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

I think this word gets thrown around a lot, and sometimes "success" doesn't stick.  Is that really success? Possible reasons a person is successful:Lots of MoneyPeople desire themConsistent results and supportRespect of their peersI think success has a few different characteristics of each.  But really, I think what a person feels success truly is depends completely on the person.  I think a person is successful when they do have some money.  Though I don't feel money has a very huger bearing on it because the money isn't what dictates your success, it is only the result of your success.  If you start being unsuccessful, then the money goes away, if you continue your success, the money keeps coming.  Money doesn't make you successful.  If people desire you, I think your success is there... 04/25/2007

I wanted to share a little story I heard yesterday from one of my Bank Reps that not only frightened me, but angered me a little.  If anyone has any insight I would love a contribution. So, I am talking with my rep about what they are saying, what is new on their end, and they told me a story about a friend of their's that bought a new construction house about 2 years ago, in the San Francisco Home Market that they financed with a 2 year fixed through the Builders finance broker.  The friend bought this new beautiful house for X dollars, which though it is a lot of money, has been the norm for such a nice area, great schools, great employment....everything.  So, the builders in this community built a lot of homes in this area, and continues to build.  The builders have built soooo much ... 04/24/2007

I want to share a little advice that I think is one of the most important things in the Real Estate and credit game.  As I have said in previous posts, credit is the most important thing when it comes to Real Estate finance.  One of the biggest mistakes I see people making is with "Co-signing".  What Co-signing entails is you signing for a loan, mortgage, auto, or other, with someone else, using your credit as a supplement to the primary borrower.  The word co-signer doesn't really play in the Real Estate game, but is very common with Auto finance.  When you co-sign, what you are basically saying is that I will vouch for this person, and that you will get all payments ontime and in full.  What this does is put this liability on your credit report.  This can be good because it builds you... 04/24/2007

et's face it, credit is extremely important in Real Estate finance, and one of the most important, if not the most important factors, is paying everything on time.  I am going to give a few tips on how to make managing the payments and keeping that FICO score in 700's to ensure you can stay competitive in the Real Estate game.  The inspiration for this, is I have a long time client who has been with the same bank for years, and in the past had always gotten her mortgages through that same bank, so a majority of her bills could be paid directly with a teller.  Upon reviewing her situation, there have been some issues that are now showing on the credit report, that regardless of having money to pay the bills, are showing negatively, and either create a hassle to fix, or if you can't fix i... 04/20/2007

The San Francisco Mayor's Office of Housing issues a certain number of houses in the city to be sold at Below Market Rates for people who are "low income" borrowers to allow more people to be able to qualify for home ownership, in typically expensive housing areas.  The median housing cost in San Francisco is around $700,000, and let's face it, you need to make $200,000 per year to afford this home with standard financing.  That is a tough thing to do for the common folk.  BMR homes run in the neighborhood of $250,000.  A lot more affordable for those people considered "low income" (Less than $91,200 yearly).How does this work you ask.  The Mayor's Office of Housing requires a certain number of Low Income units be sold for every market value property that is offered.  It is obviously a ... 04/20/2007

Welcome to my blog.  This is my first entry.  In this blog, I'll be focusing on San Francisco, specifically the South Beach, SOMA, and Mission Bay neighborhoods.  I specialize in condos and new developments, and that will be the focus of this blog.   For immediate information, please visit www.sfcondosales.com.  Thanks for reading! 04/18/2007

If anybody is looking to live with their parents in Multi Family arrangement, I can help to locate a few available in San Francisco. This property is located in Bernal Heights District of San Francisco, which has the Million Dollars Panaromic views of the city from all the units. In this three families can live independently but together in close proximity surrounded by manicured and terraced Japanese gardens. Please call 415-640-3156 or email apramanik@kw.com 04/16/2007

This is a unique concept, and I hope people will think seriously and plan their next move for a better quality of Family life. By jointly buying a multi-unit property families can leverage their hard earned dollars and also help younger generation to live closure to elderly parents and in the city of San Francisco. There is already a property available with three different units along with beautiful Japanese Garden courtyard in Bernal Heights, San Francisco. The owner believes in Family living together, and likes to sell to Families living together, like elderly couple with their  grown up children and their families. This property is on top of hill and next to a park. If interested the property can be shown to interested parties with advance notice. Please call 415-640-3156, or email t... 04/16/2007

I am so excited. I randomly got interviewed by a chronicle reporter over email awhile ago and I thought that was the end of it... Little did I know, a surprise came in the form of google email where I had set up a automatic search on my company name Staged4more. YAY! I am in the Chronicle tomorrow! I am setting my alarm so I will get a stack of copy tomorrow. Haha!I am SO excited! My little company is growing :)Here is the whole article in case you are interested: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/04/01/STAGE.TMPStagers: Ready for prime timeUpdating furniture and interiors can pay off when it's time to sell your homeChuck Green, Special to The ChronicleSunday, April 1, 2007Printable VersionEmail This ArticleWhen it was time to prepare her Mission District duplex for s... 03/31/2007

For anyone interested in new construction in San Francisco, take a look at www.sfnewdevelopments.com. I started this blog a couple of years ago. It has great information on for Rincon Hill, Mission Bay, SOMA, and South Beach. Including: Millennium Tower, The Infinity, Radiance, The Beacon, The Watermark, Rincon Center, Saint Regis, The Palms, The Brannan, The Landmark, Glassworks, The Royal, Four Seasons, The Terraces, and Park Terrace. 03/27/2007

So many families take vacation along with their extended family, and enjoy their experience for the duration of that Vacation only.This beautiful experience can be had by planning and arranging to live in a Heritage Home environment. Heritage Home environment is same as olden days Joint Family living in same compound, building, farm or village. This of course does not mean to be as more than two families living together and sharing, kitchen, bath rooms etc, but having separate units adjacent to each other.The biggest advantage is to be had by the younger generation are, support, wisdom and knowledge from the direct kin above them. One cannot buy the experience, comfort and knowledge from the concept of Family Living in modern society of ours in US.It will be nice if we can build a commu... 03/26/2007

(Originally posted on my blog, San Francisco Real Estate)Just on the heels of news that San Francsico's February '07 housing sales volume was down compared to not only Feb '06 but also January '07, comes the return of every buyer's nightmare: The Offer Date. Since the beginning of March, more and more houses I tour or see on MLS have set offer dates. An offer date is a day, 10-14 days after the first open house, on which all interested parties need to wait (or in some cases rush) to get their offers in by. Every offer I have submitted for clients in March has had a set offer date and resulted in multiple offer scenarios of anywhere from 3-7 offers. Yes, offer dates and multiple offers are back, despite news of problems in the sub-prime lending sector and February unit sales down 12% fro... 03/20/2007

The San Francisco real estate market is almost one unto itself. But that is another article for another day. What we are reporting on is First Republic Bank’s Prestige Index, which covers the huge California real estate market. And this final article in the series focuses on the results for upscale home in the San Francisco metropolitan real estate market. The perpetually hot (huh?)San Franciso Bay area rose a slight 1.6 percent from the fourth quarter of 2005 to the first quarter of 2006 and gained 6.6 percent from a year earlier. The average San Francisco luxury home is now a record $2.92 million, up over $230,000 from a year earlier. Unlike other metropolitan areas in California, it is the lower end of the luxury scale that seems to be attracting demand. According to the report, ther... 02/08/2007

How come homebuyers will spend three days choosing their wainscotting but no time to choose their heating and cooling system which effects not only their health but their wallet as well? 01/20/2007

 GROW-A-BRAINDecember 21, 2006 More dead bloggers I just learned that John Mudd, one of the very first real estate bloggers, died a few months ago as a result of complications from juvenile diabetes. John Mudd was a pioneer, who started his Tampa Bay’s Inside Real Estate Journal in 2003 when there were literally only a couple of such blogs. Since then he had been actively involved with issues of real estate blogging, lecturing, publishing articles and promoting the concept. He will be missed. Another young blogger who passed away last week is Star of Sarcasmo’s Corner. RIP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -    In other real estate blogging: Peek into the mind of America's most opinionated mortgage broker, Brian Brady Jonathan Greene’s new commercial Viva La Real Estate (reminds me of the... 01/14/2007

(Originally posted on my San Francisco Real Estate blog.)Public access to the San Francisco Multiple Listing Service (MLS) will most likely extend until the end of February, I was told this week by a SFAR representative. Due to the unexpected cancellation of a reciprocal service combining the SF MLS listings with those of other Bay Area listing services, public access will stay in place as a work around for those real estate practitioners whose work crosses county lines. Once direct entry to the system is cut off, the public will still be able to access complete San Francisco listings through realty and real estate agent websites. For example, this link will take you directly to the MLS page on my website. Have questions about buying or selling real estate? Are you ready to buy or sell ... 01/13/2007

For SEO reasons, the full post is not posed here. It can be read at my site. ---------I went through the current active listings in the MLS defined area of South Beach in San Francisco and picked out a couple. They have each been on the market for at least a few months. One is a studio - priced at just $379,000 (by far the lowest in South Beach) and the other it is a 2 bed/1.5 bath condo in a small industrial style 3 unit building. There's more info about the listings and the neighborhood at my main site. 01/09/2007