00:29: Hello, and welcome to 680 Home Video Channel, a web series where we answer all of your real estate questions. I’m your host Theodora and I’m talking to local East Bay real estate broker Doug Buenz.
Location
00:40: Hi Doug, how are you? It’s great to see you again! Today’s topic is location. Doug, is location really that important?
The Importance of Location
00:51: Location is very important. I mean, the old saying is not square footage, square footage, square footage. It’s location, location, location.
01:01: Take for example, Palo Alto. You know, multi million dollar homes but you go 200 feet across a creek and you’re in East Palo Alto. And all of a sudden the values drops precipitously. So, it’s very important.
Factors Affecting Location
01:17: When you speak of location within a city, there’s a lot of factors that go into evaluating whether its a good location or not. For instance, the busyness of the street. If a home is on a busy street, it’s generally considered an inferior location and it won’t command the same price that a home in a better location would command.
1. Proximity
01:38: Proximity to parks, schools, downtown areas is important. In our area, homes that are closer to historic downtown districts tend to sell for more because there’s just more appeal and more demand to be within walking distance to the downtown areas.
2. Environment
01:58: Quiet locations are in demand. Locations where there’s no freeway noise, or train noise, or excessive noise from schools or sports fields. Those are preferred locations certainly.
3. Accessibility
02:12: Commuting accessibility is an important component of location. If you’re located walking distance to BART or other public transportation, that location likely will have more relative value than a home that’s not within walking distance to those facilities.
4. Positioning of property
02:32: Certainly, direction the home faces has become more important here in this area. Part of that is factors in where is the house facing in terms of the sun. Some people don’t like backyards with intense sun all afternoon. So yards that face south, south or west, some people will not prefer. They prefer to be in the shade especially in the hot inland valleys here.
03:02: Other cultures have very specific requirements for location in terms of which direction the home faces. So, the direction that a home faces is a very important factor in location.
03:15: Corner lots, that’s one of my favorites. There’s a theory in real estate that a corner lot is more valuable and that may well be the case in certain parts of the country. I’m not sure where that came from. I believe in some parts back east, the property tax you pay on a property is related to how much street frontage you have. So a corner lot has more street frontage and therefore pays a higher tax rate. And therefore, some people consider it more valuable.
03:43: My experience is that corner lots tend to not quite be as attractive in the marketplace as an interior lot. The reason is you’re generally on the side of the street and there’s more possibility of traffic and pedestrian, foot traffic adjacent to your home so there might be less privacy and there’s more weird noise. So a corner is an interesting dynamic in terms of location.
04:08: But make no mistake about it location is a critical factor in the relative value of a property.
04:21: If you have real estate questions or need assistance I do hope you’ll give me a call. I’m worthy of your trust.
**In case you can not view this video here, please click the link below to view What to Know About the Location of Pleasanton Homes on my YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/r1KlD6CZNSA**
