After 16 years of living, working and raising three sons in
San Francisco, Sue and I recently decided to swap our city life for a more
relaxed and sunny one in the Marin town of Tiburon.
The process of buying and selling has changed dramatically,
since we purchased our first property in the San Francisco Cow Hollow area. Moving from the United Kingdom, the
prices back in 1997 gave us sticker shock at the time but had incredibly tripled
by the time we sold in 2004.
With the current economic challenges, prices have
fallen back considerably but are still significantly above those back in 1997,
a fact that initially concerned us as we entered our property search. Do
property prices have even further to fall even if there has been a recent uptick in prices ?
Current economic problems, unemployment and looming credit
card debt issues and mortgage rate resets may still have some damage to inflict on a weak property
market. However, we have watched over the last few months as decent properties
in Marin County and the Bay Area were still snapped up for close to the asking
price almost as soon as they go on sale. In addition we want to get on with our
own plans so decided it was the right time for our move.
The level of transparency on the residential property market
and ability to properly research such a key purchase has thankfully improved
dramatically over recent years. Online services such as Clean Offer, Great Homes, Zillow
and Trulia made it easy to identify properties
that fit our criteria. When away from the laptop, other useful Phone Apps we
referenced included: Zillow,
Trulia,
Smarter
Agent, Homes.com,
and Blue
Atlas Broker.
In addition to our own comprehensive research, we used the
services of a realty agent, Patricia Navone,
who works for Morgan Lane, part of
Mark McLaughlin’s McLaughlin
Ventures. Patricia is a friend and previous colleague at Macworld Communication, Inc. who over the
last several years has shown us around Marin
County with great patience, as we considered which area would best suit our
needs. She has extensive knowledge of the Southern Marin property market and was an invaluable
asset throughout the process. Text messaging, complemented e-mail
communications and enabled us get a swift answer from her even when she was
with other clients.
We now live in a world of mobility where access to data and
information is nearly always within an arm’s reach. Smartphones such as the iPhone are complementing and even
replacing laptops in some cases.
While some research was easier to conduct in
front of my MacBook Air , the iPhone apps proved
extremely useful when out scouting potential areas. Whilst driving around, Google maps and iPhone Apps such as Around
Me made it easy for us to see what other local
services were close to the houses we were considering and also gave us
alternative routes and views so we could get a broader sense of access, location
and local facilities.
Entering a critical negotiation period just as we were on
our way to Rockport, Maine to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary
we thought it was going to be difficult to access, sign and return the
documents given our travel schedule.
However, technology came to our aid. Flying to Boston with Virgin America we were able
to keep connected throughout the flight. Ordering drinks and snacks from the touch
screen whilst flying kept us fuelled while I worked and Sue enjoyed the
in-flight entertainment
Using the Gogo Inflight
Internet service I was able to access my email and the Internet, which allowed
Sue and I to sign the offer papers electronically at 30,000 feet using the secure
DocuSign e-signature service.
Additionally, I was able to transfer money in flight between
my bank accounts to make the deposit available.
The ability to make use of the mobile in-flight service
reduced our stress, made the procedures seamless and most importantly meant we
did not have to take up any vacation time dealing with physical documents. By
the time we arrived at baggage claim, Patricia had already presented our offer
to the listing agent.
Professional help and emotional support from our agent plus our
own solid research resulted in the successful purchase of a greta propertywe
believe meets all our needs for the foreseeable future.
Technology - a great enabler throughout the whole process.
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