Real Estate Transactions

Silicon Valley

Q: In response to your column “Trees or no trees? Privacy or no privacy? Is this Johnny Appleseed agent trying to help our profits grow?” in The Mercury News and East Bay Times on Sunday, February 16, 2020, you mentioned: “visiting homebuyers have their heads on a swivel.”

Well, we have found ourselves selling the ancestral family home. The property is almost empty of our family’s belongings. What no one could have anticipated was the political climate that has fallen upon us. The neighbors to our left (no pun intended) have bumper stickers and a lawn sign promoting a controversial figure on the political left. The neighbors to our right (again, not kidding) responded days later, with bumper stickers on three vehicles and a lawn sign supporting a polarizing figure on the political right. The eldest adult grandson of my parents, who’s been enormously helpful in this whole process, lamented yesterday, “you can’t make this stuff up.” After all the hard work and over a year of difficult family emails, we are about to start the selling process in a political carnival atmosphere; in March no less. Imagine the “curb appeal” when homebuyers attending our open house park their cars across the street. I cannot believe I’m posing the question: How and why should politics play into the sale of my parent’s house?

A: All municipalities have political signage codes that fall under the temporary category.

Search political signage verbiage in a residential area, and you’ll most likely find “90 days before an election and 10 days after an election.” Does your listing real estate agent possess the skills to work as a mediator between the neighbors? In other words, can the lawn signs be removed after the primary in early March? Secondarily, will the “left and right” neighbors also agree to only place the lawn signs 90 days before the presidential election, and not a day sooner? If not, do not put the house on the market until the signage has been removed. File a code violation ASAP. At that point, I vote that your new real estate attorney simultaneously sends bully pulpit letters instructing them how their code-violating political enthusiasm could be a costly bipartisan mistake.

Questions? In need of strategic tactics to sell a property? Lacking practical methods to buy a home? Contact Pat Kapowich, a Certified Real Estate Brokerage Manager, at 408-2457700, email Pat@ Siliconvalleybroker. com. Broker License 00979413.