I am once again holding open 525 Pomona in Albany for a colleague from my office. This home has been on the market for a month. As a reminder, this home has 3 bedroom, 2 baths and is in one of the most desirable cities in the East Bay.
What is happening? Why is this home not in contract?
There are a series of reasons.
The keystone to selling any property is the price. All the other marketing is built upon the price. If the Seller and the Agent get that wrong, it all will have been built upon a faulty foundation. When the agents in our office came to visit Pomona, before it came onto the market, the consensus was that the listing price should be $649,000. Fo various reasons the seller decided that they wanted the home to come onto the market at $675,000. Not a huge difference, but it became one of many factors in the why is this home still on the market.
The home itself is in a wonderful area. Not too far from the schools of Albany, within walking distance of Solano Avenue, the El Cerrito BART station and El Cerrito Plaza, but the home itself is a bit eccentric.
Pomona does open upon a wonderful, light filled living room with hardwood floors, a box beam ceiling and a fireplace, but the eating area is small. You move from there to the remodeled kitchen, which, though very nice, has a strange oven placement, off to a corner.
The kitchen opens to the master bedroom suite that was a later addition, and feels like it.
Up some rather steep steps are the two remaining bedrooms, and additional space that has been carved out of the attic. Some families, and that is the main audience for Albany, feel a bit disconnected by the idea of the children's rooms being upstairs while they are downstairs in the master bedroom.
There is also no garage. There is simply a parking pad in the front.
Nome of the things I have listed are deal breakers, but taken as a group, and with more homes coming onto the Albany market, these factors have lead to a home that is still available.
All that being said, if a buyer can see beyond the those eccentric qualities of the home, there could be a bargain to be had in this home in Albany.
525 Pomona has been on the market for a month. The sellers want to talk.
