Grand Tour

It's time for Sunday Opens! The count of open homes in San Francisco has more than doubled from last week. Many homes that were on the market didn't have open houses because of the Labor Day weekend, and other sellers like to wait to put their homes on the market until after the holiday weekend. September and October tend to be strong months in the San Francisco real estate market, so we are all anxious to see how it will go this year amidst the credit crisis. The consensus I am hearing from the buyers who are visiting my open houses is that they feel it is a good time to buy; they realize that prices haven't dropped in most cases but have leveled and aren't shooting up, at least at the moment. The buyers are out there, and they are looking for deals. I used to say that there are no deals in San Francisco but these days you may be able to find one. Especially if you aren't looking where everybody else is looking, or for the same thing everybody else is looking for.

Anja and I offer something to our clients called the Grand Tour. You tell us what your price range is, and we will take you through the city and show you, in each neighborhood, what you can get for your money. You may find neighborhoods you didn't know existed, or rediscover places you'd been but hadn't yet considered. $700,000 may barely get you a one bedroom condo in a place like Noe Valley, but in Mission Terrace you can get a two bedroom single family home with a garage and a garden! And it's close to Bart! I'm not saying everybody should up and move to Mission Terrace; maybe the one bedroom in Noe is better for you, but it's good to know your options. That way when you make your final decision you know you've made an informed one. Also, when you first set out to look you may think you know what you want, but you may end up with something completely different; sometimes it all comes down to the feeling you get when you walk in the door. Anja had some clients last year who were looking for a fixer in a cozy neighborhood and ended up with a brand new condo on Geary! You just never know.