How busy is the Benicia Home Rental Market?   The Benicia Home Rental Market is so busy that, at Delgado Property Management, we have run into a multitude of situations in which a home is rented before another potential renter who wanted the same home can react and then the second potential renter feels frustrated.   Although finding a home is a much more serious topic, I am reminded of the Cabbage Patch Kids craze several years ago during which crazed parents would take the toys out of other people’s carts or even out of their hands so that they could buy the toy.   Not only is finding a home a much more important topic than the latest toy craze, it is also more involved.  For instance, we have a policy that a home is not taken off of the market until a potential renter places a depo... 07/21/2013

Meetup in Vallejo CA, come on out and meet the movers and shakersJoin us for our first Meetup in Vallejo CA - Let us know if you plan to be there, we only hold about 150 and if we get 10% of you who viewed the post we will have a full house, that would make my day. I dare you... lolTuesday August 20th 5-7 pm  On the water front in Vallejo, nice setting, ambiance to spare, lets have some fun - See you there, Good friends, good food, and good way to meet like minded successful people.                             23 Harbor Way, Vallejo, CA 94590   Zio Fraedo's gives you fine continental and Italian dining in a warm and welcoming environment. We serve the finest dishes using fresh ingredients and delicious flavors to give you a dining experience like no other. At Zio Fraedo's you will be gr... 07/19/2013

Dear Listing Agent, 1.     I believe you that it is common amongst Listing Agents to "give" each other photos of homes for listing purposes as a matter of courtesy and convenience. 2.   I completely understand that you are now listing for sale a home that we have been managing so that we now share a common client. 3.    No, I am not trying to make the sales transaction more difficult.   4.    I believe that you are sincere in your view that this is "no big deal." 5. Yet, I won't give you our listing photos. It's not that I'm being difficult, it's that your question is rude. At Delgado Property Management we have invested several thousands of dollars in camera gear and countless hours learning both the Art (subject, composition, perspective, color, lighting) and the Science (aperture, s... 07/10/2013

The Benicia home sales report for June 2013 reflects the improving market throughout the North Bay.  Of the 32 homes that closed escrow in June, 18 were on the market 30 days or less and only five were on the market longer than 60 days. There was a mix of homes selling under and over their listing price, but any statistics regarding the relationship between listing and selling prices are now worthless.  A current trend among many Bay Area brokers is to advise sellers to list their property for sale under its current market value – sometimes well under.  This strategy is intended to bring in more buyers and hopefully cause them to engage in a bidding war that drives up the price over market value.  Sometimes this works, sometimes it doesn’t.  But it does create havoc in the marketplace w... 07/07/2013

  Benicia Waterfront Benicia's attractive location can be attributed to many different things beyond our Benicia Waterfront.  Convenient driving distance to San Francisco to the west and Sacramento to the east is one point of attraction.  Great weather is another attractive feature.    Yet, it is Benicia itself that provides a great deal of what both visitors and residents of Benicia love.  Benicia is a small town nestled against the Carquinez Strait right before it opens up into San Pablo Bay, which in turn feeds San Francisco Bay.       This means that, though located some 40 miles inland from the Pacific Ocean, Benicia is a waterfront town.  Benicia's history is steeped in stories of docks and wooden ships.  In fact, I read once that Benicia's location with easy access to seagoing sh... 06/19/2013

Benicia Yacht Club and Marina I'll be the first to admit that I am no sailor.  In my twenties I had a roomate that owned a catamoran and we did go sailing on weekends, though our form of sailing generally involved a BBQ attached to the railing and an adult refreshment or two.    However, limited sailing experience aside, I can still enjoy a stroll along the Benicia Marina and past the Yacht club.  In fact, anyone can enjoy this location for walking, biking, "wheelchairing" (I don't think that's an actual word), or however else you prefer to mosey along and enjoy a summer day.   There is a great public sidewalk that runs along the Benicia Marina and past green spaces, benches, the Benicia Yacht Club and by local condos that enjoy great views.  In fact, when I was there recently, I was tr... 06/18/2013

  Benicia Rental Homes Yes, we have invested time and resources into developing a strong internet presence for Benicia Rental Homes.  This is evidenced by "Googling," "Binging" or any other method of searching the internet and finding us well-positioned with multiple sites pointing back towards our main site.   This helps both interested renters, as well as interested clients, find us and keeps business moving right along.  However, we haven't overlooked the basics.  People also like to "touch and feel" things, in the same sense as "brick and mortar"stores.   This is why our office is located on First Street in Benicia.  For those of you who know, or those that visit soon figure out, First Street is the business and cultural hub of Benicia.  Restaruants, shops, offices, studios, candy s... 06/16/2013

Benicia bank-owned foreclosed homes for sale are in short supply as the summer begins.  Lenders are continuing to hold many foreclosed homes off the market in anticipation of price increases as the market improves through the end of 2013. Click here for the list of >>> Benicia bank-owned foreclosed homes for sale <<< currently on the market.  Click on a property’s Address to view photos, map and additional information.   Contact Us  for help with Benicia bank-owned foreclosed homes for sale and with buying or selling any North Bay real estate. Click on North Bay MLS search to find properties of all types using the same local MLS that agents use. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------   John A. Souerbry & Associates  Call John direct: (707... 06/12/2013

The Benicia home rental market is changing We have noted several changes in the Benicia rental home market lately.  Overall, the market is still strong with both a high demand and also a steady supply of new inventory.   Conventional wisdom is that the buying/selling market and the rental market are inversely related.  This means that when one does well, the other does not.  For the past several years when the buying/selling market has suffered the rental market is soared.  Now that the buying/selling market is heating up, we are seeing the rental market also heating up just as quickly.  So, conventional wisdom is out the window now that both markets are doing well.   One detail contributing to this is a factor that we had predicted and are now seeing come true - as the buying/selling m... 06/08/2013

Benicia Home Rentals are HOT! We had a client contact us today suggesting that the rental market has slowed down.  This observation was made based upon counting the number of listings on our website on two days a couple of weeks apart and noting that the count had only come down by one. He was concerned and wanted us to lower the asking price on his currently vancat rental property.  We had to share with him that, though the "count" of listings we have hadn't changed much in two weeks, the actual homes listed had changed quite a bit.     In fact, during the month of May 16 Benicia rental homes.  Through the first 6 days of June we've already rented 5 more.  However, in those same 5 days in June, we've picked up 4 new clients. That is correct, in the first 6 days of June we have rented 5... 06/07/2013

Even if you don't understand SEO, you need to understand Visual   Yes, visual, as in "seeing or pertaining to site."     We all scratch our heads and try to comprehend the latest Google Panda or Koala Bear or whatever it's called now and figure out how to get to the highly sought-after "Page 1."  We do this through trying to understand that ever changing world of SEO.   However, sit back for a moment and grasp what is so often overlooked (pun intended) - we are all visual creatures and that computer screen in front of you right now is a visual means of communication.  It's visual not just for you but also for the potential client that just found your website.  Do you want to hold their attention?  Do you want them to remember you and mention you to a friend?  Then you need to appeal to ... 06/06/2013

Benica Property Management - success begets succes The other day at the local store I came across a local woman that my wife and I both know but hadn’t seen in a while.  We greeted one another and chatted for a bit and then she said something that really struck me.  It was her tone, her absolute sincerity, which made the impression.  With great emphasis she told me “Delgado Property Management has ALL the listings in town!” I thanked her nicely, but secretly thought she was just being polite and went on my way.  Well, today I checked out the websites of Benicia Property Management companies and guess what… she was right! Look at Delgado Property Management’s several pages of listings.  Verify for yourself going to our Delgado Management Available Listings page. Although I’ve hidden the ... 06/02/2013

Google is a friend of Delgado Property Management Today I was using my ipad to poke around Google, searching various keywords relevant to Benicia Property Management companies and rental homes.  I came across many interesting facts, including our dominance of Google Images for relevant keywords.  However, this was a most enjoyable find under the keywords Benicia Property Managers. I'm not sure how or why Google chose to present Delgado Property Management so prominently amongst the many Benicia Property Managers, but I like it.  This is why I surmise that Google is a friend of Delgado Property Management. 06/01/2013

  Perfect credit, great income, yet we won’t sign off on the lease, yet   Yes, much to the chagrin of our leasing agent, we won’t sign off on the application for a prospective tenant to move forward with the lease on a Benicia Rental Home.    The prospective renter has perfect, spotless, credit.  Good work history, great income.  In short, everything checks out on paper.  I bet that most individual landlords and even many property managers would jump at the opportunity to move this tenant in right away.  Yet, this is where experience and following our own procedures comes into play.  We won’t proceed further.   The prospective tenants are a couple that came to view the Benicia Rental Home.  This in itself is not germane except that only the female of the couple had her photo ID to show ... 06/01/2013

  Thank you for the Thank you   At Delgado Property Management, we recently “did what we do” and met a potential client, advised him on improvements and details to take care of prior to marketing, and photographed the home upon receipt of a signed contract from the client.  Nothing too out of the ordinary in the story so far. Granted, our marketing in general and our photography in particular are often noticed and certainly are a key aspect of our success in providing good service.  However, this is what we do. In this particular case though, the new client, having come to us after firing his prior agent for agent for lack of results, noticed the quality of our photography and took the time to call.  The call was placed for the sole purpose of thanking us for providing “such nice photos... 05/29/2013

  How we go about getting Benicia Property Management Referrals   At Delgado Property Management, we go about getting referrals through a very simple formula – we do what we say we will do (and sometimes do more).  This applies to our interactions with real estate agents, clients, renters and vendors.  We’ve received referrals from all of these sources on a regular basis while performing our property management skills in Benicia.   From real estate agents – we don’t buy/sell property but rather stick with our strong point of property management.  So, agents feel “safe” teaming up with us to provide the best combined service to their investor clients.  We help to provide the best ROI possible to the investor client and place well-qualified tenants quickly.   From renters – We start with ... 05/26/2013

  Looking for thoughts on giving back to the community   At Delgado Property Management, we’ve been thinking lately of ways to give back to the community. In the past, we’ve helped those in need, though I haven’t blogged about it since the purpose of our gesture wasn’t to gain publicity.  We want to help Benicia in particular since it is our home and the place of our property management business.  I’m thinking along the lines of sponsoring a local sports team or perhaps looking into setting up a scholarship at the local high school.   The sports team idea actually isn’t my own since a friend has approached us requesting that we do so, but I like the idea.  The scholarship idea comes from my own memories of needing to scratch together any funding that I could in order to pay for college.... 05/26/2013

  A new Delgado Property Management client At Delgado Property Management, I’ve recently blogged about our new yard signs that we just rolled out to the public in the post titled "A New Delgado Property Management Yard Sign" and I also shared a story about a client wanting to contact the owners of a vacant “for rent” sign across the street to have them hire us in "I wouldn't believe it if I hadn't seen it."  As it worked out, our yard sign “won” and attracted the owner across the street to call us and ask about our services.    Turns out, the owner across the street studied us first.  He poked around on the Internet and liked what he saw about us.  Also, he called us pretending to be an interested renter and liked how we conducted ourselves.  So, he called us to talk business and inquir... 05/25/2013

Memorial Day 2012 in Benicia, California  Yesterday, the day before Memorial Day, as I played outside with my two young sons, I thought of my Uncles that had served and decided that I need to go in and give them a call.  But, my sons demanded my attention in the intense, playful way that they are prone to do and I stayed outside with them. We ran and played ball.  We worked up a sweat and had to stop to get cold juice for the boys.  We played with our bulldog Lola and we generally just ran off energy.  Basically, we had a great Sunday afternoon.  As I was teaching one of my sons to ride his bicycle without training wheels, I heard a sound. We aren’t that far from Travis Air Force Base (at least when measured in terms of air traffic) and so hearing planes overhead isn’t all that unusual.... 05/25/2013

  Watching the Big Boys play   I’ve written before about Little League and one of my son’s adventures and successes this season in A Father's pride and followed up in Follow up to A Father's Pride... he wins the Game Ball!. I’ve also featured and antics of my youngest son, and his teammate, both chasing the ball in We can't all chase the ball    Today, we were all spectators as Veronica and I took them to watch the Big Boys play baseball.  We saw the Cal Bears host Stanford in a Sunday afternoon game that was a great time.  Keep in mind that my boys are 7 and 5.  The older one is playing in his first season with a pitching machine (score isn’t kept, the whole rotation bats through in the first inning, all kids get 7 pitches) and the younger one is in his very first season of T-ball wher... 05/19/2013