Good ideas for narrow homes

by Gary Belk Good ideas for narrow homes: The home in this article is only 10′ wide, makes the SF standard 25′ wide home feel spacious! Other by Washington Architects & Designers KUBE architecture Good ideas for narrow homes: Design Lessons From a 10-Foot-Wide Row House Architecture, interior design, and more ∨Browse living room ideas, from sectional sofas to chandeliers and floor lamps, for your next interior design project. Browse inspiring bedroom design, then outfit your own beds, convertible sofa beds ordaybed with luxury bedding and decorative throws....

Bush St. Planning Process

Bush St. Planning Process with your Renovation Realtor Gary Belk from wwwGaryBelk.com Often renovation is the best way to get the perfect home. Join me, Gary Belk San Fransisco’s Renovation Realtor over the next few weeks as we follow a renovation we are doing for a longtime client. She loves her home, with just a few exceptions. In this initial video I share the tips, techniques and reasons for spending some time planning your renovation. If you want to learn more about the homeowner and how she purchased the home read The Women of...

Tips for Buying A House in A Competitive Market

Gary Belk San Francisco is again in the midst of a real estate boom. Prices are continuing to rise while inventory is very low. There are many theories as to why inventory is low but if you’re in the market to buy a house it doesn’t matter. What matters is finding a home you love at the right price*. The point of this article is to give you a few strategies to use in a competitive market. They work for both — the investor and the homeowner. What to Look for — Stale Listings (houses become stale in SF very quickly) In San Francisco, the kiss of death to a property for sale is to overprice it and to not market it properly. Houses on the market for more than a few weeks are called ‘shopworn inventory’ or ‘stale listings’. Buyers have come to expect that the list price is less than the price that the property will actually fetch. So if the list price is too high, most buyers walk away and simply forget about the property.  Successful listing agents in San Francisco employ entire teams to help them prepare a property for sale and to develop the marketing strategy. It is rare that a property is listed for sale without being staged to look like something from the pages of Architectural Digest. However, occasionally there is a listing that is either overpriced or is not marketed or presented properly. These properties often linger on the market longer than the usual 10 days from list to offer. If a property is on the market a couple weeks, it...

An Adventure in Upscale Interior Design: In A Weekend

      An Adventure in Upscale Interior Design: How to Makeover Your SF Bay Area  Apartment In A Weekend As a Realtor, I have many clients and friends in the SF Bay area who long for an alternative to the generic interiors they often find in the high end apartment buildings where they take up residence. If you are like them, you probably think that very little can be done to customize the décor in your unit, but you should know that with a little creativity and time, your apartment can be easily transformed into a place that you will really enjoy coming home to. A makeover of the main living space in your apartment can be easily accomplished in a weekend, as I recently helped one of my clients do. Our budget was around $3,000, which is close to a month’s rent in the area where my client lives. We created an ultra upscale look for the money spent and used materials that can be easily removed whenever my client decides to move out to another rental apartment or transition to owning a home of hisown. My client was inspired to make a variety of non-permanent alterations to the main living area in his apartment for several reasons. An overall bland look in the living area was the primary reason for the project. The presence of a wall with floor-to-ceiling mirrors also triggered my client’s interest in our weekend redecorating project, since this feature had the effect of diminishing a fabulous view of the city skyline that his apartment has to offer. Our decorating project took the best feature in the room, a wood & tile trimmed fireplace, and really made it stand...