The man in the mirror...

UPDATE 2: The price on this house has been reduced to 463K. It's now $405 a square foot, which is still too high in my opinion.

UPDATE: The price on this house was just reduced to 499K. That's still $436 a square foot, so I wouldn't call it a bargain. My guess is that this one will not sell until it's around 450K.

Feeling a bit cranky today so I'm going to vent my frustration on this listing :)

"Beautifully remodeled W. Petaluma Home" - Let me start by saying that this home is technically in West Petaluma due to its proximity to 101, but it resides in that sort of in between area that's most people do not associate with the quaint, we're-near-the-new-theatre-district, West side of town. It's just off of Payran near the river, where all that construction is going on. Granted, Payran will be "comp repaved by end of year", but until then, cone zone baby. Personally, I used to live in this area and didn't really like it. To each their own.

"Price reduced for quick sale!" - It shows as being on Redfin for a day, so I assume it was listed, pulled off the market, the price was lowered and then relisted. Anywho, they are currently asking 535K for this 1,144 square foot home that was built back in 1960. They mention a "beautiful remodel", but that still comes to $468 a square foot. That's a bit steep for this location in my opinion and the house doesn't really look that nice to me. Maybe I "must see to appreciate", per the listing, but I'm not motivated at this price.

And finally, a bit of advice to the man in the bathroom mirror -- if you step to the side and just kind of point the camera in at an angle, we wouldn't have to witness your summer duds and be blinded by the paparazzi flash of your camera.

Home in a "fluffing good area"

UPDATE: This home is now listed for $499,900 or $264 a square foot. Unfortunately, the agent hasn't bothered to look at their description and make it 10K less laughable.

Punctuation is very important, but it still doesn't save this listing from being ridiculous. Here's the unedited description, including both of the periods at the end:

Tremendous opportunity for this fixer sold as is needs interior paint, carpet, fluffing good area well designed and large lot. price is king here absolutely will not last at this price. .

And what exactly is a "fluffing good area"?

A) A misspelling of an inappropriate word that proves this listing was posted in a drunken stupor after a broker party or liquid lunch.

B) Lacking the ever critical comma in a very strategic location.

C) Even if lacking the aforementioned comma, who in the world refers to updating or fixing up a house as "fluffing"? Fluffing is reserved for pillows, silly little dogs with expensive haircuts and the new age groupies who claim your aura requires it on bad days.

Mr. Agent, I would also suggest that the next time you take a picture of the kitchen and it's wonderfully tangerine-dream colored formica, you may want to remove the slew of business cards scattered on it from previous agent visits. The cards give it that "this home is a dog that no one wants" look, which is best avoided.

OK, enough of these foibles and follies (...dropping silly sounding words that begin with "f" into my posting to get into the spirit).

Based on what I can gather, this home had an offer at 535K and it fell out. It's now listed at 510K, which puts it at $270.00 a square foot. Not bad, especially for a 4 bedroom, 2 bath home with nearly 1900 square feet. The lot is also nice sized at 7,318 and there appears to be some grass mixed in with the tall weeds in the backyard picture. Grab a jug of Roundup and a good mower and you should be ready to play ball.

At this price and specs, this could be a good bargain, and hopefully you will have enough cash left over to give it a proper fluffing.

Prices dropping faster than subprime lenders.

Trying to keep up with the price adjustments on some of the previously covered homes is becoming a job in itself. I have two of them today, so I'm going to hit them both in one post.

The first home is 4517 Earhart Ave. in Santa Rosa. The neighbors house that was listed at a higher price of 469K (vs. 465K for this one) appears to have an offer. Who knows if it will stick, but this seller must be wondering what's up. I think the 469K house was in better shape based on the pictures, so that may be the determining factor. To the point, the price for this home has been dropped to 455K, which is right there where I suggested you make an offer (blatant self promotion...sorry). In fact I suggested you offer 445-455K and feel pretty confident you could get away with 440-445K at this point. If you're the homeowner, you may want to stage this house and take some new pictures. I'm making a broad assumption here, but the current pictures make it look like it's a rental, which does not help your position, in my opinion.

The other place is the townhome at 1406 Marylyn Circle in Petaluma. I thought it was already a good deal at $434K, but the price was just reduced to 419K (265.00 per sq. ft.). At Nearly 1600 square feet with 3 bedrooms, 2.5 baths and a 2 car garage, this seems like a good deal to me. I've driven this neighborhood and it seems fine. The HOA is a bit high in my opinion at 255.00 per month, but at least you get a pool and tennis courts for you money. There is another townhome right across the street for sale as well, but they are asking 459K (UPDATE: Price has been reduced to 425K). If there is something wrong with this one (which is not mentioned in the listing),the price difference of 40K could buy you some nice improvements.

The little house that couldn't sell.

UPDATE: As far as I can tell, this house did not sell and was pulled from the market.

In the ongoing saga of the little home that just won't sell, they have lowered the price once again. They are now down to 499K, which is 46K off the original 545K. I feel a bit sorry for these folks at this point, but frankly, I think the home was really overpriced when it listed. Stop by, take a look, and offer them 475K-485K -- I bet you can snag this place.

338 Bassett St, Petaluma - You're Kidding, Right?

520K for a 978 square foot home that is sitting on a foundation that needs work? That's $532 a sqaure foot for this teensy house and the listing suggests that you may want to move it to the back of the property and build a second home. Wait, I have an idea, bulldoze the whole ugly mess and start over, but is this lot worth 520K? It's pretty good size (7,187) and on the "desirable west side", but that still seems steep to me. It's about half a block away from the high school -- you'll have to decide if that's a good thing or not.

But wait! For this low-low price, you also get the "way-cool retro light fixtures" (yes, actual verbiage from the listing) and they are going to throw in the lovely oh-so-San-Francisco earthquake enhanced driveway at no extra charge!

520K...you're kidding, right? ...right?

910 Cedarwood Lane, Petaluma - Price Update

The subject of my first post was this little Petaluma house near Lakeville. I felt the home was overpriced and should be listed around 519K to be competitive. It looks like they just lowered the price to 513K, which is still $473 a square foot, but more realistic and reasonable. The home appears to be in good shape, so now might be the time to make an offer.

1406 Marylyn Circle, Petaluma - Good Price

This townhome was just reduced significantly and seems to be a pretty good bargain. Nearly 1600 square feet, 3 bedrooms, 2.5 baths, 2 car garage for $434,900. That comes out to around $274.00 a square foot. The house has been on the market for quite some time and apparently the owners are getting a bit anxious to sell. The first set of pics that were posted showed an empty house. They have since taken the time to stage it and it looks pretty nice. The home also includes a wood burning fireplace (always a plus for me) and the community has a pool and tennis court. At 255.00 per month, the HOA dues seems a bit steep, so keep that in mind if considering this home.

"Demand is High at Sweed School" - Oh Really?

If you're not familiar with this project, Sweed School is a 14 home project (11 townhomes and 3 carriage homes) that uses an existing structure that was built back in 1911. I was on the interest list for this community because it looked very unique. Turns out, it is a pretty cool project and I like how they maintained the building when they built out the townhomes. When I received the grand opening email from them, I was really surprised at the prices. I replied to the message with my concern and stated that I felt they were around 75K too much. I know, I know, pretty snotty thing to do, but I felt I was providing a public service of sorts. The lowest priced townhome was 509K (1069 sq ft, 2bed, 2.5 bath) and they went up from there. These townhomes have no garages and no yards. Anywho, I was doing my usual checking around online the other day and noticed they still have half of the homes left to sell. When this project was ramping up, they were making it sound like people would be camped out for weeks just to get a look.

"Demand at SweedSchool is expected to be very high, so get pre-qualified now", was what many of the emails said. If this was in 2005, their messaging would have been accurate, but they sent this out after the downturn was in full-force. Hellooo...welcome to 2006. It looks like they did come down 40K on the one of the carriage homes, but I'm not sure where they are on the townhomes. I think they felt the uniqueness of the community was going to make it an easy sell and allow them to keep prices jacked up a bit.

Personally, I think you can get a lot more for your money, especially if you are looking for a condo type set up. Check out Azure off of Lakeville -- they are offering a 2 bed/2 for 405K. It's a new build and doesn't have the nostalgia and west side address of Sweed, but you get around 1000 sq feet, a pool, a clubhouse and you save about 100K.

910 Cedarwood Lane, Petaluma - Overpriced?

This is a nice looking little house (key word is "little") near Lakeville in Petaluma. At 1084 sq. ft. with 3 bedrooms and 2 baths, it's not going to be overly spacious, but it does look like it's in good condition. Some nice back yard work, but a bit too much concrete for my taste. This home was initially listed at 545K and recently lowered to 533K. I think it's still overpriced -- you're paying $492 a square foot for this 1970 home. My guess is that it needs to be around 519K to even be competitive right now. It's been on the market for 157 days so far, so we'll see. If you are looking in this neighborhood, check out 924 Alderwood. It seems like a better deal...and it has a pool :)