We’ll argue that there’s a world of difference between perfect for “handymen” (think cosmetic) and perfect for “contractors” (think structural).
That being said, if 1875 34th Avenue (“perfect for handymen or contractors”) is closer to the former than the later, it might be worth a look. It’s a single-family fixer (think upside) with a large garage (think expansion) in the Sunset (think fog).
And it’s priced under six hundred thousand (yes, by a thousand).
∙ Listing: 1875 34th Avenue (2/1) – $599,000 [MLS]
Not trying to bag on the Outer Sunset, but do they ever get any sun out that way? Also, just do a drive down Sunset Blvd. on Sunday. The no. of open house signs are ridiculous. I was tempted to take a picture the other week.
[Editor’s Note: Just do it (and then send it our way: tips@socketsite.com).]
The backyard looks like it has potential…but the bedrooms look like jail cells.
What’s the running joke? They call it Sunset because the sun set there once in the 60s, and they haven’t seen it since….something like that.
Not gonna lie – I like this area a lot, despite the weather. Lots of great, undiscovered restaurants here, close to the park, beach, Stonestown, etc. And I think this house has a lot of potential.
But as I posted on another thread, prices in these outer areas of the city should follow trends in east bay, given the commute times and neighborhood amenities here are more comparable to the east bay than the Marina or Noe Valley.
At $599 for a fixer…I don’t know. But I may bite at $500….
I found 32 2b/1b Listings just in that area. Seems like you might get it at a deal, But not during the following months (Holiday Season). It would take too long to resale in this market.
Dude – I can guarantee you that some contractor type will buy and flip this thing within a year. I’ve seen it happen way too many times in the Outer Sunset and richmond. Question is whether in this new market it will sell after it’s been renovated.
Let the flippers try if they have confidence in the market. As anon at 10:06 pointed out, there are a ton of properties up for sale in this area…and prices are coming down.
Check out 461 Noriega. Renovated, great property, phenomenal views…on the market for $899K. Either PropertyShark has an error, or this was last sold for $975K in May of 2005. So down $80K from last sale.
“Also, just do a drive down Sunset Blvd. on Sunday. The no. of open house signs are ridiculous. I was tempted to take a picture the other week.”
But it has been like that for years.
The thing is, the signs cover from 19th to 48th Ave. When you map all the properties on the market (for example, use Redfin), the density in Outer Sunset is no more than any other area in the city.
You’re kidding me right? I just pulled up the map from Redfin for SFH and almost all the homes for sale are concentrated in the western and southern (Bayview) most part of the city. Yes, the density in the Outer Sunset is no more than the Bayview (in fact, may be slightly less), but I’m willing to bet the no. of homes for sale in both areas has increased significantly.
Agreed, these fixer houses are often snapped up by contractors who buff them out to various degrees and re-sell them at $800-$1 million. But, I don’t think the area is quite following the price trajectory of the east bay as a lot of the woes of the east bay have been caused by massive new construction/over-supply which just hasn’t happened here. And if that truly is your argument, well, the large amount of new construction in SOMA/South Beach would imply similar price declines for that area too – again, both of these things have not happened yet. Do i think prices could go down in both of these areas (Sunset and SOMA)? Sure, but my point is, they haven’t gone down dramatically yet, whereas they have already in the east bay. As for the Sunset – yup, the weather is foggy and windier than the rest of the city (and this last summer was particularly sucky – even for the Sunset), but the trade off is you get your own house and a small lot and more privacy than a condo while being pretty close to the beach, GG Park, and the rest of the city. Sure, it’s fun to live in the Mission or the Haight, but after a while it gets a tad old to have to put on your gnarly game face every time you walk out your door, so the Sunset can be a nice affordable compromise between urban living and total suburbia. And yeah, it’s a good idea to keep an eye on the price of the generic Sunset row house (renovated or not) as one of the gauges of the health of the local home market. The large number of fairly similar houses and high amount of sale activity of these houses can be a pretty telling statistic as to the health of the lower/middle end of the home buying populace.
When single family homes are easily selling for $800k in this area, it makes you wonder when someone puts up a house at a price that is basically the cost of an empty lot. Caveat emptor.
“You’re kidding me right? I just pulled up the map from Redfin for SFH and almost all the homes for sale are concentrated in the western and southern (Bayview) most part of the city. Yes, the density in the Outer Sunset is no more than the Bayview (in fact, may be slightly less), but I’m willing to bet the no. of homes for sale in both areas has increased significantly. ”
Don’t tell me you are that clueless. Other than Sunset, Richmond and Bayview, which other area still have many SFH left?
Now, make it show both Condos and SFH, then compare the density. South of 280 is bloody, but Sunset’s for sale signs are less dense than most of the other areas.
For example, with the same zoom level (to bring the number within 500, which is the limit of Redfin), I can center to Sunset to Noel Valley and get 290 listings. Moving to Ocean View to Bay View gives me 441. Richmond(Park Presedio) to SOMA gives me 490. Seacliffs to Chinatown (in this view, a huge chuck of the map is taken by the park) gives me 358.
And like you, I thought the Sunset Blvd signs are crazy and surely an indication of the marketing will crash…well, except that was my opinion in 2002. I can tell you it has always been that way. There is no significant change over the last five years on how many signs you see driving through Sunset Blvd.
BTW, maybe a better way to look at the map is to make Redfin show only the units which has been on Redfin for 45+ days, so you can zoom out and have a look at bigger area and compare the density.
Take this for what it’s worth….a few months ago district 10 had roughly 200 sfh for sale. It’s currently over 260.
I believe Herb Caen called it the “Dim Sun district”. Not sure if that was the Richmond, Sunset, or the Aves in general.
Nice looking facade, and recent roof. Sounds like they were fixing it up. Though, one neighbor is a pink birthday cake and the other is an aquarium castle.
120 foot lot, with a view off the top; lots of potential upside here.
Miles brings up good points, which is why I prefer Sunset to the east bay and why the correlation is less than perfect. That being said, this still ain’t Nob Hill and won’t hold value like those parts of the city.
For sale signs and asking prices are subjective numbers. I track specific properties that I’m interested in, what they sell for vs. asking, and what they sold for previously. Prices are indeed coming down in Sunset, Parkside, and Sunnyside, in $ as well as $/sq. ft.
Obviously Excelsior and Bayview/V-Valley are down as well, but as John points out, south of the 280 is pretty “suboptimal.” The outer areas are seeing more give, but it’s spreading inward. And now that NODs are picking up, I’d expect the trend to accelerate. No, there won’t be a “crash,” since real estate doesn’t crash. But the value proposition is improving.
Woof woof!
Anyone notice the place has no heat?
That would be a deal breaker for me and my girlfriend. Our goal is a mild fixer-upper, live in it for two years while fixing, then sell on the market upswing in late 09 early 10. This is VERY close to what we want, but not quite. Now if they were to drop it to $525K and we could get 105% financing (ha!) to make some improvements, we might do it.
late 09/early 10. i admire your elan. offer $500, you might get lucky. get space heaters from walmart and….profit.
I estimate sales price of $675,000 to $700,000. I am curious to hear your own best guess.
i pulled comps and found them to be around 700, but if you pimp it out maybe high 700’s
It is an age-old trick of SF realtors to puposely underprice a property simply to create a lot of buzz. If folks are naive enough to think that $599K is the real asking price (as most of the preceding comments would suggest), I have a couple of bridges in Brooklyn to sell…
Didn’t anyone notice the piles of mold in the bedrooms? Easy handman specials don’t usually consist of tearing walls down to the studs.
People lets be real. $599,000 is not going to be the selling price we all know that. Whoever is listing this property is wasting everyone’s time. It will go above $600,000 – just wait and see the scummy agent will get everyone all hot and heavy. This is the teaser – we all know what a tease is don’t we?
Just think the comps in the area well above the $600K threshold. This is most likely to happen – some contractors bid this place up $650 – $675. Then put about $150-$200 into the place to “remodel” And try sell it for a quick buck at $1mill. to 1.2 mill
The place will then have 4 or 5 bedrooms – 3 or 4 baths. Nice to look at – no storage space – useless garage. remember they put the extra rooms & baths where the garage once was. No more off street parking .
Then some “extended” family buys it. And then puts an unwarranted illegal kitchen downstairs. Wah la now you have a 2 unit building.
So what you have now used to be a single family home with now 2 or 3 “families” that now have 4 or 5 cars. Do I hear quality of life issues and negative Enviromental impact
So Mr Contractor – Real Estate Flipper – then makes a quick buck , leaves the nieghbors with monster house next door and manages to ruin the quality of life for the immediate nieghbors. Because there will be more cars and people impacting city services, parking no longer avaliable, increased sewer and power demands on an already over work system.
If this place were on my street I would be taking a close look at the “remodel” to prevent the above from happening on my street. Make sure they have their permits and don’t try to sneak in a “wet bar or kitchen downstairs”.
I believe in home ownership but not at the expense of quality of life. Mr Real Estate Flipper maybe you could look at your own street to do this on.
I think the [Removed by Editor] agent just posted above with his prediction of $675-$700
I want what he is smoking….
I think [Amazan8] . . . .
is smoking some dirty arm and hammer straight out the pot.
RELAX.
Let the pros handel it.
You can go back to being the worst neighbor on your block
Sounds like [Amazan8] sits at home and loathes his neighbors.
amaza8 is right on the money. The city is littered with properties that had minor alteration permits that evolved into essentially brand new construction. It is all under the radar as far as neighbors are concerned and planning turns a blind eye to this.
Maybe some of you out there should be taking a hit of the green bud. If you aren’t stoned or baked and are really thinking of bidding up to around or over $700k for a fixer in the lower or what some may now call the “central sunset” then your perception of realty is seen through some really funkly glasses. I may take a hit now and then – but its not going to be me that pays around $700K for a fixer and then sinks in another $250-$300 and then waits for the market to come back and try to get $1.1 to $1.250 after a year of mortgage of a place that would still not be ready to live in. remember you can put lip stick on a pig and it’ll still be called a pig. for my money I’d rather live in…………..
You got to love it when speculators in this market have proporties with 90 or more days on the market with no buyers in sight and aren’t realistic about what there dump is worth?
I’ve probably said too much already. I hope I don’t sound like a realtor
Ugh, I just noticed the mold now myself. This probably wouldn’t have happened if the house had some heat to counteract the moisture. I certainly hope a newbie doesn’t buy this place. Having dealt first hand with mold myself (from a negligent neighbor in a condo) it can be a total nightmare to deal with — very costly and very time consuming.