It appears as though The Potrero’s closeout offer of an additional $25,000 off already reduced prices of as much as $90,000 (11%) didn’t do the trick last month on those ten remaining homes. From the sales office today:

The Potrero will begin accepting sealed bids Friday, November 21, 2008 with the bid process ending on Sunday, November 23, 2008 at 5 p.m. Homes in this final release include 1-bedroom and 2-bedroom homes in the South Courtyard building – some with views of the city skyline or the beautifully landscaped courtyard. Price sheets, inventory information and the bid package required to submit a bid will be available at The Potrero sales center located at 451 Kansas Street, #312, San Francisco beginning Friday, November 14, 2003.

Minimum bids and additional details when we have them. And remember, it’s not an auction. Those can only happen elsewhere. Like over in the East Bay.
New Development “Closeout” Sales: The Potrero And 170 Off Third [SocketSite]

19 thoughts on “The Potrero’s New New Approach: Soliciting Minimum Sealed Bids”
  1. The posters above are toads. They have like 20 left out of 165 total and you guys pretend it’s like 8 Orchids in Oakland auctioning off an entire buildings worth of unsold units. I’m not saying that won’t happen in SF but lets call a spade a spade, shall we ?

  2. Call me jaded, but I doubt this is a real, bonafide auction. Just another stunt to get free publicity and generate traffic and media attention. Kind of like advertising a $25 million penthouse for $70 million.
    Bunch of folks will submit lowball bids – which is expected – then said bids will be instantly discarded. The hope is that a handful of wallflowers get off the fence and bid high enough to broker a deal. Basically, it’s a glorified advertisement for an open house. Bids welcome anytime!
    I could be wrong – the market is definitely in visible decline now. But I don’t think SF proper has reach this state of capitulation. Yet.

  3. UM …I’m crossing my fingers that my bid for $250k gets accepted.
    Great location but horrible looking building. I’d still buy at the right price.

  4. “But I don’t think SF proper has reach this state of capitulation.”
    So how does it go? Denial, hope, anger, capitulation, apathy…
    I think this latest move brings us past denial and somewhere into hope. Only in “unreal” SF. Real SF is Denial City
    🙂

  5. Relevant stages of Bubble:
    Euphoria
    Denial
    Fear
    Desperation
    Panic
    Capitulation
    Despondency
    Depression
    IMO the “real” SF is basically right now in the “Fear” stage. Perhaps some segments of the real SF market might be in “Denial” still and there might be a tiny tiny slice that is in “Desperation”. It’s all very micro.
    It really is.

  6. It may “only” be 20 out of 165, but its all the units they had when the market fell out from underneath them.
    And that’s exactly what happened at 8 Orchids. The only difference was that the market fell out from underneath them before they had any units sold.
    But once it happens, it pretty much works the same way. You unload or, like ORH, convert to rentals.
    It beats eating 100% of your holding costs.

  7. Relevant stages of Bubble:
    Euphoria
    Denial
    Fear
    Desperation
    Panic
    Capitulation
    Despondency
    Depression
    IMO the “real” SF is basically right now in the “Fear” stage. Perhaps some segments of the real SF market might be in “Denial” still and there might be a tiny tiny slice that is in “Desperation”. It’s all very micro
    Bro! Excellent flame. Excellent baiting. Dare I say, masterful? Masterful baiting, by you.
    You know what? Your incessant cynical snarky refrains and team of trained parrots have finally worked. I totally agree with everything you say, Chuckie repeats, and Fronzi paraphrases. Everyone in San Francisco is petrified. Top notch properties are not selling at premium levels; previously unheralded neighborhoods haven’t permanently changed; the world is the exact same as the last downturn, I can tell because my mom knew how to use email even back in 1993, (didn’t yours); the local economy means nothing, and we can’t tell this by the sheer fact that SF and other places like Seattle haven’t remained relatively strong two years after the rest of the nation capitulated, because nobody needs tech for infrastructure.
    So thanks. It isn’t micro at all. Precita street didn’t just have a $1.35M sale happen in a week’s time. And that would have happened four years ago. Because everything is the same, and everybody thought Bernal Heights was totally safe and wonderful in 2004. That’s just one example of course. Not that you need it. No, your incessant repetitions are all that you need to convince people actually in the market how the market is working. You can see it all very clearly. Thank you.

  8. Bubble of relevant comments;
    D10
    Google lazy indicator
    real “SF”
    captiulation
    micro
    bro
    [Editor’s Note: And now back to The Potrero…]

  9. chuckie, Wavro has a 2BR advertised for $3,000 – but his asking prices are always high. There is also a 1BR on cl for $2,600.

  10. This is kind of cool. I think I’ll bid $280k for a 2/2
    That should break-even on renting @ $2500/mo after HOAs and taxes.

  11. It’s NOT an auction. Had a meeting nearby and had a quick lunch at Whole Foods and decided to take a look at the units for sale. The salesperson told me it was first come, first served. As long as your price was at the min. price, it’ll be accepted pending you can close in 30 days. All upgrades included.
    here’s the breakdown.
    #312 2BR/2BA Orig. $841k Now $630k
    #330 1BR/1BA Orig. $639k Now $479k
    #356 2BR/2BA Orig. $818k Now $613k
    #445 1BR/1BA Orig. $725k Now $535k
    #509 1BR/1BA Orig. $690k Now $510k
    #518 2BR/2BA Orig. $876k Now $655k
    #609 1BR/1BA Orig. $705k Now $520k
    Also checked out Esprit Park in the area. No firm price but it looks like they were willing to discount HUGE. They said they have a 2 bedroom in the upper $600k.

  12. @j
    Do you know which (or how many) 2 bedroom unit at Esprit Park is going for upper $600 ? which building etc ? Id be curious to the floorplan

  13. @ ellen –
    Not sure the actual unit. You should go check it out for yourself. I did not talk specific units with the salesperson but more about pricing. They seem very open to lowering price. I mentioned i’d be interested in a 2 bedroom at a good deal and thats when the range of upper $699k came up. Since I wasn’t that interested, I didn’t go into much details.
    I do think Esprit Park is a better development than The Potrero but the location is going to take some time to develop.
    I’ve heard Arterra has been dealing huge discounts. Anybody with the actual #’s?
    It looks like a good time to buy new developments in the City. Just because you can’t buy it at the lowest possible price doesn’t mean its not a good buy for the future.

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