TIC now a rental: 2831-33 Webster St #4

2831-33 Webster St #4 is a TIC in a 6 unit building on a prime Pac Heights/Cow Hollow block.

This 3 bedroom 1 bath sold for $820,000 in 2007 - arguably the San Francisco market peak. Prior to that the entire building sold in 2004 for $2,370,000. That buyer did great because they sold 4 of the 6 units for $2,449,000.

Unfortunately unit #4's more recent 2007 buyer didn't do so well. Starting a year ago they tried selling at $895,000, and withdrawn and listed 2 more times with the last failed attempt to sell at $799,000. Now on Craigslist asking $4,000 and from what I know of the rental market, that may be $500 over priced.

Then again, it's got Golden Gate Bridge views and a deck... and just a 1/2 block from Union Street it just might attract a $4,000 renter. On the other hand the NYTimes Rent vs Buy calculator says it's better to buy at $800,000 vs. $4,000 in rent. So the problem here is it's a TIC, and TIC's are definitely not selling well vs. Condos in San Francisco right now.

Rents dropping like a rock in San Francisco

A Property Manager at a major San Francisco company is telling me Rents are dropping like a rock in San Francisco.

In his words "everybody that rents an apartment here is asking for a rent reduction. That is almost all I do all day is process rent reductions." And "some of these people signed leases a year ago and they were paying say $2,400.00 and now the current rents in the area are $1,900.00 sometimes even in the same building"

He went on to say "One woman they said 'no' to, actually rented the new apartment for the lower price and moved upstairs for $500.00 per month less. Well that cost them money to refurbish it and so now it is 'yes yes and yes'."

The above is in reference to residential rentals. Regarding commercial he said "Even commercial that I manage are asking for 50%, yes 50% rent reductions over in the sunset and they are getting them."

Back in January I found 13 residential rentals signs within 3 blocks. So I stopped into one of them on Chestnut Street over the weekend. The rental agent told me she had been trying to rent the unit for over 2 months and the landlord was refusing to budge on the rent. She figured it was $300 over priced.

Meanwhile a rental agent in my office told me normally they have about 15 rentals, but now they have 400. She claimed rents had NOT gone down, only that instead of taking 2 to 3 days to rent a place it was taking 30 to 60 days. Per the above, I'm guessing they'll be singing a new tune the next time I ask.

3731 Fillmore #4 now for-rent

3731 Fillmore, a 6-unit TIC building with the final unit recently closing. I just noticed today 2 weeks after Closing that it is listed for rent on Craigslist:



Purchased for $469,000. Now asking rent of $2,695.

I could have gone to today's Open House, but hey, I video taped the lobby and #2 immediately below it and #5 as well plus the building's roof deck.

Craigslist Apartments via Map

Using a Map UI to find apartments on Craigslist in San Francisco and everywhere else Craiglist is used.
First there was SFRentStats at http://mullinslab2.ucsf.edu/SFrentstats/ but it is only in San Francisco. Now there's PadMapper.com. It's got an "embed" feature so I'm embeded the San Francisco search below. Have at it:


View Larger Map

For Rent in the Marina

For Rent in San Francisco's Marina District.
13 total for-rent apartments within 3 blocks of each other.

4 photos of 3 rental signs on the same block as 1456 Chestnut:


In addition to the 3 above, I found what appears to be 9 more in the video below. 13 in total within 3 blocks of each other. A sign (no pun intended) of things to come? Or a coincidence?

Finding Rentals or rent prices in San Francisco

Time and again I ask what are rental prices are like in San Francisco, or in a particular neighborhood or size range. I almost always send them to Craigslist since it seems like that every rental listing shows up there. But wading through Craiglist isn't all that easy. With all the mashup technology someone, sooner or later, had to come up with a map based search... and sure enough someone did.

A new internet must is Mullinslab2.ucsf.edu/SFrentstats

Click on "2BR" or whatever segment you're interested in, and the map pops up, and from there you can drill down into neighborhoods. Or you can click on "Neighborhood Data" and see rents and total rentals by neighborhood. Or look at trends over time under "Overall Stats/Notes" for "Graphs of rent over time".

To me the best part, especially if you are looking for San Francisco rental properties, or if you are looking to buy a Condo or house to then turn around and rent, you can see the Craiglist rentals in a much easier to digest way.