Connect with Luba’s Real Estate Blog on Facebook!

Connect with Luba's Real Estate Blog on Facebook

I’m sure you’re noticed the blogging here has been getting less and less frequent.  And had as I try to keep up, life sort of keeps getting in the way of posting.

But – I’ve realized that’s not really a terrible thing.

You see – for those of know that know me personally, you know I’m a workaholic.  My priorities have been working with clients, blogging, writing newsletter, and then somewhere near the bottom of the list was my family, my relationship, my friends and my dog. 

And again, for those others that know me personally, you know that I lost a dear friend to colon cancer earlier this year.  She was in her early 30’s.

And frankly, the shock of it all make me start thinking…

I love San Francisco real estate.  I love what I do for a living.  But frankly, I need to be a person first and a Realtor second.  Most of my business comes from referral and so as I’ve gotten busier the blog as taken a backburner so that I can reprioritize myself. 

Family, relationship, the dog, friends – these are now my priorities.  Taking care of my clients is almost as high on that list.  But blogging and newsletter writing have fallen way down on the scale of importance. 

But, I’m not gone.  I’m still here, I’m still working, and I’m still blogging from time to time.  But mostly, these days you’ll find short updates on the market and on what’s going on in SF on my facebook business page.

If you haven’t liked it or become a fan or whatever it is you’re supposed to do these days, you should.  You won’t get the in-depth commentary you used to find here (and will still find here on occasion.  But you will get to keep up with happenings in San Francisco and my random thoughts on the real estate market. 

So head on over to my facebook business page, like it, fan it, and again, start keeping up with the quick thoughts about this amazing city, its real estate and all it has to offer!

Hope to see you there!!!

Gangs of San Francisco (On a T-Shirt)

Happy Friday, Folks!

Thought I’d share a fun, and not too well known (at least not yet) site that features some AWESOME San Francisco T-shirts.

The site is www.gangsofsanfrancisco.com and their shirts rock!

From the site’s “about me” page:

Gangs of San Francisco is a one man operation out of San Francisco’s Outer Richmond. A work in progress, it is run by me, Laureano Faedi. A self taught maker of things, I do all the design work, silkscreening, shipping and research. Having migrated to the Bay Area from Buenos Aires 30 years ago I have found San Francisco to be one of the best cities in the world to live in. This project serves as an outlet for my learning of it’s history as well as a way to teach myself silkscreening. I hope that not only will people enjoy my products but that it might also inspire them to learn more about the city.

His collection is a great start, but I’d LOVE to see more!  Let’s not forget about the various racetracks in the City, the brothels (oh yeah, we had those), the cemetaries (all over the west side of SF until they were moved out to Colma) and even old sports teams like the San Francisco Seals!

Anyhow – the shirts are cool, the shirt maker is a small local business man, and what better way to dress your weekend best than in a comfy shirt that celebrates your San Francisco pride!

Enjoy your weekend!  And buy a shirt!

And We’re Back….

So you may have noticed I have been MIA for a while. 

Some of you sent sweet emails asking if everything was OK.  Big hugs to you!

Some of you sent crappy emails telling me you were never reading my blog again since I hadn’t posted in a while.  No hard feelings, but you also won’t really be missed.  I wish you the best, and I’m sure you have found a new real estate blog that will keep you happy.

Frankly – sometimes life comes first.  Things like being there for family and taking care of my clients are more important than blogging.  I’m a human first, a realtor second, and a blogger third.  So when something ha

Bug that being said – life has calmed down and so, it’s time to blog again.  I’m not promising daily posts, but I’ll try to keep you aprised of all the goodies that are going down in the San Francisco real estate market. 

Stay tuned – real life real estate  info is heading your way!

Dolla Dolla Billz Changing the San Francisco Real Estate Game

So sales of homes in San Francisco are well, moving like hotcakes, at least relative to the last year or two. 

Socketsite reported that “recorded home sales volume in San Francisco was up 50.6% on a year-over-year basis last month“ and that “median sales price in March was $675,000, up 11.0% compared to March ’09 ($608,000) and up 7.6% compared to the month prior.”

Not enough evidence for you that we may have seen the bottom of the market? 

Well, how’s the evidence that multiple offers are on the rise again?  Out of the last 8 offers I’ve written for clients, 7 properties received multiple offers. 

But what’s MORE interesting, at least in my opinion, is that we seem to be seeing a major resurgence of the all cash offer! 

Yup.  In the last few weeks, the words “all cash offer” are a phrase I’m hearing on a daily basis.  Lenders are talking about it.  Escrow officers are talking about it.  And without a doubt, real estate agents are talking about it. 

But what does this all MEAN? 

Someone asked me the other day, “Why the hell would enyone ever tie up so much money in San Francisco real estate?”  Well, I’m going to go out on a limb here, but it might mean that the folks that are smart enough (or lucky enough) to amass a giant pile of cold hard cash seem to think that dumping all of their dough into real estate RIGHT NOW is a smart investment decision. 

Prices don’t seem to be going any lower and with sales spiking upwards and prices creeping upwards, it might be safe to deduce that the bottom of the SF housing market has come and gone.

I’d love to hear from some of you cash buyers, or even agents with cash buyers whether my theories are sorta correct or completely far fetched.  You can drop a note in the comments, or if you want to keep yourself anonymous, email me.

Spend Less Green to Go More Green in San Francisco

Good news my earth loving, tree hugging, composting, recycling, reusing San Franciscans! 

From the San Francisco Association of Realtors:

San Francisco Homeowners Have New Way to Pay for Going Green

San Francisco homeowners have a new way of paying for solar panels, energy-efficient appliances and low-flow toilets.

A new city-run program, GreenFinanceSF, will give San Franciscans the money to pay for such projects up front and let them pay it back through installments on their property tax bills. Berkeley pioneered the idea in 2007, and since then, hundreds of cities, counties and states have adopted their own versions.

For more details, visit https://greenfinancesf.org/systems/energy.

That’s great news for you, your pocket, your carbon footprint, global warming and all that.  If you’ve been thinking of making some environmentally friendly upgrades to your home, you may have just run out of excuses.

Getting Real – Truth in Advertising

On this wet and rainy Monday, I thought I’d share a refreshing little listing that put the “real” back in “realtor!”

Real estate agents are known for some serious fluff in our marketing pieces.  We use words like “cozy” when we mean “tiny”.  Or we say it has “potential” when we mean “once you rip out the kitchen, the bathrooms, the wallpaper, and that hideous statue it’ll be exactly what you want.”  

I could go on with the examples, but you get the point.

But for once, I found a little something something that was about as honest as it gets.

The listing agent’s marketing remarks:

Needs everything, not just TLC… but everything! Not to be even concidered unless you are a contractor. Still want to see it? Be prepared to walk lightly because you may fall through the floor. Nice roof just a few years old,at least something is good on the thing.

High five for a nice dose of reality! 

Full details on the bargain priced fixer (Just $350,000) located at 522 Athens in San Francisco can be found by clicking here.

First Time San Francisco Homebuyers? HGTV wants YOU!

I guess I’ve always sorta wanted to be on TV. 

I’m not very photogenic – I always get caught with expressions that look like I’m smelling something rotten, or in some ridiculous shot where I am devouring piles of snow, or where I look like I’m actually taking a nap. 

But I figured that as long as the camera keeps rolling, maybe those expressions won’t get frozen in time – unless someone pauses the screen on their DVR, in which case, well… you can’t win them all.

Now, I’ve been talking to the casting folks over at HGTV’s show “My First Place” and they are ready and willing to work with my first time home buyers clients. 

So, if you’re ever wanted to be on TV like me, and aren’t afraid of your expressions being frozen on someone’s paused DVR, then read the details from the HGTV folks.   And if you want to have your homebuying experience taped (and get a nice little housewarming gift at the end to boot) shoot me an email and I’ll get you hooked up with an application!

BUYING YOUR FIRST PLACE?
Then HGTV is looking for you!

MY FIRST PLACE, HGTV’s hit series, is coming back for an eighth season and we’re looking for first-time homebuyers (and their agents!) in the Greater San Francisco area RIGHT NOW!

We are looking for fun, high-energy people who are just starting the home-buying process for their first place and would like to share their story with HGTV! Our goal is to capture all the trials and tribulations of looking for, bidding on and buying your first place.

Taping takes place this spring and summer.  Ideal candidates will be enthusiastic buyers with a great story to tell and a desire to share their experiences. Singles, couples and families are all invited to apply!

Candidates who complete taping will receive a surprise housewarming gift as part of the show and also a DVD copy of their episode to document their first home buying experience for all time!

Here is the links to apply from the HGTV and High Noon websites:

High Noon  

HGTV

Oh, and don’t forget to select your favorite Realtor to join you!

San Francisco’s Ocean Beach – 107 Years Ago! (Plus Info on a Beach Clean-up!)

Cliff House & Ocean Beach Panorama, 1903 from Richmond SF Blog on Vimeo.

I’ve got my FOURTH cold of the year.  Yeah.  I’m thinking of buying stock in Nyquil. 

But in between blowing my nose and wiping the water pouring from my eyes, the one thing that is keeping me sane is being able to work from home while I watch the ocean from my window (which you can coincidentally do too if you buy my listings at 2458-2460 Great Highway - and as a bonus, you’ll be my neighbor! )

I also happened to find some cool videofootage from the Richmond SF Blog of Ocean Beach back in the days when appropriate beach apparel was a 3 piece suite instead of a wetsuit. 

Since I love San Francisco history, and I LOVE Ocean Beach, I thought I’d share the video here.

And a fat “high-five” the Richmond SF Blog folks for finding this awesome footage!  Keep it coming!!!

Oh, and coincidentally, there’s a clean-up scheduled at Ocean Beach on January 31st at 9am.  From the invite:

Starting at Lincoln Blvd. and moving south, we will pick up the trash that has been deposited by the recent large storm swells on the beach. There is ALOT of very small plastic and styrofoam that is VERY hazardous to the environment and animal life on la playa. Please join us; bags and gloves will be provided.

Two Tales of One (Real Estate) Market

I called the bottom of the San Francisco real estate market last year.  It felt like things were flattening out.  And in some by some reports, prices were even increasing in SF! 

Since the holidays, I’ve been busy as a bee trying to keep up with buyer and seller demands, and you may have even noticed that blog posts, and my “weekly” newsletter, The City Update(TM), have been rather sporadic. 

So MY take on the market is that it’s picking up, volume is increasing, prices have stabilized and most agents I know are in a pretty good mood.

But still, there’s no consensus on whether or not we’re REALLY seeing the bottom of real estate prices in San Francisco, or the rest of the country for that matter. 

Some people (like the folks at Freddie Mac) are saying the market is at or near the bottom, while other folks (like the Center for Economic Policy and Reseach) are saying prices are STILL too high and need to fall.

My thoughts?  With interest rates at all time lows, if you’re looking to own a home in San Francisco for the long term, it’s a great time to buy if you do a traditional thirty year fixed mortgage.  But if you’re looking at a housing here to try to make a quick buck, then back off and invest in something else. 

Same thing goes if you’re selling.  If you need to sell, and your situation dictates you do it now, you will find a buyer.  They’re out there.  (With the caveat that if you just bought a few years ago, don’t expect to make any money on the deal. )   

And if you need help figuring out  what side of the fence your buying or selling situation falls on, give me a call at 415-307-1392 or email me at luba@zephyrsf.com.  I’ll call it how I see it – though fair warning, you may not always get the response that you want. 

Living La Vida Token Free (At Least in Regards to the SF MLS)

No More Tokens for San Francisco Realtors

I don’t know how long it’s been, but for some time now, San Francisco Realtors have been forced to carry around these ridiculous tokens to access listings in the MLS. 

It was meant to be an extra layer of security that made sure we weren’t giving out free MLS access to assistants, or worse yet, to CLIENTS!

But as of February 1st, we will be able to ditch these magical tokens for other secure authentication methods that are akin to those used in the banking industry.

I don’t know what all this means, except that I will no longer be able to identify a Realtor upon seeing their keychain. 

I’m going to have to figure other ways of figuring out if I’m sitting next to a SF real estate agent in a restaurant.

Maybe by their hair?  Their nails?  Their bluetooth earpiece?  Their car? 

I just don’t know.  I’m at a bit of a loss.  I don’t know what I’ll do when I meet a new client and I don’t have a secret key that allows me to unlock the mystery that is the MLS to dangle in front of them?

Hmm…. oh wait, maybe I’ll just do what I’ve been doing all along and give them access to San Francisco MLS for free anyway. 

And in the meantime, I’ll work on some guidelines on ”how to spot a realtor without the use of a token.”