My Article at Oakland Local

Posted by dfuller on May 15, 2012 in Blog Entries, Maxwell Park, Oakland, Temescal | 0 comments

Check out my guest BLOG over at Oakland Local.com!

Florida 14 year Old Buys a House!

Posted by dfuller on Mar 13, 2012 in Blog Entries, Uncategorized | 0 comments

Talk about an enterprising young lady! Fourteen year old Willow Tufano is the proud owner of her first home and the tender age of 14!

During the booming housing market of 2005, Willow’s mom (a real estate agent), bought them a nice home in a nearby neighborhood. Not long thereafter the bottom started to fall out of the housing market and the boom went bust. “Everyone is getting foreclosed on here” said Willow. Being an adept agent, Willow’s mom quickly started to represent distressed properties, and in particular investors who were looking to flip properties.

At one of these sales, Willow asked the investor buyer if she could take the furniture in the house and sell it. The investor agreed, and soon Willow was in business liquidating the leftovers of these foreclosed homes. Soon she was clearing nearly $500 a month and tucking most of that into savings.

One day, Willow’s mom was showing a foreclosed house on sale for $12,000. Willow told her mom: “‘What if I bought a house? That would be crazy! “ One thing led to another and soon Willow was splitting the purchase of the home with her mom. She intends to pay her mom back and take over the title once she legally can at 18!

Listen to NPR’s story here.

Hey FB Millionaires! Here Are The Top Ten Reasons To Move To The East Bay

Posted by dfuller on Feb 22, 2012 in Berkeley, Blog Entries, Emeryville, Oakland, Piedmont | 0 comments

With the IPO of Facebook, the San Francisco Bay Area has a sudden influx of new millionaires. Sure, you can buy a house in Palo Alto, Redwood City or San Jose (after all, you are a millionaire now). But you can have SO much more for your money over here in the Easy Bay! Here are the top ten reasons you should consider buying your home in one of our fine East Bay cities (Oakland, Piedmont, Berkeley, Emeryville, Kensington):

Top Ten Reasons You Should Live In The East Bay:

1. Oakland is the center of the Bay Area culinary universe. It’s true! Where once was a wasteland is now a hotbed of yummy delights. Don’t believe me? Clearly the New York Times thinks so. But so does Diablo Magazine, the Los Angeles Times, and the San Francisco Examiner. With hot new restaurants like Bocanova, Hibiscus, and Wood Tavern, you definitely won’t starve for delicious food. Feeling thirsty instead: Oakland boasts amazing watering holes too. From the sleek Bar Dogwood, to the retro-hip, Bar 355 or grunge art bar, Cafe Van Kleef, you won’t die of thirst either.

2. Have kids? The City of Piedmont School District is consistently rated amongst the top 10 school districts in the state.

3. Need Play Space? The East Bay Regional Park district boasts over 111,000 acres of public land in 65 different parks. There are over 1200 miles of trails in the hills for walking, biking, and horseback riding. If that isn’t enough for you, there are city and county parks here as well.

4. Need a home with some significant square footage? The average price per square foot in Piedmont is $342. In Palo Alto the average price per square foot is $1,128!!! You can definitely make your millions go farther here than there!

5. Its a lot less foggy over here, and warmer in the Summer. It really is (you can still look across the bay, though, at the fog blanketing the West Bay)!

6. Oakland has a thriving art scene. Once a month the enormous Art Murmur takes place in Oakland’s Uptown District. There you can enjoy hundreds of small local galleries, local artisans, food trucks galore, and all of the funky fun that is Oakland’s Uptown District. Want more offbeat art? How about the Albany Bulb? Want to learn to weld, make jewelry, or spin fire? You and your kids can take industrial arts classes at Oakland’s own The Crucible.

7. Oakland has consistently been referred to as one of the most ethnically diverse cities in the United States. If you appreciate diversity, diverse opinions and variety all tied up in an air of mutual respect, then the East Bay is for you.

8. How many parking tickets have you gotten in front of your San Francisco flat? Parking over here is almost never an issue. You will gain days of your life back by avoiding the constant need to circle around in search of a parking spot.

9. The locavore movement is alive and well here. There are over 35 Farmer’s Markets to choose from on the weekends- with 12 of those in Oakland alone! My favorites are the market near Lake Merritt on Saturday (includes jumpy castles) and a very groovy version that takes over the DMV parking lot in Temescal on Sundays.

10. Lastly, you will love flying again with the easy navigation, parking and smaller security lines at the Oakland Airport. Tickets are often cheaper than SFO, too!

So, new Facebook millionaires… what are you waiting for? Give me a call and I will be happy to take you on your own private tour of the Bay Area’s best kept secret!

Forty Years of Mortgage Rates

Posted by dfuller on Jan 23, 2012 in Albany, Berkeley, Blog Entries, Emeryville, Oakland, Piedmont | 0 comments

Take a look at this – average mortgage rates for the past 40 years. Just in case you were holding out for rates to drop even further. As you can see, mortgage rates have been below 5% only for the past 1 year. The previous 39 years shows mortgage rates as high as 9% and 10%! Rates are amazing right now. If you are considering searching for a property but still holding out for lower rates, look over the chart again. I suspect these are the lowest rates we will see in our lifetime.

If you get a mortgage below 4% in 2012, how do you think you will feel in 5 or 6 years?

Thanks to Don Gates for this chart!

Oakland is HOT! (At least the New York Times thinks so)

Posted by dfuller on Jan 17, 2012 in Blog Entries, Oakland | 0 comments

For the second time in as many weeks, the City of Oakland has been prominently featured in the Sunday New York Times. Yesterday’s story detailed the “Great Wall” in downtown Oakland. In conjunction with Art Murmur on the first Friday of every month, enormous movies and video art are projected onto the side of a building at Grand Avenue and Valley Street. The videos are curated by the nonprofit that now runs the Art Murmur. Last month’s show included animated films from South Korea, France and China.

If you have not yet been to Art Murmur, you must make a pilgrimage. Parking can be a huge bear, but the monthly festival is located very close to the 19th Street BART station. The next Art Murmur takes place on February 3rd from 6-9 PM.

The City of Oakland…. proving Gertrude Stein wrong every day.

Manhattan’s Most Expensive Apartment – EVER

Posted by dfuller on Dec 21, 2011 in Uncategorized | 0 comments

There are luxury properties, and then there are LUXURY properties. Welcome to THE most expensive apartment ever sold in Manhattan. For a mere 88 million dollars,  the 22-year-old daughter of Russian billionaire Dmitriy Rybolovlev, Ekaterina Rybolovleva, now owns the swank apartment overlooking Central Park. You read that right: TWENTY-TWO years old!

The apartment at 15 Central Park West is one of the toniest addresses in NYC. It features 10 rooms including 4 bedrooms, a wraparound terrace of over 2,000 square feet, 4 bedrooms and 2 wood burning fireplaces.

The sale works out to be about $13,000 a square foot. What a commission on that one! Here is the view: