Listed for $2,995,000 in 2008 but taken back by the bank this past October with $1,648,285 owed on its first, the bank-owned sale of 542 Valley closed escrow yesterday with an “over asking” contract price of $1,701,000.
Call it $558 per foot for the 3,051 square foot home which was rebuilt by Len Brackett in a contemporary Japanese style on a double Noe Valley lot.
∙ A Contemporary Japanese Estate In Noe (And No, It’s Not Ellison’s) [SocketSite]
∙ A Little Too Japanesey Indeed As 542 Valley Goes Back To The Bank [SocketSite]
∙ Numerology Nuts Take Note As 542 Valley Returns REO In Noe [SocketSite]
went to an open for this place.
bathrooms, kitchen, and lower media room (entered through the garage and under that deck) looked like yukio mishima’s s&m dungeon, dark gray concrete with very small windows. no tile or reflective surfaces. real restaurant appliances with real restaurant energy bills. unnecessary solid deck rails for privacy from a million dollar city view. traditional japanese awnings and window treatments that turned a dark lot into an even darker home.
construction seemed solid enough and it had a lot of open space that just seemed monotonous, but what a mistaken vision given the location.
a real bargain for a remodeler, or a leather loving japanophile.
No worries. It’s not a comp.
It’s a comp in the 1.5M+ semi-fixer market if you need it. I’ve spoken to the new owner. He doesn’t mind that the “garage” doesn’t fit his Mini. But the bottoming out is sort of a problem, so they’re getting a bid to grade the driveway. Also he thought the front vegetation needs address in order to get more sun for the lower rooms at the front of the house. And they want to open up something in the back, I forget what, and to take away some but not all of the very specific in taste design. I think the guy made a decent buy. If he can pull all that off for around 300K or so he’ll have a 2.3-2.4M house for 2M.
I saw this back when first listed at $3M and while quite taste specific unless it’s gone radically downhill since then it’s hard to peg this as a semi-fixer.
It’s been a while, but the bathrooms while probably traditional were quite a tough sell. In general, there was too much concrete for my taste. But it would seem out of place to replace them with more western designs. I was impressed by the MBR opening out onto the deck. The kitchen side of the house was dark, but I think the other side had a great view. I’m not sure how you’d mitigate the darkness on one side of the house.
While very taste specific, I would have assumed that in the Bay area there would be enough japanophiles that this property would have done better.
[anon.ed], what does the new owner think of that giant tree on the uphill side of the house? It’s kind of ominous, perched on the rocky ledge.
I don’t know about anything specific as one tree. I only talked to the guy for a few minutes about the house in general one day. He did say that he needed to thin out the trees. That’ll go a long way toward getting more light to various parts of the house.
Also, I wonder if he was made aware of what’s going on with 538 Valley. It’s been withdrawn for now. But someone took plans to demolish the current two story structure and build a 3 story building pretty far. Sat due east so some of 542’s downhill eastward views would be impacted. I know that that was a concern during previous marketing iterations of 542.
The biggest design problem, one that is not correctible, is that this is a remodel, and the ground floor “great room”, living and dining room, has a ceiling several feet too low for the size of the room. It is mean and oppressive. This is the problem with a design by a carpenter, who got the details right (if you can stand the bathrooms and kitchen and concrete stucco), but didn’t have a clue about spacial design.
All right, you’ve convinced me — it is a comp. So $2.25million in July.
Active contingent. Looks like I will be proven wrong — hope all goes well with closing.
so he’ll have a 2.3-2.4M house for 2M.
Would you settle for around $2.1 million based on a neighborhood comp? Still impressive though. Congrats to all the parties involved.