585 Marina Boulevard
Okay, so we’re not giving it high marks for curb appeal, and the interior design isn’t exactly our cup of tea, but if you love living by the bay you really can’t beat the location (585 Marina Boulevard). Don’t forget to invite us to the housewarming. Or at least invite us over to stare out the windows.
∙ Listing: 585 Marina Blvd (4/4) – $3,875,000 [MLS]

24 thoughts on “I Spy With My Little Eye…The San Francisco Bay”
  1. As an Architect I would love to get my hands on a building like this. The front elevation so wants to be re-done in the style of Neutra, Wurster or Shindler – it is so close already.
    But this is San Francisco, any proposed changes that don’t include bay windows or crown moulding wouldn’t have a chance.

  2. It would be cool to see someone photoshop that place in the front to see what you could do with it. How hard is it with the permiting process to get the facade on something that ugly redone?

  3. OK, so maybe this is a crappy comment, but instead of being redone “in the style of Neutra, Wurster or Shindler,” why not be redone in the style of “redseca2?” Once again, isn’t this part of what SF is about – some new creativity you would see here that you might not see elsewhere?

  4. Property Shark has the last sale for this property in April 2006, no know price. Does anyone know what it sold for back then? Is this a flip?!! It might also be a trust sale? SqFt is listed at 3323so even though the view is great, $1200/sqft seems a lot for a place that clearly needs some serious work!

  5. Can’t think of cool name: I will not take it as a crappy comment. My intent was to create a concept in 10 words or less. My style as an Achitect: getting medical buildings from 100,000SF to 1,500,000SF in size built, probably doesn’t provide the appropriate concept image.

  6. Maybe their hoping someone will buy it for 1200 psf, do some minor upgrades, and try to sell it for $1500 psf. That’s what the flipper at 3456 Baker Street is trying to do.
    I visited that property about a year ago. It has no flow. None. It’s just a square divided into 4ths on each floor. Someone fixed up the kitchen, and I presume the baths, and is now trying to get 1500 psf. I wish them luck.
    I assume that 3299 Baker, which was listed for 6.5M sold (there were sold signs on it) for something south of $1000 psf, though it’s a much bigger home.

  7. Tipster, what property did you visit last year, 3456 Baker or 585 Marina?
    I think 1200 psf for 585 is a little high. I never really liked those cookie cutter / ugly / no charm condo looking single family homes.

  8. Yuck. Why don’t they do something with the hideous interior? I’m not big on exteriors but the living space should be attractive since not everyone wants to have to remodel. Views are great! Should also be stunning inside the home.

  9. OK, is it just me or does anyone else feel like the ceilings are making you claustrophobic in every room? And for god’s sake, redo that awful kitchen! If I’m paying that kind of money for a home the kitchen had better be spectacular. The dishwasher looks to be about 20 years old!

  10. redseca2,
    Did you see that property on Union at around Jones or Taylor that just finished a complete remodel, including the front. South side of the street. It looks so great. I watched when it was sold and it seemed to move quickly through the process. It has natural wood on the front and a very cool modern look. Before was standard stucco building, worst on the block. Anyone else see it?

  11. Wow! If this is not an indication that District 7 (Marina area) is hot, I don’t know what is! Just in late 2005, Marina Blvd properties with MUCH better curb appeal were selling for $2.7-3.0. If this thing gets even close to $3.2-3.3 million, that is a homerun!
    Do we still have non believers that prices are going up, especially in prime locations? lol

  12. At the risk of taking Prime’s bait (aka anon 4:58 PM), exactly which sales in 2005 are you referring to? And please don’t tell me you’re judging the health of the market, or even district 7, based on the sale of the houses on Marina Boulevard?

  13. “As an Architect I would love to get my hands on a building like this. The front elevation so wants to be re-done in the style of Neutra, Wurster or Shindler – it is so close already.”
    Right on! This property has so much potential and it seems like it could be done with minimal work. I can’t believe that kitchen is inside a 3-4MM dollar home. Yuck.

  14. I was in the Baker Street property. No charm whatsoever, and with the remodel, it looks worse from the photos.
    As for district 7 being on fire, I saw the same sort of behavior in the late 80s as prices started to fall. Near-retirees had made retirement plans on home prices rising for many years in the future at the same high clip. When prices started to fall they figure, they need to sell quickly, but they only want to sell at the price they figured they’d get if prices kept running up at the same high rate for the next 3 years. So not only do they list past the peak, they list at a higher-than-peak price. I knew one couple who moved into the garage when the place didn’t sell and prices headed down, because they could no longer walk up the stairs. Of course they sold a few years later at a greatly reduced price, about 20% off what they could have received if they had priced it right when they listed it. But hey, it’s hard to let go of the dream when you feel you’re so close.

  15. LIES! Just trying to catch your attention, but it’s true, it is a lie anon of 10:44. This property has never been on the market before. It’s been in the same family for decades.
    There were two recent sales very close on Marina Blvd, but this is the first time out of the gate for this home and I for one think it has an amazing flow. A little out of my price range, but for someone who wants Marina Blvd it’s an amazing space.

  16. 9:51, it wasn’t a lie, per se, just a mis-read of the data. Property Shark shows some activity on the property last year; could have been a title transfer or something….
    I wonder what the comps were for this listing… it does seem high for the location, quality and style of home.

  17. For a home that isn’t staged, the kitchen hasn’t even been attempted to be updated, there is no open house, the backyard is barren, owner still lives there, etc., I think that tells you that the owner is not serious about selling: comps be dammed, this is just an owner stating an outlandish price and knowing full well it isn’t likely to sell.
    Fun for the owner – it costs the owner nada. The agent pays what little costs there are and hopes for the best.

  18. “Seems high for the location and style”!!! How about seems a little high for a house built on landfill that’s prone for liquifaction in the next earthquake? Does anyone remember driving along Marina Blvd. in 1989, when most of the houses fell down? After Loma Prieda, the owner’s along Marina Blvd. were trying to GIVE away their houses for as little as $100k. Or how about the fact that Marina Blvd is nothing more than a highway for traffic entering and exiting the GG Bridge?! Wake up people! Anyone dumb enough to pay that amount for ANY SF house deserves to be flattened by it in an earthquake. I’m an architect too, and all I can say is “hire me, I can build you a modern masterpiece for $300-400/s.f.”

  19. It is amazing how soon many forget, to your point RG, what the Marina is built on and what happened to it in October ’89. I just drove through the Marina last weekend and it sure is pretty and all fixed up, but shear walls can only do so much when the ground behaves as a liquid. Caveat emptor!

  20. well, this is the problem with the blog posters that are Sunday armchair quarterbacks. Selling is far from FUN, it’s an ultra stressful event for most. Imagine a bunch of strangers walking through YOUR home trashing every real or imagined flaw, not to mention being the subject of the vocal minority on a blog posting of it! Fun my ass.
    As far as the little cost for listing a property goes:
    ONE well placed quarter page Ad in a high profile magazine designed to hit target buyers in this price range runs approx $3200.00. That’s ONE ad. Then you put in a Real Estate times Ad, another grand, color brochures (cheap versions run $1-$2 a sheet/brochure only to be grabbed then folded up for recycling if the viewer is halfway green), weekly chronicle ads, photography etc.
    But c’est la vie there’s no changing some peoples opinions regardless of how devoid of actual facts they may be. True, a poorly marketed property is a small cost.

  21. I’m so confused by the last poster’s comments!:
    “Selling is far from FUN, it’s an ultra stressful event for most. Imagine a bunch of strangers walking through YOUR home trashing every real or imagined flaw, not to mention being the subject of the vocal minority on a blog posting of it!”
    Are you the seller or something? Listen, the “facts” are in all of these postings – the house is old, ugly (and that’s coming from a modernist architect who LOVES Neutra), sits on a very loud boulevard with lots of traffic and almost no greenery, smells like fish and polluted water, requires an entire gut of cabinetry, white appliances, thick beige carpeting throughout, that horrible stone fireplace, stained glass in the bath (!), etc, etc, etc. Listen, it’s obvious from the pictures that nothing has been upgraded since the 80s. You can’t expect someone to pay $3.9 million to take on YOUR deferred maintainance! Let along the fact that THE HOUSE IS BUILT ON LANDFILL!!!
    Give me a break with your “hardship” plees! When you find a sucker to pay you $3.9 million, you’re going to be laughing all the way to the bank. Better yet, hire me with a budget of about $800k-1 mil for construction costs and I’ll remodel the house before you sell. Then, it’ll be worth $4 million.

  22. Reading these postings I cant help but feel there is quite a bit of …perhaps jealousy….not sure, face it you are paying for great views and large space in one of the most coveted cities in the world.

  23. I understand that there was no significant improvements since 2016 aside from primary bath and downstairs family room. This is one expensive fixer-upper sitting on a liquefaction area, with few redeeming current qualities aside from the view. Perhaps one of the least interesting property on the boulevard in my opinion unless you like flat front, no articulation, no privacy and no character, inside or out, except perhaps for a colored front door (how original!) and a splendid primary bath, which stands out as the only element of good taste in an otherwise super dated property. It smells like greed and lack of basic home care/maintenance/needed upgrades. Seems totally out of touch with marketplace. So many better deals around.

    1. The view was once described to me as a boat parking lot. Cow Hollow and Sea Cliff have some worthwhile views but leaves me cold. Closer isn’t always better.

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