San Bruno Posy Parade 2009

The Posy Parade in San Bruno is held every year in June. It is put on by the San Bruno Lion’s Club. This year it will be on Sun. June 7th at 1:00. The theme this year is “The Many Cultures of San Bruno”! It is a parade dedicated to children and it’s themes are always deocrated with flowers!

At its height in the 1960s, the parade attracted as many as 3 thousand participants and 20 to 30 thousand spectators. This year is the 69th Annual Posy Parade in San Bruno. The parade includes all of our baseball teams, school floats, orginization floats, marching bands, a Posy Parade princess and her court. The mayor passes by in a fire truck and the city council in old fashioned cars throw candy to the crowds who are lining the street! The end of the Posy Parade is in San Bruno Park which holds a ceremony for the best floats, hot dog sales and 2 MAJOR San Bruno baseball games! See you Sunday June 7th for the 69th Annual Posy Parade in San Bruno, Ca.!

Posy Parade Poster

Posy Parade Brochure

http://sbpsd.k12.ca.us/schoolhouse/posy-parade.html

Picture taken from website above.

Signs of a Real Estate Rebound

I am not one of profound wisdom, but I am hearing some positive signs of real estate making a turn around, a turn around for the better! Basically, the thinking goes like this, “Hmmm, real estate values are down, not only do I still have my job but I have some cash sitting around, and rates are very low – and may not go lower. So maybe I will stop renting and buy a place (or pick up that non-owner occupied property, or that vacation home), or at least see what is out there.” The market will tell you that at some price, there is a buyer for everything.

San Francisco, the San Mateo Peninsula, East Bay and South Bay are experiencing a surge in homebuyers who are jumping off the fence to try and get their hands on property that they could have only wished they could afford a few years ago. Check out the news link below to see what I’m talking about!

http://cbs5.com/business/real.estate.sales.2.956968.html

 

Here’s another example:

San Bruno 2 bedroom/ 1 bath

Listed at $344,900 just went pending with approximately 20 offers!!

The Real Estate Therapist is “IN”

 

Real estate therapy for the home buyer, home seller and home owner is a pretty common request these days. Some of the most frequently asked questions start  from what the current value of a home is in order to make a decent offer or sale to how one could lower their property taxes. It’s a different market out there in real estate but there are some interesting things going on!

What is the current value of the home you are placing a bid on anyways?We got Zillow telling us one thing and the seller telling us another! It’s tough to come up with decent comparables in some cases where there hasn’t been a sale in months. We know that the value has dropped but what should we base our offer on? In many cases we have to base the offering price on comparable “active” properties. We have to check how long these homes have been on the market and if they have had any activity! Comparing the “active” homes and their condition, square footage, and location should help determine the current vale of a home in this market. This is also helpful information for people trying to sell.

How can I lower my property taxes? There is buzz all over town about lowering our property taxes and the good thing is, is you CAN! All it takes is filling out one form with the current value of your home compared to the “higher” price you purchased it for along with some handy recent comparable sales that you get from your Realtor. This package is turned in to your county recorders office and put to review. This could save you hundreds of dollars per year!

San Bruno Holiday Tree Lighting Ceremony 2008

The City of San Bruno and the San Bruno Parks and Recreation Services Dept. Presents the Anual Holiday Tree Lighting Ceremony On Thursday, Dec. 4 at 5:30 pm.

 

The event will be held in front of the Veterans Memorial Recreation Center in San Bruno City Park. There, we watch our big Christmas tree light the place up! Afterwards, stay for carolers, cookies and hot chocolate, pictures with Santa who will be arriving on a fire truck as always, and children’s crafts.

Happy Holidays!

The Pulse Of San Bruno-Karin Cunningham

Bay Area real estate “shake up”!

Can you shake it up anymore in the East Bay right now? What I mean is, I have been showing property to different sets of clients in Pittsburg, Antioch and Hayward and all the homes have 10-20 offers on them! What the heck is going on?? I thought this was a buyer’s market!

Well, what we have observed is the real estate market in those areas have reached rock bottom!

• In Antioch, there are two to eight year old homes listed for $199,000, bank owned REO’s that sell for up to $100,000 over the list price with 10-20 offers.
• In Pittsburg, there are sprawling older ranch style 4 bedroom homes on 12,000 square foot lots listed at $229,000, bank owned REO’s, pending with multiple offers and back ups.
• Hayward has some awesome deals that I don’t even want to think about right now because they are being snatched up so fast!

Now, I live and work in San Bruno and there are:

• 10 houses for sale under $400,000- San Bruno
• 5 houses for sale under $400,000- Daly City
• 17 houses pending in San Bruno, SSF, Pacifica and Daly City UNDER $400,000

Now THAT’S a real estate “shake up” because we haven’t seen activity like this is a few years now!

 

San Bruno Realtor, Karin Cunningham at Your Service!

I learned along time ago, in my waitressing days at the Hyatt Regency in Burlingame, that service with a smile makes all the difference in the world to the consumer. When service industry people like their jobs, it makes a world of difference to the worker, as well! When I switched from waitressing to real estate, it felt like almost the same job, just a different product! When I was serving drinks at the lobby bar at the Hyatt and within a few hours went to our Prudential kiosk at Tanforan, I felt like I was still behind a bar but just serving a different kind of drink! Definately a more expensive one!

Tanforan Kiosk

Now that I am an experienced real estate agent or Realtor, I am happy to say that choosing real estate was the best career decision I ever made. I have helped people buy and sell homes all over the Bay Area from San Francisco to San Jose and all over the East Bay from Antioch to Fremont. I have enjoyed every minute, every step of the way and I look forward to many more!

I have a family and we have established ourselves in San Bruno, it only made sense to me to become a part of the community as much as possible and carry on those service lessons that I learned at the Hyatt, especially since I love using those skills. I am on the Allen Elementary School PTA, the San Bruno Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors, I go to every San Bruno Concert in the Park in August, swimming lessons, baseball games, soccer games, and most recently I am entered in our San Mateo County Association of Realtors arm wrestling contest! Holy Moly! What am I getting myself into!

San Bruno swimming lessons

If you know anyone thinking of buying or selling a home anywhere in San Francisco, the San Mateo Peninsula or East Bay, I hope you will let them know about me, send them to this blog and my website at www.KarinCunningham.com so I can give them the same great service that I speak of today. I look foward to building my business with you and others who are interested!  Thank you!

Karin Cunningham

“Bouncing Along the Bottom”

Last month I attended the Inman Real Estate Conference at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco. It was so cool because I got to listen to different panels of experts talk about the state of the real estate market, new and improved real estate technology, and a lot about blogging and websites.

It was interesting hearing from some of the econimists in the “Bear vs. Bull” panel where on a positive note, experts expect the housing market to “bounce along the bottom” for the next year and a half or more! WOW! If that analogy is true then this would make it a great time to buy a home as long as you qualify! If you don’t know if you qualify for a home loan or what your monthly payment would be it would be a good idea to find out! It doesn’t hurt or cost anything to try!

San Bruno has 7 homes for sale under $400,000, South San Francisco has 1 or 2 and Daly City has about 8. Those prices haven’t been seen around here since 2003! 

        

Can you really buy a house at the San Mateo County Fair?

The San Mateo County Fair runs from Aug. 8th- Aug. 17. Our office has a booth and we have been really busy answering questions about  home prices, loans, REO’s, short sales and all kinds of stuff! Its a casual environment not like the tidy, quiet and clean office we’re accustomed to. Its fun to chat with people at the fair because the atmosphere is not so “closed in”. We have a binder of homes for sale that fair goers can flip through and get a good idea of what homes are selling for in their favorite neighborhoods. Come join us at the fair! We’ll even sign you up to win an iPod nano!

Shokoofeh and I working the booth!

San Bruno Autumn Fest 2007

Come to the San Bruno Chamber of Commerce’s 4th Annual Autumn Fest this Sat. Oct. 6 10-4. For more information check the website at www.SanBrunoChamber.com

This is an event for everyone. There will be at least 6 different dance organizations performing on a stage, 45 booths/ tables of arts and crafts, non-profit, business and community information. There will be kids games, food and other entertainment, too!

Please come and experience San Bruno as you never have before at San Bruno City Park!

Anyone wanna talk about San Bruno?

Hey! Does anyone know anyone who is thinking about buying or selling real estate in the Bay Area? I would love to help them if you do!

How about San Bruno talk? I would love to chat about schools, parks, jobs, and anything else really!

$399,000 Hayward Home For Sale

 http://www.postlets.com/realestate/mini_250.php?pid=209163 

Well, I help people all over the Bay Area buy and sell homes, so I thought I would throw this one in, too! 

San Bruno Real Estate

827 Huntington Ave. San Bruno $629,000

2 BR, 1BA Up

1 BR, 1 BA Down (unwarranted) w/kitchen

First of all, you have to check out my new website format!

www.KarinCunningham.com

It’s a great place to search for property, check out schools in the area and city information!

So! The market is a little SLOOOOOW! No sense in sugar coating the news that the market sucks right now if you are trying to sell. I’ve been in the business for 9 years and have been pretty successful in helping people buy and sell homes. This year has been a CHALLENGE!

The number of homes for sale has quadripled since last year and years passed. Buyers don’t have to buy hastily as they did before and that’s a good thing. Finding financing is now the BIG PROBLEM! JEEZ!

Well, I am still working full time trying to get these homes sold in San Bruno. Still trying to arrange financing for my buyers and help people fullfill their dreams of homeownership.

YOU CAN STILL COUNT ON ME TO GET THE JOB DONE! IT WOULD BE MY PLEASURE TO HELP YOU!

(I think you get my drift! Thanks!)

Concerts at the Rotary Pavillion (San Bruno Park)

All concerts begin at 6:00 pm

Fri. Aug. 3- the Sun Kings (Beatles Tribute)

Fri. Aug. 10- the Rip Tides (Classic 60’s/ Surf Rock)

Fri. Aug. 17- Aja Vu (Steely Dan Cover band) Yeah!!!

Fri. Aug. 24- D5 (Classic Rock)

Fri. Aug. 31- Big Rain (Country Blues Crossover) OH YEAH!

Fri. Sept. 7- Above the Law (Rock n Roll)

The Rib Shack will have a food booth set up and selling BBQ at all concerts! YES!

San Bruno Garden

San Bruno is a GREAT place to grow a garden! I have pumpkins, tomatoes, jalapenos, and well, I HAD some corn but we ate it all!

On Friday afternoons around 6:oo, we have concerts in San Bruno Park. This is just for August! I’ll post the schedule pretty soon!

Life in San Bruno

I am so glad to be here in San Bruno! The weather is awesome, the community is diverse, and the food is delicious!

I am a Realtor, married with 2 little children and 2 bonus daughters. I have lived here for 9 years and proud to be a San Brunan now!

I am also an active director at the San Bruno Chamber of Commerce. We have a whole bunch of cool events coming up for businesses, families, and pretty much everyone! 

Today I just wanted to get this blog up and running so I could share my love for San Bruno with the world. I can’t wait to post more stuff!

If you are interested in looking at San Bruno homes, please check out my website www.KarinCunningham.com

If you would like some great community information, please check out this one www.SanBrunoChamber.com