Bahn Lee
Reach me at bahn@redfin.com
Recent posts
May 9, 2008
Long surveys suck. Especially when you know many of the results are going to end up on a corporate Powerpoint as useless filler. That’s why we’re getting down to the nitty gritty. We want to know who are readers are and why you read Redfin Sweet Digs. That’s it. Please take a minute to fill out our blog survey. It will help us improve Sweet Digs, Scout’s honor.
Click here to take the survey.
We’ll share the results with everyone in a couple weeks. Thanks.
-The Sweet Digs Team
Photo credit: glenOX on Flickr
October 26, 2007
Open House Date and Time:
Saturday & Sunday, October 27-28, 1-4pm
168 29th ST #1
San Francisco, CA 94110
Flick through the photos (there are 21 of them) and then swing by for a closer look this weekend. I’d stop by just to touch the cool metal railing in the staircase. The two floors of this Noe Valley condo is loaded with all the modern amenities. It’s also nearby Pasta Gina, my favorite place in San Francisco for fresh pasta.
July 10, 2007
The blog crashed two days, not that anyone noticed, and the timing was impeccable. We had been planning to move our blog platform over to WordPress for weeks before this happened. Migrating platforms meant pushing a year’s worth of content over the divide: 1,882 posts and 1,496 comments. Whew.
We apologize for the off-road excursion. Let’s get this show back on the road.
March 15, 2007
The blog survey is now closed. Two winners from the prize drawing were e-mailed $100 Amazon gift certificates. Thanks though to everyone who took part in the survey. Often our instincts get the best of us when we try something new at Redfin and we charge hard. We have to remind ourselves to slow down and make sure the ground is level (by simply asking our users) before we build on it.
Some interesting results:
–> 60% of Sweet Digs readers in the Seattle area are female. The gender make up swings the other way in the Bay Area where 60% of our readership is male.
–> 5% of readers in Seattle were of college age (18-24). No one in that age range in high-priced San Francisco responded to the survey. This isn’t so surprising but it is something we’ve given thought to.
–> Privacy & noise was the number one consideration for what readers wanted to learn about in a property review. Interestingly, the aspect of real estate that everyone loves talking about, design & architecture, lost out to more practical concerns like parking and storage space.
The most requested change was for splitting the blog by city and neighborhood. It validated our own opinion and we will make this change in the near future.
March 12, 2007
In our quest to make Sweet Digs a better read we released a survey last week to our newsletter subscribers that asked a number of questions, including:
-What neighborhoods do you want to see covered?
-How often do you want to receive Sweet Digs updates?
-What aspects of a home should a Sweet Digs maven focus on in an in-person review?
Now we want our readers who don’t subscribe to the newsletter feed to be heard. The survey can be found here:
http://www.zoomerang.com/survey.zgi?p=WEB2268Z5P5XXQ
A drawing for a $100 Amazon.com gift certificate will be held at the close of the survey, Wednesday, March 14th at 5pm. We won’t spam you if you provide your e-mail address.
Your response will have a real impact on what you see in Sweet Digs in the near future. Thanks.
February 23, 2007
I’m convinced that the Bay Area is a place full of looky-loos, where the high price of housing has made homeownership a dream for a large segment of the population. The upwardly mobile here chase after those on an even faster track. It’s a place where looking up SEC filings to figure out what an exec is worth is about as common as visiting open houses of homes you can’t afford, well, at least not until your stock options are worth something.
Case in point: Redfin’s most popular property list in Seattle is littered everyday with bargains and fixers, which go on to collect offers from home buyers. Not to disparage our Bay Area users (I know what our demographic is there) but the properties that receive the most clicks are mega mansions and high end condos like this $1,349,000 two bedroom Edwardian on 36 Divisadero Street in San Francisco.
It’s achingly pretty but I’ll let the photos speak for themselves. There’s an open house this Sunday from 2-4PM if you’d like to see it in person.
Recent posts in Sweet Digs Bay Area:
Berkeley: A Fish Out of Water
Berkeley: It’s Hip But It’s Not Happening
Sebastopol: Starry, Starry Night.
Mid-Peninsula: Open Houses This Weekend
February 22, 2007
Go ahead and chuckle at the title of this post. The real news is that seven out of ten properties on today’s most clicked-on list are located in Palo Alto. Numero uno is a sweet $2,395,000 pad on Hawthorne Ave. It hit the market yesterday. The owners aren’t asking for a whole lot more than what they paid just two years ago, when they bought the home for $2,134,000.
Take a peek at the six other Palo Alto homes from the list. Prices range from $1,358,000 to $3,698,000.
1295 Wilson St.
619 Tennyson Ave.
176 Tennyson Ave.
550 Churchill Ave.
2149 High St.
2261 Saint Francis Dr.
Recent posts in Sweet Digs Bay Area:
Sebastopol: Pleasantville… And the Sound of Your Own Hammer.
San Carlos: Great Family Home and Location
Remodeling Fever?
February 21, 2007
The Art Deco exterior of today’s most popular property suggests Ocean Drive, South Beach not Castro Street, San Francisco. Don’t take off your sunglasses just yet though. The interior forgoes the flash of tropical neon for earthier tones, but it’s LIT up like it’s about to be shot for a magazine spread. There’s style aplenty here.
STATS:
Price: $1,295,000
Location: 3944 21st St., San Francisco
Beds/Baths: 3/2.5
Square feet: not listed
Last sale price: $666,500 (1997)
MLS: 319583
Recent posts in Sweet Digs Bay Area:
Palo Alto: Secret Mountain Laboratory
San Carlos: Second Chance
San Carlos: Corner 2BR/1BA
Bodega Bay: When Pebble Beach is Too Expensive
February 20, 2007
Today’s most clicked is a large two bedroom condo on the corner of New Montgomery and Howard in San Francisco. You really won’t need a car to get around this part of town but it comes with a garage space anyway. Even without a ride, the homeowner’s dues at $468 will keep you nicely acquainted with the monthly hit to your wallet should you miss having a car payment.
*The open house is this Sunday, February 25th from 1 to 4 PM.
STATS:
Price: $699,000
Location: 199 New Montgomery St. #211, San Francisco
Beds/Baths: 2/2
Square feet: 1,163
MLS: 319782
Recent posts in Sweet Digs Bay Area:
Fremont: On So Many Levels
Fremont: I’m the Wanderer
Redwood City: Cheapest 2BR/1BA on the Westside
Redwood City: Westside Starter with Room for Expansion
San Carlos: Rancher Remodel
February 19, 2007
To say there’s an economic gulf, or rather bay between this week’s most and least expensive properties is a bit of an understatement. The street addresses themselves tell part of the story: 4 Catalpa Drive versus 55 Highway Ave. Guess which property is ten million and which is two-hundred grand. The Atherton mansion exists in a CAD render, scheduled to be completed fall of 2008. You still have time to design the basements. Over in Bay Point is a home realized on a notepad and built in 1948. It was probably someone’s post-war pride and joy. Trickle-down home fashion results in new granite kitchen counters.
I noticed you could buy the Bay Point property with the commission refund you’d receive from Redfin Direct on the Atherton mansion.
*Link to 11 minute, 500MB neighborhood video of the mansion.
Recent posts in Sweet Digs Bay Area:
Berkeley: In Close Proximity to Foodie Heaven
Fremont: Look Left, Then Right
Palo Alto: The $5 Million Dollar Question
San Francisco: Enjoy the Marina Life in a Glorified Closet
