Where readers ask and we (the community) try to answer.
“S.P.” asks if we’ve seen this property at 1278-82 Church, and would like some feedback.
Anyone see it, and care to share?
p.s. My photo editing capabilities are still limited until I get my new Mac dialed.
They are pretty nice. I’ve been in the bottom unit. Just make sure you stay inside them long enough to make sure you can handle how loud the jchurch is when it passes by (i.e., not very sound proof windows).
Now includes a smart car with purchase of a unit!
wait. it’s TIC!?!?!? – not soundproofed on church street? [ask for a night tour before making an offer. sit with a book in the front room between 6pm ans 7pm and you’ll get the picture – it’s not bad, unless it’s underestimated by the buyers]
and they offer a tiny car for lack of garage?
(how did they manage to trick the city into allowing 3 units with only 2 garages?)
I can only said that it’s a great address – but it’s not underpriced. If you are buying, make sure you balance everything into the price.
It’s not a great address. it’s an ok Noe address..busy street, fairly noisy.
bad floor plans: middle unit living room has NO windows; it’s basically a passageway room to the dining area and master bedroom. bad planning.
the ground floor unit requires you to walk thru the kitchen as you enter the unit. again, bad planning, mediocre floor plan. exterior is definitly fresh, clean, modern, although a fairly trendy “dwell” look.
lack of landscaping at the front is a bad choice. not sure how they got away with this full remodel WITHOUT adding street trees. by my observation, there is room for 3 street trees on Church St. shame on the planning dept. for allowing this.
as i understand it from talking with the agent, the front windows are tripple pained. i would guess that that any street noise from Church street would be mitigated.
i disagree about the comments about the unit plans. i think the flow is nice. “urbansf” is factually incorrect to say that you have to walk thru the kitchen as you enter the unit. this unit is in contract, so i guess someone likes it.
street trees would have been nice, but are not required for remodel projects in SF, only new construction.
the top unit deck is amazing!
tk- guessing is fine. spending time in the unit when the j church passes by (which I have) is better.
Hi, I like the flats and if I have enough money I’d buy all of them. I like their floor plans. They are different and I’d say that they were specifically design for different kind of families – with kids, w/out kids… I’d choose another colors on some walls and the Agent said that walls could be repainted by a buyer request. The building looks great outside and it definitely makes the block much better looking.
I’m not sure how the front windows are triple paned. The noise from the J Church is a lot louder than I expected when I went inside. The layouts and finishes are pretty nice, but I don’t find this kind of place very family-friendly at all. For one thing, a kid could easily tumble out of those front windows, the bottom of the opening is very low and would give me a heart attack to leave a kid around. For another thing, who’d want kids around all those fancy fixtures and finishes?
I was quite intrigued by the “guardrail” for the upper unit deck. Anyone know who makes these?
just for info. double or triple pane has no – NO – impact on soundproofing – because it doesnt sound proof at all.
if any effort of “soundmanagment” had been done, it would have started by puting noisy rooms to the front – like kitchen and dining room having the front facade, while leaving the master BR to the back, or better, to the middle with opening to the courtyard (with courtyard soundproofed of course).
Kaya,
My quess is that the guardrail is Blumcraft
I finaly visited the middle (80) and top (82) units.
soundproofing on the facade is NON EXISTANT – it’s a NIGHTMARE.
Not only you can ear the traffic on church street, with very noisy engines going up the ‘hill” – but you can actually ear every single can/truck on 25th. For comps, with basic soundproofing, we ear the garbage truck at 6am only from 3 lots up to 3 lots down (before soundproofing, we would ear it about a block up to a block down). So I’m worried about noise of the garbage truck at night – when street noise during day time AND with a lot of inside noise (the open house was busy) is already annoining.
I checked the windows: they used the cheapest poorest raiting laminated glass framed with the noisiest crap of metal framing. (no triple. a simple symetrical NOT SOUND PROOFING laminate)
Let’s talk about blasting speakers in the bedrooms to hide the noise during the open house ! :-(
Altho I kindof liked the exterior (anything but the previous look), the inside is a simple money efficient flip. Finishes are average, quality is average. Check for example the quality (or lack of) the glass cuts for all the glass panels. The corners are not even finished (with a 1/16inch bevel, or even a polish to remove any dangerous sharpeness). The turn of the stairs inside 82 is plain ugly and lacks any style or elegance, PLUS the shape of the turn is so odd, people have to check twice their steps.
The inside look is average at best. The style was just a copy/paste from another property, without regards to the specifics of the units. The result is that hallways are cramped and tiny and busy with those doors (frameless doors would have done the exact opposite. but going frameless actually requires SKILLS )
Last but not least, the architect obviously never set a foot on the property. He(she) didnt even think a moment about creating a wind tunnel in the direction of the dominant wind. Today is not a special day, and the wind was already barely acceptable. Furthermore, the glass doors on the top unit (kitchen deck) were banging and the whole unit was shaking at each bang. (a sign of structural cut corners, and a sure bet on leaks next january)
it’s a miss. poor design, poor finishes. and a lot, A LOT of maintenance and maintenance costs to come (starting with soundproofing the facade, which is not even an option on the top unit as ALL the BR are facade BR).
PS: Anna, I have 3 kids, and I wouldnt even dream of letting my kids loose in those units during an open house. 80 and 82 have NO child friendliness whatsoever (countless sharp corners at eye level, dangerous drops and low sills, fingerpinching doors and windows [[a metal door on a finger is a finger GONE – multiply with the weight and kinetic energy of those oversized moving panels, and you’re in for a lot of babyproofing, anti-banging devices etc]].
Sophie, I agree with you on the quality of the finishes. And thank you for shedding light on why those windows are SO BAD at keeping out noise. I was thinking the quality of the finishes (minus the windows) were acceptable for that price point? I don’t know much about new construction TIC price points. It is a huge improvement over what was there…
Speaking of troubled flips— I am really unimpressed with the development team behind 931 Elizabeth in Noe (sfh, 2600 sq ft, 4bed/4bath). The property sold in mid ’07 with approved architecture plans for a new home (list was 1.3). They had a nice turn around time and put it back on this year at 2.6mil. The architecture plans themselves are quite nice- nice flow-optimization of the the views etc. But the quality of construction/finishes/attention to detail is AWFUL. They make the Church street finishes/interior design shine. For instance, they used some cheap/cheesy metal outdoor sidewalk railing as the indoor staircase railing. Are they kidding? For 1000 per sq ft? And those bathrooms…The kitchen is the only room where they spent any money at all. Atleast the units on Church have some sort of style and decorative sense.
At this price point, I would expect something much much nicer. Which is probably why they have had to reduce the price to 2.2, but still, I think its worth even less…
One of these units, 1278, closed today for about 27K under asking. While “under asking” it was, it was also pretty much the highest priced TIC ever sold in Noe. According to the MLS, four listings appear to be higher priced. But two of those are incorrect. 838-840 Clipper Terrace together went for 1.5M. That leaves only 4233 and 4231 24th street as higher … and I know that the buyer of that property purchased both units together as one home or family compound.
that’s the unit with both garages (which itself has some $$$ value), the smallest of those being just big enough for the MiniCooper it houses. (which is fine for a second spot)
Selling one so much under asking wont help selling the other 2 units without garage.
I agree that there is a premium for garage space. I didn’t know the other units had not parking, yeah, if that’s the case it will definitely have an effect. But your other point about it being so much under asking? I disagree. Your first point is the driving factor, that and the state of the market. Twenty seven thousand under asking as a limiting factor? I don’t think so. That’s a huge success. This is a very large sum for a TIC on Church.