SocketSite™

That little table in the kitchen looks extremely out of place. I could do without the "fine" touches in the ceiling/floor as well. Then again, I'm 25.

Translation:

"When we listed it for 5.495, all we got were offers around 5.495, which we weren't going to accept - we thought a 1M drop would start a bidding war. So we've listed it for a price closer to the one we are willing to accept.

We know we pissed everyone off who offered near asking, so puleeze come back and look at it again. We'll pretend we added more square footage or whatever we can think of to give you a reason to come look at it again: we promise we'll be nicer if you promise to offer more money."

other possibility:

last year they needed 5.495 to break even.

but holding onto a $5Million house for a year costs a lot of money.

now they need $5.995 to break even.

What's up with the amateur photography on the listing for a $6M house ? And they're also overprotective of the content. Here's the fine print at the bottom of the 2502leavenworth.com listing :

"...Permission is granted to display, copy, distribute and download the materials on this Site for personal, non-commercial use only provided you do not modify the materials and that you retain all copyright and other proprietary notices contained in the materials. You also may not, without NAS Group’ Inc.’s permission, "mirror" any material contained on this Site on any other server..."

This house sold for $1.503M in 2003 - down from its previous sale of $1.64M in 2000. I know that they added a bunch of square feet - but does this look like a $6M property? What was the cost of the renovation - $1M (or less)? They would enjoy a great rate of return if it sold for $4M.

Renting the place at $33K is the better deal (or you could just rent something comparable for maybe $6 - 10K).

I'm sorry, but what the heck's going on with that extractor hood over the cooker? Looks like it came from Wilma Flintstones kitchen.

"Recently added about 3000 sqft"? Huh? The listing says it is 4500 sf. So they added 3000 sf to a 1500 sf house?

Here's the article from SFGate from when it first hit the market.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/10/10/HOHKSFNJM.DTL&hw=nina+hatvany&sn=003&sc=631

I think what happened here is that they overspent on the remodel. I expect it cost close to 3 million to put this thing together considering all the structural retrofitting. The views are good, but the location doesn't warrant the high price. Also, there are several massive retaining walls right across the street.

Anyway, if Nina and all the power of Coldwell Banker couldn't move this thing, good luck to the new realtor.

Thanks for the SFGate link Sleepiguy. I just checked out the prices on Lacanche ranges so I'll raise my renovation cost estimate to $2M. I can't find a price on the Wilma Flintstone extractor hood though.

"Anyway, if Nina and all the power of Coldwell Banker couldn't move this thing, good luck to the new realtor."

Based on the contact info and the link from sleepiguy, it looks like they may not be using a realtor. Seems a bit strange to raise the price in that event...

The owner is a realtor.

Sweet snakeskin fumehood!!! They must've been inhaling some strange stuff to think they were going to get anything like $33k a month for this.

Someone forgot to tell these guys that bedrooms require windows to be named as such, and 2 of their 5 "bedrooms" have none.

I love this quote in the SFGate article: "Zareh said. "Maybe I did do too much.""

Nice house in the wrong neighborhood. Try $3.5 million in Fisherman's Wharf.

Hmmm.... I hadn't read the article. The fume hood still says animal skin to me, but if they say it's stone...

How did the owner / realtor was able to convince the chronicle to write an article about the house. Is it true that everything can be bought? I bet they have copies of this article printed and attached to the brochure. Reminds me of George Costanza buying Jon Voigh's car.

On their website is a photo of the entryway, and you can see the giveaway beveled edges and short length strips of the manufactured wood flooring they used in lieu of the real thing. I find that hugely sub-optimal to a "real" 21/32 inch thick wood floor at this price point.

Granted, if they were aiming for LEED platinum or similar green building status this would be viable, but I do not think that was on the table here, where the stove hood is semi-precious stones or whatever.

This listing is laughably written. "Across the street from the Fishers." Nope, they live on Francisco, just off Hyde. (And who
cares anyway?) This block of Leavenworth is nothing special.

And this must be English as a second language:
"undescribable" - try "indescribable"
"track mansion" - try "tract mansion"
"on various publications" - try "in various publications"
And "dinning room" appears about 5 times.

I remember when this house sat perched on blocks for months.
That's when they added the lower floor and the extra footage.
Obviously, they overspent and will never get their money back.
Cut the price to $3.8 or maybe $4.0 and it might sell.

How tacky to name neighbors. The whole listing is amateurish and would certainly not convince me that the place was worth seeing, let alone considering.

I'm wondering if the owner got her realtor's license after the house was pulled from the market so she could list her own home? Very strange....

jlasf - walking distance to Union Square? Is she kidding? I could do it, but I'd be dripping with sweat by the time I got there. Not to mention trying to walk back with any purchases.

This house in my neighborhood. It's not Fisherman's wharf, although it's very close to all the touristy place, the street is surprisingly quiet.

I think the house itself looks really cute.

However for a multi million dollar house, can't they hire a real photographer? And what's with the website? It looks like it's done by the owner's high school kid.

"Fisherman's Wharf"?

Umm, no.

"Walking distance to Union Square"?

Umm, yes.

I live within a block of this place and walked back and forth to Bush & Montgomery for work every day for several years, which is 1.5 miles. Not out Columbus, but up & over the hills at Union and then Grace Cathedral.

You can walk to Union Square from here in 20-25 minutes, which isn't that long, when you consider it's 10 minutes at least to drive, park & walk.

Cabbing back with your stuff will cost you $10.

$6 million for this place is just plain stupid.

Well, whatever you want to call it, starting off on the wrong foot is never good. The website is the cheapest looking I have ever seen. How can you possibly present a $6,000,000 home in it's best light with all the sub-par marketing and photography?
And like jlasf pointed out, all the horrible spelling mistakes. What a mess.

miumiusf, I will disagree with you a bit. I live a block away, too.
I know that in the summer, when there are so many tourists
driving down Lombard, many then continue over on Leavenworth
to Bay. That block gets quite a bit of traffic. It's not horrible, but
not terribly desirable either.

Debtpocalypse, I looked at a map. It's literally 8 blocks from
Pier 39 and 22 blocks from Union Square. I'd call that location
more like Fisherman's Wharf than Union Square.

The gramatical and spelling errors alone are an embarrassement, to say nothing of the overall text. And when did Lombard Street and Alcatraz become major shopping areas?

RHD - I was thinking the same thing. Chalk it up to the spelling and grammatical errors pointed out by jlasf.

Debtpocalypse, I used live on Bay between Leavenworth and Columbus and would walk to the Embarcadero Center for work (which was fine by me). When dealing with a listing, however, I would consider "walking distance" to be an easy 10 minute walk from the listing. Not a 25 minute hike up and down both Russian Hill and Nob Hill to get to Union Square.

@ Sleepiguy,

She became licensed as of 12/18/07.

http://www2.dre.ca.gov/PublicASP/pplinfo.asp?License_id=01837175

The list price has changed from $5,995,000 to $5,500,000.

SFGate.com weekly accounting of sales indicates this house transacted for revised asking:

$5,500,000, sold 06-30-08
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/07/20/REHS_sfrancisco.txt