Wine Country Modern joins the Marin Modern Real Estate Family.

I’m excited to introduce our newest effort in filling the needs of our residential real estate clients in the North Bay.

San Rafael, CA (PRWEB) March 14, 2013

Marin Modern Real Estate, a premier brokerage in the San Francisco Bay Area, is pleased to announce the launch of its newest affiliate, Wine Country Modern Real Estate.

Launched on March 14, 2013, Wine Country Modern Real Estate is the newest member of the Marin Modern Real Estate family. As a full service residential real estate brokerage specializing in modern and architectural properties, Wine Country Modern fills a need for Modern homebuyers and sellers in Napa and Sonoma County and is pleased to introduce their new website: http://www.winecountrymodern.com

Established by Renee Adelmann, founder of Marin Modern, San Francisco Modern, and East Bay Modern Real Estate; Wine Country Modern Real Estate expands the company’s ability to best serve the needs of today’s modern real estate market. With a focus on modern architecture, Wine Country Modern has the resources to fill the needs of both buyers and sellers of all residential properties throughout Napa and Sonoma County.

Asked about the launch of Marin Modern’s newest family member, Renee Adelmann commented, “I’m excited to introduce our newest effort in filling the needs of our clients in the North Bay. I am often asked about the availability of properties and homes for sale in the wine country, and expanding our company into Napa and Sonoma Counties seemed like a logical step – and one that will bring value to our clients.”

Wine Country Modern’s website includes in-depth information about towns in Napa and Sonoma County, guidance specifically geared towards buyers and sellers, information on modern homes and hobby vineyards, and a list of scheduled open houses in the Napa/Sonoma wine country – as well as details about all homes and residential properties for sale in Sonoma and Napa County.

To learn more about our expanding family of real estate companies visit us online at Wine Country Modern Real Estate, Marin Modern Real Estate, San Francisco Modern Real Estate, and East Bay Modern Real Estate.

About Wine Country Modern Real Estate

Wine Country Modern Real Estate is a full service, technologically enabled brokerage offering state-of-the-art service to buyers and sellers of residential real estate throughout Napa and Sonoma Counties.

Contact the Wine Country Modern Team for assistance with the purchase or sale of real estate in Sonoma and Napa Counties.

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Article source: http://www.prweb.com/releases/2013/3/prweb10530458.htm

Sonoma County bucked regional and statewide real estate trends last month, which saw fewer homes sales than in February 2012, according to figures provided by DataQuick, a San Diego-based analysis service.

Sales are generally flat from January to February, according to DataQuick’s analysts.

But Sonoma County saw a 6.6 percent increase in the number of homes sold between February 2013 (403 homes) and February 2012 (378 homes). Last month’s sales also are on-par with the 398 homes sold in January of this year.

The median home price in Sonoma County also rose to $345,000 last month, a 16.9 increase over February 2012 and a $5,000 jump from the median sale price in the county in January.

Last month’s figures showed the median home price for the county was $340,000, up from $285,000 in January 2012.

The median price of a home sold in the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area skyrocketed nearly 25 percent when comparing February 2013 to February 2012, the data showed. The median has had a double-digit year-over-year increase the last nine months, and the past four months have seen gains above 20 percent.

Other interesting real estate market facts this month? DataQuick supplied these:

• The typical monthly mortgage payment that Bay Area buyers committed themselves to paying last month was $1,460. That was down from $1,479 in January, and up from $1,243 a year ago.
• The most active lenders to Bay Area home buyers last month were Wells Fargo with 15.0 percent of the market, Stearns Lending with 4.0 percent, and RPM Mortgage with 3.7 percent.
• Foreclosure resales – homes that had been foreclosed on in the prior 12 months – accounted for 13.6 percent in the Bay Area in February. That’s the lowest since November 2007.

“…[W]ith a recovering economy, prices still closer to the bottom than to the top, with ultra-low mortgage interest rates and tight supply, the stage is set for price gains,” said John Walsh, DataQuick president. “This spring is going to be interesting.”

Article source: http://petaluma.patch.com/articles/sonoma-county-home-prices-on-the-rise-again

San Rafael, CA (PRWEB) March 14, 2013

Marin Modern Real Estate, a premier brokerage in the San Francisco Bay Area, is pleased to announce the launch of its newest affiliate, Wine Country Modern Real Estate.

Launched on March 14, 2013, Wine Country Modern Real Estate is the newest member of the Marin Modern Real Estate family. As a full service residential real estate brokerage specializing in modern and architectural properties, Wine Country Modern fills a need for Modern homebuyers and sellers in Napa and Sonoma County and is pleased to introduce their new website: http://www.winecountrymodern.com

Established by Renee Adelmann, founder of Marin Modern, San Francisco Modern, and East Bay Modern Real Estate; Wine Country Modern Real Estate expands the company’s ability to best serve the needs of today’s modern real estate market. With a focus on modern architecture, Wine Country Modern has the resources to fill the needs of both buyers and sellers of all residential properties throughout Napa and Sonoma County.

Asked about the launch of Marin Modern’s newest family member, Renee Adelmann commented, “I’m excited to introduce our newest effort in filling the needs of our clients in the North Bay. I am often asked about the availability of properties and homes for sale in the wine country, and expanding our company into Napa and Sonoma Counties seemed like a logical step – and one that will bring value to our clients.”

Wine Country Modern’s website includes in-depth information about towns in Napa and Sonoma County, guidance specifically geared towards buyers and sellers, information on modern homes and hobby vineyards, and a list of scheduled open houses in the Napa/Sonoma wine country – as well as details about all homes and residential properties for sale in Sonoma and Napa County.

To learn more about our expanding family of real estate companies visit us online at Wine Country Modern Real Estate, Marin Modern Real Estate, San Francisco Modern Real Estate, and East Bay Modern Real Estate.

About Wine Country Modern Real Estate

Wine Country Modern Real Estate is a full service, technologically enabled brokerage offering state-of-the-art service to buyers and sellers of residential real estate throughout Napa and Sonoma Counties.

Contact the Wine Country Modern Team for assistance with the purchase or sale of real estate in Sonoma and Napa Counties.

For the original version on PRWeb visit: http://www.prweb.com/releases/prweb2013/3/prweb10530458.htm

Article source: http://www.sfgate.com/business/prweb/article/Wine-Country-Modern-Real-Estate-Joins-Established-4355044.php

A newly unsealed federal grand jury indictment accuses the motorcycle club leaders, mortgage broker and five other defendants of taking part in a scheme to defraud banks by falsifying loan applications for real estate in San Francisco and several North Bay communities in 2006 and 2007.

The applications misrepresented the borrowers’ incomes, bank balances and employment histories and falsely stated that they would live at the properties, some of which were later used for marijuana growing, the indictment said.

Seven defendants have pleaded not guilty. The eighth, Jerry Mays, 63, of San Pablo, an accountant and tax preparer, has not been apprehended, prosecutors said.

Among those charged was Jacob Moynihan, 30, of San Francisco, who owned a company called Xanadu Global Investments and also worked at several San Francisco mortgage brokerage firms, prosecutors said.

The indictment said Moynihan and his clients submitted fraudulent applications for loans, some for more than $1 million, to buy property in Santa Rosa, Petaluma and Healdsburg. The clients included two local Hells Angels leaders, Raymond Foakes, 48, of Rohnert Park and Josh Leo Johnson, 35, of Santa Rosa, prosecutors said.

Foakes is a former president of the Sonoma County Hells Angels and recently served a prison sentence for a 2002 brawl with a rival motorcycle gang at a casino in southern Nevada in which three people died. Prosecutors are seeking to keep him in jail until a trial on the mortgage charges.

His lawyer, Anthony Brass, said Foakes actually made mortgage payments on the Petaluma home that is the subject of the charges against him. Brass said he didn’t know whether Foakes’ loan application was accurate, but said overstating one’s income when seeking a home loan “was common practice at that time.”

The other defendants are Moynihan’s father, Gerald Moynihan, 51, of Santa Rosa; Desiree Maclean, 25, of Rohnert Park; John Greco, 38, of Rohnert Park; and Justin Batemon, 34, of Hayward.

E-mail Bob Egelko at begelko@sfchronicle.com.

Article source: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/09/27/BAL61LAD15.DTL&tsp=1

Two San Francisco Bay Area entrepreneurs hired a year ago to help run one of Northern California’s biggest real estate brokerages after it rebranded as Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Mason-McDuffie Real Estate have left the firm.

Mason-McDuffie named SmartZip Analytics co-founder Frank Richards co-CEO in October 2010, saying he would share leadership duties with Chairman Ed Krafchow, the company’s top executive for nearly two decades. A few weeks later, Mason-McDuffie named another SmartZip co-founder, Dan Worley, chief strategy officer.

Richards and Worley have left Mason-McDuffie “to pursue other interests,” but will continue to provide consulting and advisory services to the company, said Cathy Harrington, the brokerage’s vice president of new media and agent resources.

Harrington said Dougan Jones, a 30-year industry veteran and former CEO of Prudential Utah Real Estate, has been named managing director of Mason-McDuffie. Jones joined the firm in February and has been serving as managing partner of the company’s Wine Country Group in Sonoma County.

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Article source: http://www.inman.com/news/2011/09/23/tech-company-founders-leave-management-roles-mason-mcduffie

After two years during which tax rolls in most of the nine Bay Area counties shrank, often by large margins, this year property tax rolls are fairly flat compared with last year, the assessors said. Admittedly, they’re being compared with a lower base.

“We’re in a holding pattern,” said Marc Tonnesen, assessor for Solano County, one of the areas hardest hit by the foreclosure crisis. Solano’s tax roll was down just 1.56 percent this tax year, after falling 3.62 percent last year and 11 percent the year before. Two cities, Benicia and Fairfield, actually posted gains in their property tax rolls, he said.

One trend is that assessors are starting to restore assessed value to some properties whose tax bills were reduced during the downturn. Under California’s Proposition 8, assessors must reduce a property’s tax value when it drops below the market rate and then restore the value as the market improves.

“We’re beginning to see signs, however meager, of improvement in the market,” said Larry Stone, Santa Clara County assessor. The county partially restored value to 45,000 properties, largely in more affluent areas, he said. Overall, Santa Clara’s assessment roll was up 0.88 percent this year.

Its gain was almost perfectly in line with the increase in inflation allowed under Proposition 13. Under Prop. 13, properties’ tax value can increase 2 percent per year or by the California consumer price index, whichever is less. This year the index was 0.753 percent. (The increases in value for previously reduced properties are an exception to the Prop. 13 cap.)

Santa Clara, whose county seat is San Jose, acts as a leading indicator of market trends, said Bill Rousseau, chief deputy assessor in Sonoma County. “It’s usually a couple of years ahead of the Bay Area,” he said. “In the 1990s, after the downturn, Santa Clara came back about two years before we did.”

San Francisco, which has been the most bulletproof county during the downturn, was the only one where the roll rose last year (by 4 percent). This year, it was up by 1.3 percent, the biggest increase of any county.

“Our residential market bottomed out last year and it is still on the road to recovery,” said Assessor Phil Ting. “We haven’t seen properties being restored to prior values yet, but we will probably see that in the next year or two.”

Some hard-hit counties are still struggling to dig out. Contra Costa’s tax roll was almost flat after falling 3.39 percent last year and 7.6 percent the year before. About half of the properties – 180,000 – got their assessments reduced because they’re worth less than their base year factored value (the sales price plus the annual inflation factor). While 2,000 properties saw some values restored, most were bumped up only marginally, said Gus Kramer, county assessor.

Compared with coastal areas with job centers, Contra Costa lags, he said.

“Santa Clara and San Francisco counties are both basically hubs of the high-tech industry,” he said. “We don’t have that here in Contra Costa. Unemployment is still extremely high in this county.”

Meanwhile, San Mateo County has not seen a recovery yet, said Assessor Mark Church. “The market is still struggling to correct and is weak,” he said. “We continue to experience declines in value in some areas but we’re also experiencing some restorations in value.”

Alameda County is a microcosm of the scattershot way real estate markets recover. While 83,700 properties were assessed lower than their base value this year, 22,800 had value partially restored (which still means they are lower than base year value) and another 2,600 were fully restored to their pre-downturn values, plus the annual inflation factor.

Properties getting a bump up in value after having declined “seem to be all over the county in different (price-point) stratas,” said Assessor Ron Thomsen.

E-mail Carolyn Said at csaid@sfchronicle.com.

This article appeared on page D – 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle

Article source: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/09/10/BUJG1L0PG9.DTL

Twenty-five new videos of San Francisco Bay Area neighborhoods, events and attractions have recently been posted and made available to the public on the website of The Matchmakers, a real estate company located in the Bay Area, specializing in beautiful homes in the San Francisco Bay Area and France.

The videos range over the entire Bay Area, including the city of San Francisco itself, Oakland, Berkeley, Emeryville, Napa County, Sonoma County, and Marin County.

The videos are designed to give viewers who may not be that familiar with the Bay Area a chance to get a sense of the very different neighborhoods, landscapes, towns and cities in this wonderful area. Many of the videos also show the style of homes in these areas.

For instance, one of the videos on the Noe Valley neighborhood in San Francisco shows the streets, cafes, restaurants; describes somewhat the lifestyle of people who live there; and then gives viewers a look at homes and views from the neighborhood.

Another video focuses on the “Out About Festival” held annually in the Rockridge neighborhood of Oakland, and highlights a woman talking about the neighborhood.

The videos were produced by Jim Hilgendorf, owner of The Matchmakers, who is also owner of another company, The Tribute Series, a video production company which produces a highly-acclaimed series of travel films, corporate videos, and documentaries. He decided to produce the videos to help people get acquainted with the area.

For instance, many people who have an interest in moving to the San Francisco Bay Area, or are relocating from some other city in the United States or elsewhere around the world, oftentimes have very little acquaintance with San Francisco or the Bay Area itself. The videos were created to help these men and women get a preliminary feel for their future destination.

Jim Hilgendorf is planning to continue the series, and will be adding new videos on a regular basis.

The Matchmakers is a real estate company speicalizing in the greater San Francisco Bay Area and France. Jim and his wife Elizabeth have been to France many times and have developed connections with agents they work with in Paris, Bordeaux and the Dordogne Valley, Aix-en-Provence, Provence and the Cote d’Azur. The Matchmakers website also contains beautiful photos and videos of these areas.

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For the original version on PRWeb visit: www.prweb.com/releases/prweb2011/8/prweb8704260.htm

Article source: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2011/08/10/prweb8704260.DTL

Pleasanton, CA (PRWEB) May 01, 2011

Home sales in the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area continued at a steady pace in the first quarter of 2011 compared with the same period a year ago as homebuyers took advantage of favorable home prices and interest rates, according to an analysis of MLS data issued by the research division of Better Homes and Gardens Mason-McDuffie Real Estate.

In the nine-county Bay Area, 10,519 existing, single-family detached homes changed hands during the first quarter of 2011, a 1 percent decline from 10,617 homes sold during the same period in 2010. The first-quarter figure was down 11 percent on a non-seasonally adjusted basis from 10,753 homes sold in the fourth quarter.

Steady demand for lower-priced homes from investors seeking bargains and renters who discovered it can cost less to own than it does to rent kept home prices relatively stable for yet another quarter. For the region as a whole, the median price of a home sold during the first quarter was $468,360, down 3 percent from the same period a year ago and 11 percent lower than in the fourth quarter, when the median price rose slightly behind an uptick in sales of higher-priced homes.

Three counties – Alameda, Contra Costa and Santa Clara – each accounted for more than 2,000 home sales during the quarter but experienced slight declines in the number of homes sold on an annualized basis. Meanwhile, the two counties that typically contribute the fewest sales – Napa and Marin – showed the greatest improvement by posting a region-leading 9 percent increase in the number of homes sold compared with the same period a year ago. Sonoma County registered a 6 percent year-over-year increase in sales, followed by San Francisco County (+3%) and San Mateo County (+2%). Solano County (-6%) experienced the largest annualized decline in sales.

Short sales and bank-owned properties continued to provide excellent opportunities for homebuyers with patience while putting slight downward pressure on home prices. Median sales prices trended slightly lower on an annualized basis in all nine Bay Area counties – although Napa County’s median price was down only .3 percent for the year and six other counties experienced median price declines of 4 percent or less. San Francisco and Sonoma counties recorded the most significant median price declines from the year-ago period at 9 percent.

The average number of days a Bay Area home was on the market prior to sale remained essentially unchanged at 73 days in the first quarter. Locally, average days on market figures ranged from a low of 54 in San Francisco County to a high of 117 in Marin County. A year ago, the low stood at 45 days and the high was 129 days.

Looking ahead to the peak homebuying season, Bay Area homebuyers should continue to benefit from favorable pricing, although many competitively priced properties will draw multiple offers – some of them for all-cash. Both sales activity and median prices should remain steady absent any major changes in the state or national economic outlook or interest rates.

About Better Homes and Gardens Mason-McDuffie Real Estate

Our heritage began with the founding of Mason-McDuffie Real Estate in 1887. In 2009, the company was named the 19th largest real estate services firm in the nation, and Number One in the San Francisco East Bay. The company provides comprehensive solutions to home buyers and sellers, and handled more than 7,300 transactions in 2010, generating $2.9 billion in sales. Better Homes and Gardens Mason-McDuffie Real Estate is independently owned and operated and includes joint ventures with partners J F Finnegan Realtors, Highland Partners in Piedmont, Wine Country Group in the north bay, and Tri-Valley Realty in Pleasanton-Hopyard and Ruby Hill. The organization is comprised of more than 2,000 sales professionals in 40 offices. For more information, go to http://www.bhghome.com.

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Article source: http://www.prweb.com/releases/2011/5/prweb8360770.htm

Fast Forward Property Management, located in the San Francisco Bay Area, is offering three tips to property owners on how to fill vacancies.

“Owners and property managers invest a great deal of time and money to attract and maintain high-quality residents,” said Jade Powell of Fast Forward Property Management. “High vacancy rates can quickly turn a highly profitable investment property into a money-losing liability.  When a tenant leaves, you lose money by not being able to collect rent and can spend a considerable amount of time and money painting, repairing, cleaning, and advertising your unit.”

Fast Forward Property Management offers expert advice for those in the Bay Area, Sonoma County, San Francisco, Sacramento, San Jose, and Santa Rosa looking to fill their vacancy with a new tenant.

The following three tips should be considered by property owners:

First, place banners and signs around the property and launch ad campaigns online and with other media outlets.

Second, work with real estate sales professionals to develop referrals. Real estate sales professionals are a great source because many people go to them for listings, especially those new to the area, so it is wise to build a business relationship with them.

Finally, offer $150 to $250 to any tenant who refers someone that is approved for a lease. This provides motivation for current tenants to be on the lookout for new tenants, minimizing the amount of time and money spent by the property owner searching for someone to fill the vacancy.

These are great suggestions that every property owner should bear in mind to maintain successful rental properties.

For more information about property management, and all services provided by Fast Forward Property Management, visit them on the web at www.FastForwardPMBayArea.com or call them at (877) 388-0998.

About Fast Forward Property Management

Fast Forward Property Management is a property management firm in the San Francisco Bay Area that specializes in managing apartment buildings, HOA, and commercial properties.  The staff at Fast Forward Property Management has over 40 years of experience in rental management. They offer the Greater Bay Area communities of Sacramento, San Francisco, San Jose, Santa Rosa, and Sonoma County property management services.

Filed under:

Real Estate , Fast Forward Property Management, BlockShopper BNR, San Francisco Bay Area

Article source: http://sf.blockshopper.com/news/story/243210-Bay_Area_Fast_Forward_Property_Management_Offers_Three_Tips_on_Improving_Vacancy_Rates