| Condo Lottery Deadline and Some Free Stuff | January 25th, 2007 |
|
First off, let’s get this condo conversion stuff out of the way:Ticket sales for the San Francisco 2007 condo lottery will terminate at 4:45 p.m. on Friday, January 26, 2007. They are for sale at the DPW offices at 875 Stevenson, Room 460. Cost is $150 per building. Please check carefully to see if your building qualifies for condo conversion—you may also want to weigh the odds of winning against the cost. Some say it can be as little as 3% for those applying for the first time. Most of the guidelines for qualifying are in the application for tickets . There is also a wealth of information about SF condo conversions and TIC ownership in general on Andy Sirkin’s website Andy is an attorney and local expert on both topics. Free Brown Bag Talks Throughout 2007, the SF Department of Building Inspection is holding Brown Bag Lunch Talks on the third Thursday of each month at 1660 Mission Street, Room 2001.You bring your lunch and they’ll provide the coffee and drinks. The topics mix up fun stuff with the kind of stuff you should know about.In the “dull but necessary” category is “Roofing and Re-roofing” in February and “Simple and Inexpensive Home Earthquake Improvements” in August. More interesting (at least to me) is a summertime field trip to a glass and glazing shop and a fall visit to a green office remodel.They are also offering “How to Plan a Home Remodel” and “Home Kitchen Design and Construction.” Click here for a full schedule. Also buried in the BBI site are online videos of past Brown Bag Lunch Talks,including a 55 minute piece on “Legalizing In-Law Units and Rooms” and a 58 minute clip on “Fences and Retaining Wall Rules.” Thanks for your Referrals! A lot of my business comes by referral from terrific Realtors who work areas outside of San Francisco.I network with real estate professionals all over the country. If you ever need the names of good agents outside of San Francisco, please call me. I only recommend the cream of the crop. Some of the great agents I’ve met and worked with in the past year are: Leslie Blevins from Coldwell Banker in Davis; Julie Gardner of The Grubb Company in Oakland; Pat Colburn of Kane and Associates in Alameda; Catherine Bierwith and Mark Playsted of Harbor Bay Real Estate in Alameda; Pacita Damicali of Gallagher and Lindsey in Alameda; and Teresa Ellis of Keller Williams in Oakland/Piedmont.I love hearing from all of you and learning about real estate markets across the country.Please don’t hesitate to call if you want swap information or learn how to start your own local “Buzz.” |
|
|
|
| This Weird San Francisco Market and Some Secret Neighborhoods | January 12th, 2007 |
|
*********************************************************** One way I can term the market right now? Weird!!! Some properties go through massive price reductions before selling. Others fly off the shelves with multiple offers. Usually the homes that go through price “adjustments” before selling were overpriced to begin with. For example, 4302 19th Street, an extra large (1600+ square feet) Victorian condo flat at the corner of Diamond (pictured above) came on the market early last fall at $1,050,000. It then went through an aggressive series of price reductions from list price to. . . $985,000, then to – $949,000, then to — $900,000. then to —- $799,000(!!!). . . At that point a buyer snatched it up for $830,000. At under $518 a square foot that’s a sweet deal. On the other end of the scale, prices continue to climb in neighborhoods with small, cute houses like the Sunnyside.106 Baden which is lovely inside but had a scary Permastone façade was listed for $699,000 and sold for $748,000. Another one on Melrose listed for $649,000 is in contract for roughly 10% over its asking price. If you want a single family and are on a modest budget, Sunnyside is worth checking out.Straddling Monterey Boulevard just southwest of Glen Park, the neighborhood boasts swift access to freeways and good public transit to the Glen Park or City College BART. It’s also got cute houses (many built in the 20s and 30s) and some dramatic southern views towards Daly City. I also have a bias for the Crocker Amazon.This foggier (and cheaper) neighborhood is further out between Geneva Avenue and the Daly City border. Broad streets and winding boulevards are the neighborhood’s hallmark and many of the homes were also built in the 1920s with Craftsman style architecture. Because not many people know this pocket neighborhood, there are some great finds here and not much overbidding. Examples of Crocker Amazon deals:A lovely barrel front bungalow with 1250 square feet (2br/1ba) on the corner of Rolph and Munich just closed for $659,500 and a shiny bright house with one bedroom and formal dining room on Cassandra sold for $549,000 at the end of last year. If you’d like to see photos of available or sold homes in the Sunnyside or Chrocker Amazon, please email me and I will send them to you.It can also be fun to go open housing in these neighborhoods or other semi-secret spots(ever heard of Sutro Heights or St Mary’s Park?), call me and I’ll point you to where I think the values are this weekend. See you next week. ******************************************* Thanks to everyone who has sent me buyers and sellers this year! I’m having a wonderful time helping the people you’ve recommended me to and look forward to hearing from more or your family and friends this year. ************************ The Buzz loves feedback, both good and bad. If you’d like me to cover a particular topic (or want to critique a past Buzz) please don’t be shy! See you next week! |
|
|
|
Hello My Favorite People! First off a minor correction: If you are planning on attending the seminar for non-married co-owners (see January 3rd Buzz) on January 25, you must RSVP with Pierre Beniston at Financial Title. His phone number is 415-515-0123.| Take Me Out To Opera Plaza This Sunday. . . | January 5th, 2007 |
|
You’ll find me this Sunday back at Opera Plaza holding open #41 from 2-4 –a splendid 2br/2ba town home with a lush, landscaped patio and many lovely upgrades. Priced at $645,000, this is a sweet deal in a luxury building. It’s hard to find this much quality space for under $650,000 and Opera Plaza, at the corner of Van Ness and Golden Gate is an overlooked gem that lots of people pass up. To find me, walk to the back of the plaza and take the elevator to the residence floor. I’ll be on the sofa across from the security console waiting to take you through. I’ll also have a list of comparable open homes to look at that afternoon, so if you want to start out your tour in this nice central location, come on by. I also continue to love (love!) your referral business. It means a lot to me that you trust me with your friends and associates. I assure you they are all comfortably ensconced in wonderful homes or happily moving on with the next chapter in their lives after selling their San Francisco home or investment. To learn about what they bought or sold in 2006, please visit the “featured listings” section of my website. Thanks for your support and friendship in 2006. I look forward to helping more of you in 2007! |
|
|
|
| Important Seminar For Non-Married Co-Owners | January 3rd, 2007 |
|
Property Vesting, Property Taxes and Domestic Partnership Issues for Non-Married Co-Owners of California Real Property Presented by San Francisco attorney, Alma Beck–Topics covered are:
|
|
|
|
Hello My Favorite People:On Thursday, January 25, 2007 from 6:30-8:30 p.m. at the Fort Mason Center, Building A, in the Golden Gate Conference Room, my favorite people at Financial Title are sponsoring a seminar titled (watch out, this is a mouthful):
