theFrontSteps – San Francisco

It should come as no surprise to those of you that read theFrontSteps on a regular basis, but to those that don’t, I often get stricken with a heavy case of wanderlust. My mind starts to wander, my heart starts to race, and my imagination goes heavy into “what if” mode. Today is no exception.

Although we all like to imagine the “what if” of being the buyer throwing down $28,000,000 for this one of a kind St. Regis Penthouse, the fact is, most of us think about the “what if” of buying a reasonably priced home in San Francisco. The reality is, reasonably priced doesn’t really exist here, because everything is crazy expensive. So as I sit and search places around the country where it just might be snowing, because Tahoe is bone dry, I came across this killer little house in Salt Lake City, Utah with 3 bedrooms, a nice modern kitchen, yard, location smack dab in Salt Lake’s hip 9th and 9th area, and a price tag of only $369,000.

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So it’s with a link to that property, and an imagination to days of bluebird skies and 10 feet of fresh snow that I leave you and this computer (or mobile device), and head on up to Alta to score some epic hard pack under bright grey skies.

Happy New Year to all of you! Let your imagination run wild in 2012!

-Salt Lake City Home For Sale, $369,000

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This is big news. According to SFLuxe, the Penthouse I reported on back in July that occupies roughly 20,000 square feet of the Luxury St. Regis Hotel in downtown San Francisco has found a buyer.

How’s that for a Merry Christmas!

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In this season of giving and being thankful, I’d have to say that San Francisco Bay Area residents should be pretty thankful that our market is nowhere near that of the national average. If you’re a seller you can be thanking your lucky stars that buyers are out there in droves, and if you’re a buyer you need not pinch yourself, because yes, interest rates are indeed averaging UNDER 4%, and that is certainly something to rejoice.

The San Francisco Association of Realtors Market Focus Report begins now:

Although these fall months are not typically known for high real estate activity, this year has proven otherwise, with strong pockets of movement occurring throughout the city, keeping the market active during these shorter days. Families have been rushing to purchase and settle into their new homes to prepare for the holiday season and upcoming year.

Single-Family Homes

As the number of homes for sale fell throughout the city by 27.3 percent compared to November 2010, the number of homes under contract this past month rose by 21.1 percent, while the number of homes sold rose by a substantial 22.3 percent. For properties that were priced below $700,000, the months of supply inventory dropped by 67.8 percent to 1.3 months. For properties priced between $700,000 and $1.2 million, the months of supply inventory fell by 12.1 percent to 2.8 months. Readings between one and four months typically indicate a seller’s market, where sellers have more negotiating power over home buyers.

One part of the city which continues to experience healthy sales activity is the central district that provides ample shelter from San Francisco’s famous fog and is one of the city’s sunnier regions. Since November 2010, the number of homes sold has risen considerably by 60 percent to a total of 40 properties. From the colorful neighborhoods of Haight Asbury and the Castro, to the more contemporary and family-friendly Noe Valley, to the posh and upscale Clarendon Heights, this part of the city offers a diverse array of housing opportunities for just about any home buyer.

Another area of the city which saw heightened sales activity is the southern part of the city that stretches from San Francisco City College to beyond Candlestick Park. Compared to this time last year, the number of homes under contract in this district has risen by a whopping 80 percent, while the number of homes sold has increased by 58.3 percent to a total of 57 properties. Some of the neighborhoods in the area, such as the Excelsior and Mission Terrace, offer a suburban feel, easy access to public transportation, and some of the best prices in the city, which makes them great locations for first-time home buyers.

Condominium Sales

Although the number of condominiums for sale fell throughout the city by 37.2 percent compared to November 2010, the number of condominiums under contract rose by 17.7 percent and the number of condominiums sold increased by 23.1 percent. For condominiums that were priced between $500,000 and $900,000, the months of supply inventory contracted by 61.4 percent to a reading of 2.2 months. For luxury condominiums priced above $900,000, the months of supply inventory decreased, by 49.8 percent to 2.6 months.

One part of the city which experienced a robust increase in condominium sales activity is the central-eastern part of town, whose landscape continues to evolve from its former warehouse and factory occupied streets. Since November of last year, the number of condominiums sold has jumped by 56.4 percent, from 39 units to a total of 61. The central-eastern district includes such neighborhoods as up-and-coming South Beach, home to AT&T Park and some of the most stylish condominiums in the city, as well as SOMA (South of Market) and Yerba Buena, which has seen an infusion of moderately priced condominiums in recent years.

Outlook

The Conference Board reports that consumer confidence surged in November to its highest level since July, a sign that Americans may be more willing to spend. The Conference Board said that its consumer confidence index climbed by 15 points in November to 56 points, the highest it has been since a reading of 59.2 this past summer. Although still well below a reading of 90, which indicates an economy on solid footing, the confidence numbers are encouraging.

According to the State Employment Development Department, the statewide and local job outlook continues to improve as California’s unemployment rate dropped for the second straight month in October to 11.7 percent. Bay Area counties were all below the State average, including San Francisco, which dropped to 8.1 percent from 8.3 percent the prior month.

As the cost of renting in the city continues to rise, and with the average rent currently at $2,572, more and more people should be considering owning a home. There are a variety of rent vs. buy calculators available online and anyone of them can be used to help with a decision as to whether to rent or buy.

As local tech companies like Zynga and Yelp prepare for initial public offerings, more and more of their employees are looking towards owning a home in San Francisco. Reuters reports that recent competitive bidding in some neighborhoods has pushed home prices up more than 15 percent from last year in some areas such as Noe Valley, SOMA and Potrero Hill.

With the improving economy and surge in pending sales, 2012 is likely to see a stronger San Francisco real estate market than what buyers and sellers have been accustomed to since 2008.

-San Francisco Association of Realtors Market Focus Report

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PocketListings.net is now FREE.

We are proud to say, we have secured an additional “Angel Investment” and can now offer our service to you FREE OF CHARGE. That’s right. PocketListings.net and all of the wonderful things we have created for you to do more deals and give your clients an alternative means to listing property for sale is 100% free to use, and incredibly easy to join.

We hope you and your colleagues take advantage of the opportunity placed in front of you to get on your way to more closed transactions. We encourage you to think outside of the box that we have all been forced to work in for so many years, and realize EXPOSURE and NETWORKING (the #1 and #2 methods to sell property), can (and will) come through participation on our site. Use PocketListings.net to your advantage and help your sellers sell, and your buyers find what they need.

Go ahead. It’s FREE!

-PocketListings.net Tutorial
-PocketListings.net

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Somebody hit the snooze button on my blogging. In the meantime, get to know your weather, which unfortunately is also on snooze.

Back soon….

-Tahoe Weather Discussion

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[R.I.P. Jamie Pierre]

We’re falling into ski season, and you all know I love me some powder. Many of you also know I grew up in Reno Nevada, with Lake Tahoe as my backyard. I learned to ski at the ripe old age of two, I raced, I burned out, I switched to snowboarding, and now I’m back on the two planks. And I can’t get enough.

I know many of you fellow San Franciscans feel the same way, and enjoy all of the same things I love about our proximity to Lake Tahoe. Being in real estate, I also know many of you have extra cash to burn and dream of owning your own slice of Tahoe heaven that frequently gets buried under multiple feet of snow. That’s why, with the help of my connections up Tahoe way, we want to get you your Lake Tahoe ski pad.

The plan: Spend a day (or more) skiing (with me and some local Tahoe rippers), go see property with proximity to Tahoe ski areas, grab cocktails, make offers, drink champagne (choke champagne powder), invite friends, ski more, and live the Tahoe dream.

The thoughts are preliminary at this point, but far enough along that connections up Tahoe way have been established, homes are being scouted, vans can be rented, and we just need you.

The question is, “Would you, or anyone you know, be interested in taking part in the first ever San Francisco-Lake Tahoe real estate caravan and ski extravaganza?” Feel free to share your yes / no, and thoughts in the comments below, or contact me directly to be kept in the loop or share thoughts privately. With any luck, we can put this together before the snow gets too deep and the “Out of Office Auto Replies” start kicking in.

Pray for snow!

Maybe we’d all be so lucky as to score days like this:

[Snowboarders obviously welcome too. We don't discriminate.]

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I get at least one email each week from a different person or reader asking me to give their property that is currently for sale some exposure on theFrontSteps.com. I’m flattered. But unless your property is of utter and complete jaw dropping significance, if you would like your property featured on my blog, it’s simple, don’t list with the other agent, list your property for sale with me. Not only will you get exposure here, but I’ll expose the hell out of it on the other networks of which I am a part. It will also be on Trulia, Zillow, Realtor.com, and likely show up in more online searches for your address, as a result of the keyword post I can do for it here.

So before you sign that listing agreement with another agent who is selling you on the glossy brochures that end up in recycling (often in landfill), or a fancy website that simply floats out in cyberspace, remember that print advertising is pretty much dead, and Google, Trulia, Zillow, and keyword search are king. More than 80% of home buyers begin and end their home search online, so you have every reason to want to be on theFrontSteps.com, and I’d be happy to help get you here.

I am an industry leader in San Francisco blogging and web traffic, and my brokerage, Zephyr Real Estate, is also number one when it comes to internet, search engine optimization, and generally capturing buyers where it matters most…on the internet.

If you still decide to list your property for sale with another San Francisco agent (it’s cool, I won’t take it personally), that agent is free to contact me directly and request that I advertise your property here (for a fee). If you’d still like to try to get me to blog about your property, send it as a “tip”, and you’ll likely have better luck getting featured on this site.

As always, thanks to all of the loyal readers I have, and the many clients that have chosen to work with me already. At some point, I won’t be as busy as I am now, and will pick up blogging where I left off. With that, I end the gloating and will go back to being my humble old self.

Cheers!

Alex

Contact Me…

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If incredibly convenient access to Garwoods restaurant and bar and its iconic drink, the Wet Woody, is your cup of tea (or your cup of Wet Woody – and yes, that’s the last time I’ll use that phrase in this article), this lakefront property may be for you. Not only is this house right next door (stumbling distance) to Garwoods, but like the Carnelian Bay favorite, it is also right on the Lake.

The most amazing part of this story? You can own a prime piece of Tahoe north shore lakefront property for $1,325,000, or maybe less, $1.325 mil is the “asking” price.

One million three hundred twenty five thousand dollars is a screaming deal for anything on the lake, let alone on the north shore in a protected and centrally located bay. While some may not appreciate having Garwoods as a next door neighbor, it doesn’t diminish the fact that the property sits on one of the most beautiful sections of one of the world’s most beautiful alpine lakes.

Obviously its owners have come to the point where they are very, very serious about selling, but looking at its asking price history, that has not always been the case. The 4 bedroom, 2 bath home (with a 2 car garage) was originally listed at $2.5 million on March 6th, with the price coming down to $1,999,000 on July 28th. Its current price reflects a huge drop from the almost $2,000,000 asked in July, and a gargantuan drop from the original 2.5 million dollar original asking price! I asked Paul Smith, the listing agent, about these very substantial price drops, and his answer was simple: “They just want to get it sold!” If this price doesn’t do that, I don’t know what will.

Carnelian Bay Lakefront, Lake Tahoe, $1,325,000 [Lake Tahoe MLS]

[Chris Anderson is a Tahoe based writer and real estate professional. You can contact him at chris@tahoetruckeehomes.com or go to TahoeTruckeeHomes.com.]

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It would appear that the San Francisco Association of Realtors (SFAR), California Association of Realtors (CAR), and by default the National Association of Realtors (NAR) is again realizing agents want to have control of their listings, clients deserve an alternative place to market their properties for sale, and new technologies can actually foster a healthy real estate environment that could lead to more transactions. Therefore, they don’t want you using them.

Recently the SFAR issued their latest “Advantage Online”. In the latest issue they had this to say:

Participation in Private MLSs and MLS Clubs Involves Risks

With apps commonly available, and the increased use of social networking sites, private MLS groups, such as [losers], have been formed that operate outside the MLS.

Frequently, these private groups set up rules for membership, such as requiring listings taken by club members to be marketed only through the club and not through the MLS, that only select practitioners can participate, and that offers of compensation must meet certain minimums. Furthermore, these private group members are, for the most part, members of established MLSs governed by MLS rules and the REALTORS® Code of Ethics (COE).

In response to this growing trend of online private MLS groups, the California Association of REALTORS® (CAR) has developed a legal brief reminding agents and brokers of the various MLS and COE rules that can come into play by participating in these private MLSs, as well as the legal concerns and risks.

The Association encourages its members to review this briefing document, found [right here], for specific guidance.

Those are pretty powerful and scary words, aren’t they? Not really. Sharing a picture on Facebook of yourself half naked doing keg stands involves risks, getting listings and allowing your seller the option to market their property alternatively should not.

If you actually click through and read the “briefing document” you’ll notice a lot of talk about the “fiduciary duty” of licensed real estate professional to client. Essentially do right by your client and advise them on the best path. This is the year 2011!

Every Realtor’s fiduciary duty at this time should be to advise their clients they may be able to get as much, or more, exposure marketing their property for sale on any number of new media sites, like PocketListings.net, Twitter, LinkedIn, Trulia, Zillow, etc. They should also be advising their clients about the potential pitfalls of hanging their property out to dry on MLS, the thousands of “bottom feeders” out there trolling MLS for price reductions and 100+ days on market, the fact that a listing on Trulia will return more hits to the property than any MLS exclusive listing could ever dream of receiving, that more than 90% of all home buyers begin their home search online and that online search is quickly going more social (heard of Facebook?).

Real estate practitioners should also make it clear and let it be known IT IS NOT ILLEGAL OR UNETHICAL for an agent to market a home “not on MLS”, and it is the decision of the seller where they choose to market their property, not the decision of the agent or local real estate governing body.

The MLS Rules make an exception to mandatory submission only in the event the seller refuses to permit the listing to be disseminated by the service and signs a certification to that effect. Since any decision to forego the marketing opportunities of the MLS is supposed to be driven by the seller, the MLS takes the extra step of requiring the listing broker to provide evidence of the seller’s instruction to keep the listing off the service. In instances where the seller refuses to allow the listing to be submitted, to avoid sanction by the MLS, a listing broker is required to submit a seller-signed exemption to the MLS within the same time period listing broker would otherwise be required to submit the listing.

Betcha didn’t know that. Translation, if you don’t want to list on MLS, you don’t have to. It’s as simple as a one page “Seller to Exclude Listing from MLS” form submitted to the local MLS. You can refuse, and you can force your Realtor to earn their commission by actually putting effort into marketing your property for sale.

Many agents out there will pressure clients to sign a listing and force them on MLS arguing that there are no other ways to get property sold. The logic being, sign the listing, get it on MLS, then go back to the client to get a price reduction, followed by another price reduction, and eventually get down to market price and earn their commission. Has the agent actually “marketed” the property? Often they have not. They simply put it on MLS and consider it marketed. That doesn’t sound very fiduciary, does it?

Don’t think I’m saying the MLS is worthless and that all agents do what I just described. MLS is an extremely powerful tool and still the most popular way to get your property sold, and should certainly be the current #1 recommended choice for “listing” a property for sale. However, these new services are popping up, and gaining traction. It’s not only important that agents and clients recognize this fact, it’s your agent’s fiduciary duty to let you know about them, and give you the option to use them, not hide them from you.

There is no longer one magic bullet (MLS) to sell a property. The economy is staggering, home sales are suffering, and millions of homeowners would love to sell. The internet is here to stay and “social networking” isn’t going away. Realtor Associations across the nation should be working with these new companies to encourage market activity and technological innovation to foster more transactions, not attempting to stifle them. The phrase “off market” isn’t accurate. It simply means “not on MLS”. If a property is for sale, it’s for sale. So market it! Get exposure. Get it sold!

I remember when I got into this business about 10 years ago and my broker was hesitant to even contact her clients via email. I also remember when I started a “newsletter” (sfnewsletter) that quickly grew to many thousands of readers when I was told “postcards are more effective”. Then I started a blog and was told “blogging won’t get you anywhere” (have a look in the right hand column…every transaction there came as a result of this here blog). Now, from my very same colleagues, I’m hearing “MLS is the only way to get property sold”.

It’s just a matter of time before everyone realizes just how powerful a marketing tool sites like PocketListings.net will become, just like they eventually have come to embrace email, the internet, and little sites like Facebook and Twitter.

I’ve said my peace. Have a great weekend!

-San Francisco Association of Realtors Statement on Private MLSs
-PocketListings.net [An MLS Alternative]

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Check out the top search terms for theFrontSteps since this second Berkeley quake hit about one hour ago.

It appears there is a bit of concern out there given the recent one on top of the other quakes over there near Berkeley.

I believe this is the post y’all are looking for:
San Francisco Neighborhoods Prone To Liquefaction And Earthquake Induced Landslides (Bedrock vs. Landfill Take Two) [theFrontSteps]

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