Tour Friday!

The newest stage of our Tour de San Francisco (real estate), Diamond Heights (District 4b), has been posted. We invite you to check it out, especially all you fans of Mid-Century Modern.

Church of Skate?

Thanks for finding us. We have moved. This post and all others are now at theFrontSteps.com.

Having driven by this construction project on the corner of 14th Ave and Clement countless times, I finally stopped, shot, and unfortunately couldn’t roll. And now I’m forced to quit dreaming. According to the construction crew, it is going to be a synagogue, and the vertical sides perfect for a frontside air, or McTwist, will hold seating like a “theatre” and they are “going to put a roof on it”. Imagine what Tony Hawk, or Danny Way could do on this thing:

[Danny Way pulling a 360 OVER the Great Wall of China...on a skateboard.]

Anybody else have any insight on this project?

In record time a reader comes through. It will be the Beth Sholom Synagogue, and the Architect is Stanley Saitowitz. Here is a link to their site, and here are the renderings:


[images pulled from Stanley Saitowitz, Natoma Architects, Inc. website (www.saitowitz.com)]

2901 Broadway, a Google drive-by

We had so much fun comparison shopping with 2901 Broadway (the $55,000,000 listing we have here in San Francisco), we thought why not do a drive by and scare the ___ out of the Gettys and Ellison, and Trainas, who live on this block? Not that kind of drive by, but a Google drive by, with Google’s new “street view” mapping technology that promises to take up hours of your time once you discover it.
In a nutshell, you can search an address, move this little icon onto the map, and voila! You’re street level. Take a stroll down the street by clicking the N,S,E,W arrows, do a 360 degree turn, and zoom in insanely close. This is a Peeping Tom’s delight.
As for real estate, it could mean us Realtors won’t actually have to put you in a car. We’ll just direct you to Zillow, Redfin or PropertyShark.com for all the listings and the comps, send you the link to this street level mapping so you can check out the area, put a Starbuck’s Frappucino (yuck!) coffee card in the mail to you, and consider our 6% made.
Do the “drive by” by following this link to the corner of Broadway and Baker. Just make sure to stop at all the STOP signs. The neighbors might complain.

-Comparison shopping on the sfnewsletter [sfn BLOG]
-60 minutes, 60 billion, and one Redfin lurking in the waters [sfn BLOG]
-Google Maps on Broadway and Baker

How to sell a home in today’s market

Call it a fixer, and put a big dumpster out front and fill it full of junk:

1762 42nd Avenue @ Noriega, asking $728,000, needs pretty much everything, and will probably get all that and more.

-Good Bones [sfn BLOG]
-20 on 40 [sfn BLOG]
-1762 42nd Ave [MLS]

The Skinny on the Grand (Soma Grand)

There’s been a lot of chatter about this property and all the new developments popping up in SoMa, Mission Bay, South Beach, Rincon Hill, etc., so we’re going to tell you what we know about the Soma Grand.  We actually know A LOT more than what we’re printing, but we’ve promised not to disclose certain information.  We are not the media, and we don’t care about “breaking stories”.  We just want to educate everyone on the TRUE San Francisco market. 

In no particular order or prose:

• 246 Units
• “Lifestyle Condos” thanks to Joie de Vivre Hospitality (check their website)
• Located at 1160 Mission b/n 7th & 8th Streets (sales center at 1085 Mission @ 7th)
• 2 restaurants at street level
• 22 stories, 245ft.
• lot size: one acre
• 504 parking spaces
• 2 retail spaces totalling 5,000 square feet (4,000 and 1,000)
• Developers: AGI Capital, www.agicapital.com,  and TMG Partners, www.tmgpartners.com, San Francisco
• Contractor: Webcor (good cycling team too), www.webcor.com
• Architects: Architecture International, www.arch-intl.com, Mill Valley
• Landscape Architect: Royston Hanamoto Alley & Abey, Mill Valley
• Sales Team: Pacific Marketing Associates, www.pmateam.com
• Move in: October/November
• First release in April at which point they will accept 3% deposit
• Junior 1 Bed- $400,000+ (there’s only 4 so don’t get excited)-618 square feet
• 1 Bedrooms (some plus den)-$500,000-$700,000, 650-848 square feet
• 2 Bedrooms-$750,000-$1,000,000, 1126-1172 square feet
• 3 Bedrooms-$950,000-$1,400,000, 1300-1528 square feet
• The primo unit looks to be the 3bed, 2 bath on the S/E corner of the 22nd (penthouse) floor with a wrap-around terrace priced around $1.4MM or $750-$800/square foot
• Everybody will get parking (how is tbd)
• HOAs: 1bed high $500s, 2 bed low $600s, 3 bed mid $600s-700s
• HOAs include (please verify with sales team): House Keeping (twice monthly), Concierge, Gourmet Tea and Coffee service, Wireless Internet, DVD lending Library, Restaurant Reservations, Monthly wine tastings, Virtual community bulletin board, Exclusive community value card, Friends and Family discount to local Joie de Vivre businesses
• Units start on 5th level, which is 60 feet up (read below why this is a factor)
• South East View will be the money views
• Apartment Building on West side is in city Planning, nothing is set in stone but views to the West could be blocked at some point in the future and those units will most likely be sold for less.  The designer of the building is the same as for the Infinity, so it could look sweet.
• There is a lot across the street from the Soma Grand that is approved for development of condos.  That’s the bad part.  The good part is that the height limit is 60ft (the case for buildings south of Mission), and remember the Soma Grand doesn’t have units below 60ft.  So there should be no effect on the views to the south.   [Update:” There is a 65′ height limit which extends along the south side of the
  mission street corridor from 6th street to 9th street. Going further
  south the height limits drop off into 50′ and 40′ zones. East of the
  project, on both sides of 6th street, is a zoned as 85′ height limit.”

• Here’s the other thing nobody really points out, but is obvious if you just go by.  Soma Grand is right next door to the newly built Federal Building.   Could that affect value?  Definitely, but we’ll have to wait and see how.  There could be around 3000 people in and out of the Fed Building on a daily basis

• What a “Banyan” has to do with selling condos is besides us, but we can always appreciate good art (subjective!)

What about the neighborhood?  It is no secret that 6th Street is anything but prime location, and Soma Grand is close to it, but things are looking up.  There is a ton of development planned in the area, and the only way to make a bad part of town good is to bring the good in.  This is a good way to do it, and the Soma Grand looks to be promising, and a fresh approach (“lifestyle condos”) to an old concept (high-rise condos).  There are no guarantees in life and we certainly have no clue where the market is going (get the sfnewsletter for more info on that), but it is safe to say that the bigger the risk, the bigger the reward can be.   If you plan on purchasing at Soma Grand, make sure to do your due diligence, have someone represent you (costs you nothing!),  and at the very least, tour the ENTIRE neighborhood in the morning, noon, evening, and late at night before handing over your deposit.

Cinema 21 Gettin’ Closah! (Drive by ™)

Before:

It’s been a while, and a long hard battle, but Cinema 21 is almost back to life.  What it looks like on the inside, we have no idea.  But from the outside, it’s gettin’ closah to completion.  What does this have to do with real estate?  Well, for one, it is a remodeled building.  For two, it brings neighborhoods together and makes everyone feel good.  For three, they serve up nice heart healthy, low calorie, buttery popcorn to fatten up all the uber healthy “Greek” residences of the Marina.

After…almost:  

How coffee affects your property (Drive by ™)

One of our readers forwards us this picture and re-iterates the importance of well known retailers moving into “less desirable” locations.  Peet’s opened nearly a month ago on the corner of 16th Ave. and Geary.  If this Peet’s does well, it could lead to many other retailers moving to the area.  Time will tell.  We hope it does well.   This area, “Central Richmond” has recently been discovered by many families priced out of Lake, Presidio Heights, and Laurel Heights districts, and we know Jeff’s Jeans could give Villains a run for its money…(not likely), but maybe in the acid-washed section.

Drive By ™

In honor of the (re)launch of our new blog, we are introducing a new section on par with our Stalefish, and Maximum Overbid of the Week. Introducing… Drive By… drive by a property (or walk, we’re green), see, point, shoot, post. You are welcome to do the same. Send us your Drive By photos and story, and we’ll run it for you.

This shot is of a house that is very much taken care of on the facade, beautiful in fact (we agents like to call this curb appeal), but look at the shed/garage/thingy in the bottom right corner of the shot.

 

 

Here’s a close up: 

We would advise cleaning up the shed prior to listing.  Just a suggestion.