Tenancy-in-common (TIC) interests are still successfully attracting buyers in the current San Francisco real estate market, despite their inherent risks that include sharing title with multiple owners.
TICs traditionally account for a much smaller slice of the pie. For example, 179 condos have sold year-to-date, and only 29 TICs have changed hands. But these sales offer a good sampling of what you can expect in this segment of the market.
For one thing, most TICs are selling at or below list price and are bucking the list-low, sell-for-more pattern that’s the norm for condos and houses in San Francisco. Here are some tips: If you’re a TIC seller, don’t list your unit for well below its value. And if you’re a TIC buyer, consider units that are around the price you can afford to pay.
The median price of the TICs sold year-to-date is $1,080,000. The highest-flying sales went down at 1436-1438 Jefferson in the Marina, where two buyers purchased each unit for cash for $4,117,000 and $4,833,000. There was also the 2823-square foot, three-bedroom sale at 3130 Clay for $2,040,000. That sale in particular exemplifies how TICs can often provide more space and better locations for the money than that of condos..
But the remaining 26 TIC sales ranged from $570,000 for a one-bedroom with no parking in a four-unit building to $1,440,000 for one of the six newly renovated Victorian units on Bartlett Street in the Mission (see photo).
There’s a surprisingly decent market for TICs in buildings with six more more units, though it can take longer to sell these properties. Almost half of all the TICs sold so far this year were in larger buildings, proving that buyers don’t seem to be shying away from sharing title with many owners. This was the case even at 3235 Gough #206, a two-bedroom TIC in a 14-unit building in the Marina. It did take 88 days to sell, but the buyer was one of the ones who paid cash.
TIC sales this year have all been in very desirable, popular neighborhoods such as the Inner Richmond, Inner Sunset, Noe/Eureka Valley, Pacific Heights, Marina, and the Mission.