When we bought our contract to build at Red Frog Beach 3 years ago, we were on the cutting edge of US citizens who were beginning to buy property in Panama and retiring there. There were many articles about it being the next craze, similar to what happened in Costa Rica. Check the Internet and Google Panama and retirement you get about 201,000 results.

Not long ago, I got an e-mail from a woman from my high school graduating class who found me by searching on my name, and Panama kept coming up. There just are no secrets on the Internet, I guess. Turns out she is buying in a development near Panama City and wanted to hear about our investment.

Anyway, our project in Bocas del Toro looked like a dream come true. We could buy our beach front villa at the price of a small condo in San Francisco. The cost of living down there is practically nothing compared to the cost of living in the United States.

So we eagerly put our money down and got into contract. Several months into the building phase, the workers went on strike. In that time (over a year now) we learned a lot about buying property in other countries! Here are some things you might want to think about:

1)       Get an “in country” representative that knows the country and local laws regarding owning real estate like an attorney or Realtor. The worst thing we did was buy in Panama without representation or an understanding of the local laws and customs.

2)       Depending on the country, it might be best to own the property in an entity like an IBC (International Business Corporation) to protect yourselves from lawsuits. But that is for your legal person to clarify.

3)       Check into financing options. They are probably different from buying in the US; unless you are paying cash, then it’s a moot point. But if you want to get out, it will affect your ability to sell.

4)       Be aware of rights of possession land versus titled land. Sometimes they are not treated the same. Find out the difference in the country you are buying.

5)       Is it a home, condo or in a planned development? Find out the tax situation for that country. For example, in Panama, they keep changing the laws. What was once a tax haven has now changed and property taxes will be due on all titled properties. This all happened within 3 years.

6)       Safety – pick a country with a safe government. Not all countries are created equal. Some of these island possessions change government by coups and in those turnovers, people lose property rights. Check what the history is for that country.

7)       Property management – see if the representative knows anything about managing rental properties and see if they can give you information or point you to someone who does rentals so you know what to expect. We found that handling our own rentals is a pain, especially the tax reporting (Hawaii). We prefer letting a professional company do it, and they file all the taxes.

       It’s only money. As long as you know it’s a risk, you’ll be in good shape if anything bad happens.

We have had an education from the school of hard knocks. Fortunately, we were able to restructure our deal and are now in a pretty good equity position once the construction starts back up.

Happy investing!

- Mick Orton
Marketing Director

Foster Weeks publishes a weekly mortgage report which is updated every Monday morning. How is this affecting the San Francisco real estate market? Read our weekly and monthly market reports. Here’s what Mr. Weeks says about last week’s activity:

…Bonds have certainly weathered all kinds of days this spring, with this past week being no exception. Bonds did enjoy some high times starting with Monday’s move to the upside after National City Corporation announced they would be receiving a $7 Billion cash infusion. This move suggests that investors are seeing value in the battered financial sector, and perhaps are feeling that there is a bottom being reached in the credit crunch.

In other headlines, Existing Home Sales met expectations, but New Home Sales numbers for March were worse than expected, possibly due to the large increase in the costs for materials needed to construct a home. But then there was a change in climate on Friday, as inflation news from around the World created some strong adverse headwinds for Bonds and home loan rates. Overall, home loan rates ended the volatile week unchanged to slightly higher.

Now is still a good time to take advantage of historically low home loan rates before more inflation talk pushes them higher. I’m always here to help advise you, your friends, and your colleagues…no matter the season!

Read the entire report here.

- Foster Weeks

You’ll find out on Thursday which talented San Francisco photographer took this stunning sunset photo from his Dog Patch studio!

From time to time we will be showcasing various artists, photographers and writers in the Bay Area and featuring some of their work.

Click on the picture to bring it up to full size and enjoy the detail!

- Mick Orton
Marketing Director

No matter what your opinion was of Barry Bonds, any Giants fan would have to admit that more focus was put on his home run record than was put on winning in the past several years. I admit I was one of those who enjoyed Bond’s time here in the Bay Area, but now that’s over.

This year has been most enjoyable. After a really slow start, the Giants are starting to show signs of actually being able to win some games. The new players are exciting to watch! And who knows, maybe “Babe” Bowker is going to be the next Mickey Mantle? All right, so I’m exaggerating a bit, but any fan would have to admit that the Giants are fun again!

Last night was a perfect example. They were down 10-5 in the bottom of the ninth inning. For the past several years we would have had to watch them trot out Barry Bonds as a pinch hitter (because he didn’t want to play a night game after a night game!) with men on base. To cheering fans he would then either 1) fly out, 2) strike out, 3) hit into a double play or 4) least likely, hit a home run and bring us closer in our inevitable loss.

Instead, we now get to see a bunch of young guys make things happen. In the course of the game, they kept hitting and scoring to keep the game close. In the bottom of the ninth they scored 4 runs and had a chance to win! We started to believe it. They started to believe it. Though they ended up losing 10-9, it was still a great game.

SFResidence has good seats in section 121, row 40, seats 5 & 6 which we love sharing with friends and associates. If you are interested in getting FREE tickets to the game, just sign up for our newsletter (use the Vertical Response form in the left margin). Let me know you’ve done so by e-mail. In return for signing up, we’ll send you a list of several game dates from which to choose.

Then every month watch our e-mail newsletter for information on the real estate market as well as a list of game dates from which you can choose. But be quick; they go fast! It’s our way of showing you our appreciation for making us your number 1 source in San Francisco real estate!

- Mick Orton
Marketing Director

Find other things to do here.

Around 1864 Samuel Clemens, better known as Mark Twain, left Nevada after working for a Virginia City newspaper, the Territorial Enterprise and came to San Francisco to work for a variety of newspapers. The PBS website says the following in their New Perspectives on the West series:

The experience of filing daily reports on the picturesque doings in a Nevada mining town helped Clemens sharpen and broaden his abilities as a writer. After two years, he carried those talents to San Francisco, where he wrote for a variety of newspapers and periodicals, among them The Californian, edited by Bret Harte. Though they were to quarrel later, at this time Clemens and Harte shared a common ambition, and the more experienced Harte proved a valuable guide as Clemens tried to work the comic artifice out of his humor and develop a more natural, conversational style. With “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County,” published in 1865 by The Saturday Press of New York, and reprinted by newspapers across the country, this style made its first appearance, a style readers would soon come to recognize as the voice of Mark Twain. Clemens left San Francisco in 1866…

An independent researcher named Barbara Schmidt has created a website with a collection of Mark Twain quotes and newspaper articles. Those written in San Francisco may also be read here.

Of all the characters that have lived in our city, Mark Twain surely was one of the most colorful. A quote most often falsely attributed to him is, “The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco.” Though it’s a great line, and can be true when the fog makes a visit, SNOPES has documented that Mr. Clemens did not say this.

- Mick Orton
Marketing Director

SFResidence is the place to go if you have a question about San Francisco. We have a comprehensive collection of market reports for the San Francisco real estate market, including weekly morgtage, weekly market, weekly TRI Coldwell Banker office and monthly market reports. We also have a monthly newsletter to which you can subscribe! We LOVE talking about ourselves and the market.

If you are looking for information about San Francisco neighborhoods, you will find it on our site, complete with maps and descriptions. And at the bottom of each page are links to school information.

If you live in San Francisco and are looking for interesting things to do, you will find it on our site in the Things to Do area.

We have a San Francisco Multiple Listing Service link on our website so you can search for your own property using any criterion you want.

So why would you go anywhere else to look for information on San Francisco??? Use our search feature to find what you are looking for on our website or our blog!

- Mick Orton
Marketing Director

Yahoo Travel says this about the Sts. Peter and Paul Church :

Despite the popular misconception, Joe DiMaggio did not marry Marilyn Monroe in this opulent church (that was at City Hall). He did, however, marry his first wife, starlet Dorothy Arnold, here and it was this church that celebrated his funeral mass. Dating only from 1922, this Roman Catholic church is awash in marble, gilding and ornately carved wood, starting with the life-size marble angel at the entrance. Inside the hushed sanctuary, redolent with the aroma of burning candles, is an elaborately carved and painted ceiling glinting with gold leaf. Pendant chandeliers in aged brass and frosted glass hang from the arches of the colonnade on either side of the nave. The altar is an explosion of marble carved with the titular saints of the church, plus cherubs, angels and all the niches and domes needed to contain them. Statues and shrines, including one to Our Lady of Lourdes that features a faux grotto, line the walls and the elaborate chapels.

Neighborhood: North Beach

666 Filbert Street
San Francisco, CA 94133

+1 415 421 0809

gibbons@stspeterpaul.san-francisco.ca.us

Open HoursMass: 7:30a, 9a, 12:15p M-Su

http://www.stspeterpaul.san-francisco.ca.us/church/

Take a look at some of our previous San Francisco attractions!

SFResidence is part of the TRI Coldwell Banker office at 1699 Van Ness in San Francisco which is one of the premier offices in the City and has the market share numbers to prove it. 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.

This morning’s meeting featured a presentation by Rick Turley who does our weekly market updates. Although his message was that numbers are down with regard to sales volume, he showed us statistically that even so, the prices are trending upward. The explanation is that our volume is off not because we have a lot of inventory sitting on the market. Quite the opposite. Because inventory is low, there is obviouslyless to sell and that’s why the numbers have dropped off and prices have stayed high.

Here are the numbers posted this week: 4/23/08:

• 8 new listings (average price $926,375 – low $665,000, high $1,499,000)
• 8 ratified sales (pending) (average price $1,271,500 – low $689,000, high $1,995,000)
• 3 closed sales (sold) (average price $1,861,667 – low $365,000, high $4,505,000)
• 1 reduced to $1,195,000

- Mick Orton
Marketing Director

Previously we were posting portions of our weekly market update on our blog and then pointing people to the entire article on our website. But now that seems silly since our blog IS on our website! So there’s no real reason to double post.

Our home page has changed in format and the current market report may easily be seen here. There is also a link on our home page with a short excerpt of the weekly news.

Today I want to focus on our International opportunities. If you go to www.sfresidence.com/intl.htm you will see a link to our investment in Panama. Though they have been on strike for over a year, they project is about to be started back up and the latest is fractional ownerships!

Here is my article from today’s blog at www.redfrogbeachforum.com (now defunct):

Thanks to many of the owners who have contacted us recently after seeing my posts at redfrogblog.blogspot.com. Before we heard from you, we felt we were all alone out there; torn between sticking with it and wanting to see Red Frog succeed or getting our money out and moving on. We have decided to do the former.

Joe and Dan have been exceptional at explaining their position and our options; they have worked exceedingly hard at helping us find a solution to our unique situation. They were very good at making lemonade out of lemons!

At first we were not thrilled at having our dreams of a beach front villa wiped out. And fractional ownership was the furthest thing from our mind. We wanted to have our own place, decorate it like we wanted and rent it or not rent it out. That may still happen, but not until Phase I is completed. So our next question was, what do we really want?

We are now convinced that fractional is a good alternative for the short term. We will be able to visit to see if we even like living on Bastimentos, or if we really want to build that dream home on the Caribbean!

Plus the host home could be done as early as the end of the year if the project starts back up. That certainly is a lot better than waiting possibly 2-3 more years for titling on our rights of possession lot so we can finance our villa (or worse, having to come up with 100% to build it!). If we don’t like it, there is a good chance we can sell the fractional and get our money out that way.

For those of you naysayers, you probably think I have drunk the Kool-Aid. Those of you who are already onboard, you have probably come to the same conclusions we have and have made or are contemplating making a deal to get this project back on track.

We believe this is the best solution for all of us; to get the project built. Good luck to everyone at the owners’ meeting next month in Minneapolis. We will not be there. We are told the room is FULL! Most of the attendees I have communicated with are very positive about finding solutions. I think it will be a most enjoyable event!

If you have questions or concerns, e-mail me at mick@sfresidence.com.

Mick @ Lot 83

Foster Weeks publishes a weekly mortgage report which is updated every Monday morning. How is this affecting the San Francisco real estate market? Read our weekly and monthly market reports. Here’s what Mr. Weeks says about last week’s activity:

“THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH CHANGE, AS LONG AS IT IS IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION.” ~ Winston Churchill. And there were some big changes indeed for Bonds and home loan rates last week – but not necessarily all in the “right direction”. For most of the week, Bond prices were pummeled lower, causing home loan rates to rise – and even after a Friday afternoon rally, home loan rates worsened by about .25% for the week overall.

One silver lining…some of the abuse that Bonds took was at the hands of somewhat positive economic news. Remember that positive or strong economic news tends to benefit Stocks, which in turn can pull money out of Bonds – which causes Bond prices to worsen and home loan rates to rise. So when news hit of a far better than forecast Retail Sales Report and much better than expected earnings reports from giants like Google, the financial markets responded by flowing money over into Stocks, and right out of Bonds, causing home loan rates to rise.

Also hurting Bonds was inflation chatter during speeches made by several Federal Reserve Presidents, who vocalized their concerns over the persistence of inflation in the current economy. Additionally, the Producer Price Index showed wholesale inflation to be climbing higher, thanks to record high oil prices and a seventeen-year high on food prices. Because inflation erodes the value of the fixed return provided by a Bond, the scent of inflation in the air always causes Bond prices to decline, and as a result, home loan rates will rise.

Even though Bond prices ended the week lower than they began, it is still a good time to take advantage of historically lower home loan rates before rising inflation continues to push rates higher. If you, or a friend, family member, neighbor or coworker needs advice on the latest changes in the market, please feel free to get in touch.

Read the entire report here.

- Foster Weeks