Have you ever tried to comp out a house for which there were no similar properties?
Have you ever tried explaining to clients why they cannot compare their home to one far away, in another zip code, to arrive at the current market value?
This last week, I did a market analysis on a small home in a neighborhood full of bigger homes in Saratoga, California (near San Jose, part of Silicon Valley). The home I was evaluating was about 20% smaller than absolutely everthing else. And to make matters worse, while every other home was on an "interior" lot, this one backed to a busy road.
It was a CMA (competitive market analaysis) challenge!
What to do?
In cases like this, I try to arrive at the probable buyer's value from a number of different angles - none of which would be ideal by a long shot. But if I can come up with values from 3-4 directions and they all fall within a "band" of pricing, I know I've got it.
Sometimes our clients do not understand how appraisals or CMAs work in terms of valid cops. So today I did a post on this topic for my readers in Los Gatos and Silicon Valley generally, and I hope it helps! For more information on how I explain the valuation process to my clients, please visit my Live in Los Gatos blog now!
Doing a Market Analysis when there are NO Comps
40 comments • Mary Pope-Handy, ABR, CRS, ePRO, SRES • August 26 2007 07:12AMBig & Beautiful Ponderosa Home in South San Jose
Welcome Home! Spacious and fabulously built by Ponderosa, this home offers great living and an incredible value!
With a fabulous floorplan offering every kind of space imaginable, 5088 Cineraria Court provides many possibilities. In addition to the formal living and dining areas, the eat-in kitchen and family room, this house also has a huge, oversized bonus room. 
The big bonus room can function as a large, double office, pool table room, media room, library, exercize haven, homeschooling room, bedroom, hobby room, playroom - the possibilities are endless! The ceiling is vaulted and has recessed lighting and a fan light. A bountiful supply of windows floods the room with natural light. This room is in many ways "the star of the show" and is one of the most hard-to-find features in any home, making this a real gem and very, very unique.
The above photo is from the virtual tour (so is a little fisheye) but it gives you an idea of the open nature of the floorplan and the abundant natural light in this cheery home. The staircase splits at the landing with the left side leading to the bonus room and the right side flowing to the bedroom wing. Great layout!
The spacious kitchen has a view to the backyard (out left, not seen), access to the dining room (viewed through the door) and family room (behind photographer).
Sunny and warm, the family room is adjacent to the backyard and the kitchen. It features a beautiful brick fireplace as well. 
The large Master Bedroom suite enjoys views of the backyard, lots of natural light , great closet space and a fabulous bathroom.
The fabulous tub area includes high ceilings and a skylight too.
The inside is gorgous and roomy - and so it the backyard for 5088 Cineraria Court!
A friend and colleague of mine, Ann O'Farrell, is vacationing in Ireland and I'm helping her in marketing one of her listings just as she helps me when I'm vacationing. So today's post is not about my own listing, but hers.
For more information, please contact me:
Mary Pope-Handy, Realtor, CRS, ABR, e-PRO, SRES, ASP, RECS, CNHS
Helping Nice Folks to Buy & Sell Homes Since 1993
Co-Author: "Get The Best Deal When Selling Your Home In Silicon Valley"
Intero Real Estate Services, Los Gatos, CA (Silicon Valley)
408 357-5760 (Direct); 408 204-7673 (Cell); 408 715-0201 (eFax)
www.PopeHandy.com www.ValleyOfHeartsDelight.com
emailto: Mary@PopeHandy.com
Blog: www.LiveInLosGatos.com
4 comments • Mary Pope-Handy, ABR, CRS, ePRO, SRES • August 21 2007 11:52AMSunnyvale Eichler Home - Mid Century Modern - 582 Morse Avenue
If you live in northern California, you've probably heard of Eichler homes. They came out post World War II (starting in about 1949 or so) as modern, affordable housing. Joseph Eichler built about 11,000 houses (and a few condos!), mostly in northern California but a few in southern CA. These are ranch homes with a distinctive flair, and they have certain characteristics that make them fairly remarkable:
I grew up hearing about Eichler homes from my mom, who was a Realtor. And now, 14.5 years into the biz, I've listed a lovely Eichler house in Sunnyvale. (I believe there are a couple of Eichlers in Los Gatos, but they are not mentioned on EichlerNetwork.com, which appears to have a virtually exhaustive list and map of the location of these homes.)
So let me tell you about this California Modern or Mid-Century Modern Home I've had the pleasure of listing, 582 Morse Avenue in Sunnyvale, California....
The house was built in 1950 and is one of the earlier incarnations of an Eichler home. It offers 3 bedrooms, 1 remodeled bath, an updated kitchen (with great amenities - gas range, stainless steel fridge and gorgeous tile), a new hot water heater, hardwood floors, and a very lush garden front and back with a real "B & B" feel to it. The house has 1044 SF plus a 2 car garage and is offered at $649,950. Since a picture is worth at least a thousand blog entries, let me show you a view or two.
Front of home:
There's a privacy fence hiding the kitchen window - but in later Eichlers, the only windows facing front would be extremely high up, allowing in only light.
With Eichlers, there's always a close connection between the indoors and the outdoors. Here, the owners have enjoyed both a front deck and also a back patio. 
The floorplan is open, with the living and dining areas open to the kitchen - and the bedroom wing only barely secluded with a divider that can double as a bookcase or knick knack holder.
Very open floorplan - this makes the house feel much bigger than the officially measured square footage. There is also NO wasted space.
For more pics, a link to the virtual tour, and other information, please visit my website, http://www.popehandy.com/ and click on "Mary's Featured Homes" or use this direct link: http://www.popehandy.com/listings/listing_home.cfm?property_ID=4705618
The home will be open Saturday and Sunday, August 18 and 19, 1:30-3:30. Please stop by!
Mary Pope-Handy, Realtor, CRS, ABR, e-PRO, SRES, ASP, RECS, CNHS
Helping Nice Folks to Buy & Sell Homes Since 1993
Co-Author: "Get The Best Deal When Selling Your Home In Silicon Valley"
Intero Real Estate Services, Los Gatos, CA (Silicon Valley)
408 357-5760 (Direct); 408 204-7673 (Cell); 408 715-0201 (eFax)
www.PopeHandy.com www.ValleyOfHeartsDelight.com
emailto: Mary@PopeHandy.com
Blog: www.LiveInLosGatos.com
9 comments • Mary Pope-Handy, ABR, CRS, ePRO, SRES • August 16 2007 09:40PMPhotos from Bloggers Connect; Mary Pope-Handy and Frances Flynn Thorsen Win Project Blogger - but really, CARE does!
Matt Heaton with The Nice Guys from Trulia
There was no shortage of laptops, tablets, blackberries and treos at Bloggers Connect
Pat Kitano, Dustin Luther, Robbin Tippons, Aneil Dash were on the panel for Blogs and Social Networking (host was Jessica Swesey from Inman)
Joe, Fran, Mary, Tisza, Drew, Kevin and Ardell wait to see who will be announced as the winning team for Project Blogger. The Active Rain guys brought out a huge check, shrouded in cardboard, and showed the check to the audience before showing it to us....
The audience saw right away that the check for $5000 was made out to CARE. Joeann Fossland started screaming and clapping with wild abandon - that's when I knew that Fran and I really did win the Project Blogger Competition. It was not a shock as we had been in first place all along, but the contest was way too close to call.
Tisza thanked everyone and expressed how happy she was to have been a part of this amazing 4 month competition. She really gave it her all!
And Ardell had a few words to say about Kevin Tomlinson and his hard work and successes in Project Blogger.
Frances Flynn Thorsen and I hold the check for CARE and she explains to the audience why the work of CARE is so vital, and how this donation from Inman News and Active Rain will make an enormous difference in the lives of many, many people. (When I was asked how I did it, I joked, "obscessive compulsive?" but Fran's comments were the real deal - we were both very highly motivated to do our best for CARE. I should have said, "I need to thank Mr. Johsens and Mr. Scott from Saratoga High School for teaching me how to write well as I was growing up in Silicon Valley". They actually DO deserve a lot of credit.)
What surprised me is that I also got an award (which they have back to engrave with my name). How nice is that? I was happy just to be there and see so many of my cool blogging friends, and tickled to have won, but didn't expect any lasting momento. Thanks, guys!
And Fran got one too! Joeann Fossland put us together and she and Fran are very involved in the Web Women Giving Circle, which supports CARE.
And Tisza Major-Posner won a Tom Tom just afterwards at a drawing upstairs (for "her Mel")
And just after all of that fun, I got to see a cousin of mine who was in SF for Inman Connect - Ryan Slack of Property Shark. We had a nice visit between sessions.
So yes, playing with my friends in The City, attending great sessions at Bloggers Connect and meeting folks I "knew" online before getting to Bloggers Connect was all very cool. And it was nice to win, I'll admit it. But my fellow apprentices worked very hard and I learned a lot from them and EVERYONE who really worked at this contest did win in one way or another.
Thanks are in order:
Caleb Mardini gets thanks for a heroic amount of effort throughout (and for taking our fairly frequent gripes about this or that which hadn't gone exactly right).
Many mentors (esp Jeff Turner, also Ardell) warrant thanks, as do my fellow apprentices and some knowledgeable folks on the sidelines such as Maureen McCabe and Laurie Manny and Theresa Boardman (and the list should be longer but I'm afraid to come close to a comprehensive list for fear of missing someone...).
Thank you, Inman News, and thank you, Active Rain, for creating this wild ride we all just experienced. We all learned a ton. Thank you, Joeann Fossland, for introducing me to Fran. And Fran, many many thanks to you for your constant belief in me, encouragement and tips from the very beginning.
Thanks to my husband and kids for putting up with my diving into this perhaps too enthusiastically at times. They were ready for it to be over by Week 3 but hung in there.
Thanks to all who participated!
13 comments • Mary Pope-Handy, ABR, CRS, ePRO, SRES • August 04 2007 08:29PMBloggers: Between Beer and a Crowded, Foamy Place
It was sooo cool to finally meet Frances Flynn Thorsen ("Fran"), who'd been mentoring me (Mary Pope-Handy) in Project Blogger for weeks and weeks.
Paul Chaney (mentor to Ines Hegedus-Garcia) and David G from Zillow at The Thirsty Bear in SF.
Chad Huck from C21 Hecht Realty in Mooresville, North Carolina and Mario Pinedo of Intero Real Estate Services (same company where I hang my license!) in Cupertino.
Mingling isn't this blogger's strongest suit, but at Beer and Bloggers (or was it Bloggers and Beer?) it was "close knit" and I did meet a lot of very wonderful folks, including this daughter-mom team (Michelle Leonard and her mother, who are affiliated with Long and Foster in the Philadelphia area). 
Bloggers at the Thirsty Bear: Tisza Major-Posner and Jeff Turner do some catching up.
Don McCormack (whose McCormack's Guides in California I purchase by the dozen) and another blogger...uh, whose name I'm forgetting... at the beer and bloggers event....
The very nice Drew Meyers from Zillow, who was a coach in Project Blogger. Unfortunately the Thirsty Bear was enormously crowded (packed!) and I am not sure anyone could hear him over the roar of the crowd.
Joe Ferrara of Sellsius snaps a pic of Ardell DellaLoggia in the Sellsius Blog Mobile while Tisza Major-Posner looks on.
Laurie Manny, Kevin Tomlinson, Tisza Major-Posner outside of the Thirsty Bear. "Where do you wanna go for dinner?" "I dunno, what do you feel like?" "What's nearby??"
Enough with the beer... let's go get some dinner!! Seen above are Kim Harris, Ardell Della Loggia, Kevin Tomlinson, Tisza Major-Posner, Caleb Mardini and Laurie Manny.
Next post (tomorrow or whenever I catch my breath): Bloggers Connect
23 comments • Mary Pope-Handy, ABR, CRS, ePRO, SRES • August 03 2007 01:58AMThe Fun Continues: Picking Up Kevin
"I can resist anything but temptation" the saying goes.
We really did intend to behave, honest.
But Tisza, Kevin and I just couldn't help ourselves. Tisza and I had just picked Kevin up from San Farncisco's airport and we were meandering toward The Cliff House, where I wanted them to enjoy a great view and great food with some neat ambiance.
Skirting the edge of Golden Gate Park, Tisza cried out, "That's the Blog Bus!!" It took about a quarter of a second for us to realize that this was too good to pass up.
A few turns later, we were parked behind the RV, plastering it with business cards and post it notes.
Kevin stuck a post-it next to Ardell's image with a comment that said, "Call me, I'm easy" and thoughtfully included her (real) phone number. (Not posted since I don't want to cause Ardell to get true harassment about it.)
Oh, the fates must have loved us to present an opportunity so perfect!
Calming our giddy souls down, we resumed our regularly scheduled search for food. Tisza got us out to The Cliff House, which was originally founded in 1850 (that's old for here!) and we enjoyed a nice selection of food - I think all of us had some sort of shellfish or another in our table at the window.
That darned fog was there in SF too, but both Kevin and Tisza seemed to revel in it. "I could live here" Kevin said, "Fog is what you think of with San Francisco" said Tisza, making sure I understood that she'd have been disappointed without it.
Go figure!
Lunch was great, Kev insisted on treating (all the while insistng what a mean guy he is - we were not buying it). And then, Tourist Time. First a ride across the Golden Gate Bridge, then down Lombard Street, and finally up Telegraph Hill to Coit Tower. Great views as the fog was (finally) clearing.
Here are some pics for you to enjoy:
Tisza and Kevin just before lunch at The Cliff House, which is on the Pacific Ocean.
Here we are at the Golden Gate Bridge. "The view would be great, but for the fog" I explained again and again...
Lombard Street caused Kevin to shout over and over "wait, stop, I have to take a photo!"
And here you see Kevin in front of a statue of Christopher Columbus (a most famous Italian who is also remembered well in San Francisco's "North Beach" or Italian District) at Coit Tower.
The California State flower - the poppy
Tisza sporting an "I survived Project Blogger" tshirt.
Next post: Beer and Bloggers
20 comments • Mary Pope-Handy, ABR, CRS, ePRO, SRES • August 02 2007 10:57PMFun With Tisza
Tisza Major-Posner drove up to Los Gatos from Claremont last Sunday and we had a chance to show her around our fair town on Monday. Thought the Active Rain and Project Blogger community would enjoy seeing a few photos of our fun in Silicon Valley and Santa Cruz.... Enjoy!Our home sits at the very base of some foothills (which enjoy a view) and to begin our introductory tour of Los Gatos, I drove Tisza (and my daughter) to the top. Normally you can see not only downtown San Jose, but all the way to San Francisco if the day's clear - but no such luck on Monday.
Even so, Tisza cooed appreciatively for the view of Silicon Valley and downtown San Jose. I griped about the smog (not pictured) and she joked, "I brought it with me from L.A."
Next we drove up Blossom Hill Road first to Blossom Manor (she's a Realtor and appreciates these things!) and then Vasona Park. This is where Los Gatos truly has its beginnings in terms of settlers, as it's where Hernandez and Peralta initially heard mountain lions screetching and decided it must be a viable place to live - there had to be water nearby. (Hence the name, Los Gatos - the cats.)Being from southern California, Tisza wasn't used to seeing geese and got all excited about them. She took this pic of them and commented repeatedly (using a lot of words, can you picture that?) about the geese.
We took her through the park by car, which really doesn't do it justice (from a sailboat or paddleboat is much better, but we only had a few hours and much to see). I promised to send her a link to the photo show I did. Tisza, it is:
Vasona Lake County Park and Oak Meadow Park.
We did a driving tour up North Santa Cruz Avenue and into the Almond Grove District, pointing out unique architecture on Almendra Avenue, noting the location of the old graveyard on North Santa Cruz and former mortuaries turned restuarants or homes. 
The ride included a stop at Old Town and Borders particularly (where my visitor and daughter cleaned up on the bargain table). We saw the Edelen District, the Civic Center, Los Gatos High, and Testarossa Winery before stopping to enjoy lunch at Andale's and dessert at Powell's Sweet Shop. And yes, of course I pointed out to her all of the haunted spots too!My work forced a break in tourism at that point as I needed to do some running around with an offer etc. so we had a haitus of a few hours before making a trip over The Hill to Santa Cruz.
Santa Cruz can be foggy and cool when the weather is overly hot in San Jose or Los Gatos, and so it was on Monday too.
First the three of us drove through Pacific Avenue (the downtown area) and noticed a lot of typically colorful folks there. Next stop was the lighthouse, which provides a great vantage point to see the whole Monterey Bay - that is, if it's clear and not foggy. Unfortunately, the fog was rolling in and it was pretty cool and windy (at least 20 degrees cooler than at our home). Tisza took a lot of pics and oohed and aaahhed at the fog (I was not as impressed with it as she was - I wanted her to see the views!) and loved seeing the sea lions especially.
After freezing awhile, we moved on to the next point of interest, The Wharf. The wharf holds a lot of fond memories for me as a place for family dinners, but also a neat place to get a really close view of the sea lions - who are simply amusing. We both took pics of the sea lions (mine didn't turn out great but Tisza got some good ones so I'm sure she'll post them soon), who performed beautifully for us by grooming, swimming, barking and diving onto the platform (one poor fellow had to make several attempts before being successful and a good landing). 
The fog determined that inland northern California was far too hot, so it continued to overtake not only the bay, but the beach and the land as well. By now we had left the wharf and were seeking parking at The Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, one of the last midways on a Pacific beach. It is just so fun there with all the typical carnival rides, food, and ambiance. But we were lucky: being there on a Monday (or Tuesday) night, prices are rolled back incredibly. It's called 1907 Night (the Boardwalk was founded in 1907) and everything - well, almost everything - is really, really cheap. The Giant Dipper, for instance, normally costs $4,50 for a ride, but on 1907 night the cost is just 75 cents. Can't beat it! Hot dogs and sodas are 75 cents too. (Every Mon/Tues after 5pm in summer. Such a deal!)
My daughter and I first took Tisza on the Giant Dipper (man that woman can SCREAM! but then she laughs hysterically at herself), followed by a cheapo-1907 style dinner, a sky ride (really cold as we seemed to have been elevated into the fog for that) and then the very High Camp Haunted House (could I possibly miss THAT?). The bumper cars had very long lines. But there's always time to buy a little cotton candy and churros, which we did before realizing that the parking meter was about to flip over to the dreaded red zone....
Chilled thoroughly (we'd dressed for the heat of Los Gatos and had sweatshirts, but they weren't enough), we finished up the jaunt to the coast by returning to the downtown area and getting some warm drinks at Borderes.
It was a good day, a fun day. I hadn't shown Tisza half the things I'd have liked to have shown her, but convinced her that there are enough very cool things to do here that she and Her Mel just need to come back.
Next: Picking up Kevin Tomlinson at the airport and playing tourist in The City before Beer and Bloggers.
3 comments • Mary Pope-Handy, ABR, CRS, ePRO, SRES • August 02 2007 09:43PMContent © 2009 'Frequent Contributors'. Design © 2009 ActiveRain Corp.
Logos and service marks owned by copyright holder.