Market Tools & Resources · Data, calculators & guides
Market tools & resources.
Every tool and guide in one place: the live market lab, the neighborhood map, calculators, and every guide I've written for clients. Data lives in the lab; what it means for you lives here.
Market tools
The research lab
Paulo's Pulse
Ten years of governed SF MLS data, by neighborhood. Where every POTM Blog issue's numbers come from. En español: Pulso de Paulo.
Open the lab ›Explore
Interactive neighborhood map
All 92 subdistricts, colored by market role, with drill-down.
Open the map ›Calculator
Cost of owning
What a home actually costs per month, beyond the mortgage.
Run the numbers ›Timing tool
Wait for fall?
Ten years of seasonality: what listing season really changes.
See the data ›Get a report
Custom neighborhood report
Tell me the neighborhood and I will send a data-grounded read, free.
Request a report ›Stay current
The market notes
A short email summary of the latest POTM Blog issues, every few weeks.
Sign up ›Start by your situation
For buyers
First-time buyers
Your first San Francisco purchase, mapped step by step.
See all ›For buyers
Moving up or buying again
Trade up or buy your next home without missing a beat.
See all ›For sellers
Selling to buy your next home
Coordinate the sale and the purchase, the most common move.
See all ›For sellers
Downsizing or cashing out
Right-size the home and the equity for your next chapter.
See all ›For sellers
Selling a rental or investment
Tenants, taxes, and timing for an investment sale.
See all ›For sellers
Moving out of San Francisco
Sell well from a distance when you are relocating.
See all ›Pricing, costs & value
Seller Guides
How to Price Your San Francisco Home
Pricing is where sellers most often leave money on the table, in both directions. Here is how I set a price that protects your final number instead of chasing a fantasy one.
Read ›Seller Guides
The Cost of Selling a Home in San Francisco
The number that matters is not your sale price. It is what lands in your account after the costs come out. Here is an honest walk through every line on a San Francisco seller's net sheet, so there are no surprises at closing.
Read ›Buyer Guides
HOA Dues and Fees in San Francisco: What You're Paying For
Two units with the same price can carry very different monthly costs and very different risk. Here is what HOA dues actually fund, how to read the documents, and the red flags that should slow you down.
Read ›Property Condition
How Property Condition Affects Long-Term Value
Why the condition you can't see often matters more than the finishes you can.
Read ›Offers & negotiation
Buyer Guides
How to Get Your Offer Accepted in San Francisco
In a competitive market, the winning offer is rarely just the highest number. It is strong in three places at once: price, terms, and relationship. Here is how each one works, and how to win without overpaying or taking on risk you do not understand.
Read ›Buyer Guides
How to Think About Offer Strategy in San Francisco
Price is only one lever. Here's how the whole offer fits together, and why the highest number doesn't always win.
Read ›Buyer Guides
What First-Time Buyers Miss in San Francisco
The costs, conditions, and decisions that surprise people in their first San Francisco purchase.
Read ›Inspections, condition & disclosures
Buyer Guides
The Open House Field Guide for Buyers
Most buyers spend their attention on paint, staging, and countertops. Paint can be changed and furniture leaves. The expensive things are usually hidden. Here is how to walk an open house and see what you are actually buying.
Read ›Buyer Guides
How to Read San Francisco Disclosures
San Francisco disclosure packages are thick for a reason. Here's what's inside and what's worth pausing on.
Read ›Property Condition
How I Evaluate Foundations in San Francisco Homes
The part of the house nobody photographs is the part that decides what it costs to own. Here is my walkthrough, with an engineer's eye.
Read ›Property Condition
Water, Drainage, and San Francisco Homes
Fog, slope, and seventy-year-old gutters: why moisture quietly decides more about an SF home's future than almost anything else.
Read ›Property Condition
Permits and Unpermitted Work in San Francisco
Half the garages in this city hide a room that officially doesn't exist. Here's how that affects value, risk, and your offer.
Read ›Property records & city requirements
Property Records
What a 3R Report Tells You in San Francisco, and What It Does Not
San Francisco requires a Report of Residential Building Record before a home sale. It is useful, it is misunderstood constantly, and the warning printed on its own face is the most important thing on it.
Read ›Property Records
Soft Story Retrofit Status in San Francisco: What It Means When You Buy or Sell
San Francisco's mandatory retrofit program covered thousands of wood-frame apartment buildings, every deadline has passed, and non-compliance is recorded against title. Here is how to check a building and what the status actually means.
Read ›Property Records
Who Owns the Sewer Lateral in San Francisco, and Is an Inspection Required to Sell?
In San Francisco the property owner owns the entire sewer lateral, the split with the City sits at the curb rather than the property line, and there is no point-of-sale inspection requirement. Neighboring cities are a different story.
Read ›Property Records
San Francisco Transfer Tax: The Tiers, the Cliffs, and Who Pays
San Francisco's transfer tax is tiered, and the rate applies to the entire price rather than the portion above each threshold. One dollar of price can cost you several hundred dollars of tax.
Read ›Property Records
Selling a Tenant-Occupied Property in San Francisco
A sale is not a reason to evict anyone in San Francisco, and the City requires you to tell your tenants that in writing. Here is what the rules actually say, and where the attorney conversation starts.
Read ›Preparing & timing a sale
Seller Guides
How to Prepare Your San Francisco Home to Sell
The goal of pre-sale prep is the best net result, not the biggest project. Here is the practical checklist I walk sellers through, from the disclosure package to the front door.
Read ›Seller Guides
What to Fix Before Selling in San Francisco
Where pre-sale dollars actually pay off, and where they usually don't.
Read ›Seller Guides
When to Sell Your San Francisco Home
Is it a good time to sell? That is the wrong first question. The right one is whether selling serves your goals, and then how to time it well within the market you actually have.
Read ›Big decisions
Seller Guides
Should I Sell or Rent My San Francisco Home?
A clear framework for one of the hardest calls a homeowner faces, with no thumb on the scale.
Read ›Buyer Guides
Condo vs. TIC in San Francisco: The Complete Buyer's Guide
With prices high and inventory tight, TICs are one of the few real entry points into the west side and the central neighborhoods. They are not condos, though, and the differences are worth understanding before you fall for a listing. Here is the honest, plain-English comparison.
Read ›Decision Guides
San Francisco vs. Marin: How to Choose
I cross the Golden Gate Bridge by bike most weeks. Here's the honest comparison for people deciding which side of it to live on.
Read ›Decision Guides
San Francisco vs. the Peninsula: How to Choose
City energy or suburban room, fog belt or sun: the honest comparison for households weighing San Francisco against San Mateo County.
Read ›Neighborhoods
Neighborhood Guides
Central Richmond Buyer Guide
What to know before buying in the neighborhood I call home, from housing stock to what to inspect.
Read ›Neighborhood Guides
Sunset District Buyer Guide
What to know before buying in the Sunset, from the Inner Sunset village to the foggy Outer avenues.
Read ›Explore
All neighborhood guides
Where to buy across San Francisco, starting on the west side.
See all ›Market data & reference
Market Notes
How I Read the San Francisco Market
The method behind the numbers I publish: what I trust, what I discount, how I separate what the data measures from what I merely believe, and what I do when the sample is too thin to say.
Read ›Topic hubs
Market topics, kept current
The big questions answered in one place, refreshed with each data cycle.
See all ›The blog
POTM Blog
The bi-weekly issues: what moved, and what it means.
See all ›The research lab
Paulo's Pulse
Prices and competition by district, neighborhood, and individual closing.
See all ›Reference
Real estate glossary
Plain-English definitions: TICs, disclosures, contingencies, and more.
See all ›Reference
Frequently asked questions
Quick answers to the questions clients ask most.
See all ›Can't find what you're after?
Ask me directly. The first conversation is just that, with no pressure.