Today out on tour I spotted this bathtub unlike any I had seen before. It’s simple and looks comfortable, with the faucet controls on the wall so they don’t get in the way, with a convenient shelf to put your bubble bath and glass of wine. I thought it was a beautifully designed home spa.

What do you think? If you could remodel your bathroom and put in a tub, what look do you prefer. Post pictures here for all to share.

[caption id=”attachment_741” align=”aligncenter” width=”300” caption=”Spa tub to take your cares away”][/caption]

If you’re remodeling your home, or doing any construction that requires a permit from the San Francisco Building Department (just about everything except paint and wallpaper requires a permit), then you will be issued what is called a ‘Job Card’ (I capitalize it to emphasize its importance). This card, pictured below, is a record of inspections of the work by the  building inspector, who will make notes on it and sign it each time he or she visits your job site. The Job Card is given to you when you are issued a building permit. It should be kept on the job site at all times until work is completed.

The Job Card is an important record of the Department of Building or Inspection’s signing off on your completed work. When your job is finished and your work is “finaled”, you should keep the job card along with your building permit with your permanent records on your property.

Here’s the gottcha: The inspector is suppose to update the records in the building department’s computers, but that doesn’t always happen. So it’s vitally important that you keep your Job Cards so you have proof that the job was signed off on. Otherwise, when you go to sell your house, the 3R Report, which is the record of permits that have been pulled on your property, will be incomplete. Having the Job Card to show the building department can reverse the incorrect information.

So the advise is to keep your Job Cards with your family trust and birth certificates. They are that important!

[caption id=”attachment_735” align=”aligncenter” width=”222” caption=”Job Card RecordJob Card”][/caption]

One of my buyers asked a question recently, “if we get the condo appraised and the value of the condo is higher than what we agree to, can the seller pull out and ask for a higher price? Or does it only work in our favor?”

This was a good question, especially since appraisals can be a point of failure for many escrows. First of all, the seller does not see the appraisal unless the appraised price is lower than the agreed upon price.  If the appraised price is higher than the contract price, then the buyer can consider it instant appreciation.

In this buyer’s case, the appraisal came in at the contract price so the escrow was able to proceed and closed on time.

Welcome to 83 29th St, located at the crossroads of 4 great San Francisco neighborhoods: Glen Park, Bernal Heights, Noe Valley, and the Mission. Literally step out your front door and have all the amenities you desire at your fingertips: coffee, restaurants, groceries, shopping, parks, schools, bookstores, entertainment, and more. If the ability to “walk to everything” is on your list, then this is the home for you!

$575,000

•Two bedroom condo with lovely detail

•Updated kitchen, gas stove, split bath

•Stackable laundry on enclosed porch

•Gorgeous hardwood floors

•Double-paned front windows, central heat

•HOA dues $100 per month

•Leased parking $150 per month (but who needs a car with everything within walking distance?!)

For more pictures and information, go to HotMissionCondo. Or contact me for details!

[caption id=”attachment_723” align=”aligncenter” width=”217” caption=”83 29th St Edwardian condo”][/caption]

For someone like me who would recycle dryer lint if I could, these two new programs may appeal to your inner green as much as they did mine.

USED BART TICKETS

BART has a program called Tiny Tickets that collects tickets with small amounts remaining on them. They are then added up and given to local charities. Another way to recycle those cards is to tape them to the blue recycling containers that hold your paper and bottle recyclables. They are given to BART which will direct the proceeds to the San Francisco Food Bank and Friends of the Urban Forest.

UNUSED MEDICINES

Don’t flush your old meds down the toilet or throw them in the garbage. Take them instead to your local pharmacy or police station. To find the nearest locations, go to www.sfenvironment.or/recyclewhere and select “medicine”.

I love that we are recycling nuts in this city. Anything that can save the environment, I’m all for.

Ned York has been a long-time client, having sold and bought 3 times with me. Here are his thoughts and advice to home buyers and sellers in San Francisco.

Did you know that the wonderful exhibits at the California Academy of Sciences are free to neighborhoods on specific dates during the year? Check out the schedule below or click on the link above. The hours are 9:30-5pm. It’s a great way to spend the day with the entire family!

2012 California Academy of Sciences Neighborhood Free Days

“You can’t time the market”- How many times have you heard that? The reason this adage is so enduring is because it is so true. Every time there is a change in the real estate market it seems to take buyers, sellers and even REALTORS® by surprise. It seems we all assume that the market will be the same tomorrow as it is today, yet we all know that’s just not how things work. There are few better examples of a cyclical market than real estate.

Every indicator that we’re seeing is telling us that the tides have already changed. For the first time since we entered the gloom of the downturn we are beginning to hear buyers say they think they may have “missed the bottom.” This is usually an utterance heard only after the bottom of a market has come and gone.

What is there to suggest that the market has already changed?

First, sales activity throughout the Bay Area is dramatically up. Although activity has been improving in San Francisco for some time now, the rest of our metropolitan area has not experienced the same comeback (until the last couple of months). Over the last thirty to sixty days, real estate offices are reporting multiple offers and over asking sales prices affecting all of our surrounding neighbors. In spite of the fact that many national and even state locations have yet to experience a rebound, the Bay Area is definitely coming alive!

Second, rising median sales prices. San Francisco prices have been flat to rising over the past two years (depending on the neighborhood). However, the uptick in prices for February alone was 6.5 percent citywide.

Third, if you haven’t heard already, we are experiencing a four-year low in “months supply of inventory,” which is a measure of how many months might be needed to sell out the current inventory at the current rate of sale.

What’s causing these changes in the Bay Area and particularly in San Francisco?

At least part of the answer has to do with the incredible boom in technology development and the resulting strong employment environment that we enjoy. Have you experienced the lines outside of the restaurants serving lunch South of Market or the wait behind a Genentech bus as it picks up or drops off employees? Our housing market is host to a wave of new employees that are working for everybody from Facebook to Zynga to YouTube.

What’s it all mean?

With national economic indicators showing some very healthy signs and local economic factors creating a long-term foundation for a strong housing market, anyone who is “waiting for the market to improve” before they sell may be missing one of the most exciting seller’s markets in years. We currently have buyers who are wishing they had purchased a year ago. Will sellers be looking back at today’s sales environment a year from now and asking why they sat on the sidelines and watched a fabulous seller’s market pass them by? Good question!

San Francisco has placed its publicly available data on a website, all in one place, to make it easy to search for just about anything. Like the all-in-one 311 call center that eliminated the need to keep a list of the different city departments, this website allows you to search for crime statistics on a map, look at the neighborhood boundaries, find film locations, and much more.

Check out the website here. Happy hunting!

I previewed 1566 Sanchez Street last week, a home “designed to achieve the pinnacle of green recognition, the LEED Platinum certification” according to the marketing remarks in the MLS. One of the light fixtures caught my eye for its creative re-use of old sliver ware. When even the light fixtures use previously owned components, you know you’re in a home bent on recyling. Dinner anyone?

[caption id=”attachment_681” align=”aligncenter” width=”300” caption=”Silver ware light fixture at 1566 Sanchez St, San Francisco Green Certified House”][/caption]