San Francisco real estate insight, statistics, gossip, and news with a twist and some flavor – theFrontSteps

Inner-Sunset Sprouting Condos

Inner-Sunset, home to much good food, a few good bars, a few bad bars, the prohibitively expensive Andronico’s, and UCSF, will soon be home to new condos. On my block alone (9th Ave., past Moraga St.) there are two sites going up or planned to go up. One is adjacent to my deck, where I once saw the Bay, and now see the back of someone’s bedroom to be. I have no idea if this very tall building will be apartments for rent or condos for sale, but it will have several units, a garage, and a penthouse. On the other side of the street, where a long defunt Moraga Market has been little more than place to try out graffiti tags and dump unwanted sofas, construction is also in the works. The lot has sold, a hearing has taken place. All that’s left is to break ground.

Finally, quite done are the condos on 7th Ave., near Irving St. The photo above is from before the facades were placed. Now they are gorgeous Art Deco looking things with burnished copper and huge windows. The agent, Gary Small of Zephyr, tells me that the units are luxury one and two bedroom condos with underground parking, and that the two free-standing cottages that stood in a lot behind the building that sits on the street have been revamped. Some lucky millionare can thus own a little house all his or her own!

It’s the most action the Inner-Sunset has seen since a bunch of drunks from the Mucky Duck tried to scale a MUNI train. Sadly for we middle income buyers, the luxury condo lable means these new homes, exciting though they are, will not be ours.

Oh well. Drinking at the Mucky Duck is always an alternative.

PHOTO: Socketsite

Posted in 2-4 Units, 5+Units, Anna Marie Hibble, Cole Valley, Condominium, Inner Sunset, Luxury Homes, New Construction, Parnassus, Parnassus/Ashbury Heights, Remodeling, San Francisco Real Estate, Unique Property, coming soon, real estate, san francisco, theFrontSteps | 6 Comments »

Stats & Numbers: 2-4 Units 09/07 versus 09/08

Click Photo to Enlarge Image

NUMBER OF UNITS is the equivalent of number of sales/transactions. For condominiums, each unit is treated as a sale. For 2- to 4-unit buildings, the “building” is treated as a sale.

NUMBER SOLD is the number of properties in the market segment that closed escrow during the month.

NUMBER FOR SALE is the number of active properties on the market for one day or more during the month.

MEDIAN PRICE (SOLD) reflects the “middle” price point of a group of properties that have successfully closed escrow on a monthly basis, i.e. half sold for more and half sold for less than the median price. Tracking the movement of median prices over time provides a good indicator of the direction market forces are moving.

If the percentage change is positive between the two periods then there is upward pressure on prices in that market segment. If the percentage change is negative between the two periods then there is downward pressure on prices in that market segment.

AVERAGE DAYS ON MARKET (DOM) reflects how long it has been taking (on average) to draw an offer on a reasonably priced property exposed to the market. The AVERAGE DAYS ON MARKET is defined as: The average number of days it took all of the properties that went under contract during the period to accept a first position offer.

MONTH’S SUPPLY OF INVENTORY (MSI) is a measure of how long it would take, in months, to sell the existing inventory at the current sales rate for the specific neighborhood and property type. The MONTH’S SUPPLY OF INVENTORY is defined as: The number of active properties on the market for one day or more during the month, less the number of properties that have been withdrawn or expired, divided by the number of properties that have gone under contract during the month.

* * * * *

Data provided by Terradatum. For additional information about market statistics and/or additional information about Terradatum’s products and services, please call Terradatum at 1-888-212-4793 Ext. 2 or send e-mail to info@terradatum.com.

Tags: 2-4 Units, data, san francisco, San Francisco Real Estate, statistics

Posted in 2-4 Units, Stats & Numbers | 9 Comments »

Ask us: How can I add a roof deck to a 2-unit building?

Where readers ask and we (the community) try to answer:

Firstly, thanks for such a great site! It has really given me some amazing insight into the San Francisco market. One item I’ve been trying to research to no avail, is just how hard it is to add a roof deck to a two unit building. Specifically, are the permits easily obtained? How long would such a project usually take to construct? Estimated costs etc? I’m not looking to do this without professional help, so if anyone has any recommendations of an architect and/or contractor who has any experience with roof deck design/construction it would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers!!!

Unfortunately this came to us anonymously so we can’t thank the reader or direct any experts to them directly, and that, in turn, opens the door for you to plug the hell out of your (or anybody you know) services in the comments. Just answer the question first, so we all benefit.

Tags: real estate, san francisco, San Francisco Real Estate, theFrontSteps

Posted in 2-4 Units, Ask Us, Readers’ Reports, Remodeling, San Francisco Real Estate, real estate, san francisco, theFrontSteps | 22 Comments »

If you want $1.2M, then why (the f-bomb) don’t you ask $1.2M!?

As you know, I was a bit out of the loop lately in regards to San Francisco real estate, and forced to get my updates from a few other sources out there, like the New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Bloomberg, the Wall Street Journal, Business Week, Business Times, and sooooo many other “sources”. My God, I thought the world had ended and Michael Phelps had won the Democratic Presidential Nomination! (Oh no wait…he took the place of GOD!…according to the media.) So you could imagine my shock and awe when I called the agents listing 505-507 44th Ave (an Outer Richmond two unit building asking $930,000) and they told me (within the first sentence mind you), and I kid you not, “Don’t even bother asking us to make an appointment if your client can’t pay $1.2M.”

Wait? Come again. (That’s what she said.) It’s listed on MLS as $930,000, the offer date came and went and you’re telling me you want $1.2M?

It was actually a bit worse of a conversation than all that I’ve shared (I can get a bit annoyed), but I cooled it down a bit in the end and got the agent to commit to “trying” to make an appointment. Turns out they had four offers previously and the client decided they want $1.2M.

Shitty market we’re in when you have four offers on the same Outer Richmond two unit building, isn’t it?

-505-507 44th Ave [sfnewsletter.com listing detail page]

Tags: real estate, san francisco, San Francisco Real Estate, theFrontSteps

Posted in 2-4 Units, Alexander Clark, Insider Information, Outer Richmond, San Francisco Real Estate, market info, real estate, san francisco, theFrontSteps | 7 Comments »

Stats & Numbers: 2-4 Units July ’07 versus July ’08

Click on Image for Larger View

NUMBER OF UNITS is the equivalent of number of sales/transactions. For condominiums, each unit is treated as a sale. For 2- to 4-unit buildings, the “building” is treated as a sale.

NUMBER SOLD is the number of properties in the market segment that closed escrow during the month.

NUMBER FOR SALE is the number of active properties on the market for one day or more during the month.

MEDIAN PRICE (SOLD) reflects the “middle” price point of a group of properties that have successfully closed escrow on a monthly basis, i.e. half sold for more and half sold for less than the median price. Tracking the movement of median prices over time provides a good indicator of the direction market forces are moving.

If the percentage change is positive between the two periods then there is upward pressure on prices in that market segment. If the percentage change is negative between the two periods then there is downward pressure on prices in that market segment.

AVERAGE DAYS ON MARKET (DOM) reflects how long it has been taking (on average) to draw an offer on a reasonably priced property exposed to the market. The AVERAGE DAYS ON MARKET is defined as: The average number of days it took all of the properties that went under contract during the period to accept a first position offer.

MONTH’S SUPPLY OF INVENTORY (MSI) is a measure of how long it would take, in months, to sell the existing inventory at the current sales rate for the specific neighborhood and property type. The MONTH’S SUPPLY OF INVENTORY is defined as: The number of active properties on the market for one day or more during the month, less the number of properties that have been withdrawn or expired, divided by the number of properties that have gone under contract during the month.

* * * * *

Data provided by Terradatum.

Source: SFAR

Posted in 2-4 Units, Stats & Numbers | No Comments »

Ask Us: How sound is our building as it relates to earthquakes

Where readers ask and we (the community) try to answer:

Hi,

I own a building with 4 other people here in San Francisco and we need to get good advice on how structurally sound our building is re: earthquakes. I want to be able to trust the opinion and not be concerned with getting an opinion skewed to make them money in the retrofit. I’m hoping you can suggest a few names/companies. Basically I’m looking for an inspection (willing to pay for it) like a contractors inspection, only exclusively as it relates to earthquake soundness and we would like a report with specific suggestions on how to move forward.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

G.A.,

Let’s see if the community can shed some light. If not, you’ll see an answer from us shortly both here online and in your inbox. Thanks for the email.

Tags: Architecture, real estate, san francisco, San Francisco Real Estate, theFrontSteps

Posted in 2-4 Units, Architecture, Ask Us, General Info, San Francisco Real Estate, real estate, san francisco, theFrontSteps | 10 Comments »

Stats & Numbers: 2-4 Unit April ’07 versus April ’08

From Garrett, as always, with love:

District Map (PDF)

Data Provided by SFAR

Tags: real estate, san francisco, San Francisco Real Estate, theFrontSteps

Posted in 2-4 Units, San Francisco Real Estate, Stats & Numbers, market info, real estate, san francisco, theFrontSteps | 9 Comments »

2956 Webster: 8 Offers, 4 Cash, 1 Winner, 7 Losers

From sfnewsletter:

We’re really trying to stop publishing these things, but they just keep coming up. This week we have 2956 Webster in the oh so popular Cow Hollow District. This is a 2 bed, 2 bath condominium that was asking $1,279,000 was absolutely swarmed, received eight (yes 8 ) offers, four of them all cash, and ultimately closed at $1,410,000. Yes…that much over ($131,000).

Forget for a minute this property sold above asking, because as we’ve said before there are some grey areas regarding sales above asking. What we all need to focus on is that there are still seven (yes 7) very hungry buyers for two bedroom condos in this area at this price that were beat out, and those were the buyers that stepped up to write an offer. There were probably more that didn’t even want to compete. Guess what? Those buyers are likely still out there.

Tags: theFrontSteps

Posted in 2-4 Units, Classic, Condominium, Cow Hollow, Maximum Overbid ™, market info, theFrontSteps | 10 Comments »

Ask Us: It was sold, but what’s up? (1474 17th Ave)

Where readers ask and we try to answer:

1474 17th ave was sold on 1/25 for $1mm (3000sqft duplex), but I did not see anything in MLS or any other signs of activity, nor was there any trace of it in the sfnewsletter. Was this a pocket listing? The price seems to be very reasonable, so under what situations would the seller be willing to let it go at that price without inviting any public offers?

Sellers do crazy things sometimes, and maybe that was the price they wanted…a cool million.

Regarding the sfnewsletter question. sfnewsletter pulls data directly from MLS, so if it was not in MLS, it will not be on sfnewsletter’s reports…yet. (For those not receiving sfnewsletter, this is an example of the report this reader is referring to. sfnewsletter does the same report for just sold.)

Beyond that, you’ve stumped us. Maybe some readers know what happened with this property. According to propertyshark.com, it did indeed sell as you mentioned, but MLS is empty. Our web is only cast so far. Readers?

And weren’t we just in that area?

Posted in 2-4 Units, Ask Us, Central Richmond | 1 Comment »

Stats & Numbers: 2-4 Units (12/06-12/07)

From Garrett with love.

District Map (PDF)

Data Provided by SFAR

Posted in 2-4 Units, Stats & Numbers, market info | 4 Comments »

Truth be told: Protected tenants and what you need to know

This is from “Zang” on Ask Us: Upside to purchasing 2 units with protected tenants. This is just plain wrong:

Having just dealt with a greedy protected tenant I have more than a few thoughts about the tremendous downside of buying a property with protected tenants.

My case started in 2001 and just settled this summer. I innocently purchased a 2 unit bldg. to live in, with a protected tenant, and thought I’d slowly go about doing needed repairs, renovations and offer the tenant a huge lump sum (50K) to move out. At this point I didn’t know how greedy the tenant was and didn’t know about his financial resources. The tenant laughed when I made this cash offer and said he wanted $150K to move out. Seriously.

Shortly after I was sued by the tenant for all sorts of murderous activities thats on the boiler plate lawsuit forms the tenant’s lawyers use… for $500K, yep, half a million, not a typo. Not one of the charges stuck when it got to court recorded depositions…since in fact the tenant had only nice things to say about me but he wanted money and had me hostage.

My options were: sell the property at a minimum of 50% loss in value, pay the tenant his request of $500K, or Ellis the building & start a legal defense. I ended up hiring a bunch of attorneys, filing insurance claims and Ellising the property. I even had to hire a firm to keep the insurance companies and the insurance lawyers “in line” because of course, the first thing any insurance company says in response to a claim, is “we’re not responsible”.

Even though it was clear that I had NEVER done anything wrong to the tenant, his lawyer threatened a trial. I wanted my day in court, but my attorneys (I had an ever growing team of 6 attorneys by then) were deathly afraid of trial. Seems in SF most judges are pro-tenant. And even if the jury hears that the “protected tenant” plays golf all day, sails on their private yacht, drives a new Mercedes Benz, while checking on their bonds… (I wish I were making this up)…and has their own vacation property in Carmel, all while claiming disability and hardship… the case is bound to go the tenant’s way. HERE’S THE RUB: Even if the jury DETESTS the “protected tenant”, if they award the tenant even $1 of damages, the landlord automatically has to pay ALL of the tenant’s legal fees (in this case his fees were over $78K). All jury judgments are tripled and the juries are not told this while they are deciding the case. So there are cases where the juries, thinking they are doing the right thing, give a low award to a greedy tenant, only to discover later that the award was trebled AND all legal fees automatically awarded. And, insurance companies might pay towards the landlord’s defense but they WILL NOT pay judgments….so, trial is for the foolhardy.

How to calculate the downside and the cost? Difficult, because how do you calculate the grief and loss to life when going through something as crazy as all of this. The building was tied up for years… when it could’ve been generating money. My funds were tied up. I couldn’t enjoy being at the building and wanted to minimize my contacts with the tenant, who was paying $389/mo. rent, as much as possible. Legal fees, NOT reimbursed by eviction insurance and personal umbrella policies, were roughly $90K.

WHAT DID I LEARN? Ellis the property the day after you buy it, before you’ve met the tenants and they get a chance to claim you’ve done something wrong to harm them personally. It’s a business decision and you just move forward. Ellising would’ve saved me, but I thought the tenant deserved something for moving from a place he’d been in for 28 years… and that I’d try to negotiate something. I was so wrong. Lest you think Ellising is easy… it isn’t. You MUST have a law firm who has a GOOD track record with Ellis filings. There are strict deadlines that must be observed for several months and SEVERAL YEARS after you file for it…. one missed deadline means you have to start all over again AND can result in a harassment lawsuit from the tenant. In retrospect, filing for Ellis would’ve been a lot easier than the dealing with a frivolous, costly, time consuming lawsuit for 6 years!

I always wonder what Dashiell Hammett would have done with a story line about a tenant extorting a half a million out of their landlord…it’s a crime novel begging to be written.

Thanks for the insight and thanks for reading. We hope a few people pass this on.

Time for cocktails!

Posted in 2-4 Units, Buying/Selling Techniques | 17 Comments »

Suckers for Mid-Century Modern

If you want to guarantee your spot on our front page, you need only include two words (or is that three?)…Mid-Century Modern.

Our reader notes that it “looks like prices might finally be coming down a bit in Marin”, but we have no way of knowing for sure as we generally don’t have our finger on the pulse up there (yet).

And the agent notes: “This (non-Eichler) mid-century home will be hitting the market later this week ($925,000), however I thought I would let you know about the property in advance just in case you, or someone you may know, might be interested.”

Our reader obviously knows someone interested, and our sweet spot, so this agent now enjoys a bit of free promo of that sweet pad. Dibs on those chairs.

[Update 1/14/2008: Price reduced to $895,000]

-Agent site/listing

-Our Mid-Century Posts to date [theFrontSteps]

Tags: Architecture, Mid-Century Modern, theFrontSteps

Posted in 2-4 Units, Architecture, Marin, Mid-Century Modern, Property Type, theFrontSteps | 1 Comment »

Hmmm….$354,000 Over Asking in a Down Market?

Is that correct? Let’s see, sales price $1,553,000, minus list price $1,199,000 equals $354,000. Is that right? Hmmm. Day offer received 9/28/07 minus list date 9/12/07 equals 16 days on the market. Is that right? It can’t be. We just said volume is down 41%. Ohhhh. We get it. We’re just being led astray that the San Francisco market has tanked, when in fact, it has NOT! Don’t believe what you’re reading. Cooled, yes. Tanked, no. Go ahead and put that on the Craigslist Housing forums,“Planet of Slums”.

135-137 Cole in Park North. Two units, both vacant, both needing some love, and both flying off the shelf in unison.

Say it with us now. The market is still good. The market is still good. The market is still good. Eventually, it might sink in.

-What’s going on $500,000-$700,000 [theFrontSteps]

-God Save the Queens of the Craigslist Housing Forum [theFrontSteps]

-135-137 Cole [mls]

Tags: real estate, san francisco, theFrontSteps

Posted in 2-4 Units, Classic, It is Brisk Out, Maximum Overbid ™, Park North, Property Type, market info, real estate, san francisco, theFrontSteps | 10 Comments »

“A Trip Down Lake Street”

There have been a lot of Google searches and even more emails coming to us wondering if we can “point [you] in the direction of the ‘Walk Down Lake Street’” from sfnewsletter that many of you saw mentioned in this article on SFGate. Those that have already read it already know that we added a few comments that didn’t make the cut.

So if you missed the walk, here it is. In its entirety: [Follow the break] (more…)

Tags: real estate, san francisco, theFrontSteps

Posted in 2-4 Units, 5+Units, Condominium, Lake, Sea Cliff, Single Family, market info, real estate, san francisco, theFrontSteps | No Comments »

“The Ultimate Rock Star Pad” hits the market (542-44 Natoma)

Why settle for just one of the penthouse units (starting at $1,350,000), when you can have the recording studio and commercial condo as well (price upon request)? The San Francisco Soundworks building hits the market, and you know you’ve always dreamed of having “the ultimate rock star pad”, so here’s your chance.

Oh, to add to your credo in the music world yo!, you can say Alanis Morrisett, Radiohead, New Order, The Cocteau Twins, Ice Cube, Lil Jon, The Shins, Will Smith, and so many more recorded in your building. Who cares about the Scavolini cabinetry, waffled glass catwalk, cathedral ceilings, or Bauhaus design at that point.

If you happen to be the one buying it, we’d appreciate multiple invitations to the rock star parties! Or better yet, let us help you buy it.

Open Studio (preview) is Thursday 11/15 from 6-9pm.

If you want the history click here for the Vizzvox Voice Over, which is actually very informative, and provides a ton of insight.

We’re sold…totally and completely. Now about that rock star party…

-Soundworks Residences [property website, Paragon Real Estate]

-San Francisco Soundworks [website]

-Sound Works History [Vizzvox]

Tags: Architecture, real estate, san francisco

Posted in 2-4 Units, Architecture, First Look (tm), Modern, Remodeling, SOMA, Unique Property, real estate, san francisco | 1 Comment »