Inspector – Jerry Schell – $101,125

Senior Accountants:         Cecilia Lucas – $100,979

                                                   Rajesh Servak – $99,190

H.R. Representative – Ray Yvette Williams – $100,497

City Secretary – $64,013

City Custodian – $52,454

Maintenance worker – Steve Coleman – $68,388 base $32,809 OT – (he is the guy you see out there unclogging your sewer and fixing your water leaks.)

Landscapers – $62,804

Arborists -        Maria D’Agostino – $74,421

                              Jesus Angel – $95,796 base $21,635 OT

What do you think?   With our city working in a deficit, yet having enough funds in our reserve account to offset it, do we need to watch our nickels and dimes closer? Your comments are always encouraged.

Tags: Cliff Keith and Team, government, Redwood City, san mateo county, US economy

“What The Past Tell Us”.

Redwood City, CA:  Current history demonstrates how a “Super Power” like USA can fall.  You don’t have to look any further than 1985 when Mikail Gorbachev came to power of the USSR.  Gorbachev campaigned on the platform “reenergize of the socialist empire”.  You know what happen 7 years later…the wall came down and so did the USSR as we had know it.

Like the USSR, American needs to “remember, without a strong economy, a nation’s international standing, standard of living, national security, and even domestic tranquility will suffer over time. It would be a good thing to learn from the Russians on this one.

One great thing about Americans is we are resilient! If we return to the principals and the values that made us a great nation we will be fine. We need to become once again…strong, smart, and flexible enough to keep our predominance in the world.

Americans need to accept and subscribe to the two notions stated by Thomas Jefferson.  We need to support our government programs that really address our core aims as stated in the Preamble of our Constitution. These core aims help and are good for us. Secondly,  we need to get rid of government programs that are ineffectual and/or contrary to our national goals!  By doing so we will be allowed to allocate resources, (people, money, time), to targeted programs that will better serve all Americans.

Americans needs to be realist about how we spend our money. Can we afford this program or not?  Can we sustain it over a long period of time?  Some programs may be great in theory; however, if you can’t answer yes to the 2 aforementioned questions then the program should be shelved until which time a double yes can be answered.

Once again, as Thomas Jefferson said, “It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debt as it goes.”  It’s time now for Washington to start making touch choices and showing some tough love towards our economy!

There have been many countries throughout their history who have survived great obstacles and turmoil. Just look at Germany and Japan post WWII.  More recently look at China and how it has gotten past its “stagnation, foreign interference, and social experimentation to reclaim their place on the global stage today”.

“No republic in history has shown more resiliency and adaptability than the United States of America.” We have the know-how and the strength to maintain a great standing in the World. What it will take though is behavioral modification on the part of Washington and Americans.  We all need to wake up and smell the roses! Currently, our American rose stinks economically. And we need to all agree it stinks and we collectively need to do something about it.  We need to move in a direction to implement the necessary step to make our American rose’s aroma to once again be admired, respected and remembered by all.  Wouldn’t that smell nice?

Here is something you may want to look at and help yourself become part of the solution.  Federal Financial Irresponsibility Index:

Tags: Comeback America, David M. Walker, national debt, Redwood City, san mateo county, US economy