Greetings All,
We’ve been working lately with a number of listings in which the owners had lived in the homes a long time; raising families, working long careers, building memories.
In several cases there was a little bit of “I wish we got around to doing that”. It’s completely understandable…work, family life, budgets…making improvements to a home gets pushed to the back burner. Once the decision is made to sell, and improvements are made whether on their own in the months before or after consulting with us and our stagers, the most common comment is “Why didn’t we do this earlier?” “Why did we wait to do this now that we’re leaving?” Partly in jest, partly in truth.
Motivation, desire, how you see yourself, what you’re comfortable with…all drive your actions in life.
Let’s say one day you come home and you notice a small dent in the wall as you walk up the stairs. You think, “Someone must have bumped into the wall while carrying a heavy object. I’ll put it on my To Do List for this weekend.” You guessed it, the weekend comes and goes, and it’s still there. Every day for the next couple of weeks you say the same thing to yourself. By the third week you don’t notice the dent anymore. You’ve gotten used to it, to the point where it’s either invisible or no longer seems important. 30 years later, there are a bunch of “dents” all over the house.
Even in a “Seller’s Market” as we’re experiencing now, “as-is” affects the bottom line. The money spent on staging and improvements increase not only the likelihood of a much higher price, but will get it done sooner (which also affects the price). One of our most recent real-life examples showed us that the $85,000 spent on staging and cosmetic upgrades (through Compass Concierge, by the way), brought about at least $400,000 more in sales price.
For a moment, think of the movie “Back to the Future”. Consider going back in a time machine and being able to give your younger self some advice, advice that will affect not only the future sales price of your home, but your enjoyment of the house. What would you have done differently and not put off till the time of sale? It’ll vary for everyone of course. If I only have money for the new roof, that’s going to take priority over a new bathroom. However, with a constant eye on what you can do and when, the benefits of keeping your home up go beyond its ever changing fair market value.
Till next month – Stay healthy, safe and sane.
Derek & Natalie, Mo, and Arwin
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by Patrick Carlisle, Market Analyst for Compass Bay Area
August 2021
House, condo, co-op, townhouse, TIC, halfplex sales reported to NorCal Regional MLS, January 1 through June 30 of each year.
In the first 6 months of 2021, over $6.7 billion in home sales were reported to MLS in San Francisco, 49% above the previous peak in 2018.
By number of sales, condos make up a majority of San Francisco home sales, and SF has by far the most expensive county condo market in the Bay Area. Its median house sales price ranks 2nd after San Mateo County.
Click the above image or here for to view the entire report.
Tell us what you think! We’d love to hear from you.
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New Listings | Just Sold | Announcement
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Michael & Tina Casolo, when visiting San Francisco from their home in Connecticut, will be walking down iconic Macondray Lane to their new pied a terre, A gorgeous one bedroom apartment with stunning views of Coit Tower, Alcatraz Island and the Bay.
The Story: This apartment was “in contract” with another buyer. The Casolos wanted it, but since it was “gone”, we got their offer for another view condo in Pacific Heights accepted. Then we were notified the Macondray Lane condo sale was falling through. Quick, how do we BACK OUT of a NON-CONTINGENT sale without losing the $30,000 deposit, AND get an offer accepted instead on Macondray Lane, AND before Michael Casolo got off a 5 hour plane flight back to the East Coast (his little challenge to me)? All I can say is, “If it’s meant to be, it’s meant to be”, and Realtor relationships do count for something. Our hearty congratulations to Michael and Tina!
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The CoreLogic HPI Forecast indicates that home prices will increase on a month-over-month basis by 0.8% from May 2021 to June 2021, and on a year-over-year basis by 3.4% from May 2021 to May 2022.
Aspirations to increase the domestic corporate tax rate to 28% from 21% and the top individual income tax rate to 39.6% from 37% as well as raising the capital gains tax rate on those making more than $1 million a year from its current 20% to 39.6% seems to be losing momentum.
Consumer reports rated kitchen countertops based on stains, cutting, heat and abrasion. Quartz (engineered stone) was top rated with a score of 84 out of 100, followed by Granite at 81. Marble scored just 14, below Limestone at 27.
July Lumber futures ended Tuesday at $599 per thousand board feet, down nearly 66% from the high of $1,711.20 hit in May, when wood-product supply lines were still being unknotted after the lockdown and before Americans began to shift spending from home improvement projects to vacations and dining out. More actively traded futures for September delivery settled at $649.90, just $10.90 above the pre-pandemic high.
PG&E plans to bury 10,000 miles of power lines to reduce wildfire risk throughout Northern California at an estimated cost of up to $20 billion. Lets do this everywhere, no? Its not just wildfires that destroy electrical cables!
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Landmark Bank and Former MOIC Building on the Market
Designed by Bliss and Faville and built on the northwest corner of Grant and O’Farrell in 1910, the historic Savings Union Bank building at 1 Grant Avenue, a.k.a. the Security Pacific Bank building, is on the market.
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At the northeast corner of Fort Mason sits an area called Black Point, named such because of the native oak woodlands that used to populate the sand dunes that made up the area. More than one acre of land, the Black Point Historic Gardens, connecting Aquatic Park to Fort Mason, will open Aug. 25, allowing visitors to walk among the newly landscaped terraced gardens, enjoy a new vista and hopefully learn a bit of San Francisco history along the way.
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SFMOMA presents a series of commissions by local artists that actively engage with pressing issues of our time. Many of 2020’s inaugural projects delved into the consequences of a year of social isolation and unrest, polarizing news, racial injustice, and economic crisis, all against a backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic. Now ongoing, the program is designed to support local artists who are keenly attuned to our current moment.
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Aiming to prove that middle-aged dogs can learn new tricks, here’s a quick look at how we’ve adjusted to our current landscape for our selling clients. (Woof!)
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Visualizing your Upgrade:
Curious to know how Compass can transform a listing and improve its sale price?
Compass Lens uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) to visualize the potential of your space! See exactly the difference working with us can make.
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Video Creator:
We’re able to make quick (10 seconds or less) videos of our listings with essential details to our social feeds.
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Dynamic Digital Brochures:
Home features will come to life inside this dynamic, digital brochure while creating an immersive experience for even the most discerning of buyers. Pages will turn and videos will play while allowing us to capture real-time data and actionable insights from potential buyers.
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Mobile Listing Ads:
We’ll run geo-targeted mobile ad campaigns to reach buyers in the right place, at the right time. Now more than ever, buyers and sellers are spending most (if not all) of their time at home. We’ll create a geofence around the neighborhoods where you’d like your ads to be seen. These ads will appear in mobile apps and will re-target viewers on their desktops and laptops.
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All of this is designed to bring proper exposure to our wonderful listings, and encourage eager buyers to make safe, virtual visits before making safe, in-person visits.
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Since Compass launched in 2012, we’ve been simplifying the real estate process one community at a time. Today, we have more than 250+ offices extending from coast to coast.
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Please let us know if you or a friend/colleague needs a fantastic agent in an area other than San Francisco. Through our network we can make the connections and introductions and help to find a perfect fit.
If you like what you have received, we encourage you to share it with your friends and follow us on Facebook & Instagram.
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© Compass 2021 ¦ All Rights Reserved by Compass ¦ Made in NYC
Compass is a real estate broker licensed by the State of California operating under multiple entities. License Numbers 01991628, 1527235, 1527365, 1356742, 1443761, 1997075, 1935359, 1961027, 1842987, 1869607, 1866771, 1527205, 1079009, 1272467. All material presented herein is intended for informational purposes only and is compiled from sources deemed reliable but has not been verified. Changes in price, condition, sale or withdrawal may be made without notice. No statement is made as to accuracy of any description. All measurements and square footage are approximate. Equal Housing Opportunity.
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