Condominium Sales By District: July 2006 vs. July 2007

Symphony Towers Still Making Headlines on CBS 5 News!

Welcome to the SFCondoMap Blog for New Developments.

SFCondoMap New Developments is for buyers considering 'new construction / pre-sale' condominiums.

While the process is similar to buying 'resale' property, there are crucial differences. My job is to make sure that you get the best place for your money. I bring 'industry only' information, strong negotiating skills, and a belief that my success lies in your success.

Note that there are district catagories to the right for more specific information by area and one for the home buying process.

Newsletter August 22, 2007: Indian Skyscraper

Single-Family Home Sales July 2006/2007

Single-Family Homes                                     published August 21, 2007, SF Association of Realtors

Park Terrace Grand Opening!

Email / call / text (415-595-3519) me for more information on this. Park Terrace is one of my favorite new buildings in Mission Bay. I have been through here many times and I have some favorite properties in here that I am sure you will love.

The Grand Opening is Saturday August 18th, but if this date does not work for you, let me know and I will schedule a private showing of the building for you.

Whether it’s the sunlight pouring in through your expansive windows or your private balcony, Park Terrace homes are designed to fit with your lifestyle. Availability is limited. Ask about our Special Builder Financing. Available this weekend only! Why wait, when you can buy at today’s low mortgage rates and move into your new waterfront home immediately? Visit Today.

Home Selling: Loan Process - The Out of Town Appraiser

One thing that is not mentioned on the Seller's Guide Flowchart is the Appraisal that the buyers mortgage agent will order to meet the guidelines of the lender. The property has to appraise at $X before the lender agrees to loan the buyer a % of the money to buy the house.

This example will illustrate the benefit a Seller gets by having a mortgage agent on their Realtor's team.

My listing was priced at $835,000 and we got two offers, the higher at $870,000!! Everything was going great until I got a call from the Buyers Agent who was sorry to tell me that her Appraiser could only appraise the property at $835,000 and that the Buyers were planning to submit an addendum to change the purchase price from $870,000 to $835,000!!! How do you think the phone call to my Seller went after I told him about this?!?!?

I told Ye what happened and told her that I could not believe that an out-of-town Appraiser was used on this property, and that the value was there and now this Appraiser had ruined my life.

Ye immediately called an Appraiser that she uses a lot, who is very reputable and told him that she needed him to do an Appraisal the next day in the morning and to have it done the same day.

I called the Seller, told him what we were doing, and that we thought we would be able to support the $870,000 total purchase price. I then called the Buyers Agent and told her that we were having another appraisal done by a local Appraiser, and that if he came back with $870,000 what were the Buyers going to do? She said that they wanted the place at either price.

The next day the local Appraiser did the appraisal, we gave it to the Buyers mortgage agent, and the deal closed a few weeks later.

If Ye Gong was not on my team for this fire drill, the deal would probably not have closed at $870,000. Not only did she get a new appraisal done, but she got it done and filed within 24 hours! She essentially saved the Seller $35,000 and everyone a lot of grief and headaches.

Home Selling: Step - Additional Negotiations if necessary

Open Houses (General Public / Broker)

Today is Tuesday which means I spent a good part of my day looking at a lot of properties throughout The City on Broker's Tour.

At about 3:40pm I parked in front of a condominium building and after waiting for a few minutes at the door, a doorguy lets me inside. I say that I am there to see a property that is open for the Brokers Tour, but I am thinking that I am going to have to hurry if I am going to have time to see all the other Open Houses for our clients.

The doorguy tells me that I need to wait for the agent, and that it is unfortunate as I just missed him. I have 20 minutes and 5 properties to see. In San Francisco. Hopefully without getting a ticket. And this guy says I need to wait for an agent who is probably at this very moment still in the elevator...this is going to blow the rest of my tour. I had to leave...

I feel bad for this seller. With this market, you want to make sure that you do not miss any buyers or agents.

This is an area that I am very strong in for my clients:

When you have a property for sale, it is never the only property on the market. There are typically lots of properties for sale. You always want to make sure that the property shows in the best light possible from the time a buyer or agent is at the front door of the building until the time they leave. And it would be even more perfect if the agent is able to devote their time showing the property to a buyer or their agent. I assume this is what a Seller would want.

How can a buyer or agent be in front of a building not see the property?

1. The intercom does not work (do a random sampling of some buildings...horrible)
2. The door person is not at the desk (they do yeoman’s work, no knock on these people)
3. The agent is in the elevator/unit/stairs and does not hear the intercom or cell phone
4. The buyer does not understand the directions to the unit via the intercom

I am sure there are more reasons, but this is more than enough.

Even when a buyer makes it into the property, interruptions from people calling to get let in can almost make it impossible to show them around and answer questions.

The 5 best places to sell a home - Forbes.com

Infinity Treetop Residences

Beautiful building in a premier location. Call / email me for more information.

Even with its emerging status as an architectural icon of the San Francisco skyline, The Infinity remains grounded in its ethos of functional luxury. And nestled at the heart of The Infinity lie the Treetop Residences, eight- and nine-story buildings complete with all the amenities of the iconic towers but considerably more attainable. With more intimate views of the city and the beautifully landscaped courtyard, the Treetop Residences play an integral part in creating a unique urban community, close to all of The Infinity's many conveniences. Conveniences such as on-site concierge service, elegantly appointed Club Lounge with catering kitchen, a distinctive private screening room, and a spacious private meeting room and business center. Not to mention the 5,000-square-foot fitness center, 75-foot lap pool, and private treatment room and saunas. The Infinity's Treetop Residences offer expansive floor plans with a choice of one-, two- or three-bedroom homes, each impeccably appointed with Bosch appliances, Studio Becker cabinetry, polished stone countertops and Watermark Satin stainless steel fixtures. Some homes also include spacious outdoor terraces from which to enjoy San Francisco's distinctive metropolitan skyline. The Infinity is ideally located a block from the waterfront and close to world-class restaurants, shopping, the Ferry Building, art and cultural attractions. With The Infinity's Treetop Residences, your every want and need is well within reach, proving that you don't need to live in the penthouse to make it to the top.		COURTYARD VIEW FROM STREET

The Home Selling Process

Below is a Seller Guide Flowchart that illustrates the basic parts of the home selling transaction. In the blog entries that follow the Flowchart in this catagory will expand on each of the items listed. You will learn what the process is, how it works in the market and how we do things to make sure that our Seller clients get the most money for their property.

Tenants Move Saturday Night, Cleaning Sunday 8am?!

I received a panicked yet happy phone call from the seller of my listing at 270 Valencia Street on Friday. That can only mean one thing...the tenants are moving and we will not have time to get the place ready for Sunday's Open House.

Of course the tenants were not out of the place until 10pm Saturday night (they were actually good tenants, unlike these here!) which made the thought of having the property ready for Sunday's Open House daunting at the least.

Long story short, after numerous phone calls.........my awesome colleagues at Vanguard Properties got me someone who was in the property at 8am Sunday morning and had the place spotless for the Open House!

The seller loves me. My office proves why I love working there. And I hope we get this place sold!

Storm Clouds for Builders

From the SF Chronicle 8.12.07 Section K

Cover story: Begging for Buyers: Sub prime fiasco, tight credit, too much inventory and stagnant prices have combined to bring bad news to Bay Area homebuilders.

The article shows pictures that look worse than this of suburbs and it makes me think two things. First, what do you expect when you buy property in a location that is marginal at best and where every house looks the same as the one next to it?! And secondly, it makes you appreciate living in San Francisco and the immediate Bay Area.

Home Buyers: Always remember that at some point you are going to be a Seller of the property you are buying. When you go to sell it in 5 years let's say, and there are 7 other properties just like it on the market, even if it is a good market, your ability to negotiate will be very limited. In this situation, Sellers are always going to be competing for Buyers at some level. And when your property is now 5 years old and there are newer suburbs built, the value will just be driven down further.

The article did say "The other bright spot was in the San Francisco - San Mateo - Redwood City market..."

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Fireplace Inspection

Our clients ratified a beautiful TIC in a 19th Century Victorian on July 2007. In the disclosures (which we read before we submitted the offer but did not approve) it stated that the fireplace needed a lot of work, and that it might not work and suggested that the buyers get their own inspection (this is code for "The fireplace does not work." usually).

I called the Listing Agent to let him know that I had arranged (on behalf of my buyers) for a fireplace inspection/repair service to come over and give us a quote to fix everything and get the fireplace working. Turns out all the work that the inspection referred to had already been done, but the information was not in the disclosure package. Huh?

I called the company that I was told did the work, confirmed with them that they did do the work, and I had them come out and give us a walkthrough on what work he did and to confirm again in person that the fireplaces were ready to use.

Jeff Friedman from The SF Chimney Sweep met us at the property at 8am and gave us a great courtesy review and walkthrough on the work he did and he said that the fireplaces were ready for use. Thanks Jeff.

The buyers are of course happy and relieved that the fireplace they thought they were going to have to fix is now ready for use!

FOR BUYERS: Always make sure to have professionals inspect any and every system of the house that you have reason to suspect may have a problem as fast as you can after you ratify and as far away from the contingency removal date as possible! In this case, there was an inspection done on the fireplace that was included in the disclosure package.

But often times the Seller will not have these types of inspections performed, and the buyers then have to rely on the Property Inspection to raise further concerns about various components and sytems in the house. The Property Inspector would probably not be able to give you a detailed analysis on the fireplace during his inspection, but he would at least recommend verbally and in his written report to have a professional look at the fireplace.

The Home Buying Process

Welcome to our Home Buying Process thread.

This Home Buyers Guide prints very well. Print it duplex (two-sided).

Buyers: Search for properties on the MLS here

The entries to this section of our blog this will expand upon each step in the home buying process as illustrated below. How it works in the real world and how we do things so that our buyers are always in the strongest position possible to get the property they want.

Please contact us at any time to talk about buying and financing property, our mortgage/budget worksheets or for anything else real estate related!

Home Buying: Step 1 - Initial Contact / Commitment to Agent / Financial Qualifications

Technically, your visit to our website and blog could be considered an initial contact! Of course we hope that after you read more about us through our blog that you will contact us personally to set-up a meeting in person!

During our first or initial meeting with people who are thinking about buying, we discuss the entire market from credit scores, interest rates to writing strong offers and how escrow works. We will answer a lot of questions you will already have, and we will answer all the rest for you. You will be able to challenge what we say and come away with the best understanding of the entire market and process possible (Read Scott Pierce's Bio and other information here).

Ye Gong (Guarantee Mortgage) will also ask you some basic questions regarding the financial side of things. After getting the basic information, she will analyze your credit score and credit history to see where it can be improved. Everyone always thinks they have the one situation that is beyond help. And, probably because of her background, she always gets things fixed, resolved and repaired! She will also set you on a plan so that you increase your credit score during your home hunting process so that you are always working to lower the interest rate later.

Ye has produced this phenomenal excel worksheet that everyone from our software engineer to our finance/accounting clients love. You can see it here as either a webpage or as an excel file.

Ye's philosophy is that every dollar you spend should be accounted for in this worksheet. The goal of this worksheet is to show you the price range that you can afford while keeping your life. It runs all your expenses through factoring in tax deductions, taxes, etc. to give you a real and honest look at your finances when owning your first home.

It is amazing how at ease this worksheet and process makes buyers. From first time buyers to millionaires buying multiple properties, everyone says that this is the best tool they ever had to analyze how it actually affects them financially.

Ye will prepare the worksheet for you and then email it and explain it while walking you through it. Once you understand how the formulas and cells work. After that you will have the ability to change various numbers to see how they affect other numbers. How does more down payment affect the interest rate which affects your monthly payment? There are countless number of scenarios that our clients tell us that they run through with the worksheet.

Home Buying: Step 2a - Market Education / View Property

Once you have an initial price range from Ye, we will fine tune what you want to buy and where you want to live. I will select as many places as possible in the market to show you. When you begin your search, we will stay in your price range, while looking at areas and places you like, as well as those that you might not have thought to consider. You will most likely learn about new areas of The City during the home buying process. And I know most of them!

I will set you up on my email Listing Alert so that whenever a new property comes on the market that fits your profile, we will both get an email or text message with pictures and detailed information. With one click you can delete it, request a showing or let me know that you are interested knowing more about the property. Listing Alert is licensed under the San Francisco Association of Realtors (San Francisco MLS has an agreement that covers all of the Bay Area). Only a Realtor / SFAR member can give you access to 100% of the listings in San Francisco and the Bay Area. I was told once, but forget exactly why. I will try to find out and post it here.

The reason that I work at Vanguard Properties is that they represent the sellers of the best properties in so many different market segments. Vanguard Properties is also the real estate company in San Francisco that brings more speciality and boutique condo and loft buildings to the market than anyone else. All of our clients get access to these properties, often times before they are made available to the general public.

As you begin to see places that interest you on the Listing Alert emails, you can call, email or text me, and I will set appointments for us to go see them during the week or you can see them on Sundays.

As we begin to look at properties together, you will learn quickly what I am looking at as a professional vs. what you might be seeing as a buyer. You will learn a lot about what things make some properties worth more, what makes other properties challenged and how to tell a diamond in the rough.

By always having the new listings sent to me on my Blackberry, laptop and desktop, I am always in a position to get you in first to see a property. Many times our clients were first to see the property that they made an offer on and bought. I will make sure to ask some of them to post there comments about that below!

AT THIS POINT..........

...you will know what your monthly mortgage payment will be and how much discretionary income you will have at the end of the month based on various purchase prices, you will constantly be one of, if not the, first person to see new properties that fit your profile and you will be ready to write an offer as soon as you see the home you want. In other words, you will be in the best and strongest position possible....and we have hardly started yet!