From a plugged-in tipster with respect to Cubix (766 Harrison):
A contractor friend who worked on the project told me that the sales office was recently closed.
And closed it is but not because it’s sold out.
According to our sources they hope to have the office re-opened within the next few weeks, but whether or not they continue down the condo versus rental route seems to be up in the air. And while not entirely out of the ordinary for a project of this size, we’d be remiss not to note a number of mechanics’ liens have recently been filed on the project.
As always, we’ll keep you posted and plugged-in.
∙ Cubix Sales Update: 32% “Sold” (And Now Offering “Lease-To-Own”) [SocketSite]
∙ The 98 “Sophisticated/Stylish” Apartments Condos Of 766 Harrison [SocketSite]
As I said when these first hit the market — these will sell quickly. For $80-$90k.
The longer the developer takes to realize this, the more pain they will suffer.
Do they have anybody actually living there yet?
Some sales came fairly quickly when it first opened and a bunch more units closed after the recent price reductions. There are a range of differences between the units and the ones with desirable features like taller ceilings, big windows with views, skylights, private patios sold better than the cheapest units.
So, yes, there appear to be a couple of dozen people living there. How would a condo development like this sell around a third of the units without anyone living there?
This building gets a lot of abuse, but my own guess is that the units will bottom out somewhere between $150k-$200k. It will be interesting to see exactly where things end up. Even in the less nice parts of Oakland old shacks have been selling for over $100k as rentals. It seems unlikely that recently constructed condos walking distance from downtown, even if they are strangely small studios, will end up being worth less than East Bay war zone shacks.
I toured these the first weekend they were open and thought they should be buy-one, get-one-free. At $150k I guess they’ve reached that point.
I looked at these with a friend a couple of months ago, she was considering doing the rent-to-own option.
The nicest and largest ones with high ceilings are on the very top floor and most were still for sale in the mid 300k range at that time. By largest I mean they were closer to 300sf compared to most units which I believe were all somewhere around 250sf or smaller. They had a tiny loft space with ladder access that was suitable for storage, but you couldn’t really use it as living space, too narrow.
Some of the cheaper ones for sale had a view of the building next door so very little natural light. And the balconies touted on many of them are a waste of space in my opinion. I couldn’t see leaving a window open or using the balcony given the amount of street noise.
I have found much larger studio and 1brs for sale up in Nob Hill so I honestly can’t see paying their prices for these efficieny studios, regardless of how modern they are. The sales person there did say there were no restrictions on renting as long as it was owned by a person and rented for residential purposes, nothing high turnover like corporate/tourist housing, so if they got cheap enough, I could see buying one and renting it out since as a condo, it wouldn’t be covered by rent control.
how much are these renting for per month?
I really see these as rentals. Real estate should really be a long term investment and I can’t see someone moving into one of these thinking “this is where I plan to be for the next 5 years”. No doubt inertia will set in and some people will rent for 5+ years but the young, upwardly mobile singles that these units would appeal to are going to expect that they will want different living arrangements within a few years.
I agree with the poster above that few if any folks would want to stay in one of these for a long time. They have a definite “first apartment” vibe to me. After about 24 months it would feel like a prison cell.
I suspect that these will ultimately revert to their inherent function as shag pads for busy executives.
http://sfbay.craigslist.org/sfc/apa/1158176933.html
can’t imagine renting this for 1800.
Have been trying to get in to see these with a client for over a month. Left about 5 messages at the sales office, “broker’s” office and developer’s office (broker and developer appear to be the same company). Very unprofessional that they have never called, updated their message on vmail, or changed the sign on the door (which has been up for weeks). Too bad because my client was very interested in seeing them. Oh well…there’s a studio at the Palms for $299K I’ll take him too instead.
what IS going on with Cubix these days? Their website is inaccessible as far as I can see.
Good call, mac
I looked up cubixsf.com in the Whois from Network Solutions.
What it says:
Record created on 2008-05-15 14:53:36.
Record expires on 2009-05-15 14:53:36.
http://www.networksolutions.com/whois-search/cubixsf.com
Someone needs to get this fixed.
Bank foreclosure sale scheduled for today for all unsold units (bring about 21 million in cash). I heard developer has filed for bankruptcy.
[Editor’s Note: With that a bit of our afternoon thunder has been stolen (and the outstanding loan balance is exactly $21,050,440.03).]
For how many remaining units?
Now,
If City Hall had its head screwed right, they’d make a low low ball offer on the units after it becomes a REO. They could then offer the units for a low rent without subsidizing much, or even better: relocate some of the Tenderloin “hotel” dwellers and allow those out-of-luck TL hotel managers to try and have a real business at last.
Pretty soon those apartments will be selling for $80k apiece, if they sell at all. That was my original prediction when the building came on the market and I still stand by it.
-Jimmy
I think 100K would be a fair price but that’s not going to happen right away. Maybe 2 more years of people jumping in and getting burned.
A rental investor would make decent ROI at 100K. Renting them out 1100, getting 800 after HOAs, minus 200 for other costs, 5% ROI after taxes. With 50% leverage and a 10 Year mortgage I might jump in on a few units.