San Francisco – Spring has SPRUNG!
My favorite sign of spring in SF is always forget-me-nots! Of course, with that comes a busy spring home buying season. I was busy with sellers and buyers since January, but it seems things are ramping up to get even busier, which may mean less blog posts here.
$18,000 in Free Money for San Francisco Home Buyers
You read that right! First time home buyers that get into contract before May 1st and close between May 1st and June 30th get a big fat tax credit!
I could rehash the details, or I could give you the skippy straight from the horse’s mouth (and by horse, I mean the San Francisco Association of Realtors.) You’re getting the latter:
March 2010 San Francisco Housing Sales Data is Here!
Yet again, Luba’s San Francisco Real Estate Blog brings you latest San Francisco Real Estate market report here. (You can also view previous market updates by selecting the archives on the upper right portion of the screen). Heres’s a little glimpse of the report:
Spend Less Green to Go More Green in San Francisco
Good news my earth loving, tree hugging, composting, recycling, reusing San Franciscans!
From the San Francisco Association of Realtors:
Dolla Dolla Billz Changing the San Francisco Real Estate Game
So sales of homes in San Francisco are well, moving like hotcakes, at least relative to the last year or two. Socketsite reported that “recorded home sales volume in San Francisco was up 50.6% on a year-over-year basis last month“ and that “median sales price in March was $675,000, up 11.0% compared to March ’09 ($608,000) and up 7.6% compared to the month prior.” Not enough evidence for you that we may have seen the bottom of the market? Well, how’s the evidence that multiple offers are on the rise again? Out of the last 8 offers I’ve written for clients, 7 properties received multiple offers.
More News on San Francisco Pay to Play Condo Converstion Policy
So I got a GREAT email from Plan C. And while I usually love to add my two cents, they pretty much said it ALL for me. So here it is, verbatim, for your condo conversion supporting pleasure:
PG&E – San Francisco's Big Bad Wolf
I hate meter reading day. In fact, my alarm just went off to notify me that it’s time for me to call PG&E and give them my gas & electricity meter reading.
But, I hate meter reading day. Sometimes, I forget. And the rest of the time, it’s just a pain in the ass.
Unfortunately, my meters are located in places where PG&E can’t see them from outside my house.
So when I heard about PG&E Smartmeters, I was SUPER excited.
But the wind has been taken out of my sails somewhat. Seems PG&E’s mew smart meters aren’t that smart. They’re full of errors. BOOOOOO!
Gangs of San Francisco (On a T-Shirt)
Gangs of San Francisco is a one man operation out of San Francisco’s Outer Richmond. A work in progress, it is run by me, Laureano Faedi. A self taught maker of things, I do all the design work, silkscreening, shipping and research. Having migrated to the Bay Area from Buenos Aires 30 years ago I have found San Francisco to be one of the best cities in the world to live in. This project serves as an outlet for my learning of it’s history as well as a way to teach myself silkscreening. I hope that not only will people enjoy my products but that it might also inspire them to learn more about the city.
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I’m sure you’re noticed the blogging here has been getting less and less frequent. And had as I try to keep up, life sort of keeps getting in the way of posting.
But – I’ve realized that’s not really a terrible thing.
Testing, Testing, Testing, 1, 2, 3
So the blog has been dead. Some folks didn’t notice, some folks did, and others missed it so much that they sent me nasty emails expressing their displeasure that this San Francisco real estate agent needed a break.
Landlords – Get Your Calculators, Tenants – Get Your Checkbooks! San Francisco Annual Rent Increases Announced
It’s that time of year again…. rental property owners in San Francisco get to hear how much they can increase their tenant’s rent. Depending on the amount you might be paying in rent, this might mean having to cut back on 1 latte a month, or maybe several lattes a month.
Google Waves "Good-bye" to Real Estate (But I'm Still Waving "HELLO!")
Just about this time last year, Google jumped onto the real estate band wagon.
All the other cool kids were doing it, and since Google DOES do lots of things better than their competition, many Realtors in San Francisco and well beyond wondered if this would impact the way buyers searched for properties online.
Great Highway is still Closed and it's Still Summer in January
It’s another beautiful day at San Francisco’s Ocean Beach!
The sun is still shining and the clean-up on the Upper Great Highway still has the road closed to automobile traffic.
Ranchland in San Francisco?
I’ve always had a soft spot for cows. In fact, I envy those with the willpower to be vegetarians. I even tried it. Granted, it was only for a week, but I love meat. I love beef. But I definitely love cows. (And yes, I’m just city slicker enough to make “MOO” noises at them when I drive by them on the back roads of the Bay Area.)
Get Over Yourself, San Francisco (Except You *ARE* Marvelous, Baby!)
KCBS’s story so eloquently puts, “It’s hard to be humble, when you’re perfect in everyway.” (JoMama’s statement is so awesome, that I’m going to pretend she really spelled “every way” and not “everyway” – but hey, we NEED a little Wabi-Sabi to REALLY be perfect, right?) 😉
Realtors Under Attack, But Fighting back!
We’ve all heard stories of REALTORS getting attacked by weirdos. Folks in our business have been robbed, raped, beaten and even killed.
And while the worst things I’ve heard recently in San Francisco involved an iPhone stolen from a fellow SF Realtor’s open house, and scams involving Craigslist, it seems agents in other parts of the country have a lot more to worry about than a stolen phone.
Get Spayed and Neutered for Free! (Your PET, That is!)
As the folks over at SF Appeal so kindly informed us, February is Spay & Neuter month! And that means that the San Francisco SPCA is so kind as to provide free spay/neuter services for the month of February!
Personally, I don’t need to keep up with the current freebies since my 12 year old Pit Bull mix, Ohm, was spayed ages ago. (In the photo, she’s the one on the left. Powder, in the middle, and Lace on the right, passed away and left big gaping holes in my heart in 2008. I still miss them desperately every day.)
Sunshine in the Sunset
The sun here in the Outer Avenues is breaking through the clouds making the Sunset district gem at 1466 42nd Avenue sparkle!
Stop by from 1-4pm today to see the brilliant juxtaposition of a traditional center patio style home and how it blends with an urban loft!
San Francisco Sunday Streets Schedule Announced for 2011!
Sunday Streets is back for 2011! The kick off event is coming up THIS weekend and runs along the Embarcadero. As of now, the outlook looks to be a little rainy, but really, if all you got it a little sprinkle, I know you’ll still have a good time!
And the events usually run till just about 2pm, so you still have plenty of time to visit all of those Open Houses in SF too! 😉
San Francisco Realtors and Homeowners Support Condo Conversion
Fair warning….. this post is taken STRAIGHT from an email from the folks at Plan C, an organization of moderate voices that support San Francisco home ownership and, thus, condo conversion.
San Francisco’s condo conversion lottery requires luck, patience and nerves of steel, but Plan C and its supporters (SF Realtors and property owners to name a few) are yet again, hosting a rally supporting changes to the current condominium conversion rules that would allow TIC owners a chance at owning more than a fractional interest in their properties.
So here’s the scoop, straight from Plan C’s mouth, er, um, email: