Buying a Home on the Peninsula

Buying on the Peninsula doesn't work the way it works elsewhere. List prices are set low on purpose. Sellers publish inspections before offers are due. Contingencies are often waived. If you've bought a home somewhere else, most of what you learned doesn't transfer.

Five things that decide whether you win

The list price is not the price. Between 61% and 82% of homes here sell above asking, depending on the city. The number on Zillow is an invitation, not a target. If your ceiling is $2 million, shop at $1.8 million and expect to compete up.

Read the disclosure package before offer day. Sellers publish inspections, pest, and title up front so buyers can waive contingencies. If you haven't read it, you're bidding against people who have. I read these with clients — it's unglamorous, and it's most of the value I add.

Waive contingencies deliberately, not reflexively. Non-contingent offers are normal here and often necessary. They also put your deposit genuinely at risk. That call should follow a disclosure review and a talk with your lender — never offer-day pressure.

Get underwritten, not pre-qualified. A fully underwritten approval means your income, assets, and credit are already verified. Against cash offers, that plus a short close is worth more than another $30,000 on your price. It takes days to arrange — do it before you tour.

Be able to move in 48 hours. Menlo Park runs about eleven days of inventory. Homes regularly sell before their scheduled offer date. If you can't see a place and write within two days, you'll lose houses you never got to bid on.

Where the Peninsula stands

Note that the cheapest cities are the hardest to buy in — a lower entry price draws a much bigger pool of buyers. Click any city for the full guide.

Budget past the purchase price

• Property tax is reassessed at what you pay, not what the seller paid.
• HOA dues and special assessments on attached housing.
• Mello-Roos in some newer master-planned neighborhoods.
• Flood zone and insurance — parts of the bayside are in FEMA zones.
• What the house needs. A 1920s home may want rewiring, a foundation, and new plumbing.

I build the full monthly number before we tour anything. It regularly changes which homes are actually in range — the cheapest listing is often the most expensive home.

How it goes

• Talk. Budget, commute, timeline, schools. Twenty minutes narrows the map.
• Finance. Get underwritten with a lender who closes here regularly.
• Narrow. Usually two or three cities.
• Tour. The first few showings recalibrate what your budget buys.
• Review disclosures on anything serious, before offer day.
• Write, then close. Escrow is typically 21 to 30 days.