Many people assume that as soon as they buy a house their taxes will decrease dramatically. This is not necessarily the case. What are the components that will reduce your taxes, ie. what can you itemize?1. Mortgage interest on a loan of up to $1m and a home equity loan of up to $100k2. Property taxes3. State taxesNeither condo fees, homeowner's insurance, nor repairs or maintenance are deductible. Of course there are other deductions, but we'll just concentrate on the big ones here."I pay a huge amount in mortgage interest, property taxes and state taxes. So why do I still not get as high a tax deduction as I thought I would?"Reason 1: Because you would have gotten a standard deduction anyway - as a married couple this is $10,000. Therefore your first $10,000 of deductions don't make a... 05/15/2007

    My fellow team member Kale Inoue and I just got back from an appointment with potential clients Justin Kan and Amanda Huffman. While the showing didn't go as planned (the leasing agent didn't show and wouldn't answer her phone); what made the appointment special is that it was being streamed live on the internet on Justin.tv    You may have read my earlier post about Justin and his roommates getting evicted from their North Beach apartment. As soon as I heard, we got in touch with Justin and started working with them to find somewhere to move and where they could both live and run Justin.tv without any additional hassles.     While we didn't get to see the place, they did get a chance to check out the neighborhood and we hit up one of my favorite local burrito places, Papalote, befo... 05/10/2007

I have come to the conclusion that blogging and expressing myself is something that I enjoy.  I want to continue it as much as possible.  I have also noticed that it takes away significantly from my hands on production.  I guess with any new venture, it takes time to work into it, to see true results, and learn how to make it work.  For me, blogging will have to take place more in off times, like at night.  Not to say I won't blog during the day, the focus has to come at night.  Isn't that just life!Mary McKnight‘s Post (Betty Ford for Bloggers: 12 step program to managing blog addiction ) on Blogging is greatI think the main thing people need to do in life is give yourself some priorities.  Schedule those priorities so that you continue production and make things work.  When taking a h... 05/08/2007

So the time is here.  You pack up the convertible with towels, a cooler full of food and the beverages of choice, the family if applicable, and head out!  Hopefully the beaches are close, because as most of you know, beach traffic can be a pain!Here is a list of beaches in San Francisco... http://www.sealrockinn.com/beaches.htmlIf you are looking for a great site for beaches across the nation, check this out! http://goingtothebeach.com/There are a lot of things that you may not consider when planning for an outing like this.  Here is a quick list of some of the things you should also consider for your outing!SUNTAN LOTION- possible the most important thing of all. Skin cancer statistics are scary, but put out there for a reason, to make sure you are protected.  Check out this link for s... 05/08/2007

I got a call from a borrower that had been pre-qualified for a San Francisco Home Loan with one of our other loan officers that has since left the company, and the borrower's question to me was, "Is my pre-qualification still good?".  That is a tough question, and I think that the question warrants explanation of what a pre-qualification is, and what a pre-approval is.  Check out this post for some more information, it is along the right lines. ( Larry Morris- he is sort of competition because I am licensed in Oregon, but who cares!  He wrote a valid piece! )  Often times, we can submit your application to a lender to render some sort of approval, and some conditions, but it will be subject to future conditions by the underwriter. I read a post earlier by Broker Bryant titled Let's call... 05/08/2007

I think some of the biggest news for the coming weekend has to be the release of the 3rd Spiderman movie.  It is being predicted that it will break some records for first weekend box office numbers.  I am the type of movie fan that loves the big blockbuster, I am not always the type that will be the first in line and wait forever to see the show, I will usually wait for the hype to calm down, and if I am lucky enough to get a night out with my wife, go then.  This one seems like it might be fun!  From what I have heard on the radio, it may be the best one yet. Are you standing out in the rain waiting for tickets?  What are the craziest things you have done to see your new movie craze? (Two blogs in a row about movies.  Can you tell it is overcast in San Francisco.  I am predicting a col... 05/03/2007

Time to start gobbling up investment property!  Some people are in trouble with the increase of foreclosures (430,000 in the first quarter of 2007) that have come about, and will continue for quite a while.  Others are licking their lips. If you are thinking about getting into the real estate game, there are many things that you need to think about prior to trying to find your property.  The most important thing to figure out is your goal.  I get a lot of contact from people that want to get started investing in real estate, and they have multiple goals.  I think that the best outlook is to focus on your primary goal, and the other goals can fall in line.  The most common goals are to have positive cash-flow, to be cash-flow even but get appreciation out of the property, to buy short sa... 05/02/2007

San Francisco Neighborhoods - District 5San Francisco is a wonderful city to live in. I've been living in the Bay Area for over 25 years. It has so much to offer. While I sell real estate throughout the city my first blog will highlight district 5 since my home and office are located in the beautiful Noe Valley.Noe Valley has become one of the City's most coveted residential areas in the past few years. Artists, students, techies and urban families have fallen in love with its charming cafes and convenient location to the 101 and 280 freeways, as well as to downtown San Francisco. The 24th street area is a haven of locally-owned shoe stores, book shops, and pubs and the Noe Valley Ministry is a popular venue for folk and world music. The lucky residents of the villas along the summits o... 05/02/2007

(Originally posted on my blog, San Francisco Real Estate) In a move to protect housing rights for the 70-some-odd -% tenant population of San Francisco, housing bill SB 464 proposes to be another hindrance to San Francisco’s never ending struggle to provide enough real estate for sale to meet the City’s demand. Penned by Senator Sheila Kuehl (who also brought us the recent “60-day notice to vacate” requirement to landlords whose tenants have been installed longer than 1 year), SB 464 would “amend the Ellis Act (the State law that allows rental property owners to go out of the rental business) by limiting its application to the owner of any residential real property who has owned the property for five years. In addition, SB 464 would allow a public entity to require that if any tenant is... 05/01/2007

I have lived in the San Francisco Bay Area my whole life, and don't really know much about the rest of the nation.  I have traveled and seen many different places, but really have grown to love what we have here.  Share with me some of your experiences in the wonderful Bay Area, and if you feel like it, share some of the drawbacks.Here are some of the great things that I have seen here.My wife and I took our engagement pictures here.  It was foggy, and we couldn't see the Golden Gate Bridge, but still awesome. This is a picture I took!  Do I have talent with photos?I can't believe this place used to be a prison, I would love to live there!Cable Cars can get you some awesome views of the City!Coit Tower is a great place to see a different view of Alcatraz.You know the Golden Gate Bridge.... 05/01/2007

Let the anxiety games begin!  Really I am not excited, just dreading finding out the next step of my battle with the Alameda County Court System. Look at Part 1 - My emotions from my first call last night!So it is now 5 minutes before 11, and I have to make that dreaded call again.  I am very nervous about the possibility of what is to come.  Do I get to go to work, do I have to go to court?  Worst case...Will I have to call back again later and prolong the agony.   2 minutes left1 minute leftIt is 11.  I am dialing the number....shaking...sweating....NO answer, are you kidding me...I will wait a few minutes and call back.BUSY.....you have to be joking.  Am I being punkd'?  I don't see Ashton Kutcher anywhere, why would he want to punk me anyways.Let's try it again.Ugh.  BUSY.  I am goi... 05/01/2007

The news of the mortgage and real estate business is starting to take it's toll on the individuals who rely on the media to give them their news.  Don't we all rely on the media for the news?  The truth is, we do...Over the last few months we have seen the much publicized impact the subprime crisis will have on the market today and in the future.  Heck, we can't avoid it.  I am starting to realize what a huge impact it is having on individuals who don't have the experience in Real Estate, mainly those first time homebuyers. The market is in no way exploding with appreciation, homes aren't selling fast, the truth is, we are in an adjustment phase.  I believe the impact the media is having on people who rely on it for information is going to hurt us as professionals.  We are getting a bad... 04/30/2007

Hey WordPress fanatics, the second annual WordPress community gathering, WordCamp 2007 is scheduled for July 21-23 in San Francisco's Swedish American Hall.   Thanks to Dustin Luther, who gave me the heads up, I had the chance to attend last year's gathering where we were treated to a "State of the Word" address by founding developer Matt Mullenweg before breaking into different sessions.  I sat in as Neil Patel of ProNet advertising lead a session on Wordpress & SEO and then checked out Tantek Celik's session on microformats.  It ended up being a great experience and I made some great connections within the WordPress community.    It looks like all the details aren't formalized yet, but I saw it on upcoming and plan on going again this year if I'm in town.  If any ActiveRainers think t... 04/30/2007

So for the 3rd time in the last year, I have received the most dreaded mail, anyone could get.  No not the credit card bill or energy bill in the winter, I am talking about the letter from Alameda County  selecting me for jury duty! Ugh. This is one of the most annoying and inconvenient things we as citizens must deal with.  It isn't so much that we have to possibly spend a few hours in court to do my service in society, that is not the issue, my issue is having to block out my whole day, and possibly whole life (ie. Scott Peterson trial took months and months) for the "possibility" that I might have service longer than one day.  If I was getting paid for services, maybe I wouldn't complain, but let's face it, the wage they pay is not something to get excited about.  The biggest complai... 04/30/2007

Justin Kan, the man behind Justin.tv is in danger of being evicted from his San Francisco apartment. In case you're unfamiliar with what he's doing, Justin is wearing a camera and broadcasting his life 24/7.  He wears it EVERYWHERE, even in the bathroom, even on a date.Why are they getting evicted?  They claim that they have no clue. In San Francisco, rent controlled tenants (most tenants) can only be evicted for certain "just causes."  Is there just cause to evict Justin and his roommates?  We'll have to tune in and see.  Maybe someone from our team will make an appearance since we've reached out to him to offer our assistance. BTW, how did I find out about his predicament you asked?  I saw it on Twitter. flickr photo credit Scott Beale (Laughing Squid)  UPDATE: We got in touch with J... 04/27/2007

Are you impressed with my attempt at a catching title? I am sure everyone involved in Real Estate has personally experienced some sort of tightening of the market, I thought I would give everyone an update on what I am seeing on the lending side.  Back in the prime of the market, lenders were open to just about every situation.  If you had a FICO score over 620, you could get approved up to $750,000 with just 3 letters of reference from people that you have done business with.  You wouldn't even need any reserves showing that you could put money aside.  Wow have things changed.  That same lender that offered that program, has tightened up to the point that they don't do this type of loan whatsoever.  Stated Income loan with 100% financing has dwindled tremendously.  Some lenders are sti... 04/26/2007

I have submitted another posting on the Real Estate Finance Market market, with basic news on what is happening every day.  I think the next logical step is to talk about WHY this is happening.  The main motivation and reason that a market collapses or gets saturated is greed.  There is soooo much money to be made on every side of every transaction.  Realtors, mortage brokers or lenders, title and escrow, appraisers, everyone involved, gets paid, and gets paid well for their time.  With the increase in demand over the last 4 years, the attractiveness of joining the real estate workforce has gotten even more attractive, and relatively easy to get started.  Why wouldn't people want to be involved? (I am one of them!!)What this did was open the doors to the negative part of the business.  ... 04/26/2007

I think there are many many common mistakes out there when it comes to credit, and it seems like even the most educated people make those mistakes.  As of late, I have had a lot of clients and new applications from people that are making the same common mistakes, and I think it is important to find out where your "FICO " score comes from, and why it is the most important thing when it comes to real estate and investment financing, and especially in competitive markets like the San Francisco Home Loan Market .First things first, FICO is a formula, I don't have it, no one in the public has it, but the glorious people at the Fair Isaac company, the people that formulate the FICO score, do.  What I am offering for information here is purely what I have read, and experienced.  If you want th... 04/26/2007

As the market changes, especially in the San Francisco Home Loan market, and it gets more and more difficult for corrupt mortgage brokers to make 5 points per deal, what I am questioning is what should a mortgage broker make?  My personal feelings is that every broker should come to their own conclusion as to what they will "charge" their clients for their services, and then offer them the option to structure the loan accordingly.  The reason being, there are many ways we as brokers can get paid, I think it should be up to the borrower how that is, and the borrower should make the call as to what rate and terms that is.  So what I do is, structure 3 different options of cost and rate, so that I make 1-1.5 points.  My client then makes the choice what rate and cost they want.  I have com... 04/26/2007

The San Francisco Home Loan Market has been overwhelmed by lenders pushing, even specializing and promoting this loan called the "Option ARM".  You may have heard it on the radio, you may have seen it on TV, I guarantee you have received something in the mail about it.  It promotes the 1% payment rate, and boasts about being fixed for 5 years, or more.  The reality is, there are 100's of options out there for this loan, and I have searched the blog posts front to back, and don't really see an unvailing of what this loan is.  I don't want to come off like I am bashing this loan program, but I want to stress that there are good ones and bad ones, and I hope I can explain the pros and cons so that you understand my point of view.Reality, this loan gives you 4 payment options.  It gives you... 04/25/2007