Moving on down the roads a bit toward the city center, we stumble across this little home recently listed on MLS at 2020 Jackson asking $20,000,000.

“The distinguished & historical Hellman Mansion is located in a prominent Pac Hts location, nr Lafayette Park. The Classical Revival estate, designed circa 1902 by Julius Krafft, was thoughtfully restored maintaining the architect’s original masterpiece, a harmonious blend of grand design, elegant appointments, modern comfort and impeccable renovation. On four impressive levels, accessible by elevator, this 8BR/7+BA home is a rare jewel. Magnificently proportioned living & dining rooms, grand terraces, sumptuous master suite wing, double winding stair, 7 frplcs, au pair suite, main and catering kitchens, media room, family room, family dining, wine cellar, salon and library. Solar. Stunning north & east bay views w/Alcatraz, Angel Is & Marin.”

That’s a lot of 20′s no matter how you slice it, but I gotta wonder if their vision is 20/20 on this one. Last sold 2004 for $15,000,000, it will be interesting to see if this magnificent slice of prime San Francisco real estate on Jackson will see one million Jacksons or one million Hamiltons alongside another million Lincolns.

Speaking of price reductions and a lesson in (price) history…remember 2845 Broadway?

“A legend in the making…a Gold Coast Masterpiece. Clad in French limestone an exquisite Neoclassical style villa with stunning Golden Gate and Bay views, garden and a guest house with 19th Century Italian tile roof comprise this unique compound spanning two lots from Broadway to Pacific. One of the world’s finest residential addresses. Currently under construction, this property presents a unique opportunity to complete an architectural masterpiece in one of the City’s most prestigious locations.”

(Previously) under construction indeed, and originally listed on the MLS in March of 2006 for $65,000,000, we see that history is telling us there really isn’t any property in San Francisco selling for that kind of cash. A+ location or not, we’re talking an unfinished multi-million dollar mansion…and you don’t even get a pool! Maybe a MASSIVE diving board on the patio could afford several mile high flips into the bay. Just wear a helmet.

Finally, moving ever so much closer to downtown, we come to 2323 Hyde on the corner of Hyde and Lombard right at the crest…you know where all the tourists stand in the street, take photos, play Frogger, hop on and off the cable car, and generally get in the way? Yeah, it’s right there.

“This beautiful home was commissioned by Fanny Osborn-Stevenson, the widow of author Robert Louis Stevenson. It is a Willis Polk design and it was built in 1900. It has been meticulously renovated. Complete with mature Landscaped Garden, Roof Terrace & Patio. 4 Car Parking and Elevator to all floors. A true San Francisco Masterpiece.”

Look beyond the (fill in the blank) interior decorations and focus on the property. It’s a beauty in a great location, and it’s also been recently reduced in price from $15,000,000 to a much more reasonable and potentially bidding war price of $14,900,000. Hurry! It’s only been on the market 345 days!

Happy multi million dollar and Metal Monday! I wonder if Axl would want one of these…

-2500 Broadway [MLS]
-2020 Jackson [MLS]
-2845 Broadway [MLS]
-2323 Hyde [MLS]
-Multi-Million Dollar Properties Of Note
-St. Regis Penthouse Was $70,000,000 Now $35,000,000 [theFrontSteps]

Maybe you are a resident living in Pacific Heights, Sea Cliff, Cow Hollow, or Presidio Heights and you don’t want all the hullabaloo of listing on MLS, but you’d love for a buyer to come take a look at your home. PocketListings.net has a couple of those multi-million dollar buyers too.

Are you a buyer looking for a two unit building in the Marina? PocketListings.net has that too!

The moral of this story is if you are a buyer or seller anywhere in the United States, and especially in San Francisco (our hottest market), you should not only be visiting the site yourselves, but telling your real estate agent to do the same. There are opportunities galore, and it’s getting better every day!

-Single Family Home Buyer Needing One Level Or Elevator Home
[PocketListings.net]
-Pacific Heights, Presidio Heights, Cow Hollow, Sea Cliff Buyer [PocketListings.net]
-Marina Two Unit Building “Not On MLS”, $2,800,000 [PocketListings.net]

-Thirty-three hundred square feet in Pacific Heights for $2,875,000:

-A “creative buyer looking for development opportunities…flexible on property type and price.

-Three bedroom Potrero Hill Condominium For Sale, but not on MLS.

-Telegraph Hill Buyer looking to be on the East Slope, and desiring views. Price up to $2,000,000.

-One bedroom condo in Dolores Heights, very much for sale, but also “not on MLS”.

-Should you find yourself itching to move to Marin, here is a nice 4 bedroom, 4 bath home with 4 Car Parking, also “not on MLS”.

-If you want to get way the hell out of dodge, perhaps this Daytona Beach, Florida “family compound” is for you.

I could go on and on, but I’ll stop there. The moral to the story is that what you see on MLS is not close to the entire picture, AND PocketListings.net is pioneering a platform to give the buyer a voice. We plan on completing the real estate circle, if you will. Think of the countless properties that could be marketed before MLS, thousands that get withdrawn or expired from MLS, bank foreclosure inventory, and so much more. If you’re an agent, I’d encourage you to use it, and if you’re a principal, I’d encourage you to browse it, then tell your agent to join!

-PocketListings.net

We launched on July 4, 2010, quickly realized we were on to something, but also quickly realized we needed to completely overhaul the site, which is exactly what we’re doing. As a result, we stopped marketing and just let word spread, and spread it did. Here is a quick rundown of San Francisco properties and buyer needs that have recently showed up on PocketListings.net.

Russian Hill TIC for $1,275,000:

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South Beach Condo at the Lansing for $575,000:

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Sunnyside Multi-Unit for $1,475,000:

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Liberty Hill Single Family for $2,285,000:

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Should you decide on moving to Palo Alto, check out this Palo Alto Pocket Listing for $6,500,000…you could be neighbors with Zuckerberg:

…and all of those are just opportunities with photos (clarity of photos is a theFrontSteps issue)! There are so many more pocket listings than you can possibly imagine. Oh, and we forgot to mention the buyers out there looking for homes:
-Buyer looking for Art Deco in Pacific Heights, Russian Hill, or Telegraph Hill (We’re working on the price bug).
-1031 Exchange buyers looking for 3-4 units anywhere in San Francisco.
-Buyer looking for Condo in Pacific Heights for $900,000…only criteria…large exclusive use patio.
-Two Million Dollar buyer looking for doorman building in Nob Hill, Pacific Heights.

…and the list goes on and on.

What does this mean to you? If you’re a buyer, it means there is a now a place for your agent to post your buyer need, and there is a place for you to look for “not on MLS” property to purchase.

If you’re a seller, there is a place to “list” your home for sale without all the hoopla of MLS (no Days on Market, and no price history), but as much (or more) exposure. You can also browse buyers, and if you see one that might want your home…contact your agent to do the deal.

If you’re an agent, you can now market your pocket listings across brokerages without spamming email inboxes, your post is searchable on our site by a myriad of criteria, we put your post on our Twitter Page, we’ll happily spread the word about your post on our Facebook Profile, you control the transaction, information, showings, and price of that property, AND you can still list it on MLS if it doesn’t sell on our site first.

There are so many more benefits to using PocketListings.net, we’ll spare you the details. Just note, our next version is already under construction, and if the success of our beta launch is any indication of how things will go in the future, you’ll definitely want to get in before we go live with our next version (think free account for life).

If San Francisco is not your thing, don’t worry, we’re steadily growing in markets like Los Angeles, Marin County, Albuquerque, Portola Valley, and so many more. Wherever it is you drink your cup of tee, we encourage you to be a part. It’s a good thing, and getting better.

-PocketListings.net [Off Market (Not on MLS) Real Estate Network]

Elevator service directly into unit, three bedrooms (all with their own full bathroom), library, three remodeled bathrooms, vestibule with marble floor and arched etched glass window, formal entry, formal living room with woodburning fireplace, formal dining room, remodeled eat-in chef’s kitchen with pantry, deeded maid’s room with window and sink (there is a bathroom that services this maid’s room), service elevator, custom draperies and plantation shutters, intercom, cable ready, wired for sound in the library, living room and dining room, laundry room, resident manager, common landscaped lush garden, deeded storage room, 1-car secure garage parking, additional exterior parking in rear area of the lower garage, building security cameras, elegant marble lobby with coffered ceilings, vintage wall sconces and arched stained glass windows.

-Pocket Listing on Broadway.

Here we have a pocket listing in San Francisco’s Pacific Heights neighborhood:

Wonderful Pacific Heights Home on a tree lined street. Old World Details. Sunny back yard. Easy Walk to Union Street. 2 car garage

Here we have one buyer looking for just that:

Presidio Heights, Cow Hollow – Sqft: 3,500; My clients need a large family home with a space for a live in nanny.

…and yet another buyer looking in Pacific Heights:

Pacific Heights or Cow Hollow – Sqft: 2,500: Need a SFD in Cow Hollow or Pac. Hts. with some view. 3 BR 2.5 BA with Gdn & Pkg.
Buyer is ready to go.

…and look at that, yet another buyer looking in Pacific Heights:

Pac Heights, Lwr pacheights, Cole Valley – Sqft: 3,500: This buyer wants either newly done or remodelled, but well maintained might also work out.

Our plan is coming together perfectly. Just wait until the next version of our site, which is already in the works!

Greetings,

I’m looking to enlist your support in some public shaming. You can also point-out the utility of installing a video camera system during a renovation

This Grinch stole the Christmas wreath from the front door of my house early Friday morning. She looks like a fairly put-together person, why is she out stealing in the middle of the night? Pacific Heights of course…

The Grinch comes then goes, and returns (cloaked/disguised) at 2:07.

Poor Pacific Heights. It gets such a bad rap…Maybe we need to put a little “Chopper” in Pacific Heights.

[Update: Some questions answered...

[Update #2: From the reader when we informed him/her of the # of links coming to our site for this post, "Good stuff indeed. Channel 7 wants to run a story on it tonight. And it seems the mystery lady has a name..." Guess you'll have to check Channel 7 (anybody got the link to a report) for the name, and apparently a friend of the owner has placed a new wreath on their door, with a lock hopefully. ]

More Fun Posts:
-Sexy, Sexy Realtors [theFrontSteps.com]
-Metallica’s Kirk Hammett Finds A Buyer For His Pacific Heights Monster Den [theFrontSteps.com]
-San Francisco Needs To Harden The F**k Up! [theFrontSteps.com]

Was “The Black Album” conceived in this room…their worst album if you ask us, and all down hill from there. Give us “Master of Puppets” again!

–
“Is that…Is that James? Is that James in the mixing room?”-Bonus points if you know which PUNK band has that quote. And no, it does not refer to James Hetfield (of Metallica).

Picture “Garage Days” and picture the parties…Metallica did party didn’t they?

Who is the lucky buyer catapulting themselves into the home of one of the largest rock bands ever? Enquiring minds want to know….

If you want to see the party room pre staging and fancy photos, this is what we snapped back in 2007 upon first taking a look at the property.

Congrats to all involved in this one, especially Kirk Hammett.

[Update: We asked our source about the price and got this (no surprise) reply: "It's a "confidential" sale... although we all know who sold it [Nina Hatvany], just no one is saying who bought. Word on the street is that Ronnie Garfield rep’d the buyer, but I don’t know for sure.”]

-2505 Divasadero [Property Website and Details]
-Fly On the Wall, 2505 Divisadero hits the market [sfn BLOG]

Maybe we should have Tony Hawk and crew come teach the Pacific Heights crowd a thing or two about what to do with all of that space:

Or maybe Bob Burnquist’s backyard is a better example:

The skiers/snowboarders had the right idea, but getting snow in San Francisco proved a bit problematic:

But with the naturally steep hills here, maybe a skateboard megaramp is the answer? They could launch over the Getty compound.

Those are a few things you’ll see on our Christmas list to Santa this year….

Fridays are for less serious real estate topic-age, so here is a meaningless poll and a tribute to another characteristic that makes SF unique.

Riding my bike through the Presidio last Saturday, I decided to cruise Presidio Heights. And oh my, the elevation-  in status, I mean. It’s dizzying. The homes are palatial, complete with giant grand pianos, harps, chandeliers,  all of which one can glimpse through elaborate stained glass windows. This got me wondering: why did I pick “teacher” as a career path?

But I digress. From a real estate standpoint, which Heights are really the highest (as in, highest class)? Where would you most desire to spend your halcyon days?

For my money, the top four are Presidio Heights, Pacific Heights, Telegraph Hill, and Sea Cliff.

No offense to any other Heights or Hills. Let’s be honest: SF is chock full of breath taking views from almost every corner (and I’d be thrilled to own a house in any of them), but if we include proximity to open space (like the Presidio or the ocean), the size of the homes and their lots, yards (front, back, side) and those cool carriage houses in back that are bigger than most people’s primary residences, then really, these four take the cake.

But I’m a sucker for parks and beaches, and if I have to pick from there, it’s sand and surf forever. My vote then is Sea Cliff.

Here are four ridiculously lush listings, one in each of my hypothetical contender’s neighborhoods. Study them, perhaps shedding a tear for your own career choice. From your own city explorer insight, which height is really the tops? Are certain areas more steady as investments? Are these places really worth all this dough? And are there really still enough buyers for places like this? After all, the four below are just four of myriad listings on the MLS for well over 3 million dollars, when the the San Francisco Census put the median income in our fair city at less than $70k.

2901 Broadway (Pacific Heights) (7 Bedroom mansion for $45 million.)

37 Presidio Ave (Presidio Heights)  (7 Bedroom single family for or $5, 395,000)

632 El Camino Del Mar (Sea Cliff) (5 Bedroom single family for $9,000,000)

 1454 Kearny St. (Telegraph Hill) (3 Bedroom single family for $3,500,000)

Sea Cliff shot via Panoramio