Price Reduction: 259 C St, San Rafael reduced to $1,199,000
Timing is everything in life. We originally listed the property at $1,299,000 but unfortunately we couldn’t get on the market until 9/29/23. The tenants finally departed Labor Day weekend, and we needed most of the month to prepare the house with paint, flooring, and various repairs. The best-case scenario would have been for the tenant to leave at least a month earlier, then we could have been on right after Labor Day. Spring or summer would have even been better. As it was, we came on the market during an historic interest rate spike, which has hit a lot of buyers where it hurts the most, in the pocketbook. We are getting great activity now, so it’s likely only a matter of time until the right buyer writes a good offer.
Rain and Yard Work
With the first real rains this past weekend the leaves were falling on C Street. 259 C Street has 2 large Liquid Amber trees out front. Since the owners live out of town, I took it upon myself to rake the front yard, plus clear the leaves from the sidewalk, street and gutters filling 2.5 green cans. I’ll likely be raking leaves before the open house this Sunday as well.
I’ve got two showings Friday scheduled for 279 Devon Drive in Terra Linda. The backyard needed some attention, so Thursday evening the owner and I were ripping out weeds and filling his green can. Tis the season of the green can! The night before I put on my Vivalon Volunteer Tech Tutor hat and assisting my seller with his new computer. He already had a virus, so I downloaded anti-virus software, ran the program and we cleaned it up. It was either that or take it to the Geek Squad.
New Listing 553 Miller Creek Rd, Coming in 2024
I have a new listing on Miller Creek Rd and the tenants gave me the keys this week. We now have a blank slate. Rather than sell the house in its current condition the owner, which is not market ready, I will be meeting on Halloween to discuss what projects we want to do before we go on the market. There is already some structural work scheduled, and beyond that the questions will be how much cosmetic work do we want to do and what will be the return on the investment? After that, we need to decide when we want to put the house on the market. Do we wait until spring, or shoot for earlier in the year? Time will tell, but one thing is for sure, with the increased interest rates and volatility in the stock market this is a moving target.
CAR Chief Economist Presentation
The chief economist of the California Association of Realtors gave a presentation which had a favorable outlook for 2024. In conclusion, despite elevated interest rates, low inventory levels will continue to lead to higher prices. I’m sure there are plenty of buyers hoping for a market ‘crash’, so they can swoop in and get the best deals. Those buyers are likely to keep hoping while they get priced out of the market.