r/BayAreaRealEstate

My family has a 3 unit property in San Francisco in a desirable location that they are looking to sell as-is. I do want to note that the property will require an enormous amount of time and investment, as it will likely require updating the foundation, etc. All 3 units are currently unoccupied by any tenants.

It goes without saying that the only interested parties would be potential real estate investors or the like, as it is doubtful this is a project for your run of the mill flipper given the time and investment involved.

Does anyone here have recommendations as to who I can contact for offers? Obviously my family wants the best price. Appreciate any insight people here can provide!

Foster City vs. Redwood Shores for a waterfront single-family home?

My partner and I are considering buying a waterfront single-family home in either Foster City or Redwood Shores. We plan to have two kids, so schools and long-term family suitability are important to us.

We also really like the idea of being able to kayak, paddleboard, or do other water activities directly from or near the house.

For people who have lived in either area, how would you compare:

* Public schools
* Flood and sea-level-rise risk
* Liquefaction/earthquake risk
* Waterfront home maintenance, including docks/seawalls
* Water activities and lagoon access
* Overall family lifestyle
* Long-term resale/desirability

If you were choosing between the two for a home you planned to keep for 15–20+ years, which would you choose and why?

Every agent kept pushing us to buy first if we wanted a shot, but carrying two places even for a short stretch is no joke. We did it and used GG Lending Group to bridge the gap, but I was checking Zillow and our listing nonstop until it closed. Curious how others handled that overlap without losing sleep.

I’ve been looking at the low end for a studio or one bedroom to buy. However, I’m learning the HOA revenues are not at a point that they should be. I looked at 1458 Hudson St; I looked at 707 Fathom; & I looked at Humboldt area. Only 1 has replaced their old pipes which might explain why the HOA’s are low but it appears their garage is not for parking & 1 unit in particular is listed as another entirely different unit. Why are these complexes allowed to advertise for sale?

Currently in a Single Family Home in the avenues with 2 roommates. I pay $1700 for a huge room. Has parking, laundry, dishwasher. I share a bathroom but its not a problem. I am content here but would rather live alone.

I am almost 40. I make 120k a year. A friend is moving out of an apt in Twin Peaks and I can get in for $3200.

I take home about 6200 a month and have a good savings/investment account. My car is paid off. The only thing I pay other than rent and utilities is car insurance and gym which is $160 a month.

I wanna live alone but not sure it is worth the extra $1500 a month / $18,000 a year.

I know the market is super competitive right now and rents are high, this would be a way to get in to a place thats not too expensive without the hassle of having to find a place in a competitive market.

Please tell me what I should do lol.

EDIT: The prices included are accounting for utilities. The apt i would get is rent controlled. My room in sunset has an ocean view, but the apt has a deck with view of the Bay and half of Downtown. The apt also has garage parking which is an upgrade from the driveway parking I have. It is also top floor on corner, and room is in back, so its quiet.

We've owned our home for over 10 years and have always had some cracks in the driveway, but they're now leaking some water. I just turned off the irrigation system for the past few days and they're still leaking water. There's a very old Liquid Amber tree on our sidewalk that's been buckling the sidewalk for years and busted our neighbor's waterline a few years ago. Oh and our garage has started a buckle and there's some new slope in the front of the house. Our house has always had drainage issues from the back which has caused some sloping. We now have drainage now on all three sides - except the front. What do you think is our first step? Should we get a drainage engineer? Do we need to crack open the driveway to see what's going on immediately?

Hello,

I am owner of a small 4 Unit HOA in Bay Area. I am also the only active Board Member-Treasurer. The President just sold. Seems like the others not interested in stepping up.

Any advice how to navigate this situation? My unit is not going up for sale yet. Hopefully, by the time I decide to put unit on market others will step up. Hopefully, my being the only Board member is not deterrent for prospective buyers.

This house in MTV 94040 is in a great school district / neighborhood, and the house is renovated. Why is it on the market for 27 days? Is it because it's on a main road or is there something in the disclosure that prevents it from selling?

We have 2 young kids and own a home with a ~3.2% mortgage. Our assigned public schools are the main reason we’re considering moving.

Private school for 2 kids long term isn’t financially realistic for us.

We’re looking at homes around $1.4M-$1.5M in areas with better public schools. With mortgage rates around 6%, this would be a significant increase in housing costs.

We can put 20%-40% down, but putting more down means tying up more of our savings/investments in the house. We’re a single-income household and can qualify for the mortgage, but don’t want to become house-poor.

For parents who faced this:

1. Did you stretch financially for better public schools? Was it worth it 5-10 years later?
2. Anyone regret giving up a cheap mortgage for schools?
3. If you stayed, what did you do instead: private, charter, transfer, or move later?
4. Did anyone choose a smaller/older house specifically for the schools?

I’m especially interested in experiences from families with 2+ kids. Trying to decide how much financial stretch is reasonable when schools are the main reason for moving.

Edit:
Currently in Newark. Got assigned a very low rated (2/10 Schilling) school. Transfer request denied due to long wait-list.
Trying to move to Fremont

I pulled 5 Peninsula closes from last week and ran the spec build math on each. None of them clear a normal return. The interesting bit is which assumptions you have to bend to get the numbers to work.

Sample:
Recent closes under 2,100 sqft, over $1.5M, on lots over 5,000 sqft, across 8 cities (RWC, Burlingame, San Mateo, etc.). These are land buys on purpose.

  - RWC: $1.77M (1,490 sqft on 7.4k lot)
  - RWC: $1.70M (1,000 sqft on 6.3k lot)
  - RWC: $2.80M (1,715 sqft on 7.5k lot)
  - Burlingame: $3.15M (2,017 sqft on 7.1k lot)
  - San Mateo: $2.85M (1,910 sqft on 10.9k lot)

​C​alculations:
Land is the only observed number; the rest is choosing your own adventure. I used:

  - Buildable: 0.40 FAR (my own default, not any city's code) to 0.60 FAR (aggressive).
  - Hard Costs: $800–$1,200/ft.
  - Carry: Computed at 8% interest on land + half of hard costs + property tax. This runs $20k–$35k/mo, not the $15k people guesstimate.
  - Duration: 18 months. My permit data carries an issued date but no application date, so real application-to-approval timing is estimated.

​C​eiling:
Then you check it against what a house that size actually resells for. RWC's top $/sqft this year is $2,547, but that's a 1,070 sqft house and small houses always run high per foot. Match the band to what you'd actually build (2,500–4,500 sqft) and the best I have on record since last October is:

  - RWC: $1,827 (70 sales)
  - Burlingame: $2,057 (55 sales)
  - San Mateo: $2,104 (52 sales)

Verdict:
At 0.40 FAR (floor area/lot size) and $900/ft hard costs, against those ceilings:

  - RWC ($1.77M): +2.0%
  - RWC ($1.70M): -2.8%
  - RWC ($2.80M): -16.5%
  - Burlingame ($3.15M): -14.2%
  - San Mateo ($2.85M): +13.5%

Nothing clears 25%; three are negative.

How to make it work:
You can't just change one lever. For the $2.8M RWC lot, moving to 0.60 FAR alone only gets you to +0.8%. Even stacking all four levers - 0.55 FAR, $800/ft, 12 months, and 6.5% money- that lot still only reaches +7.7%. It never clears. The two that do clear at that corner are the cheaper RWC lot at +28.4% and San Mateo at +43.5%.

Question:
If you've built recently in these areas, what did your hard costs per foot actually come in at and how many months did you carry? These two variables move the needle more than anything else, and they're the ones I'm having to estimate rather than get real numbers.

Happy to share the full cost stack or the resale comps I used for the ceilings if anyone wants to check the math.

Listed at 1.9, 1800sqft, 6120sqft lot, built in 1954 but redone in 2013.

Two other listings on this street, similar specs, and both have price dropped by 100k and been on market for 40 days. Does Granada sell at a discount?

Hi,

We have our house in San Jose Willow Glen neighborhood. We bought it in 2024 and it’s worth to about 2.6-2.8M based on estimates. My wife has a job change and we have to move to SoCal. Will we come back to the bay is unsure at the moment.
Since we bought it 2.5 years ago, any equity goes towards closing costs. Rent would be about 7.5k-8k based on estimates for a 5b/3ba.
Every numbers calculator suggests selling, renting we pay about 60-70k every year out of pocket. That means we are banking on an appreciation of 3% or more to justify holding.
The thought of paying six figures in closing costs and eroding any equity that I gained makes me sick. Holding it, becomes a loss making asset. Our PITI is 12.5k. The other way I see it that justifies keeping it is that if we can get 7.5k rent then our out of pocket cost comes down to 9k. 5k in the monthly difference and then 4k rental in SoCal.
Not sure what to do and if any advice please help with. We are very blessed to be in a situation where we can take the loss and be fine. I have about 30% equity in the house.

2 condos on 4100 George ave, they look good in the pictures but Almost 90 days in the market. Why aren’t they selling ?

We moved to Lamorinda in 2021 with our kids. We really appreciate some things about living here - especially that our kids can walk to school - but culturally, it hasn’t been a great fit for our family.
We definitely don’t want to stay longer than necessary, but looking at the current real estate market is making us a little anxious.
A house around the corner from us that is fairly comparable to ours recently sold for about $100K less than what we paid for our house in 2021. And from what I can tell, this doesn’t seem to be an isolated outlier.

For those who know the Lamorinda market well:
Do you think prices are likely to stabilize/recover?
Or has the market fundamentally shifted?

If you were in our situation and knew you probably wanted to leave the area eventually, would you wait a few years or consider selling sooner and just taking the loss?

We’re not looking to make a profit - we’d just obviously prefer not to lose a significant amount if the market is likely to recover.

How do you think about the house? We like the place a lot! ❤️ It's the only house that has the desirable location, school district, layout, sqft for us. Best, it retains the old Berkeley charming decoration with upgraded electrical wiring and pipes. There are many other groups attending open house while we were there. We anticipate competitive bids.

Any bidding strategy advice is appreciated!

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/2726-Wallace-St-Berkeley-CA-94702/24832542\_zpid/?view=public

#housing #mortgage #berkeley #eastbay