Part 1 of 8

Bum Steer: Use gravel or rocks at the bottom of containers to improve drainage.

This advice is just untrue! Soil scientists discovered some time ago that water does not travel easily or the same in different types of soils. For example, if you layer potting soil that is fine the water will be absorbed by the soil to the point of being soggy before it even get to the gravel layer that is a coarse. So the coarse layer of gravel doesn’t allow proper drainage instead it makes drainage worse.

So what is a gardener to do?  Well instead of putting at the bottom of your flowerpots gravel or Styrofoam packing popcorn fill the flowerpots with soil-less potting mix.  These mixes drain soil well and are purchased at any good Garden Center.

What I have found I can do to lessen the mess flowerpots tend to cause place coffee filters over the drainage holes.  This will keep your porches, patios and decks soil free from when you water your flowerpots.

Your friend,

Cliff

Cliff Keith and Team
D.R.E.#: 00605874
Today Sotheby’s International Realty
1250 San Carlos Avenue #101
San Carlos, CA 94070
Redwood City Real Estate - Website
Business – LinkedIn- Business Page
Email Cliff
650-597-1821 — Direct to Desk
650.346.7366 – Cell Phone

Yes you can negotiate your closing costs with your bank or lender.  Their costs vary from bank to bank and some banks are more willing than others.

Buying A Home Cost You Money

What to look for to negotiate with your bank, check the Good Faith Estimate first.  Check every line item on it and highlight the following line items. Loan origination fees, administration costs, and clerical fees.

Once you do that you can go ahead to negotiate with your bank to get those line item charges either removed or lowered.  These are typically the most negotiated fees by a home buyer.

A word of caution; I will give you reduction of fee 7-days a week for a higher interest rate.  So don’t pinch your pennies when it may cost you dollars in the long run.  Be careful on how hard you negotiate.

Call or email Cliff Keith and Team for more details: 650-346-7366 or Cliff@SFBayHomes.com

"Climate Best by Government Test"

The Updated Redwood City Friday’s Market Update: 2011 and 2/17/2012

Redwood City real estate:  Here is the MLS data for single-family homes over the past 7 days in Redwood City, CA.  These numbers show data gathered between Friday 1/13/2012 – 2/10/12:

Date:          2011-1/20-27-2/3-10-17

New Listings-762-18-12-21-21-16

$ Increased—000-00-02-02-00-00

$ Decreased–000-08-03-04-08-08

BOM————-000-05-03-04-02-02

Pending–——-000-09-12-15-15-20

Do Not Show–000-07-12-04-08-06

Sold–————-557-07-10-11-07-06

Rentals–———000-01-02-02-00-00

Expired–———786-00-00-01-00-03

Cancelled–——000-01-03-04-03-00

What do those numbers mean? They mean 50% of the homes that came on the market for sale, their counter parts of active listings that are on the market dropped their asking price. It appears some homes are not at the current market value when placed for sale on the open market.

What type of market do I see here?  The numbers point to a Seller’s Market!  WHY you may ask?  It’s because of the basic law in economic, Supply and Demand.  Redwood City had 16 new homes, which came on the market for sale during the past 7 days and 37 homes, or 2.31 times more homes removed from the market for various reasons.

Currently, the months of inventory is 4.8 months. The LP:SP Ratio (list price vs. sale price) dropped .1% to 98.2%. The days to sell were lowered from last month of 113 to this month 70. This is also an indicator Redwood City is in a “Sellers Market” from these numbers.

If you were a homebuyer looking to buy a home in Redwood City, I’d say it’s time for action on your part. If you are a home seller in Redwood City, I say, it too is time for you to consider putting your home on the market for sale, today.

Both Redwood City’s homebuyers and sellers will make an intelligent decision by taking action to buy and sell their homes today.

By doing so, Buyers would be ahead of the home buying market curve because the media hasn’t realized the market is shifting towards a Seller’s Market.  And, when the media starts reporting the shift in the Redwood City real estate market more homebuyers will begin looking to buy their home in Redwood City.  Redwood City homebuyers you are smart!  Make the smart choice. As a side note, Redwood City real estate in past recessions, kept ahead of inflation for investors. (See 9/19/11 blog post on inflation.)

Redwood City Home Sellers you are smart too!  Take action today, and offer your home to the market for sale because you will begin to see quicker offers during this trend.  This will cause you, the home seller, to negotiate on your offers fewer concessions in terms of the price and conditions.

Read Friday’s Weekly Market Update For Redwood City every Friday by going to http://www.SFBayHomes.com.

ü      You will find in addition to the Friday’s Weekly Market Update For Redwood City you will be able to find out what your home is worth.

ü      What the Best Home in Redwood City was for that week during MLS Broker Tour.

ü      A little Redwood City History.

ü      The ability to chat live with me if you should have any real estate questions or any other subject cover on http://www.SFBayHomes.com

ü      Setup your own private MLS search that meets only your criteria.

Cliff Keith

650-597-1821

Cliff@SFBayHomes.com

Razed in 1903, the original Court House vied for approval and plans for the new County Court

After Earthquake of 1906

House.  The commission for the work was given to Dodge and Dolliver, two local architects.  After construction of the new County Court House lasting  three-year the County was ready to occupy the building.

In April of 1906 the County of San Mateo was preparing to move to the new facilities. Being able to occupy the building was a three dream for all the county workers.  On April 18, 1906 the earthquake hit California and destroyed the new County Court House.  All that remained was the frame-work for the Rotunda.  You may remember this earthquake as being more commonly known as the Great San Francisco Earthquake and Fire of 1906.

The building was almost totally ruined. Some framing, dome, and salvageable materials was all that remained.

Rotunda

The County commissioned a new architect by the name of Glenn Allen to rebuild the County Court House.  Mr. Allen kept some of the earlier designs that Dodge and Dolliver used, but added some of his own design too.  The result was a building of Renaissance-Baroque design that centered in an inviting park plaza.

The materials used on the exterior were: Green Colusa Sandstone, sheet copper cornices as well as sheet copper on parts of the Rotunda.

The charm and beauty of the County Court House lies within its interior. Walking inside is pure joy of the uniqueness of the interior.  There are mosaic floors, bronze lamps with eagles, cast iron balustrades, wonderful aged oak benches, green marbled terra-cotta pillars with gold eagle volutes capitals, and exceptional stained glass skylightsin the Rotunda. You will find many of these same

Court House After the Quake

features in “Court Room A”.  ”Court Room A” ,beyond other things, was the court room scene used in the filming of “Mrs. Doubtfire”.

During the depression President Franklin D Roosevelt in his New Deal start a WPA Federal Program, which put people back to work.  Some of the work the WPA did was to add two modern annexes to the Court House.  When WPA added the two new modern annexes the main portico didn’t  fit flush to the existing building needing to be removed.  The western and eastern facades remained untouched from their original appearance.  Also the Rotunda was left in tact.

court house 1960

In 2005, the 1939 WPA annexations were demolished.  In 2006 the entrance façade was reconstructed to its original appearance. The “Old” San Mateo County Courthouse is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Is your Family & Home “Secure”?

• Burglaries of Residential Property accounted for 73% of all burglaries last year.
• 61% of all burglaries involved forcible entry
• 32.5% were unlawful entries (without force) and the remaining 6.5% were forcible entry attempts.

Crime Prevention Tips:

• Get to know your neighbors, exchange phone numbers, let them know your daily routines. This makes it easier for them to notice possible trouble at your residence.
• Use secondary window and sliding door blocking devices on all first floor windows. Yes they could simply break the glass. However, monitored security systems do offer Glass Break Detectors that trigger the system into alarm once the glass is broken.
• Don’t hide house keys under doormats, rock or planters. Burglars can survey your home for weeks and see where you hide your key.
• Secure your Doors. Use dead bolt locks, and install four 3” screws in order to secure the heavy-duty strike plates in your door frames.
• Don’t forget to secure your garage door as well. Do not leave the garage door emergency release rope hanging down. It is very easy for a burglar to break the window in your garage door (if applicable) and reach in with a pole to release the lock on your garage door mechanism. This will allow the burglar to open garage door from the outside and walk right in.
• Don’t be an easy target. Avoid leaving empty flat screen tv, computer boxes in plain sight at driveway trash collection area. Break this cardboard down and place inside recycling bin as soon as possible.
• Burglars want to spend no more than 60 seconds breaking into a home. Deadbolts, secondary window/door locks make entry more difficult and may change burglars mind.
• Clear shrubs/tree foliage around your house. Burglars will use this to hide behind. Keep ladders, tools in garage or shed and not in the yard. Burglars will often use these to actually gain entry into your home.
• A burglary  in the U.S. takes place every 14.6 seconds
• Most burglaries occur between 10am-3pm
• Burglars spend an average of 8-12 minutes in your home
• The typical burglar is an amateur who lives within a 2 mile radius of your home.
• Favorite items are: cash, jewelry, electronics, silver, guns and other items easy to sell.
• The first room a burglar visits is the master bedroom. This is where they perceive valuables, cash and jewelry to be kept.
• Finally, homes without security systems are 3x as likely to be broken into as homes with a professionally installed and monitored security system.

Fire and Burglary Protection

A monitored residential security system offers four layers of protection

• #1 Yard Sign and Window Decals: Burglars will often drive by and canvass neighborhoods in order to find easy targets. If they see a security sign in your front yard they will most likely just move on to the next unprotected house or the next neighborhood.
• #2 Perimeter Protection: First floor windows and door contacts provide your home with vital perimeter protection from intrusion. 40% of all forced entry occurs through the front door. 25% occurs through the back door. Glass Break Detectors are also a popular and effective device used in perimeter protection.
• #3 Interior Protection: Motion Detectors are used when nobody is home to provide additional protection in the event that one of the perimeter devices is compromised.  Pet Immune Motion Detectors are available for homes with cats or dogs.
• #4 Most important is the 24 hour central station monitoring provided by a UL Listed Central Station.  You could receive a discount from your homeowners insurance between 10-20% annually.

For more information and a private consultation call:

Fire Protection

Will You Be My Valentine?

The history of Valentine’s Day–and the story of its patron saint–is shrouded in mystery. We do know that February has long been celebrated as a month of romance, and that St. Valentine’s Day, as we know it today, contains vestiges of both Christian and ancient Roman tradition. But who was Saint Valentine, and how did he become associated with this ancient rite?

The Catholic Church recognizes at least three different saints named Valentine or Valentinus, all of whom were martyred. One legend contends that Valentine was a priest who served during the third century in Rome. When Emperor Claudius II decided that single men made better soldiers than those with wives and families, he outlawed marriage for young men. Valentine, realizing the injustice of the decree, defied Claudius and continued to do marriages for young lovers in secret. When Valentine’s actions were discovered, Claudius ordered that he be put to death.

Other stories suggest that Valentine may have been killed for attempting to help Christians escape harsh Roman prisons, where they were often beaten and tortured. According to one legend, an imprisoned Valentine actually sent the first “valentine” greeting himself after he fell in love with a young girl–possibly his jailor’s daughter–who visited him during his confinement. Before his death, it is alleged that he wrote her a letter signed “From your Valentine,” an expression that is still in use today. Although the truth behind the Valentine legends is murky, the stories all emphasize his appeal as a sympathetic, heroic and–most importantly–romantic figure. By the Middle Ages, perhaps thanks to this reputation, Valentine would become one of the most popular saints in England and France.

Origins of Valentine’s Day: A Pagan Festival in February

Eros

While some believe that Valentine’s Day is celebrated in the middle of February to commemorate the anniversary of Valentine’s death or burial–which probably occurred around A.D. 270–others claim that the Christian church may have decided to place St. Valentine’s feast day in the middle of February to “Christianize” the pagan celebration of Lupercalia. Celebrated at the ides of February, or February 15, Lupercalia was a fertility festival dedicated to Faunus, the Roman god of agriculture, as well as to the Roman founders Romulus and Remus.

To begin the festival, members of the Luperci, an order of Roman priests, would gather at a sacred cave where the infants Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome, were believed to have been cared for by a she-wolf or lupa. The priests would sacrifice a goat, for fertility, and a dog, for purification. They would then strip the goat’s hide into strips, dip them into the sacrificial blood and take to the streets, gently slapping both women and crop fields with the goat hide. Far from being fearful, Roman women welcomed the touch of the hides because it was believed to make them more fertile in the coming year. Later in the day, according to legend, all the young women in the city would place their names in a big urn. The city’s bachelors would each choose a name and become paired for the year with his chosen woman. These matches often ended in marriage.

Valentine’s Day: A Day of Romance

Lupercalia survived the first rise of Christianity and but was outlawed—as it was deemed “un-Christian”–at the end of the 5th century, when Pope Gelasius declared February 14 St. Valentine’s Day. It was not until later, however, that the day became definitively associated with love. During the Middle Ages, it was commonly believed in France and England that February 14 was the beginning of birds’ mating season, which added to the idea that the middle of Valentine’s Day should be a day for romance.

Valentine greetings were popular as far back as the Middle Ages, though written Valentine’s didn’t begin to appear until after 1400. The oldest known valentine still in existence today was a poem written in 1415 by Charles, Duke of Orléans, to his wife while he was imprisoned in the Tower of London following his capture at the Battle of Agincourt. (The greeting is now part of the manuscript collection of the British Library in London, England.) Several years later, it is believed that King Henry V hired a writer named John Lydgate to compose a valentine note to Catherine of Valois.

Typical Valentine’s Day Greetings

Kisses from your lover

In addition to the United States, Valentine’s Day is celebrated in Canada, Mexico, the United Kingdom, France and Australia. In Great Britain, Valentine’s Day began to be popularly celebrated around the 17th century. By the middle of the 18th, it was common for friends and lovers of all social classes to exchange small tokens of affection or handwritten notes, and by 1900 printed cards began to replace written letters due to improvements in printing technology. Ready-made cards were an easy way for people to express their emotions in a time when direct expression of one’s feelings was discouraged. Cheaper postage rates also contributed to an increase in the popularity of sending Valentine’s Day greetings.

Americans probably began exchanging hand-made valentines in the early 1700s. In the 1840s, Esther A. Howland began selling the first mass-produced valentines in America. Howland, known as the “Mother of the Valentine,” made elaborate creations with real lace, ribbons and colorful pictures known as “scrap.” Today, according to the Greeting Card Association, an estimated 1 billion Valentine’s Day cards are sent each year, making Valentine’s Day the second largest card-sending holiday of the year. (An estimated 2.6 billion cards are sent for Christmas.) Women purchase approximately 85 percent of all valentines.

Kissing your Valentine

Valentine greetings were popular as far back as the Middle Ages, though written Valentine’s didn’t begin to appear until after 1400. The oldest known valentine still in existence today was a poem written in 1415 by Charles, Duke of Orléans, to his wife while he was imprisoned in the Tower of London following his capture at the Battle of Agincourt. (The greeting is now part of the manuscript collection of the British Library in London, England.) Several years later, it is believed that King Henry V hired a writer named John Lydgate to compose a valentine note to Catherine of Valois.

In addition to the United States, Valentine’s Day is celebrated in Canada, Mexico, the United Kingdom, France and Australia. In Great Britain, Valentine’s Day began to be popularly celebrated around the 17th century. By the middle of the 18th, it was common for friends and lovers of all social classes to exchange small tokens of affection or handwritten notes, and by 1900 printed cards began to replace written letters due to improvements in printing technology. Ready-made cards were an easy way for people to express their emotions in a time when direct expression of one’s feelings was discouraged. Cheaper postage rates also contributed to an increase in the popularity of sending Valentine’s Day greetings.

In your sites

Americans probably began exchanging hand-made valentines in the early 1700s. In the 1840s, Esther A. Howland began selling the first mass-produced valentines in America. Howland, known as the “Mother of the Valentine,” made elaborate creations with real lace, ribbons and colorful pictures known as “scrap.” Today, according to the Greeting Card Association, an estimated 1 billion Valentine’s Day cards are sent each year, making Valentine’s Day the second largest card-sending holiday of the year. (An estimated 2.6 billion cards are sent for Christmas.) Women purchase approximately 85 percent of all valentines.

*Source for this information is: http://www.history.com/topics/valentines-day