Greetings All, My mom, bless her soul. She texts, emails or calls me at least once a week to tell me someone she knows may be looking for a Realtor, soon. “How do you know this?”, I ask. “So and so’s husband just passed away, and the wife may go into a retirement home. You should contact the widow and see if she wants to sell the house.” “Are you a friend of the widow?”, I follow. “I know her cousin, Darlene…we used to play mahjong 20 years ago. Anyway, want me to get her phone number?” “No, mom, thanks…I appreciate it, but that would make me look like an ambulance chaser. But thanks for thinking of me.” I know she’ll have another suggestion, next week. People often ask me and Natalie how we pick up our clients, how we “get business”. Fortunately, the majority come by referral, past clients for the most part. I think when you’ve been in business as long as we have, if we’ve done a better than decent job, those clients will refer us to people they know. We also get referrals from people we often do business with – it’s a reciprocal relationship. We occasionally get calls off an old ad, or a community shared site that clients belong to (from a Mothers Group, the other day). Sometimes they can’t even recall where they saw us, but they called us, anyway. Is it always a match? Well, I generally like our chances. We cover a number of demographics: white/non-white, male/female, younger/*slightly* older (ahem), born here in SF/not born here in SF; and it used to be parent/non-parent, but now I have a 13 year old by marriage (he was 7 when I met him, so I know the joy of stepping barefoot onto Legos). But no, it’s not always a match, and I liken it to online dating. Perfectly friendly, fine people on both sides (Where have I heard that, before?), but there may be no spark, there. While we’d like to be “all things to all people”, we realize that’s not realistic. We don’t sell ourselves hard – we don’t door knock or cold call, we’re not aggressive or overbearing, and we’ll resonate with you and gain your trust, or we won’t. And that is perfectly fine. We’re also very loyal people, and it stings a bit the couple of times that wasn’t returned. We know Geneva’s the same way, which is why she’s on the team. All in all, the 3 of us have made a promise to each other to work “only with those we want to work with, and who want to work with us”, and we’ve kept that promise. Life is stressful as it is, no more so than all the events of this incredibly taxing year. Chin up, stay safe, stay healthy and VOTE. And we’ll see you next month. Derek & Natalie and Geneva |
by Patrick Carlisle, Market Analyst for Compass Bay Area 7 Months after the Pandemic Struck The table above compares Q3 statistics across 5 years. Since the dynamics of the SF house and condo markets have significantly diverged since the pandemic struck – the condo market has been weaker – we broke some of the 2020 stats out separately in the table, and then in some of the charts following. Click the above image or here for to view the entire report. Tell us what you think! We’d love to hear from you. |
New Listings | Just Sold | Announcement |
Our most current listing at 560 Fell St. made it into the SF Gate! Click here or the image above to read the full article. |
The Story: Cathy was referred to us by longtime friend Marcia. Recently widowed, she and her daughter Monica thought about buying a pair of flats just outside the City and living “together”, each with her own flat. First objective was to find a suitable property, and then to sell her beloved home of 33 years. We brought in one of our favorite stagers, and when the time was right, we’d have the game plan in place. With pre-market buzz, by the time we came on the market we had quite a number of showings subject to COVID-era protocols, the very first weekend. Even with a daunting list of recommended repairs, we were presented with five offers after less than a week. All were over the asking price…by a lot. True to Cathy’s nature, she chose the buyers she felt would be the “best fit” for the home, not unlike her family profile (2 parents, 2 children) when she and her husband bought the house those many years ago. The capper is that the offer, while at the very peak of the buyers’ affordability, was not the highest. In fact, out of the five offers, it was #4! Over the years, we’ve been involved in many memorable transitions – this was certainly a recent favorite. |
DID YOU KNOW? Of the TOP 25 cities surveyed in UBS Housing Bubble Report, CHICAGO was deemed the most under-valued. Chicago looks SO WELL PRICED compared to other parts of the country. opportunity is knocking…. Of the major cities around the globe its the homes in major European cities that seem most at risk for a bursting bubble. Munich, Frankfurt, Toronto, Hong Kong and Paris appear to be most overvalued right now. Of the American cities surveyed, Los Angeles was #11 on the list, followed by San Francisco at #14 and New York at #18 (almost at fair value). Boston was #19 and considered fair valued. As always, if you are thinking of property in other cities, we have agents we can refer you to, to help! DID YOU KNOW? Car renting, reinvented? Talk about a pivot: Lyft Rentals through their partnership with SIXT, one of the world’s largest car rental providers, allows you to rent a professionally cleaned and maintained vehicle from a lot near you via the Lyft app — drive yourself! DID YOU KNOW? Former Zillow Group CEO Spencer Rascoff and dotloop founder Austin Allison are teaming up on a new startup called Pacaso that aims to make it easier for more people to own a vacation home, an entirely new category of second home ownership. Pacaso also raised $250 million in debt financing to purchase homes. There are 30 million second homes across the U.S. and Europe, but they are only occupied 4-to-6 weeks per year on average. Some decide to split up ownership between multiple parties, but the process can be arduous and complicated, especially when an owner decides to sell his or her stake. Pacaso will attempt to take all of those hassles associated with the traditional do-it-yourself process, and all of those risks, and eliminate them. They plan to increase utilization of these properties — and build its own business in the process. DID YOU KNOW? James Bond is selling his home! Yes, super-agent Chris Cortazzo of COMPASS Malibu is representing Pierce Brosnan’s stunning Malibu beachfront property with the asking price of a mere…..$100 million! |
Make sure to double check your voter registration status – November 3rd is just around the corner. | |
| Number of Homes for Sale in S.F. Nearing A Two-Decade High Having jumped over 20 percent in September, a move which shouldn’t have caught any plugged-in readers by surprise, the number of homes on the market in San Francisco, net of all sales, both pending and closed, has just ticked up to 1,900 for the first time in a decade and is within 5 percent of hitting a two-decade (plus) high. |
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!) |
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. | |
| Virtual Property Presentations: Sticking with what we’ve always done, we’ll provide Professional Photography & Videography, including Matterport 3D home tours, and a dedicated property website which includes all of this within the site. |
Video Creator: We’re able to make quick (10 seconds or less) videos of our listings with essential details to our social feeds. | |
| Create a virtual open house experience using standard video from our phone: We can record a Home Tour – more informal than a professional video, we’ll walk the property and show it as we would in a traditional open house, pointing out all of the features, opening closets and cabinets, send to prospective buyers and their agents, and be available for questions. |
Facetime or Zoom conferencing in the property: As above but on a live feed that is mutually scheduled with prospective buyers and their agents. Offers a personal experience and 1:1 questions are answered. | |
| 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. |
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. | |
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. |
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. |
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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