Thursday, August 30, 2012

Niles City-Wide Street Sale

Unknown breed of duck purchased on Portobello Road, West London
Last Sunday, we packed up the kids and headed off to the Niles area of Fremont for their city-wide garage sale or street sale. Arriving at about noon and driving ever so gently through First, Second and Third Street in the car and eyeing all that was to be had was fascinating for me but only for a little while. While I was indeed saucer-eyed looking through the car window at some of the potential deals, I quickly realized there was no way to actually buy anything from the car. I felt a little lame actually. What was I going to do--stop the car? I can see it now. Car stopped, and me getting out with the typical half skip and a jog with my arms tucked up high towards some box full of fishing tackle for sale. Then, I give the cars behind me the semi wave. You know the presumptuous wave that selfishly assumes permission was granted by the wavee while I say,  "I won't take too long. I just want to poke through some of that tackle."

But, the slow stop-and-goes were very taxing on my passengers as well for the simple reason that they just wanted to get out of traffic and walk.  I quickly agreed. Since every street in Niles was either blocked off by barricades or by traffic anyway. No one survived long simply driving the car on the streets looking for a bargain. I did see a couple of vans here and there double parked while the patrons were trying to load in a chest of drawers or cupboards once every couple of blocks.

In fact, most visitors who made it to the Niles-wide garage sale, also had a hard time finding a place to park once they got there. It was either costly in the pocket book ($10.00 in some lots) or costly on the feet--unless you got there at 5am and parked on one of the streets very close by allotted for parking. In short, parking was a rough go.

Although Niles is not a city but rather a district of Fremont CA, Niles is definitely a distinct community, and has the amenities to pull off something like this. Having a district-wide garage sale in Warm Springs or even Centerville would not work. But because Niles has nice square blocks and a main street as its center point, it just works.

The deals were there, but they were not to be found on Niles Blvd. I love the shops like Time for Tea as well as My Friends and I, but whether it be commission or consignment that pushes the prices up for their wares, word on the Boulevard was that the prices were just too high. For example, a relatively well put together antique wooden duck, a rather small teal to be exact, was $75.00.   I have purchased more than one wooden duck before. One on Portobello road in London and two others at The Rastro in Madrid. Although this particular duck got a lot of attention, even while I was eyeing it, the poor creature never made it past the price tag tilt-n-look.

The deal of the day for me was a buying a bike part, or parts I should say. I bought two foam handlebar pads in a somewhat rare chocolate brown. I own a Schwinn Voyager SP from 25 years ago that I still ride and the original foam is on its way out.  The chocolate brown will go very nicely with the caramel and bronze tones on my bike's color scheme I think.

If you decide to go the the Niles-wide garage sale, go early and wear comfortable shoes and sunscreen. There is lots of food to enjoy as well. You'll have a good time. By Jeff Pereyda

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Fremont Rental Search Idea

My job broke my heart the other day. In short, I had to tell a very qualified would-be renter that they did not get the home for rent in Fremont. We do property management in the TriCity area. http://mycoldwellbankerhome.com/Real_Estate/?ID=17428
 
So, because of this, I felt the need to see if other Fremont real estate agents could use this template and idea I made as a result. Why not urge renters to set up notifiers using real-time MLS data.  
 
It goes something like this...
__________________
 
Dear [name of renter]
Thank you for inquiring about the rental on 123 Anystreet. It is now rented as of yesterday afternoon. I know it is hard to hear the news. It is also hard to deliver the news all the time, but I have something for you that you can use.
If you ever get tired of looking at listings that are already gone, use my real-time MLS for for-lease properties.
go to:
  • http://MyColdwellBankerHome.com [put your IDX provider link here]
  • when you are there, click search for homes link on the top of the page.
  • set up a search for rentals--do not forget to use monthly rents for the prices
  • set up notifier. It's easy.
Then when one is sent to your email, you can cross reference the address for agent contact info. For example, say you're notified about 123 Anstreet for lease in your email. It will not give you the agent info or landlord info. Those are removed for the notifier. However, simply copy paste the address into Google and then Craigslist or Postlets or some other Internet post provider will confirm the listing and show contact info. Then you will know that it is legit because the listing was created by a Realtor(tm).
I enjoy and use Craigslist all the time, but you do not want to search Craigslit initially for rentals as there are very clever scams out there that fool people every day.
 _______________
So far, the renters I had set up have been extremely grateful for the aid. Anyone is welcome to use this template and even use my IDX provider service if they wish. As long as I am paying for it, it will be there. By Jeff Pereyda