|
Real Estate Agent |
RAINER 104,153 |
| Cece Blase | ||
| location_on San Francisco, CA — Paragon Real Estate Group | ||
| insert_link http://www.sfrealestatebuzz.com | ||
| web ActiveRain SFRealEstateBuzz | ||
Besides helping others buy and sell, I am proud to own and manage my own tiny real estate empire (with a grand total of 5 properties). I began my investing with the conversion of a three-unit building on Grove Street into condominiums.
For fun, I watch Bollywood and French cinema and sing jazz standards. I also enjoy the company of my smart and funny clients and friends, my husband Jim Fleischman, my daughter Maia and my (gasp!) grandchildren, Aviva and Jackson.
It was my mother's idea for me to sell real estate. Even though I set up my business in San Francisco in 1986, my first deal was a house she and my father bought in Old Palo Alto (it remains in the family to this day).
When I began selling in my early 20s I focused on residential income in the Haight Ashbury. I rented a room in a Victorian flat myself at the time and it made sense to sell what I understood. I was lucky and sold my first property about a month after I started. It was a floor call on one of our listings -- a 4U Victorian building on a kind of scary block that sold for $359,000.
Later, after I bought my first San Francisco property, my business expanded to include condos and single family homes. I also went through a phase in the late 90s hi-tech boom when I focused almost exclusively on the SOMA and South Beach neighborhoods. This was when South Beach was a brand new neighborhood and new construction was going in all over the place. I sold a lot of new homes during this time and even invested in a little one bedroom at The Brannan when the project was brand new.
Over the years, as I've grown (and aged!) my market base expanded and I now sell a wide variety of properties. The biggest, best properties I've ever sold were a large house in Pacific Heights and a 13U development opportunity North of the Panhandle. My smallest sale was a $130,000 condominium in lower Pacific Heights (remember, I started in '86). My largest was over $2M.
Having bought and sold on behalf of others and for my own account for over 20 years, I 'get' what investing is like in San Francisco on an emotional as well as practical level. Hard experience has taught me how to handle all kinds of real estate transactions. I've weathered every kind of market. If you'd like to know more, want advice, or even just commiserate, please call or email me!
| Jurgen Pichler |
| 04/23/2015 |
| We weren’t really planning on selling our Potrero Hill condo when a good friend introduced me to Cece. We had moved to Seattle and the property was just sitting. We knew we had to sell it at some point, but there was some deferred maintenance and updates that needed to be done in order to maximize the return on our investment. Here’s where Cece’s flexibility showed itself: she was very forthcoming in providing me with someone who could stage and fix a lot of it and then accept payment upon closing. That persuaded me to go with her. She had also gotten a very strong recommendation from our friends for whom she had found a property in San Francisco. With Cece, we enjoyed good dialogue on the things that we wanted to maximize and make this property attractive to the broadest set of buyers. A lot of people want to believe that the property is worth a lot of money, and she was very realistic when it came time to set a price. She priced it at a point that allowed us to attract a broader customer base – and this resulted in a pretty hefty bidding war on our property. Ultimately, we got above and beyond what we expected for it. She’s just in tune with what’s going on in the market and understands how to present something in the best possible way to attract the greatest amount of potential buyers. |
| John Boccardo |
| 04/02/2015 |
| I first met Cece in 1998 when I was looking for a condo in the city. Cece was working for the sales company on the ground floor of a building we liked and we were just walk-ins, meeting her by the luck of the draw. She showed us a few possibilities in the building and I was immediately smitten with her charm, wit and keen intelligence. She might have sold me anything that first day – but she listened to our specific needs and desires and eventually found us one, then another wonderful condo that we purchased as investments and later sold at a sizable profit. Since she was so great on both the purchase and sales sides, the relationship was sealed. Years later in 2008, when looking for another special living space in the city, Cece was again determined to find something to meet our needs. After an exhaustive year-long search, we found the truly spectacular view condo on Front Street that became our San Francisco pied-a-terre. Last year, when it was time to give up the home in the city, I turned to Cece for her unique marketing approach that proved to be remarkable for a quick sale in a very competitive market. Throughout these transactions, I found Cece to be a tireless worker with dogged determination, an exceptional knowledge of the San Francisco marketplace. Beyond that, her warm demeanor and sense of humor about the real estate game also turned her into a long-term friend. Many times we would enjoy a drink and dinner after a long day of intense shopping for the right perch. Throughout that personal contact, I found her to be more than an agent and grew to appreciate her multi-faceted personality. Selling real estate is only one of her talents: when she sang in perfect pitch at her own wedding, I realized I knew someone truly remarkable in many ways. For any future ventures in the city, I would not hesitate to turn to Cece Blase for help. In fact, she’s the only one I’d call. |
I've been selling and investing in San Francisco property since 1986, I specialize in residential income, condominiums and development opportunities (with the occasional single family home thrown in.)
