Deniece's Blog

Los Altos, Los Altos Hills, Mountain View, Palo Alto, Portola Valley, Sunnyvale Updated February 2, 2009 by Deniece Watkins Smith Periodically I do a report showing the active, pending show (there are still some contingencies, but an offer is accepted), pending release (an offer has been accepte...

Used to be that when someone wanted to buy a home, they spoke with lender, found out what they could buy, got a pre-approval letter, and then made an offer as a qualified buyer. Today that has changed. This doesn’t mean that they can’t qualify at all. It’s is just that the criteria has changed. T...

The patience, guidance, and knowledge of paperwork in a short sale are tenfold to other real estate transactions. When doing a short sale hire a Realtor with experience and have them help you step by step through the tedious process. Because of the decline in prices in many areas, sellers are try...

For a while I was telling everyone there were four cities (in my selling jurisdiction) that were immune to the short sale and foreclosure markets due to high demand, mostly driven by excellent schools.  These cities were:  Palo Alto, Los Altos, Cupertino, and Mountain View.  Mountain View's deman...

Deniece Watkins' Market Update 8/28/07   I'd like to take a minute to translate (in my words) what is happening with lenders right now.  The long and the short of it is that there is a normal economic adjustment being made, which was predictable, and should lead to a more stable market for the ne...

Local Market Knowledge....    Let's cut to the chase!  In the last 30 days, this is what has happened with closed sales in our local cities:  Information on the properties that have CLOSED ESCROW in the last month, regardless of their list date, the numbers are as follows:   Homes        Los Alto...

West Silicon Valley Market Update by Deniece Watkins, Realtor, ePro, SRES 650-917-7970Have you ever taken a look at your own child on a daily basis and not noticed big changes, but then looked at that same child in a photo year over year and noticed all of the changes?  Sometimes, taking a look a...