The Almanac's Fall Real Estate 2012 special publication (section 2).
28
2012 by Kate Daly In the $15 to 20 million-dollar home range, “the pool of buyers is very limited” and increasingly coming from overseas, according to Steve Gray with Coldwell Banker’s Woodside office. In the past year he’s had clients flying in from Shanghai and Beijing to look at the property he has listed at 437 Whiskey Hill Road in Woodside. Built in 2001, the 5,851- square-foot English country manor features two guest cot- tages, a pool and a vineyard on more than 6 acres. The asking price was initially $17.5 million and has dropped to $15,995,000. He says pricing an estate like this “is very, very dif- he high-end housing market has gotten so global these days, lo- cal Realtors say they now have to spend tens of thousands of dollars on multi-media campaigns both here and abroad to gain maximum exposure for their property listings. REALTORS CAST THEIR NETS WIDER TO FIND RIGHT BUYER (continued on page 36) Peter Duxbury Top: A home at 437 Whiskey Hill Road in Woodside was initially listed at $17.5 million, but has dropped to $15.995 million. The property includes a 5,851-square-foot English country manor as well as two guest cottages, a pool and a vineyard on more than 6 acres. Above: Villa Lauriston, a 28.5 acre estate at 5050 Alpine Road in Portola Valley, is on the market for $15.95 million, down from $20 million last year. Page 33 I Fall Real Estate Special Section
Transcript
2012
by Kate Daly
In the $15 to 20 million-dollar home range, “the pool of buyers is very limited” and increasingly coming from overseas, according to Steve Gray with Coldwell Banker’s Woodside office.
In the past year he’s had clients flying in from Shanghai and Beijing to look at the property he has listed at 437 Whiskey Hill Road in Woodside. Built in 2001, the 5,851-square-foot English country manor features two guest cot-tages, a pool and a vineyard on more than 6 acres. The asking price was initially $17.5 million and has dropped to $15,995,000.
He says pricing an estate like this “is very, very dif-
he high-end housing market has gotten so global these days, lo-cal Realtors say they now have
to spend tens of thousands of dollars on multi-media campaigns both here and abroad to gain maximum exposure for their property listings.
REALTORS CAST THEIR NETS WIDER TO FIND RIGHT BUYER
(continued on page 36)
Peter Duxbury
Top: A home at 437 Whiskey Hill Road in Woodside was initially listed at $17.5 million, but has dropped to $15.995 million. The property includes a 5,851-square-foot English country manor as well as two guest cottages, a pool and a vineyard on more than 6 acres. Above: Villa Lauriston, a 28.5 acre estate at 5050 Alpine Road in Portola Valley, is on the market for $15.95 million, down from $20 million last year.
Page 33 I Fall Real Estate Special Section
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Page 34 I Fall Real Estate Special Section
Fall Real Estate Special Section I Page 35
12227 Colina Way Los Altos Hills
This peaceful retreat offers an entertainers patio with sparkling pool and hot tub surrounded by palm trees in a lovely and private setting on an acre+/- lot.
This 3 bedroom, 2 bath single level home (with separate 1bed/1bath apartment) offers a flexible floorplan with multiple doors leading out to patio. 11 garage spaces - the collector dream. Light and bright living room features fireplace, hardwood floors, and vaulted beam ceilings.
Conveniently located approximately 5 minutes east of 280 yet a quiet cul-de-sac location.
Offered at $2,295,000
SPRING REAL ESTATE 2012
ficult” because appraisers like to look at comparable sales over the past three months, and “typically” houses in this range will take a year or more to sell.
Lately Gray has noticed “a lot of Asians” are flocking to the area to find “a very large home, and something or-nate.”
They’re buying “trophy properties, a second, or third home” and perhaps a place to bring their children to get edu-cated in the U.S., said Ken DeLeon with DeLeon Realty in Palo Alto. The Wall Street Journal recently ranked him as the top selling agent in this country.
For the last two years DeLeon has been placing full-spread color ads in Hong Kong and Mainland China news-papers and Mandarin publications in the Silicon Valley, in addition to advertising
in The Almanac, Palo Alto Weekly and Gentry magazine.
Both Realtors use Luxuryhomemaga-zine.com and LuxuryRealEstate.com Magazine’s online and Internet versions to promote their properties.
When properties are listed on the Mul-tiple Listing Service (MLS) they are au-tomatically linked to other real estate
High-end market(continued from page 33)
(continued on page 38)
Coldwell Banker agent Lyn Jason Cobb recently sold her grandparents’ property at 69 Isabella Ave. in Atherton for close to the asking price of $18 million. The 3-plus acre property included a four-bedroom, four-and-a-half bath stucco house, Thomas Church-designed gardens, a pool, pool house and tennis court.
Walk to Downtown Menlo Park from this stunning 5 year-old custom built house on one of Central Menlo Park’s
most coveted cul-de-sacs! Exceptional quality materials, moldings, paneling, fi xtures and designer fi nishes are used throughout the sun-fi lled home. Soaring ceiling welcome you. French doors opening up to the sunny private yard create the ultimate atmosphere for enter-taining and indoor/outdoor living. This home features 6 Bedrooms, 5 Bathrooms on 3 levels. Gourmet Kitchen. Large bright basement with high ceilings, spacious light well with stairs to main level, and fl exible space for media, gym, nanny, etc. Lot size is just under 10,000 sf. Ideal location a short walk to Downtown Menlo and parks, and minutes to Stanford, schools and dowtown PA. Excellent Menlo Park schools. This home has it all!
Charming remodeled home in Sharon Heights, tucked away
in a lush, private setting on a beautiful 14,518 sf lot. The main house has 3 bedrooms, 2 baths and a sunny great room with vaulted ceilings and French doors opening up to the back yard. There is also a detached guest house with bedroom and full bath. Move right in now, and room for expansion in the future! The location of this home is also ideal -- short walk to shop-ping, parks and schools, and close to commute routes. Out-standing Las Lomitas schools!
760 MONTE ROSA DR., MENLO PARK
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* Cowell Lane, Atherton -- Offered at $6,980,000 -- Sold off market -- Represented Buyer
* Dana Ave., Palo Alto -- Offered at $3,368,000 -- Sold off market -- Represented Seller
* Menlo Oaks, Menlo Park -- Offered at $3,695,000 -- Represented Buyer
* North Castanya, Portola Valley -- Offered at $1,449,000 -- Multiple offers -- Represented Buyer
* Gabarda Way, Portola Valley -- Offered at $1,688,000 -- Sold off market -- Represented Seller
* Yale Rd., Menlo Park --Offered at $2,295,000 -- Multiple offers -- Represented Buyer
SALES in past year:
websites such as Trulia or Zillow where Gray says he receives “traffic counts” to indicate how many people are looking at his listings. In the case of Zillow he pays for his own dis-play ad to attract customers.
Realtors often create individual websites to showcase each property. The sites usually include virtual tours accompanied by music, and sometimes videos that are posted on You-Tube, too.
DeLeon says he is “upping the game” when it comes to producing property videos to ap-peal to Silicon Valley with its “strong reloca-tion market, people coming from overseas and high-end tech centers.”
He will spend $12,000 to bring in a camera, sound and lighting crew and an Emmy Award-winning director to shoot and create a video to post online. DeLeon also packages the video on DVD and sends it out to several thousand people he describes as his “network of clients, Facebook, LinkedIn, early Googlers, venture
capitalists, ... people in private equity.”A 24-page color brochure may go out in the
mailing, as well.Some clients, however, want to protect their
privacy and opt for selling off-market rather than on the MLS.
DeLeon said he’s spent more than $10,000 to put on a private showing for a select group of maybe 200 real-estate brokers, bringing in a band, champagne and caterers to help spread the word that a house is for sale.
“More than 80 percent of the people look-ing for properties are looking on the Internet,” said Menlo Park-based Coldwell Banker agent Lyn Jason Cobb.
She deliberately chose the MLS to sell her grandparents’ and parents’ place at 69 Isabella Ave. in Atherton because “I wanted to expose it to as many agents as possible to see a grand estate.”
Originally part of a 50-acre spread with ex-pansive gardens, three stables, a racetrack and polo field, the property has been subdivided
over the years. Listed in March for $18 mil-lion, the remaining 3-plus-acre parcel features a stately stucco house with four bedrooms and four-and-a-half baths that was built in the 1960s, Thomas Church-designed gardens, a pool, pool house and tennis court.
Since June Cobb says she has shown the property by appointment only to “40 to 50 qualified buyers.” Some “are out of the area people coming here to make a statement.” Others are from San Francisco or “people looking to move up in Atherton” to higher priced homes, she said.
The property closed in late September for close to the asking price, Cobb stated in an email.
Realtor Brian Chancellor with the Sereno Group in Palo Alto is co-listing Villa Lau-riston, a 28.5-acre estate located at 5050 Alpine Road in Portola Valley. He calls his partnership with an affiliate of Christie’s In-ternational Real Estate based in Beverly Hills “wonderful” in terms of helping expose the property to more potential upscale clients.
“This is a one-of-a-kind property that has unique architecture based on a Florentine vil-
la,” he said. Reportedly built in 1926 by more than 100 craftsmen from around the world, the house has seven bedrooms and eight full bathrooms, two swimming pools, a tennis court, vineyard, guest cottage and an eight-car garage, but “as luxurious as it is, it’s not ostentatious,” he adds.
The current asking price is $15,950,000. Before Chancellor took over the listing in June of 2011, the property was offered at $20 million.
“People have to be vetted or they don’t get appointments,” he said. He has had 15 or so showings to both international clients and lo-cal buyers, some of whom have seen it mul-tiple times.
“We’ve had fundraisers there with highly regarded nonprofit organizations, and that’s a unique opportunity,” Chancellor said, but even with that kind of large-scale entertaining built into the marketing plan, “you always ex-pect some time for a property to sell because you’re looking for the right buyer.”
High-end market(continued from page 36)
Ken DeLeon will spend $12,000 to bring in a camera, sound and lighting crew and
an Emmy Award-winning director to shoot and create a video to post online.
The Villa Lauriston property features seven bedrooms, eight bathrooms, two swimming pools, a tennis court, vineyard and a guest cottage.
Page 38 I Fall Real Estate Special Section
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BRENT GULLIXSON
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1 bd, 1 ba Guest House with Full Kitchen
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Fall Real Estate Special Section I Page 39
FALL REAL ESTATE 2012
Name: Elevation Palo AltoAddress: 3432 Alma Village Lane, Palo AltoProject description: Elevation Palo Alto, from the D.R. Horton Built for Better Living(r) brand of energy-efficient homes, currently has five “quick move-in” homes, four not-yet-finished homes, and four not-yet-started homes available for purchase. When completed, the community will consist of 37 two- and three-story homes rang-ing from 1,754 to 2,368 square feet. The homes have three to five bedrooms and up to 3.5 baths. Mikki’s Farm Fresh Market is cur-rently under construction on Alma, directly in front of the Elevation property.Developer: D.R. HortonPrice: $1,499,880-$1,599,880Information: www.drhorton.com/elevation
AN UPDATE ON NEW HOMES IN THE AREAby Lisa Kellman
everal housing communities are nearing completion in Palo Alto and Mountain View, with the next phase of construc-
tion beginning soon.Here is a taste of what’s nearby:
Name: Classics at Station 361Address: 209 W. Evelyn Ave., Mountain ViewProject description: Phase One of Classics at Station 361 is complete with 29 two-story homes. Nineteen of these two-, three- and four-bedroom homes have been sold, two are available for purchase, one is on hold, two are not released for sale yet and the rest are currently being used as model homes and the sales office. Phase Two is expected to break ground in January and some homes completed by June. When finished, the Classics at Station 361 will have 65 homes.Developer: Classic Communities, Inc.Price: $1,099,900-$1,475,900Information: classiccommunities.net
Name: MondrianAddress: 465 Chagall St., Mountain ViewProject description: Shea homes had only one home left in its six-building Mondrian community in late September. Located minutes from downtown Mountain View, the Mondrian community offers three-story condominiums with three different floor plans to choose from. The fi-nal 18-20 unoccupied homes will be ready for move-in in the next four months. All condos have three bedrooms and 3.5 baths and range from 1,548 to 1,637 square feet. Developer: Shea HomesPrice (of last home): $798,000Information: www.sheahomes.com/community/mondrian
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Michelle Le
Veronica Weber
Page 40 I Fall Real Estate Special Section
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Fall Real Estate Special Section I Page 41
FALL REAL ESTATE 2012
by Dean McArdleaking your home a little more green can do more than just score points with Mother Na-
ture. It also might put some more green in your pocketbook, a University of Califor-nia team of researchers suggest.
The study, led by Matthew Kahn of UCLA and Nils Kok of UC Berkeley, analyzed the values of the more than 1.6 million homes sold in California between 2007 and 2012. Their results suggest that a home with a green label averages a 9 percent higher sale value than its counter-parts.
“The big question for homeowners and investors, is whether constructing a green home actually pays,” Kok said in a phone-in media conference. “If we think about the financial benefits of a green label fi-nancially, it far outweighs the cost for de-velopers.”
Green labels, which are given by out-side agencies based on a home’s efficiency score, could have large implications for the
STUDY SUGGESTS A ‘PRIUS EFFECT’ DRIVES VALUE FARTHER UP
Palo Alto area, by means of what Kok dubbed “the Prius effect.”
During their research, the team controlled for as many variables as possible within the housing market. This meant factors such as loca-tion, vintage, size and major ame-nities such as a pool or beautiful view. One of these factors, location, wound up playing a large role in their findings.
As the old real estate phrase “lo-cation, location, location” would suggest, the area surrounding a home can play a major role in its worth. For the study, the environ-mental culture of the area became the key factor.
Kok and his team sought to iden-tify and control for areas of high en-vironmental awareness by studying the annual number of hybrid-vehicle registrations. What they discovered is that in areas with a large number of hybrid-vehicle registrations each year, a green home label is actually worth much more than the average 9 percent.
While Kok did not specifically name Palo Alto, a 2009 study also conducted by Kok’s associate, Kahn, showed that California’s hybrid reg-istrations were disproportionately concentrated in the San Francisco Bay Area.
“Buyers in areas with a strong en-vironmental ideology were willing to pay more for a green label than buyers in areas with less of an envi-ronmental ideology,” Kok said.
The study’s synopsis went further, offering a possible explanation be-hind the results. “This correlation suggests that some homeowners
may attribute value to qualities as-sociated with owning a green home, such as pride or perceived status.”
Whatever the motivating factor, these results suggest that homes in Santa Clara or San Mateo counties with a green label could receive a more than 10 percent boost in val-ue.
Furthermore, Kok and Kahn iden-tified that during the course of their research, the value of a green label increased, meaning that a green la-bel raised a home’s value more in 2012 than it did in 2007.
“The value of these green labels seems to (have) gone up in the re-cent years,” Kok said. “Part of this seems to be driven by energy sav-ings, but certainly consumers are paying for more than just energy savings alone.”
Energy savings proved to be a ma-jor contributing factor in the regions without large numbers of hybrid registrations, which still put more value on a green label. The research-ers found that climate, specifically areas with hot summers, displayed an increased value in green-labeled homes similar to areas within the “Prius effect.”
While energy savings could have been a contributing factor to the value of green-labeled homes in hot areas, Kok pointed out that the aver-age utility savings homeowners re-ceive by making their homes green will not pay back the costs of ener-gy-efficient construction. Accord-ing to the researchers, this suggests that homeowners do not build green homes for energy savings alone, but rather ideological reasons.
Veronica Weber
Veronica Weber
Key features of a green home could include concrete floors — made with 50 percent slag and fly ash — ma-jor use of sunlight as the primary heat source in winter and super insulation to conserve heat.
The Caroma Smart toilet and hand washstand combination allows for fresh water for hand-washing that flows into the tank to flush the toilet.
The research team also laid out the value of a green label in dollar amounts. To start, the researchers used the average sales price of a non-labeled home in California, $400,000. Apply-ing the average value of 9 percent, a green label would provide a boost in value of $34,800.
Next, the team compared that to the cost of building a home with a green label.
“If we think about construction costs for a more efficient home,” Kok said. “We know anecdotally, that if you con-struct a home that is about 35 percent more efficient, the cost to get to that level is about $10,000.”
By comparing those two numbers, Kok and his team suggested that for the average home, a green label would increase its value by around $25,000.
However, most homes in the Palo Alto area are not what one would con-sider an average home.
According to Multiple Listing Ser-vice data published by Realtor Michael Talis, of Coldwell Banker, Los Altos, the average sales price of a Palo Alto home sold in August was $2,014,540. Applying the 9 percent boost from a green label would, theoretically, add an additional $181,308 in value. And that is not factoring for the “Prius ef-fect.” n
Veronica Weber
Veronica Weber
An induction cooktop uses electromagnetic induction to heat faster and shorten cooking time.
Light emitting diode (LED) wall sconces by Phil-lips tend to be more expensive, but use far less energy and quickly pay for themselves.
Fall Real Estate Special Section I Page 43
Page 44 I Fall Real Estate Special Section
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With no disruption of their happy lifestyle, Kerwin & Associates, through their exclusivereal estate network, routinely work with clients to sell their homes off-market ensuringprivacy and no disruption to their daily life, the Gibsons got top-dollar for their home inone week — thanks to Kerwin & Associates.
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Fall Real Estate Special Section I Page 45
Page 46 I Fall Real Estate Special Section
Fall Real Estate Special Section I Page 47
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Page 48 I Fall Real Estate Special Section
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ATHERTON – Listed, sold and closed in under a month! Lovely 4bd/4ba, 3740+/-sf home on 1+acre. Great floor plan with large yard and pool for entertaining. Offered at $5,500,000
SOLDMENLO PARK – Lovely 5+bd/6ba home. 5700+/-sf living space on a 12,400+/-sf lot. 3 levels of quality construction. Oak Knoll/Hillview/MA schools. Est completion 4/13. Offered at $5,500,000
WOODSIDE – Located on a flat 3+ac site this home offers many desirable features. Main residence + 2bd/2ba GH. Tennis court, barn, private well for irrigation. Offered at $5,495,000
WOODSIDE – Beautiful setting with sweeping views from this extraordinary 7.7+/-acre property featuring an updated main home, guest cottage, pool and tennis court. Offered at $3,995,000
ATHERTON – One of the best in Lindenwood. Appealing Cape Cod-style home, gorgeous landscaping, vaulted ceilings, great cook’s kitchen, family room and library. Offered at $3,600,000
SOLDMENLO PARK – Located on a quiet cul-de-sac in the heart of West Menlo Park. 3900+/-sf of living space. 5bd/3.5ba with pool. Menlo Park schools. Offered at $3,300,000
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PALO ALTO – Stunning, modern 2-story home built in 2007. 3bd/2.5ba + office and den. Separate 2bd/2ba bungalow with vintage appeal. Prime street in downtown PA.
PALO ALTO – Remodeled 4bd/3ba with fantastic open layout and lovely, private yard in sought aftter neighborhood, just moments to downtown. www.1131Lincoln.com Offered at $2,550,000
MENLO PARK – This one-level 4bd/3.5ba home on a .25 acre lot was completely remodeled and expanded in 2006. The well-landscaped grounds include a pool. Offered at $2,295,000
WOODSIDE – In the heart of Woodside, close to Roberts and the Elementary school, this 1.5+/-acre lot features a 2bd/2ba home and a separate 1bd cottage. Offered at $2,195,000
REDWOOD CITY – Dramatic 4bd/4ba home on a peaceful hilltop setting. High ceilings and walls of glass capture beautiful views, natural light. Scenic gardens, hot tub. Offered at $2,099,000
WOODSIDE – A “10” for style, value! Gated entry to tranquil 6+acre retreat. One-level custom contemporary with 4bd/4ba. Pool on flat, fenced 2+/-acres. Offered at $1,850,000
PORTOLA VALLEY – Magical .53+/-acre with dazzling views of Windy Hill. 4bd/3ba contemporary home has 2830+/-sf living space and walls of windows to enjoy views.
MENLO PARK – Felton Gables charmer. 3bd/2ba home on a 10,340+/-sf lot with expansion possibilities. Move-in condition. Menlo Park schools. Offered at $2,145,000
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MENLO PARK – This charming 3bd cottage in Allied Arts has been lovingly restored while maintaining its original character. Expansive rear yard + bonus room behind garage.
JUST LISTEDATHERTON – Best buy in Atherton! 3bd/2.5ba rancher with family room and separate dining room in private park-like setting. Possibilities galore. Offered at $1,400,000
WOODSIDE – Majestic country setting, this lovely 4bd/2ba home sits on 3/4 acre+/- with fenced pool and bocce court. Portola Valley schools. Offered at $1,375,000
MENLO PARK – Desirable Stanford Hills neighborhood. 2130+/-sf home with 3bd/2ba on a 10,100+/-sf lot. Pool. Las Lomitas schools. Close to Stanford and 280. Offered at $1,350,000
MENLO PARK – Townhome at back of small complex.2 blocks to downtown. Exquisitelyremodeled. Private, wrap-around garden with sunny deck. Represented Buyer. Offered at $1,275,000
MENLO PARK – Fabulous townhome on fairway of SHGCC. 3bd/2ba with 2120+/-sf of living space. Remodeled kitchen and bath. Las Lomitas schools. Offered at $1,250,000
SAN CARLOS – Traditional 3bd/2ba home has partial Bay views from the master bedroom. Living room with fireplace, large kitchen. Beautifully landscaped front & rear gardens. Offered at $999,950
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MENLO PARK – Fairway retreat. This first floor 2bd/2ba with den condominium is located in the exclusive, gated community of Sharon Heights. Las Lomitas schools. Offered at $950,000
MOUNTAIN VIEW – Stunning, light-filled townhouse located just steps to downtown. End unit features high ceilings, 2 fireplaces. 2bd/2.5ba plus large 3rd floor open space. Offered at $946,000
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HALF MOON BAY – Single family home on large 13,500+/-sf lot; 3 bedrooms, 1 full bathroom, two-car garage and work room, large basement. Offered at $595,000
MENLO PARK – Light, bright, contemporary 3bd/2ba bungalow located in Allied Arts. Beautiful design details. New roof, partial basement and abundant attic storage. Call for Price
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Page 56 I Fall Real Estate Special Section
FALL REAL ESTATE 2012
by Lauren-Marie Sliterocal residents have been caught in a five-year debate over the activities of one man, a real-estate investor named
Jason Buzi.Hundreds of people have commented on the
Weekly’s online Town Square forum, claim-ing Buzi’s tactic for buying homes in Palo Alto and surrounding cities is a scam.
There is not a firm consensus on what it is he does. Some claim he buys properties for be-low-market value and then sells them (through a clause in his contract with the seller) to an-other buyer for a profit.
Buzi denied it, saying his contracts simply provide room for a partner to help him pay for the houses he buys.
“I’m not wealthy enough to buy every prop-erty I make an offer on,” he said. “So I add partners to the contract.”
Those partners are sometimes added to his contracts after the fact, Buzi said, but that he works with the same people consistently. However, he was not comfortable giving out the names of his partners, saying they do not necessarily want to be associated with some of the bad press Buzi has received online.
“It’s not like I go out and find random peo-ple,” he said. “I’ve worked with these partners for six or seven years.”
Backing out of a contract is rare for Buzi, who said the only times he has not been able to find a partner to invest with was while working in unfamiliar areas, like in Alameda across the bay.
“When I enter a contract, my intent is to close,” he said. “There have been very few contracts that I have walked away from.”
He also said the prices he pays sellers are fair.
“I don’t lowball,” he said. “That is exactly opposite of what I do. Most of the profit is coming from adding value not from low pric-es.”
Buzi said he rehabs properties that have not been put on the market yet, meaning he buys homes that need some fixing up. After refur-bishing, remodeling and sometimes rebuild-ing, Buzi and his partner will resell the home for profit.
This kind of real estate tactic is fairly com-mon, Buzi said, but his marketing technique is what has garnered him a not-so-savory reputa-tion in the area.
“There’s a lot of investors but there are very few people who do the marketing that I do,” he said.
Buzi floods local neighborhoods with fliers asking homeowners if they are looking to sell their homes to him. His perks: no real estate agent, no staging and no open houses. He also tells prospective buyers that they can remain
in their homes for a time, presumably enough time for him to partner up with another inves-tor.
“This is how I make my living,” he said. “Actively looking for deals and trying to get one a month.”
Originally working in the mortgage busi-ness, Buzi said he found working for someone else in such a volatile market difficult.
Buzi left the mortgage business in 2005 and started helping a friend flip houses.
By 2008, the poor economic climate got to Buzi’s business.
“Things got tougher and I kind of took a break,” he said.
As he saw the market getting better, Buzi decided to reenter the real-estate game in 2010, readapting to the new housing environ-ment, he said.
“You have to be adaptable,” he said, noting that he hadn’t purchased a short-sale home, one that a bank had taken ownership of, until last year.
As far as allegations against Buzi for scam-ming sellers and even for having illegal prac-tices, he said most of that is coming from people who either do not understand or who are threatened by his business.
“Real-estate agents obviously don’t like me buying right from the seller,” he said.
David Blockhus, a real-estate agent with Coldwell Banker, confirmed that what Buzi does is not illegal, but that is misleading.
“How he makes his money is by buying houses that have not been put on the market,” he said. “We have a board of ethics that we have to follow, he doesn’t have that.”
Blockhus warned sellers that they will be getting less than market value for their homes when selling to buyers like Buzi.
“In today’s market, if you put (your house) on the market, with full visibility, you are go-ing to do substantially better,” he said, not-ing that there are some cases in which people do not want to go through a real-estate agent, even if it means more money, because they will have to disclose information about their property or have open houses and other dis-ruptions.
It has been speculated that the people selling to Buzi are not informed sellers and Blockhus agreed.
“I don’t know for sure, but I think his target market are people who don’t know what they are doing,” he said.
Buzi said his partners and the people he has actually purchased from are not among those accusing him of bad business practices.
“The people I have done business with have nothing bad to say about me,” he said. “I’ve gone to attorneys, I’ve made sure everything I do is totally legal.”
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Q I own a couple of condos, which I rent out. I have a pretty good relationship with
my tenants, but I need to ask one of them to vacate so that my son can move into the unit. I like to use email to communicate with my clients, but I know that a notice of termination needs to be in writing. Can I send this notice of termina-tion via email?
A Email won’t work for you in this situation. California law is very specific about
the method for serving a notice of termination of tenancy. To be le-gally enforceable, service of a ter-mination notice must comply with California Code of Civil Procedure Section 1162. This statute allows service by personally handing the notice to the tenant, or by leaving it with another adult at the rental unit and then mailing an additional copy to the tenant at the address of the rental unit.
A third permissible method, if no one is present at the unit when per-sonal service is attempted, is com-monly described as “nail and mail.” This method requires “affixing” a copy of the notice in a conspicuous place like the front door, and mail-ing a second copy to the tenant at the address of the rental unit. None of these methods includes the use of email. The statutory reference to “mailing” requires use of traditional mail, not email.
Q I am the manager of a very large high-rise apartment community in San Francis-
co. There are many Asian families living in our neighborhood, includ-ing in our building. Last week, a woman called our office and ex-plained that she was born in Japan and had only been in this country a few years. She said that she wanted to live in a community where she could be near other Japanese peo-ple. She then asked me whether I
could show her vacant units on one of the floors where other Japanese families lived.
I can understand why she wants to live near other residents with whom she is comfortable, but I wonder if I would be in trouble under the fair-housing laws if I honored her request. What should I do?
A Your instincts are good ones: In essence, this prospective tenant is asking you to il-
legally “steer” her to units based upon the racial/ethnic make-up of a particular section of your rental community. “Steering” is funnel-ing or restricting housing seekers to a particular area within a rental community to either keep the racial or ethnic make-up of that area the same, or to intentionally change it. This practice violates our fair hous-ing laws.
Steering is a fair-housing violation even when a member of a protected group is asking to be “steered” to other members of the same race or
ethnic group. As a property man-ager, you can respond to questions about the property itself and the community generally, but not about the racial, ethnic, religious, familial status or other protected class char-acteristics of your tenants or neigh-bors. That doesn’t mean that the prospective tenant cannot choose to live in such a community. However, as a property manager, you cannot affirmatively perpetuate housing segregation. If you help this appli-cant restrict her housing search to a particular section or area of your rental community based on the eth-nic characteristics of the other ten-ants in that area you are doing just that.
Q I just separated from my hus-band last month. Right now my 10-year-old son and I are
living with my parents, but we need to find our own place to live. I can’t afford to pay much rent until I get a job, but I was hoping to find a fur-nished efficiency or one-bedroom apartment.
I found an ad for a one-bedroom apartment that I can afford. When I called the owner to arrange to see the place, I mentioned my son. He then told me he didn’t feel comfort-able renting the place to me, because he thought my son should have his own bedroom. Is this legal?
A Families with children are protected from discrimination under the fair-housing laws.
This means that a housing provider cannot refuse to rent to a prospec-
tive tenant because that applicant has one or more children under the age of 18, or treat an applicant with children any differently than an ap-plicant without children. These fa-milial-status protections mean that this housing provider cannot insist your son have his own bedroom.
Federal government occupancy standards require housing provid-ers to allow at least two occupants in a one-bedroom apartment. Since these standards allow any two peo-ple to share the one bedroom in the rental space, the housing provider has engaged in discrimination by deciding that a mother and son do not have the same right.
Martin Eichner edits RentWatch for Project Sentinel, an organiza-tion that provides landlord-tenant dispute resolution and fair-hous-ing services in Northern Califor-nia, including rental-housing me-diation programs in Palo Alto, Los Altos and Mountain View. Call 650-856-4062 for dispute resolu-tion or 650-321-6291 for fair hous-ing or email [email protected].
Beautiful historic house in College Terrace. 5 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, approx. 2,130 sq. ft. Stroll to California Ave, Stanford, shops, restaurants, schools, parks, and more.* Represented Buyer
SOLD BY KATHLEEN IN 2012: PENDING: 1032 COLLEGE AVE, PALO ALTO
2032 Greer Rd, Palo Alto (Sold Off Market)*153 S California Ave F203, Palo Alto*702 Garland Dr, Palo Alto*10440 Miller Ave, Cupertino*742 Loma Verde, Palo Alto*157 S California Ave H100, Palo Alto*10 Trudy Ln, Menlo Park*530 Shelby Ln, Los Altos*
2669 Greer Rd, Palo Alto
372 Velarde St, Mtn View*111 El Porton, Los Gatos*2140 Santa Cruz Ave, Menlo Park*928 Wright Ave #1203, Mtn View*4250 Pomona, Palo Alto*460 Pepper Ave, Palo Alto
(Sold Off Market)
edited by Martin Eichner
Page 58 I Fall Real Estate Special Section
Fall Real Estate Special Section I Page 59
Information deemed reliable, but not guaranteed. Sq. ft. and/or acreage information contained herein has been received from seller, existing reports, appraisals, public records and/or other sources deemed reliable. However, neither seller nor listing agent has verified this information. If this information is important to buyer in determining whether to buy or the purchase price, buyer should conduct buyer’s own investigation. Photography by Bernard André
