3976 25th Street: Kitchen
There aren’t a lot of photos (at least not yet) but at least we have a few facts: new construction in Noe circa 2006; three bedrooms and two and one-half baths in the main house plus a one-bedroom apartment; and 4,000 square feet.
Purchased for $2,900,000 in November of 2006 and now back on the market and asking $2,895,000. If you think you know Noe, now’s the time to tell.
UPDATE: A plugged-in reader tracks down the listing from 2006 which offers a few more photos and a great recap of how the market responded at the time:

Priced at $2.899MM, we faced considerable marketing risk with one of the highest asking prices ever in Noe Valley for a single family home. Activity level was so high we did not have time to set a bid date, with 15 private showings within 5 days of marketing commencement. We originated a full-price offer within seven days of marketing commencement. The sales price represents the third-highest price ever achieved in Noe Valley for a single family home.

∙ Listing: 3976 25th Street (4/3.5) – $2,895,000 [MLS]

35 thoughts on “If You Think You Know Noe, Now’s The Time To Tell (3976 25th Street)”
  1. This is really a two unit building, but since the 1 bedroom apartment is empty, you can’t really reduce the value of the other building because of it.
    I am going to guess that the main building is about 3500 sq ft and at $700/sq ft that puts the sale price at $2.45M. I would have to look at it to be sure though.

  2. You’re the expert on NV, NVJ, but from my point of view a sale at $2.45M (which would imply a capital loss of in excess of $600K after typical transaction/frictional costs) would be a more than worthy sacrifice to the bubble gods at this stage of the unwind.
    I do predict that if it sells anywhere near where NVJ is provisionally guesstimating, a number of posters will come on SS and say that the seller “overpaid”.

  3. built/sold brand new in 2006 – photos appear to match the new ones, so this is a good apple. I don’t know the story otherwise, but do think this will be an interesting apple whenever it gets done. i predict an at-asking sales price
    fyi single family homes priced $2 million+ in Noe Valley
    – 5 for sale
    – 2 in contract
    – 5 sold in past 5 months
    – 3 withdrawn/expired

  4. Many more pics are here
    it looks very very nice in these pics, but the kitchen has a horrible work triangle.
    http://www.pacoeassociates.com/properties/3976-25thStreet/
    my guess is that it is the old listing from 2006
    “Priced at $2.899MM, we faced considerable marketing risk with one of the highest asking prices ever in Noe Valley for a single family home. Activity level was so high we did not have time to set a bid date, with 15 private showings within 5 days of marketing commencement. We originated a full-price offer within seven days of marketing commencement. The sales price represents the third-highest price ever achieved in Noe Valley for a single family home.”

  5. a few thoughts:
    1) 15 showings in 5 days with full priced offer in 1 week “proves” that this was the market price in 2006. the current seller clearly did not “overpay” in 2006.
    2) I love the hardwood floors throughout, and the open airy feeling of the place including that staircase.
    3) I was wrong. the work triangle in the main home is great. I confused the in-law kitchen with the main kitchen at first
    4) the in-law unit appears quite nice and sizeable… and also looks like the kind of in-law unit that could be easily used as a rec room or a family room or a barbecue room… so you probably wouldn’t have to renovate this into a SFH IMO.
    5) dining room in the main house may be a little cramped… hard to tell.
    clearly, this is a prime apple in a prime hood, unless for some reason 25th and Sanchez isn’t prime…

  6. This is easy.
    $2,900,000 – ($2,900,000*.2) = $2,320,000. 😉
    Anyway, LMRiM is right. Seller probably won’t cave that much.

  7. ex-SFer, I was going to say. That photo above is a really nice looking kitchen!
    My own kitchen is more like the in-law kitchen. Now that’s a horrorshow. 😉

  8. kthnxbye:
    can’t believe I’m going to say this but…
    now that I really look at that kitchen, the work triangle isn’t the best… sigh… fridge is way away from the stove and sink. too far away. (unless the pic is stretched?)
    people have become so obsessed with big kitchens and big islands. odd.
    the normal flow of a kitchen is take food out of fridge, wash it, cook it, wash dishes. thus it makes sense to have the sink/fridge/stove near each other so that you’re not running to and fro. basic kitchen design 101.
    if this kitchen is really that big with the fridge way over there, then this kitchen would not be fun to cook in. you’d be running back and forth and back and forth while cooking, and running through a “common” area where there may be obstacles (kids, etc).
    it’s a beautiful home though. and I guess many of the people who would buy such a home won’t cook anyway.

  9. Really nice place. For actually cooking, I think I like the kitchen in the little apartment better. I guess I’d cook down there and shuttle everything up to the big, pretty kitchen where everyone would tend to congregate.
    Noe does seem to be hanging in there better than the rest of SF at the $2M+ range. MLS shows 166 places SF-wide at that level or above. 14 new listings just in the last 24 hours! And only about 14 sold in the last 30 days. Anyone care to post the numbers from a year ago, or two? A lot to clear out at the moment. If I were selling a place like this, I’d want it to be in Noe (it always amazes me how many places turn over in just a short time — good for the realtors!)

  10. It is hard to judge the kitchen without showing up at an open house with some ingredients. It looks like they were going for a kind of shared work flow where stuff comes out of the fridge and gets prepared on the island while people watch. Then it hops over from the island to the stove and oven. When done completion happens next to the stove and then dishes are served on or from the island. There is a lot of island hopping there, but it puts the preparation and service right in front of the stools so everyone is together for most of the process.
    Forget staging–what this place really needs a cookie dough open house.

  11. ex SF-er,
    I have to chuckle at your quaint, pre-bubble notions of an effective work triangle. Don’t you know, kitchens like this signal:
    1. The owner had the financial resources to remodel the kitchen with expensive materials in a totally ineffective arrangement
    2. Therefore demonstrating that the owner doesn’t actually use the kitchen and can afford to eat out every night.
    Will someone bring a tape measure to the open house and give us the distance from the fridge to the island. It really does look like there is a DMZ between the two spaces (but it could be just the perspective, in which case we can apply Mole Man’s cookie dough test…)
    Noe foreclosure count at 25 (with one ~$1 mil, one ~$1.5 mil, and one ~$2 mil).

  12. ex-SF Oh, I was assuming the photo was stretched out! Hehe.
    Now I can see that there are FOUR stools on the island? That seems like it would be pretty big. So maybe you *would8 need roller skates to traverse the wasteland between the sink and fridge. 😉

  13. 2.54MM. It’s precious, it’s Noe Valley. I wish my grandparents were alive today to see what their home at 25th and Eureka would be worth today or better yet, 2006.

  14. Nice place, not enough pictures as mentioned, how big is the yard, is it private, bedrooms small, view? No offense, but Noe Valley? Though nice, in this market is not the same as other parts of the City. LMRiM has good things to say, which is a good review, but for real value there are other districts.

  15. 1037 Church just sold for asking:$2.895
    So there are buyers in that price range.
    It’s a much older place that attracts different crowd

  16. I’ve never understood why the fridge is part of the work triangle. There’s just one trip to the fridge during the prep and maybe another at the end of the meal to store leftovers.
    Even if the fridge were 50 feet from the countertop, it would only take 2 minutes to unload what is needed for a meal onto the countertop.
    For me the key triangle is countertop-sink-stovetop. You wouldn’t think that the countertop needs be explicitly part of the triangle, but my kitchen originally had no countertop near the stove.
    It’s more important to me that the trashcan be closer than the fridge. Put the fridge in Siberia for all I care.

  17. I’ve never understood why the fridge is part of the work triangle. There’s just one trip to the fridge during the prep and maybe another at the end of the meal to store leftovers.
    I guess it depends on what you’re cooking. Sure, if you’re cooking something really simple like hamburgers or a frozen pizza or spaghetti or something then it’s not a big deal.
    last night I cooked a Tofu Chicken Stir Fry. Ingredients:
    White cooking wine, Soy Sauce, Oyster sauce, Red Pepper Paste, ginger and garlic (all from fridge) to make the base sauce (1 trip if you have big hands)
    Tofu and Chicken (fridge again, 1 trip, could return sauces to fridge while picking tofu/chix up)
    Red pepper, broccoli, zucchini, yellow squash (third trip)
    In the kitchen above I’d have to lug all that stuff from the fridge over to the island counter top to get it all ready, then bring the sauces back (I don’t like to leave my sauces out while I cook, especially not Oyster sauce or Fish sauce)
    I also don’t transport raw chicken in the same hand as other materials due to infection control issues (like Salmonella, Shigella, Ecoli, Campylobacter).
    Thus it takes a minimum of 3 long trips to get that stuff to the prep area/sink in the above kitchen. very ineffecient. not to mention the fact that this kitchen puts others in your way due to fridge location (kids especially). and now think about when you cook, how often do you decide mid-way to add a little something here or there? there’s another trip WHILE YOUR FOOD IS COOKING.
    much better to have the fridge near the sink (so you can wash your veggies) and the stove (so you can cook).
    and this is a simple meal. Imagine making Thanksgiving dinner. You’d be lugging stuff back and forth and back and forth all day long.
    FWIW: I agree there should be ample counter space on each side of the sink, on each side of the stove, and next to the fridge AS WELL as a good work triangle.
    this kitchen would be more functional if the fridge was to the left of the Stove where the Hutch is now as example (maybe not as aesthetic), or maybe 5-6 feet to the right of the Stove, or closer to that island. No good reason to have it where it is.
    this kitchen is so big it could even have 2 fridges… one near the stove/sink to make a good work triangle, and a second small drink fridge that is where the current fridge is… that way guests/kids would be out of your way when you’re cooking and they’re trying to get something to drink.

  18. dogboy wrote:
    > This is easy.
    > $2,900,000 – ($2,900,000*.2) = $2,320,000. 😉
    I agree that prices in Noe are probably down about 20% from the peak, but just want to point out that ($2,900,000 * .2) = $580K (20% of $2.9mm). To get a 20% drop you need to multiply by 80%. ($2,900,000*.8) = $2,320,000)…

  19. I bet this might surprise some people, but looking at the update information regarding the conditions of the 2006 sale (assuming it’s all accurate), the current seller may have “underpaid” back then!
    Look at the language:
    “Activity level was so high we did not have time to set a bid date, with 15 private showings within 5 days of marketing commencement. We originated a full-price offer within seven days of marketing commencement.” (Emphasis added.)
    It seems like the sale process was rushed to me. Clearly, the listing agents were clueless as to the level of demand, or else there wouldn’t have been that apparent frenzy of activity (they did “not have time to set a bid date” even!). As they clearly erred on the key determinant of apparent demand, it would seem likewise an error to be so confident that their initial listing price was a correct gauge of the maximum that could be extracted from the market at the time.
    We’re just armchairing the decision made back then, but – again, assuming that’s an accurate and adequately complete description of the 2006 sales dynamic – I bet that a better organized schedule of bids combined with the typically opaque process of the “blind” real estate auction would have generated an overbid. At least they should have gone with what seemed a pretty common practice back then: 2 showings and “offers Tuesday” sort of deal.
    When you look back on that whole period, it’s amazing the laughable (in hindsight) overbids that were generated. It also seems like Noe was one of the major loci where breathless dupes with resources were to be found. (My favorite example is 1420 Douglass – featured in SS – where someone in 2007 overbid $250K/15%! – to pay upwards of $1100 (!!) psf for a smallish place on the very edge on NV!)
    It will be interesting to see where it sells today, and how long it takes.

  20. ogboy wrote:
    > This is easy.
    > $2,900,000 – ($2,900,000*.2) = $2,320,000. 😉
    I agree that prices in Noe are probably down about 20% from the peak, but just want to point out that ($2,900,000 * .2) = $580K (20% of $2.9mm). To get a 20% drop you need to multiply by 80%. ($2,900,000*.8) = $2,320,000)…

    You mean $2,900,000 * (1-.2). Sure, that works too!

  21. Wow, looks like I missed on this one. I never did get a chance to see it, it must have been nicer than I thought. The location is about as good as it gets for Noe Valley, at least for my taste.

  22. Wow. Surprising, to say the least. It got into contract in four days, pending in five, and it’s slated to close 6/05. I am really curious to know what they got. The rapid marketing would seem to indicate an overbid, asking at miminum a point or two under. This is terrific news for another property that is about to hit the market directly across the street.

  23. I meant to say “overbid, asking, or at minimum a point or two under.”
    Edit function, please? Tipster said he would pay for it.

  24. LMRiM said I bet this might surprise some people, but looking at the update information regarding the conditions of the 2006 sale (assuming it’s all accurate), the current seller may have “underpaid” back then!
    Nice hedge there buddy.
    I said higher up on this thread i predict an at-asking sales price
    And since it just went into contract as “pending” after 4 days on the market and I’ll probably end up being right. And you get to make your ridiculous claim to explain it away. Typical of SS commenters – they don’t like the argument unless they can use it in reverse.
    4 days on the market at close to $3 mill – and “pending” means a non-contingent offer. I’m not saying it’s all cash, but if they are getting a loan they are doing it without the “out” that if the home doesn’t appraise or there are loan problems they risk their initial deposit if they don’t follow through. so that at least speaks to a significant down payment. But of course that can’t be true because exSFer says no one puts significant money down in SF cause his friends don’t. tell that to 555 Edinburgh too.

  25. Nice hedge there buddy.
    It wasn’t a hedge, just an observation on the psychology of asset pricing processes in the absence of more sophisticated speculators (the financial markets I am more familiar with). Certainly it wasn’t said in response to hangenhi’s prediction – I generally ignore what realtors write (except to respond when directly called out by one of them, lol).

  26. Anyone noticing this trend:
    Place gets put on the market and 3-4 days later it’s sold, or pending, not even a contingency.
    What that means to me is that it was likely sold well before the listing. This puts more into question just how high the number of pocket listings really is (probably a lot), because we didn’t used to see quite so many homes featured on SS go pending or sold so quickly. Sure, some homes get bought in days, but that was always true. It could also be a coincidence. But we seem to be seeing more and more of that.

  27. Wow, suprising. Does this illustrate that Noe is bullet proof for quality products, or is it just a small window of opportunity to sell while optimism/stocks have risen and rates are low?

  28. Tipster you are a full of sh**
    This is the only normal family house in Noe, in a super convenient location. Not too modern with odd floor plans, etc..
    There are clearly still buyers in this price range and they just waited for the right place.
    This one got good enough exposure to receive an interesting offer. I’d bet the seller is still losing some money but they were happy with this offer.
    Why bother putting it on the market and taking that pocket offer after 4 days, when there was not even a single open house.
    765 Sanchez in contract as well, it took a bit longer (like 10 days) but it’s a fixer at $3.25M

  29. Have yet to to a “For Sale” sign in front of the house and three moving vans were in front doing their thing today.

  30. It did sell for exactly 700/sq ft, but they buyer gave no discount for the in-law.
    Sold for $2.8M, marko1332 was off by 9% but still the closest.

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