Realtor.org suggests 10 questions to ask the condo board before you consider buying. In the process you will learn how quickly they respond and how well organized they are to requests. Here are the 10 questions:

“1. What percentage of units is owner-occupied? What percentage is tenant-occupied? Generally, the higher the percentage of owner-occupied units, the more marketable the units will be at resale.

“2. What covenants, bylaws, and restrictions govern the property? What grandfather clauses are in place? You may find, for instance, that those who buy a property after a certain date can’t rent out their units, but buyers who bought earlier can. Ask for a copy of the bylaws to determine if you can live within them. And have an attorney review property docs, including the master deed, for you.

“3. How much does the association keep in reserve? How is that money being invested?

“4. Are association assessments keeping pace with the annual rate of inflation? Smart boards raise assessments a certain percentage each year to build reserves to fund future repairs. To determine if the assessment is reasonable, compare the rate to others in the area.

“5. What does and doesn’t the assessment cover—common area maintenance, recreational facilities, trash collection, snow removal?

“6. What special assessments have been mandated in the past five years? How much was each owner responsible for? Some special assessments are unavoidable. But repeated, expensive assessments could be a red flag about the condition of the building or the board’s fiscal policy.

“7. How much turnover occurs in the building?

“8. Is the project in litigation? If the builders or homeowners are involved in a lawsuit, reserves can be depleted quickly.

“9. Is the developer reputable? Find out what other projects the developer has built and visit one if you can. Ask residents about their perceptions. Request an engineer’s report for developments that have been reconverted from other uses to determine what shape the building is in. If the roof, windows, and bricks aren’t in good repair, they become your problem once you buy.

“10. Are multiple associations involved in the property? In very large developments, umbrella associations, as well as the smaller association into which you’re buying, may require separate assessments.”

- NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®

Our office at TRI Coldwell Banker at 1699 Van Ness in San Francisco is one of the premier offices in the City. We have some of the top agents selling real estate in the San Francisco Bay Area. As a result, our office posts some impressive numbers.

As you can see from the numbers below (which are 2 weeks combined due to Thanksgiving) that sales are continuing to do well in our office, even though listings are down. Again, this indicates that buyers are being represented. With pending sales outpacing listings, it won’t be long before inventories shrink, and we begin to see more and more competition between buyers. So far there seems to be no holiday slowdown. Perhaps people are buying themselves homes for Christmas?

11/29/06
4 new listings (average listing price $1,173,500)
20 ratified sales (pending) (average ratified price $1,193,211)
25 closed sales (sold) (average closed price $1,488,676)
2 reduced (average reduced price $2,167,500)

- Mick Orton

Fisherman’s Warf as described on the SFResidence neighborhood guide:

From Wikipedia, “Fisherman’s Wharf… Roughly speaking it encompasses the northern waterfront area of San Francisco from Ghirardelli Square or Van Ness Street east to Pier 35 or Kearny Street. It is mainly a tourist attraction, known for being the location of Pier 39, San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park, Ghirardelli Square, Ripley’s Believe it or Not, the Musée Mécanique, ferry rides to Alcatraz and restaurants that serve seafood, most notably dungeness crab. Transportation to Fisherman’s Wharf can be an attraction of itself, the F Market runs through the area, the Powell-Hyde cable car lines runs to Aquatic Park, at the edge of Fisherman’s Wharf, and the Powell-Mason cable car line runs a few blocks away. Other popular areas in San Francisco, such as Chinatown, Lombard Street and North Beach are all located in proximity to Fisherman’s Wharf.”

SFGate says, “All San Franciscans love to hate Fisherman’s Wharf. Content never to visit the area, they complain of the tacky shops selling cheap souvenirs, the “novelty” museums whose novelty has long worn off and busloads of tourists blocking the view to Alcatraz.” Read more.

For more information on other neighborhoods and street maps visit our website.

- Mick Orton

Previous Neighborhoods

Foster Weeks does a weekly mortgage update.
===================================
“…Despite all the buying and selling in the malls – the financial markets saw very little action last week, and was far from busy for Bonds and home loan rates. The absence of news and thinly staffed trading desks brought very little activity, with home loan rates unchanged for the week overall.

“…Prices have been relatively stable and have shown little movement for the month of November. But bond prices are near the top of their recent range, so a hotter than expected read on inflation will spell trouble for home loan rates.”…

- Foster Weeks

Avram Goldman, President and COO of Coldwell Banker, San Francisco Bay Area said in his latest weekly report:

“Hope everyone had their fill of turkey, pumpkin pie, and all the other family favorites. Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays–a time to be with family and friends and give thanks for all the abundance and great lives we live. Our homes are the filled with delicious memories past and present. We, as Realtors, help our clients create these wonderful memories. We are fortunate to have found such a rewarding profession.

“Back to the holiday market. Yes, it is like years past, as people prepare for Thanksgiving, sales activity does slow, but doesn’t stop. Open house activity with few exceptions is energetic. The Burlingame office reported one open home with over 100 buyers through and several others with 50-100 groups. The buyers are out there, they are just taking their time in finding the right home (value= correct market price+market preparedness).

“We are still seeing multiple offers, however in fewer markets. San Francisco, parts of San Mateo and northern Santa Clara counties have the majority of these transactions. Declining inventories are beginning to have an impact on the market as sellers who are frustrated with their homes not selling after many months are taking their listings off the market. This combined with fewer listings coming on the market are driving listing inventories down. This trend is shown in that 75% of our offices reported decreasing inventories and none of our offices increased. San Francisco leads the pact as their inventories begin to dip below the 3 month level and is the force behind the city having more multiple offers than any other Bay Area market place. Other markets like Burlingame and Palo Alto are experiencing the same effect. As inventories reduce, buyers will have fewer choices and this may create a greater sense of urgency.

“Those sellers that have a need to sell are more open to realistic pricing and suggestions on how to prepare their home for sale. It has taken nearly a year of a correcting market to create a sense of a new reality. This is a positive sign as our market heads toward equilibrium. Unfortunately the media continues to over-exaggerate the state of the market. Several so-called experts predicting doom and gloom. This is par for the course, as many of them have been prognosticating about the bubble for more than 4 years. The market has finally slowed as compared to the go-go years of 2004 and 2005, but nowhere near the hard hit markets of the early 80’s and 90’s. We will not see the double digit appreciation of the last several years; however we will not see a steep fall off of prices. A few markets will continue to appreciate (in single digits), some will stay flat and a few will lose some of the appreciation of past markets.

“As stated in a previous report our open sales in October were down 14% from last year. That is a significant drop from a Bay Area wide average of 22% off in sales for the first 9 months of the year. If November follows that trend this could be what some economists have called the “soft landing”.

“A number of offices are seeing steady activity as buyers are looking for the Holiday gift of a home. Activity should pick up from now until mid-December with a typical slowing toward the holidays. Interest rates appear to be stable—still at historic lows. However, there may be a chance they could drop a bit lower if the economy begins to slow. Bottom line is the Bay Area is still one of the most desirable places to live in the world, our local economy is still creating jobs and demand is still active. All these factors bode well for a healthy balanced market—-one where both buyers and sellers are on equal footing with each having to give a little.

“Here are the numbers for the week of Nov. 13th-19th: 7 offices reported steady inventories and 21had decreasing—3 offices showed increasing activity, 15 steady and 10 decreasing.”

- Avram Goldman

* For an e-mail alert when this report is updated, send a note to info@SFResidence.com with “weekly market report” in the subject line.

Chinatown as described on the SFResidence neighborhood guide:

Nestled between Nob Hill, the Financial District and North Beach you can find Chinatown.It is like being in a different country without ever leaving San Francisco. SFGate does a great job of highlighting the features of this quaint neighborhood.

Other highlights on this page include:

Sights and Culture
Shopping
Restaurants
Nightlife

For more information on other neighborhoods and street maps visit our website.

- Mick Orton

Previous Neighborhoods

On November 13, MarketWatch published a great article explaining how reverse mortgages could be the answer for retirees who have a lot of equity in their home and want to use that money to live on without having to sell their home outright. Although reverse mortages are expensive right now, as they become more well known, the competition could bring the price down.

Read the article here.

We also published a series on “How to pull money out of a property without selling it”. Read the 3 articles.

- Mick Orton

It is truly a time for giving thanks. We are fortunate to live in a beautiful and prosperous area of the country. While economies in many other areas of the United States are being hurt by the housing slowdown, California’s markets still seem to be thriving in the metropolitan areas.

After all this talk about the housing bubble, it is nice to see some news to the contrary for a change. Although the marketing times continue to be about 40-60 days in many cases, prices seem to be holding relatively well, with a few exceptions. Yesterday, the California Association of Realtors issued this report that luxury home values in three areas continue to rise… and San Francisco is one of them!

The California Association of Realtors report says, “The value of high-end homes in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and San Diego posted record highs in the third quarter of 2006, according to the First Republic Prestige Home Index™, which tracks homes valued at more than $1 million in key California markets. Despite the record highs, rising inventories and longer sales cycles kept luxury home price appreciation to single digits in all three markets. In Los Angeles, which previously experienced 14 consecutive quarters of double-digit, year-over-year price appreciation, luxury home values increased 4.4 percent to $2.37 million.”

“The values of luxury homes in San Diego and San Francisco also recorded modest gains last quarter, rising 5.4 percent and 4 percent, respectively. According to the index, the average luxury home in San Francisco is now valued at a record $2.96 million, while the average luxury home value in San Diego is $2.18 million.”

Read the First Republic Prestige Home Index™ report here.

- Mick Orton

According to a November 1 report, home sales are expected to hold steady in the months ahead. Here’s what the report said:

“Home sales are expected to hold fairly steady in the months ahead, according to the latest reading on pending home sales published by the National Association of Realtors®.

“The Pending Home Sales Index,* based on contracts signed in September, slipped 1.1 percent to a level of 109.1, following a 4.5 percent gain in August, but remains 13.6 percent below September 2005.”

Read the rest of the article here.

- Realtor.org

Diane Kennedy is the author of the Rich Dad book, “Loopholes of the Rich: How the Rich Legally Make More Money and Pay Less Tax”, has a website dedicated to the ever changing tax laws and how to take advantage of them.

Here is an excerpt from her latest e-mail newsletter.

“Here are the top 3 tax mistakes that I’ve seen over the years. In each case the mistake can be traced back to a failure to understand a crucial element of investing.

1. Failure to understand what TYPE of real estate investor you are. Are you a dealer, developer, professional or investor?
2. Failure to understand WHEN you bought or sold a property. With creative real estate financing and investing this can be tricky, and not as straightforward as you think.
3. Failure to MAXIMIZE the tax benefits of real estate. The loopholes are out there – but if you don’t use them, or use the wrong type of structure to hold your assets, you can lose out on perhaps the most powerful real estate benefit of all – the tax savings!

Understanding what you’re doing (and why it matters) is the subject of this week’s What’s Hot.”

- Diane kennedy