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Guides
How to read a property record, where San Francisco's own rules decide the answer, and what the records will not tell you. Written for whoever is holding the document — a buyer, a renter, an owner, an agent, an investor or developer, an underwriter placing cover or credit, or the board of an association that has just inherited somebody else's deferred maintenance.
9 guides for lending, including the ones written for everybody. Show all 20.
How to read a report
Forty-two sections in the order they matter, what each comparison actually claims, and the three places the report is deliberately silent.
about 5 minutes · Aug 2026 For buyers, owners and agentsPermits, and the work nobody filed
How to read a parcel's permit history, what an open permit costs the next owner, and why the useful signal is often what the record does not contain.
about 4 minutes · Aug 2026 For anyone holding a reportWhat this report will not tell you
The refusals are deliberate and worth knowing: no score, no person, no valuation — and the gaps in the records themselves.
about 3 minutes · Aug 2026 For investors and developersInvesting and small development
What is allowed on the parcel, what is approved next to it, and the three obligations that change an underwrite after close.
about 4 minutes · Aug 2026 For anyone in San FranciscoEarthquakes, ground and hazard zones
Six different things people call “seismic risk”, what each one actually is in San Francisco, and the one this report cannot tell you.
about 4 minutes · Aug 2026 For everyoneWho to actually call in San Francisco
This report is a record. These are the people who decide — the Rent Board, DBI, the Assessor, and the organizations that help for free.
about 5 minutes · Aug 2026 ReferenceThe words San Francisco uses
3R, Costa-Hawkins, Maher, blklot, CFC, Tier 4. A reference for the terms that turn up in a report and nowhere else.
about 4 minutes · Aug 2026 For lenders and underwritersLending against a San Francisco building
The obligations that transfer with a parcel, the ones with a deadline attached, and why San Francisco publishes no lien, default or foreclosure record at all — which changes what due diligence has to cover.
about 3 minutes · Aug 2026 For anyone watching the record dailyWhat San Francisco files every day
The kinds of filing San Francisco publishes against its buildings and storefronts, how far behind each one runs, and why a list built on the filing date misses most of what was filed.
about 4 minutes · Aug 2026Then read the record on an actual address
One San Francisco address, one report: the Assessor's file, permits and violations, zoning, hazards and the published earthquake maps, rent control, and ten years of the surrounding blocks — every count compared with the city, and none of it scored.
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