We Buy Houses in Montara, CA

Water is Montara's long-running story. For decades the town was served by a private utility, Citizens Utilities, whose supply did not keep up with growth; the state Public Utilities Commission opened an investigation into outages in 1976, and in 1980 the company asked to stop new connections until more wells were drilled. The local sanitary district, formed in 1958, was given water-district powers by the Legislature in 1992, voters approved a $19 million bond in November 2001, and on August 1, 2003 it took over the system and became the Montara Water and Sanitary District. Supply still comes largely from local wells and surface water. For a buyer of a vacant lot or a house relying on its own well, whether a district connection exists — or can be had — is the first question, and an unclear answer stops financing.

The hillside is the second constraint. Streets above Highway 1 run steeply up toward the mountain, and houses there sit on cut slopes, stilts or stepped foundations. Drainage across those lots, retaining walls and settlement are what an inspector will dwell on, and the county's grading and geotechnical requirements apply to any repair. A buyer with a loan needs those questions answered before closing; we do not.

Above the last houses is open state park land on Montara Mountain, reached by a gravel fire road. Homes that back onto that brush face the wildland-edge insurance market that has tightened across California, where standard carriers have pulled back and some owners have been pushed toward the state FAIR Plan. A buyer who cannot bind affordable coverage cannot fund a mortgage, which is a common way a Montara escrow quietly dies.

Much of Montara's housing is older and modest — beach cottages enlarged over time, 1960s and 1970s houses with additions — and permits for that work often cannot be found in county files. An appraiser cannot count unpermitted square footage. If your house has a district water connection, a stable site and permitted space, it will sell well through an agent; our offer makes sense only where one of these problems has narrowed the market.

The Point Montara Light began in 1875 as a fog signal station; its cast-iron tower was brought from Cape Cod in 1925, it is still a Coast Guard aid to navigation, and the keeper's quarters are an international hostel. Nearby, the 1915 Montara Grammar School now serves as a community center, while children attend Farallone View Elementary. The Chart House restaurant building on Highway 1 dates to 1913. These landmarks anchor the western, lower part of town, where lots are flatter and closer to the beach.

The eastern part of Montara rises toward the mountain, with narrower roads, steeper parcels and more houses built individually rather than in tracts. Near Martini Creek at the north edge grows Hickman's potentilla, a plant listed as endangered by both California and the federal government, and protected habitat is one reason the county looks closely at grading and new construction around the creek and the bluffs.

Since the tunnels opened, Montara is a reliable drive to Pacifica and San Francisco rather than a town cut off whenever the old Devil's Slide road failed, and that has widened its buyer pool. What has not changed is the small number of sales each year: with only a few thousand residents, comparable sales are sparse, and an appraisal on an unusual hillside house can come in well short of the contract price.