SAN MATEO VILLAGE SEWER LATERAL / HEALTHY HOME PROGRAM

Hello everyone, Tuesday night I sat in on the discussion regarding the new sewer lateral upgrade in the Village. 

The event was sponsored by B Street. & Vine ( located at 320 S. B St. in San Mateo) who provided a very nice spread of delicious food for all the guests.

 The Village is the first neighborhood in the City of San Mateo that this is being offered to because quite frankly, it’s the leakiest.

For a limited time, the City of San Mateo  is offering a free inspection, with no obligation, valued at $250 to come out and take a TV inspection to determine if your sewer lateral is defective

 If you do not take advantage of this now, it will move on to the next neighborhood in San Mateo.

 This outreach program is to promote the efforts and assist single family home owners with repair of deteriorated private sewer laterals. These efforts to help the Village home owners will span 5 years and will utilize $750,000 of the fines assessed as part of the March 11, 2009 Cease and Desist Order as a funding source for grants and loans to homeowners in the Village for the private sewer lateral upgrade program.

 Because times are tough, the City is offering reimbursement grants ( up to 50% of the replacement cost) or very low interest loans will be available to qualifying residents who want to replace their sewer lateral because of root infiltration, breaks, cracks, failed pipe, “ orangeburg” pipe, and alignment problems.

 The grants are for up to 50% for families with less than $81,573 combined income. If you earn more than that, there is financing at extremely low interest rates under 2%, financed up to 3  years. (If you earn less than the $81,573, you may  also be able to finance the rest.)

 In regards to real estate, one thing you may want to keep in mind is that if you are thinking of selling your home in the near future, having the inspection can also create more value if your home has been upgraded.

 But, if you decide to get the inspection and not do the upgrade if it’s needed, this could reduce the value of your home, and will also be a disclosure issue that will need to be exposed to any potential buyers.

From my experience, it’s only a matterof time before this becomes mandatory, just like the cities of Burlingame and Hillsborough. As a matter of fact, that’s the question I posed at the meeting and was told that the City Council  may take a vote on this in the Spring.

The main speaker, ( Sheri Costa-Batis) with the Dept of Public Works did a terrific job explaining the project and answering everyone’s questions. If you have any questions, please call Sheri direct at 650-522-7334 or you can email her at scosta-batis@cityofsanmateo.org.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS

 David “Tap” Tapper

HOW’S THE RENTAL MARKET?

I’ve received a lot of calls from investors and past clients asking how the rental market is doing? Over  all, I would say that the market is down 10-15% in some areas. Less in better locations where the schools are best.

I’ve had  no problems renting my listings as long as you are realistic and pricing it right. Kind of the same rule of thumb as when you sell.

The reason is twofold. There are more rentals to choose from and a lot of tenants are trying to take advantage of the low interest rates and tax breaks for first time home buyers and would rather pay for their own mortgage instead of someone else’s.

If you are thinking of renting your property, make sure it’s light , bright and very clean. It won’t hurt if it smells nice too.

Happy Holidays

Fay

Should We Try To Purchase A Home During The Holidays or Wait?

Purchasing a home during the holidays could be a real blessing because a lot of buyers have other priorities like Thanksgiving,Christmas and New Years.

Timing is everything and sometimes things fall through the cracks and there is a home just waiting to be plucked. As I said, buyers have other things on their minds and a lot of agents take a good portion of December off figuring that there won’t be any new inventory coming up and they will have some downtime.

Agents are also burned out a little. So, if you are in the market to purchase near the Holidays, it could be a stroke of luck.

For me, it’s time to put the pedal to the metal and make some things happen for my buyers.

Have a Safe And Happy Holidays.

Cheers,

Tap

Lake Tahoe: The Bay Area’s #1 Vacation Destination!

Hello Everyone,

My name is Brendan Aiello and I will be your tour guide. This post will serve as the first of many posts about Lake Tahoe; arguably the #1 weekend vacation getaway to most Bay Area residents.

Why have I been chosen by the team to serve as a “tour guide” to the Lake Tahoe area? Simply because I was born and raised in the Bay Area and have been visiting the Lake Tahoe area since I was a baby.

My mom spent a lot of time here when she was youngster too. In the late 1950’s my grandfather decided that he wanted to spend more time in the place where he and my grandmother spent their honeymoon. So in 1962, he completed construction of the “Shamrock Inn” in South Lake Tahoe, CA. This was prior to the casino “strips” construction. The hotel/apartment complex was eventually purchased by Harrah’s to house the many construction workers that would be building the high-rises that are seen on the strip today. Although no longer in the hotel industry our family still rents out some luxury single family properties in South Lake Tahoe as Vacation Rentals (Link to SLTVR.com).

In 1987, My grandfather completed construction of a single family house in South Lake Tahoe, CA designed to house the family whenever they decided to come up to Tahoe and I have been taking advantage of it ever since.

Whether it is skiing, snowboarding, biking, hiking, lounging on the beach, jet skiing, boating, golfing, gambling, dining or another Lake Tahoe attraction I have become very accustomed to the Lake Tahoe Vacation lifestyle.

Now that you know my Lake Tahoe history, stay tuned for reviews on many aspects of the Lake Tahoe. As I have a lot of information on this area, if you are curious on solely Lake Tahoe information. Click the drop-down “Lake Tahoe Tab” under the “Weekend Getaway” tab in header navigation.

If you are looking to purchase or sell a vacation home in the Lake Tahoe area or are interested in owning vacation rental income property always feel free to contact me.

“What is the address of Carolands Mansion?”

Hello TeamTapper.com Readers,

By using a program called “Google Analytics“, I can see how people come to our page. We have had a lot of inbound traffic because of the map of the Carolands neighborhood map we posted a while back. I can also see that some people came looking for the address of the Carolands Mansion address but did not find the information they were looking for. So here it is, The address of the Carolands Mansion in Hillsborough, California.

565 Remillard Drive – Hillsborough, CA 94010

If you click the link above it will take you to a satalite view of the mansion. Also be aware that the lot of the manison streches from street-to-street. Therefore, the back of the mansion can also be viewed from Craig Road in Hillsborough, CA.