Better Buying Begins Here

Helping First-Time Buyers, Seasoned Developers, Investment Portfolioists, Downsizers, Upsizers — and Everyone in Between — Succeed in San Francisco Real Estate

What will your story look like?

Let's See!

San Francisco is a rare and valuable place. Property is precious and expensive with property prices appreciating and growing steadily since its founding. It’s proven a robust area capable of weathering earthquakes, drought, and economic downturns and more. It’s become the place that fosters diversity, innovation and wealth.

It’s an international city where tourists come and visit. It’s also the epicenter for the tech economy (Google, Apple, Facebook, Twitter, HP, Yahoo, etc.), gateway to Asia and Latin America, an educational and research center (U.C. Berkeley, UCSF, Stanford, Lawrence Livermore), and home to varied industries to shipping, electric cars, biotech and credit cards. We’re also close to nature, food and wine (Yosemite, Napa & Sonoma). It’s now a place that you’re looking to buy a part of. You’re looking to purchase a part of this very special place because you believe in it, right?

We do real estate differently than most: we work hard, wisely and empathetically. We are adaptive, have a keen eye (and ear) for what’s coming and trending and are media- and tech-savvy. We also use technology, social media and often crowd-source to ensure you have unrivaled representation and perspective. We also like to think that our people skills help us succeed — our big black dog Raffi (a former Guide Dogs for the Blind dog) helps us guide our clients too. We won’t lead you astray (sorry for the puns!)

Congratulations on deciding to buy property in San Francisco.

Now, how do we go about doing that again?

You're in capable hands (and paws) with more than $150 million worth of experience representing San Francisco buyers (and sellers).

“We think of our homes as places of warmth, familiarity and love; of shared stories and memories, which is perhaps why at this time of year so many return to where they grew up. There is a timeless simplicity to the pull of home.”

— Queen Elizabeth II

Buyer Beginnings....

We get a lot of folks who meet us at open houses or who are otherwise referred to us by our fiercely loyal client base. People tend to gravitate to our energy, market knowledge, engaging nature — or maybe it’s because they want to see more of Raffi, our real estate super dog. Whatever the reason we take the trust our clients give us quite seriously and take it to heart when we hand them their new house keys (which will be changed of course because we should rekey the locks).

We will attenuate your goals and find what you’re really looking for (even if you’re unaware of it). Your home is your biggest investment while also being the place closest to your heart. We always remember this and use our experience, determination and perspective to guide you the best we can.

9 Broad Steps to Get Buying…

Identify your needs, wants, budget and dependencies
Enlist Kevin+Jonathan to help find the right home for you with previews, search tools and inside scoops on listings coming soon or off market
Talk to lenders & financing options and secure pre–approval, by the following…
Complete lender applications (but beware how many times your credit report is pulled as you don’t want it to be too many times because it could impact you) and…
Gather documents for financing underwriting: 12 or 24 months of rent checks, 2 years tax returns, bank statements, explain cash deposits and PDF those documents
Attend open houses and see what’s out there and build up your context (or ask us to preview)
Return visits – do them with us if possible (or at least see the place again at a different time)
Review disclosure documents we’ll get for you for the property in question; pre-offer inspections if need be; talk with us (obviously)
Write the offer with us showing us be sure to send us pdf bank statement copies for the down payment + deposit, a blurb about why you like the property and a picture too!

Let's Bulk Up Your Buyer Education . . .

Apartment

Who.

(All About You and Your Goals)

What Brings You Here?

How Will It Go?

A Home Purchase can take 5 days, 5 weeks, 5 months… (let’s hope it’s not longer, but it’s okay if it does)

The Long Winding Road to buying that property

On List Price vs. Sale Price

Price is a funny thing. Objectively, “price” is the value of a good or service in a given market. Price is also the signal sent to suppliers and indicative of consumer demand. Or so traditional economics goes. The most important element that sets price, at least in San Francisco, is how a consumer values the property they want, which is not very rational if you really think about it. Sure, there’s the collected value of the raw goods and materials that go into a building like the wood, tile, wires and glass. There’s the value of the specialized labor that goes into putting everything together. Add in professional services from lawyers, agents, lenders, and costs like insurance and permit fees and you’d get some random figure. We guess that’d might the closest thing to a ‘correct’ value for property in San Francisco. But that’s not how things are really priced here. Remember that the ‘list’ price and the sale price may not have anything to do with the other. The sooner you accept that list prices have little connection with a property’s final sale price in most cases the better off yoiu’ll be which will make our work together more productive. In fact, on average, 2/3rd to 3/4ths of of all listings in San Francisco will close above list price. A list price may carry an implied message: ‘the sellers really want $400,000 more than this.’ And while annoying, this is the convention we have in the City.
Accurately determining what a property ‘should’ sell for is more reason to be working with professionals like us. It’s our task to help unravel a property’s promise, its potential, and worth.

Where.

7×7 miles, 10 districts, 85 subdistricts and countless possibilities

GEOGRAPHY: The Lay of the Land with Kevin+Jonathan: 10 Districts Dissected
GOALS: Getting Started, Find a Home, Buy a Home, Build Wealth
LOCAL: Area and Neighborhood Blogs
DEFINITIONS: A Glossary By US for You
DEMOGRAPHICS: Look Up Demographic Information Anywhere
HISTORY: Historic San Francisco at Found SF
WHAT’S IN A NAME: Why San Francisco Street Names are Named the Way the Way the Are

About Our Inventory + Data

Diverse City. Diverse Data. Diverse Property Types.

Search like an Agent with our credentials: Search the MLS For What’s On the Market
Live Market Data — Geek Out! All kinds of sales data
Inventory Types: The difference between a TIC and a condo and why it matters
What You Get When You Buy a Condominium: The ABCs of a Condo
Changing from One to Another: Condo Conversion and TICs
Random and Relevant Bits and Bobs: Our (Evolving) Knowledge Database

Beyond the Basics . . .

House-Money

About Money.

Getting a Mortgage? Here’s What You Need to Know.

Financing in General
Your Loan Approval: Underwriting
Further Reading and Resources
Short- and Long-term Mortgage Rate History
What About Family Gifts?

How We Learn About…

Let’s Learn About that Property for you.

ALL ABOUT THAT PROPERTY: And when we need to know about it: The Disclosures

How We Win.

Let’s Win that Property for you.

THE PEN IS MIGHTY INDEED: A+ Offer-writing 101
THE CONTRACT: The SFAR Purchase Agreement Dissected
OVER THE LONG TERM: Capital Gains and San Francisco Real Estate
WHAT’S IN A NAME? How to Hold Title Over Your Property

About Owning It.

All Done! Not Quite.

On Property Taxes and Assessments: SF’s Assessor Speaks and Advises

If Your Buying Journey Were a Like a Tube/BART Map...

Some Relevant Data About San Francisco Real Estate You Should Notice:

Some Basic Geography . . .

Our 10 Districts

San Francisco Architectural Styles and Where You Can Find Them

What Goes Where: SF's Housing Inventory By Area

Big Streets And Where They're At

Dog Parks for Your Own Raffi

For More About Our Neighborhoods....

Testimonials

The social proof of our results

Some Client Comments

Kevin’s great! He helped me get an amazing condo in Hayes Valley by giving me really sound advice on how to write a winning offer. He is super knowledgeable, energetic, and fun to work with. I’d definitely recommend him for your home purchase.

— Brian W., Google, Zoosk & uber

Buyer (Hayes Valley)

This is my second time buying a home, and the experience this time around with Kevin as my agent was night and day compared to my first agent. I wouldn’t have changed anything Kevin helped me accomplish in the process.

— Hass L., User Interface Designer

Buyer & Seller (SoMa/Oakland)

Seller Turned Buyer

When I had my first phone conversation with Kevin and Jonathan over a year ago, my gut told me that THIS is the team I want to work with when the time came for me to sell. I didn’t even bother interviewing other agents. They worked with me on both selling and buying transactions and the results below speak from themselves.

In addition, this was all done through the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays.

6 days: the time from listing my last home to being in contract with a cash offer at 27% over asking
19 days: escrow days for selling my last home
2 days: the time period between closing on my last home and finding a target property to buy
7 days: from the list date to being the winning bid against 18 other bids.

We weren’t the highest bid, nor were we a cash offer, but we were the best presented one.

In this highly competitive real estate environment, this is where Kevin and Jonathan truly excelled in providing guidance and getting all our ducks in a row.

— Clodel G., Online and In-Store Applications

Seller + Buyer (SoMa/Excelsior)

Kevin Ho is an excellent real estate agent. When I was looking for a real estate agent to buy a home, I had some basic criteria and he far exceeded it. He is friendly, smart, and very familiar with the legal side of buying a home. He is a genuine person who will look out for your best interests. I would highly recommend Kevin. It would be difficult to find a better agent.

— Gregg O., SF Sr. Water Engineer

Buyer (Golden Gate Heights)

I have worked with several agents over the years, and Kevin been the best.

Kevin is very responsible and I believe truly had my best interest in mind. There were places I was interested in that he could have gone along with to close a sale, but instead he told me his concerns and steered me away. One place I was about to bid on he told me to hold off, and he was right on. Three weeks later the home I had been seeking for more than a year hit the market!

Kevin guided me through my offer process and we truly threaded the needle. As is typical in San Francisco, there were six offers on the place. We increased our initial offer just slightly and won the deal! We bid enough to secure the house but hardly a dollar more. I don’t even think we were the highest bid.

Kevin is very outgoing, personable and inquisitive, which are great assets that give him tremendous intelligence about the market. Whenever he sees construction going projects he stops in to asks what is happening with the property. He thus knows what will be hitting the market, sometimes months in advance. Finally, Kevin is very fun to work with, which makes what can be a stressful process much more pleasurable.

— Aaron S., Sr. Manager, Salesforce

Buyer (Corona Heights/Castro)

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Charting Your Course Home . . .

Real estate represents so very many things to so very many people. Your home is not only your — well — home but it is your place in the community, where you vote in elections, what type of internet you can get, whether you can own a dog, where your kids will go to school and much more. Take a look at some of those factors below and see what’s important to you and what’s not.