Thorne Home Blog | Marin County, CA

Should you buy a fixer? ....Sure! We are big advocates of saying yes to a challenge, especially because our friends and family were skeptical when we said we were going to buy, fix, and sell houses for a couple of years back in 2013.  Naomi and I lived in Los Angeles and we both had typical 9-6 jobs working in finance and television. Sick of the daily grind and the corporations controlling our pay checks, we decided we wanted to work for ourselves. I accidentally came upon a podcast about "real estate freedom" that detailed the process of wholesaling and flipping houses. This was the time following the housing market crash and home prices were rock bottom.  We were still in our 20's and knew very little about the housing market, except that we had purchased a beautiful little condo as a short sale and already had a good amount of appreciation in the property. So what if we took that appreciation and used the gains to flip houses in South Florida, where homes could be purc...

2 Taft Ct, Novato Suddenly you're faced with the daunting task of selling an inherited property. The choices are overwhelming and you're in complete analysis paralysis. Do you update the whole house, do you update certain features, or do you save all the money and just sell it as is? These are the most common questions we get when sellers find themselves in this situation. Of course, every home is a little different and we recommend meeting with an experienced Realtor® to get specific advice tailored to your property. But as a general rule of thumb, properties sell faster and for more money when buyers can imagine themselves living there.  Imagine you're a buyer and you walk into a home with a stained carpet, bright colors on the walls, and a grimy kitchen and bathrooms. You probably wouldn't walk away thinking...I'd love to live in that house and offer my entire life savings to have it! So as the seller, without breaking the bank, focus on the areas that would tran...

 February Market Snapshot Lots of new inventory on the market! The average sale price/list price ratio is 101.4%, indicating that homes are selling above the asking price, most likely as a result of renewed buyer competition in the market. We see a slight increase in the median list price, which may be seller adjustment to a reenergized market from the Fall and Winter months.   Search active properties here: thornehometeam.com

*Zillow.com screenshot We have a lot of clients who love to use Zillow for all their real estate searching. And we get it...we love Zillow too! But you have to know it has some setbacks. For instance, we happen to know the above Zestimate is about $300,000 below the current market value for this home in Marin County, CA. There are a number of potential reasons for this inaccuracy.  First, Zillow has no conception of the condition or the updates made to the home. This property is more updated than the other homes in this neighborhood and has high quality finishes in the kitchen and bathrooms. Zillow also doesn't know the square footage in the tax records for this house is inaccurate -  there was an addition made to the home increasing the number of bedrooms and therefore overall desirability of the property.  Second, the actual data flowing into Zillow's Zestimates is not always accurate. Our clients will sometimes send us active properties from Zillow and ask why they are...

This is proof you can sell your first home and buy your dream home at the same time, even in a tough market like Marin County in the Bay Area. Here's a 2024 case study: Family of 4 (two young children) Living in a 2100 sq ft townhome, hoping to sell for around $950,000 Desire a single family home in a kid-friendly neighborhood, max budget of $1,300,000 Using the proceeds from the sale for the down payment on their new home This is their story from their POV... Our First Home - Prepped and Staged! Our New Forever Home! Search  thornehometeam.com Last year, our family of four decided to take the leap and move from our first home to our forever home. We lived in a townhome in southern Novato and honestly, we did love it! The complex was located in a gorgeous natural setting amidst mature trees and hiking trails. The unit itself was actually large with three bedrooms and two living rooms, but we have two young kids and we were feeling the need to enjoy some more yard space and...

2022 was a dramatic year in real estate. The market yielded all time highs and multiple-offer chaos in the Summer sending some sales soaring up to $1mil over the asking price. This was followed by rising mortgage interest rates, which quickly slowed the market and gave way to a calm Winter break.  Through it all, we guided our buyers on how to navigate multiple offer situations with dozens of offers, and how to purchase with decreased buying power due to higher rates. On one San Anselmo sale, our buyers prevailed with 11 offers. And for our sellers, we tailored our project management style to each seller's needs, from off-market sales for minimal seller stress to full market-prep with home renovation, landscaping, and staging. We are so thankful to everyone we worked with this past year, clients and amazing service professionals!  If you're in the market or if you're just interested in checking out our 2022 sales, scroll through the below. We sell a wide range of homes in a...