While some expected it to fly off the market when listed for $895,000 sans tenants two weeks ago, the list price for 1532 Church Street has been reduced a nominal $6,000, now asking $889,000.
And speaking of said ex-tenants, if a plugged-in reader seeking to set the record straight is correct, they were driven out of the house on August 31 and now reside in Palm Springs.
∙ A Quick Tenant-ectomy And Attempted Flip [SocketSite]
∙ Sure To Generate Interest (And Likely An Eviction Notice) [SocketSite]
why reduce by 6K? Is it just to pop up on the “recently reduced” list? It seems silly.
Hard to believe that a smallish, ugly place right on the J-line, selling “as is” for just under $900,000 didn’t fly right off the shelf.
Is it RH-2? 🙂
It is RH2.
This guy goes to the trouble of getting long term tenants out and now he’ll be lucky to break even.
He could make a lot more money by completely renovating and or expanding up/out.
can’t go wrong with this location.
Flipper’s back!
Let’s see how he does….
EsEfGerard,
Yes, there’s always a way to go wrong. To succeed in a renovation/expansion you need to know what you’re doing. Also you need access to capital as well as decently affordable and reliable architects/contractors.
Not everyone can take up this challenge. Some pros will manage to do a complete rebuild in a very short time. Others cannot even complete a kitchen remodel in 6 months (yup, I’ve seen it).
“Others cannot even complete a kitchen remodel in 6 months…”
The most extreme case I’ve ever seen is a house in my neighborhood that has been under renovation for over twelve years. It is clearly a DIY job but come on: that’s waaay too long. They’ve been re-landscaping the front lawn since March this year. That’s something that most homeowners could have completed single handed in a month’s worth of weekends.
The really sad part of that project is that no new space was added to the house. It was just gutted and upgraded. And considering the time span I wonder whether it will turn out like that Johnny Cash song about the guy who worked in a Cadillac factory and stole a part in his lunchbox each week resulting in a 67-68-69-70-71-72-73…. Sedan Deville.
of course, @lol. That’s probably why the original owner didn’t remove the tenants themselves before selling.
but it doesn’t make sense that a non-pro would buy this place, with existing long term tenants, if they didnt plan on eventually moving in.
Conversely, it doesn’t make sense for a real estate professional to have bought this property, buy out the tenants and then immediately flip it for a negligible profit.
can’t go wrong with this location.
Except the above-ground muni line in your front yard.
c’mon guys, I know the Breda LRVs can be noisy.
but all things considered this is still an excellent location /neighborhood. Some commuters might consider living on the J line an advantage.
Some commuters might consider living on the J line an advantage.
I can’t imagine that. I used to live 1 block from the J line at the top of Dolores park and about 6 blocks from either 24th or 16th Street BART. After the first couple weeks, I opted to walk to BART every time (except during serious downpours) because the J is so completely unreliable and slow.
It’s nice to see a hint that the moral stigma of a profit-motivated eviction can be bad for business.
Great restaurants along church street (cough, cough).
I know you’re semi ironically referencing last weeks thread 47yo..
Just a point, though that i find the emphasis on neighborhood restaurants as merits of a hood a little ott, particularly on this site.
Maybe it’s just because I know my way around a kitchen, but whatever happened to the lost art of cooking….
For me, walkability to good produce stores – which this place has – is more important than being on the same street as good restaurants. Thats an area where lots f the miss falls down..cheap yes, good not so much. Though I know there are exceptions. Like sun fat for fish.. happy to be enlightened for other places, but good meat seems particularly scarce.
But just my personal opinion, and I know not in the majority here where eating out is king. Perhaps it’s just another aspect of more family centric noe compared to going out more, younger, sans kids mission.
REP, I’m with you. I really couldn’t care less if good restaurants are two blocks away or a 15 minute drive/muni/cab away. However, I wouldn’t even consider buying a place without good markets nearby. We prepare about 95% of our meals at home (even lunch brought to school/work).
That said, I know a lot of people who rarely, if ever, really cook. They eat out about 4 nights a week and heat-n-eat from Trader Joe’s or Whole Foods the other three. And lunch is from the deli every day. That thought grosses me out, but it’s quite the common (if very unhealthy — but who am I to judge) lifestyle. People get busy with work and cut out cooking.
“Some commuters might consider living on the J line an advantage.”
The trick is to be close to a station rather than be on the line. They two are not the same. For example it is better to be a block from a station and also a block away from the line than it is to be located right on the line but a two block walk to the nearest station.
This place however is both on the line and a couple of doors down from a station. So you’re a ten second walk to a station but you have to endure the noise and rumbling too.
$895,000 seemed high to me initially but I was convinced by Monderqueen & co that it would sell for more. 6K is a nominal reduction but if I was the seller I’d be feeling a little nervous. (How much do people think was paid by the current seller to rid themselves of the tenants? (40-50K?) There’s still room for profit here but carrying costs can quickly add up.
In it’s current condition this place probably rents for $2900-$3500 per month.
Nice to see the thread hasn’t been diverted to a Church Street foodie fight.
MoD,
1 – Endless remodels really take a toll on people. Yourself, your neighbors, your kids. Better spend the money and get it done properly. Give the management to a pro you really trust and go on that famed Grand Tour of Europe for 2 months that you always wanted to do.
2 – I hear you about living close to a station but not on the station. I am in this very precise situation (F line)! So practical.
Willow,
A SFH with parking and a garden? I’d shoot for the upper end of your estimate and even a 100 bucks more.
Payouts to long term tenants can go very high. A former colleague of mine got a payout 2 years ago. He didn’t say how much it was but he did throw one big party to celebrate it.
re: setting up a temporary kitchen: sure. But the space used by the temporary kitchen displaces other stuff. And where do you get the water/do your dishes? You need to be well organized especially since you’ll have tons of people from different trades zooming around your place with materials, appliances. Plus the dust. Better buy a place where the previous owner has gone through THAT special kind of hell. He’s probably not getting his money back, and you’ll probably live longer for the stress saved.
Geez, don’t they know the magic number to attract the wealthy foreigners is $888K? 😉
^ yeah, but whitey screed it up with $889. WTF?
Adding to the foodie segment, yeah, I never cook. I like the mish because there are so many good, cheap options. And milkshake is correct- its undesirable to live right on the transport/restaurant/bar street. That should be obvious to RE saavy peeps like yourselves. I’m on a nice residential street, but can walk to Bart, numerous muni lines and a sh!t ton of restaurants at all price points, culinary quality and cultural affiliations. Works for me!
I was there yesterday. There was a bit of foot traffic. No staging but probably a fresh coat of paint inside though I hadn’t seen it in its previous condition.
The place has 2 small bedrooms at the back on the top floor (good idea). A granny unit downstairs right off the garage with a toilet, no tub. Granny will need her legs to climb one floor to a shower.
You could hear the Muni over normal voices (you’ll feel it much louder when all background noises are gone). The garden still had an older people touch.
I don’t think this would be a starter home at this price. More like a contractor upgrade deal.
The list price for 1532 Church Street has just been reduced to $879,000.
This gem has not sold yet? As all the monied French speakers I see around open houses these days would say, “incroyable!”
How do you know these French folks have money at these imaginary open houses?
Incidentally, I did hear some french at the 1532 Church street open house on Sunday. Moneyed or not, I couldn’t guess.
6K+10K reductions means the grannysectomy just became a little bit less profitable.
Not sure it would be market moving, but the turmoil in europe seems far more likely to me to produce a bump in europeans buying property abroad then the often discussed chinese.
There’s “than” and there’s “then,” troll. You want the few people who do read your completely one-sided smug and frequently incorrect takes to continue reading? Then learn that.
the turmoil in europe seems far more likely to me to produce a bump in europeans buying property abroad
There are 2 sides to that coin.
1 – Negative side
For one thing, real estate in the non-PIIGS was healthy enough until a few months ago. Outrageously, some countries had programs in place to make increasingly unaffordable home-buying more affordable by…drums rolling…0% government-subsidized financing. Now the fiscal issue is pushing everyone to reduce incentives and even overtax realized appreciation. They’re reversing course after seeing that higher prices didn’t result in much an economic bump. This in turn is starting to cause a lot of initial pain. We’ll see where that goes. Falling prices in core Europe will mean less cash out and less cash to invest overseas. Also expect an aversion to risk just like today in the US.
2 – The plus side.
One euro is still 1.36USD. Many Europeans are still cash rich from the go-go years. Stateside, Real estate overall hasn’t still yet recovered from its nosedive. This could be the kind of “you’d be silly not to buy” moment that can only be seen in retrospect (emphasis on could is intentional). US density is way lower. We live larger here. There’s plenty to love here when you’re coming from an old country.
The US will recover faster (it always does) while Europe will have its lost decade over digesting a bad mix of stale pizza/suvlaki/paella/bacalau/stew. The USD will appreciate, RE will recover, faster than we think. This makes the US a good place to invest for a 5 to 20 year time span.
Anyway, just my 2 cents.
I agree with your points, but I was mostly thinking of the recent acute issues facing europe. Greece saw a great deal of capital flight when their situation was deteriorating. And rather then being fixed some of the issues seem to be spreading. Most significantly Spain and Italy have much larger economies then Greece.
As people have previously pointed out, there are many places to put fleeing capital not just SF real estate so I’m not saying this will save the local market. But it does seem that wealthy people in these troubled countries have to at least be thinking that whatever the euro solution ends up being it will probably require some degree of pain from them. Parking capital elsewhere in the eurozone is risky since the entire zone would probably cooperate in whatever solution is reached. The US is a stable place and if they split their capital between stocks, bonds and RE the downside risk even in a tipster-eqsue scenario probably looks better then the downside of a euro exit or stepped up taxation.
“Anyway, just my 2 cents.”
Sure, but it’s only worth around 1.5 Euro cents.
The list price for 1532 Church has been reduced another $4,000 (0.5 percent), now asking $875,000.
From 730K to 875K. Without knowing how much the former tenants accepted to move out for, we cannot really tell if the flipper is still making a buck or 2. Rule of thumb says he does, but I wouldn’t give myself ulcers plus the risk of a scalding by the local media for so little profit.
Quelle horreur! How much lower can they go before they end up netting less then they paid in?
Given lol’s comment that^ comment was without purpose other than being obnoxious with the French flame joke, again, for the second time in the thread. yawn.
Apart from A.T.’s attempt at a “bon mot” (I had tyo dig for that one, soon we’ll have to use Google translate to read this thread) I think it’s still a bit early in the game to declare this “horrible”.
2 big unknowns: 1 – how much it will fetch, 2 – what allowable margin we’re talking about.
Now even lower then before – $859,000. Mon Dieu!
See the problem with your riff you love so much is this. Who was ever saying that French folks were the ones buying fixers, or semi-fixers en masse? Nobody ever said that. So take away the premise that’s required for humor and what’s left? You being a jerk apropos of zilch is what’s left. As usual.