Luba Muzichenko

San Francisco Realtor

San Francisco MLS

Google Waves "Good-bye" to Real Estate (But I'm Still Waving "HELLO!")

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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.
I, for one, actually rooted for the G-team in the hopes that the various MLS agencies throughout the country would go the way of the dinosaur and that the public would have access to the same listings as Realtors, but at their speed, on their terms and at their leisure.
But as of February (or at least according to the internet gossip), Google will be bowing out of the real estate search game.
Home buyers in some locations will be left high and dry, or relying strictly on emails from their real estate agents (that hopefully are providing them with access to ALL available listings) to search from their dream home.
But here, in San Francisco, you can count on me to get you the real estate listings you crave! 😉
There is a small catch – you DO need to sign up for an account (hey, these are the SF MLS’s rules, NOT mine!!!), but as soon as you sign up, you can start searching MLS listings all day, every day.  You don’t even need to get out of your PJ’s if you don’t feel like it. 😉
So WHERE, you ask?  WHERE do you get this full-blown access to all the listings in San Francisco?
Why, RIGHT HERE!
Yes, you too can have 100% access to the listings on the MLS, even without the help of Google.
So if you’re in the market for a residence (house, condo, TIC, loft or co-op), click right here, sign right up, and get to searching!
And you want one more insider tip???
Not ALL listings are on the MLS!  For a variety of reasons, some agents need to keep a listing in their pocket (that is, NOT public) … and more and more of those listings are showing up on the quickly growing PocketListings.net website.  You won’t be able to see addresses, but your agent can.  And if that agent is me (and hopefully it is!), give me a shout on the ‘ole tellie, or shoot me an email and I’ll make sure to help you get the keys out of the listing agents’ pocket and into yours!
Either way, even without Google, if you’re in the San Francisco area and searching for a home, you have plenty of tools. 🙂  Happy hunting, and I look forward to hearing from you!

Help Me to Help You!

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As this little San Francisco real estate blog gets more popular (it averages 1500 unique visitors a month), more and more of you reach out to me through email and instant chat to ask questions about specific properties, about the real estate market or even about blogging in general (though I can assure you that I’m no expert on that topic.)
And while lots of you email me, a fair amount also use the instant chat feature you see on the right hand side of the screen as well which lets you send me an instant message whenever I’m online. 
Unfortunately though, I can’t be online all of the time because I need to be out in the field helping buyers find SF homes or working with sellers to get their SF properties ready for sale.  And when I’m not online – you can’t have a live chat with me. 
So please, please, please – if you’d like to send me an offline message, either email me or be sure to leave a way for me to contact you in the chat window (email or phone number are equally as effective). 
Because if you take the time to ask me a question – I want to give you an answer!
But,  I can’t respond if I have no way of getting back to you (and some questions are just too personal in nature to post for the world to read).
Now – all that being said, give me a holler if you have any questions about San Francisco real estate!  I’m always happy to help! :-)  And be sure to leave your contact info – help me to help you! 🙂

Google Your Way to Your New San Francisco Home

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I can’t believe that I didn’t catch this one on my own – I’m looking at Google Maps everyday for one thing or another.  But it HAS been HOT!  And the heat must have made my brain melt just a wee bit. 
Luckily SF Citizen is on the lookout!  While I was trying to guess just how hot it was going to be in the rest of the City (at my house on Great Highway, it was about 10 degrees cooler than it was in the rest of the City all day long!), SF Citizen was already reporting that Google is now showing San Francisco real estate listings on its map feature!
SF Citizen reports that Google says:

Google Maps is evolving from a driving directions and business search tool, to a comprehensive representation of all the world’s information, on a map.” That’s why Google Maps started to integrate different layers of information when you search for an address and it added a new “More” button to enable layers for photos and Wikipedia articles.

While it ain’t no MLS Property Search, it’s a start.  I’m guessing that soon enough, Google will figure out a way to make the search even more comprehensive. 
Thanks to SF Citizen for being on the ball while some of us were lacking focus due to the current heat wave.  And if you were melting just like me, grab yourself a hunk of ice to cool yourself down, because Thursday is supposed to get ever hotter!
Stay cool San Francisco, stay cool! 😉