San Francisco Real Estate Properties

After finding your dream home on the internet in your price range - the one with lots of pretty pictures, you are ready to take that “Grand Tour” of the neighborhood.  

After all, you need to check out the curb appeal and whether or not you could really live on that side of the street and/or that end of the street on that block in that neighborhood.   Without checking out the neighborhood, how else are you going to find out how far is it to the nearest bus stop when you are running late in the morning and how far a walk to the neighborhood commercial area to get a latte in the morning or where you would walk the dog?.  

In a recent post “One Way to Buy Real Estate in San Francisco”, I suggested driving a neighborhood has its advantages of spotting properties that may be coming on the market and probably have not yet hit the internet.

Case in point - I took this picture in the Marina originally on September 25, 2007 with the moving truck and workers in front of the house where the arrow points for my October 4^th post.

On Friday, October 5^th, this 4 bedroom with 4.5 baths home came on the MLS for $3,495,000.

By Friday, October 19^th, 14 days later, the MLS showed an accepted offer and opened escrow as “Active Continue to Show” which usually means there are some contingencies that need to be met before closing.

By Monday, October 29^th, 10 days into the escrow, the MLS showed the property as “Pending” which usually means that there are no contingencies and the property and the parties are preparing to close escrow.

On Thursday, November 8^th, 20 days into the escrow and a total on 34 days on the market, the property closes for $3,495,000*  - noting there is an asterisk after the sales price.

So, “Who’s Market Is It Anyway?” and “Why An Asterisk After Some Sales Prices in the MLS?” 

To start at the beginning, the asterisk became a term of the sale either as apart of the accepted offer or sometime during the transaction.  Both the Buyer and the Seller agreed that the sales price would not be disclosed to the MLS and would be hidden on the public records at the close of escrow. 

Perhaps the real question is from whom would both parties want to hide the sales price? 

The answer might be to protect one’s privacy from someone  - i.e. nosy family, friends, and/or neighbors, disgruntled ex-spouses or creditors, employers’/employees’ chit chat, the media, etc. etc. (?)

In the real estate world, the reason may have been that the Seller sold the property so high over the asking price that it was a bizarre one time event, or the Buyer bought the property so low under the asking price that it was embarrassing to the Seller and/or so awkward to disclose the real sales price to the unsuccessful bidders (?) 

In any case, without disclosing the real sales price the MLS, Zillow.com and Trulia.com and other’s sales comparable data bases become eschewed and it makes for juicy cocktail “real estate” talk.  After all so far in 2007, there have been 51 MLS sales with undisclosed sales prices.

To hide from curious eyes, one’s sales price from the San Francisco MLS and the public records is actually quite easy to do prior to the close of escrow.

Both the San Francisco MLS and the escrow holder will need mutual instructions from both the Buyer and the Seller:

(1).   The San Francisco MLS needs a letter from the listing agent signed by the Buyer and the Seller stating the sales price is not to be disclosed by the MLS at the close of escrow and naming the sales date and the Buyer’s agent.  The MLS will then enter into their San Francisco MLS database the asterisk to the current asking price as the sale price on the closing date.

(2).   Buyer and Seller will instruct their escrow holder to prepare the Grant Deed for recording at the close of escrow by adding the notation “See tax on separate sheet” to “The undersigned grantor(s) declare(s) the Documentary Transfer Tax is … “.  The City and County of San Francisco’s Recorder’s Office will accept the notation as long as the documentary transfer tax paid on the actual sales price stated on that separate sheet at the time of recording. 

By the way, it may take those curious eyes several years to be able to approximate the actual sales price at time of sale.   When the time comes that the San Francisco Tax Assessor has finally computed the Supplemental Taxes, several tax years have passed.  By that time, the current tax bill will show only the current total assessed value of the property for public to see. 

Question: Would this be a term of sale you would consider or agree to do?

It has always intrigued me how the city of San Francisco had settled and developed. Along a rolling countryside, in the late 1800’s and perhaps into the early 1900’s the favorable sunny weather on this leeward side of an eastern slope was home to farms and stables.  This easterly hillside is still dotted with some large homes on large lots from that era with the best views of the East and South Bay!

This “hidden” neighborhood (highlighted in blue) is named “Portola Extension”, because the homes and the views on these streets are so similar to those to the North that you would think you were in the Portola District of San Francisco.  The Portola District(pronounced by its residents is “Por’-ta-la) is located between Highway 280 to the North and Highway 101 to the East and Mansell Street to the South and the Western side of Mc Laren Park and back down to Highway 280 to the West.