Recent sales…it’s what everybody wants to know. It’s what I get asked when I go to dinner. It’s what I get asked when I’m out surfing. It’s what I get asked when I’m sitting on the ski lift. “What did X property sell for?”

Because of this very question that continues to perplex even the most tuned-in San Francisco real estate agent, I started a newsletter about 9 years ago. That newsletter was called sfnewsletter. The whole point was to provide a weekly snapshot of everything in San Francisco that just came on the market, and everything in San Francisco that just sold. The newsletter was sent to tens of thousands of people, and was a screaming success. It’s only natural that it was plagiarized.

Hill & Co. now has a newsletter that is almost a spitting image, and the company where I hang my license (Zephyr Real Estate) has it’s own carbon copy. So I decided I didn’t need to write the content any more, and I’d just let Zephyr do it for me, because it’s really not the content all of the readers want, it’s the data. What listed, what sold…sortable by district, and property type. However, because the Multiple Listing Service has “real time” sold data under strict lock and key, you can’t just access it from anywhere. You gotta be connected to a Realtor.

Therefore, I extend an invitation to all of you to begin receiving these sold updates in your inbox every other week. There are two catches: 1) I need your email. 2) If you receive the data from me, and then choose to buy or sell a home with a different agent that doesn’t provide you valuable information like this, I will send my cousin Guido out to your house, and he will bust your knees. Deal?

If you’d like to be added to the distribution list, just shoot me an email, and state in the subject “Please add me to your real estate newsletter“. Trust in the fact that I will simply add you to the newsletter and not email you to constantly solicit your business, and I certainly will not sell or re-distribute your email to anyone. In return, I will trust that you contact me when you are ready to buy or sell San Francisco real estate. It’s a win-win.

-Just sold data. This link expires with each newsletter, so you gotta get on the list.
-Sign up for real estate newsletter

San Francisco is an amazing food city, but it’s a tad overwhelming when it comes to dining choices. Sometimes, you just need someone to tell you where to eat NOW and while they are at it, give you a little motivation (in the form of discounts). I’m not sure if you all know (I’m sure many of you do), but there is a great website/service called BlackboardEats that can help us all do just that.

It’s a no brainer, really.

Each week, they send me 2 emails with a restaurant review, written by a local food critic with a corresponding perk—think Groupon with amazing taste and without upfront costs. It’s like a special online club for restaurant aficionados (which I am not).

If you travel, they are in Los Angeles, New York, and Chicago too.

I’ve discovered some amazing restaurants I would have otherwise overlooked, and I’ve saved a ton of $$ with them. As a result, I’m sharing this find (if you haven’t found it already) with you, and I’m even going to give them a little love in my marketplace over there on the right column (no, they aren’t paying me).

Check ‘em out.

-BlackboardEats.com

As is the case with our weather here in San Francisco on any given day, there are pockets of sunshine, and clouds of rain. While nicely presented (staged) homes, in great locations, marketed at competitive prices (whether $400,000 or $4,000,000) are practically flying off the shelf with all cash/zero contingency offers, there are certainly countless numbers of not so lucky homes and sellers that either missed the mark with pricing, timing, or presentation, and those homes are getting stale, dropping prices, and selling for much less than asking…if they sell at all. Depending on when the seller purchased it, often many homes are selling for much less than what the seller paid! So it’s definitely not all roses all across the board.

With that said, what can you do to increase your chances of buying a piece of San Francisco real estate. The most important thing for you to do as a buyer is get pre-approved with a good, reputable, local lender or mortgage broker (I can recommend a few). Getting pre-approved doesn’t cost you a dime. Don’t even look at homes until you know without a shadow of a doubt what you can afford. That includes browsing online on Trulia or Zillow.

Once you have taken the pre-approval step, there are tools available to get you searching for the most accurate, up to the minute listings both on MLS, and “off market“.

Once you have an idea of what it is you can both afford, and what it is you desire, you should absolutely get in touch with a licensed real estate professional to help you find and secure your property. You can certainly try to go it alone, but when it comes time to write an offer, 99% of the listing agents out there are going to prefer to work with someone that is represented by a Realtor, rather than someone that thinks they can do it alone. Put two identical offers on the table. One from a buyer that has an agent who knows the game, and the other from a buyer wanting to represent themselves to “save” some money and nine out of 10 agents will go with the Realtor represented buyer all day long. If you want to go discount, go Redfin. At least you’ll have an agent representing you.

Once you’ve selected your agent (It’s like dating, so don’t just go “top producer” or “market specialist”…find someone you can spend hours hanging out with. Someone that might share similar interests.), work with them using all of the tools available to both of you, and be in touch frequently. Understand the market fluctuates day to day. Know that while some properties will receive multiple offers, some won’t, and gauging at what price a home will sell in such a market is often difficult and not as easy as 1+1=2. Running and analyzing comparable sales is only half of the story (our market now is much more robust than only a few short months ago in what should have been a busy October). Be ready to act quickly, and be flexible with regards to what times you are available to tour homes. See any, and as many homes as you can that might be a match.

When you find the home you like…don’t hesitate. It could be gone the next day. Make an offer, consider shortening any and all contingencies, and be prepared to go back and forth on price and terms. Don’t take it personally! Every buyer wants a good deal, and every seller wants top dollar. It will get heated.

If you don’t get the property, don’t dwell on it. There will be more opportunity…I promise. Move on. If you do get the property…well that’s another blog post altogether.

Don’t get discouraged by my stories of multiple offers, cash buyers, and an ultra-competitive market. As much as those stories are happening, there are also many more stories of Stalefish homes finally being sold after many, many months on the market. There are foreclosures (good luck with those), short sales, and many off market opportunities. You just gotta know where to look, have patience, money, and determination. Your property is out there. Don’t give up based on a few blog posts about a hot, hot market. And definitely don’t give up before you start.

-Four buyers in four days, and 121 Beulah. How did it end. [theFrontSteps]
-Factoring weather when buying a home in San Francisco is anything but simple. [theFrontSteps]
-Search MLS
-Search Not on MLS

Even if it means sharing information from a “competing” brokerage. Mark McLaughlin is the CEO of local real estate company Pacific Union. His recent article pretty much sums up my thoughts exactly. Especially, if you live in Cole Valley.

I asked him, “Do you have any data that might suggest how poor earnings of the investment banks and the capped bonuses of the investment bankers impact the luxury goods and real estate markets in the San Francisco Bay Area?”

His response was fairly simple and as follows: “No data. I would think the Apple, Google, Facebook etc. income gains would swamp any losses in the finance sector in the Bay Area.”

It is very important to remind our sellers that the both the buyer demographics and the traditional selling season in our markets have, in fact, changed – and for the most part, our markets are supply-constrained. We have more motivated buyers than we do properly improved, located and priced properties for sale.

Put another way, now is the best time I’ve seen since 2007 to list your property for sale. Demand is through the roof.

-Wall Street vs. Apple, Google, Facebook, etc.

So, I’m going to start sharing some of my favorite places.

It’s no secret anymore, and the cat is so far out of the bag it’s not even funny, but Trouble Coffee on Judah, almost at the beach, is one of my favorites. I’ve long gone in solely to purchase “the Hammer” espresso beans and pour my own cappuccino at home, and never indulged in their toast (guilty of inhaling the occasional surf snack…or whatever the hell it is they call it though). Until yesterday.

I had the “Toast”. All I can say is that it is hands down the best cinnamon toast I have ever had, and you should try it too.

Image Poach

Outer Avenues real estate is pretty damn hot as well, as mentioned in my post the other day. A little update on that, we were beat out. Still not a done deal with buyer #1 though, so anything can still happen in our favor.

There you have it. Trouble Coffee, yet another reason to live in San Francisco.

-Best Coffee in San Francisco

In my humble opinion, the market is extremely hot for the right properties. On Friday I wrote four separate offers (five if you count that one property is two condos), in four entirely different neighborhoods, and have been in a multiple offer situation on every single one of them. My buyers lost out on a house near West Portal (by roughly $25-35k), and my buyer on a Outer Avenues house is still in the thick of a six offer situation.

My clients for a Cole Valley property accepted a counter offer from the seller, knowing that other offers were lurking. And thankfully, the sellers of a Russian Hill property that my client offered on realized cash truly is king in this lending environment, and wisely accepted our offer on their property, rather than the others with financing.

I would love to share details and specifics about all of these, but as you can imagine, I can’t. I am very busy representing a ton of people throughout the city at this very moment, and all of it is helping me gain that much more knowledge to help you.

As always, other agents are talking to me and sharing stories, potential buyers they may have for homes, and properties some of their sellers may sell. Why they don’t just post all of it for free on PocketListings.net is beyond me, but I’m happy they feel comfortable sharing with me.

If you, or any of your friends/family, need help with San Francisco real estate, please don’t hesitate to contact me. My head is FULL of real estate opportunity!

Oh…and that luxury remodel on Beulah I mentioned two weeks ago….SOLD IN FIVE DAYS for $2,600,000 (asking $2,495,000). We can only assume CASH, and multiple circling.

Happy Monday! It snowed!

My elation quickly turned from thrill and excitement to the feeling of pearling the nose of your board on said 8 foot bomb, crossing a tip and being sent cartwheeling, full yard sale, down your favorite chute with the entire chairlift above watching.

Alas…the house is not coming on the market, but has been rented. It only took one week to rent it, for a mere $6000/month, and they didn’t even have time to finish putting the sign up out front.

I keep saying, Cole Valley (and San Francisco) real estate is doing just fine…thank you very much.

As for me and my buyers, we’ll continue to lick our wounds until we come out on top.

The Living Room was:

The Living Room is:

The Kitchen was:

The Kitchen is:

Bathroom was:

Bathroom is:

(Note: There are now 4.5 Baths, this is just one of them.)

Lower Level was:

Lower Level is:

Rear Cottage was:

Rear Cottage is:

And the Piece de Resistance…le Garage was:

Le Garage is:

As is always the case with every property in San Francisco, there are stories, and this little (now big) gem on Beulah is no exception. There are a ton more pictures online, including shots of the previously undeveloped attic, the bedrooms, more bathrooms, elegant stairway, and lovely yard and patio, so please check it out.

And as I mentioned yesterday, Cole Valley is a hot little market right now. This is not the only great property that we’ll see in Cole Valley in the near future. Yesterday, I hinted to another 3 bed, 2.5 bath Single Family ($1,550,000) home that will be coming up for any of you Cole Valley buyers that keep getting beat out. There is also another transformation on par with this 121 Beulah that we should see on MLS shortly (if someone doesn’t snag it off market first.)

Opportunity knocks. Contact me to get in on these opportunities first, because they won’t last.

True to my word, I’ll try to keep you all in the loop. For now, I gotta run. Happy Aloha Friday to all y’all!

-121 Beulah, 4bed, 4.5 bath, 4,141 sqft, asking $2,495,000 Cole Valley [MLS]
-121 Beulah Before when is sold for $1,250,000 almost one year ago…exactly.

I continue to give you opportunity after opportunity and you have been great. You have been loyal, you have been kind, you have been my source of income (and food and clothing for my two shining young pains in the ass…I mean sons who I love dearly…but sometimes want to wring their necks.) You have referred friends, you have referred family, you have given me tips on hot (and cold) property, and I greatly appreciate it.

I hope you continue to do so in 2012, as you have done since I started this thing back in 2007, and I hope to continue to give you the goods as I have done since before I launched this blog. (Can you believe I’ve been reporting on real estate since 2004!) I want to continue to give you the inside scoop, with a twist and some flavor, because Lord knows our market is a complete mind thrash, so we might as well have a good laugh along the way.

With that said, I have the scoop on a property in Cole Valley for some of you Cole Valley buyers:

and I also have a scoop on 471 Duncan for all of you Noe Valley buyers.

So if you, or anybody you know, was/is interested in a Single Family in Cole Valley, or took a look at 471 Duncan (or any other Noe Valley Single Family recently), give me a call. Principals only please. (If your agent isn’t digging up this kind of dirt for you, why are you paying them!?)

Happy New Year to all of you wonderful people. I hope to kick it up a notch this year on theFrontSteps, and continue to see PocketListings.net to become the successful site it deserves to be.

I look forward to helping you, and everyone you know, buy and sell tons of San Francisco real estate in 2012.

Sincerely,

Alex Clark

There is a lot to love about this listing at 261 10th Ave, especially “savings the money”, but I’m not quite sure what’s to love more:

Is it the insanely awesome gold coverlet accented by leopard print throw pillows and zebra print chair?

Is it the built in ballet studio that screams tutus and Baryshnikov? However, the ceiling looks a little low to soar like a Swan…

Is it the animal paintings in the foyer that look to be horses, or maybe at least one Giraffe?

Or could it simply be the recent price reduction to start off the new year? A price reduction from an original asking of $1,675,000 to the New Year’s price of $1,398,000…more than a QUARTER MILLION DOLLARS.

It’s at a juncture like this when (proper) staging comes in handy, as does realistic pricing and shelving any visions of grandeur and opulence. Personal tastes aside, this is a great house, in an excellent location.

Who wants to has it?

-261 10th Ave, 4 bed, 3.5 bath, $1,398,000 (MLS)
-Find me on the Facingbook