Purchased for $1,053,000 in 2005, the West Portal Craftsman at 260 Claremont returned to the market this past April listed for $1,130,000.
Reduced to $990,000 in May (after which it was in contract for a month) and then $889,000 in September (after which it was in contract for two days), the list price for the property has just been reduced to “$799,000” as a short sale (24 percent below its 2005 price).
Keep in mind the main floor master suite remains unwarranted, as does the lower level bonus room, which leaves a reader to wonder how unwarranted work is affecting the ability to obtain financing and buyers these days.
∙ Listing: 260 Claremont (4/2) – $799,000 (short sale) [MLS]
What idiot bank approved a loan for $1M+ on this POS? The bank deserved to own this property for their stupidity.
POS, really? how so.
How does someone manage to put in a master suite without permits and without anyone noticing?
Could be a great deal for a short family with cash and no intentions of reselling soon.
Vanillablue…easy. The Master suite was within the building envelope, it looks like (upstairs under the eaves). That doesn’t get the same kind of attention from neighbors as additions. Many people assume you’ve got permits, and more people probably simply don’t care. Depends on the neighborhood…and the neighbors. Often folks will have a permit to do something, and then keep working after the permitted work is completed. Unless you’re a really observant neighbor you might never notice.
There is a ton of unpermitted work done in SF, but the bigger the project, the greater the risk.
SF, the Italy of American residential construction and RE.
Doesn’t “unwarranted” just mean “illegal?”
You can finish an attic space legally, and legally it is called “storage” (I believe), but since it functionally can be used as a bedroom you stage it that way – especially if the chances are it will be used that way by the next owner anyway – and you advertise it as an “unwarranted bedroom”. There is nothing illegal about it – unless of course there is a bathroom up there done without permits – and that looks to be the case here. So on one hand they are OK and upfront, on the other it does appear to have illegal work.
lolcat_94123,
Yes, exactly.
Same as unwarranted aliens.
this really reminds me of the homes in east oakland. doesn’t have the SF-ness about it from the outside.
Great price for a good number of BRs in a good neighborhood. I think it’s a steal for anyone willing to put in some $ to fix up the place and get the work legalized. I bet it goes above ask.
Just an ok neighborhood, and this spot is not one of the nicer spots there. Down more than 20% from 2005 sounds about an average decline for such a property around there; the “unwarranted” aspect probably doesn’t have too much to do with it. The property should find a buyer around here (compare the nearby 153 Granville that also just went into contract asking 799).
I am willing to take a $2m mortgage to pay for this if you’re willing to sell at that price – what a steal!
@sparky-b: See dantheman’s comment 12:44 PM — my thoughts exactly. A POS for a $1M+ price tag. The current asking price is more like it.
This is the 3rd SS property in this area with similar issues – unwarranted work, questionable living spaces, and outrageous original asking prices. The other 2 are 44 Rockaway and 153 Granville.
I haven’t been through this place but that master br space looks like it would be difficult / expensive to improve on. It will be interesting to see what the Granville prop actually goes for (in escrow now) since it does appear to have better living space and an easier fix for the low ceiling height.
The other thing that Granville and this place have in common is that both agents listed unwarrented space as actual bedrooms / ba.
hangemhi,
Your full of it. The whole thing is illegal. A permit is required to develop any attic space, whether it’s storage or a bedroom or a bathroom. Developing attic space is viewed by DBI, to be the same as adding a floor to the building and various codes come into play including seismic and fire egress requirements. If they simply made it illegal for Realtors to list and sell illegally developed property, this problem of unwarranted space would gradually go away.
Well, to me POS is not even habitable. This place has a pretty nice living room, dining room, workable kitchen, etc. I think it looks plenty SF lots of this sort of house in the richmond, inner sunset, WP etc. A pretty big chunk of SF.
I am in no way saying it was worth $1M, it’s just not a POS either.
This kind of BS with no permits is why it took two plus years and multiple bids without a closing to buy my parents’ current house. The idiotic homeowners want return for their illegal work that the subsequent homeowner will have pay to rip out down to the studs and redo if they want to do anything else legally with permits. Building inspectors aren’t fools and will catch unpermitted work if it’s anywhere visible during an inspection.
Besides, the entire attic space would take MAJOR work to make legal – lots of windows (aka reframe the whole attic) and a fire escape.
Never mind that building inspectors and permits exist to protect future residents from health and safety concerns. Do you really think most unpermitted work is done legally and to code? Don’t you think that contractor who cut corners on the permits aren’t going to cut corners on what you can’t see like the framing, wiring, quality of materials, plumbing, etc?
I wonder why SF Building Dept doesn’t scan the MLS for “unwarranted” – they would rack up a lot of fines in revenue.
94123 Native wrote: “I wonder why SF Building Dept doesn’t scan the MLS for “unwarranted” – they would rack up a lot of fines in revenue.”
No kidding. Which is partly why I posed the question initially about how this type of extensive work gets done without a permit. I’d bet palms at DBI are being greased.
The backyard abuts the tennis court that sits on the top of the WP tunnel. If you can’t hear the noise from the Muni I’d say it’s a decent situation where you’re not likely to lose your backyard sunlight. Of course having people playing tennis all week-end next to your deck might be a bit annoying, therefore I’d put a bunch of high enough plants for privacy. 10-foot tall bamboo of something similar.
@sparky-b: I will concede that it’s not necessarily a POS. I just wouldn’t pay anything near $1M for it.
vanillablue wrote:
> Which is partly why I posed the question
> initially about how this type of extensive
> work gets done without a permit.
I’m not doing this to bring up Prop. 13 again, but one of the main reasons that people avoid pulling a permit is that if you do $100K of work you will be paying for it every year when the county increases the assesed value of your home (you will save about $30K over the next 20 years if the county never knows about a $100K remodel)…
Unwarranted? Does that mean they built the master suite without a building permit? If so, no one noticed there was working going on???
^ yeah but you list that $100k remodel as $15k on the permit. DBI doesn’t seem to care, and treasury is often times too incompetent to catch up with these remodel permits anyways. I’ve done several remodels where the assessed value hasn’t changed (except for regular annual increases). And these are going on eight years! Good for me 🙂
@EL Bombero – ” Just an OK Neighborhood” – I wonder do you know what the hell you’re talking about?
This property sold at the peak of the market so of course it’s going to be down 10-20% from its 2005 sale price.
My guess is the owner didn’t pull permits because they knew plans to convert the attic into living space wouldn’t be approved without tearing off this portion of the roof to accommodate the height requirement.
there isn’t always a direct correlation between the cost of a renovation and the increase in assessed value. I agree that DBIs main concern is that the work is done properly and up to code. they dont police the cost.
This is an old house (1919) so it may need some work but at 800k it’s a good buy in a desirable location.
In contract again. Maybe the 3rd time’s a charm.
Just came up as having been withdrawn from the market, presumably without a sale…
this place finally sold at $900K, which is 18% over the asking price of $765K. Of course, the new asking price was more than 30% less than the original asking price, but you know the drill at this point…