It’s not everyday a home comes along that truly makes our jaws drop, but we were given a preview of 1771 North Point , and now you’re getting a preview too. Of course, there is a story to everything, but we’ll just give you a taste.
Purchased in March of 2006 (spent 104 days on the market, zoned RH-2, 1965 sq/ft, built in 1932), this home has been completely, and we mean completely, gutted and renovated. From what we can tell, the only thing that was spared was the facade, the chimney and accompanying arches in the front room.
BEFORE:
Now…it is a truly amazing home with every conceivable convenience you could possibly want and all the custom detailing to match…including a 5 car garage. We were only able to take a few “after” shots because they were still setting up furniture and artwork, which will all be auctioned off by the way, but here’s a taste.
AFTER:
This home is amazing! Yes…we’re calling it amazing. The details are incredible! The flow and functionality of the home is awesome! There is so much light coming in, you might as well forget about buying lightbulbs for years. The south facing yard is perfect. The home is NOT on landfill, and frankly there is way too much for us to describe here. You owe it to yourself, and the Northern California Cancer Center to go visit before it hits the market.
(Disclaimer: We have no affiliation with this project at all. We were simply invited to go check it out before it was finished, and we’re glad we did.)
Seriously…go check it out.
–Pacific Coast Builders Conference 2007 [website]
–Start Drooling Now…a before, after and First Look at 4065 25th. St. [sfn BLOG]
–Some make-up (a little), some elbow-grease (a lot), some action (a ton) [sfn BLOG]
–3711 Clay…and Another Heart Broken [sfn BLOG]
–1771NorthPoint.com [new site up!]
What was the purchase price, te estimated remodel, and the likely selling price?
I just noticed two houses on for 2 weeks get into contract!
324494 – 2502 Broadway – 6.3 million
324648 – 2511 Steiner St. – 3.85 million
Can’t wait to see what they sell for.
[Editor’s Note:Boom, We know the answers to two of your questions, but promised not to disclose. The sales price should be on any number of sites, PropertyShark.com, Zillow, etc. Estimated asking price this time around…a lot more. ;-) Cost to remodel: don’t know.]
The home may not be on landfill, but the liquefaction susceptibility for that address is the highest possible (“very high”) according to the maps at geomaps.wr.usgs.gov.
[Editor’s Note: You are correct. However, when/if you go visit, make sure to ask what they’ve done as for “Earthquake proofing” the home. They’ve done a lot. Of course a 9.0, and we’re all toast.]
Knowing nothing more than this post tells us and some recent comps in the area I’d venture to guess that this hits the market between $2.4 and $2.9. Put me down at $2.74. I don’t think they have the guts to ask $3M+ for a home in that area. You can do all the sheer walling and whatever, but there’s ‘toast’ and then there is charred toast. I still think people buying in the marina should have a serious head examination. God forbid we have a 6+ around here. Even if your place survies; many others will not and you will be living in a mass-construction zone for 3 years.
As a side note to this site… the font size on these comments is way too large. Keep up the good / interesting posting.
[Editor’s note: Have no idea how to change the font size, but will look into it. Thanks.]
I wouldn’t be surprised if it goes for over $3 million.
Look at 3321 Octavia (or was it 3211 Octavia St). Asking was $3.495 mil, and went for $3.7 million, and that’s without paying a buyers agent b/c the selling agent repped both! $3.7 mil is a new record high for a row-house type SFH in The Marina. The previous record was $2.7 million for a SFH on Gough St. between Chestnut and Francisco in late 2005.
Lot sizes area all about the same.
$FIVE MILLION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
$5 mil. Nice! Location, location, location. This is the secret.
You buy a SFH in a great location like the MArina. You build at $300/sqft i.e. spend $600,000 for 2,000sqft and turn around and sell for $1,000/sqft for a nice 200% profit.
Gotta love it. Let’s see if it sells.
BTW, i’m not saying they just added 2,000sqft… probably more like 2,500-3,000sqft . but you get the idea.
You can do all the sheer walling and whatever, but there’s ‘toast’ and then there is charred toast.
I love homes in the Marina. We lookie-loo through them often. That said, we walked those streets after 1989, and remember how things looked. All the shear wall in the world won’t protect you from fires caused by other people’s less-stable buildings.
Pictures taken 4 blocks away (Divisadero & North Point) from the house in question after the quake of ’89.
Check out the pictures here taken of the mess at 2090 Beach (Divisadero & Beach).
I consider buying a house in SF’s “very high” liquefaction zones on par with buying a house in Hawaii on leased land with ten years to run. You’ll love the place while you have it. You should pay a price that recognizes the drawbacks of the property.
Those pictures are pretty amazing. But sometimes you gotta just take chances, or we’ll forever live in fear. I’d rather live in this neighborhood, walk to the Marina Green, Chestnut, Union, hop the 30x downtown, booz it up at Balboa Cafe, listen to the fog horn, and keep the thought in the back of my head that if a big one hits, sure we’re in a bit more of a “risky” zone, but at least I’m not perched on a hill that adds an extra 50foot drop. It sure beats living in Kansas where every summer is full of Tornadoes. I love the Marina, and this house is amazing! I’d buy it in a second if I could.
[Editor’s note: Amen!]
Towse, thanks for those pics/links. Really puts things in perspective… And MarinaChic you’re obviously a fan of the area, hence your name :-)
Its not clear how you discount or price the risk factors of owning this home. Sure, I’d buy it too, but considering that you’re not going to get quake insurance and are taking on an implied risk of disaster here, is $5M a fair price?
My prediction is that this place will sell with full price or slight discount; and everyone will be happy.
The best thing about The Marina, is that only a few are wealthy enough to live in The Marina, and therefore it is a much more pleasant place to live: cleaner, better restaurants, friendlier like-minded people etc.
I remember walking around the 1989 earthquake, and only the large multi-unit buildings with garages below had the big damage. Other SFHs were fine, and no worse off than any other house in SF. I remember wondering where all the damage was. The media, and a certain envious few continue to highlight the SAME BUILDINGS on the same street over and over again, where in reality, most of the Marina was fine.
If you’re afraid of an Earthquake, leave the Bay Area. And if you really want to arbitrage value, although no more given the $3.7 million new record high sale of 3321 Octavia St., try finding a Marina flat or SFH in the ‘MARINA GOLD BOX’ bordered by fort mason, laguna, van ess, and lombard. All those properties in the gold box are not on liquefaction.
BTW, nice job to SFnewsletter for highlighting this remodeled Marina house. Now all the other housing blogs are copying it.
I will help you with increased traffic and messages b/c: 1) You guys report real examples and actually FOLLOW THROUGH with the final sales prices, 2) Highlight property that people actually would like to live in instead of always highlighting over priced crappy location SOMA condos, 3) Don’t have amazing bitterness b/c you don’t own, and 4) Have more insight than the other blogs.
It’s amazing how the owners of some blogs are so on a mission to prove the market is falling, and still don’t believe the latest 6.6%+ YoY price figure. When you have a blog that can’t even recognize reality, that you know it has an agenda, and is only there for therapy for like-minded renters who missed the best wave in the past 10 years.
Keep up the good work Alex!!
Boomtime
[Editor’s note: Boom, thanks for the kind words. We are striving to be the best…whatever that is in blog land. This is a work in progress, and if you can help us increase traffic…you da man!…or woman! Thanks for reading, and thanks for commenting.]
Hey Boom, Just cause someone has a family and doesn’t want them to live in the most dangerous / known area of city that has experienced major catastrophic events over the past 20 years doesn’t mean that they have to leave the bay area. Get real.
There is a reason marina properties trade at a discount; and that discount gets smaller the more memories fade from the 89 mess. This property happens to be sitting next to one of those multi-dwelling type properties that experienced structural failure during the 89 quake. So even if this place was built like a fortress; what if the building next door comes tumbling down?
This looks like a great property; but come on; you can cheerlead all you want and it isn’t going to change history. Those links / images that Towes posted are real and could be very much repeated.
PS: I agree that Alex is adding a lot to the sf blogging / scene here.
[Editor’s note: Thanks for the kind words. I’m just getting my feet wet in the sf blog scene, but it looks like I’ll be going in deep. Our team is building, and knowledge base is growing. Keep spreading the word, and I’ll keep at it.
I do love the Marina. ;-) Regarding quake insurance, what does that really cover? I heard that it doesn’t actually cover loss in the event of a quake, but only loss in the event of a fire as a result of a quake. Got any insight on that?
I agree with Eddy, history cannot be forgotten, but can history in the Marina repeat itself?
See you on Chestnut sipping my coffee.
Eddy – What discount are you talking about? Discount to the houses on Broadway and Lyon st. perhaps? :) I don’t call $4.995 million a discount by any means, unless you are being facetious?
The owners build 2,500sqft cheaper than $1,000/sqft, and they MAY get their $4.995 mil asking price. Now if they do, I will seriously be impressed, b/c that will mark the new record high for SFH in The Marina outside of the SFHs that face the water on Marina Blvd or The PalaceoFA.
Again, look at the Marina eartquake pictures. The houses that were hurt were not houses but large multi-unit buildings. It is the same building over and over again on Divis and Beach that is highlighted. The irony is that after 1989, the entire Marina has been retrofitted and upgraded, making it likely better suited than the rest of the city for an earthquake.
Go look at the geological gov’t maps. You want liquefaction? Go look downtown, SOMA, everywhere.
Boom, I was talking about the general discount of Marina copared to other district 7 areas. In general, you can find a SFR for under 2M in Marina and that budget will get you almost nothing in PacH; a little better in Cow Hallow. And I’m not just talking about Broadway and Lyon.
The $3.7M place on Octavia you refer to was a really nice property and probably not as nice as this one now that I’ve seen some of the pics and researched it a bit more. It looks like they really went gonzo on this place and its probably a very sound rebuild. And I agree with you that most places in Marina have been retrofitted and will probably fare better next time around.
I think they are shooting for the moon with a $5M price and surely they don’t have the comps to justify it; but I still predict that they will get close since you don’t see a rebuild like this too often. They probably should have priced it at 4 or 4.5 and gotten a bidding war going.
PS: I couldn’t agree more about soma/downtown.
PPS: marina chick, as far as earthquake insurance; you can insure for any type of coverage for any event; heck llyods of london will write you alien protection insurance if you ask; but I know a few people that inquired about the premiums on insurance in marina and its very expensive.
Thanks Eddy! And thank you sfnewsletter.
Nice concept, of course. However, the location is not so good. It’s right next door to several very large and noisy apartment complexes and there’s no view…of anything except your own walls, the apartment buildings next door, and the grass in the backyard. Not to mention it’s on landfill (check old maps of SF). Agreed the price is nice, at first glance. But the smart buyer will always remember…location, location, location!…which this place doesn’t have. And it dangerously ignores an important rule of thumb…never be the most expensive house on the block (or in your immediate neighborhood in this case). Caution to the prospective buyer!
Eddy – U know it’s CRAZY TIME when u say ‘they should have priced it at $4 or $4.5 million’ to get a bidding war going! lol.
I love this market!
I finally got through the place and JJ is right. I think they might be stretching for that $5M a bit too far. Several properties have sold FAST in this price range recently, Stiener st / Pacific St. so there are buyers. I’d say if this isn’t in contract by this tuesday or wednesday; than the agent / developer have failed to price this right. In this market you don’t want to have a place sit for too long. If it gets a reduction it will also get a lot of publicity since its a fairly high profile property……. waiting…..