New Listing! 813 Haight Ave.

This Central Alameda Bungalow has hardwood floors throughout the home. With a large living room the split level floor plan offer an open and inviting space. The kitchen has room to move around and looks out over the backyard. The upstairs bedrooms allow for plenty of privacy while the third bedroom feels like a hideaway. Downstairs there is a laundry room with a long garage perfect for shop space, additional storage or other possibilities. The large deep backyard has room for gardens or transform it with your own creative landscaping. This home needs some TLC to bring it back to its full potential. Come take a look at what you could do here.
See the virtual tour click here.

Common complaints regarding short sales and foreclosures.

Roughly forty percent of the homes for sale on today's market are short sales and foreclosures! Distressed properties are well known for their value (a reputation which is sometimes accurate, and sometimes not), but they also have a reputation for causing buyers to become distressed, too!

Transactional snafus, last-minute surprises and long, drawn-out escrows that never close seem to be par for the course.

Instead of avoiding these properties altogether, get educated about the most common dramas that go down in these deals, and how you can avoid falling victim.


This article was excerpted from Trulia. READ THE WHOLE ARTICLE. CLICK HERE

SOLD wonderful 2 bedroom 2 bathroom Central Alameda

This wonderful 2 bedroom 2 bathroom home had been in the family for a long time.
It was lovingly cared for and in great condition. The owners lived out of the area and had it as a rental for many years. They moved back to put some work into it and put it on the market.
It now has new owners to love and care for it.
Sold for $500,000

Below is a very nice note they sent me.

A whole lot of praise and thanks goes to our Realtor, Phillip Kaake for selling our house at 1801 Central, Alameda. He was always courteous and so very helpful to us. He gave us very good advice on ideas to improve our house to make it more marketable. He pointed out improvements that would help sell the house. He gave us names of good craftsmen that would do the work needed.  We were thrilled with the man that refinished the hardwood floors. The floors looked as if they were brand new at our 74 year home, thanks to Philip's suggestion. When we called Philip and left a message, he always responded back quickly. When we had questions he answered them or found answers for those he wasn't sure about. We always could count on him being there for us. We were not always in Alameda as our primary home is in Arizona and we reside in Colorado six  months out of the year (we are snow birds). With many phone calls,emails and by faxing back and forth, we got the process taken care of. Philip made an outstanding video of our house  and yard so people were able to check the house out on the Internet. Also he had a beautiful picture of the house on the front page of the local paper, as well as a very nice write up that brought many people to the Open House. He was very professional in the whole experience in selling our house. Many THANKS to Phillip Kaake for a job well done.                                            Most Sincerely,                                            Jerry and JoAnn Ballou

Alameda Home Sales for April