How to Write a Love Letter

In this competitive Bay Area, California real estate market, often times it's recommended that buyers submit a "love letter" along with their offer.  When I mention this to my clients, they have usually never heard of this before.  What is the purpose of a real estate love letter?

Sometimes, when a home seller is looking at multiple offers, and has to make a decision on which buyer to go with, the seller will look at every aspect of the offer.  Obviously the price is important, as well as the terms (Any contingencies? How long is escrow?), and how qualified are the buyers? (Here is where proof of funds and approval letter are needed).
And lastly, who are these buyers?

You may think that a seller doesn't care who buys their house and really just wants the highest and best price.  But that's not always the case. Homeowners may have a special connection to their home, may have lived there for decades and are friends with their neighbors. They may want to select buyers who they feel will fit into the community they are leaving behind.

Also, if buyers are looking at two very similar offers, it could be that the love letter puts one buyer a notch above the other. Any little advantage helps in this hot real estate market.

I always ask the listing agent if they think a Love Letter from my clients may be useful. If the answer is "no way" then I don't bother, but often times you'd be surprised by the answer.  It can't hurt to ask. Be sure your Realtor is asking for you.

5 Tips On How to Write Your Love Letter

1. Keep it short. As with anything these days, people don't want to read anything long.  One page max, half page is even better.
2. Use the homeowners actual names.  Your Realtor can get that for you.  Much more powerful than writing "Dear Home Owners," 
3. You can include where you work, where you are originally from, where you went to school and any hobbies/interest. All things that could make a connection between you and the sellers. ("Wow, they play the ukulele too, AND they went to the University of Hawaii?")
4. Write about why you like the house/neighborhood. 
5. Do not include pictures of yourself.  Tempting, but it's not recommended due to discrimination concerns. 

Some clients find it overwhelming to have to write a letter like this.  I have samples I provide to my clients and I also tell them that when they write a letter once, they can re-use the same letter with slight edits.

In this market, be sure your Realtor takes every step possible to give you the winning edge when making an offer on the house you want.

How Much Is This House Worth?

"How much do you think this house will go for?", is the million dollar (quite literally!) question we often get as a Realtor.  In this wild Bay Area housing market, no one can predict what a house will go for.  We are all making guesses.

It's also important to know, that in our area, the list price of the house is not necessarily the price that the house will go for.  Sometimes, the list price is far off from the sale price, which makes the question of What Will This House Go For, even harder to answer.

I get this question often and I always have the same, sort of long, answer.  So I decided to write about it.

When deciding on the price of a house, the buyer should think of two things; 1) What could this house be worth, and 2) what is this house worth to ME, the buyer. How much am I willing to spend to make this house mine.

The first part is important because you don't want to feel like you overpaid for a house. Buyers remorse is real. Also, if you are depending on your lenders appraisal, you want to know that it will appraise at least to the price that you bought it at.  If it appraises at a lesser value, you may have to make up the cost difference with your own money, or loose out on the deal.  Your realtor can help with this part.  We do comps for you; look up what similar homes have sold in that area in recent months. It will give you an idea of what others have paid for similar homes.  Appraisers use comps, amongst many other criteria, so this information is valuable to look at as a buyer.

The second part is important in that it has nothing to do with the appraisal or the current real estate market. Instead, ask yourself, how badly do you want the house.  Is it your dream house? Does it fit everything you wanted? Have you been looking for ever and losing out on bids? Are you comfortable taking on that big of a mortgage?  Your dream house is going to be worth a lot more to you than to someone else.  In a sellers market you are competing with other buyers.
Or the reverse may be true as well.  It's not necessarily your dream house, but you would be happy if you got it for x amount.  Then that is the amount you should offer.

In this sellers market you are competing with other buyers and it's impossible to guess how badly other buyers will want a particular house.  I often describe to my clients that perhaps they are competing with a buyer for the same house, who has been looking forever, has flown into town for 4 days, absolutely has to buy a house right now, and has a lot of money to do it with. That's a tough buyer to compete against.  Or maybe the opposite is true, and for whatever serendipitous reason, there are no other buyers for this house, you are the only one, so you could get the house for a good price. These random situations could effect the price of the house.  It's not just the location, the cost per square foot, the finishes, etc.

To answer the question of How Much Is This House Worth, narrow it down to two factors; what could it appraise for (if you are dependent on a loan), and how much do you want to spend on it.
Now go out there and find your house!

Leslie Whitney - Helping you find your dream home.

Pros & Cons of Moving "Through The Tunnel".

"Through the tunnel" is how people living around here define the two areas separated by the Caldecott tunnel.  The Caldecott is a four bore tunnel via highway 24, which goes through the Berkeley hills.
One one side of the tunnel is Oakland/Berkeley and on the other side is Orinda, Lafayette, Moraga (also known as "Lamorinda") and Walnut Creek.

Oakland is urban, more traffic, more diversity, more restaurants, more things to do, higher in crime... just more urban.

Lamorinda is more suburban, more green, less traffic, more rancher style homes... less restaurants, some would say less diverse.

That's it in a nutshell.  They are both very different places in some regards, but also very similar because they are less than a quarter mile apart. (Actually, the tunnel is 3,610 feet, long, to be exact.)

The Lafayette Reservoir - popular hiking area.

And yet, people who live on either side will have lots to say about what it's like on the other side of the tunnel.  It can seem like they are two different worlds, these two sides.  But the truth is there are lot of people who have lived on either side and move back and forth. And let's not forget how short the distance between the two really is, so it's hard to imagine that it's all that different.

I have known people who have said, they will never ever want to live in Oakland, and then some who say they would never ever live in Lamorinda. But most people, I think, would be open to either.  And so the decision of on which side of the tunnel to live can be difficult.

American Kitchen - popular outdoor dining in downtown Lafayette

The public schools in Oakland are struggling.  Lamorinda has better public schools.  But some of the public schools in Oakland are good also, and there are some incredible private and charter schools there too.  Both places are beautiful.  Oakland has impressive bay views with all 3 bridges, or Lake Merritt views. Lamorinda has trees, rolling hills, nature, beautiful canyon views, the Lafayette Reservoir and warmer weather.

If you will be living in Lamorinda and working in Oakland or San Francisco - as many do - there's the commute to consider.  The tunnel itself can have some heavy bottle neck traffic.  But there is also BART (train) stations in Orinda and Lafayette, so that makes it convenient.

I have lived on both sides of the tunnel. I like them both and it's hard for me to chose which one is better.  As a Realtor, I get many clients who are relocating here and work in either Oakland or San Francisco and are debating on whether to live on the Oakland side or through the tunnel in Lamorinda.  I try to paint a picture of what either side is like, and try to guide them as to what will suite their lifestyle the best. (Are public schools the most important to them? Do they want a shorter commute to work? Is nightlife important?)

Lake Merritt - they have gondolier rides.

One fact is for sure; the Lamorinda side is hotter.  The weather is.  Sometimes 10+ degrees warmer. And I personally like that, but not everyone does.  Otherwise, you can't lose and we are lucky to live in the beautiful Bay Area at all!

How to Rent In the Bay Area.

One of the most common requests I get as a Bay Area realtor is help with finding rentals. The rental market is tight now, with prices high and competition steep.

There used to be a much bigger demand for realtors or property managers to help with finding rentals. Now, with Craigslist and other websites, it's more of a do-it-yourself endeavour and a realtor can't always help you as much as you might expect. Most rentals end up on Craigslist, and only some rentals end up on the MLS (multiple listing service), a database only available to brokers and realtors.

Times have changed... When I tried to rent a place in San Francisco in the late 90's, this was during the previous bubble and the rental market was crazy, I was up against applicants who had made VHS interview tapes of themselves to present to the landlords. 

A realtor can be of help to renters, however, especially if you are out of town. Your realtor can tell you about the neighborhoods, schools and commuting. And even more valuable, realtors have access to their own network who will often let their co-workers know of an off market rental, or a rental that is about to come on the market. Being ahead of the game is a plus in this market.  In addition, your realtor can ask her network for rental leads on your behalf.

Viewing places and gaining access to them with a realtor is also a benefit. You don't have to coordinate with the landlord or deal with general open houses for rentals.

Just as during buying or selling, your realtor can be your advocate and help you navigate your way through the competitive rental market.  Your realtor will also help you with the application process and makes sure you have everything ready ahead of time, to help you stand out.

Things You Will Need to Apply for Rentals:

• Print out your credit history, using one of many free services such as CreditKarma.com. Be ready to explain any blemishes on your report.
• Have your list of references ready.  
• Write a good cover letter.  Sell yourself. Mention your rental history, your family, your work or income source.

Be patient. Just as with buying a home, chances are you'll will lose out on a few before you get the rental you want.

Tips on Instagram for Business.

Is Social Media important for businesses?  Yes it is, and maybe soon people will stop asking that question. By now it should be a part of all marketing, advertising and PR plans.

Importantly, if your business is marketing to Gen Y or Millenials (those with birth years starting in 1980s to early 2000s), Instagram is an easy way to reach this audience and should be included in your business marketing strategy.

Is Instagram here to stay? Who knows, maybe not. But for now it's here and it's big with over 200 million users worldwide. So get on board.

Here's a quote by writer Lisa Hoover McGreevy from her article on "How to Rock Instagram."
"In a recent study of how users interact with brands’ social media posts, Forrester Research found that when it comes to engagement, Instagram is far superior to any other social network. While six of the seven social networks Forrester studied had an engagement rate of less than 0.1%, Instagram’s engagement rate was 4.21%."

The audience reach with Instagram can be huge. Some celebrities have over 12 million followers each, (@justinbieber and @kimkardashian, for example).  Major brands such as @starbucks and @adidas have 2 or 3 million followers.

What Is Instagram.  Instagram is an online photo sharing, video sharing social media platform.  You can use filters on the pictures to create all sorts of effects, put comments on pictures, tag people your pictures, and use hashtags. You "follow" accounts and get followed by others. You can comment on or "like" other people's pictures and videos, and you can share them too across other media outlets, such as facebook and twitter. It's fast moving in that people are uploading multiple pictures all the time. In Instagram time, yesterdays picture could be old news.  There's a hashtag for that, #latergram.

For just pure fun use, Instagram is easy and can be very entertaining. However, using Instagram effectively for your business takes some planning and thought.

Here are some basic steps that will help you get started:

Complete your profile. Your profile tells the world who you are and what your business is. Yes, you can write cute stuff here, but be sure include the important things such as your website, your phone number and your location. Instagram is global. Not everyone knows where "Your Town" is. Also use an appropriate profile picture, something that you want people to recognize your business with. Usually that is a logo.

What to post.  You should post images relevant to your business of course, but general interest pictures are also a good way to engage your followers. For example, if you are a chair manufacturer, don't only post images of chairs. That can get old after a while. One idea is to use "behind the scenes" content. Post pictures of what goes on in your chair factory, behind the scenes. Where does the wood come from, how are designs created, what are your employees like? The beauty of social media is getting a glimpse behind the curtain of peoples lives, or businesses.

@Oreo, the cookie, is often used as an example of a company that does its Instagram marketing well by "telling a story", using their brand in a million different ways.  Their message is not just "here's an Oreo cookie", but it's shows all the different ways their cookie is in our lives.  Their Instagram profile says, "OREO, see the world through our OREO Wonderfilled lens."  

Post Frequently. Schedule your postings, if you have to. Find what works, the more you post the more traction and publicity you'll get.  Remember, not everyone is viewing Instagram all the time, so your can get lost in the hundreds of other images on every one's feed. Don't hesitate to repeat a post; Chances are many of your followers didn't catch it the first time around and now maybe they will.

Write a caption for each image you post. A picture might be worth a thousand words, but it's better if you use some words. It's your first chance to write something about what you are showing. Don't let your clients/customers guess what you are posting about.

Use hashtags wisely. Hashtags are used for searching out topics and categorizing each post. If you're a realtor or a real estate agency and you keep using #oaklandrealestate for relevant posts, chances are, a potential client might find you when they search for "oakland real estate" in Instagram. So while #thisweatheriscraycray might be cute, it doesn't really serve any function to promote your business. Always use a hashtag for your product name or any relevant words for your business and/or tag your business name in your own post.

Take a good picture. Instagram is pretty amazing in that it can transform almost any bad picture into a work of art. But it can only do so much.  Make sure your product is clearly visible and in focus. Many of the filters Instagram provides will actually brighten up your picture significantly, making it pop.

Give photo credit. If you use someone else's picture, give them credit by tagging the photo or at least giving their name in the caption. It's an important courtesy that is easy to forget about.

Respond to comments. It is "social" media after all, so be social and interact with your followers whenever you can. Try to be interactive with others and always respond to direct questions, promptly. Depending on how busy your account is, you can also respond to non question comments. Use the "@" when responding so that the commenter knows you have responded to him or her. The beauty of social media is that customers can get an immediate response from you, and all the other viewers can see your interactions.

Get more followers.  The more followers you have, the bigger your audience is. You can pay to get followers or you can get them naturally. Following others will help you get followers. Apparently #followforfollow is the most commonly used hashtag of all hashtags.  Follow those that compliment your business and those that interest you personally.  If you are a realtor, you might want to follow architects, stagers, developers, home inspectors, other realtors, restaurants, etc.  Often if you follow someone, they will automatically follow you back. If you comment on other accounts, all those followers see your account. This increases your own account visibility and allows you to get more followers.

Here are my own favorite Instagram pictures that I have posted on my account @lwhitney25:

#lakemerritt #companymeeting #highlandpartners

#openhousesunday #piedmonthomes #realtorsigns

#highlandpartnerads #newlook

#cupkatestruck #saltedcaramel #schoolpicnic

#mylisting #oaklandrealestate #oaklandhills

Urban Chalet.

If I ever have a renovation, remodel or design project to do, I know who to call.

Angela and I met as cubicle neighbors at our banking jobs, in San Francisco, back in the heydays of the late 1990's.  We were in our 20's, single, and executive assistants to investment bankers.

She was a great assistant, because she was so good at organizing all the high end functions like closing dinners and client events such as trips to Napa Valley wine tastings, and "roadshows", where bankers traveled, looking for investors. She had endless energy, tons of ideas, very high standards and nothing threw her off.

While she had her day job in banking, she was busy remodeling her old Victorian house in the city. At one point she and her husband had the whole thing lifted up to fix the foundation.  They pretty much did it themselves.  I was impressed then.  She also did endless decorating and improving everything in the house, from bedding, to flooring, to window coverings. She liked things custom, high quality and unique.  It wasn't surprising that on her honeymoon to Indonesia, she ended up buying a crate full of custom made ultra heavy, solid wood furniture, (oh, and she did this while battling a horrible intestinal illness she pick up there, putting her in the hospital.)

People noticed her style and her work ethic. While she was still working at the investment bank, (she eventually became a financial analyst), clients and co-workers wanted her help and hired her to get things done.  She had high-end clients who needed high end help, whether it was party planning, decorating or organizing.  Word spread and she got busier and busier with bigger jobs, eventually leading to remodeling and designing multi million dollar homes.

She left the investment banking world and started her business which would be called Urban Chalet, www.Urban-Chalet.com.  From out of her San Francisco living room she helped clients with interior design, site design, project management and custom furnishings. She took on assignments in California, to Park City, New York and beyond.  She got her clients purely from word of mouth.

Urban Chalet kept growing, Angela's living room hasn't been large enough for her business for a while, and so Urban Chalet has expanded to several office spaces in San Bruno, San Francisco and New York City, with a total of 17 employees, including her brother and sister.

Angela, and some of her ideas...

Displays of design projects, ideas and concepts.

They are currently designing and managing over 25 projects annually, with budgets ranging from $10 thousand to $45 million.

I visited her recently at their San Bruno offices.  The last time I saw her office it was in her living room, and now it's in a large office complex with several rooms, everyone sitting at open desks, with large tables, shelving and walls full of samples and drawings and ideas.

Things to come; Urban Chalet is designing their own line of furniture. Miniatures on a shelf.

A beautiful coffee table book, of course.

Angela has an amazing sense of style, is one of the hardest working people I know, with incredible amount of responsibility and stress and yet she is always happy and laughs at everything. (I remember once I was with her when she got a call that a shipping container of materials she had to have at her work site in the Bay Area, pronto, was stuck in customs in Los Angeles, holding up the entire project. I was so stressed out for her when I heard this, yet it didn't phase her one bit. She got on the phone and worked it out.)

Angela and I are now in our 40's, have been in each others weddings (she did my flowers!) and have had a few kids.  But other than that, not much has changed, she's still the same hard working, positive person I always new.

I look forward to working with Angela and Urban Chalet one day.  Either for my own project or with a client. I know we'd all be in good hands and get amazing results!

Ideas on large tables.

The Lowdown on Upper Rockridge.

Here's how it goes for many families who live in the Bay Area...

You're younger and maybe single and move to San Francisco. You live in the city and you're living it up. Working, enjoying the nightlife, amazing restaurants, arts & entertainment and all your friends. Then you settle down and eventually your family grows, you have children and may realize you don't want to be in the city long term.  You start thinking about moving away for more suburbs, better school selections, larger living space for less money, easier parking and... more sun and less fog, perhaps.

The new Bay Bridge span. Connecting San Francisco with Oakland.

That was our story anyway. I remember having just given birth to our first child, ten years ago, and lying in my hospital bed at California Pacific Medical Center, just two blocks from our apartment we rented in San Francisco, and getting a call from our realtor that we got the house we bid on in Upper Rockridge, Oakland.  I was living in San Francisco for the past six years and really loved it there, but once baby #1 came along, we knew it was time to move away.

My husband and I had spent months before then cruising around Oakland, looking for homes. We wanted Oakland because we owned a business there and we were not ready to let go of urban life completely and go any further east for more suburbia.  Because he worked there, he knew Oakland pretty well, I didn't know it at all.  All the neighborhoods blurred together for me, and as I heaved myself out of our car, way pregnant, looking at all those open houses, I started to not really care anymore where we'd end up.

But luckily both of us were not pregnant, and his mind was clearer and so he insisted on really thinking about which neighborhood we wanted to end up in.  I even remember not really paying attention what school district the house was in, because I just couldn't wrap my head around caring about schools when I felt like I was so far away from being a Mom of a school aged child. I also didn't realize how different all the schools could be within the same public school system.

I'm glad we ended up with our first home in Upper Rockridge, an area as I describe as next to Rockridge, Piedmont and Montclair.  The lower side of where Highway 24 and 13 connect. Upper Rockridge is at the base of the Oakland Hills, the hills that overlook all of Oakland and the Bay.

This home we bought was about one block away from highway 13.  Our back deck had a view of a small valley, with houses all over the opposite side, facing us, and the highway buzzing down below.  I remember standing in the nursery, right by the window on the highway side, before we decided to put an offer in on the house, and listening for the highway noise and wondering if that would bother me. It's hard to predict those things, and ideally, before you buy a house, you could have a trial week living in it.  It turned out, the highway noise never bothered me, as it was a constant consistent hum.

We moved in with our little family, and it was the perfect house for us.

At first we were really worried if Oakland would bore us.  Would we miss the restaurants, the friends, the street fairs, the urban living of San Francisco?  The truth is we never looked back. Because unless you are ultra hip, your life with a baby and children changes and other things become important. I was now interested in visiting playgrounds, children's classes and meeting other Moms and having friends over at home.  (But of course it turns out Oakland has amazing restaurants and endless amounts of things to see and do. More on that in other posts.)

We only had one car then, because that's all you need in San Francisco.  And we lived for a whole year with one car in our Upper Rockridge home.  Husband would take it to work each day and I went on my way with baby and a stroller.

I walked to Montclair Village often.  I even did my grocery shopping that way; (Safeway and Lucky's are there), stuffing the stroller basket and a backpack with groceries. Montclair park was a few blocks from our house, with two playgrounds, a pond, (geese, ducks and turtles!), a sports field, the Wells Fargo carriage to play on, and a skating ramp. The park also has the Montclair community center, with lots of interesting classes for kids.  Most Montclair families with young kids know Miss Marilyn's dance classes there.

Wells Fargo stage coach play structure at Montclair Park.

Montclair has it's own little library, in an old tudor style house, where I spent many hours for Toddler Reading time.  The Village itself is unusual, in that it really is like a little village, about four blocks long, with lots of stores and restaurants and services.  I think the Village is pretty unique to the Bay Area.  It's gives the area a nice community feel with fun annual events like their Holiday Stroll, Halloween Parade and Art & Wine Fest and a year round farmers market on Sunday. When you're in the village you are bound to run into a neighbor or someone you know. It's that kind of a place.

I also literally stumbled onto Lake Temescal park one day.  A total surprise park, in our neighborhood, hidden off of Broadway Terrace, in a little valley, with grassy fields, a lake for swimming with a beach and lots of paved paths for biking or strollering.  A popular spot for birthday parties, play dates, fishing and walks.

We bought into this neighborhood because we liked the house we found there, but also because of the public schools. The three public schools in this Upper Rockridge area are Hillcrest (k-8th), Montclair Elementary and Thornhill Elementary.  All three of these are excellent schools (go to greatschools.org to see the details) and all the families attending put in tremendous effort and many volunteer hours to make them so.  Major fundraising happens at these schools, to raise money for things such as teacher aides, libraries, art, music, physical ed and more.

These schools are popular, and they are pretty small with just a few hundred students each. With the neighborhood demographics changing over the past decade, the schools are getting fuller and it's not always a guarantee that every resident will get to attend their neighborhood school.  It's always good to find out directly from the school what their enrollment situation is for that year.

One of the many schools in Upper Rockridge.

Besides these three public elementary schools there are also some great private schools within just a few miles of each other; including Aurora, Holy Names High School, and St.Theresa.  And there are lots of preschools and day cares, including Montclair Community Play Center (the preschool my three kids attended. The oldest co-op preschool in the West.), The Cottage Play House, Smile's Day School, Apple Garden School (Montersorri) and lots of others.

This area of Oakland was hit hard by the Oakland Fire Storm of 1991. A devastating fire that destroyed over 3,700 homes.  Large patches of Upper Rockridge had to be completely rebuilt. Sometimes you can see the fire line, by noticing where the older homes were spared. In some cases, like on Proctor Ave., one side of the street has new homes, and the other side of the street has the original 1940s era homes, (or "pre-fire" homes, as they are often referred to), which are usually smaller.  There are lots of beautiful tudor, cottages and colonial style homes in Upper Rockridge.

Upper Rockridge homes; a mix of new and old.

Now ten years, and two kids later (that's three total), I'm still happy in Upper Rockridge.  I love the weather, usually sunnier and clearer than across the bay in San Francisco. I love the people, the parks, and that it's centrally located to Berkeley, Lamorinda and San Francisco.

There's so much to do and see right here... I go months and months without ever going to the city. The incredible restaurant choices are endless, with College Avenue and Rockridge right down the hill from us. College Avenue, is a long road (going all the way to UC California Berkeley, thus the name), lined with fun shops, (luxury consignment shop I wrote about, Labels is here) gourmet food markets, and the Rockridge BART (train) station is there too.

Views from Mountain View Cemetery. 

Hiking in Upper Rockridge.

I'm glad we found our spot right here, for now I wouldn't want to be anywhere else. It's a big decision to decide where you want to start your journey of family life with kids, schools and new friends.  Do the research, ask around, hang out in neighborhoods that you are considering. You'll be able to tell if it feels like home.