theFrontSteps – San Francisco

Real Estate, Insight, Statistics, Gossip, & News…With a Twist and Some Flavor

Entries for August, 2009

Four Bed, Two Bath Central Richmond Home, Auction Price… $625,000!

Four Sixty Three 16th Ave in the Central Richmond is a “fixer upper with 4 bedrooms, 2 baths, 3 car garage with additional sunroom, attic & huge area in garage for storage / rooms. Great potential in million dollar neighborhood!”, and it’s not just on MLS, but on the auction block for $625,000. The house [...]

Comment Du Jour: “Easily outbid by USF”

This quote comes from reader “Disconsolate“, on “Stories Of Despair In San Francisco Real Estate“: I was in probate court that day to observe the overbidding on Juanita Way as preparation to overbid on a house in University Terrace. Our court date was last week. We showed up and went to our max ($100k over [...]

Map of Retrofit Projects Completed in the Bay Area since the 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake

Living in earthquake country, we get asked all the time, “Is this home on bedrock or landfill.” The next question, “Do you know if this building has been retrofitted?” Usually, we don’t, but that might be changing. Check out this new user-generated mashup where you, the visitor, can add a project that has been retrofitted. [...]

Homes For Less Than $60,000! Stocks Edge Higher After Jump In Home Sales? What’s This Mean!?

So who’s got the REAL scoop on real estate? “The housing market has decisively turned for the better. We are bouncing back,” NAR’s chief economist Lawrence Yun told reporters. (Source: SFAR Advantage Online) “Bay Area home prices spiked in the three months ending June 30, part of a national upswing that suggests to many economists [...]

Stories Of Despair In San Francisco Real Estate (source: sfnewsletter)

I published this exact thing on sfnewsletter today, but since it is a newsletter there is no room for discussion. Hopefully, we’ll get some here. I recently submitted an offer for $425k on a Short Sale in SOMA (175 Bluxome #119). The “lender approved price” was $450k, but the sellers accepted our offer for $425k [...]

Real Estate Agents…Spare Us The Mugshot

Zillow provides us with raw data to back up the fact that your image does nothing to sell you, or the home. But it does make for a damn good Sexiest Realtor contest. From Zillow’s Blog: Zillow makes money by selling ads on the site. But, to be a successful media company, we need to [...]

HGTV Casting Call For New Series “Uprooted”!

Does this image take you to a place you’d rather be? Or is it a place you’d love to leave? Feel like trading in the concrete jungle and dog crap filled parks for a life on endless acres of fields filled with manure and hay? Is your 1300 square foot condo in the sky closing [...]

Average Property Rental Rates In San Francisco

Being heavily focused on selling real estate in San Francisco, and not renting it, we’re always on the lookout for a quick and easy tool to help answer that question, “What do you think this place would rent for?” Aside from actually contacting a true expert in the field of rentals and having them go [...]

“San Francisco Home Sales At Highest Level Since 2006″

Notice that title…it’s a quote. Don’t hate on us for being Realtors and wanting to help get out of this recession. Here is the most recent RE-Report verbatim: Sales of single-family, re-sale homes and condos rose 15.5% in July compared to June. Home sales were also up 10.1% year-over-year. This is the first month home [...]

How To Find Open Homes In San Francisco (SFOpenHomes.com)

It used to be you had to pick up the San Francisco Chronicle (T-minus 10,9,8,7…before they’re totally gone) in order to find out what Open Houses were there for you to take a look at on your glorious San Francisco Sundays. There is still of course Craigslist, but what a headache going through that! Alas! [...]