With a listing touting a “Fresh Perspective,” it’s a plugged-in reader that first notices the return of 104 Funston to the MLS. As we first wrote about the property last May:
104 Funston was purchased for $2,750,000 in May of 2007 and returned to the market this past March asking $3,150,000. Reduced to a “lucky” $2,988,888 on April 15, the price was further reduced to $2,875,000 eight days later. On Friday it was reduced to $2,750,000.
According to the listing the property “appraised at $2,850,000” and you can “move in with equity.” Who are we to suggest that its three weeks on the market at $2,875,000 without a sale would suggest otherwise.
Withdrawn from the MLS after 155 days days on the market but then relisted at $2,600,000 with “one” day last month, yesterday the list price for 104 Funston was reduced to $2,200,000 (23 percent under its “appraised” value) in an attempt to solicit multiple bids which are now due next week (10/21 by noon).
And with respect to any apples-to-apples comparisons, don’t forget to account for the roughly $400,000 worth of work between the $2,750,000 purchase price in 2007 and today.
In November the listing for 104 Funston was withdrawn from the MLS without a reported sale while simultaneously increasing its list price when withdrawn to “$2,500,000.” The property is now back on the MLS with an official “one day” on the market and a new new original list price of $2,395,000.
∙ Listing: 104 Funston (4/3.5) 3,963 sqft – $2,395,000 [104funston.com] [MLS]
∙ Instant (Appraiser’s) Equity At 104 Funston [SocketSite]
∙ A Quick Reminder Not To Bank On An “Appraisal” (Or Instant Equity) [SocketSite]
∙ Will 104 Funston Return With Even More “Move In Equity?” [SocketSite]
∙ No More Mention Of (Even More) “Move In Equity” For 104 Funston [SocketSite]
So they raised the price $195K, but wanted to make it look like they lowered it $105K. SocketSite, for the transparency!
^^ Tru that.
I don’t know what the pricing strategy was, but it’s very hard to be a stealth tactician when there’s a permanent trace on the web like SS.
With Redfin forbidden to post all pricing history, I wonder if the NAR will eventually go after blogs like SS. Because after all SS is doing the same thing as Redfin, but on a much more lower level.
My comment looks quite obvious and elementary here, but it was originally in response to another thread.
With respect to pricing history, NAR has a little bit more control over Redfin because Redfin gets a data feed directly from MLS. However, there shouldn’t be anything actually stopping Redfin from using publicly available data obtained from somewhere other than the MLS feed. Redfin could theoretically backfill from sites like SocketSite, if their system was setup to do something like that.
The issue about that is reliability. You could create a fake site with all valid listings but bogus numbers, that kind of crawler would fall into the honeypot and pollute the data. Sites like Redfin, Zillow, Trulia, Movoto and such are as good as their data.
“You could create a fake site with all valid listings but bogus numbers, that kind of crawler would fall into the honeypot and pollute the data.”
Even if the numbers were independently pulled while the house was on sale? It seems like the numbers could easily be manipulated after de-listing, but during the period of the actual sale, there’s a good reason to keep those numbers accurate.
Wow.
that is $455,000 of instant equity!
(been a while since I’ve heard that phrase).
these sellers remind me of another great 2006-ism: “I’m not going to just GIVE my house away!”
all that said,
these sellers are taking the cues given them by our political leaders, our traditional media, and the real estate “experts”.
they have been told that RE has stabilized and thus are pricing accordingly.
why drop your price when the “experts”, the government, and the media tell you things are getting better?
Ouch! You’d think a house with a $2.395M price tag would garner better staging furniture. YIKES, it screams CHEAP!
Wow, this one again.
The clueless prof who overpaid for a so-so location and then sunk $400k into a reno that only marginally increased the value.
If there’s anyone who deserves to lose $1m+ it’s this 2007 bubbletopper.
And it looks like that is exactly what is going to happen.
Why hasn’t the owner fired the realtor? Its obvious she has really flubbed this one.
Yup, no schadenfreude here. I really think diggs at the owner and the agent here are a little over the top. It’s a difficult situation for sure.
this is on the corner of Funston and Lake – not only is it very busy, the yard’s side is on Funston and there is virtually no setback from the street on either Funston or Lake. hobos can camp out right in front of your bedroom windows. I wouldn’t even buy this for $1.5m.
photoshopping was done well though
Of Redfin not being able to show old list prices — how come zillow does? Seems like every time I can’t see the pricing history @ Redfin I just hop on over to zillow and no problem it’s all there… does Zillow just have a wise crawler?
Com’on, some of you obviously are passing judgement without ever living in the Lake area. I used to live around there, and Funston is not a busy street, at all. Lake is also not that busy aside from morning and after work rush hour, and even then, it’s not crazy busy.
If you worry about the traffic on Park Presidio, I can understand. But Lake and Funstion? Com’on!
This is a nice house on a rare corner lot that provides extra sunlight and it’s in a good location in an exclusive neighborhood. The problem is not the location, the problem is the timing of the purchase.
Samuel, I’ve been living in the neighborhood for twenty years and in my opinion it is really not a nice lot, between the foot traffic and virtually no sound barrier between you and Park Presidio. You also have the no. 28 limited bus idling out front early in the morning.
And what for what it’s worth, what Halpern said is hyperbole, but barely. I rarely have issues with street people or homeless on my block of California street, but my friend on Funston had a number of nasty surprises from people camping out in the median between Funston and Park Presidio. :-/
And it seems to me that people were paying a premium for marginal locations back then was the problem with the timing – that’s not really an either/or thing.
And it seems to me that people were paying a premium for marginal locations back then
That is an understatement. And the low supply caused uninformed buyers to buy homes at inflated prices. All homes traded up, but some homes simply got premiums totally unthinkable. This owner moved here from NYC and had no idea the grand issues of this location. Overpaid, over invested, and is now getting killed.
I remember this house clearly when it hit the market in 2007 and was blown away when it sold for its price. I have clear memories of many many homes that were selling for outrageous prices. I’m not making any predictions but I think this home is getting nearer the mark. At the end of the day, its a big home and pretty nice. I have to think it closes a few ticks above $2M.
first, as someone already pointed out, yes Park Presidio is busier than Funston but so what? You have no separation from Park Presidio but for the median.
To say that Lake is not “crazy busy” is to beg the question how much you’d pay for a house on a street (with no set back) which street is not “crazy busy” – as I said, I would not pay more than $1.5m unless I could quickly resell.
To say that you get more light because it’s a corner lot, is really trying to sell the property. I have never seen a corner a lot be priced hired than one that is tucked in unless one of the corners did not involve a street but something nice waterfront, etc.
Finally, to say that that area is an “exclusive” neighborhood is to reveal yourself as a) the owner or b) a real estate agent. Lake is an invention. The area is Inner Richmond and this is the border of Inner Richmond and Outer Richmond. A decent enough location but hardly exclusive. The ONLY portion of the Inner Richmond that could conceivably be sporting such prices is close to Presidio Heights and north of California (basically the first few blocks, like 5t street).
Anyone who doubts this is a horrible location need only look at the overhead photo to see the location of the highway and the multitude of areas for homeless camping right across the street.
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=104+funston+san+francisco&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-a&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=104+Funston+Ave,+San+Francisco,+California+94118&gl=us&ll=37.786216,-122.472185&spn=0.001759,0.004106&t=h&z=19
I think you have to have a screw loose to buy this place for the price they paid, even in a bubble. To buy it for anything resembling this price today in this market is simply the dumbest thing I could conceive of doing.
halpern, sorry Lake District is a real neighborhood because if you’ve actually spend time in that area, you’ll notice that Lake and Inner Richmond has distinct differences. Lake is the part where the houses tends to be nicer, bigger, less cookie-cutter and more custom built; the area quieter and you can actually find street parking.
To add just how wrong you are, I’m neither the owner nor a real estate agent. You seem to have a habit of throwing out wild stuff and hoping they stick.
kthnxybe, I used to live on Lake and 5th and I’ve never had any issue with the homeless, in fact, I don’t even see any homeless unless I venture into the Inner Richmond area, and even then they’re few and far between. But it’s possible that the median has people camping there, I don’t doubt that and it can be a knock on the value.
I remember thinking in the 1980s that Funston was a street developed to be a PacHts west, with many large and grand houses. But Park Presidio became a virtual freeway and the inner Richmond became a neighborhood with more modest houses.
If you wanted a great house, Funston was a place to find it for less. But then the market changed and people began to pay almost as much as in better neighborhoods.
This idea worked well in Jordan Park, which is next to Presidio Heights with many houses on large lots, but Funston is too far into the Richmond.
Lake as a neighborhood is an extension of North of Lake which is and always has been a premium area, but consists only of the three long blocks, the cul de sacs of 5th to 7th. Avenues.
“Lake is an invention.”
Ah yes, I keep forgetting that Pac Heights was immaculately conceived.
Same poster as above. . .
I live on Lake and 5th. My next door neighbor is an account manager for Merril Lynch. My other neighbors include socialites such as Mireille Schwartz.
Presidio Terrace is within 2 blocks.
My back yard is a golf course.
There is more open space nearby than anywhere else in the city.
Seems pretty “real sf” to me.
It is very unfortunate that when “renovating” this property, they did not spend some of the $400,000 on triple-paned windows. The master bedroom looks right at the intersection of Highway 101 and Lake and there is nothing to block the sound. There are some benefits to this location with its close proximity to Mountain Lake Park and the Presidio however, tough to ignore the highway in your front yard.
Samuel and ^^ – Fifth and Lake is really nice. 🙂
I’m on the north side of California near 7th (only technically Lake I suppose) and no, I rarely have problems with homeless (and on the rare occasions when I do, I’m pretty comfortable with confronting them about it).
There are indeed people camping in the median but I think the traffic is even more of a factor. My friend lived on that same block and I was surprised how noisy it could get – and my street is not particularly quiet!
that is precisely what I said, the places in the so-called Lake district that could conceivably command that kind of value are the places north of California – someone mentioned cul de sacs at 5th through 7th. In fact, there was a house there on 5th that recently sold (cute but in need of some work) for a little below 2 if I recall. That is a bit of a way from Funston.
drove past this place yesterday in the not so nice weather and there seemed to be a fair amount of traffic.
traffic, as in open house traffic.
I wrote an offer on this place, but fortunately I put in a contingency that if it accumulated more than 20 negative comments on SocketSite, I could bail. Thanks guys for saving me from this white elephant!
Agreed, Halpern – 5th, 6th, and 7th north of Lake have always commanded much higher prices than the rest of the area.
But if you buy one of the houses on those blocks you have to decide, how do you handle Halloween? Do it up with decorations and cases of candy, or turn the lights out and hide? 🙂
I think most if not all of those north of Lake cul de sac homes can command premiums. Especially the last two on either side of the streets.
I think that North of Lake, 5th to 7th Avenues, has long had a reverse snobbery cachet: very nice houses without pretense. Some of the streets in Cow Hollow also fit this model, as does Jordan Park.
But outer Lake Street, West Clay, and pre-SeaCliff have great houses too.
It is Funston that is overrated, as Park Presidio is worse than FranklinGough or PineBush.
eddy wrote: “This owner moved here from NYC and had no idea the grand issues of this location. Overpaid, over invested, and is now getting killed.”
That’s not right. This guy is a homegrown Bay Area bubbletopper:
“When we bought the house [104 Funston] three years ago, having lived on the Stanford campus for 21 years before that, we were thrilled to be in San Francisco and especially thrilled with the house and our neighborhood.”
That – and plenty of other tidbits – here (WARNING PDF): http://media.baycitizen.org/uploaded/documents/2010/9/e-mail-bruce-bueno-de-mesquita/E-Mail%20from%20Bruce%20Bueno%20de%20Mesquita.pdf
Agree that he over invested, but I’m not sure about “overpaid”. Down 25-30% from peak would be a pretty typical drop in value for a San Fran house, and that’s what this is shaping up to be (ignoring the additional $400-450k of dollars wasted on renovations).
yeah, but what’s the best way to cross Clement on a Saturday?
Says sale pending as of March 22. Maybe Professorman will get out of this yet, although the headline loss is more than $750K at asking, even without including all costs of ownership.
Sold! $2,200,000.
Another member of the half-million-loss club, and that’s ignoring all the added work which brings the loss to about a million. (Or the buyer just has a lot of instant “equity”).