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"I advise people to avoid Web sites like Zillow," says David Gunderman, an agent with Alameda's Kane and Associates. "It's good for a baseline hit, but there's so much knowledge about things like proximities and upgrades that it can't incorporate." Not to mention the fact that Zillow draws much of its information from county records. So if outdated records list your square footage incorrectly, then your estimate will be inaccurate.
The best thing you can do if you want to get a good idea of what your home is worth in the current market is to pay attention to how much homes in your neighborhood are going for, says Gunderman. Keep a list of the homes that have sold recently, and watch for their sale price in your newspaper's real estate section. File away those postcards that neighborhood realty representatives send out with information about local sales. If you're seriously considering selling, then get a good real estate broker who's familiar with your area to give you a comparative market analysis.
A final option is to hire a real estate appraiser yourself, which costs about $300 to $500. But with the real estate market changing as quickly as it does, your appraisal might not be valid for very long.
for more, pick up a copy of Oakland Magazine today.
How to Increase Your Home's Value
Make the most of your money when it comes to remodeling, landscaping and redesigning your home. Knowing what buyers look for in a new home and which small additions can raise the market price will help you get the most out of yours.
If you're looking to increase the value of your home, you've probably heard that kitchen and bathroom remodels bring the biggest return on investment. "Everyone wants them upgraded, so that's an obvious thing," says David Gunderman.
"Since most of our conscious hours in the home are spent in the kitchen and bathroom, it makes sense to tackle them first," says local interior designer Lisa Jasper.
But Gunderman and others in the real estate and home renovation fields advise that if you do remodel, it's important to keep the architectural style of your home consistent throughout. "You don't want to walk into a kitchen in a 100-year-old house and think, 'This looks like a kitchen in a brand new home,' " says Gunderman. For the most part, East Bay buyers are looking at older homes because they value the historic features. They want to see period details and sense a continuity of style in an old home.
"It's key to create a level of consistency when you do any remodeling in an older home," says Paul Scott Silvera, owner of the retail store SCOUT on College Avenue and SCOUT Staging, a real estate staging company. "We often find that people have remodeled the kitchen, but then they have a pretty funky 1970s bathroom."
Architectural detailing-wainscoting, "belly bands" and crown molding-can really add to an older home and can often be a key part of bringing a remodel into synch with the rest of a home. "It gives a lot of visual value and a good return on investment," says Jasper.
Despite the fact that buyers value the charm of older homes-which often means smaller homes-"everyone seems to be looking for that bonus space," says Gunderman. This could mean a family room, a converted attic or the ever-popular home office. Old sheds, common in many East Bay homes, can often be creatively converted into backyard offices. "Buyers in the Bay Area are always looking for 'swing spaces' in the house, whether it's an attic or even a shack out in the yard," says Ron Kriss, an Oakland real estate broker with Lawton and Associates.
A sense of flow between the house and the garden, whether or not there's a bonus living/work space outdoors, is also something that buyers are looking for these days. "People really want the indoor and outdoor space to have a relationship," says Gunderman. Whether it's a deck that flows off the kitchen or dining room or French doors leading out to a patio with a seating area, people want the experience of being drawn outside.
Matt Charlot, a local landscape designer and builder who's worked on various East Bay homes, says he and his clients value a sense of privacy and seclusion in garden design. "I aim to create a feeling of an outdoor room, to extend the visual space from the house to outdoors, creating a dialogue between the two environments," he says.
"I know that everyone automatically thinks of kitchens and bathrooms as the best return on investment, but I actually think good landscaping yields a higher return," says Berkeley-based real estate investor Jamie Pell.
10 Quick Fixes
Easy (and Construction-Free) Ways to Spruce Up Your Home
• Reframing artwork. "This can get expensive, but it really can give new life to a room," says interior re-designer Eileen Haliburton. Haliburton's Oakland company, Re-Designs, specializes in redesigning rooms with clients' existing furnishings. She's been a guest on KGO Radio and appeared on the Home & Garden Television Network.
• Updating lampshades. "It's amazing how you can really change the look of a room by updating the style of your lampshades," says Haliburton.
• Adding new pillows on furniture and/or new slipcovers. Haliburton advises keeping colors within the same range of tones-too much contrast in one room isn't pleasing to the eye.
• Replace switch plates. "Replacing those old plastic switch plate covers with brass or polished chrome covers can really make a big difference, especially in a bathroom," says Haliburton.
• New rugs. "For under $500 these days, you can get really beautiful synthetic rugs that look a lot like the more expensive wool versions," says Haliburton.
• Move plants out of corners. "A corner does not need to be furnished," says Haliburton. "If you're going to have a plant at all, it should have an important space in the home and not be pushed off into the corner."
• Straighten messy bookcases. "Clutter on large bookshelves can really detract from a room visually," says Haliburton. "Get rid of torn paper book covers and line books up."
• Fresh flowers. "Flowers have an amazing ability to brighten up a room," says Lisa Jasper. "You can create beautiful accents by changing the arrangements according to the seasons."
• Architectural detailing. "Things like wainscoting and crown molding give a lot of visual value and a very good return on investment," says Jasper.
• De-accessorizing. "Most people have more knickknacks than they know what to do with," says Jasper. She recommends that you put some away in a closet and rotate your "stock" quarterly.
Inside Story
The Latest Looks in Home Decor
Since walls make up such a large percentage of visual space in the home, it makes sense to start with paint when you're looking to update a home's interior. "Paint is the No. 1 investment you can make in your house," says Eileen Haliburton. "And not all paint is created equal-I only use Benjamin Moore."
"We use color to really punctuate each space in a house," says Paul Scott Silvera. "And we're using a lot more saturated color these days."
A good place to get ideas about paint color trends is home furnishings catalogs, advises Ron Kriss. A good real estate broker, interior designer or stager can also help you choose paint colors. And there are color consultants who you can hire specifically to help you pick your paint colors.
"Floor colors are also changing," says Silvera. "It used to be that you wanted to just keep them light, but the juxtaposition of dark floors with lighter paint and furniture is really powerful, and it can make a space seem more expansive."
When it comes to furniture, the "latest" color trend is gray, says Lisa Jasper. Browns are turning up with more of a gray tinge, and greens are getting a little more blue, she says. Pink and mauve are making a comeback as well.
"What's really nice these days is that all colors are OK," Jasper adds. "You can get anything in almost any color and make it work with a good design."
In terms of furniture style, the trend seems to be moving away from over-sizing. Big chairs and sofas with huge rolled arms are not as common. "Which is great, because those big sofa arms really take up so much space in a room," says Haliburton.
Meet Your Neighbors
Montclair homeowners Judith McQuaid and Scott Hill set out to create a more private garden and ended up with an outdoor living space with some amazing artistic highlights. Situated on a western hillside, their terraced garden leads visitors from the road above their home to a slate patio and a set of French doors leading into their dining room. Once inside the house, picture windows frame the view from the other side of the house: the Oakland Hills and San Francisco Bay.
The garden is striking from the minute one pulls up in front of the house, where a beautifully crafted redwood fence follows the curves of the property line along the narrow hillside road. The wide horizontal redwood planks mirror the horizontal siding of the house itself and frame a bronze and redwood gate. The gate opens to a set of stone steps down to the patio.
McQuaid and Hill knew the basics of what they wanted when they set out in spring 2005 to revamp their garden. The key factors were flowers-which, in turn, meant more fencing because of all the deer in the area-and privacy. Their existing garden and small patio didn't offer either of those.
"It used to be that everyone who walked by could just look down into our garden," says McQuaid. "It was great for getting to know the neighbors, but we wanted to have a little more privacy since our frontyard is really more like a backyard."
The first step for them was spending some time doing research and meeting the people who could help them create the garden they wanted. The couple finally chose Larry Korn of Mu Landscaping to implement the garden design and the "hardscaping"-terraced planting beds and the steps and patio. Korn kept many of the mature trees in the garden and filled in with other colorful perennials and some Japanese maples.
Matt Charlot impressed McQuaid and Hill with his vision for the fence at the top of their garden. What they'd initially thought would be a simple fence to keep deer out of the garden is now a dramatic feature that's integral to the beauty of the space.
Finally, McQuaid called on her own daughter, local mosaic artist Gina Dominguez, to help add some visual interest to a retaining wall on one side of the terraced garden. The colors and textures in the mosaic are gorgeous set against the redwood and natural colors in the garden.
McQuaid and Hill are looking forward to entertaining in their new outdoor living space, making the most of the warm weather. But even just coming home is a whole new experience.
"We walk through that gate every night and our jaws drop and we think, 'Wow, this is really ours,' " McQuaid says.
