Saratoga has become a great place to go wine tasting.  Until just a few years ago, there were vineyards and wineries in and near to Saratoga, but no tasting rooms for many years, so oenophiles were out of luck if they wanted to wine taste in Saratoga.  Luckily, a trend is underway and tasting venues have been on the rise.  Today I’ll review for  you five of the places I’ve visited and enjoyed.  Three of them are right in Saratoga Village and a few more are not too far away. All have seating of some kind, either outside or in, and all of them have friendly, knowledgeable staff in my experience.

In Saratoga’s downtown Village you’ll find Cinnabar, Big Basin Vineyards and also Uncorked!, a wine bar (showcasing many wines from many vintners).  A little further out you can taste at Savannah-Chanelle and Cooper-Garrod. I’ll discuss each of them in this post.

Cinnabar opened a tasting room in Saratoga Village about 3 years ago and we finally paid it a visit yesterday (Labor Day).  Cinnabar’s chardonnay has long been one of my very favorites, so I was looking forward to sampling that and several other offerings.

The tasting room was positively hopping when Jim and I stopped in. Malcolm poured for us and educated us on the wines.  Luckily he wasn’t working alone so had plenty of time to tell us about what we were trying, about the wine club, events and more.  Cinnabar has two “flight” options, one at $5 (four wines) and one at $10 (5 wines) per person – please see their website for info on those.  Also, Cinnabar has a nicely done Saratoga visitors guide on their website – check it out!

The setting is very inviting, with a  unique gift shop and tables outside too – you can purchase “wine by the glass” and sip it outdoors, watching the activity on Big Basin Way.   This month (Sept 2010) Cinnabar also has Friday Evening Music on the Patio from 5:30 – 7:00pm.  Make it a first stop on your way to dinner in town! 

Cinnabar Winery Tasting Room 
14612 Big Basin Way
Tel. 408 867-1012

Directly next door to Cinnabar’s tasting room is the just opened Big Basin Vineyards tasting room.  Talk about lining up a Saratoga wine trail!

The tasting room for Big Basin Vineyards was smaller and quieter but very pleasant and still had a nice crowd for a holiday.
I don’t think that they could have chosen a better location for their new shop, and they seem to be off to a great start.

 Michele and Andy were pouring for the patrons and explaining to us about the wines, their recent opening, events and the art sporting the walls of the shop. There was a little seating area for visitors who may want to savor the tasty goods off their feet.

Big Basin Vineyards makes red wine exclusively (no white wines) and appears to be targeting the more expensive niche of the wine market.  Tasting there is $10 per person. 

Big Basin Vineyards Tasting Room
14598 Big Basin Way, Suite B
408 564-7346

Also in Saratoga’s downtown village is a wine bar, Uncorked!, which offers tastings of a number of different vintners.  I had the pleasure of visiting there for a Sereno Group event a few months back (our Saratoga office is next door).  Uncorked is spacious with plenty of seating for those who want to linger over a favorite glass of wine rather than stand and try small tastings of several.

Uncorked!
145000 Big Basin Way
Tel. 408 741-9000

Up the road from the village, 4 miles into the Santa Cruz Mountains is the Savannah-Chanelle vineyard and tasting room.  It’s in a lovely, scenic clearing among the woods and “feels” much further than 4 miles away from the rest of civilization!

There’s plenty of parking outside (not always the case in downtown Saratoga) and a roomy barn-like building houses the tasting bar area.  Additionally, there are several outside tables for those who wish to picnic.  Indoors there’s a space for kids too, with a large table and some books to keep them happy so mom & dad can enjoy sips of wine.  (Only thing missing: restrooms.  They are on site but require a trek up the hill to a separate building. That part is not so kid-friendly.)

Although Savannah-Chanelle was busy, the acoustics were great and it didn’t get the noisy din that can happen in some crowded wine tasting venues.  Brook and Mike were pouring and both were actively working the room to make sure that everyone was taken care of quickly. Tasting is $10 or $15 per person (two flight choices).

Long-time locals and Silicon Valley natives: Savannah-Chanelle is the site of the old Congress Springs Winery, which the current owners bought and renamed in 1996.  Some of their vines go back to the late 1800s – remarkable that they survived prohibition!

Savannah-Chanelle Vineyards & Tasting
23600 Congress Springs Road
408 741-2932

I believe the first winery in Saratoga to open a tasting room in recent decades was Cooper-Garrod, which is located in the gorgeous foothills off of Pierce Road (toward Cupertin0, not in the coastal range of hills).  You could actually make a day of it  if you pack a picnic ahead of time.  First take some time exploring the scenery on horseback at Garrod Stables, then head next door and taste some wine. Finally pull out your picnic and relax at the tables nearby, perhaps with a bottle of something you enjoyed and purchased while tasting. (Alternatively, let the kids ride for an hour while you sample some vino.) 

Cooper-Garrod is the only Saratoga wine tasting room with some free tasting (2 samples), but even their paid tasting is extremely affordable with the $5 tasting providing 6 or 7 types of wine and the $10 tasting giving you the wine glass to keep!

It has been a couple of years since I’ve visited Cooper-Garrod, but as with the others showcased here today, I can recommend it as a worthwhile place to visit.  The tasting room was in an old “fruit house” (so interesting setting, ) as the hills have some orchards as well as vineyards and that it was quite scenic.  One caveat to the picnic setting: at times the breeze blows such that the smell of the horses may be strong.  That happened the day we went wine tasting and ate lunch there, but it may have been a rare occurrance.

The Cooper-Garrod setting is very reminiscent to me of rural Saratoga as I knew it growing up: uncrowded, country-esque, rolling hills, beautiful scenery.

Cooper-Garrod Vineyards
22645 Mount Eden Road
Tel. 408 867-7116

All five of these spots are worth the visit.  Although I would not suggest visiting them all in one day (unless you have a driver who’s not imbibing and you have a full meal under your belt to start with), if you begin at either or both of the further out wineries you could then park in town and see any of the others in the village on foot, perhaps finishing with a meal and a stroll in town, taking in some gelato or dessert or a little time in Wildwood Park before heading back to your vehicle. 

Other notes about Saratoga wine tasting: 

• Paul Masson – no longer tasting in Saratoga.  Paul Masson used to have both the winery (now a place for concerts) and a champagne tasting room (now a subdivision of homes) in Saratoga.  These venues have been gone a long time.
• There are a few more vineyards and wineries in Saratoga, but they are not open to the public (if I have missed any with tasting rooms, please let me know!)
• In addition to the five fabulous tasting rooms listed here, there are more in nearby Cupertino, San Jose, Los Gatos, and scattered throughout the Santa Cruz Mountains. A wonderful resource is the website for the Santa Cruz Mountains Winegrowers. Their list includes about 75 local wineries (not all of which are open to the public) and is really the most comprehensive site for locally grown wines, wineries, and events.
• Most or all of these wineries have “clubs” which provide discounts, invitations to special events and the opportunity to buy wines that may be difficult to purchase elsewhere.  Most or all also have newsletters, a presence on Facebook and Twitter, etc.  The one exception appears to be Savannah-Chanelle, which has a website under construction as of this writing.   If you have a favorite and are active on the social media sites, look for the winery there: you’ll probably find it!

Sometimes when I meet prospective clients who are thinking of selling their home, I hear immediately, “we only want to sell As Is“.  In the next breath, they tell me, “and we want top dollar for our house”.  Those two are often mutually exclusive desires – that is, getting one usually means you won’t get the other.  But not always, and I’ll show you how to increase the odds of doing both.

To get top dollar, a Silicon Valley home for sale must appear to be the best value for the money and attract the most qualified buyers who step forward with a strong offer.  Buyers will pay more IF they feel that your home is a better value.

There are a number of things which need to be done for that to occur, but one of the most important has to do with the condition and appearance of the property. Confident buyers write stronger offers than buyers who are concerned about the house or condominium and potentially unknown risks. (Buyers are thinking “risk, risk, risk” and “beware of hidden costs”!) Home buying is both a business decision as well as an emotional decision.  To get top dollar, your home has to make sense and appeal to buyers on both levels, and we’ll discuss both in this post.

On a business level,  buyers want to feel that there will not be surprise costs (“hidden risk” or “hidden costs”) which will only be discovered later, either after they’re in escrow and have paid for an appraisal and inspections, or worse, after they’ve moved in.   It is not so hard to alleviate this buyer fear: simply provide pre-sale inspections so that the potential home buyer understands the true condition of the home.

If your home’s new owner can review the inspections, and even your disclosures, prior to writing an offer you’ll get a stronger contract to start with and will be far less likely to receive further negotiation attempts in escrow (which are usually the result of a surprise when a buyer has inspections).  Remember, once you’re in contract to sell the home, any negotiation from that point on will be in the buyer’s favor – the sales price never goes up in the middle of escrow!  So prevent surprises, remove the risk, and you’ll both get a stronger offer to begin with and likely prevent renegotiation later.

Inspections can cost up to a thousand dollars in most situations (condos will be less than large luxury homes of course) but having pre-sale inspections probably boosts the sales price a percent or two at least, so it’s money well spent, in my experience.  What inspections should you get? I’ve written about it elsewhere, but in most cases you’ll want a pest report at a minimum and probably a home inspection too.  In some cases you’ll want a chimney, roof,  pool, or other component inspected as well.

Once you’ve had the inspections done, you may be surprised to learn that there are some issues with the property. This is normal in homes that are not new, of course, but buyers have a few major areas that they worry about more than others: foundation, roof, electrical, plumming, termites and other pests.   The list of potential issues is long, but many are minor and they won’t be a big selling hurdle.  Depending on what comes out of the inspection reports, you may selectively fix items you choose (and, I would suggest, that your real estate agent advises). 

It is imperative is to do this before the home’s on the market, before a buyer is writing an offer.  This way, you can take your time, get multiple bids, and perhaps do the work in a less costly fashion than if you’re in escrow and under pressure with some contractual restrictions and you have the advantage of presenting less risk to an interested buyer since the home’s condition is no longer a mystery.  Often, if you inspect and pick key repairs and do them prior to marketing the home, you will be able to sell As Is once you do try to sell the property.

So to summarize the “business” angle, it’s important to learn the true condition of the home via professional inspections, possibly select key areas to address prior to selling the property and then making the inspections and repairs known to potential buyers upfront.

What about the “emotional” side of the equation?

This is just as important, because buyers have to like your property if they want to live in it (not true with investment buyers, of course – in that case the numbers just have to make sense).  It’s almost like dating: there has to be a spark of attraction to get the buyer to commit.   Creating that spark is what staging is all about.  We want to make your townhome, condo or house appeal to the broadest range of potential buyers possible.  It is time to make your home about them, about your audience, rather than about you.

Staging is the topic of a boatload of books and I won’t pretend to do it justice in this one small post, but I will touch on it because staging is key to your maximizing your home’s market value.  I do not mean storing your furniture and renting new (however if your property is vacant, it may be a good idea to bring some furniture in).  I’m talking about “lipstick and rouge”, not reconstructive surgery.

The best return on your dollar for pre-sale preparation, after inspections, are cosmetic rather than structural changes. It’s nearly impossible to say what one item would “return” by itself, but as a package, you may see a 3 to 1 return on investment for minor changes.  Depending on your real estate, these could include:

• freshening up the front landscaping, including putting color near the front door (annuals, possibly in pots)
• cleaning the home, inside and out, including fixtures, windows, etc.
• removing odors (pets, cooking, insense, smoking)
• fresh paint, inside and out (as needed – often is needed!)
• new floor coverings (usually needed)
• declutter your home, including the inside of closets, cabinets, storage areas (consider renting a storage pod if needed)
• depersonalize (remove your unique “stamp” on the home so that buyers can envision themselves moving in)

I have gone through a two day staging course and do help my clients with all of the above, but can also recommend people who are professional stagers who will not only advise, but also assist, you in organizing all of the above.

What about big ticket items, like remodeling the kitchen? Usually those won’t pay you back the full cost of the improvement, but “touching up” the kitchen will.  For instance, let’s say you have a 30 or 40 year old kitchen.  Should you tear it out and remodel it to sell? No, but you’d probably get your money back by updating it a little so that it feels new: put in new appliances, a new countertop, and paint the cabinets (example only! this is not advice for homes I haven’t seen!)

It is very important to make your home attractive in the front so that buyers want to come into the home, and it’s just as key to make the inside feel spacious and clean.  If a home is structurally solid but filthy, most buyers will be very concerned about what they cannot see and any offers you get will be lower than the property’s potential.

In summary, to get top dollar when you sell your home and to increase the odds that you can sell it As Is, you need to do a fair amount of work upfront, before a buyer ever crosses the threshold or a for sale sign graces your front yard.  Get the home inspected professionally, take care of some key issues and then prepare your home aesthetically so that buyers want to come in, linger, and eventually write a great offer on your property.

How much should all of this cost? Typically, preparing a home to sell for its maximum worth on the market will cost about 1-2% of the home’s value (rule of thumb), including inspections, repairs, and staging.  For cash-strapped sellers, some of these can be billed to escrow but there will be a price for it. Inspections are usually billed at two rates: upfront payments will provide a substantial discount.  There are real estate affiliates which install carpet or other floorcoverings and will bill to escrow, or at a minimum wait 60 days to be paid, but as with the inspectors, these vendors will usually charge less if you can pay them upfront.

As mentioned above, it’s hard to say what any one component done by itself will net you in terms of return.  If you improve the interior of the home but don’t make the front yard attractive and welcoming, you may not get the traffic to bring you the desired return.  Or if you make cosmetic changes but don’t do inspections, the buyers will have concerns that your 40 year old house is full of issues with the electrical, plumming, or roof. So it’s not possible to say, “if I spend $1000 on carpeting I’ll get $3000 back in the sales price” because that’s looking at each element individually – it has to be a package deal to work.  It’s important to address both sides of the equation as to how buyers will feel about financial risk and attractiveness.  If done correctly, the right pre-sale work can bring you two to three or more times back the cost in a boosted sales price plus fewer renegotiations once you are in contract. With my clients, I will not ask them to have work done unless they’ll get back more than they put into it.  In one case in Santa Clara, I had the sellers spend $7000 in pre-sale inspections and work, and our return on investment was about $21,000 more in sales price (this was on a $500,000 home, so the “investment” was almost 1.5% and the return was about a 4% higher sales price). So they were very happy!

For more information on this topic, please see my book, “Get The Best Deal When Selling Your Home In Silicon Valley“, which is available at many local libraries, bookstores, on Amazon or from me should you interview me to possibly represent you in the sale of your home (my book is my gift to potential clients).

About the author of this post: I am Mary Pope-Handy, a Silicon Valley Realtor (second generation), working full time and successfully selling Santa Clara County real estate since 1993. Specializing in west valley homes (Almaden Valley, Cambrian Park, Los Gatos, Monte Sereno, Saratoga, Campbell and nearby), but work all of the southern San Francisco Bay Area.  I have an extensive educational background & experience  and am the holder of numerous realty awards and designations.  Additionally, I’m a featured speaker at real estate events and am well known in the realty community.  To learn more, please see my profile online.

To learn more about selling your home for top dollar, please continue reading more about what it takes on my popehandy.com website “Sale Success” article.