What Your San Francisco Home Is Worth

An algorithm works from public records and broad patterns. San Francisco is the Bay Area market where that breaks down most completely, because the variation happens at a scale the data does not capture.

Two blocks change the price. So do the hill, the light, the fog line, the parking and the view. An estimate comparing your home to something a short walk away may be comparing two entirely different propositions.

A written comparative market analysis naming the specific properties it is built on, with the adjustments explained.

Three pricing strategies with honest trade-offs, which matters more here than elsewhere because underpricing to create competition is common local practice.

A ranked prep list separating the work that pays from the work that does not.

It is free, it commits you to nothing, and no pitch is attached.

I begin with ownership type because a condominium, TIC and single-family home do not compete on equal terms. Then I narrow by the buyer's actual alternatives. The nearest sale may sit across a hill, outside the same fog pattern, without comparable parking or on a block that creates a different daily experience. Proximity alone does not make it useful.

For a condominium, the comparison includes the building. Dues, reserves, litigation and owner occupancy can influence financing and reduce the number of buyers able to proceed. A unit with similar rooms in a stronger building is not the same product. For a TIC, financing and the shared ownership agreement require a separate buyer pool and separate evidence.

Physical details still matter. Light, outlook, stairs, parking and the way the home sits on the hill can all change demand. I explain which differences are supported by buyer behavior and which are simply features an owner likes. The valuation should not assign value by sentiment or by a generic adjustment table.

Only after the range is defensible do we choose a pricing strategy. San Francisco's underpricing practice can make the asking price look disconnected from value. That can be deliberate, but it cannot be automatic. The comparable analysis establishes the likely market. The strategy decides how the property enters it.