FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION
Some of Kevin+Jonathan’s Recent Home Buyer and Seller Wins in San Francisco
Since 2022’s significant softening in San Francisco’s housing market with higher mortgage rates and street condition challenges, real estate success has been harder but we have seen our best client wins to date
Yes, it can be challenging. But we like challenges
Navigating San Francisco’s real estate market can be overwhelming, but at Kevin+Jonathan, we strive to make it accessible for everyone. With years of expertise, we empower homebuyers and sellers to act confidently by sharing our insights, knowledge, and experiences.
A few of the factors that are the ingredients for our client wins:
• Engaging Prose & Visuals: We believe in the power of storytelling, enhanced by compelling visuals like infographics, to effectively convey our wisdom.
• Client Communication: Whether in person or via voice/video calls, or the ubiquitous text chain, we share relevant information and stories that can be applied to our clients’ advantage.
• Market Education and Awareness: Whether it is providing current market data and sales stories or through our on-the-ground and popular YouTube Walkthroughs, we give our clients as much context and advantage as possible.
Below, we showcase some of our recent client wins—each a testament to our dedication and commitment to helping clients not only achieve their real estate goals but also gain a deeper understanding of the process.
At the heart of our work ethic lies a genuine commitment to our clients’ success.
1st Time Buyers, 1st Offer Wins
SOLD: 46 Caine — Surprise in Ingleside — with 10 Percent Down and Closed 5 Days Early!
Congratulations to our clients, a Thrasher magazine coder who helped bring the publication online who eventually became their CTO and a Stanford cancer care nurse who won their first home just before Thanksgiving 2023 with us, becoming the among the rarified set of our clients who join our Homerun Club — where the first offer is all that was needed.
After seeing a number of houses, we discovered what would become their house on one of those hidden gem cul du sacs we love so much. This one is in the Ingleside Terrace neighborhood and is one that is not only close to BART, MUNI and 280, but is also one where the neighbors show a pride of ownership and friendliness that can be missing in so many parts of the city. So when it came to 46 Caine, a 2-3 bed, 3 bath, 1-car, crafts/Edwardian home with about 1,200 sqft of living space, it made sense that the house is a gem. A past owner who was in trades or just loved remodeling made the house a virtual fortress with lots of upgrades including a bulked up concrete foundation, a main bathroom with 4 medicine cabinets that are cleverly laid out so you’d never know that there was as much storage as there is. The last set of owners turned the backyard into a welcoming back garden with ornamental plantings, porch swing, patio and irrigation. It all just made sense and showed off that the home’s past owners took exceptional care of the home. The home was shown for one weekend before taking offers. Listed at $998,000, our clients were able to work with our lending guru Tony Alencar at Citibank to use a special program that allowed a 10.1% down payment without PMI or impound monthly taxes to win the property with a $1.1 million offer with no contingencies and a short escrow. Tony has told us that Citi is bringing back their 15% down loans for purchases up to $2.3 million and 20% down for loans up to $3 million starting the 15th subject to credit approval of course).
Anyway, back to the story. One extra step we suggested our clients do which made a big difference was to investigate getting homeowner insurance in place (or at least a policy binder commitment) for the property before writing the offer so we could truly submit a non-contingent offer. Given all the concerns about homeowners insurance this proved wise. While our buyers could have derivative access to USAA-based insurance, they ultimately got coverage through a carrier they learned about from Progressive, their car insurer. It took a day of plenty of insurer rejections, questions and worry but we got this part out of the way before making the offer strategically.
Two other buyers couldn’t step up to meet our non-contingent and well-presented offer. The listing agents, who we’ve worked with before, said the sellers were especially impressed with our cover letter and our clients’ letter to them, which apparently made the world of difference to them. Even more amazing was that Tony was able to close the entire purchase five full days ahead of schedule. Congrats all around as our clients will be in the home before Santa does his improbable journey around the world.
“All your hard work and experience paid off!”
Brightly on Bryant Street
Congratulations to one of nicest sellers we've had on selling 2621 Bryant Street having first bought the Mission District Victorian 2-unit in 1976 for $53,000 and, after following our preparation plan, sold for last week to multiple offers after 12 days on the market with the winning, non-contingent buyers landing at $1,500,000 despite the fact that the street in front was under major construction during our open houses, which drew the widest variety of people all with different ideas on how they wanted to live at the property. In this case we recognized the approach was to clear out the landscaping and things that accumulate over the years while also emphasizing the property’s inherently impressive attributes through extensive signage and disclosures.
Won on one of the Buyer’s birthday!
Buyers Win a Big Bargain
2917 25th Street — A Mission District Single-Family House for $183,000 Under List Price
Congratulations to our clients on winning the dark-horse listing of the summer — a nearly 2,000 sqft, updated, sunny single-family home at 2917 25th Street (at Bryant) that is not only on the Category A historic list, but was fully remodeled in 2015 with a new foundation and major systems overhaul at the same time. With 4 bedrooms (3 on one level), 4 full bathrooms, 2-3 car parking in a post-free garage, an especially south-facing sunny yard that’s warm enough for tomatoes, grapes and roses, the very-much seller-occupied home was listed at $2.098 million by an out-of-town agent from Pacifica. For buyers, the ingredients for an exceptional outcome were there. During our 2-hour unaccompanied private showing we let our clients the three general things we look for in a property: (1) a property’s overall condition (safety and quality); (2) how well the property meets and aligns with stated client goals and (3) how differently we would have prepared the property if it were our listing. If the gap between what we would do and what was actually done is significant (and it was in this case) it means there is a lot of untapped value that our buyers can benefit from.
In this case, the property wasn’t painted or staged but it was initially priced as if it was. Given that we’ve seen the homes that sold at where the property was listed on a per-square-foot basis, we were able to get the home at close to $1,000/sqft through our own recipe of presenting our buyer offer materials in such a manner that makes our clients and us the most logical choice. With one round of counter offers, our clients closed on the purchase with a good and healthy down payment and a mortgage from our trusted lending guru Tony Alencar at Citibank in just 21 days at $1.915 million. The first thing our clients are going to do: painting and lighting.
An Out-of-this-World Success Story on Germania Street Near Duboce park
Sometimes, the stars align in unexpected ways as we recently worked with a pair of new clients who seemed destined to be a perfect fit for our unique style and approach to properties. Everything unfolded at precisely the right time, leaving everyone involved happy.
Our clients, a dynamic couple with backgrounds in public health and graphic design, had achieved success in the tech sector. Having moved away for grad school a couple of years ago, the couple asked us about two properties that had caught their attention, one of them being the amazing home at 61 Germania. Through a Zoom conversation, we quickly discovered a shared passion for sci-fi series such as Star Trek, Star Wars, and the Expanse (and if you’re familiar with these, you earn bonus points in my book).
The stars seemed to align even further during a deep-dive video walkthrough tour we prepared for them. The owner of the property just happened to visit during the recording whereupon I spoke with them for a while about our clients and about what property the owner had bought. To our delight, it turned out that the owner was also a graphic designer and artist who had purchased one of our favorite houses we’ve seen this year at 72 Dawnview (you can watch the video of our walk-through here). That unexpected yet amazing home was also remodeled by graphic designers, just like 61 Germania. It was a reassuring connection, solidifying our belief that this was meant to be. And as you know, meeting the seller and talking with them almost never happens here.
Recognizing the rarity of homes like 61 Germania in this sought-after neighborhood, just two blocks away from Duboce Park, with a configuration where your neighbor is beside you (not above or below), where there’s been a custom artist-driven renovation that’s smart, stylish and clever, where there is a 16+ ft soaring ceiling that anchors 3 stories of living with an exclusive and private back garden all on a quiet tree-lined lane of cute houses was very rare and would be snapped up fast. Did we mention that the building itself dates from the 90s — the 1990s, not the 1890s — meaning there’s best of both worlds here (modern home in an otherwise Victorian-era area), oh, and there’s garage parking too. We decided to make a preemptive offer after the first weekend of bustling open houses, which was just a few days after our clients sent a message to us. Listed at $1.65 million, we went in with an all-cash, non-contingent offer at $1.8 million that closed in just 7 days.
We anticipate many sci-fi binge nights in the future or seeing our clients at Duboce Park.
Overall the seamless acquisition of 61 Germania, exemplifies how everything can fall into place when the stars align. We are thrilled to have played a part in this transformation event for our clients look forward to witnessing their sequel: The Voyage Home (only without the whales).
Boldly Bought on Bradford
A bespoke home in Bernal Heights came on the market one day. We videoed it the second day. The third day was the twilight tour and the long debrief and planning session. Decision made: this was it.
We waited through the first weekend of open houses and came in Monday with a preemptive offer that won the day with our offer strategy.
The home was the market in 2017 (we saw it then) and is the great combination of strong outdoor space, a bespoke, custom downstairs suite remodel, and updated details upstairs like big windows, yard access and other features like radiant heat, an EV charger
A Bit of Paris in the Excelsior
Our client April, a senior director who works with a leading global retailer, comes from a family of contractors in Arkansas. After contacting us last fall, we helped her find her next home here in the City. Given her contractor background, experience with renovating homes in Atlanta and a cabin near Yosemite, and a good budget, we thought the search would be exacting but one where logic and reason would win the day. Indeed, for two other homes we bid on, April’s offer was the highest offer, but in each case the sellers went with all-cash offers that closed a week faster than what April’s lender could do. (Side note: be sure to monitor your credit as we had to overcome a completely unexpected and erroneous entry in her profile that added time to the home search).
Anyway, when 446 Paris came out, we thought this would be a great match for her despite her not knowing the area well. After a two-hour private tour we arranged the day before the first open house, we were hooked on the house itself, a 3-4 bed, 2-bath, sprawling, 1930s home that is much larger than advertised with two workshops (perfect for those home projects), a finished living area, room for 2 cars, a great yard (complete with large smoker bbq and color-matched, life-size dollhouse) and, did we mention, a 300-sqft subbasement that’s perfect for storing all those retail and home improvement items. We made a long Buyer Preview video of the property (which proved helpful to show friends and family) that you can see here.
The wild card was the neighborhood, which we know to be one that’s been changing over the past few years where the pockets of updated homes are changing the area’s character. The good thing is that the area’s diversity and friendly neighbors have stayed consistent, which we found out as we stood outside the home after our tour where at least 10 people came by to introduce themselves. Ultimately, despite preparing an early offer, we waited until the offer date came whereupon two other offers came in apart from April’s. During this time, April explored the neighborhood, quickly coming across the soft opening of her soon-to-be favorite neighborhood wine bar while also discovering the Excelsior is sunnier than the Sunset and Richmond districts. We took up the chance from the listing agents to revise April’s offer to avoid a multiple-counter offer situation, where we prevailed at $1.535 million. The only condition the listing agent insisted upon was that Mr. Raffi, our fearless real estate super dog, attend the appraisal, which he gladly did. Close of escrow had to be extended as the underwriter’s strange documentation requests were resolved, which meant that April ended up signing closing documents during a pre-planned wine tasting trip to Paso Robles. Since closing, April has been trying to find the right wallpaper for her new bathroom, planning numerous family visits and getting her very own slice of Paris setup.
$1,500/sqft, No Parking
A hard-fought yet exacting outcome that outperformed the market by leaps and bounds
Congratulations to our repeat clients Perry and Robert on getting their perfect Potrero Hill condominium at 814 Carolina into contract. We had helped the couple, an artist and UI expert, buy the 1-bed, 1-bath cottage in 2016 when it was first renovated. Earlier this year, the couple won a clever and larger home nearby which meant it was time to prepare and improve 814 for sale. Despite having a smaller footprint, the fully detached cottage required exacting updates that ultimately were rewarded with a non-contingent offer that came in after two weekends of open hoses. When 814 Carolina closes in a couple of weeks, it will close at more than $1,500/sqft, which when it closes, will join only 2 other 1-bedroom condominiums in the entire city to have sold above $1,500/sqft this year.
Learn more about the property here at its website.
Watch the Raffi video for 814 Carolina here.
Congratulations to our repeat buyers for scoring an extraordinarily clever and well crafted updated Victorian house at 1409 Kansas St. over in Potrero Hill. Having worked with the clients for nearly a decade it was time for them to upgrade their space so they could have a bigger garden, parking and an in-home art studio. So when this property came online, our clients were excited because of an undeveloped downstairs space, but a renovated and improved upstairs space with extremely clever and useful upgrades and an overall sharp feel with great details that also pays proper tribute its 1907 roots. Listed at $1.25 million there were three offers after two weekends open houses. Our clients won the property at $1.3 million with an inspection contingency whereupon we had our trusted contractors opine on our clients’ questions ultimately giving them the peace of mind to proceed. Combined with a larger down payment, the reputation that we only present offers from very well qualified and knowledgeable folks and the willingness to extend the seller a week-long rent-back for free, our offer was the best matched for this seller. We think that this house would have easily sold for more if it professionally staged and painted and we can only guess what it would have sold for last year as the home also features a sunny, functioning garden.
Buyer and Sellers Win on Bush Street at The District
Congratulations to our sellers and our buyer at 2655 Bush St. #203 A fabulous modern build 2 bed 2 bath condominium located in the heart of the vibrant lower Pacific heights and Divisadero corridor. Our sellers bought the home as a couple and left as a family of four needing more room and having a job relocation down on the peninsula. After we helped them coordinate a battery of strategic updates it came on the market and we were on for just a few weeks before our very well qualified and sharp buyer came along and scooped up the property for just a little under the list price. We close on Wednesday and it’s noteworthy that the mortgage which is been approved and is ready to go ahead of time is with First Republic.
Visit www.2655-Bush.com to see the property for yourself and be sure to and watch Raffi’s latest property videos linked below.
Success Awaits Your Click
For every success story above there are at least seven more we could tell. Yours will be added to this tradition of success but only if you reach out.