If the NY Times is truly the arbiters of what is and isn’t in, I’m afraid my favorite expression in real estate is on the outs, “trophy appliances.”
In all my days of writing real estate copy nothing gave me more pleasure than the expression, “trophy appliances...” It brought to mind images of home buyers stalking the elusive Viking stainless steel six burner range...
Now it’s all about using a polite versions of the words, reduced and value... Or so says the Times
A great read if you’re writing real estate copy theses days...
Adjectives Get Evicted
By TERI KARUSH ROGERS
FOR better and worse, the mentality that helped propel the city’s real estate prices into lunar altitudes is gone. Not only are there fewer buyers today, but they are also more apt to have a yard-sale attitude, demanding sharp discounts on top of reduced prices — Poggenpohl kitchen and last year’s comps be damned.
Racing to keep up with a down-market mindset, many real estate brokers say they have been experimenting with a new paradigm in advertising, spinning their ads like roulette wheels in the hope of landing in the sweet spot of the parsimonious post-Lehman buyer.
The model is shaping up like this: The new propriety frowns at luxury, lifestyle and the fetishistic focus on designer brands and architects. Instead, brokers say they are trying to recast their listings in terms of responsible spending, comfort and, most especially, value.
“Three or four years ago, value was something that was uncomfortable even to talk about,” said Bruce Ehrmann, an associate broker at Stribling & Associates. “Value suggested thrift, and thrift meant you couldn’t keep up.”
But now value has another ring and thrift has a nice kind of sound. “People are not buying emotionally or lustily — they’re buying in a calculated manner the likes of which we haven’t seen in 15 years, except briefly after 9/11,” Mr. Ehrmann said. “The draw tends to be location, price and value before glory, glamour, Valcucine kitchens and Waterworks baths.”
An attractive price is the most direct way to convey value, preferably set off by some variation of the formerly taboo “reduced.”
“We never used to say ‘reduced’ in a very strong market because we felt people would think of it as tainted goods,” said Deanna Kory, a senior vice president at Corcoran. “But now if you don’t, people don’t think the seller is serious, especially if it’s been on the market any length of time. And people today feel cheated if they don’t get a deal.”
This is especially true, she added, in “certain categories that are more saturated, like one-bedroom co-ops and downtown lofts from $3 million to $6 million.”
Still, brokers were divided on the proper lingua franca for conveying price reductions and incipient seller desperation.
Amidst the announcement of President Barack Obama's housing plan, and with mortgage rates reaching historic lows, real estate web site Zillow.com reports record-breaking traffic and loan request activity within its free marketplace for custom mortgage quotes, Zillow Mortgage Marketplace.
Over the past three months, as mortgage rates dropped to their lowest levels
in years, consumer interest in refinancing soared. More than 70,000 loan
requests were submitted from borrowers on Zillow Mortgage Marketplace in the
December through February time period, with the average number of daily loan
requests up 142 percent in this same period versus November 2008. Refinancing
requests accounted for more than 60 percent of all consumer loan requests over
this three-month period.
Meanwhile, increased consumer interest in refinancing and dropping home
prices resulted in a series of record traffic months for Zillow.com. February
traffic reached 7.9 million unique users, which is up 60 percent
year-over-year.
If you're a real estate agent who Twitters, I'd love to start following your tweets... My goal is to post the best of the day's tweets to help agents looking to make the jump to social networking easier to understand, and see what good Twittering is all about...
Feel free to post your Twitter name in the comments section...
And if you're looking to improve your Twitter page, as always I suggest checking out, Twitter me up ... the site creates custom backgrounds that use the free space Twitter provides to create a branded page for your business.... I think prices start at around $25
It's that time of the day.... your daily does of bad news...
Pending sales of existing U.S. homes fell sharply in January, with an industry index dropping to a record low, according to a report on Tuesday that showed the deteriorating economy was keeping buyers on the sidelines.
The one bit of good news was foreclosures are again coming to the rescue... foreclosures now represent the biggest increase in home sales in California
I was visiting a real estate office this morning talking to an agent who just got a $3,00,000 listing... After chatting about the listing he mentioned the owners have no intentions of putting it on the MLS, I know it’s all the rage not to go on the MLS these days... The sellers are interested in buying a $4,000,000 home, but they want to gauge interest in their home first... So I was told the listing would go out to the usual top agent groups as well as various mailing lists...
I have access to dozens of these lists as well as mailing groups... I have to imagine so does everyone else...
I’m going to propose here staring a Twitter group that will help pass along the info when the new listing becomes available, but aren't going on the MLS... I can password protect the Tweets...
Twitter would be a great way to move the information along, protect the sellers and get even great exposure for the sellers...
Love to hear what everyone thinks...
Or follow me on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/sfreblog
Located right by the 280 Freeway and the 22nd street Cal train station in the Protrero Hill District, this condo/loft is a must see. It’s hip, chic, large, bright, spacious, just what any homeowner in San Francisco would dream of. The 1618sqft floorplan includes two large bedrooms and two bathrooms. This is plenty of space for working couples, roommates or even single families! And it’s reasonably priced at $699K! See if for yourself!
Looking for a way to find new clients? Let me suggest you use this year’s biggest trend in real estate do so; requests for assessment review. Yes, folks from all over the great state of California are going to their county assessor to see about getting their property taxes lowered. But you only get one shot at it a year, and it needs to be done right...
Enter your local real estate expert...
Here’s how I see it working... The appeal process requires three comparable properties sale to be submitted along with your paper work for an assessment review... Now if I’m Joe the Plumber, where do I go to find comps... I’m guessing most folks don’t really know where to start... Enter your friendly neighborhood real estate agent... Not only do you stand a chance of helping someone save money, but you get an introduction to a potential new client on really friendly terms... Someone who now sees you as a friend when times are tough and when thing pick up, someone who they might like to return the favor...
What do you need to do? Spend all of 10 minutes on the MLS running down and printing out comps to help potential clients with the review process...
It’s that simple, you’re a real estate agent, and a friend who helps folks save money...
Be sure to check with your local assessor's office for deadlines and paperwork requirements...
I was looking at a Bay Area homes magazine this morning, you know the one, it use to be 75 pages thick, this week its 16 pages including the back cover... in an ad for a real estate "team", they describe themselves in large font as,"progressive," and just below that as, "aggressive."
I had a friend with a pit bull that was aggressive, and not in a good way....
I'm not sure if the ad is the result of a weekend branding conference they attended, but I need clarification on what it means to be both aggressive and progressive...
If you know, or if you're the "team" in question, I'd love some insight... Feel free as always to leave your answers in the comments section.
As is the tradition here in San Francisco, spring is a very good time of year for not only for homes sellers, but buyers....
Victor Fisher with Vision Real Estate thinks this spring will be no different. He sees, "A plethora of inventory thrust upon the market... a lot of first time buyers will take advantage of this historic opportunity and the more seasoned buyers looking for more smoking deals."
The NY Times in a flip flopping sort of story sees some good signs in the spring market here in San Francisco, but not to many...
The Times points out there are signs of improvement, but probably not enough to turn the market around...
Below is their take on the spring market here in California...
A Gloomy Outlook for Home Sales’ Big Season
By VIKAS BAJAJ
The “For Sale” signs are just starting to sprout, but already experts worry that this spring home-buying season will be even grimmer than the last.
Despite tentative signs of recovery in hard-hit areas like California and Florida, the broader housing market is far from reaching bottom, economists say. Across much of the nation, prices are likely to keep falling into 2010.
So this March-to-June season, when most homes are bought and sold, will be bad, perhaps the worst since the market began to spiral down in 2006.
Across the nation, 19 million houses and apartments — nearly one out of every seven — are vacant, the highest percentage since the 1960s. But only about six million of those homes are for sale or for rent. That means millions more could still flood onto the market, depressing prices further.
For would-be sellers, the bad news keeps coming. This week, one new report showed that one in nine mortgages was delinquent or in foreclosure, while another showed that January contract signings for sales of previously owned homes fell at their fastest pace in two years.
On Wednesday, the Obama administration announced details of a plan that will pay banks to lower monthly payments for troubled borrowers, hoping to avert millions of foreclosures and keep more homes occupied. Despite that effort, most analysts expect the outlook to worsen.
But as the recession deepens, the downturn in housing, where the economic crisis began, is starting to play out in new, unexpected ways. Cities where home values held up last year are suffering now, while some suburban areas where prices plunged are slowly starting to improve.
In inland areas of California, for instance, sales are surging now that prices have fallen sharply. But most of the sellers are not individuals but rather banks that foreclosed on homeowners who could not or would not pay their mortgages.
The weekly average rate borrowers were quoted on Zillow Mortgage
Marketplace for thirty-year mortgages remained
relatively steady for the third consecutive week at 5.28 percent, down
slightly from 5.29 percent the week prior, according to the Zillow Mortgage
Rate Monitor, compiled by leading real estate Web site Zillow.com®.
Meanwhile, rates for 15-year fixed mortgages dropped to 4.82 percent, down
from 4.89 percent and 5-1 adjustable rate mortgages dropped considerably,
down to 4.64 percent from 4.93 percent the week prior.
The only positive thing I can say about this one is that homes are getting more affordable everday... otherwise here's the bad news from Reuters
U.S. home price drops accelerated in January, falling 3.5 percent from December and erasing another $610 billion from the value of housing stock, according to the IAS360 House Price Index released on Tuesday.
That drop brings the destruction in home equity wealth since the financial crisis deepened in September to about $2.4 trillion, said Integrated Asset Management, a Denver-based default management and property valuation company that compiled the index.
Home prices have fallen 24.7 percent since the peak of the housing market in November 2006, according to IAS's data. Some Florida counties have seen home prices decline more than 50 percent, it showed.
The "tailspin continues" for the U.S. housing market, IAS said in a statement.
Among census regions, Midwestern homes have suffered some of the worst depreciation since September, topping the nation in January with a 4.5 percent fall, IAS said. All other census regions saw price drops of more than 3 percent.
The Golden State has once again become the land of opportunity for scammers. The California Department of Real Estate and the federal government are warning folks looking to refinance their trouble mortgages to be weary of scams.
According to published reports, firms, lawyers and real estate agents are offering to help arrange for new financing for troubled homeowners for a fee, in some case charging more than a $1,000... The bill passed by Congress made available millions of dollars to counseling centers to provide, “foreclosure prevention” help for FREE.
According to California DRE 300 companies already have come forward to setup camp offering fee charging loan modification. THERE IS NO FEE TO MODIFY YOUR LOAN IF YOU QUALIFY. If you’re not sure if you qualify, you can call the "Hope Hotline" at 888-995-4673 or visit the website Hopenow.com
The President has repeatedly said troubled homeowners don’t need to pay anybody for these services.
So if you do have a client come to you looking for advice, remind them Uncle Sam is picking up the freight and suggest they call the Hope Hotline at 888-995-4673.
I came across an ad this week in one of the neighborhood papers....two agents had taken out a full page to market their listings... The page was divided into six equal squares with listing ranging from $2.79 million to $4.2 million with the top left square as you can see asking if the market had it bottom... And then suggesting the only way to find out was to make an offer... So it wasn’t clear to me if they were telling potential buyers the homes the were selling were clearly overpriced, or the sellers were desperate...
If you’ve seen a bad, ad drop me a note... And I’ll be sure to post it here so we can all learn from the mistakes of others...
Located right by Cesar Chavez and the 280 freeway, this 1,244 sqft Central Waterfront loft is totally worth it. The spacious loft includes one bed, one and half baths, large private deck and deeded parking, The kitchen features granite counter tops and stainless steel appliances. The unit also features stone tiles in the bathrooms, in-unit washer and dryer and within walking distance to the Dogpatch bars and restaurants and public transit. It’s surely worthy of attending an open house this weekend.
It seems Americans are waking to the idea they don't need 4,000 square feet of living space.
According to the USA Today as Californian's we helping led the way toward more eco-friendly homes and better building ideas...
Here's how the USA Today explains it...
When architect Sarah Susanka remodeled her kitchen, she didn't use pricey granite or edgy concrete for her countertops. She used laminate. Her cabinets: Ikea.
"You can save thousands of dollars" by using simple materials in a well-designed space, says Susanka, author of the best-selling 1998 book The Not So Big House.
For more than a decade, she has urged people to build better, not bigger. Now, as the U.S. economy struggles to climb out of a tailspin and environmental concerns rise, her message has gone mainstream.
New homes, after doubling in size since 1960, are shrinking. Last year, for the first time in at least 10 years, the average square footage of single-family homes under construction fell dramatically, from 2,629 in the second quarter to 2,343 in the fourth quarter, Census data show.
The new motto: living well with less.
"There's a shift in the culture," says Susanka, whose new book, Not So Big Remodeling, helps homeowners use existing space better. She says the economy has forced people to rethink McMansions and focus instead on what they need.
If you grew-up in California you heard your fair share of people telling you California was going to fall in the ocean and Nevada would be nothing but ocean front property.
A new study out says global warming and raising ocean levels are going to make inland California ocean front property, leaving San Francisco nothing more than a jumbo puddle...
The report estimates about 100 billion dollars of real estate will be claimed by raising ocean levels and without some reason considerations to damage control we're doomed...
here's how the report put's it...
"No part of the world famous bay area is safe and San Francisco's Embarcadero and parts of Richmond, West Oakland, Alameda, Sausalito and Alviso will all be underwater unless levees or other protective structures are built, it is claimed."
The weekly average rate borrowers were quoted on Zillow Mortgage Marketplace for
thirty-year mortgages fell for thefirst time in a month to 5.21 percent, down from 5.28 percent
the week prior,according to the Zillow Mortgage Rate Monitor, compiled by leading real estate
Web site Zillow.com®. Meanwhile, rates for 15-year fixed mortgages dropped to
4.78 percent, down from 4.82 percent and 5-1 adjustable rate mortgages
increased, up to 4.71 percent from 4.64 percent the week prior.
March 18, 2009
Fresh numbers out this week give some insight into where the real estate money is going these days.
The information covers January 1 - March 15th...
Pretty straight forward, but if anyone wants to leave their insider’s view of the market, I would encourage you to leave your thoughts in the comments section below
Below each brokerage is the percentage of the market they own...
Coldwell Banker 17.4%
Zephyr 9.36%
PacUnion 6.63%
Paragon 5.90%
McGuire 5.10%
Hill & Co. 3.59%
VanGuard 3.56%
Brown & Co. 3.41%
Sotheby’s 3.15%
Alain Pinel 2.75%
Thanks to Ron Parks at Vision Real Estate for his help.
Sorry if the numbers are a little small, but best I could do with the space given... if you need help with specific numbers, feel free to drop me a note.
Check out this single family home just listed in Noe Valley. The home includes three beds and one bath, open living room with high ceilings, inlaid hardwood floors and a bay of windows with a picture frame molding and decorative fireplace. Adjacent to a bedroom is a walk-through formal dining room with skylights and hardwood floors. There’s also an open kitchen that features a six burner Wolf range with griddle, hanging pot rack, stainless appliances, white cabinets, a center island and pantry. The master bedroom includes a central deck with awesome views. All for $885K.
The median home price in San Francisco Bay Area last month dropped below $300,000 for the first time in almost a decade... Yes, below $300,000.... And folks are starting to buy again based on facts from MDA DataQuick.
The median price fell to $295,000, down a record 46 percent from $548,000 a year earlier and reaching the lowest level since 1999...A total of 5,032 new and existing houses and condominiums sold last month in the nine-county region, up 26 percent from a year earlier.
Northern California prices are being driven down by a rise in foreclosures, with properties in default typically selling at a discount. Stricter lending standards for more expensive properties are affecting the market as well according to MDA DataQuick. Less than 18 percent of Bay Area homes were purchased with loans of more than $417,000 last month, down from 62 percent before credit tightening began in August 2007.
The signs of an improving San Francisco real estate market area everywhere these days... What’s selling might no be the multiple bid deals of yesteryear, but foreclosures and short sales are taking the bad inventory off the market... Skidding mortgage rates are doing their job, so today’s announcement of an unexpected rebound in existing homes sales is good all around.
Existing-home sales rebounded in February, climbing above expectations, but prices plunged again.
Home resales climbed to a 4.72 million annual rate, a 5.1% increase from January's unrevised 4.49 million annual pace, the National Association of Realtors said Monday.
More
Foreclosures and short sales reflect about 45% of total existing-home sales. Distressed properties are discounted, so the abundance of these sales prices new homes out of the market, discouraging construction and weakening the overall housing sector further.
With so many distressed sales, the median price for an existing home fell last month. At $165,400 in February, the median price was down 15.5% from $195,800 in February 2008. The median price in January this year was $164,800. The 15.5% plunge is the second biggest ever, behind January's 17.5% drop.
The sharp tumble in prices, falling because of bloated inventory, is restraining demand. Monday's data showed inventories of previously owned homes rose 5.2% at the end of February to 3.8 million available for sale, which represented a 9.7-month supply at the current sales pace. There was a 9.7-month supply at the end of January.
If you’re in the business of selling real estate, the search for clients who aren’t friends or family is always the challenge... So I’m proud to let you all know the next growing pocket of buyers is renters....
With stunningly low interests rates (I got 4.375 yesterday on a 30 year fixed) and record low home prices, renters are the new buyers....
Consider eveyr renter in Pac Heights your next client... It's time to get you name in the laundromats of the City’s best neighborhoods... Flyers on cars near the better apartment buildings or buy yourself an ad in the most niche of neighborhood papers.... Better yet consider finding a blog the serves the neighborhoods of renters... Can’t find the right blog, let me know and I’ll be happy to help...
The jump from renter to buyer has become to obvious, even the mainstream press it talking about it...
Here’s what the folks at Reuters news service had to say...
By Julie Haviv
NEW YORK (Reuters) - After six years of renting in San Francisco, Kate Wilusz jumped at the chance to swap her tiny apartment for a roomy four-bedroom Victorian home. But she is paying a mortgage instead of rent -- and coming out even.
"I could not be more thrilled," said Wilusz, a financial planner who recently closed on the dream house with her husband, Charley.
In some U.S. markets, prices appear to have fallen enough to make buying cheaper than renting. Mix that with mortgage rates that are near record lows and renters who want to become buyers are rejoicing.
"The U.S. government is helping bail out those who bought at the top, but I got my own personal stimulus package through falling home prices and low interest rates on mortgages," said Wilusz, who works at Ameriprise Financial.
Wilusz said instinct told her it was time to buy, and her new home costs her as much to own as it would have to rent.
"Everyone was saying home prices in San Francisco would never go down, but any time someone says something will never happen, it usually happens and it is time to be a contrarian," she said.
San Francisco, one of the metropolitan areas covered in the widely watched Standard & Poor's S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices, has shown significant home price depreciation. Home prices fell 3.8 percent in December from November.
San Francisco was also one of the worst-performing cities in terms of year-over-year declines in December, with home prices dropping an average 31.2 percent.
Earlier this month I talked about how sellers were putting more pressure on agents to sell; this listing is one of those... Following a Bay Area trend I've been hearing about, sellers are now giving agents deadlines to sell by, or asking their properties be pocket listings only... A recent top agent list I saw was nearing 100 homes... I'm not sure how avoiding the open market benefits sellers... Love some insight...
Located on a 3/4 acre lot is this custom home built in 2006 in classic Ross style. Exquisite 5BR/4BA with a new addition currently being constructed that could be a library, office or another bedroom. Features top of the line finishes, Brazilian plank cherry floors, custom Crystal cabinetry, wainscoting and crown molding. Covered wrap-around Connecticut Blue Stone porches and large level lawn. Easy commute to downtown Tiburon or SF.
SAN FRANCISCO – The weak economy is proving to be a blessing for still-employed renters who were forced to beg, line up and pay skyrocketing prices for apartments just six months ago.
Rents are tumbling as units are vacated by laid-off workers.
“We’re running a vacancy rate which is unheard of in San Francisco,” said Janan New, executive director of the San Francisco Apartment Association. “I don’t know if rents have gone into a total free fall, but clearly they’re coming down.”
Property owners are having a difficult time renting higher-end apartments, according to New. At the lower end of the market, apartment owners are being worn down by longtime San Franciscans taking advantage of the weak market to move into better homes or new neighborhoods.
“There are clearly people moving within The City — hard bargainers who have been here for a while and know the drill,” New said. “But we’re not seeing people from outside coming into The City.”
To fill empty units, owners of large apartment complexes are offering prospective tenants significant incentives, such as a month of free rent or free parking, according to Colliers International San Francisco broker Stephen Jackson. “Mom and pop” property owners will be forced to follow suit, he said.
“If you want to start negotiating your rent with your landlord, they’re going to have to lower it,” Jackson said. “Rents are dropping by $200 citywide.”
The spike in vacancies is a likely harbinger of further declines in rent, according to Caroline Latham, owner of RealFacts, a San Francisco-based real estate research firm that’s finalizing first-quarter data.
“People who were surveying said they hardly found any [units] with rents up, that a lot were unchanged and some were down. But overall, occupancy was down significantly,” Latham said. “Occupancy is the predictor of what’s going to happen to future [rent prices].”
Units are being vacated as laid-off workers move out of The City or into existing households with family members or friends, according to Latham and others.
“You can bet that household size is growing,” Latham said.
A new study of home buying trends says folks with cash are starting to buy again, not to mention KB Homes, not a big seller here in the Bay Area, but a good indicator of where things are headed reported on Friday that orders for new homes rose for the first time since 2005... Further proof came this week with the sale of a Belvedere home for 5 million dollars that sold in less than 30 days...
Sellers do seem to be more willing to put big homes on the market... This Greenbrae home is coming on the market this week.... $3,495.000 (5 bedrooms, 4.5 baths, 4,600 sq. ft and a jumbo flat lot with pool)... Marin real estate legend Barbara Major got the listing 415.381.7369... Seems to be an indicator seller's are willing to test the waters once again
WASHINGTON (AP) — Home prices sank by the sharpest annual rate on record in January, and the pace continues to accelerate, but there were a handful battered metro areas where price declines slowed, according to data released Tuesday.
The Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller index of home prices in 20 major cities tumbled by a record 19 percent from January 2008. It was the largest decline since the index started in 2000. The 10-city index dropped 19.4 percent, also a new record.
All 20 cities in the report showed monthly and annual price declines, with 13 posting new annual records. Prices dropped by more than 10 percent in 14 cities. Faring better were Dallas, Denver and Cleveland, with annual price declines of around 5 percent.
"There are very few bright spots that one can see in the data," David Blitzer, chairman of S&P's index committee, said in a prepared statement. "Most of the nation appears to remain on a downward path."
In the Cleveland, Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Washington D.C. metro areas — all ravaged by foreclosures_ annual price declines eased somewhat. Meanwhile, six cities, including Minneapolis, Charlotte, Seattle and New York, showed smaller price declines in January compared with December.
