San Francisco Real Estate - Janice Lee

How to transform a dorm room into something special   A few weekends ago, I spoke with a lovely mother-daughter duo who were in shopping for some new bedding. The daughter was headed to Kentucky for her freshman year and they were searching for the perfect shade of blue to show off her new school pride. It got me thinking about how bedding can transform a cold, impersonal room and how fun it could be to showcase collegiate looks and dorm room design tips. There is so much to get ready when you are moving out on your own for the first time. I remember being so excited to start my journey at the University of Missouri-Columbia (don’t hold that against me, Kansas fans) as an “official adult” (in my head at least), and the first thing on my journey to adulthood was creating my living space. I was ready to leave behind my boy band posters and childhood bedroom for a life of style and sophistication — then I saw what a dorm room actually looked like. As you know, dorm rooms can ...

Landscaping the perfect garden: Dream first, budget second   Do I need to sell one kidney or two? That was the main question I had as we waited for our landscape designer to send over his cost estimate for the plan he’d presented the week before. My husband, DC, and I loved the vision Tony Evans created to transform our ho-hum backyard into a place we would actually look forward to coming home to — as opposed to one we hid behind pulled drapes. However, before budget realities could dash our dreams – The fountain! The fire feature! The spa! — we indulged in the fantasy of seeing our backyard through the magic spectacles of a professionally rendered design in which almost anything is possible. And we played how much do you think? We bandied about numbers as high as a year of college tuition – for the plan without the pool and spa, which was an option. Adding the pool, we figured, would double the cost. (P.S. We weren’t wrong.) DC had the cardiac paddles ready as ...

How to sell your ‘ugly’ house when no one is biting In today’s market, renovated move-in ready properties sell at a premium. But what if you can’t or won’t fix up your house? A property that is dated, unrenovated or unloved, can linger on the market for months, pushing the price down. Fixer-uppers may have been appealing a decade ago, but today they leave buyers cold, said McKenzie Ryan, an agent with Compass in New York City. “Ten years ago, most people wanted to add some value and put their own fingerprint on it,” she said. “Now it has been such a shift, particularly with millennial buyers — they want a finished product. They don’t want to put in the sweat equity.” For homeowners without the money or time for a renovation, new options can help sell a property with no out-of-pocket costs. Pre-sale renovations with no upfront cost Some real estate agencies, like Compass, Coldwell Banker and Keller Williams, are offering renovation services with no upfront ...

What further negotiations can take place after an offer is accepted?     - Once the purchase agreement between buyer and seller has been accepted, there are still items that can come up and require further negotiating. One of the most common is the home inspection - and unless a home is flawless-which few are-there will probably be some negotiations between the parties before the close of escrow. The purpose of the home inspection is to find significant defects that would cause a buyer to not want to move forward with the transaction, or, at the very least, have the items repaired. Negotiating repairs after a home inspection should be kept to what is vital, and not previously known prior to writing an offer. When negotiating home inspection items, we always recommend a credit at closing, or a price reduction, whenever possible. There is too much uncertainty and stress on seller to do repair work if it can be avoided. The buyer is likely to be particular about the ...

Should you walk your dog on the left or the right?   Q : My dog, Wanda, is taking chemo for lymphoma and fortunately, she’s doing great. I’m trying to get her on nice trail walks several times a week, and this raises a question. My habit is to walk on the left side of the trail, with Wanda on leash to my left. This way I’m between Wanda and other oncoming dogs and their people as we pass. Wanda loves everyone and wants to jump up on them and this helps me control her. I thought it was customary to walk on the left side, but more often than not, oncoming walkers and joggers position themselves to pass on Wanda’s side. Is there trail etiquette of which I’m unaware? A : The general rule for walking on trails is to stay to the right and pass on the left. As to which side the dog goes on, show and hunting dogs are trained to stay on their human’s left side, but for most dogs, it doesn’t matter. Experts, however, suggest you pick a side — left or right — and keep to it so ...