McGuire Real Estate

Articles, Stories & Questions

Displaying submissions 1 - 30 of 94 in total

« Previous 1 2 3 4 Next »

Get the Scoop on San Francisco MLS Changes Beginning January 2012 the San Francisco Multiple Listing Service (MLS) added additional status categories in response to the changes in the current real estate market. In the past once an offer was received and until contingencies were removed, a property was listed in the MLS online simply as Active-Continued. Weeks to months may pass while an offer on a property wades through the appro... more... Blogged on 1/27/2012	Carole Isaacs
San Francisco Parking Tips: Reviewing David LaBau's Finding the Sweet Spot There’s no question that I’m parking obsessed, I admit it freely. Over five years ago, when my compact station wagon died, I bought a Mazda Miata. A major part of my choice was based on the length of the car. Many friends and business associates thought I had gone round the bend, but five years later it is clear I was a visionary ahead of my time. Fast forward to to... more... Blogged on 1/20/2012	Carole Isaacs
Get Your House Naked and Ready to Sell! Clutter is always on the minds of Realtors, Sellers and Buyers. I don’t know if there has been a scientific study to find out if homes with less clutter sell faster, but I am sure that every Realtor I know would agree this is true. Buyers have come to expect that homes are staged, or at least look staged. The minimalist look is IN. It is not inexpensive to stage a home and as t... more... Blogged on 1/13/2012	Carole Isaacs
New Year’s Resolutions for Buyers and Sellers There is no way to get around the fact that buying, or selling a home involves major decisions. It’s time consuming in the best of circumstances, emotionally draining and overwhelming in the worst. A few good New Year’s resolutions are worth considering. When you say to yourself, “there are so many details, I don’t know where to begin,” you can fall back on your... more... Blogged on 1/9/2012	Carole Isaacs
Dear Santa: Wishing for San Francisco Real Estate this Year Leaving for a Saturday walk to North Beach from Cow Hollow I met a young man in the hall of my building dressed in an amazing stripped red suit (with tails) that he proudly told me he bought for $11.00, and it fit perfectly. I commented it was perfect for the right occasion, and he said that he was on his way to Civic Center for SantaCon. He suggested I drive there to watch... more... Blogged on 12/16/2011	Carole Isaacs
To Bake or Not to Bake: What is Your Priority? Every buyer has a list of must haves when they search for a home. In San Francisco, having the right location—not just neighborhood, but also the right block—a view, and/or a garage may be number one on your list.The holiday season is the time when buyers who had a kitchen at the top of their list, or dream of what they will do when they find a home with the perfect kitchen... more... Blogged on 12/9/2011	Carole Isaacs
Plan a 49 Hour San Francisco Holiday December already and the holiday spirit is in the air. If you are having guests, or just want to take a break from all things work and real estate, but not leave home, and are wondering exactly what to do, I have the answer for you! There are only 48 hours in the weekend, but the San Francisco Visitors and Convention Bureau (SFCVB) has extended that to 49 hours, because we all know San Francis... more... Blogged on 12/2/2011	Carole Isaacs
Do You Know About the Micro Park on Telegraph Hill? In San Francisco we have parks, mini parks, parklets, and then there is Jack Early Park on Telegraph Hill. I think this qualifies as a micro park. This spectacular view spot eked out of a seemingly inaccessible few square feet of flat land up the steep rocky northern slope of Telegraph Hill is the sole creation of Jack E. Early. Jack Early lived on the north side of Telegraph Hill and was a qu... more... Blogged on 11/18/2011	Carole Isaacs
Winter Sales in San Francisco are Different - Homes Keep Selling! Here we are a few weeks from Thanksgiving and people are talking about real estate slowing down in the holiday season. It is true there are fewer sales in winter months, but that does not mean that buyers should take a three month break in their search for a home over the winter, or that sellers should put off put placing their home on the market. Buyers who have spent some time looking for a ... more... Blogged on 11/11/2011	Carole Isaacs
Fort Mason: An urban national park with something for everyone I live within walking distance of Fort Mason and this national park has become one of my favorite destinations. It is easy walking distance from North Beach, Russian Hill, Cow Hollow and the Marina. Recently I was surprised to find an imaginative outdoor art exhibit called “Seat”. The “Seats” seemed magically appear, and I had a wonderful time trying ou... more... Blogged on 11/4/2011	Carole Isaacs
What Day of the Week Should You List Your Home? There have been a number of articles online recently that have statistically analyzed the best day to list you home considering a million listings. The articles compare sale price to list price and number of days on the market. Friday came out ahead as the number one day to list your home. This does not mean that you literally need to sign the listing contract on Friday, but that... more... Blogged on 10/28/2011	Carole Isaacs
You Said You Wouldn’t Smoke In the House... You can expect to see more smokers (of all substances) out on the street with the passing of Senate Bill 332, banning tenant smoking in California. As a landlord, I talk to perspective tenants about not smoking, and tell them I don’t want smoking on the property. Now it is written into law that smoking on a rental property can be prohibited, but this must be written into the le... more... Blogged on 10/21/2011	Carole Isaacs
Condos, TICs, & Stock Co-Operatives: What matters to buyers? In general anything that adds extra cost to the purchase of a property, or limits an owners control over a property can be an issue for prospective buyers. For the owner doing the kitchen remodel in the photo, money seemed to be no object. I asked one of the workers on the job, what the cost was of moving in the new kitchen cabinets? “About $120,000,... more... Blogged on 10/14/2011	Carole Isaacs
Cow Hollow Golden Gate Valley Library Branch Reopens on October 15th! The past two years I have watched and waited as the retrofitting and renovation of the Golden Gate Branch Library moved along. The book mobile visited the Cow Hollow neighborhood twice a week during the renovation; between this and going to the Marina and North Beach Branches, I passed the time while waiting for the completion of the project. Making the library handicapped accessible... more... Blogged on 10/7/2011	Carole Isaacs
New YMCA Not Just for Chinatown: New 25 Yard Saline Pool May Be For You The Chinatown YMCA on Sacramento Street, between Stockton and Grant Streets, is celebrating their one year anniversary after being closed for five years due to a $12M construction project.Recently, I had the opportunity to tour the Chinatown YMCA. Speaking as a person that has been a member at one time or another of many gyms in town, including the YMCA in the Presidio, this facility is a... more... Blogged on 9/30/2011	Carole Isaacs
Awaken Your Palm Tree Mind as You Search for a San Francisco Home My “Palm Tree Mind” was awakened recently when I was walking in the West Portal neighborhood and saw a single lone palm towering above the houses in the middle of a block. This was such a dramatic site I was surprised I had never noticed it before. The one thing I feel is constant in San Francisco even after living here many years is there is always something new to discover.D... more... Blogged on 9/23/2011	Carole Isaacs
Duboce Park and Duboce Triangle: Think dogs, kids and relaxing in the park What comes to mind when you think about Duboce Park, and the Duboce Triangle neighborhood? I think of dogs, bicycles, kids, walkers, joggers, cafes, Victorians, easy public transportation, and the vibrant energy that flows through the neighborhood. Duboce Park, although technically located in Hayes Valley on the San Francisco Association of Realtors Map (Area 6B), is the neighborhood ... more... Blogged on 9/16/2011	Carole Isaacs
DocuSign: The Future of Real Estate Transactions DocuSign CEO Interview from McKenzie Worldwide on Vimeo. It seems like only yesterday that Docusign was a curiosity. For those of you who’re thinking: “What is she talking about?” I have a story to tell you, but first, I’ll answer that question. DocuSign is the easiest, fastest, most secure way to send, sign, and track and store documents in the cloud. DocuSign ... more... Blogged on 9/9/2011	Carole Isaacs
Sunday Open Houses + Internet Searches = Successful Home Purchases You’ve probably heard stories about buying a home on the internet, unseen, getting the best deal imaginable and doing it all on your own. Even if you haven’t, I have, and it’s sort of a Ripley’s Believe It Or Not for real estate.My question at this point: Are you sure you want to LIVE in the house, on the block, or in the neighborhood now that you own it?In Sout... more... Blogged on 8/29/2011	Carole Isaacs
MagicPlan iPhone App to the Rescue: Floor Plans Made Easy! I was scanning through endless emails this morning when my curiosity got the best of me—a short review in Inman News about an app that lets you draw floor plans with your iPhone. It was only yesterday that I stood in the kitchen of a home during a contractor’s inspection, while my client carefully drew a floor plan of the room. She even apologized for talking so long. I co... more... Blogged on 8/19/2011	Carole Isaacs
San Francisco Voted 2nd Most Walkable City in the U.S. No surprise to San Franciscans and tourist alike, that even with hills, San Francisco is a walker’s paradise. A perfect Walk Score® is 100. San Francisco—with a score of 84.9, comes in as the second-highest nationwide—only to be beat by half-a-point with New York City’s 85.3. If you wanted to get mathematical, I’m sure we could round off the scores... more... Blogged on 8/12/2011	Carole Isaacs
Yoga, Real Estate, and You in San Francisco What makes San Francisco different? A young woman who had recently moved to San Francisco asked me this question as she tried to get a handle on “San Francisco Style.” She was surprised to find that Chestnut Street was full of mothers with babies. I told her if she wanted to get into a serious stroller jam, she needed to go to 24th Street in Noe Valley. Then, in a ... more... Blogged on 8/5/2011	Carole Isaacs
How to Figure Out "Comps" in San Francisco Buyers in San Francisco oftentimes find it difficult, confusing, and frustrating to decide on an offer price when analyzing comparable sales (“Comps”). I find this especially true with buyers who are computer engineers, financial analysts, scientists, lawyers, or any other occupation where their work is based on logic. In many San Francisco neighborhoods—where no two home... more... Blogged on 7/29/2011	Carole Isaacs
Water Heater Bracing May Save Your Home in an Earthquake You’ve probably never heard of the American Society of Home Inspectors, or knew there was a Golden Gate Chapter (GGASHI). They recently conducted a two-month survey of residential water heaters in the San Francisco Bay Area and found that “over half of water heaters observed were not adequately strapped or braced.” There can be serious consequences if your water heater ... more... Blogged on 7/22/2011	Carole Isaacs
San Francisco’s Summertime Activities for Youth and Families During my weekly visit to the San Francisco Public Library I look over the various flyers and calendars. There’s always a variety of summer reading programs and youth activities available, but today I found something different: the Family Pass. The pass provides FREE entrance to several San Francisco attractions for up to two adults per group, and four kids under the age of 18. Gett... more... Blogged on 7/15/2011	Carole Isaacs
Parking...San Francisco Style When buying a home in San Francisco, we all know it’s about: LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION! Yet by order of importance there’s also: PARKING, PARKING, PARKING! As a REALTOR® I talk about parking every day and always encourage buyers to look for a home with ‘deeded parking.’ Depending on the neighborhood a deeded parking spot is worth between $50K–$100K ... more... Blogged on 7/8/2011	Carole Isaacs
GREEN LIVING: Travel the Bay Area on your reloadable Clipper Card Every Sunday at my open houses I meet baby boomers living in the Bay Area who’re exploring their options to move to San Francisco. Recently a new group has joined the march to the city—buyers from the East Coast escaping the extreme weather. They tell me, “I’m not spending another winter holed up in my home because of that frigid cold.” Believe it or not, the... more... Blogged on 7/1/2011	Carole Isaacs
West Portal: Where Village Charm Meets City Living If you’re looking for a traditional neighborhood to raise a family in San Francisco, plus an easy commute to work, then read on… West Portal Avenue has a mixture of groceries, cafes, toy stores, hair and nail salons, bakeries, shops and restaurants—many of which have been there for over 20 years. It also has dentists, doctors, pet groomers as well as a veterinary hospita... more... Blogged on 6/24/2011	Carole Isaacs
The City of San Francisco vs. Bay Area Suburbs: Which is the Right Choice for You? When buying our first home in Noe Valley many years ago, my husband and I pondered over the same questions that young people do today. The city versus the suburbs?—and everything else in between you must answer as you choose which way to go. We chose the city route, and occasionally I still wonder how things would have turned out if our chosen travels had been to suburbia instead? ... more... Blogged on 6/17/2011	Carole Isaacs
San Francisco: From Pavement to Parks I am always surprised to find how quickly the city changes when I am out and about San Francisco neighborhoods showing property, or running a personal errand. Recently in North Beach I noticed parking spaces had been replaced with café tables and thought: Hmmm that is interesting. Parking spaces being perhaps more valuable than gold and the city being in need of money, I wondered i... more... Blogged on 6/10/2011	Carole Isaacs