theFrontSteps – San Francisco

     Way, way back, we looked at the then just starting Ardenwood luxury home project. We all speculated on price (around $2 mil, was the consensus) and rapidity with which they would sell. Many people also complained that a set of less than ten luxury homes was not the best use of the lot, [...]

Today I got this email from a friendly neighborhood Realtor: Hello everyone, I wanted to send out a friendly reminder about the deadline to take advantage of the first time home buyer tax credit.  The tax credit expires on Novemeber 30th, 2009.  However, assuming a 45 day escrow period from the time you buy to the time you close and get the keys, [...]

So Alex is leaving town for awhile, chasing the big waves instead of the big buyers, and I’m standing, inadequately and ill fittingly, in his shoes. You may — or just as likely, may not– recall I used to guest write here on these Front Steps some time ago. Alex was nice enough to invite [...]

Your Editor is out of office (being a “drifter”), but Anna is in da house, and she’s not only a great person, but comes up with some great content! She’ll be moderating the site while I’m away. Have fun, and we’ll see you soon!

The tip came in: I thought your readers might find it interesting that poor Stephen Fowler’s house (4218 25th Street) of “Wife Swap” infamy is now on the market. I thought it would only be a matter of time before they moved on to less scrutinized pastures, and now is that time. The home, situated [...]

You’ve likely seen comments on our site recently from the “Financial Samurai”, and wondered, “Is that spam?” It’s okay. We wondered the same thing, and we’ve dug a little deeper and found him to be legit. We were tipped off to one of his posts that uses Zillow to back up his claim that “Net [...]

Sometimes you just need a little real estate photo porn to get you through your day. Below are some images from One Rincon Hill (for those wondering, One Rincon Hill is the gigantic tower…some would say phallic symbol… that kisses the west end of the Bay Bridge off/on ramps), which were recently provided to us [...]

Are you a Realtor that at one point or another may have contacted another Realtor and now all of a sudden you get ALL of that broker’s “new listings”, “off-market opportunities”, “price reduced”, “open house”, and “won’t last” emails? Are you a principal and walked into an open house, reluctantly gave your email and now [...]

[Editor's Note: We have a new contributing architect, Sven, and this is his first post ever. Please take a moment to read his post, and welcome Sven Lavine.] I decided to do a little brainstorming on the factors affecting San Francisco house design. I want to steer clear of discussions of the city’s historical & [...]

Our recent scoop on the sale of both Grand Penthomes at the Millennium Tower (one that sold to mega millionaire venture capitalist Tom Perkins) has been getting quite a bit of press lately, and oddly enough we received this email today: This is all great [referring to the sale of a ~$9,000,000 condo] I suppose, [...]