That's Rather Hideous: San Jose Marbleopolis Edition
November 3rd, 2009
Burbed has already burned this $1,688,000 5-bedroom "Mediterranean Villa" in San Jose pretty hard, so we'll let the pictures speak for themselves. Suffice to say that someone took very seriously some advice from a certain SNL sketch: "Put marble columns in your house, that place is gonna look like a mansion!" Oooh. La. La.
· 6456 Guadalupe Mines Rd, San Jose [Redfin, via Burbed]
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The Trick-or-Treat List: Winner of Zillow's best neighborhood in...
November 3rd, 2009
Winner of Zillow's best neighborhood in which to go trick-or-treating this Saturday: Presidio Heights, based on some complex alchemy involving sexy things like Walk Score, population density, and crime data. Among other things, Zillow says, the neighborhood "tops our Index because of high home values (read: better, bigger candy)." These guys have their priorities in the right place. The next four neighborhoods: Noe Valley, the Richmond, Haight-Ashbury, and the Sunset. [Zillow]
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ConstructionWatch: Zen Rentals Next to LGBT Center Get Going
November 3rd, 2009
Hard to believe, but the very large, very vacant site at 1844 Market St, next to the LGBT Center, has actually been stirring for a few months now: dirt movers, a crane, the works! This, after snail's pace progress on the empty lot finally halted at one point and went toward a strange "ramshackle cabana" installment, as we reported in July of last year. A quick refresher: developer BayRock Residential and Christiani Johnson Architects are bringing an eight-story, 113-rental-unit building to the site, complete with ground-floor retail and "Zen Garden, roof deck with city views and lush courtyards." This past spring, the SF Business Times reported that BayRock was eager as hell to unload their failed Trader Joe's condo project on Van Ness and Sutter- having chopped their asking price for the site from $18 million to a paltry $8 million.
· Construction Watch: Condos to Cabanas at 1844 Market Street [Curbed SF]
· Coming Soon: Monastic Condos on Upper Market [Curbed SF]
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Listing Inflation: Alcove Makes a Junior One-Bedroom
November 3rd, 2009
Catch another fine specimen of Listing Inflation? To the Curbed Inbox with you!
It's a pretty cushy Nob Hill location. It's got $805 a month homeowners dues, but it's also got a 24-hour doorman, a swimming pool, a jacuzzi and all that. So what gives? For $420,000, buyer gets a "JR1BR with a lrg alcove," as seen above. Just to clarify: a make-out nook passes for the bedroom part of a junior one-bedroom at 1177 California. Duly noted.
· 1177 California St #230 [Redfin, via Curbed Inbox]
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Solar Tree: Given the flap over a solar...
November 3rd, 2009
Given the flap over a solar panel installation on an Upper Haight couple's home, it makes total sense that an entrepreneur would want to get into the business of solar panels that are more aesthetically pleasing- and less, say, "embarrassing." That's why photovoltaics engineer and industrial designer real estate agent Greg Strang of Burlingame invented the "Electrisitree," a small tree that converts sunlight hitting its plastic-looking leaves into usable energy. Did he succeed? We'll leave the verdict on this one to the wise, invisible hands of the free market. [SF Examiner, previously]
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CitiApartments Boss Wrote Bad Checks in Vegas Too
November 3rd, 2009
Will there ever be an end to the sordid tales of CitiApartments First Apartments? It seems the managing director of parent company Lembi Group, Walter Lembi, has been allegedly passing bad checks. Oh, about $298,500 worth. Gambling in Las Vegas. The sort of thing one might not expect from a company that's returning tenuous deposit checks to its tenants, or withholding them altogether. (That deposit money's got to go somewhere, and what other place should it go than the gambling fancies of its boss!) Anyway, the county attorney's office is on the case with Lembi's attorney, and Lembi has until Sunday to comply - after which a nationwide warrant would be issued for the man. Dreams of white bronco chases: go.
· Real estate leader's name on bad-check warrant [SFGate]
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Wednesday PM Linkage
November 3rd, 2009
["Cause for Concern," via Curbed SF Flickr photog Troy Holden, aka the artist formerly known as Plug1]
· 69% would live with ghosts for cheaper rent! [Consumerist]
· The Bay Bridge is closed! Why it's the "right move" [Bloomberg]
· And now BART might even run overnight [SF Appeal]
· Arnold's letter: 1 in 8 billion chance it was accidental [Eye on Blogs]
· Aerial San Francisco: shots from a Cessna "Skylane" [Laughing Squid]
· P. Hill murder/suicide house sells [SF Schtuff]
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PriceChopper: Frankenstein in Forest Hill
November 3rd, 2009
Click the image above to view the full photogallery.
Then: $2,199,000
Now: $1,979,000
You Save: $220,000
The casual observer should probably be forgiven if, say, he or she stumbles on a house like 21 Castenada Ave. in Forest Hill (built this very year!) and mistakes it for an exurban McMansion destined to meet an untimely end in foreclosure. Those balcony railings. The baby pedement pediment. The mustard yellow paint job. What to say! But then said observer walks in and finds a South Beach loft. In need of an intervention? Perhaps. Deeply confusing? Definitely. (The "green roof" is an interesting twist, though.)
· 21 Castenada Ave [Redfin]
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