Zephyr: Riding San Francisco's hot-and-cold housing market

From today's SF Business Times, "...[new technology] helps San Francisco-based Zephyr to appeal to the hometown resident, who loves to click around on Zephyr's site to see what his neighbor's home sold for and to consider trading up. If a would-be buyer at an open house requests legal documents related to the property, a Zephyr agent can use their Blackberry or Treo mobile phone to beam the documents electronically in minutes."

"The recent residential real estate boom is just the latest growth spurt for Zephyr, which [company owner Bill] Drypolcher started in 1978 with four partners and an office at 4200 17th St. in the Upper Market neighborhood. Within two years he was advising on his first tenancy-in-common deal, in which several people share ownership of a single home. Zephyr's expertise in such deals has been a continuing source of strength for the firm."

"In 2004, Zephyr was the seventh largest real estate firm in San Francisco by gross sales, according to San Francisco Business Times research, and the largest independently-owned firm in San Francisco."

Not coincidentally, I joined Zephyr Real Estate's SOMA office earlier this fall.