Selling in Silicon Valley - Want to come along for the wild ride?

[2017SoFarSoGood]

I'm prepping my house for sale in Silicon Valley, California - just south of San Francisco. The property market is completely insane. It is astonishing who can actually pay these prices - especially when you realize that most purchases are cash. That's right, cash. With no contingencies and no chain.

Will be chronicling the madness of this sale here. I will then be purchasing a smaller (cheaper we hope) property nearer to SF. They say 'good luck with that. Feel free to join in, or simply ignore. Should be very interesting.

Yeah......there must be megabucks around in Silicon Valley...

Reversing into a parking space further up the street so I can watch the comings and goings.

So this house just closed, and is two blocks away, so a really excellent comparison. Was sold $100,000 over asking price. It is a toal dump fixer upper. HERE

Am feeling more and more confident we shall get a good price!

Today handyman starts first of 3 days with us this week, then back for 3 more next week once our furniture goes to storage. He's very cool, Tom - says he does not appear with the sun, and only works from around 9:45 to 5:00, so I guess I shall never see him again

Tomorrow the laser measure guy comes (why are they all men in this business?) to get actual measurements down pat. These will be used to refute the wrong listing at city hall, as well as to prepare the floor plan. When we bought the house was listed at 2066 sq. ft. - city has it listed as 1750 or so. A big difference. They also appear to have lost a bedroom, which makes no sense since they were not added on. Anyway, with most buyers having set search parameters automatically send them possible homes, we would really like to be able to use the 2000 figure. Let's see where it comes in!

obviously the house is a TOTAL dump, not sure what toal is meant to mean.

@2017SoFarSoGood but that house has such a fab view!

5rivers no stealth boast, but that does not have a patch on our view. Not the best pics but this is from my living room. We can see 5 cities and clear across the bay on a clear day. It was the view that made us buy this house. Totally mesmorizing, and like a picture that is contstantly changing. We will miss this!

Wow. .

Wow.

Marking place.

I am very jealous! Where are you moving to OP?

BumWad not certain, since we can't really look too much in case we fall in love but can't make an offer. Somewhere smaller, cheaper, without lots of stairs, and not nearly so picturesque I'm sure. More north, towards the city, preferably South San Franciso we think.

Shall miss so much, including my regular dinner critics visitors looking in my kitchen window.

Good luck!

This thread makes me simultaneously really miss the bay and be glad that I left! I lived not too far from you, just in an apartment. We used to see your dinner critics on our evening walks :)

@2017SoFarSoGood ok your view wins!

I lived in Berkley for a bit and house shared in this amazing house up on a hill with some of the best views I've ever had in a house.

Miss Cali!

hello lovely people. Need your opinion please.

Measuring guy came up with 200 sq ft LESS than we bought. Wonder where that went?

Anyway. Floor plans have been created, but I don't think they actually depict the layout of our home. If you looked at this floor plan, would you be able to figure out that the actual house looked like it does in the picture (from Google maps - taken when we had a blue tarp down for some reason ) OR would you feel cheated when you actually saw the place and see it is not at all that 2 level house you expected?

Looking at it on my phone, will need a better look on the laptop later.

thank you Toldmywrath - Of course, will ony be part of the 'package' but still, want it to be accurate. And enticing

First floor on the US is what we would call the ground floor in the UK - looks to me as though the floorplan and the photo are not the same orientation - the parasol is on the deck so the photo is from the other side?

In fact, are the two floors on the floorplan not orientated in the same way? First floor plan looks to be at right angles to second floor.

Is the lowest part on the left of the photo the garage?

Wowfudge yes, the photo goes from left to right, garage (lower) main floor with deck w/parasol, then bedrooms (up another flight of stairs). Does that make sense?

The floor plan is turned around, as you say.

I think what is missing is that the bedrooms are a third (or second in UK parlance) floor. The joys of being built on a hillside.

Well there should be separate image for each floor on the floorplan then - can they show them as a kind of pulled apart stack?

that's what I thought too, Wow.

Yes must follow. Is it common to bring a chef on open days???? Do people do that for fun at the weekend, going around treat hunting and pretending to be buyers? I don't remember my parents house sales moving that quickly tbh.

OVienna the chef is coming for the brokers open only. Not for the public. Although often there are cookies and coffee or lemonade at regular open houses.

Colleague just closed on a house. She googled the sellers and found friends in common to refer to in her 'why sell to me' letter. She included pictures of her family, but did not include videos, like most of the others making offers. I can't imagine having to watch sales pitches but we shall see.

I feel like I've gone through a time slip to 2006! Cannot believe how strong your market/the economy is!

Frankly it is quite scary. There seems to be no end in sight but I'm still very glad to be selling now. Not so great having to buy but that will be in a less popular area so not quite as crazy.

Also the fact we shall be able (by then) to make a cash offer without contingencies may mean no cringy letter necessary.

I am curious about how much first time buyers will generally need to cough up.

Many cities have some kind of first time buyer's program which provides some down payment assistance, but it is very limited and qualifiying is very tough. Affordable housing is very limited and again, somewhat of a joke to qualify. Lottery typically, and still a ridiculous amount of money! The income at which you need to qualify is too low to actually be able to afford most homes, so a crazy loop. california guidelines here

My colleague was a first time buyer, and her down payment was 10% - almost unheard of nowadays to get in with such a little amount - but it was in Oakland, so not nearly as much competition, and much cheaper inventory.