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Luba Muzichenko San Francisco Real Estate

San Francisco SF Realtor

Misc Musings from Your San Francisco Realtor

Two Tales of One (Real Estate) Market

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Half Man

I called the bottom of the San Francisco real estate market last year.  It felt like things were flattening out.  And in some by some reports, prices were even increasing in SF! 
Since the holidays, I’ve been busy as a bee trying to keep up with buyer and seller demands, and you may have even noticed that blog posts, and my “weekly” newsletter, The City Update(TM), have been rather sporadic. 
So MY take on the market is that it’s picking up, volume is increasing, prices have stabilized and most agents I know are in a pretty good mood.
But still, there’s no consensus on whether or not we’re REALLY seeing the bottom of real estate prices in San Francisco, or the rest of the country for that matter. 
Some people (like the folks at Freddie Mac) are saying the market is at or near the bottom, while other folks (like the Center for Economic Policy and Reseach) are saying prices are STILL too high and need to fall.
My thoughts?  With interest rates at all time lows, if you’re looking to own a home in San Francisco for the long term, it’s a great time to buy if you do a traditional thirty year fixed mortgage.  But if you’re looking at a housing here to try to make a quick buck, then back off and invest in something else. 
Same thing goes if you’re selling.  If you need to sell, and your situation dictates you do it now, you will find a buyer.  They’re out there.  (With the caveat that if you just bought a few years ago, don’t expect to make any money on the deal. )   
And if you need help figuring out  what side of the fence your buying or selling situation falls on, give me a call at 415-307-1392 or email me at [email protected].  I’ll call it how I see it – though fair warning, you may not always get the response that you want.  😉

Living La Vida Token Free (At Least in Regards to the SF MLS)

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No More Tokens for San Francisco Realtors

No More Tokens for San Francisco Realtors


I don’t know how long it’s been, but for some time now, San Francisco Realtors have been forced to carry around these ridiculous tokens to access listings in the MLS. 
It was meant to be an extra layer of security that made sure we weren’t giving out free MLS access to assistants, or worse yet, to CLIENTS!
But as of February 1st, we will be able to ditch these magical tokens for other secure authentication methods that are akin to those used in the banking industry.
I don’t know what all this means, except that I will no longer be able to identify a Realtor upon seeing their keychain. 
I’m going to have to figure other ways of figuring out if I’m sitting next to a SF real estate agent in a restaurant.
Maybe by their hair?  Their nails?  Their bluetooth earpiece?  Their car? 
I just don’t know.  I’m at a bit of a loss.  I don’t know what I’ll do when I meet a new client and I don’t have a secret key that allows me to unlock the mystery that is the MLS to dangle in front of them?
Hmm…. oh wait, maybe I’ll just do what I’ve been doing all along and give them access to San Francisco MLS for free anyway. 
And in the meantime, I’ll work on some guidelines on “how to spot a realtor without the use of a token.”  😉

You Know You Need a Break from SF Real Estate When…..

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I’ve been working extra hard lately.  It seems like a whole lot is going on, all at once.  And honestly, I like the fast pace of the San Francisco real estate market.  In fact, the harder I work, the more I seem to enjoy my job!

But the past few weeks have been a little extra grueling, and with the rains, all I could think of was grabbing a pair of galoshes and going on a puddle hunt.

And then I saw the above pic from Uptown Almanac.  Looks like Dolores Park has a wading pool. 

The one problem???  I don’t have galoshes.  But at this point, I’m itching to play in a puddle so bad that the lack of foot protection might not stop me. 

So, if you see a strange lady romping in a giant puddle in the rain in the next few days, don’t be afraid to say “hi” and if you have an extra pair of galoshes in about a size 8.5 you care to let me borrow, feel free to send them my way – maybe we’ll go romping through San Francisco’s puddles together! 😉

 

 

A Personal Glimpse at 2009

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san francisco real estate top producer

A lot of you found thisblog (both regular folks and industry professionals from near and far) thanks to the contest hosted at theFrontSteps.com. If that’s the case, don’t expect the newsletter to be sexy.  Unless, of course, you find real estate (and community) updates writtten by a chick that doesn’t take herself to seriously and likes to provide her clients and the public at large with as much transparent information about our industry as possible sexy!  If you do, you’re in luck, because this San Francisco real estate blog can get pretty sexy that way! 😉
In addition to winning the contest over at theFrontSteps.com, I achieved something else I consider to be even more spectacular in 2009 – Top Producer status at Zephyr Real Estate.  As many of you know, 2009 was a rough year for the real estate business.  There were a lot of ups and a lot of downs.  It was like one long roller coaster ride.  And as usual, I carefully selected the people that I took on the ride with me.  To be frank, I don’t have the time, energy or inclination to work with rude, unrealistic, arrogant, mean-spirited or stubborn clients.  (There are a few other adjectives I could use, but they’re not fit to print!)  I keep my client base small so that (1) it’s manageable and (2) I can pick and choose to work with people that are a joy to work with!  I always say that I love what I do for a living, and that I can only continue to love what I do by working with good people.  🙂  So considering that I passed up business several times in 2009, achieving Trop Producer status is something I’m pretty proud of this year. 🙂
The other thing I realized this year was just how important it was to stay true to myself.  I work twice as hard as many SF agents, I play twice as hard as many SF agents, and I am pretty real about my personal life, whether talking about the loss of my dogs in this blog, or my back tattoo.  (You can get an update on the back tattoo here.)
Point being, while a lot of agents struggled in 2009 to figure out how to make ends meet, I struggled in 2009 to find ways to be true to myself. I fired clients, passed up business and let people know more about me – not just as an SF Realtor, but as a human being.   Because frankly, if you don’t like who I am as a human being, you shouldn’t consider trusting me to help you with some of the biggest financial decisions of your life.
So, overall, 2009 ended up not being such a bad year afterall.  I not only managed to stay true to myself, to get a little recognition through a rather silly (but fun) contest and to share more of personality with blog readers and clients alike, but I also managed to do so while being a successful real estate agent during a rather crappy time. 
And most importantly, I had a good time doing it.  I had fun with my clients, helped my friends, created some amazing relationships and made a living enjoying (almost) every minute.  (My struggles with the MLS still give me gray hairs.)
And all in all, when looking back at what 2009 brought, I’m looking forward to 2010.  It’s already off to a great start.  I have a few clients that may have found their dream homes, and a few listings you’ll be hearing more about in the near future.  AND, I know that I’ll have a good time helping good people achieve their San Francisco real estate goals.
So, here’s to a healthy and prosperous year to all of us!  May 2010 and the decade ahead bring us good times, good friends and lots of laughter!  And if a real estate opportunity presents itself along the way, give me a holler – we might just find ourselves creating some warm memories on the way to achieving your real estate goals.  🙂

A Castle in SF's Ingleside – Complete with a Drawbridge!

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The Ingleside Castle
The Ingleside Castle

Some people say your home is your castle and they mean it figuratively.  These folks say it, and mean it literally. 

The blog posts haven’t been as frequent as I’d like lately, and it’s because I’ve been busy.  Like “working 15-19 hour days and sleeping 5 hours a night most nights” busy. 

It’s a good thing I love this San Francisco realtor gig I’ve got going, or I would have SURELY lost my mind by now. 😉

Anyhow, somewhere amidst my travels whilst looking at homes with a client today, I thought I actually HAD lost my mind when I thought I saw a DRAWBRIDGE!

Upon closer examination, the drawbridge (and wisteria) are merely a mural, but I have to say, for a minute there, it looked pretty damn three-dimensional.

If you ever are in the Ingleside and are curious enough to check this place out, it’s on the 100 block of Margaret Avenue. 

And if you ever want to talk about buying or selling your (literal or figurative) castle in SF, give me a holler at 415-307-1392 or email me.  Please leave the drawbridge open though, I’m not a fan of moats.

San Francisco Real Estate – What Will 2010 Bring?

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Well folks, this is the first post of 2010!

We’ve officially made it through the first decade of the millenium.   The first 10 years brought up some pretty intense ups and downs. 

From terrorist attacks, to economic bust and boom cycles, to a new president to housing bubbles and bursting bubbles, the first decade of the millenium wasn’t boring, to say the least.

And real estate, in San Francisco and beyond, has had one hell of a ride. 

San Francisco, unlike most of the country, didn’t see home prices fluctuate through as many highs and lows as the rest of the US.  But we, too, saw some changes. 

Shoot, the MLS in 2001 showed just FOUR single family home sales.  (In case you didn’t read into that statement properly that DOESN”T mean there were just four sales – it means the MLS as we know it was new.  Yes, before the MLS, people were able to buy and sell houses.  In fact, there are days when I think google could do a better job of helping Realtors sell houses than our high priced association – but that’s a different post altogether.)

Point being, we’re in a new year and a new decade, and we’re all wondering where things will end go (and if your reading this blog, you are especially wondering about SF real estate.)  And considering how much things have changed over the last decade, there’s just no way to tell! 

The San Francisco real estate market depends on too many things. 

Is the economy really as stable as the Fed says it is?

Will the tax credit be extended past April, and if not, will it impact home sales? 

Will interest rates stay low or will they continue the upward trend we’ve seen over the last few weeks?

NO ONE KNOWS!

The reality is that there are too many unknowns to guess whether the market rebound we have seen in recent months will continue.  I guess it comes down to individual circumstances.  It might be the right time for you to buy or sell, or it might REALLY be the wrong time to do either.  It all depends on what your needs, goals, lifestyle, job, budget, etc. dictate.

What will 2010 bring????

I don’t know.  I don’t have a crystal ball.

So how do you know what you should do about YOUR real estate goals for 2010? 

Well, you can start by calling a real estate professional.  You know, someone like me. 🙂   

If you have certain real estate related goals for 2010, you can give me a call (415-307-1392) or email me at [email protected] and we can sit down and discuss them and work through them together! 

But whether or not home sales or purchases are part of your plan for the next decade, I wish you and yours the best for the next 10 years. 

May the next decade be the best one yet!  🙂 Here’s to health, good times and prosperity to all of you loyal readers!

Single Female in Search of Home for Sale

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The title of the post almost sounds like a personal ad, right? 
Well I was taking a look at my list of San Francisco clients that are looking for a home or have recently purchased a home and I realized that about 35% of them are single women.
While it does appear that I tend to work with more single female home buyers than national averages, across the country, I did find some interesting statistics while searching the net:

  • Single women make up more than 20% of home buyers
  • Single women buy twice as many homes as single men
  • Single women make up more than one-third of the growth in real estate ownership since 1994

    • Not bad for girl power, eh?
    The demographic includes all women, including never married, divorced or widowed.
    Each person’s motivations for buying a home is, without a doubt, different.
    Past generations waited for Mr. Right to come along and give the poor helpless female financial security.
    But TODAY’S woman is ready to take her financial destiny into her own hands. According to an older article from USA Today:

    The trend is striking, because in 1981, the number of single women and single men home buyers was virtually the same. Since then, the percentage of buyers who are single women has almost doubled, while the percentage of single men buyers slipped 1 percentage point to 9% last year.

    The article goes on to say:

    “For the first time in history, women have access to the same resources men have always had — money, social status, power,” says Donald Hantula, professor of organizational psychology at Temple University in Philadelphia.

    “Women can go and acquire them on their own rather than searching for a mate to provide them. These demographic and social changes are not in line with how we adapted in the hunter-gatherer era.”

    In SF, women have a number of options when it comes to buying a home. My clients’ searches have included houses, condos, TIC’s, lofts, fixer-uppers, new construction, Victorian architecture, modern design and so many other variables that there’s just too many to list.

    And now that we are seeing some better deals in the San Francisco housing market, I’ve been getting more calls from single women ready to take the plunge and buy a home. In fact, now that the real estate prices have softened in SF, I’ve gotten calls from some past single female clients that are ready to jump in and buy investment property, with a big enough down payment, they are actually able to see a positive net gain on a rental property in San Francisco.

    If you’re a single woman and you’re thinking about buying property in San Francisco, whether for your primary residence or for investment purposes, give me a holler – I’m happy to help you decide whether now really is the right time for you to buy.

    Oh, and the embedded video???  Just a gratuitous baby dancing to the Single Ladies song because who doesn’t like to watch babies boogie!

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    Newsom Facebook's his Press Release about Treasure Island Transfer from Navy to SF

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    sustainable design, green design, san francisco, urban planning, treasure island, green building

    Photo from Inhabitat.com

    According to a Facebook update (yes, I’m Gavin’s FB friend, I’d like to think we’re actually really close and he reads my status updates and laughs. 😉 ):

    [Mayor Newsom] just announced an agreement with the Navy to transfer Treasure Island (TI) to San Francisco. The development of TI will create thousands of jobs and one of the most environmentally sustainable developments in US history.

    Um, pretty cool! 
    In fact, if you haven’t heard about the plans for Treasure Island, Inhabitat.com had some good details about the path to a green and sustainable mini City.  It could be one of SF’s new awesome AND green neighborhoods in the near future!
    So if you’re a real estate developer planning on, say, selling any awesome new green developments in the next 50 years in that area and need an awesome San Francisco realtor, give me a holler so that I can fit you into my business plan. 😀
    You can read the press release (I found the link in the FB post) HERE.

    How to Tell You're in a Safe SF Neighborhood

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    crimemapping.jpg
    I hate to say it, but the title of this post is kinda of misleading.  It’s actually a bit of a trick question. 
    Why?
    Well, everyone has a different idea of what makes a neighborhood “safe.”  Frankly, each person has a different tolerance to risk. 
    I live in the Outer Sunset where we seem have a higher than average amount of auto break-ins and thefts and grafitti tends to be fairly common (my fence AND my garbage can got tagged recently AND I chased down two teens I saw tagging on EVERYTHING they saw on the street) but I still tend to consider it a “safe” neighborhood.  Other neighborhoods have higher rates of drug dealing or prostitution.  Others, still, have a high rate of murders and homicides.   Others still have gang violence. 
    San Francisco is diverse, and if you’re thinking about buying real estate here, you really need to examine YOUR tolerances. 
    What YOU consider to be a safe neighborhood depends primarily on your personal aversion to risk.  Your standard of safety is not necessarily my standard of safety.  (Though I’d be so bold as to go out on a limb and say that most people feel less safe in areas with high murder rates, just sayin’.)
    But that doesn’t mean that you need to jeopardize your safety by wandering the streets at night looking for crime. 
    To find out about crime in SF, you need only look as far as your computer!
    You can easily find statistics about San Francisco crime by pointing, clicking and filling out some parameters. 
    CrimeMapping.com, according to their site, “is a site developed by The Omega Group to help law enforcement agencies throughout North America provide the public with valuable information about recent crime activity in their neighborhood. Our goal is to assist police departments in reducing crime through a better-informed citizenry. Creating more self-reliance among community members is a great benefit to community oriented policing efforts everywhere and has been proven effective in combating crime.”
    CrimeReports.com claims to be the world leader in online crime mapping, with over 600 law enforcement partners across North America. It also features sex offender data and allows you to create email alerts about crime in a specific area.
    SF Crime Maps is a site that’s hosted by our very own sfgov.org.  To use the site, check out the various FAQ’s and then scroll down to the bottom of the page and click “I Agree.”  From there, click the crimes you want to search for (you’ll notice homicides are conspicuously missing from the list!) and select the area parameters.  You can search up to the last 90 days. 
    San Francisco Crime Blog picks up where SF Crime Maps leaves off.  The SF Crime Blog covers a variety of crimes in the blog section but really focuses on the murders that have occurred in SF.  In addition to a countdown of the homicides that have occurred, you’ll find a map that details those homicides for 2007 and 2008. *While I liked the format of this blog, a little birdie dropped a note in the comments that informed me of some potential copyright type issues surrounding the blog, and since I HATE it when people copy my content and put it all over the internet (y’all know who you are), I removed the link.*
    Once you have access to statistics, you can make your own decisions whether the neighborhood you want to live in is safe enough for you.

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