The Irvington Business Association has started a new Holiday Tradition. Last year, IBA President Jesse Schaa proposed a Holiday Lights Competition. The contest was popular and it returned for an encore this year. The contest was open to both residential and non-residential entries. Prizes are generous: $250 for first prize and $100 for second prize. To be eligible the lighting display must be in the 94538 zip code – generally, the historic boundaries of the Irvington Township. Last Saturday evening, the judges cruised the Irvington area aboard a 1958 vintage bus and took in the joyful sights of holiday lights while enjoying hot cocoa and cookies. The decision of the judges is in! First Place: 4106 Adams Ave. – Harry and Cindy Parker Second Place: 41689 Maywood St. – Cindi Hennings   C... 12/20/2012

Las Posadas is a tradition the has been repeated since 1982 in Mission San Jose,Fremont, Ca. Sponsored by the Fremont Cultural Arts Council and the Committee for the Restoration of the Mission San Jose, Las Posadas recreates the journey of Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem complete with the refusal of the innkeeper to give them shelter. The evening ends with entertainment and light refreshments hosted by a local business. The schedule for 2012 is: ·         Friday, Dec. 14 - Meet at 6 p.m. at the Mission (43300 Mission Blvd.) and carol to Von Till Law Office, 152 Anza St. Entertainment: Anza St. Troubadours ·         Saturday, Dec. 15 - Meet at 6 :30 p.m. at the Old Mission Museum, 43300 Mission Blvd. Entertainment: TBA ·         Sunday, Dec. 16 - Meet at 6:30 P.M. at the Dominican Sisters C... 12/16/2012

Christmas lights can be found in many neighborhoods in Fremont, Ca.The homes on Cripps Place transform the neighbor hood into Crippsmass Place with decorations and the joy of the season.   Reeder Court has for many years been a destination visited by those who love to drive the neighborhoods and look at Christmas lights.   We took our granddaughters to view the displays of holiday lights and plywood cutout characters on the courts running off of Nicolet Avenue – Asquith Place, Wellington Place, Nicolet Court and Cripps Place. The girls insisted that we park and get out so that could get a better look at the displays.                                                                                                                                                                             ... 12/15/2012

Warm Springs/South Fremont Station is now the formal name of the new BART station that is being built. It extends the Fremont BART line in a more southerly direction and should be completed over the next few years. Starting from the end of the existing Fremont BART station between Walnut and Mowry, next to the Tule Pond (pronounced Tu-lee). From there, the line will continue southeast UNDER Lake Elizabeth then turn south before it emerges from the depths of Stivers Lagoon just east of Aqua Adventure Water Park. Afterwards, it will parallel the existing railroad tracks that hug near Driscoll, then Osgood, then Warm Springs until it stops right at the very northern part of the parking lot at the old Nummi Plant, now Tesla.   The BART site has an image for the new location on a map, but i... 12/05/2012

The market report for Fremont, Ca. as of 11-30-12 is going to sound a lot like the market report for the previous period. Inventory continues to be scarce. Hard to believe but inventory right now is even lower than it was a month ago.                     When you hear news reports that the number of homes sold has declined from one month to the next in the current market, it is not because buyers don’t want to buy. It is because buyers cannot find anything to buy! You cannot buy what is not for sale. New home construction is up but it will be quite some time before the new homes coming on the market provide adequate inventory to meet the strong buyer demand in Fremont and all around the Bay Area. If you can find a house to buy that meets your needs, jump on it! With prices way lower tha... 11/30/2012

Since real estate is all about location, location, location, how then does the Rancho Arroyo area of Niles stack up? Your first impression could be how wonderfully the mature trees line the curved streets.  After that first impression, just south east of the center of Niles, Rancho Arroyo Park, Niles Community Park and Quarry Lakes Regional Park you may be struck as to how the parks create a  significant southern perimeter of half the Niles area. To the north boasts Niles Canyon, a beautiful canyon where even golden eagles have been spotted. With such a landscape, it is easy to be taken by Niles' charm and appeal. What's more, Niles' historic back round has always given a certain pride of ownership to its residents. Tributes to Charlie Chaplin's films and the historic Niles train stati... 11/28/2012

Each year for the last five years we have celebrated the Holiday Season by taking a trip on the Train of Lights. It is not a long trip – only 13 miles round trip from Niles to Sunol – or the other way around – but the distance is not the point. The point is enjoying the hour spent on the train with family, enjoying the lights, seeing the sunset, viewing Mission Peak, sipping a cup of hot cider or hot chocolate and having a visit with Santa. The train goes one way, stops for a few minutes and then returns to the starting point. Passengers do not disembark mid-trip.  If you take the 4:30 train from Niles you can enjoy the sunset, the beautiful fall colors of the foliage and see Mission Peak in the distance. On the return leg of the trip, you can enjoy the lights. If you take the 7:30 trai... 11/25/2012

There will be no more “Street Eats” in Fremont in 2012 due to the onset of inclement weather. If you though that the sun always shines in California you are mostly right but it does rain from time to time. This evening is supposed to be one of those times. Cold, wet, windy weather is not exactly what brings people out to the parking lot to dine from the food trucks. So…no more “Street Eats” until next year when I am sure that the Fremont Chamber of Commerce will bring them back.   Darn!   No more San Francisco Soup Company, We Sushi, Forbitten City, Grillaz Gone Wild, That’s Sweet Dessert Truck, Conklin’s Catering, Twister Truck, Streatery, My Shrimp Shack and others. We will miss them. 11/16/2012

Inventory is the problem in Fremont, Ca. real estate. The problem with inventory is that there is none. No…inventory is not low…it is way beyond low…it is close to non-existent. I just checked for single family detached homes, duets and patio villas that are listed on our mls. I do this check twice a month – on the 15th and last day of the month. Today, there are 90 listings on the mls that fit the above description. Now, 90 will seem like a lot in some markets. In Fremont, Ca. the population is approximately 220,000. Fremont is the fourth largest city in the San Francisco Bay Area by population count. So, in a city of this size, 90 houses is next to zero inventory…or, at least as low as it gets. Until next count?   Seriously! Here are the figures for several past years in mid-November:... 11/15/2012

Beware: the Holiday Robbery Season is Coming!   We had a speaker this morning at my Lions Club meeting who is a Community Relations Office for the Fremont Police Department. She had some great information which we should all embrace all of the time. The information is especially timely with the Holiday Season approaching. Many of us will be burdened with arm-loads of bags or we will have cars full of gifts which could be easy prey for those whose plan is to relieve us of those items unlawfully.   Here are some great pointers from the Fremont Police that are appropriate for everyone.   REMOVE IT, LOCK IT or LOSE IT!   Remove all valuables from your vehicle (phone, wallet, purse, laptop, camera, packages) – including GPS devices, cell phones, IPODs, IPADS, and chargers. This is appropriat... 11/15/2012

  Inventory continues to decline in Fremont, Ca. The end of 2011 saw relatively few houses on the market but since demand was slack it did not matter. The market was more or less in balance.   In March the Fremont market turned around. Buyers decided to buy but inventory was even lower than at the end of the year. Since then inventory has continued to be very low and has been getting lower. At the same time, demand by buyers has remained strong. The result: multiple offers and rising prices in the Fremont real estate market.        Fremont buyers are frustrated and understandably so. The real estate market is very challenging for Fremont buyers. Cash is king! VA and FHA buyers are hard pressed to be successful. Low ball offers garner sneers and derision. Buyers are leaving the market in... 11/03/2012

Image of new Cedarbrook kitchen in Niles I sold. The numbers do not lie, and they have been in for some time. The numbers prove that when it comes time for a home seller to decide whether or not to remodel the house or sell the property "as is," that a minor kitchen remodel is the number one investment to make before reselling a house in the San Francisco Bay Area. It scored almost 116% recoup. That's a good thing. Interestingly, a major kitchen remodel did not fare as well in the recoup group as one might think. It scored a 94%, so less really is more. An excerpt from the report defined the minor kitchen remodel as:     A functional kitchen about 200 sq ft with 30 ft linear ft of cabinets.    Keeping the cabinet boxes and replacing the fronts with the new raised-panel wood doors and t... 11/03/2012

  Tonight is Fremont Street Eats night. Once again, at the Mission Valley Regional Occupation Program parking lot at 5019 Stevenson Blvd. from 4:30 to 9:00 you will be able to partake of a variety of tasty dinner selections from an assortment of food trucks. Presented by the Food Truck Mafia and Fremont Chamber of Commerce, Street Eats give you a chance to sample some diverse food offerings from a variety of venders.   Tonight’s lineup:   Pizza Pimps – gourmet pizza Truckin Sweet – gourmet ice cream and dessert Grillaz Gone Wild – Philly cheese steaks, hoagies and other gourmet sandwiches Tacos de Los Altos – authentic Mexican cuisine Bibigo – Korean BBQ Kinder’s Truck – BBQ sandwiches Mogo – Korean inspired mobile food Munch Indian – Indian cuisine                                     ... 11/02/2012

RE REALTY EXPERTS, The San Francisco Bay Area Real Estate Resource If you are in the market to Find a Home or Sell a Home in the San Francisco Bay Area, or if you would like to know How Much Your Home Is Worth,  RE REALTY EXPERTS The San Francisco Bay Area Real Estate Resource is here to help. RE REALTY EXPERTS was founded in 1995 and since then has rapidly grown into one of the premier real estate resource companies in the San Francisco Bay Area.  RE REALTY EXPERTS is staffed with approximately 100 of the most experienced, multilingual, award winning real estate agents from around the San Francisco Bay Area.  Conveniently located at 41051 Mission Boulevard Fremont, Ca  RE REALTY EXPERTS The San Francisco Bay Area Real Estate Resource is open 7 days a week.  Office hours are as follow: ... 10/05/2012

Market statistics for August 31, 2012 in Fremont, Ca.   I have supplied three charts showing the inventory of single family homes and condo/townhouses that are were posted for sale as of the end of January, end of July and end of August of this year in Fremont, Ca. In Fremont, as in many places in the San Francisco Bay Area and elsewhere, the inventory of houses for sale is unusually small. Real estate is cyclical and we have changed from a real estate market where there were plenty of homes for sale and not that many interested buyers to a market where eager buyers are pursuing a sharply reduced number of real estate buying opportunities. We don’t understand the reasons that there are so few houses for sale. We do know that lenders are releasing fewer REO properties onto the market. At... 09/02/2012

Unknown breed of duck purchased on Portobello Road, West London Last Sunday, we packed up the kids and headed off to the Niles area of Fremont for their city-wide garage sale or street sale. Arriving at about noon and driving ever so gently through First, Second and Third Street in the car and eyeing all that was to be had was fascinating for me but only for a little while. While I was indeed saucer-eyed looking through the car window at some of the potential deals, I quickly realized there was no way to actually buy anything from the car. I felt a little lame actually. What was I going to do--stop the car? I can see it now. Car stopped, and me getting out with the typical half skip and a jog with my arms tucked up high towards some box full of fishing tackle for sale. Then, I give the... 08/30/2012

My job broke my heart the other day. In short, I had to tell a very qualified would-be renter that they did not get the home for rent in Fremont. We do property management in the TriCity area as well. http://tricityhome.com/Fremont-Newark-Union-City/Tri-City-Property-Management/index.html    So, because of this, I felt the need to see if other Fremont real estate agents could use this template and idea I made as a result. Why not urge renters to set up notifiers using real-time MLS data.     It goes something like this... __________________   Dear [name of renter]   Thank you for inquiring about the rental on 123 Anystreet. It is now rented as of yesterday afternoon. I know it is hard to hear the news. It is also hard to deliver the news all the time, but I have something for you that ... 08/30/2012

Here is my market update for the Fremont, Ca. real estate market for 7-31-12. As seen in the charts below, the inventory remains constrained although listings of single family detached homes have increased somewhat over the last sixty days. Listings for condos and townhouses remain scarce. The decline in the absolute numbers of REOs and short sales has continued. These distressed property categories now make up a substantially smaller percentage of the total listings then they did at the beginning of the year. As banks have made the belated realization that short sales are better for them than REOs the short sale inventory has become a much larger part of the overall market than REOs. Total inventory of real estate for sale in Fremont remains tight. The result continues to be a scenario... 08/02/2012

  Wenlock (Mandeville not shown) is pictured above in Union Jack suit The 2012 Summer Olympics will be in London, and even though I still have not had the pleasure to compete in nor attend,  I have had the privilege of being glued to the television from as far back as 1972, when Mark Spitz and Dave Wottle stole the show in Munich, all the way up to more recent Olympic history when Michael Phelps brought home gold from Beijing in 2008. The 2012 Olympics in London is starting in just 6 days, and I think watching it on TV still grants us license to be a part of history as we sit up and say, "I saw that when it happened."   We would also like to congratulate our local Fremont and Pleasanton east bay area residents who will be participating in a much more real sense by carrying the torch. Th... 07/21/2012

The red-tailed hawk is found all through the United States, Canada, Mexico and even in Central America.  Growing up in the San Francisco Bay Area, I have had the pleasure of living in what has to be one of the red-tailed hawk's favorite places to live and raise their young, Fremont, CA. Fremont's terrain encompasses wetlands that begin at the sloughs like Newark Slough, Plummer Slough, Mowry Slough and Mud Slough, then gradually lifts to become landscape for creeks like Alameda, Morrison, Vargas and Mission and approximately 7 others to the south. It is a great environment for mice, gophers, snakes, rabbits and many other types of prey. If you have ever heard a distinct screech in the sky in early July, you may be the hearing young red-tailed hawks having a go at producing the bona fid... 07/17/2012