Along with their two children, three dogs and a cat, they had sold their house in Atlanta and were all packed, with the moving truck scheduled for late May, ready to move to the Bay Area for a job transfer.

When conventional house hunting with a real estate agent didn’t work out, Kevin Silva placed a detailed Craigslist ad describing their target neighborhood, price and house size. He netted five responses, one of which led to making a deal to buy a San Anselmo house directly from the owner.

While having all the stars and planets align so perfectly is rare, the Silvas’ story illustrates how many house hunters are coloring outside the lines to land a place in the overheated real estate market. Whether it be cold-calling homeowners with offers or placing ads in search of potential houses for sale, being creative is key, experts say.

Of course, the top strategy is both the simplest and the hardest – pay way over asking, in all cash.

Short of that, there are a variety of ways prospective buyers can find a house as well as rise to the top of the offer pile:

Placing an ad: Swooping in with an offer before a home is officially posted for sale is a top tactic, and it worked for the Silvas.

After being consistently outbid, they considered renting, but that market was too competitive. “I realized unless we got really aggressive, we would end up in my parents’ basement in San Mateo with the kids, the dogs, the cat and a really unhappy wife,” Kevin Silva said. In the end, a simple online ad labeled “Wanted to buy: House in San Anselmo or Fairfax” did the trick. A $1 million budget undoubtedly helped. He got one response from a man who, like Silva, was of Portuguese ancestry. They quickly bonded on the phone. Silva visited the three-bedroom house and liked it, and returned with a real estate agent friend who advised him that $1 million was a reasonable price. Attorneys helped draw up the paperwork in an amicable deal.

Both parties agreed that if the sale fell through, the Silva family would rent the house. “That took off a huge amount of stress, knowing we had a place to land,” Silva said.

Pocket listings: Many buyers are taking advantage of “pocket listings” – a heads-up within a brokerage or an informal notification network of an upcoming sale – that have been growing in popularity in recent months.

“We see pocket listings more especially in the upper end,” said Patrick Leaper of Red Oak Realty in the East Bay. “Generally, it’s someone across the aisle (in a real estate brokerage) who says, ‘Look, I have a three-bedroom house in the hills for $1.2 million and the owners don’t want the hassle of publicly marketing it.’ “

Such tips are generally within bigger brokerages, but agents at smaller firms can call friends at the larger brokerages to seek them out.

“I got my buyers in because we responded to a pocket listing e-mail within our own company,” said Simon Shue of Zephyr Real Estate in San Francisco. “We were able to negotiate and save the seller money through not staging, painting and (refinishing) floors.” Located north of the Panhandle, the property sold in March for $760,000.

Zillow’s Make Me Move feature: Real estate site Zillow.com has a feature called Make Me Move for homeowners to post what price they’d accept to sell their house.

That’s how one couple from Newark finessed their move to the Peninsula. Doris and Charles (they asked to withhold their last name for privacy reasons) faced the usual discouraging situation of being consistently outbid – in their case, five times.

That’s when Doris decided to check out Make Me Move. She saw a house in San Carlos asking $950,000.

“If we hadn’t gone through those bids, I would have thought that was crazy,” she said. “The house is not quite 1,500 square feet, one story, an old house, nothing spectacular like you’d expect for almost a million bucks.”

They contacted the owners and visited the house several times. While it had some deferred maintenance issues, it met their needs, and the price was in line with similar properties.

“We thought, ‘Do we want to keep being outbid by other people or take this house?’ ” Doris said. They ended up buying it for $925,000, negotiating money off for a new roof.

Both Doris and Charles are attorneys, so they prepared the paperwork themselves. The sellers were real estate savvy as well, she said.

“We were happy with each other. I gave them a good deal – they lived there rent free for two months after the sale – but they gave me a good deal, too,” Doris said. “If they’d put the house on the market, they probably could have gotten a little bit more, but paying the real estate commission would have eaten that up.”

Target a neighborhood: Real estate agents and would-be home buyers sometimes contact owners in target areas directly.

Randy Brase, who owns a modest two-bedroom bungalow in San Bruno’s Huntington Park neighborhood, said he was surprised to receive unsolicited calls and letters from Realtors and house hunters expressing interest in buying his house. At the time, he was in the midst of some repairs and remodeling so the house appeared run-down.

“A man and his wife wrote me a letter saying they wanted to relocate from San Francisco and wanted to buy my house,” he said. “They said that they’re not afraid of doing work to fix up the house; they’ve done stuff like that to their house they live in now.”

While representing clients hoping to buy in the Eureka Valley/Castro area, Scott Yarmack and Dan Bunker of Zephyr wrote to local property owners looking for potential sellers. They got one response, and after viewing the house decided to pursue it. Yarmack lined up a contractor for an informal inspection before the house hit the multiple listing service.

As soon as it was listed, he convinced the listing agent to present his client’s offer immediately after the first Sunday open house, rather than waiting to market the house for several weeks. The all-cash offer with no contingencies and a 14-day close was accepted.

Getting an offer accepted: Finding a suitable house is only part of the hunt. Getting an offer accepted is the next big hurdle.

Prospective buyers often write a heartfelt “love letter” describing their family and their positive feelings about the house. While that alone won’t land a place, it can keep the buyers in the game.

“The personal component has an impact,” Leaper said. “If the letter paints a sweet picture of a buyer who (the seller) feels more attracted to, but their offer isn’t as good, often sellers will give the buyers a chance to improve their offer to match a better offer.”

Offers with as few contingencies as possible are more attractive to buyers. Getting inspections in advance to forestall an inspection contingency and having enough cash to avoid either financing or appraisal contingencies are ways to ensure a deal will close quickly.

“Do your homework,” said Red Oak’s Larry Benedetto. “My clients closed in late July. For every property they considered purchasing, they went to the city to check out permits, they got disclosures from the listing agent and they read everything. When there were any unknowns, they would get an engineer to check things out. Only then, when they were confident they fully understood the property, were they able to write clean offers with a quick close.”

Carolyn Said is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: csaid@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @csaid

Article source: http://www.sfgate.com/realestate/article/Creative-ways-to-buy-a-house-4806993.php

Along with their two children, three dogs and a cat, they had sold their house in Atlanta and were all packed, with the moving truck scheduled for late May, ready to move to the Bay Area for a job transfer.

When conventional house hunting with a real estate agent didn’t work out, Kevin Silva placed a detailed Craigslist ad describing their target neighborhood, price and house size. He netted five responses, one of which led to making a deal to buy a San Anselmo house directly from the owner.

While having all the stars and planets align so perfectly is rare, the Silvas’ story illustrates how many house hunters are coloring outside the lines to land a place in the overheated real estate market. Whether it be cold-calling homeowners with offers or placing ads in search of potential houses for sale, being creative is key, experts say.

Of course, the top strategy is both the simplest and the hardest – pay way over asking, in all cash.

Short of that, there are a variety of ways prospective buyers can find a house as well as rise to the top of the offer pile:

Placing an ad: Swooping in with an offer before a home is officially posted for sale is a top tactic, and it worked for the Silvas.

After being consistently outbid, they considered renting, but that market was too competitive. “I realized unless we got really aggressive, we would end up in my parents’ basement in San Mateo with the kids, the dogs, the cat and a really unhappy wife,” Kevin Silva said. In the end, a simple online ad labeled “Wanted to buy: House in San Anselmo or Fairfax” did the trick. A $1 million budget undoubtedly helped. He got one response from a man who, like Silva, was of Portuguese ancestry. They quickly bonded on the phone. Silva visited the three-bedroom house and liked it, and returned with a real estate agent friend who advised him that $1 million was a reasonable price. Attorneys helped draw up the paperwork in an amicable deal.

Both parties agreed that if the sale fell through, the Silva family would rent the house. “That took off a huge amount of stress, knowing we had a place to land,” Silva said.

Pocket listings: Many buyers are taking advantage of “pocket listings” – a heads-up within a brokerage or an informal notification network of an upcoming sale – that have been growing in popularity in recent months.

“We see pocket listings more especially in the upper end,” said Patrick Leaper of Red Oak Realty in the East Bay. “Generally, it’s someone across the aisle (in a real estate brokerage) who says, ‘Look, I have a three-bedroom house in the hills for $1.2 million and the owners don’t want the hassle of publicly marketing it.’ “

Such tips are generally within bigger brokerages, but agents at smaller firms can call friends at the larger brokerages to seek them out.

“I got my buyers in because we responded to a pocket listing e-mail within our own company,” said Simon Shue of Zephyr Real Estate in San Francisco. “We were able to negotiate and save the seller money through not staging, painting and (refinishing) floors.” Located north of the Panhandle, the property sold in March for $760,000.

Zillow’s Make Me Move feature: Real estate site Zillow.com has a feature called Make Me Move for homeowners to post what price they’d accept to sell their house.

That’s how one couple from Newark finessed their move to the Peninsula. Doris and Charles (they asked to withhold their last name for privacy reasons) faced the usual discouraging situation of being consistently outbid – in their case, five times.

That’s when Doris decided to check out Make Me Move. She saw a house in San Carlos asking $950,000.

“If we hadn’t gone through those bids, I would have thought that was crazy,” she said. “The house is not quite 1,500 square feet, one story, an old house, nothing spectacular like you’d expect for almost a million bucks.”

They contacted the owners and visited the house several times. While it had some deferred maintenance issues, it met their needs, and the price was in line with similar properties.

“We thought, ‘Do we want to keep being outbid by other people or take this house?’ ” Doris said. They ended up buying it for $925,000, negotiating money off for a new roof.

Both Doris and Charles are attorneys, so they prepared the paperwork themselves. The sellers were real estate savvy as well, she said.

“We were happy with each other. I gave them a good deal – they lived there rent free for two months after the sale – but they gave me a good deal, too,” Doris said. “If they’d put the house on the market, they probably could have gotten a little bit more, but paying the real estate commission would have eaten that up.”

Target a neighborhood: Real estate agents and would-be home buyers sometimes contact owners in target areas directly.

Randy Brase, who owns a modest two-bedroom bungalow in San Bruno’s Huntington Park neighborhood, said he was surprised to receive unsolicited calls and letters from Realtors and house hunters expressing interest in buying his house. At the time, he was in the midst of some repairs and remodeling so the house appeared run-down.

“A man and his wife wrote me a letter saying they wanted to relocate from San Francisco and wanted to buy my house,” he said. “They said that they’re not afraid of doing work to fix up the house; they’ve done stuff like that to their house they live in now.”

While representing clients hoping to buy in the Eureka Valley/Castro area, Scott Yarmack and Dan Bunker of Zephyr wrote to local property owners looking for potential sellers. They got one response, and after viewing the house decided to pursue it. Yarmack lined up a contractor for an informal inspection before the house hit the multiple listing service.

As soon as it was listed, he convinced the listing agent to present his client’s offer immediately after the first Sunday open house, rather than waiting to market the house for several weeks. The all-cash offer with no contingencies and a 14-day close was accepted.

Getting an offer accepted: Finding a suitable house is only part of the hunt. Getting an offer accepted is the next big hurdle.

Prospective buyers often write a heartfelt “love letter” describing their family and their positive feelings about the house. While that alone won’t land a place, it can keep the buyers in the game.

“The personal component has an impact,” Leaper said. “If the letter paints a sweet picture of a buyer who (the seller) feels more attracted to, but their offer isn’t as good, often sellers will give the buyers a chance to improve their offer to match a better offer.”

Offers with as few contingencies as possible are more attractive to buyers. Getting inspections in advance to forestall an inspection contingency and having enough cash to avoid either financing or appraisal contingencies are ways to ensure a deal will close quickly.

“Do your homework,” said Red Oak’s Larry Benedetto. “My clients closed in late July. For every property they considered purchasing, they went to the city to check out permits, they got disclosures from the listing agent and they read everything. When there were any unknowns, they would get an engineer to check things out. Only then, when they were confident they fully understood the property, were they able to write clean offers with a quick close.”

Carolyn Said is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: csaid@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @csaid

Article source: http://www.sfgate.com/realestate/article/Creative-ways-to-buy-a-house-4806993.php

This one-bedroom home in Berkeley at 1196 Cornell Ave. is on the market for $400,000.

Blanca Torres
Reporter- San Francisco Business Times

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For all the talk in recent years about more Bay Area residents steering toward a “car-free” lifestyle, it sure is hard to find a place to live that is affordable and pedestrian-friendly once you leave San Francisco’s city limits.

Emeryville-based ZipRealty Inc. ranked the most walkable cities with the most affordable homes near San Francisco and came up with a whopping four cities: Emeryville, downtown San Jose, Albany and Berkeley.

ZipRealty used data from WalkScore.com, which ranks locations with walkability scores of 0 to 100, to come up with its list.

“One of the allures of living in San Francisco is the city’s beautiful and convenient walkability, and that appeal is well-reflected in its lofty real estate prices,” said CEO and President Lanny Baker. “According to our partner Walk Score, San Francisco is the second-most walkable large city in the United States, behind New York City. In the local study we conducted, the most walkable and affordable communities were quite surprising alternatives to the high average price in San Francisco, which currently exceed $1 million.”

Here is a breakdown of the four cities with median home price and Walk Score:

1. Emeryville: $388,888 / 80.
2. Downtown San Jose: $508,450 / 74.
3. Albany: $622,500 / 86.
4. Berkeley: $786,256 / 95.

This list points out some interesting dynamics about Bay Area real estate. It appears living in a city where you can get around without a car will cost you a premium. San Francisco by nature is a dense, walkable city with amenities around the corner in most neighborhoods. In contrast, cities around San Francisco developed with the more suburban model of separating residential and commercial areas, making residents dependent on cars.

Emeryville is a compact, 1 square-mile sized city that has undergone a major transformation during the past few decades from an industrial wasteland to a city with thriving commercial and retail districts. Most of the housing there is either apartments or condos, as is the case with most of the homes for sale that fit ZipRealty’s criteria for affordable and walkable.

Having alternatives to driving is not just better for the environment and buyer’s pocketbooks, but has other benefits, said Josh Herst, CEO of Walk Score.

“The trend in urban areas is moving toward less dependency on cars and a greater commitment to live more sustainably,” Herst said. “People in walkable neighborhoods weigh six to 10 pounds less than those who don’t. Walk Score has also done extensive research showing that walkable places make people happier and healthier. Finally, short commutes reduce stress levels and give people more free time to be involved in their communities.”

Blanca Torres covers East Bay real estate for the San Francisco Business Times.

Article source: http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/blog/real-estate/2013/08/top-bay-area-cities-where-you-can-buy.html?page=all

The area median home price shoot up by 43 percent to $620,000 in the Bay Area during the past year, according to ZipRealty.

Blanca Torres
Reporter- San Francisco Business Times

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The Bay Area housing market is on fire — and we’re about to get burned.

The median home price in the Bay Area ballooned by 43 percent during the past year to $620,000 in June, up from $435,000 a year ago, according to ZipRealty, the Emeryville-based online brokerage.

The Bay Area leads the nation in year-over-year growth, followed by Sacramento with 41 percent, Los Angeles with 31 percent, Las Vegas with 30 percent and San Diego with 25 percent.

Meanwhile, the number of homes on the market in the Bay Area has dropped by 32 percent to 7,961 from 11,662 a year ago.

The fire burns brighter in particular parts of the Bay Area (like San Francisco, where the median price hit $1 million in April).

Still, that type of growth is phenomenal — and likely unsustainable. So, how long before prices level off?

The drop in inventory indicates that we’re in a supply constrained market, which could entice more sellers to put their homes on the market.

“After months of runaway prices and a near-desperate inventory situation, the Bay Area housing market is starting to replenish itself,” said ZipRealty CEO and President Lanny Baker. “Home owners across the region now see increased values, tight bid/offer spreads and lightning fast sales, and they’re reacting by putting more homes, and particularly more attractive homes, on the market once again. It’s a welcomed break in the trend even if it ultimately means prices start to cool off a bit too.”

But, what do rising home prices really mean?

I asked economist Christopher Thornberg of Beacon Economics, who is best known for rightly predicting the 2008 mortgage crisis (even though no one agreed with him).

Blanca Torres covers East Bay real estate for the San Francisco Business Times.

Article source: http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/blog/2013/07/bay-area-housing-prices-jump-43.html

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The real estate glory days have returned to San Francisco.

The median price for a home in the city is back at the $1 million mark, according to the SFGate.com real estate blog On the Block.

It appears that the data from April reveals a median price increase of 32 percent from 2012, according to the Business Journal. That’s higher than the average list price of $799,000, which means “too many buyers [are] vying for too few properties,” the blog reported.

Supply and demand means that a home that sold at auction in 1998 for $106,500 in Twin Peaks is now listed for $995,000, the blog reported.

In general, sellers are getting 112 percent of their asking prices for San Francisco homes, according to Redfin.

A seller’s market — but could it get any hotter?

Yes. Another home, bought in November 2012 for $875,000, is back on the market, less than a year later — for an asking price of $1.2 million. Will it sell for a 100 percent profit? It could — which is saying something.

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Article source: http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/SF-Median-Home-Price-Tops-1-Million-211448041.html

“People who weren’t sure about whether they were going to buy a house or not are coming back in, and that’s especially true of the affluent buyers,” said Watters. “I know at Chase at least we’ve also put a lot of emphasis on making sure we’re doing what’s best for those affluent buyers, including adding more bankers and working with our chase private client customers to really focus on opportunities in the jumbo space.”

(Read More: Rising Rates Turn Investors From REITs)

Watters admited that investors are still slow to return, as the private label market tries to figure out what securitization standards should be. The complete lack of standards during the housing boom, when securities were issued with bits and pieces of loans and wide ranges of risk, led to the downfall of both the mortgage and the housing markets.

“We are not slicing and dicing any loans. We’re selling loans as whole loan products,” assured Watters. “These are well-underwritten loans, great documentation, great borrowers with strong fico scores, large down payments, so these are great credit products, great investment for people who are looking to get additional yield.”

—By CNBC’s Diana Olick; Follow her on Twitter @Diana_Olick or on Facebook at facebook.com/DianaOlickCNBC

Questions? Comments? RealtyCheck@cnbc.com

Article source: http://www.cnbc.com/id/100802833

This home at 6905 Norfolk Road in Berkeley boasts four bedrooms and three bathrooms for $1,095,000 or $322 per square foot. See listing here.

Blanca Torres
Reporter- San Francisco Business Times

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The median price for a single family home in San Francisco hit $1 million in April — the highest level since 2007.

The new median price is a 32 percent jump from $760,000 last year.

Got a cool $1 million to spend on a home? Click on the slideshow to the right for a virtual tour of $1 million homes in Bay Area cities.

“Shrinking inventory combined with low interest rates and motivated buyers has resulted in historically high sales prices,” said Christine Dwiggins, president of the San Francisco Association of Realtors.

Inventory levels are significantly low with only 1.1 months of inventory available — that means the amount of time it would take to sell off all the homes on the market if no new supply came on — in April whereas five to seven months of inventory is considered a balanced market.

Single-family homes in San Francisco are selling in an average of 28 days, down about 44 percent from an average of 49 days a year ago.

Meanwhile, the median price for a condo in San Francisco reached $850,000 in April — the highest level in the last two years.

Home prices have ballooned in the past year in San Francisco, but it’s not the only Bay Area city enjoying price gains.

See our slideshow for examples of what $1 million can get you in the Bay Area these days courtesy of ZipRealty.

Blanca Torres covers East Bay real estate for the San Francisco Business Times.

Article source: http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/blog/real-estate/2013/05/median-home-price-hits-1-million-in.html

LOS ANGELES–(BUSINESS WIRE)– Kilroy Realty Corporation today reported financial results for its third quarter ended September 30, 2012, with a net loss available to common stockholders of $2.8 million, or $0.04 per share, compared to net income available to common stockholders of $10.2 million, or $0.17 per share, in the third quarter of 2011. Revenues from continuing operations in the third quarter totaled $104.3 million, up from $86.4 million in the prior year’s third quarter. Funds from operations (FFO) for the period totaled $43.1 million, or $0.57 per share, compared to $33.9 million, or $0.56 per share, in the year-earlier period. Net loss available to common stockholders and FFO for the third quarter of 2012 included a one-time, non-cash charge of approximately $2.1 million, or $0.03 per share, in conjunction with the redemption of all of the company’s Series A Cumulative Redeemable Preferred Units.