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A: This question is impactful given the recent firestorms and the devastation it left behind. Let me talk about how I’m most appreciative for being in the real estate industry.

The brokerage that I work with, Paragon Real Estate (now Compass), started a community fund at its inception to support local non-profit organizations. Agents within the company contribute a portion of their commissions, which is then donated to diverse non-profits. I’m incredibly grateful that through this fund, we were able to donate $10,000 toward helping victims of fires in northern California.

Additionally, a colleague and I personally donated 18 pies to Fraternite Norte dame. These are the infamous French nuns that feed almost 300 people in the Tenderloin.

We have worked on Habitat for Humanity building projects. California Association of Realtors collected donations, and provided grants to agents who lost their homes recently. Time and time again my colleagues have raised funds to help other agents in time of need. We are not salaried, so it’s dire if we’re not working.

Through the Paragon Community Fund, we have donated close to $1 million dollars since the program started in 2002.

I’m grateful that I not only get to run my own business, but I’m most gratified that the generosity and kindness of my industry always shows up for the community.

Par Hanji, Compass, 415-307-5110, par@parhanji.com.

A: Homeownership is the way Americans build wealth and I get to help people do that.

I love the variety of homes: Victorians, Eichlers, and Art Deco that we have here. Our clients buy property that grow in value quickly, and I’m grateful to help them with that. Competition is stiff, but it’s created a market that’s hard working and professional.

The hills and views that come with them are wonderful! Our cities and neighborhoods are distinct and no two neighborhoods are the same. The Bay Area market is at once competitive, but also collaborative because we all want to help our clients get what they want.

I love visiting houses that are traditional on the outside, and discovering that they’ve been completely renovated inside! I’m part of a real estate ecosystem that gives tilers, painters. contractors, designers, etc. work.

Lastly, I love being the ambassador for San Francisco to the many people who move here from other places. I couldn’t have a better profession.

Maitri Ratanasene, Haven Group/Compass, 415-215-5505, maitri@havengroupsf.com.

A: I am most thankful for the powerful sense of community that we share here in the Bay Area.

In times of need, it is remarkable to see my colleagues, clients and businesses come together and unite for a greater purpose. We rely heavily on our neighbors to foster a safe and welcoming atmosphere in which to live. It is this strong sense of community and investment in each other that makes living here better than almost anywhere else in the world.

I am also honored and grateful to work with extraordinary clients from many different backgrounds who are drawn to our unique and vibrant local culture. The Bay Area offers an incredible variety of neighborhoods and architectures to choose from, which makes buying and selling real estate here an exciting and intimate experience.

Allison Fortini-Crawford, 415-297-9596, allison@fortini-crawford.com.

Article source: https://www.sfchronicle.com/realestate/article/Sound-Off-What-are-you-most-thankful-for-in-the-13422687.php

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  How not to be an annoying “tech bro”? San Francisco Redditors offer their advice. 

  How not to be an annoying “tech bro”? San Francisco Redditors offer their advice. 

  
  Photo: Daniel Viñé Garcia/Getty Images
  

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How not to be an annoying “tech bro”? San Francisco Redditors offer their advice. 

How not to be an annoying “tech bro”? San Francisco Redditors offer their advice. 

Photo: Daniel Viñé Garcia/Getty Images

Business Insider

• The Bay Area is saturated with tech companies like Twitter and DropBox, but it wasn’t always that way.
• The inclusive San Francisco was once home to an eclectic group of dreamers, unconventionals, and creatives.
• But in the last two decades, tech companies have taken over, diminishing the rich culture and causing Bay Area real estate prices to soar.
• Here’s how tech companies are ruining the Bay Area.

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When I moved to San Francisco in 1987, the inclusive City by the Bay was home to artists, dreamers, queers, and weirdos. I made friends, got a job, and learned never to call the city “Frisco.” In San Francisco, the unconventional fit in. I felt right at home.

A little more than a decade later, my Bay Area home started to change. Tech companies and their employees began to run roughshod over San Francisco and the East Bay. Real estate prices soared, and the eclectic Bay Area culture that I love started to disappear.

Poets and revolutionaries have been pushed to the margins while tech companies turn the Bay Area from a magnet for all types of creative thinkers into a mecca for just one thing: tech. Here’s how tech companies are ruining San Francisco.

1. Tech crashed San Francisco’s party and won’t leave

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

I did a very informal survey of friends and neighbors, including people who work in tech, on the industry’s role in the Bay Area. The first thing everyone mentioned was housing prices.

A myriad of factors have pushed up the price of Bay Area real estate, and a Starbucks salary can’t compete with a tech paycheck in a when it comes to the competitive rental market. And forget about buying a home: the median San Francisco home price is $1.61 million, according to Curbed.

A friend of mine once commented that San Francisco is a city of rich people with no one to pour their lattes. Many people, including me, have decamped to the cheaper East Bay or places further afield.

Even lovely, funky, spirited Oakland is not immune to the housing crunch. As San Francisco has grown more crowded and unaffordable, a flood of tech workers has brought high prices to Oakland buyers and renters as well, according to Zillow.

The Bay Area is no longer a place where a young person can live a bohemian life rich in ideas but short on cash. If this housing trend keeps up, young poets will no longer congregate at City Lights Books or split a tiramisu at Caffe Greco. And that’s a loss for the Bay Area.

2. Life in a petri dish

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Mark Zuckerberg started Facebook with the motto, “Move fast and break things.” Many tech startups take this as their guiding premise, asking forgiveness rather than permission. But when the thing they break by moving fast is the physical infrastructure — the streets where we all live — it’s not funny anymore.

With increasing frequency, Bay Area residents find ourselves subjected to yet another startup ready to make our lives better, whether we like it or not. One of the latest uninvited tech innovation to hit Bay Area streets is scooter sharing.

Startups like Lime and Bird think they’re solving the problem of getting commuters the last mile between their public transit stops and their destinations. But Bay Area residents and governments don’t appreciate the scooters that suddenly are littering their sidewalks.

On a recent day in San Francisco, protesters blocked tech buses with piles of electric scooters, as Business Insider previously reported. San Francisco has sent cease and desist letters to the scooter companies, but the behemoth of tech seems likely to roll over residents once again. And they wonder why we don’t like them.

3. The ill-advised building boom

Mike Windle/Getty Images

You may have heard that the Bay Area is prone to earthquakes. Apparently, this news hasn’t reached the geniuses transforming the San Francisco skyline with skyscrapers like the Salesforce Tower, now the tallest building in the city. As the New York Times recently reported, these giants present a big risk in a city with a history of hard shakes.

Adding to the danger is the fact that much of downtown San Francisco was built on a landfill (mapping the locations of the abandoned Gold Rush ships that were paved over in the process is a favorite SF pastime).

I have to admit a certain amount of schadenfreude when I heard that the ritzy Millennium Tower, with its condos that sold for millions, started to sink and tip sideways in the 10 years after it was built.

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

See Also:

• The new ‘Detective Pikachu’ movie trailer features cute and creepy ‘real-life’ versions of Pokémon — here they all are
• The Nintendo Switch’s first full Pokémon games, ‘Pokémon: Let’s Go, Pikachu!’ and ‘Pokémon: Let’s Go, Eevee!’ will introduce a new generation of players to the joys of ‘Pokémon: Red and Blue’
• I played ‘Red Dead Redemption 2′ as a cowboy photographer — here are my favorite photos showing the insane level of detail in the game

SEE ALSO: The income needed to afford a median-priced home in every San Francisco Bay Area county

Article source: https://www.middletownpress.com/technology/businessinsider/article/I-ve-lived-in-the-Bay-Area-for-30-years-and-I-m-13008084.php

When it comes to holiday season traditions, real estate site Property Shark’s annual assessment of the most expensive ZIP codes in America isn’t the most cheerful.

But it provides an increasingly reliable calendar marker, and a reminder that, even though the San Francisco real estate market has slackened a bit in 2018, that’s no reason to lose perspective on just how stratospheric the cost of a roof is in the Bay Area.

Property Shark tabulates home sales based on “actual closed sale prices, and not asking prices,” calculates a median for each ZIP code in the nation, and ranks the top 100 accordingly. (This year’s list includes 117 entries thanks to a number of ties.)

The median includes all types of home sales, “taking into account condo, co-ops, single- and two-family homes.”

For 2018, 82 of the top 100 ZIPs are in California, up from 77 last year. Property Shark writer Eliza Theiss singles out Silicon Valley as “home to some of the most expensive residential real estate in the country [and] world.”

San Francisco has nine entries on the list, tied with New York City for the most citations; however, New York’s ritziest neighborhood came in No. 4 nationwide while SF’s most unobtainable locales ranked quite a bit lower.

Here’s a survey of the damage:

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• Once again, Atherton’s 94027 ZIP code is the nation’s priciest place to buy. Atherton took the top spot in 2017, up from No. 2 in 2016. This year the Bay Area’s most hoity-toity burgh saw a median sale price of $6.7 million, up from $4.95 million last year. According to the U.S. Census, Atherton has a population of just more than 7,200 people, so its smaller sample size tilts toward big year-over-year spikes and dips.
• The next priciest Bay Area locale is Palo Alto’s 94301, which landed in sixth place with a median of $3.75 million-plus. Palo Alto ranked seventh in 2017.

Photo by l0da_ralta

• You have to scroll all the way down to No. 40 to find San Francisco’s first appearance: The 94123 ZIP averaged $2.07 million-plus in 2018. That’s the area covering the Marina and Cow Hollow. In 2017, the city’s most expensive area was the Richmond and Presidio Heights, with $1.9 million.
• Speaking of which, this time around the city’s second-biggest spenders favored 44th place 94118, which covers the Inner Richmond and Presidio Heights, and shakes out to $1.97 million and some change.
• The rest of the city’s top five rounds out to 94127 (Saint Francis Wood, Mount Davidson, and Balboa Terrace, among others) in a tie for 54th place at $1.8 million, 94114 (Castro and Noe Valley) in 60th with $1.72 million, and 94121 (Sea Cliff and Outer Richmond) in 75th place with $1.61 million.
• Alameda County appears on the list three times: Fremont’s 94539 coming in at No. 83 with a $1.52 million median; Oakland’s 94618 (which covers Rockridge) at No. 95, which averaged $1.45 million (tied with nearby Orinda); and Berkeley’s 94705 at No. 98 with $1.44 million.

For the full rankings in all of their gritty glory, check here.

• Most Expensive ZIP Codes, 2018 [PropertyShark]
• Most Expensive ZIP Codes, 2017 [PropertyShark]
• Atherton, CA [US Census]

Article source: https://sf.curbed.com/2018/11/28/18116315/most-expensive-zip-codes-2018-atherton-bay-area

Geanakos (L) was interviewed by Slepin (R) as part of the Leading Voices in Real Estate podcast series.

SAN FRANCISCO—In a strong but choppy economy, real estate early-career professionals and MBA students are as stressed out as seasoned veterans. But Jonathan Geanakos, president of JLL Capital Markets/Americas, tells aspiring real estate pros that they are in for an exciting and rewarding ride. “Real estate as a career is only limited by your own imagination and work ethic,” Geanakos explains.

Article source: https://www.globest.com/2018/12/04/eight-ways-to-succeed-in-real-estate/

SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 03, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — This year, more than ever, the need is enormous to provide for those in dire straits. So many disasters, natural and otherwise, have converged across the country, and particularly throughout our state, creating a huge number of people in need of a helping hand. Zephyr Real Estate is again placing food and toy collection barrels in all its offices throughout San Francisco and Marin to amass goods for a hopeful holiday season.

While shopping this year, everyone is encouraged to purchase a few extra food items and a toy or two, and deliver these items to one of Zephyr’s designated containers. Food items will be delivered to the San Francisco and Marin County Food Bank, while toys and games will be donated to the San Francisco Firefighters Toy Program.

Non-perishable food items such as canned fruits and vegetables, tuna, soup, chili, beans, cereal, peanut butter (no glass containers please), and granola bars are needed. Cash and gift cards may be donated only at the Food Bank, but they are always welcome, particularly since the Food Bank’s buying power is almost 6:1 over individual shoppers

“Distributing nearly a million pounds of food every week always feels more urgent during November and December – when we strive to ensure that everyone in our community can enjoy the simple pleasure of a festive, nourishing holiday meal,” wrote Paul Ash, Executive Director, San Francisco-Marin Food Bank. “We believe that Food For All should be a motto that the entire country adopts.”

The San Francisco Firefighters Toy Program is the largest firefighter toy give-away in the United States. This group delivers hundreds of thousands of toys to thousands of children, especially during the holidays but throughout the year as well. The San Francisco Firefighters have special campaigns this year for ethnic dolls and cultural books (details on the website). Also recommended are games, stuffed animals, baby items (bottles, rattles and blankets), sports gear, craft items, iPods, game systems and toy trucks.

Toys will be picked up Thursday, December 20; food donations will be collected beginning Tuesday, January 15.

“The need is greater than ever, but we know that Bay Area people have big hearts, a willingness to give and a desire to help others,” remarked Randall Kostick, President and CEO of Zephyr. “Join us in making a difference. All our holiday celebrations will be better for it.”

About Zephyr Real Estate
Founded in 1978, Zephyr Real Estate is San Francisco’s No. 1 independent real estate firm with nearly $2.3 billion in gross sales and a current roster of more than 350 full-time agents. Zephyr’s highly-visited website has earned two web design awards, including the prestigious Interactive Media Award. Zephyr Real Estate is a member of the international relocation network, Leading Real Estate Companies of the World; the luxury real estate network, Who’s Who in Luxury Real Estate; global luxury affiliate, Mayfair International; the local luxury marketing association, the Luxury Marketing Council of San Francisco; and the regional luxury real estate affiliation, the Artisan Group. Zephyr has nine locations across San Francisco, Marin, Alameda and San Mateo Counties and two brokerage affiliates in Sonoma County, all strategically positioned to serve a large customer base throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. For more information, visit www.ZephyrRE.com.

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/26c47cfb-cc5e-48e4-8543-c08183f07d90

Article source: https://globenewswire.com/news-release/2018/12/03/1661078/0/en/Zephyr-Real-Estate-Continues-Annual-Food-and-Toy-Drive-Tradition.html