Purchased for $510,000 in September 2005 and then flipped five months later for $631,000 (“Buy, sell, repeat, retire!”), 622 Gates Street was taken back by the bank in September 2008. The Bernal Heights home is back on the market and asking $428,900.
As was overheard on the north slope of Bernal in September 2005, so went the chatter on the south slope in February 2006: “If that place is worth $631,000 then…”
∙ Listing: 622 Gates (“2/2”) – $428,900 [MLS]
∙ Bank Owned And Back On The Market On The North Slope Of Bernal [SocketSite]
the arrogance of bernal heights!
these shacks are NOT worth 500k! I’m sorry.
Overheard in May 2009: “Overheard in 2005 or 2006 is already getting overused.”
I agree with Rillion, scouring the listings for price drops on crappy homes is getting boring to read about. How about some more design posts?
Not boring at all … it is good apple to apple anecdotal evidence … keep up the good work editor!
SS should change the category from “apple plucking” to “cherry picking”…
[Editor’s Note: Thanks “Dave!”]
“Dave”
Bring your own apples to the party. Then we can share.
Four and a quarter is still over the top for this chicken shack. Wow. 560 square feet? Really? Whoever paid over a grand a foot for this thing deserved to lose on the deal. Sadly, it was probably a 100%er, wasn’t it.
I wonder about the sq ft. They must have some extra space added in without permits (besides just adding a bedroom and bath to the existing sq ft) because the tiniest place I lived in was a 2/1 that was 625 sq ft and it was tiny. I can’t see how you would be able to add a bath and take out 65 sq ft.
While we presented 622 Gates as commentary on comps and never mentioned the word “apple” (nor hadn’t even categorize it as such), as a commenter notes it fits the bill.
As such we’ve added it to our apple cart. Thanks “Dave!”
Yeah, overpriced.
Slightly off topic – what’s going on w/ the condos for sale in the Marina? I haven’t seen any update on them. It would be nice to have sections of this site partitioned by district/neighborhood. What happened to the forums idea, letting the users add topics would really allow this site to explode.
sorry for noob question, but can somebody point out what the * next to the square footage means? i noticed the listing talks about possibly illegal addition at the back & i’m wondering if the actual $/sq.ft. is much more reasonable.
We lived near this place for almost four years. I walked past this house all the time and was amazed when it sold for what it did. There is an amazing amount of diversity in terms of homes in this part of Bernal. Some decent, but a lot like this house. I liked living in Bernal but the south side still has a ways to go. We lived south of Crescent which is a big dividing line. I hate to say it, but the proximity to the Alemnay projects was a big factor in why we moved. We were mugged once one block from our house. Sold last year so probably broke even after factoring in remodeling etc. We exchanged our overpriced house for an overpriced SOMA condo, but we are much happier. The location and walkability where we are now is so much better than our old place. Plus we just feel safer, which is key. I wish the best for Bernal.
Snark – I think we would all love to see more design posts. Unfortunately, there is nothing on the boards right now. Just be happy that the crappy home with the plummeting price doesn’t belong to you.
I dunno, $429k for sfh with prkg could be sweet (if you like this part of bernal- having cortland as your main commercial street). I’m sure the place has more square footage than indicated on mls, since the br and ba are not recorded. So unless one has actually seen this place, you cannot be sure it’s not a quaint, comfy cottage. I wish the mls listing had pics, so we’d get a clue. Your other option for this price range is a 1br tic.
After three weeks on the market, the list price for 622 Gates has been reduced by $14,000 to $414,900. Once again, purchased for $510,000 in September 2005 and then flipped five months later for $631,000.
LOL that someone thought that dump was “worth” $600K+ in 2006. It’ll probably be at least a generation before we again see the general level of cluelessness that prevailed in the SF Bay Area (and many other parts of the US, too) 2004-2009 (yes, most buyers are still clueless imo – time will tell if I’m right).
After another three weeks on the market, the list price for 622 Gates has been reduced by $6,000 to $408,900. Once again, purchased for $510,000 in September 2005 and then flipped five months later for $631,000.
Meanwhile a house on Holly Park Circle got into contract yesterday for ~1.4M or so. When the guy who writes this website says this sort of stuff, “Purchased for $510,000 in September 2005 and then flipped five months later for $631,000 (“Buy, sell, repeat, retire!” ), 622 Gates Street was taken back by the bank in September 2008. The Bernal Heights home is back on the market and asking $428,900.
As was overheard on the north slope of Bernal in September 2005, so went the chatter on the south slope in February 2006: “If that place is worth $631,000 then…”
It’s like, where did those “quotes” come from? Very snide, childish, and by now quite repetitive.
So, 622 Gates is now down 35% from its last sale, and it’s not sold yet. Fantastic!
Rather than offering “oranges” (like some Holly Park Circle place) designed to blunt the message of this apple, imo observers of the 622 Gates carnage should honor the sacrifice by trying to learn from it. Just how crazy were people a few years ago to think that $631K made sense? I hope it was only a sacrifice of a credit rating and that the former owners weren’t crazy enough to put down any real dollars in the first loss position!
If you understood anything about Bernal, you would view ~1.4M on Holly Park as pretty significant, and anything beside a harbinger of doom. But you don’t, so you don’t. You still talk tho.
And somehow “bank owned” is not a development which changes the nature of the sale? How is “bank owned” ever an apple? “Bank owned” is a lot more impactful upon price than any remodelled kitchen. If “bank owned” properties, yes, potentially powerful sway on the market were anywhere near critical mass, the ~1.4M Holly Park property would not exist.