San Francisco Real Estate Properties

 So selling homes in San Francisco during the winter may be considered as the perfect time of year to test if the roof is currently leaking or not by looking for the tell tale signs of discoloration on the ceiling, around skylights and windows.  Inherently a “good” roof can leak if the gutters, scuppers, and downspouts are clogged and water finds its way in.   I like to remind Sellers that prudent Buyers will locate those areas on the exterior before walking into an Open House.   As the agent holding the Open House (and especially if it is raining), I customarily have the San Francisco Sellers’ Disclosures out in plain view for Buyers to review.   

I highlight the six questions in the disclosures asking the Seller to disclose his knowledge of any present or past water inclusion; even leaks have been repaired and/or stopped.  Below are two of the six questions about water inclusion:       

As we begin January 2008, the numbers of homes on the market in San Francisco are far greater than there were this time last year.  Now don’t read too much into this statistic just yet. 

During the last half of the 4^th Quarter, San Francisco Sellers are notorious for taking their properties off the market just before Thanksgiving if their property had not sold.  Many of these Sellers would rather wait until the New Year to put their property back on the market than to become stale on the market during the holidays.  Between November 1^st and December 31^st in 2006 152 homes and 284 condos/co-ops/lofts/TICs were withdrawn from the market and during this same time in 2007, 175 homes and 353 condos/co-ops/lofts/TICs were withdrawn from the market in hopes of re-surfacing in 2008 as fresh new listings.

During this same time, every year there is another group of San Francisco Sellers that dare to put their property on the market in November and December to find their properties snatched up by “holiday” Buyers eager to own a property before the end of the year.  In 2006, 69 single family homes and 79 condos/co-ops/lofts/TICs come on the market and closed between Halloween and New Year’s Eve.  This past year in 2007, 39 single family homes and 55 condos/co-ops/lofts/TICs came on the market and closed in less than 60 days. 

Both years, the Buyers that stayed in the market may have had less competition than those Buyers that took some time off during the holidays, yet  not surprisingly the single family dwellings and the condos/co-ops/lofts/TICs  sold 103% and 102% respectively above their asking prices (with three having undisclosed selling prices).

With all that said, generally speaking, the 4th Quarter 2007 was a bit different than in 2006 as more Sellers were unwilling to play that game of withdrawing their property from the market during the holiday season and losing their property’s exposure. 

The “New Year” Buyer will come back from the holidays (after getting in some snow-time on the slopes) to see some familiar homes still on the market and I suspect, a few more will slowly be coming back on the market as well.