The San Bruno Farmer’s Market started yesterday, Sunday, May 20 in the front parking lot of the Shops at Tanforan. I gave a way a whole bunch of I “Heart” San Bruno buttons, notepads, and flyers with current home listings and my contact info on them.

The San Bruno Mayor, Jim Ruane, did the “ribbon cutting” ceremony with the San Bruno City Council and San Bruno Chamber of Commerce. It was such a beautiful day! We had sunshine, reggae music, and plenty of fruit and vegetables. There was also, fresh honey, bread, and flowers!

For $50. anyone can purchase a booth for Sunday. If you are a non-profit like a school or club, it’s free! The San Bruno Chamber of Commerce is an awesome group of people who promote local businesses, the city of San Bruno, and its community groups!

The new location at the mall is going to be better than ever! It was a great idea to move the farmer’s market from San Mateo Ave., where it wasn’t well attended, to the Tanforan front parking lot, where everyone who doesn’t know about it, sure will soon!  The San Bruno Farmer’s Market is being held every Sunday from 9-1:00..now until Nov. 18., rain or shine!

Karin Cunningham

650-438-3504

• Drive the coast! We don’t HAVE to go as far as Santa Cruz! There are lots of cool beaches for us to stop off at. Just need to pack homemade sandwhiches, plenty of apples and bannanas and water. Am I right? Am I right?!
• Drive Golden Gate Park from the windmills at the beach to the Children’s Playgroud off 7th. We can hit up various picnic grounds, playgrounds, ponds, climb trees, Stow Lake, etc…
• Fort Point: http://www.nps.gov/fopo/index.htm It’s FREE and only open on Fri., Sat., and Sun. I used to like going on filed trips there as a kid. We’ll see what it’s like now! Ha!
• Japan Town: Anime, Pokemon, Yugio, and Dragon Ball Z….and they have GOT to have a ramen house and what kid doesn’t like Top Ramen? I can’t imagine it being very expensive.
• China Town: Lot’s of walking and wandering to do! “Fortune Cookie” alley, Trans America Pyramid, some of the cheapest trinkets in the world can be found here.
• Cliff House Caves: The walk down to the old Sutro Baths brings back my fondest memories of exploring as a kid. It’s a pretty quick hike so a picnic at Kelly’s Cove where I used to hang out as a teenager is a must!
• Russian River: With an early start, it could be a great day trip! Johnson’s Beach is still there and waiting for us to jump in the river! There has GOT some inexpensive hotels, just in case we get tired!
• Kids Bowl Free!: I have never taken advantage of these coupons that get sent home from school but we will this year!
• Rinconada Pool in Palo Alto: This place looks like so much fun! The weather is usually nice there during the summer, too!http://www.cityofpaloalto.org/depts/csd/activities_and_recreation/aquatics/default.asp

So, budgeting for GAS, food and sometimes bridge toll, I think we could manage a great summer vacation and make some awesome childhood memories. If you have any economical ways to spend a vacation in the Bay Area or Northern California, feel free to add to the list. I’m sure a lot of people could benefit besides me! Talk soon!

Karin Cunningham

There are only 10 houses for sale in San Bruno and 5 condos! This is the least amount of homes for sale that I have ever seen here in my 14 years of real estate. No wonder there is so much competition. I imagine if you had equity and wanted to sell, this woul be the right time!

It’s strange that there are only 5 condos for sale in San Bruno when there are 1200 units in Shelter Creek and almost the same in Peninsula Place. People have asked me if banks are holding on their inventory? Are people not selling because the values have come down? MayBE!

It is frustrating having people who want to buy houses and condos and not being able to show and sell them anything!

The Merimont Development is the old Carl Sandburg School site closed in 1978. Below is a link from 2008 that I found interesting. I also find it interesting that I am doing am open house there this weekend. This Sunday, April 29 2-4 pm, to be exact! The address is 213 Marbella Lane, San Bruno. It is actually a pretty awesome looking community!

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/01/27/RE5EUI2K7.DTL

The paragraph below is from the Summer Hill website…

“This community sold out in 2011. Located in the hills above San Bruno with many homes offering Bay Views, Merimont offered 70 single-family homes with 3 to 5 bedrooms in approximately 1,785 to 2,289 square feet. A new neighborhood park with play structure, barbeque, and picnic facility offer a wealth of outdoor activities for children and adults alike. Merimont is only minutes from I-280 and BART for easy access to work or recreation in San Francisco and the rest of the Bay Area. Merimont was priced from the high $700,000s to the high $900,000s.”

Karin Cunningham

Prudential California Realty

650-438-3504

The same day, San Bruno is hosting its first Relay for Life event for the fight against cancer. This event will be held at the Capuchino High School football field which has a track that people will be walking around. There are a bunch of teams this year, 26 from San Bruno alone including the Parkside Leos, the San Bruno Chamber of Commerce, community individuals, and various clubs! Click on this link to join and check out who is participating!

http://main.acsevents.org/site/TR?pg=team&fr_id=42708&team_id=1105597

Relay for Life starts its opening ceremonies at 10:00 am on Sat., April 28 and continues for 24 hours until 10:00 am on Sunday, April 29th.

I hope to see you there!

Karin Cunningham

650-438-3504

~Karin Cunningham “Your San Bruno Real Estate Specialist”

So..HERE WE GO AGAIN! …and I’m not too thrilled about it being the fact that I work with a lot of house hunters who have little money to put down or just can’t wrap their minds around offering more than what a home is listed for.

In the past 2 years, I have not been as busy as I have been in the past 2 months, showing homes and trying to get offers accepted where there have been multiple offer situations. It is a phenomenon that we have not seen since 2002-2005. We are looking at competition from “all cash” buyers who are offering great amounts over the listing price to get these homes. I am also noticing that it is happening all over the Bay Area! In a few cases, for example, I showed 6-7 houses in San Jose where a few of them had up to 30 offers! Not the case last year or the year before. In Daly City, Pacifca, San Bruno and SSF, we are seeing offer dates set up for bidding wars. We haven’t seen that for awhile. I was setting up a home tour in Richmond and Hercules the other day and half of the homes sold in a few days! What??!!

Here are a few links that share my view of what’s happening…

http://sellingsf.com/2012/04/bay-area-real-estate-update/ (This one is short and sweet)

With Valentine’s Day coming up, and my being a Realtor, I thought it would be appropriate to ask people what they LOVE most about their homes! I posted the question on my personal Facebook page and these are some of the responses I got…Dolores in Richmond, Ca. said she LOVES that her neighborhood is quiet and Barbara from Brisbane, Ca. said she LOVES that every time she goes out on her deck, it feels like she’s on vacation. Julie in Hawaii said she LOVES dining on her lanai and relaxing outdoors. Kamala in South San Francisco said she LOVES her office facing the yard and all the critters that pass through, the view of the mountains, and pretty quiet neighbors. She LOVES the bedrooms upstairs away from common areas and hardwood floors. Sasha in San Bruno, Ca. said she LOVES her view!

I know what I LOVE about my house…I LOVE that it was built in 1907 and has a lot of old fashioned details like high ceilings and thick floor moldings, built in cabinets and stained glass windows! I LOVE the neighborhood rooftop views because I can see the ice on the roofs in the mornings and a little bit of the SF Airport. I LOVE that the layout is like no other house in the neighborhood. It’s one of a kind! It has no hallways but it has 4 bedrooms scattered throughout the house and a basement with a bunch of trippy rooms and a half bath!

I LOVE interactive blogs so if you live in an apartment rental, house, house boat, room in a house, and you LOVE something about it, please let me know! Happy Valentine’s Day!

Karin Cunningham

To search for homes visit www.KarinCunningham.com

For San Bruno events and activities visit www.facebook.com/sanbrunolife