It’s that time of year for me again.  It’s time for summer vacation.  And as I do most years, I am heading up to Lake County for some fishing, boating, kayaking and general relaxation. This year, I’ll add smoke inhalation to the list thanks to all the fires that are burning, but I digress.

I’ll be back in town on the 12th Of July, and will resume the usual blog posting schedule when I return, along with a hectic listing schedule (I’ll have a handful of new listings on the market when I come back - check back towards the middle of July to get the full scoop on them.)

If you really miss me,  you can follow me on Twitter where I might pop in occasionally to say “hi.” 

When I come back, I’ll be ready to jump back into the San Francisco real estate market, so if you need help buying or selling property in the new year, know that I’ll be relaxed, refreshed and ready to work my butt off!

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Just a little blurb to let you know that I’ve just addes a new market report feature to the blog. 

If you just can’t get enough San Francsco real estate market updates between this blog and The City Update(TM), you now have one more option when it comes to getting the latest deets on what the market is doing. 

You can narrow down your reports by zip code or property type, and you can sign up for as few or as many zip codes as you like (you just have to reenter your info for each new zip code/property type). 

You can sign up in the sidebar on the right, or you can sign up right here.

Go ahead, get your SF real estate data fix on!

Oh - and as always, your info will not be sold, rented, shared, abused, danced on, or in any other way misused.  In fact, you’ll never hear from me unless you contact me directly.  Just thought you’d like to know.

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A hint… if you’ve seen 30 properties, and you can’t picture yourself living in any one of them, it’s not that there’s something wrong with all of the properties on the market, it’s that your search criteria is unrealistic.

If you get to this point, it’s time to reevaluate your search, and ask yourself “Do I really want to own a home?” Some people are commitment phobic, and aren’t really ready to commit to buying a home. There’s nothing wrong with that. Keep renting. Renting is OK. Owning a home is not for everyone.

But if you find that you do have the desire to own a home, but you’re just not finding the right home in your budget, you will be faced with two choices:

1. Reevaluate your standards - you may have champagne taste and a beer budget.
2. Keep renting temporarily, and SAVE until you CAN buy the home that’s right for you.

Your REALTOR® will be able to tell you from the beginning whether your goals match your budget. In fact, that’s one of the first things I do when I meet a buyer for the first time. 

I’ve had to be the ”bad guy” on many occasions and have told potential buyers that their goals are unrealistic, or at times, that their financial situation is too risky to stretch to buy as much as they’ve been approved for.

If I’m your REALTOR®, I want to help you buy a home that you like AND that you can afford. 

The reality is that in San Francisco the first home you own will never be as nice as your last rental. 

In SF, it’ll cost you less to rent a home than it will to pay the mortgage on the same home. 

That’s why many people rent and continue to do so - because they can’t afford to purchase.  (Of course, there are other reasons not to purchase a home, but that’s a different topic altogether.) 

If you have homeownership goals but don’t know if they are realistic, contact me.  I can let you know if you need to adjust your goals, your budget or both - and I can do this BEFORE you set out house hunting so that you don’t waste your time chasing a pipe dream. 

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Here’s the latest Fast Facts update from the SFAR. Updates are provided almost weekly and each week is a different sector of the market (ie. Condos, Single Family Homes, 2-4 unit dwellings, etc.).

Check back next week for more statistics.

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Welcome back to Photo Friday - my little way of taking a break from San Francisco Real Estate and instead blogging about our great City’s past instead. All photos are published with permission from the San Francisco History Center and San Francisco Public Library.

The word around the weather channels is that this weekend is going to be NICE in the City!  Today, the weather is supposed to hit the mid 80’s in parts of SF.

And when the weather heats up around SF,  people in flock to Ocean Beach to cool down.  Unfortunately, these same beachgoers bring with them trash, bottles, cigarette butts and general filth.  A photo I took with my cameraphone on a hot April day gives you an idea of the aftermath. 

And apparently, people have been trashing the beach since long before I was born. 

Today’s Photo Friday shows the “Sand Cleanup Machine!”  The newscopy that went with the photo in 1948:

“BEACH CLEANUP STARTS-There shouldn’t be any broken glass, cigaret [sic] butts or other annoying refuse in the sands of Ocean Beach any more, now that the city’s new sifting and cleaning machine is in action. The device, which cost $9433, went to work yesterday afternoon. It will take a month to go through all the sand from the zoo to the Cliff House.”

Hmmm… I’m not sure how well the machine really worked, but if people trashed the beach then like they do now, I’m guessing that machine wore out after just a few days of cleaning. 

Anyhow - it’s too nice outside to be writing long blog posts, so this about wraps things up for the day.  Get out there and enjoy the nice weather!

Oh, and please, if you do come to the beach to escape from the heat in the rest of the City, please - be coureous and take your trash with you when you leave. 

Thanks and Happy Friday!

Tags: Green Living in SF, Misc Musings from Your San Francisco Realtor, SF Historical Photos, San Francisco History, San Francisco Neighborhoods, San Francisco News and Events by Luba
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