Realty World – BLUE | Property Group, Inc.

San Francisco is a multi-cultural city full of immigrants from all over the world.  Like many other Chinatown all over the world, the Chinatown at San Francisco is within a few minutes walk from downtown San Francisco where major headquarters and offices located.  This town is a major first stop from Chinese new immigrants to land.  Here they can speak Chinese, buy foods imported from all provinces of China and find a reasonable price logging.  It also has good public transport linked to different parts of City for their work.  No wonder the house price in San Francisco is comparatively speaking stable. Every year the 15th of August in Lunar Calendar is Mid-Autumn Festival.  This year it falls on today, September 12, 2011 that is one day after the 9/11.  In spite of the potential danger of going out on 9/11, lots and lots of people still enjoyed walking.
I feel very grateful that my son, unlike other teenagers, did not share the not so good American culture of “independence” and still willing to walk the fair together with me.  He enjoyed watching all different Chinese cultural stuff and volunteered helping to carry the “goodies” I bought.  I remember when I was at his age, 14, I did not have the concept of going out with parents is shameful or sign of independence.  The big issue in the American education is lack of moral training.  I can understand this might be difficult of USA is the mixing pot and people from different cultures barely mixed like salad.  However, there are some special moral concept about relationship between parents and children from China that categorize that children should pay special respect to parents and elderly.  I have followed this concept and I never talked back to my parents even though I did not agree to their points of view sometimes.
Putting on my hat of “realtor”, it is truly amazing how the real estate price had been supported by streams of new immigrants.  I have many clients who literally shipped their money from China to buy real estate properties in San Francisco and nearby cities.  No wonder, the house price at the Sunset district of San Francisco seems have not dropped much, maximum 20% which is nothing in comparison with other places.
Thank you for checking in with my blog and feel free to contact me if you have any real estate needs or opinions about this blog.

I was approached today by a young couple who has been looking for a 3+ bedroom / 2 bath home in west San Mateo for less than $900k. From Crystal Springs Rd. in San Mateo to Ralston Ave in Belmont west of Alameda to Hwy 280. They are sure there are some hiding out there… Let me know if you are aware of anything not currently on the market under $900k in the areas mention – they are pre-approved and ready to buy!!!!!

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I have never thought of the difficulty of filling up the choice of school form.  When I was a student, the first time I faced it, I was only 12 years old but my parent let me make the choice.  So I fill out the school from their commonly known ranking as my choice.  That is, the school that has the highest academic score be the first choice and then next and so on.  I was sent to my 13th choice because my result of the public exam I took was bad.  But if I were smart enough, I should have chosen the sister school of my elementary school.  That school did not rank the highest but is definitely a good school and much better than the one I was sent to.  This was my choice of school story in Hong Kong.
Many, many years past.  I choice the school for my son.  Instead of making all the choices, I only made one, Rooftop Alternative School.  If my boy could not go to that particular school, I would send him to a private school.  Fortunately, he got into it and more fortunately, he likes it, enjoys it all the years from kindergarten to 8th grade.
According to the school counsellor, every student should have 3 plans: choices of public school, choices of chartered/alternative schools and private schools.  My son has opted out all chartered schools and I have opted out private schools.  Although private schools offer sliding scales for people who cannot afford full fare, most students are from rich families and the feeling or the threat of being ”high-nosed” by the schoolmates are high.  Choosing schools are not solely to get the best acadmemic or other programs, it is also about choosing learning environment and other psychological reasons.  My son agrees with me at this point.  So he chose several schools that he was interested in and shadowed them.  He made his choice accordingly.
I have interviewed several parents about how they did they fill in their forms and got these answers:  one only filled in 4 public schools and all of them were hot and popular, her son finally got into the last choice: the other one filled in 3 schools but repeatedly filled in all these 3 to take up the spaces of choices.  My fear is if I did not put in any one of the less popular school, my son may be thrown to the least wanted school.  Therefore, my son agreed to fill in one rising but not popular neighborhood school.  To be continued . . .
Thank you for checking in.
Tina To, realtor serving San Francisco and Peninsular for 20 years+

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Just turn on the “Printer” and here you go, the money that we need.  Is it just that simple?
How about cutting tax for the higher income group to trade for the extension of another year of unemployment payment? 
Recently, I called one of my potential buyer who ended up not buying because of unemployment.  She still had that much of downpayment handy but can no longer qualify for any loan.  She is an experienced dentist assistant and I do not expect less people will see a dentist because the economy is bad.  If you have serious toothache, no matter what, you will see a dentist.  But what about that periodic cleaning or minor toothache, can you go without it?  Oh yes.  So her boss has to cut cost and so do many other businesses.  Instead of hiring full time employee, many firms fired the permanent staff and replace them with the temporary staff.  Of course, no fringe benefits, no 401K, no medical insurance payment, these add up figures help.  Now what?  Why should the unemployed work the part time job, being deducted the hard earned money from their unemployment benefits?  So, it ends up while business people try to survive by cutting cost but the unemployment money take away their part time helpers.  18 months are long enough and now another year, no kidding.
My prospect actually turned down many part time jobs.  She did not want to work for nothing.  What I mean is the money she earn from the part time job will be deducted from her unemployment paid.  So she only look for permanent position and so are thousand of many others.
Thank you for checking in.
What do you think?  The latest figure is 64% of population can now afford to buy a house but not so many people are really buying.  Why?  Will tell you next time.
Tina To – agent with heart, serving San Francisco Bay Area

I met someone today that felt his house was worth at least $500,000 more due to the style in which it was designed?  I might agree a bit if it was ‘New Construction’ versus Old…  But I think if you are drawn towards a particular style i.e., Traditional, Rancher, Contemporary, Mediterranean – that it’s a matter of personal preference – a personal choice….  What do you think? Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post’s poll.

Hello,
Here is the new real estate overview as per Trulia:
Livermore Summary
Average price per square foot for Livermore CA was $231, a decrease of 2.1% compared to the same period last year. The median sales price for homes in Livermore CA for Jan 10 to Mar 10 was $378,100 based on 243 home sales. Compared to [...]

Hello,
This one is short and simple!!
If you are ready to buy a house but you don’t know who to call.
If you are willing to by a house  and you need guidance.
And if you are able to buy a house because you have been pre-approved,
then you just have one more thing to do:
CALL ME!!!! 510-305-3254.

That’s [...]

Hello,
If you were waiting for a new incentive that would motivate you to start looking for your first house this should do it:
New California Home Buyer Tax Credit!
If you didn’t know more than likely, soon,  there will be a tax credit of 5% of the purchase price not to exceed $10,000  for home buyers in [...]