Purchased as a “diamond in the rough” for $1,350,000 in November of 2012, plans to add 1,400 square feet of living space to the Mission Dolores home at 29 Dorland have since been approved, the permits have been issued and “the project is ready to go!”
Now on the market and listed for $2,400,000, the project includes a garage for four cars with six bedrooms and three levels over the garage and an elevator connecting every floor.
Not included in that $2.4 million list price, however, is the actual cost of construction. And yes, the first floor is one big great room as envisioned:
Developers smokin some good stuff with this one. Got to be kidding me, looked at this is 2012 and I didn’t think it was worth chasing it for much over 1.2. 2.4 is a joke, at that price the new developer is lucky to break even at 3.4
Nope.
It’s all about location, location, location.
What a clever way to make money in real estate!
Buy a certified slum, almost falling down, uninhabitable, not just a fixer,
then hire an architect, civilized and cultured,
get approval for improvements,
and sell for a large profit without having to deal with a single contractor.
Now that is a gentleman’s game!
No one will fall for this…. lame strategy.
This location isn’t that great, no views, bums peeing on your stoop, unless your a hipster who enjoys sitting in the park and then you don’t have 4m to buy this thing. The end result on this won’t fetch for more than 3m
So.. this place has picked up 1M in value in 1 year? Even giving them 150K for appreciation, the seller expects the buyer to effectively pay 850K for plans and permits.
Even a fancy architect won’t have charged more than 100K for these plans, which leaves…. 750K for the value of the permits?
Out of curiosity, do any SSers have guesses on how much the construction would actually cost?
I dare the buyer to paint this place canvas white. It will be tagged on a daily basis. I can’t blame the seller for wanting to bilk the techie hipsters. The neighborhood is already grossly overvalued, so what’s another million?
Expect this to get sold
When I see listings like this, just for fun I pick someplace I would love to live and see what 2.4 million can get me instead. I can’t decide between Maui, Laguna Beach or a true villa in the south of France. With so many choices out there, I say leave the Pission to Techie Hipsters.
On top of all the above – an elevator in a small single family is silly. They’re hardly useful, have high maintenance costs, and break down frequently.
Ugh,
I am approaching the age bracket where where you can play that mind experiment about living in SF with these current valuations versus living somewhere very nice (like the south of France) and you suddenly realize you could [do] this + retire tomorrow.
They probably spent $150-200K on carrying, architect and permit fees. Exit price must have moved by at least $500k *on paper*, i.e. this used to be low $3M house when they bought it and now it’s in the high $3M. Getting permits reduces a lot of risk from neighbors/city objection, so I think that’s worth few $100K, a little more in a hot market where there is premium for shovel ready.
SO you can try and justify it but honestly they leave very little profit for a developer and way too much hassle for someone who wants a “dream house”.
Given the excavation/shoring work, elevator, fancy finishes to justify the exit price this is a bit more $1.2M job at retail. Maybe some low cost contractor do it for himself for $800k.
Methink you need to be stupid from risk/reward stand point but 621 Alavardo sold for $2.011M to a real estate agent, so what do I know.
“guesses on how much the construction would actually cost?”
Estimated cost per the permit is $592,000. Lots of excavation for the garage and foundation work. I think you could double the permitted cost without too much trouble.
592,000$ is a JOKE. Ofcourse, the developer will fill that in the permit form, they want to reduce their permit fee. (the 2 are related).
Assume for SF labor and a site with shoring/ underpinning you are looking at 300$ a sq ft for nice finishes for this remodel.
Ugh and redseca2,
I have had exactly the same fantasy last year. Then I showed up in the South of France in the spring, shopped my way into a nice enough fixer in the summer and am going to spend the next 6 months making it the way I want it. South facing sea view, decent 1/4 acre lot, room for a pool, real Mediterranean style (not the stucco wannabe we get here), master unit, granny unit downstairs, large pines and cypresses. For the price of a small SF condo!
Now is a good time to get very decent deals down there. Their economy is still depressed, unemployment high, financing hard to get due to a reversal of the money spigot at euro banks. If you are all cash, do not hesitate to low-ball by 15-20%, nobody will be offended, they all know it’s bad…
I think real construction costs will be about $1.4 m.
The elevator makes a lot of sense in 3 level houses. They are not that complicated anymore, primarily electric traction and maintenance is not much more than a roll-up garage door.
Once again, think location: very close to Valencia St, Dolores Park, walkable to the WF at Market and Dolores, 2-3 blocks to the Castro, short walk to BART or Muni on Market.
This is prime, central SF. It’s not going to get cheaper.
Sell it for 2, still a huge win for sellers.
Buyers spend $1.1 building it. They own 3.1mm basis vs 3,455 *$1,000psf retail value, still come out a couple of Teslas ahead.
Another SF Planning mullet house: “Historic in the front, party in the back.”
Futurist, so 3.8m + lets say 100-150k of carrying costs, this would be a 4m build? wheres the developer profit? whats the out, 5m? no way, not even if it was Dolores Heights with big views
Good for you lol! Nice to optimize other markets when they are soft for something you actually want to live in. As for me I’m just getting back into the RE game after being sidelined by the banking crisis here. I’m days from getting a fat HELOC and I’m ready to play. I’m very close to nabbing a sweet multi-unit in the bayview. Nice 20’s bldg that will cashflow like crazy now, and has tic/condo potential written all over it for later. That, and being in the way of the new shipyard development should be a great play a few years from now. Hipsters are moving into the bayview, so once I renovate, I’ll seek them out as tenants.
I’m also tempted to cash put of the mission, as all my condos here are at a crazy premium. But I’m not ready to get the vacation home just yet! Being out of the RE game for so long, I’m excited to return, and want to acquire a few more properties during this cycle. Afterwards? I’m also thinking of a Mediterranean hideaway, especially as me and the misses plan on spending 50/50% between there and SF. At that point I could dump my rambling 4br/2ba Victorian here for a mint, and maybe get a nice 1br pied-à-terre in SF. Don’t think we’ll need more for summer-fall in SF.
As for this post, getting this POS entitled is a big deal, and certainly worth a few hundred $G’s IMO. But probably not $1.2 over their initial buy price. But who know, there may be stupid money willing to pay premium to have a guaranteed construction sight. Some folks like that hands on, we built this home experience. Remember, it’s a DIY nation now.
A SFH fixer with no permits sold a week or two ago on Guerrero at 22nd for 2.05M. And that’s on a much busier street, with a hill to climb to DP and the 18th St. mecca. I wouldn’t but this but neither would I be surprised to see it sell for pretty close to asking.
@ mikey: I have no opinion about carrying costs and profit. that’s not my skill. You can call those shots all you want.
I just commented about the construction costs.
as for poor.ass.millionaire: there is so much hot air in what he’s saying, so much puffery, so much brag, it’s hard to take any of it seriously.
I try to keep it real.
I just don’t think it makes any sense to do SFRs at all if you are putting over 400/ft into the construction costs on a 3k sq/ft+ SFR. Any developers I know, or myself for that matter, wouldn’t make any money if they spent that, they need to be in the $250-300 range on these modern, semi-nicely finished places in D5, D6, D9.
Oh, I would agree with you. I didn’t say my numbers made any sense, I just proposed what the construction costs might be.
Crazy as it may seem, it’s not out of the question. A house on Beaver St just sold based on plans and a pre-application meeting alone. It’s not uninhabitable, but the selling price of $2.3m clearly was based on the architectural plans, not the current house, as it sold for $1.7m or so just over a year ago.
http://tinyurl.com/lh4bxh6
M woodz- why would a contractor have to spend $400 psf here? I’d think that’s retail. Wouldn’t flipper be able to do this at maybe $300 psf, even with excavation, etc?
I’m not into high end flips- too much hard work and risk IMO, but that’s what a lot of local contractors do, and they seem to make bank…at least early on in the RE cycle. Having said that I don’t think flipper’s gonna pay 2.4 for this. More likely a DIY wanna be that’s going to occupy it anyways.
I recall just 4 years ago the discussions with Sparky and the overpriced 700K total fixers that someone would try and flip for 2M. My oh my things have changed.
Even if the end result is worth 4M the margin would not be really exciting. A buyer would be expecting a 4.5M+ valuation. Would $1300/sf final product be realistic even in a great location?
Are we in the logic of future appreciation baked into the sale price? I would understand this in 2012, but today?
Regarding the estimated costs on the permit, I’m pretty sure there’s a standard formula used to generate an estimated cost, and then the permit fees are a percentage of that estimate. IIRC it was something like $97 per SF added, with some modifiers based on what was in that space. At this point the purpose of the process doesn’t seem to be to actually estimate construction cost; it’s an attempt to have some uniform standard for assessing fees.
Did you coin the term “mullet house” soccermom ? Brilliant!
^ I second that ^
A quick Google search shows someone had coined the term late last year. Still many levels of awesome, soccermom.
I love how the “local” Realtor spelled Bi-Rite “Buy-Rite.”
The guy is quite local whether or not you think commenting about typos on blogs is a worthwhile thing to do.
Personally I call this store “sell-rite” because of the hefty mark-up and the fact that they are still selling their goods.
poor.ass.millionaire wrote:
> More likely a DIY wanna be that’s
> going to occupy it anyways.
Have you ever seen a DIY “wanna be” buy a home for over $2 million and move in?
Happens all the time with $200K fixers in Sacramento and Placer county, but not for $2 million in the Bay Area.
Yeah, this kind of budget would be usually for people who are not on their first rodeo.
Then again, there’s plenty of new money being printed. Money doesn’t mean skills or insight.
I’m talking about the young tech moneyed guys. They are totally into ‘doin’ it the hard way’. Wasn’t zucki into hunting his own meat for awhile? I’m sure he can afford fillet mignon prepared at the finest ‘staurant. This probably isn’t for old school yuppies looking for their ideal home.
Oh and btw (for those who care :), looks like I’m about to get my big fat HELOC. SF RE investment market, here I come! (Take that, you futurist!)
Can you be any cornier or full or yourself, “millionaire” ? Zucki? ‘Straurant? Always bragging about how rich and smart you are? Slagging off expensive flips like you have ever done one? Nausea inducing.
^ go spin in your little tech bus, you pretentious “young tech guy” twit. And then you come begging to people like me to rent out one of my awesome mission condos. I’ll have the last laugh, and thoroughly enjoy raking you over the coals at optimal/crazy rent. Cha-Ching sucka!
Wait, is poor.ass.millionaire 40yohipster/47yohipster?
p.a.m, remember it takes 2 to tango.
Techies are already getting flack for “ruining it” for more “deserving” people such as artists, minorities, civil servants, teachers, blue collar workers… Techies are often paying crazy rent because the protected class hogs valuable space for cheap and have to work very hard to pay for it.
The last thing they need is landlords also calling them suckers. It can all go away very quickly. San Francisco has a lot going for it but in then end beauty is in the eye of the beholder…
Signed: a Techie and a Landlord
Shiza- yep, that’s me 🙂
Lol- well then you tell that tool not to disrespect me like that. Attack me, I bit back. And I don’t suffer fools lightly.
Dear SS editors.
This gets tiresome. why do you selectively remove posts you don’t like but keep others that are just as offensive, and having nothing to do with the topic at hand?
[Editor’s Note: In a (failed) attempt to get the conversation back on track, we removed your last comment which had nothing to do with the topic of this post and was simply jumping-in on the bashing above. And we’ve never removed a comment with which we simply disagreed. Now back to the topic(s) at hand…]
Well, you know what they say about trolls…
I know firsthand it’s tough to resist responding to silly insults, but my livelihood partly depends on techies feeling welcome in SF then please treat them with the respect they deserve 😉
Oh futurist, we can be friends! Don’t take my attitude so seriously. But FYI, I don’t exaggerate or lie in my comments.
Lol- I’m with you. I love techies! I’m just a bit stressed about a potential deal in the bayview, so biting back a bit more than I should when annoying comments are thrown my way.
But back to this home, I don’t think a contractor will bite, but a DIY* young monied guy may, so they can be part of the building process.
* By DIY I don’t mean he will lift a finger, but will enjoy paying his architect to redesign, and getting to do construction walk thoughts during the building process.
“Pretentious twit” ? You’re the only one clinging to annoying pretension day after day. Your pretensious wordings, “zucki, stro, ‘straunts, mish” your obviously fake been there done that attitude when you clearly have never worn a developer or architect’s hat? Both those things are completely pretentious. Even using the word pretentious based solely upon my identifying as tech is without merit. Then when pressed all of a sudden youza gangsta! Hating on the busses and whatnot. You’re a funny sort of pretensious fake i must say.
No buster, you got it wrong. A- You’re pretentious because I certainly know more about RE development than you. I have done, and own, several building projects in SF. What exactly do you know about the topic?
B- if I’m occasionally irreverent here it’s for several reasons: I’m knowledgeable about many aspects of SF RE, I occasionally enjoy being obnoxious, and I’m independently wealthy enough not to have to report to “the man”, so there are zero repercussions for whatever attitude I choose to express at any given moment. Oh, and I think I’m entertaining to boot.
And for the record I don’t hate tech people or shuttles. RU kidding me? I love them as tenants; usually nice, quiet respectful engineers, a landlords wet dream. I was just being condescending to you personally; like brushing away one of those annoying flies in the tropics, you know, the ones that never go away.
I see. Big upping yourself, and backing off your poor word choices, is all you got. “Pretentious” didn’t belong there. You betrayed your true thoughts on tech people by usin it, fake baller. i bet you have two crackhouses is all. Real mogul styles. funny + entertaining people don’t constantly need to say how funny + entertaining they are btw
Looks like we’re back to the bubble days. How do we know? Prestige index, mortgate rates, apples to apples. Nope. The trolls are back with a vengence. I, for one, welcome our troll overlords back to the den. Please know however that your trolling is blatently obvious and transparent. Bazinga! This house in its completed and finalize state would bring 4-5m so you have to give these investors some credit for trying.
Perfect example of PA’s Greater Internet F*ckwad Theory at work here.
I personally think going into Oakland is a better place to pick up techies priced out of the Mission as opposed to BayView, especially if they want midMarket access. Oakland is the trendy place to be. Bayview may be, but that’s a long term gentrification project.
^ why do you think Oakland is going to gentrify faster than bayview? To me, the iffy parts of Oakland are about as iffy as the bayview. Oakland is definitely cheaper to rent than bayview, and if you’re close to bart (basically west Oakland or around downtown; but correct me if I’m wrong here) than it’s an easy commute in to SF. OTOH bayview has the light rail, has some cultural capital, and the cache of being in SF proper.
Personally I think both Oakland and bayview are attracting new types of people. The question is if one has more gravitas than the other.
Anyone with more thoughts on this, anecdotal or otherwise?
^Hard to compare a single neighborhood to an entire city, but Bayview has better access to South Bay and Peninsula jobs via the 280 vs. Oakland, and Bayview has equally good access to downtown SF via light rail. Weather is generally good and if you’re on the hill there are views. You can buy a mid-century SFH or two-flat building in the Bayview for less that you can buy a single 1 bdr TIC in my current SF neighborhood (castro/duboce.) Hard not to imagine the hipster crowd moving down Third from Dogpatch. You already have Flora Grubb, Ritual Coffee and the organic pizza place across the street at 3rd & Jerrold. All anecdotal, but I’m from SF and it feels like it’s already changing. The other area I think will change is Outer Mission / Excelsior. Has the good 280 access but lacks the light rail to downtown. As a renter who wants to stay in my own hometown, I’m saving like crazy and watching these neighborhoods. Spouse works in South Bay, I work downtown. Oakland means we’d both have a commute.
p.a.m., wondering whether you saw the listing for 1574 Innes Ave. $600k for a renovated mid-century house with backyard, garage, workshop, no HOA and no TIC agreements. Easy access to downtown and the 280 South, great weather.
I’m from SF and am aware that there’s crime in the Bayview. Just as there was in Dolores Park, back when.
Interesting to follow this trend. I really do think the hipster flow is rolling down from Dogpatch.
Pretty uninteresting to see poor ass talk his own book and big up himself continually.
The work has been completed and this property is back on the market for $5.5M.
UPDATE: The list price for the rebuilt home at 29 Dorland has just been reduced $505,000 (9%), now asking $4.995 million.