Off to College-----

Well, the Spouse took our Oldest off to college (at Reed in Portland) this week. After the emotional breakdown, it occurred to me that our move to Piedmont in 1996 might generate enough savings to pay for college.

You may know that I developed a biz school-style spreadsheet looking at whether it's cheaper to move to Piedmont and go to public k-12 schools, or move to surrounding Oakland neighborhoods and pay for private schools. The usual question buyers face.

After 2 years, even with one child, the tuition payments are higher than the marginal Piedmont payments, assuming one could afford to buy the more expensive home, of course. One ah-hah insight is that you'll eventually sell the Piedmont house and recoup your investment, while the tuition costs are a straight outgo, with sizeable inflation, no less. Email me (Kennedy@MaureenKennedy.Net) you want a copy of the factsheet summary or spreadsheet....

But back to college. I went back to the spreadsheet, and noticed that the present value savings, after 12 years of Piedmont schools, assuming 2% appreciation on the home increment, are:

For one child: $61,000
For two children: $236,000
For three children: $411,000
For four children: $586,000

So we've roughly paid for college at Cal for the three boys, or paid for half of private college expenses, if our alternative in 1996 were to live in Berkeley and put the kids in private schools (and of course, for many, that's not the alternative).

It's Back to School!

And I've been working furiously this week to get prepared! This week I've been shifting to newer, cooler business tools.

I'm trying to complete my shift from aol (home since 1993--that's a long time....) to gmail. Shifted my blog locus from Active Rain (the original blog platform for real estate) to Blogger. Staying with CoolerEmail for my e-newsletter. So here's the summary:

My best email remains Kennedy@MaureenKennedy.Net. MaureenKennedy@aol.com will continue to work for a long time (and no need to send to both, folks--both flow through to my Blackberry immediately).

Check out my new gorgeous Piedmont blog format at http://piedmonthouseandhome.blogspot.com/ or, to keep it simple, http://tinyurl.com/PiedmontHome.

All past e-newsletter articles continue to reside at my blog (and I've been up til 2 am these last few nights cutting and pasting everything to the new site). So if you know someone who's interested in moving to town, tell them to check out the archive or subscribe!

I now have four Google websites you or your friends and colleagues may find useful--just email me and I'll give you the links. They collect resources I've delivered to clients in various less ecofriendly ways over the years. They include:

Piedmont Information (links, photos, documents,school info, factsheets, resources for buyers)
Marketing Samples for Piedmont Sellers (case studies, ideas, background and resources for sellers)
Renovation Resources (energy and water efficiency incentives and rebates, eco-tips, Cost vs. Value reports, vendor lists, build-it-green ideas,links)
Distressed Sales in Piedmont (Q&As on taxation, legal liability, and so on for owners struggling to meet their payments)

Separately, I regularly offer buyers:

An email list of Sunday open houses delivered to their desktop every Saturday morning; automatic e-notifications every time a property meeting their parameters hits the market; a review of typical buyer costs for homes at various price points; a memo outlining strategies buyers can use to increase the chances their offer will be accepted; a table identifying East Bay public schools with high API scores, with click-thrus to sites with more information about those neighborhoods; a list of four deeply experienced lenders to call for financing ideas and insight; and a package of buyer factsheets from the National Association of Realtors.

My website (still www.MaureenKennedy.Net) allows buyers and sellers to organize e-notifications of new listings on their own, and includes a form to request an analysis of the current value of your home.

Bottom line: Jazzier presence, clearly organized information, and a seamless transition.

And don't forget that I'm never too busy for your referrals!

All You Need to Know about Shower Heads

Just today, the New York Times Home section included this story comparing several shower heads. The author was looking for that WaterPik feel from our teenagerdom-----

How to Green Up your Real Estate Practice

I've been doing some file clean up and came across a Google doc I put together last year as part of a panel on Green Real Estate Strategies at the Institute for Luxury Home Marketing last October. Here's the URL to my factsheet on steps you can take to "green" your practice:

http://tinyurl.com/GreenREPractice

New Buyer Resources

If you're a new buyer in this market, you'll want to be prepared, now more than ever! I can offer you:

· A free, comprehensive list of all open houses in the East Bay (not just those in the Chronicle, etc.), sent to your email box before noon each Saturday;

· Free email updates sent to your email box the moment a new home meeting your criteria hits the market or sees a price change;

· A free, no-obligation 1-2 hour tour of any neighborhood you think might meet your needs (or a referral to a deeply experienced agent who covers that area, if I don't), stopping into a couple representative homes;

· Access to a website that includes:

-a review of typical buyer costs for homes at various price points;

-a list of strategies you can use to increase the chances your offer will be accepted, beyond just offering more money;

-a table identifying East Bay schools with high API scores, with click-thrus to sites with more information about those neighborhoods;

-a list of five deeply experienced lenders you might call for ideas and insight on the market and your situation; and

-a free package of buyer factsheets from the National Association of Realtors.

Just give me your email address and I'll get it to you!