El Sobrante Real Estate
El Sobrante is a small unicorporated area in a hilly area wedged in between the cities of Pinole, San Pablo, Richmond, Hercules and parklands in western Contra Costa County in the Bay Area in Northern California.
El Sobrante is an interesting area of about some twelve thousand residents. The residential housing is a mixture of small quiet old houses, typically built in the 1940s and 1950s and the larger bigger houses built in the last fifteen years or so.
For real estate buyers, sellers and observers, there are several ways to check out the scene. There is the traditional route with realtors and their Multiple Listing Service, which has become computerized and is now available on the internet through many different realtors' web sites.
There is also Craig's List, which now has many different versions in major cities across the United States. It is also developing sites in other cities around the world. Visit the SF/East Bay Craig's List and search in Real Estate for "el sobrante."
Some home owners sell their homes without benefit of Realtors' services. This form of real estate transfer is called For Sale By Owner (FSBO). It seems to be increasingly popular; there is even a Nolo Book on how to sell your house by yourself. However, like getting a divorce with a Nolo Book in hand, selling real estate may be much too complicated to handle on your own.
A personal critique of real estate advertising on Craig's List for El Sobrante and other parts of the East Bay:
Some sellers seem to think that if they write "Price Reduced!!!!!" on their free Real Estate ad that some sucker (buyer) may think that there is a bargain lurking in El Sobrante. Bargains are not very likely; way over-priced houses are much more likely. Other sellers posting on Craig's List try the coy approach: They don't bother actually stating the asking price nor do they list the address. Instead, they list Email contacts or telephone contacts. They seem to think that people that respond to coyness are also suckers for a hard sell. Sort of like a used car salesman's technique. Why do many ads not post photographs of the house and yard? What are they trying to hide? You to can play Blindman's Buff in the El Sobrante real estate whirl-a-thon...
What appalls me the most are the awful, sloppy, careless and frequent misspellings: "Quite" for "Quiet," Cul-De-Saq" for "cul-de-sac." "almost 7 SQ. FOOT LOT," Another ad listed "BEAUTFULLY LANDSCAPPING... ON THE PROEPERTY." Somehow, sloppy typos and sloppy spelling would not inspire confidence for me. Another ad said "$585 - HOUSE FOR SALE," this may be a real bargain: a house in El Sobrante for less than one thousand dollars...and what exactly are 2.25 bathrooms? 2+ bedrooms? And what, pray tell, is a "PERFECT NEIGHBORHOOD?" Such a thing does not exist in this world. It would seem that poetic license run amok in the world of real estate ads.
Some El Sobrante Real Estate links:
Craig's List: (search for el sobrante in the real estate section for the East Bay, California). Craig's List
Samuel Chu Real Estate: Samuel Chu
Team Enterprise Real Estate: Team Enterprise
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Web page last updated on 24 July 2006.