Where I work
My anchor markets are in San Joaquin County, and I also work in Stockton, Ripon, Lodi, Modesto, Turlock and Merced. Whether you're buying here or selling a home you already own here, these are the areas I follow week to week. If you're looking somewhere else, ask — I'll tell you honestly if you'd be better served locally.
The markets I know in detail
The areas I follow week to week, and a wider region I'll happily work in.
Tracy
Established neighbourhoods and newer developments, with commute access west toward the Bay Area. Most homes here carry a City assessment or landscape district, which affects what a buyer can afford — and therefore how yours should be priced. Tracy Hills, Ellis and the commute, honestly.
Manteca
A broad mix of resale and new construction across a wide range of price points. Resale sellers compete directly with builder incentives here, which is the single biggest factor in how a Manteca listing should be positioned. The Trails, Pulte, and pricing against builder incentives.
Lathrop
Rapid new-build activity. CFD assessments are common and worth understanding before you offer — and worth explaining properly when you sell, because a buyer who is surprised by them tends to renegotiate. Mossdale, CFDs and the river.
River Islands
Master-planned and largely new construction. Builder incentives and lot premiums are genuinely negotiable. Selling a resale home here means competing with the builder next door, so pricing has to account for what they're offering this month. The collections, the schools and the levees.
Mountain House
Popular with Bay Area commuters. Two separate special taxes materially affect total monthly cost — which sets a ceiling on what buyers can pay, and is the first thing I work out before recommending a list price. The villages, and what incorporation changed.
Modesto
A large, established market with a wide spread of price points and far less new construction than the San Joaquin cities. Stanislaus County sets its own tax rates, so the arithmetic differs from Tracy or Manteca — I work the figure out from the county and the actual parcel rather than reading one market across to another.
Turlock
Also Stanislaus County. Smaller and steadier than Modesto, with a mix of older homes and newer subdivisions on the edges. Worth checking the parcel for any assessment before you offer — newer tracts here can carry one.
Merced
Merced County, and a different market again — university-influenced, with its own price dynamics and its own county tax rates. Send me an address and I’ll pull the actual bill rather than estimate from a neighbouring county.
Lodi
Older housing stock and an established winegrowing area, which makes it a different exercise from my newer anchor markets — condition does the pricing work, not which special tax applies. What is different about Lodi.
French Camp
Unincorporated, small, and the oldest settlement in San Joaquin County. Few comparable sales, which makes automated valuations unreliable here. The facts on French Camp.
Also serving
Stockton and Ripon. Ask me about anywhere else — I’ll tell you honestly if you’d be better served locally.