Oakland Ca Real Estate's Blog: Oakland Real Estate

Shorenstein Properties, in conjunction with Met Life Real Estate Investments is building a 23-story, 500,000 square foot building in the City Center Plaza. It will be one of the tallest buildings in the city, and basically the largest office building per square footage in Oakland.

They obviously have confidence that they can fill up a building of that size, which means they have confidence in downtown Oakland. This building is one of many that are planned to go up in the next several years, which will help continue to grow and reshape the face of downtown Oakland.

If you have ever exited highway 13 in Oakland and driven through the hills of Montclair, you have seen first hand why Montclair real estate is so desireable. Montclair was actually developed before Oakland was founded, although many of the homes are contemporaries now. The architecture in Montclair is a mix of contemporary, ranch homes, craftsman bungalows, shingled cottages and other types.

Montclair is home to several species of trees, but the eucalyptis is probably the largest and most prominent tree in Montclair. The price range of single family homes in Montclair ranges from the low 600's to multi million dollar homes. Snake and Scout road, Grizzly Peak boulevard and Girvin drive are some of the longest streets in Montclair. Many of the streets in…

Prudential California Realty certainly has an interesting history, which is directly connected to the Bay Area. The history dates back to 1887, when Prudential California Realty was founded by Joseph Mason, who was later joined by Duncan Mcduffie, hence the name Mason-Mcduffie which was the original parent company.

There is an interesting connection between Duncan Mcduffie and the Bay Area, because Mcduffie was a real estate developer who is responsible for the St. Francis Wood residential Park in SF, and the development of the Claremont and Northbrae communities in Berkeley, two areas which remain desireable to this day.In order to promote the Northbrae community, it is said that he proposed that Berkeley be designated the Capital of the state.…

By now every Oakland real estate agent knows what a short sale is, because we are seeing record numbers of them. If you are a real estate agent and you started your career less than four or five years ago, then it is very possible that you didn't even know what a short sale was until recently.

Unfortunately, today short sales are simply a reality if the business and the market that we are in. From the perspective of a real estate agent, a short sale is much more of a riskier edeavor. In a typical sale, the decision that is made on any offers that are received is made by the owner of the home, which makes perfect sense.

However, in a short sale situation, any offers that are received are subject to lender approval. Since the lender will most likely be…

In the past several months, several of the nations largest lenders have closed their doors. The ones that are still around have tightened up their standards in terms of who they lend money to, which puts home ownership out of reach for thousands of individuals.

Even the below market interest rate programs have adjusted standards. Some people who were wating to pull  the trigger on purchasing, and did not have interest rate locks were suprised to learn that their interest rate had risen by about 1/2 point over night. This happened to a client of one of my colleagues, and it wasn't a happy situation.

When the market was super hot (2002-2005) lenders came out with all types of programs to get people into homes who otherwise could not afford them, now that…

Here are the 15 steps that need to be taken to purchase a home:

1. The Initial Interview

• Determine what you need and want in your new home

• Discuss the parameters of your search

• Discuss financing

2. Get Pre-Qualified By a Lender

• Obtain a pre-qualification letter

3. Property Tours

• View available properties that match your needs and emotions

• Listen to you carefully to find out what features you need in your ideal home

• Provide you with information about the current market and what it means to you

4. Find the Home That Matches Your Needs and Write The Offer

• Writing the offer will take between 1-3 hours

…

If you are searching for Oakland real estate and you aren't familiar with virtual earth dynamic mapping, then you should visit the Prudential Bay Area real estate search engine to check it out. This technology uses satellite imagry which allows you to zoom in and get a "bird's-eye view" of the street, neighborhood and home you are interestred in. The detail is amazing, and it gives you a perspective that is almost better than being there in person. If you arent familiar with an area, you can zoom out and get a feel for where the freeways, parks and transportation are located. You have the ability to zoom in and out from way out in space all the way down to street level and explore as much of the landscape as you like.

Curious about what's in the yard of…

Over the past six months, sellers of Oakland real estate have begun to realize that the market is definitely not what it was a couple of years ago. In all reality, the power now lies with serious buyers who know they have more room to negotiate when making offers. Sellers who are not willing to look at hard numbers of recent sales, or who are not realistic about the condition their home is in will end up having their home stay on the market for months at a time and eventually expiring. By the time they realize they should reduce the price, it's could be too late as the listing may have "gone stale".

The two most important factors that sellers need to be thinking about is presentation and price. The best strategy for sellers is to prepare the property for…