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Vanguard Properties

Better Buying Begins Here

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

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So You Want to Buy A House?

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 $250 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...

  1. Identify your needs, wants, budget and  dependencies
  2. 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
  3. Talk to lenders & financing options and secure pre–approval, by the following...
  4. 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...
  5. 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
  6. Attend open houses and see what’s out there and build up your context (or ask us to preview)
  7. Return visits – do them with us if possible (or at least see the place again at a different time) 
  8. Review disclosure documents we’ll get for you for the property in question; pre-offer inspections if need be; talk with us (obviously)
  9. 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?

Calendar

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)

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.

Map

Where. 

7x7 miles, 10 districts, 85 subdistricts and countless possibilities

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

House-Find

About Our Inventory + Data

Diverse City. Diverse Data. Diverse Property Types.

Beyond the Basics . . .

House-Money

About Money.

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

How We Learn About...

Let's Learn About that Property for you. 

 

Winner

How We Win.

Let's Win that Property for you. 

 

About Owning It.

All Done! Not Quite.

How Will It Go?

It Can Be A Complicated Journey, But It's a Journey. See Our Take.

How Will Expensive Will It Be?

Market Research: Recent San Francisco Sales Data

Median Sale Prices for Houses, Condos and TICs (tenancy-in-common units): 

Is There A Better Time Of Year To Buy?

Anytime Is A Good Time But There Are Two Busier Times in SF

Number of "New" MLS Listings: 

Inventory Levels: 

Some Basic Geography . . .

Our 10 Districts

San Francisco Architectural Styles and Where You Can Find Them

SF Architectural Syles

What Goes Where: SF's Housing Inventory By Area

Big Streets And Where They're At

Major San Francisco Roads

Dog Parks for Your Own Raffi

Woof! San Francisco Dog Parks
For More About Our Neighborhoods....

Love

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 and Jonathan WILL find you the perfect house. When my partner and I look back on the fact that we naively thought we might buy a house in San Francisco without an agent, we just laugh. From working with Kevin and Jonathan we now understand the value and absolute necessity of having competent, experienced agents help you in this market.

We looked at many homes and won the 3rd house we bid on, a single family home in Bernal Heights. We would have won the others if we'd just followed Kevin and Jonathan's advice since they are absolute experts at predicting final selling prices. Trust them. But instead they patiently went through the process with us until we learned and understood the values of the properties we were seeing and were ready to bid on "the" house.

They walk the perfect line between respecting your judgment and using their expertise to steer you in the right direction. They were available whenever we needed them during the viewing, bidding, and mortgage process including evenings and via text. They also work with a team of contractors and mortgage brokers they trust, and we got a lower rate than anyone I've spoken to, and we closed and got keys in hand in a lightning fast 14 days.

— Kaly and John, Buyers, Tech, Bernal Heights

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)

In our experience, Kevin is undoubtedly the best realtor one could ever have representing them. He helped us secure our dream property in the hardest market to navigate in the entire country. We could never have pulled it off without him.

 

— Marie S., Tech, Music and Retail

Buyer (Lower Haight/Duboce)

 

Read More Reviews By Clicking here

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.

How Will We Tune In the Best Offer Terms?

ORGANIZING YOUR THOUGHTS

Email Us
Call Jonathan

HELLO.

Hi, we’re Kevin Ho and Jonathan McNarry of Vanguard Properties in San Francisco, California. We’re partners in life and in business. Together with our big black Labrador retriever, Raffi, we are top producing Realtors in San Francisco’s competitive and valuable residential real estate market.

We truly love what we do and are passionately committed to our clients, their needs and advancing their interests. We represent both buyers and sellers with many repeat clients but we are always expanding our client base. Our belief is that by working with you you will make better informed decisions in this most important of areas of life.

We invite you to contact us to learn more and to start your success story now.

SOME STUFF TO KNOW.

To that extent possible, the information here is copyright protected. But other information such as links, articles and the like are only reproduced here for market education purposes. Remember to research all matters discussed here to your own satisfaction.

Terms & Conditions

Real estate is always changing and evolving. It's complex and can be as fickle as it is surprising. And while the information and knowledge on this site is considered to be accurate and correct, it cannot be warranted. Market conditions in San Francisco, California, and the world can change with a tweet or a sneeze and is beyond anyone's control.

In San Francisco, things like local, state and federal tax regulations can change with big implications. Other things like rent control rules, eviction control, lending practices and standards, building and zoning regulations are just a few of the other things that can change with little or no notice. All of these things and other intangible factors can and will impact market values and performance. 

Kevin is a licensed California attorney but focuses on real estate about 99.9 percent of the time. It's important to note that while you can’t take the attorney out of him he will not be acting as your attorney here. This speaks to the larger point that you should also seek out qualified folks who work in their respective sectors if you have further questions. 

Privacy Cookies. Mmm. Cookies. 

We’ve been told that our website may be using cookies — the electronic ones — not the ones that Cookie Monster loves. These cookies, tracking pixels and related technologies are small data files that emanate from our server or platform and are stored on your device or browser.

Our site uses cookies developed by third parties for a variety of purposes with the most important ones to us being focused on supporting our abilities to support our clients — current and future — as they look for San Francisco real estate services.

Also, cookies may also be used to track how you use our site, which, of course, may give rise to seeing related advertisements on other websites you visit. To comply with the California Consumer Privacy Act, we have deployed various measures you may see on this site. If you have a question or concern, feel free to contact us at [email protected]. We want you to be aware that your personal information stays private with us with SSL standards here among other protocols we employ. 

TELL EVERYONE.

SEARCH THE SITE.

©  2011-2020, Kevin Ho, Jonathan McNarry, RTI, Inc.

All rights reserved.


Kevin K. Ho, DRE 01875957/SBN 233408

Jonathan B. McNarry, DRE 01747295

Vanguard Properties
2501 Mission Street, San Francisco, CA 94110
555 Castro Street, San Francisco, CA 94114

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