{"id":209,"date":"2024-12-18T12:59:46","date_gmt":"2024-12-18T20:59:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/realestateinsfbayarea.com\/millbrae\/?page_id=209"},"modified":"2025-07-11T14:06:48","modified_gmt":"2025-07-11T21:06:48","slug":"blog","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/realestateinsfbayarea.com\/millbrae\/blog\/","title":{"rendered":"Blog"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mortgage Deductions For New Home Buyers vs Prop 13 For Old Buyers<\/a><\/h2>

by Juliana Lee Team<\/a><\/span> | Jul 11, 2025<\/span> | Taxes<\/a><\/span><\/p>

Proposition 13 in California is blamed by prospective home buyers as being one of the reasons buying a house is so expensive. \u201cLong-time homeowners aren\u2019t paying their fair share.\u201d What we rarely see is that income tax deductions for mortgage interest favor new home buyers. Taxes never make anything cheaper unless a tax \u201crefund\u201d is given for taxes that weren\u2019t paid. Long-time homeowners will typically have much lower mortgages and thus much less opportunity, if any, to deduct their mortgage from their income taxes. Long-time homeowners bought their home at a lower price and thus a lower mortgage, and have also paid off a significant portion, possibly all, of their mortgage. With time, standard deductions grow and the mortgage interest decreases, the value of the mortgage deduction can…<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/article>

Real Estate Agent Commission<\/a><\/h2>

by Juliana Lee Team<\/a><\/span> | Dec 21, 2024<\/span> | Real estate laws<\/a><\/span><\/p>

A big change was made to real estate sales in 2024. Now, a real estate agent has to get a written agreement with a potential buyer before they can tour a home with them. Much of the rationale for this change centered on the fact that home sellers typically paid a commission to the real estate agent who represented the buyer. Claims were made that sellers should not be forced to pay for the buyers’ agent and that buyers should pay for their own agent. In Silicon Valley, real estate commissions have been negotiable for many years. The default practice has been that the sellers pay all commissions, and the total commission is approximately split between the sellers’ agent and the buyers’ agent. A benefit is that the buyer does not have to come up with cash to pay a commission, reducing how…<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/article>

Can Protected Trees Be Removed<\/a><\/h2>

by Juliana Lee Team<\/a><\/span> | Dec 10, 2024<\/span> | Real estate laws<\/a><\/span><\/p>

Cities enact their own tree protection ordinances, which are specific to that city. A long-time Palo Alto resident recently posted about his protected tree removal attempts to force his neighbor to remove Coast Redwood Trees whose roots were damaging his foundation. We reached out and talked to him for several hours. One of the points that came up was that the city department in charge of managing protected trees apparently enacted regulations to appease the local tree preservation group Canopy. After two years of court cases and numerous discussions, the owner of the damaged house was left with the understanding that the city expanded its protection to other tree types and sizes to appease Canopy, reducing the organization’s opposition to the removal of specific trees. Even if you…<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/article><\/div>

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