Fremont CA Real Estate

In regards to selling your Fremont, Newark or Union City property and buying a replacement home, a Fremont real estate agent will play a a vital role in assuring that the sale of the old home and purchase of the new one work together. Here is a testimonial of a Union City home seller purchasing a Fremont replacement home. http://www.tricityhome.com/ondemand.html (click Keniki)

When selling a home in Fremont then moving right into the home in another area, you need to allow a little time between the two transactions. This is important to ensure both feasibility and peace of mind knowing that no one will be on the street without a place to go. A good Fremont real estate agent will place proper assurances in the purchase contract. Careful real estate contract wording is needed to set things straight when trying to accomplish the double deal.

Many helpful moving websites I have used are also available below for you to visit and use when the time comes for you to move from Fremont, Newark and Union City.

• http://www.onesimplemove.com--interactive calendars and up to date articles.
• http://www.mayflower.com/moving--a little overwhelming but really loaded with tools.
• http://www.whitefence.com--mostly compares utilities, then helps hook them up online.
• http://www.moving.com--no calendar that I could see, but ok.
• http://www.relocation.com--great new tools and articles.
• http://www.pods.com--store your stuff, then move it.when you want to.

So, in closing, you'll want a good Fremont Newark, Union City real estate agent http://www.tricityhome.com and some State-Of-The-Art web tools for all the stuff in between.

The last two short sales in Fremont that I performed were by no means smooth. And, I have become a little short sale shy as a result. Yet, other short sales in Fremont we recently closed had performed exceptionally well--Fremont short sales are sort of a mixed bag. What made the difference? The last two sort sales in Fremont were bad, but others were not. We discovered that it has everything to do with the lender of the original borrower or what we might refer to now as the short sale lender. Worst on the list was Bank of America who took an average of 10 months to perform a short sale and still not short sales were completed. And, what’s more, B of A was full of surprises. In fact, just about everything they did was a surprise. Imagine staring at a cocoon that has not hatched, waiting for something, anything to happen. That’s kind of what it was like. Everyone had to wait for very long periods of time even to acknowledge that the bank had received a document. Like watching the cocoon, any movement what so ever made us sit up surprised that something took place, even if it turned out to be nothing. Some things they did were remarkably abrupt and surprising. For example they upped a Fremont short sale price right out of thin air even after everyone agreed on B of A’s counter offer on price. They simply told us (oh, by the way) it was going to be $5,000 more. Then, at the final stretch of the transaction, B of A left out any considerations for the second lien holder and gave them zero on the approval certification. They later back paddled on that one, fixed it using a bad Microsoft Word edit that actually highlighted their mistake, then blamed my title co. rep with 30 years experience. Oh, I almost forgot one more thing. Another B of A Fremont short sale simply ended after an investor phoned and said they had just bought the property in foreclosure and for me to please remove my sales materials. This is the one where I even had a B of A rep authorized on the seller’s account watching carefully to assure us everything would go smoothly.

What makes a good Fremont short sale lender as opposed to a bad one? Most people if asked to judge a short sale lender would grade them on the speed in which the lender can process the approval of the transaction. Bank of America seems to take the longest. They boast about a 90-day turnaround, but unless the planets are aligned just so, it can take over a year to complete. Keep in mind that there are other conditions that can effect the time it takes to complete the transaction as Bank of America will be quick to tell you. The fastest short sale lender we have experienced was Bridgefield, a small lender who simply handled the whole thing over coffee.

Our Fremont short sale real estate agent office here http://www.tricityhome.com is now performing another short sale in Fremont who's lender is Chase. Chase is large too, but they are more organized than B of A. The Chase negotiators (the ones that either handle the short sale approval themselves or present the short sale package to the investor) are very quick to act. Emails are returned the next day or same day. They also order the BPO (broker price opinion--sort of a snapshot appraisal for the bank to review) just as soon as possible.

But since we had been bitten by B of A, the Nosferatu of short sale lenders as of late, I am now shy to believe any short sale lender when they ask for something out of the norm. For example, our most recent Fremont short sale was in need of a BPO. I drove to the property to make sure the lockbox was still there 1. I opened the door and walked through the Fremont short sale. Suddenly, I discovered a tingling sensation at my ankles. Upon further inquiry, I realized I was being bitten by what must have been hundreds of fleas, and they were growing in number. What must have looked like a scene from America’s Funniest Home Videos, I darted to the door, locked up the house while running in place then ran into the parking lot. Once there, I swatted, shook, pinched then as a last resort, out ran all the fleas to be sure none followed. When I told Chase what had happened, they told me they would send Property Preservation out to take care of it. A red flag went up, and I got quite defensive. Once bitten twice shy, I thought they were going to execute some acceleration clause and foreclose on the house once Property Preservation was called due to fleas. They assured me this was not the case. Regardless, I told them not to call this third party, and that I and the BPO person would find a way to get it done. In short, we got it done without calling Property Preservation.

I will work on my uneasiness when it comes to trusting Fremont short sale lenders. After all, a Fremont short sale lender does not have to B of A pain in the neck.

1. For a period of time in 08, I happened upon many homes for sale in Fremont that were supposed to have a lock box only to find that they were missing. I would call the listing agent who would often be taken aback by the fact that it was just there a few days ago. I later found out that this was happening quite often on vacant properties. Perhaps squatters or desperate agents took the boxes so that no one else can show the house, I am still unsure.

I see a lot of homes for sale in Fremont http://www.tricityhome.com and their garages. Some owners are creative in they're use of the space while other homeowners are in survival mode. Some of my homes for sale in Fremont have used shelving and built-in fixtures to make the space very workable as a hobby shop and the like. I was taken a back lately by this townhome for sale in Fremont.

Do you remember the Tennessee Tuxedo cartoon? He and is pal Chumly would escape from the zoo on a mission to solve a problem. Armed with the voice characterization of Don Adams, Tennessee Tuxedo would demand that they visit Mr. Whoopee, a brilliant professor who knew all the answers. Upon arrival of Mr. Whoopee's office, it only took a matter of a minute or two until the professor had to open his closet to get use of his "3D-BB," his three dimensional blackboard. However, the closet was packet to the ceiling with stuff. I wonder why a tennis racket sticking out always seems to make it as a stereotypical junk thing. Anyway, when the closet is opened--all the junk spills on top of Mr Whoopee. Well, that almost happened to me.

While showing homes for sale in Fremont, an owner had stepped out prior to me showing one of the homes, and there were no images of the garage in the Fremont home for sale on the MLS. "Can we see the garage?" the buyer asked. "Sure," I replied. This is what we saw. I could not help but think of Mr. Whoopee's closet.

Here is an episode of Tennessee Tuxedo on YouTube (They want to make a light and learn about Thomas Edison). And, yes, the tennis racket is in the pile of junk in Mr. Whoopee's closet--see if you can find it.

It was not too long ago, that I and many others suggested to Craig Newmark or staff that he should definitely have a section for Fremont garage sales & moving sales or estate sales on Craigslist.

We were heard. There is now a Fremont garage sales & moving sales section on Craigslsit.

Craigslist had created a Fremont garage sales & moving sales section in the Craigslist website some time ago, and now I will get to try it out. http://sfbay.craigslist.org/eby/gms/

My wife and I have come to realize that we have too many things, especially now that we have two new children and no additional storage. In a very real sense, our garage has become storage. Naturally, some things we do not want to part with like Halloween decorations and such, but why keep abandoned toys, clothes, and kitchen items that are never going to be used? I even found a dusty old Saguaro Cactus made of tissue paper in there. Maybe the Saguaro could be a FREE item.

Our goal is to find these things a new home soon by way of Fremont garage sales & moving sales. The items we do not want that did not sell at our Fremont garage sales & moving sales will be donated to charity.

One benefit of being a Realtor http://www.tricityhome.com is having lots of signs to use in situations like this. I simply get out my Open House signs, reface them using a 20 X 24 piece of cardboard to say Fremont garage sales & moving sales and done!

Anyone need a large bin of Beanie Babies?

There is an awful lot of new construction going on in Fremont near Washington Hospital on Mowry Ave. The hospital itself is under somewhat of a facelift just north of the main building. Furthermore, BART has undergone a massive project not near Washington Hospital on Mowry Ave but off of Stevenson, just across from the Fremont Police Station. Apparently BART is digging the tunnel for the new line. In addition, there is one building in particular that I pass by every day on my way to my office here http://tricityhome.com/fremont-office-visit.html. You may know it. It is on the corner of Stivers and Mowry, a brand new medical building.

I'm sure there must be some harried individual or two, being that workers are getting pressure to meet deadlines. The image above was taken one morning right on the corner of Stivers and Mowry-near Washington Hospital on Mowry Ave. Blinded by the rear of the lift device, a worker unknowingly moved the boom over and bent the stop sign a bit. Being that it was right there near Washington Hospital on Mowry Ave, it must have received a bit of attention. Perhaps he crane/boom/lift operator is now pushing a broom inside the building instead of operating the lift device.

I have not been by again yet at the time of writing this blog, but I am wondering if they discovered it after the fact then used the lift to try to straighten it back again. Regardless, it may never look the same.

I purchased a home in Parkmont of Fremont (I wish I knew about http://www.tricityhome.com CA back in 99. It was built in 1978, so if you are like me and purchased a home built back then or even one built in the eighties, you may have those closet doors with the off white panels. These are the ones that look like fake wood grained contact paper over a wood panel framed in gold metal trim. My wife and I gave our bedroom a face lift recently that included re facing closet doors.



We got a whole new look re facing closet doors that we are very pleased with. Basically, we wallpapered the panels. But, in re facing the closet doors, there was more to it than that. First, we had to remove the panels from the guides by lifting up and pulling the bottom out of the tracks. Second, using a electric drill in reverse, I removed all the screws holding the panels in place being careful to place all the screws in one bin. In our case it was an old hat. Then using a hammer and a piece of soft wood, I tapped all the gold metal frames off of the panel. Since the closest doors take up practically the whole length of the wall, they are quite long and somewhat difficult to move around in the bedroom. The ceiling fan got whacked once or twice before I developed a technique that required both a certain movement together with an awareness of space--almost a zen thing. While removing the frames, it may be important to number the parts as you remove them to ensure proper replacement to the right panelswhen re facing the closet doors. I did mine by writing a-1 on the top frame as well as the panel, and then I wrote a-2 on the first side frame, a-3 on the bottom and a-4 for the last or left side. The next door would be the "b" series and so on. When you get to the rollers, be sure to observe how the went in. Some have different mechanisms and require an adjustment or two.



Once all removed and dismantled and organized in re facing the closet doors, it was time to get the supplies in re facing the closet doors. Here is what we used:



3 rolls of desired wall covering (we used a faux grass burlap texture with greens and browns in it. Our closet doors measured about 133 sq ft--get some extra) See image above.



1 box of wallpaper paste (even if you have self-pasting wall covering) I used Golden Harvet because it was inexpensive. Image below.



3 cans of spray paint that either matches, contrasts or complements your design choice of wall covering (we used a chocolate brown epoxy enamel satin finish)



2 cans of spray metal primer paint (paint will just barely stick to the metal unless you use a good primer--ask the store personnel)



I will have a short TIPS section below after the post.



So now we had to prime and paint the frames outside. This was a bit hard, but it was worth it. If you go to an auto body paint store (there is one on Peralta and Fremont you can buy a self etching primer spray). After priming according to directions and painting the frames, we realized that we needed to wall cover the back of the panels, not the front. The paste would work better against the wood back instead of the contact paper fronts. You could peel the contact paper off, but ours was hard to peel and peeled off in little bits at a time. So, wall covering the back it was. We chose to cover the panels after the frames were reassembled. Due to the tight clearances of the frame slots, adhering wall covering all the way to the edge of the wood panel first would create a thicker dimension along the edge, and fitting the frame slot would be difficult over both the wood and the wall covering. When the frames were brought in, it was time to assemble.



Assembling the frames on the panels was just a matter of following the letters and numbers mentioned earlier. With a tap here and there being careful not to scratch the frames, the frames were assembled. keep in mind, that if you are reversing the panels, that is covering the back, you will need to place a-2 side frame onto a-4 side panel. Remember you have to reverse. Now with panels done, it is time to cover. But first, do not forget to prime and paint the upper closet door slots attached to the ceiling. Just remove, prime and paint then place back on the ceiling with the screws.



Covering the panels, you may find it easier to place the panels on the bed (covered of course) or you can wall cover the panels when they are upright in the slots. It is up to you. I did both. You may want to review wall covering tips on the Internet if you need a refresher course. See TIPS below for a fast list of things to know. Once we had the panels covered, we trimmed the excess and placed them in the upper slots then on the rollers.



In short, we transformed our room into something that Martha Stewart would be very proud of I'm sure. I still can not get over the huge contribution the new closet doors made to our redesigned bedroom.



I hope you find this post helpful, and please feel free to write with questions or testimonies.



TIPS:



Don't forget to "book" your wall coverings--do not rush it.



Prime the wood with the box paste according to instructions before you adhere your wallcovering--this will prevent lift up.



Do not put seems together, even if you "book" the coverings. Your seems may separate and reveal the wood beneath. Instead overlap by about 3/16ths of an inch depending on your width.



Trim wallcovering after it dries not wet.



There are many different wall paper resources on the Internet (even though I may disagree on some points) Good luck.

Golden Harvest Paste worked well for a paste primer.

For someone who is suppossed to know Fremont, I fell short recently. I had heard about Kristy Yamaguchi's Always Dream Play Park in Fremont CA, but I had never seen it. One day while driving on Stevenson towards Mission on my way to the Soccer part of Central Park, there is was, Always Dream Play Park.

Kristy Yamaguchi is from Fremont, and I was glad to see she still has vision for achieving not just for herself but others. In this case, the vision was to have a park where children with disabilities can enjoy a colorful play park here in Fremont. It has ramps, and the grounds are both colorful and fun--even parents like to walk on the ultra squishy foam rubber that surrounds each play area.

Maybe after a hard day at the office http://www.tricityhome.com/ , I can sneek a bounce or two on the foam rubber when no one is looking. Perhaps I will see you there.

--Two children spinning on top of the jungle gym. It really spins.

--Dr. Suess-like ball thing kids like to sit on.