Condo complexes aren’t really selling condos these days. Instead, they sell a feeling, an image of the lifestyle that would too become yours if you buy in. And by “buy in” I mean in both senses, because first you’d have to buy that owning a condo at, say, the Hayes, would make you instantly urban-chic-hip; … Continue reading SF Cool Lifestyle for Sale. Condo also Included!
Category: Just Interesting
Road to Real Estate Recovery
When I was working at C__________, my boss was a big coke-head. As a result, the atmosphere was, to understate, lax. Everyone drank and ate copiously (never paying for it), sat down and/or danced randomly in the middle of the restaurant, swore, and slept with one another. All of the aforementioned took place during open-for-business … Continue reading Road to Real Estate Recovery
In the Spirit of Halloween and Election Season, Scary Technology that “Outs” Your Neighbors
Prop 8 is not one that encourages sedate emotion. People are either vehemently for it, or they are just as vehemently against it. The debate between the two camps, heated as it is, often erupts into full out fighting, which we all know from our rhetoric classes is actually the opposite effect civilized, fair debate … Continue reading In the Spirit of Halloween and Election Season, Scary Technology that “Outs” Your Neighbors
A Worse Punishment for Sisyphus: Policing Noise in a Metropolis
Hello out there, theFrontStep Readers! You may (or just as likely, may not) know my name from my blogs for Redfin. I’ve kindly been invited to write also for theFrontSteps, so here I am, on the steps, with my first blog. So here’s the setting: last night, 2:00am, sultry night, people walking up from the … Continue reading A Worse Punishment for Sisyphus: Policing Noise in a Metropolis
Notice To Begin Foreclosure Proceedings: Sincerely, Your Bank
Ever wondered what a letter from a lender to a homeowner would read when they’re about to foreclose your house? Wonder no more. This came to us via the intertubes (re-typed for privacy…of course). From Wells Fargo Home Mortgage to Homeowners THIS LETTER IS FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY. THIS IS NOT A DEMAND FOR PAYMENT. … Continue reading Notice To Begin Foreclosure Proceedings: Sincerely, Your Bank
Ask Us: What’s the going rate for a garage in San Francisco
Where readers ask and we (the community) try to answer: I am considering buying a condo in the Noe Valley/Mission Dolores (around 21st and Church) area and I am trying to understand what the going rate for a garage is in this area. I have the option to purchase a space with the condo. I’ve … Continue reading Ask Us: What’s the going rate for a garage in San Francisco
How walkable is your home?
…and continuing with our education for the week, we’re introduced to Walk Score from another reader. Really, we haven’t been living under a rock, honest to God, but keep sending us information and we’ll keep getting edumucated. What is Walk Score? “Walk Score’s patent-pending technology calculates a Walk Score for any property and shows a … Continue reading How walkable is your home?
Ped vs. Muni…again!
File this under absolutely nothing to do with real estate, but everything to do with living in San Francisco. This is such a common problem that the only trauma hospital in San Francisco has its own classification for accidents like this, they call it “Ped vs. Muni”. You’ve seen it before, you’re sitting at a … Continue reading Ped vs. Muni…again!
The Scoop on your Poop
As you might have learned, if you’ve read our site for a while, if we can remotely spin it towards real estate, your “tip” has a good chance of getting on the site. Today a lesson on what happens when you flush your pipes. From our reader: Hello, It was really great that you did … Continue reading The Scoop on your Poop
We’re getting out of real estate…for good
From “zang”: Assistant Arrested in Killing of Real Estate Agent-[NY Times] “[the agent, her boss] ‘just kept yelling at her…’” That’s just plain sad, and for the record we think it is awful, but we want to know if you’ve ever wanted to kill your Realtor (figuratively of course) for any particular reason. Such as, … Continue reading We’re getting out of real estate…for good
Theory of the Starving Real Estate Agent
When I received my real estate license 5+ years ago, I entered into one of the hottest real estate markets in the country, at the beginning of one of the hottest real estate booms our nation would come to see. Real Estate licenses were flying out of the California Department of Real Estate as fast … Continue reading Theory of the Starving Real Estate Agent
The Faces of Real Estate
From a reader who chooses to remain “anon”: Just a question I’ve often wondered. Who’s idea was it to allow, or encourage Realtors to put their pictures all over everything from biz cards, to shopping carts, to buses, etc.? Why Realtors and not all the countless other professions out there? Good question. I don’t have … Continue reading The Faces of Real Estate
If I bought my home in 2000 then today it’d be worth…
Link provided by DL…thanks! According to the Consumer Price Index calculations found on this page, which are supposed to take inflation into consideration, if in 2000, you bought a home for $500,000 then today in 2007, your home should be worth $580,508. If in 2007 you buy a home worth $1,000,000 then in 2000 that … Continue reading If I bought my home in 2000 then today it’d be worth…
Redfin Drowning in Red
by Damion Matthews Glenn Kelman, CEO of discount real estate brokerage Redfin, recently boasted that “Most agents only close about eight deals a year. Our agents can close 100.” So when Carol Lloyd, the SF Chronicle’s real estate columnist responded, “They can, but do they?” I immediately set out to find the answer. And the … Continue reading Redfin Drowning in Red
Real Estate Bubbles and California’s Economic Growth, Part 2 and 3
Continuing our lesson on real estate economics from Humboldt State University courtesy of YouTube, we bring you the last two videos in the series. There is a lot of information in these videos that is very pertinent to our market, and it is a good lesson. However, it was filmed November 2006, making it a … Continue reading Real Estate Bubbles and California’s Economic Growth, Part 2 and 3
Real Estate Bubbles and California’s Economic Growth, Part 1
by Alexander Clark via YouTube and Humboldt State University School of Economics Amongst the sea of utterly useless bits of crappy real estate videos on YouTube, I was able to find this very informational piece that made me wish I was back in Santa Barbara attending a lecture. (Okay, maybe it was the carefree lifestyle … Continue reading Real Estate Bubbles and California’s Economic Growth, Part 1