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Built by Houghton Sawyer in 1911, and not to be mistaken for a embassy consulate (at least not at the moment), 2518 Buchanan boasts over 8,500 square feet of living space including seven bedrooms and five full baths (plus two halves).
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Plenty (although not all) of Sawyer’s original details remain (including some gorgeous old woodwork), while the kitchen has been updated a bit (but the big old hood remains).
∙ Listing: 2518 Buchanan (7/5.75) – $7,500,000 [2518buchanan.com] [MLS]

21 thoughts on “No, It’s Not A <strike>Embassy</strike> Consulate: 2518 Buchanan Edition”
  1. Very nice home with some odd touches. Did they really use faux stone wall paper in there?
    Also, is that background music the default for real estate listings, it seems to be used all the time…

  2. These huge homes in Pac Heights east rarely come on the market. Should be interesting to watch. Not as desirable a location as west of Fillmore though. It’s a Presidio Heights type home, but closer to stuff, I suppose.

  3. Why is there only a dangling light bulb in the main entry way outside? This home is big but otherwise uninteresting. There were a few similar sized homes on Pacific between Webster and Fillmore that have sold in the past few years. This home could easily be $2m overpriced.

  4. The gardens are lovely but I’m not really seeing a “wow” factor with this home. The dining room is the most beautiful and elegant. I would have liked to see it “dressed” more. Way too many faux finishes (or wallpaper, can’t tell from the pics) and wallpaper. Too taste-specific.
    This home has a bit of an identity crisis — some rooms are overtly feminine, some very masculine. Middle of the road would have been better. Also, the kitchen is small and seems chopped in half with the butler’s pantry I think it would have been a better use of space to blow out that wall and make one larger kitchen.

  5. Nice and massive sq footage house, a bit dated but still not too bad. Heart of Pac Heights, well built construction.
    Actually like this house and location alot, but…
    Westside across Buchannan is a quite ugly apt/condo building and then your northern neighbor on Buchannan is even worse, very unpleasant building.
    Guessing no views or the MLS would show them.
    Love the house and the floorplan, place it with equally quality neighboring homes and its worth that price and more.

  6. Just noticed this now but it drives me nuts when the dining room table isn’t centered under the chandelier. Why did they make 2 eating areas? It looks silly with the mismatched rugs.

  7. eddy
    This looks like a home that probably needs Nina’s marketing skills. Why did they not go with her?

  8. @94115, feels like bait but I’ll take it anyway….
    If I were selling a D7 home, or any home over $2M in SF I would without question use one of the top agents in the city. In no particular order, Malin, Barbra, Nina and their minions do an absolute fantastic job and have more connections than most people realize. No idea why these sellers chose these agents. I honestly don’t understand why people let such an important decision go to friends or favors. Sometimes sellers go with whoever promises the biggest sale price. Ultimately the market sets the final price and the best agents know how to price a property to get maximum exposure with the right audience and get a deal done quickly (or off-market). I personally think Nina has under-priced a few properties recently but she got her deals done and is probably in or near the lead for highest grossing seller agent in SF YTD. There are actually quite a few very good agents in SF and its not hard to find them. The numbers speak for themselves. It’s also very localized as some agents do have a specialty. Sellers should meet 6-8 agents and make them compete for the listing; but most sellers don’t have the time or think that it really matters enough to take the time. But finding a good agent is easy and getting a good deal isn’t that hard.

  9. 2775 Union is another property under contract by Nina that last sold for $4.6 in 2007 and is now in escrow firm at its current ASK @ $4.175. Dying to see the closing price. A few peak a booms out there. 2775 inexplicably went for 600k over asking in 2007 so seems it was priced right back then! 2601 Lyon closed below its 2000 price and was renovated in 2002. Crazy market out there. I think 2601 would sell for much more today.

  10. I dated the (I assume now former) owners’ au pair 20 years ago and spent some time in this house (when the owners were away of course).
    It is a big, odd house. When I was there, the owners had switched the living and dining rooms, presumably to avoid street noise, which made the dining room very inconvenient to the kitchen. The current dining room was basically a large den and there was no formal living room. The kitchen was fairly small with an awkward layout. As usual, the rooms are not as large as they look in the photos.
    Lots of empty bedrooms upstairs but fully decorated. A playroom on the top floor for the one kid. The house seemed to have an unnatural layout and wasn’t really very comfortable. Also, the garage only holds one car. The owners had two but would just leave the other on the street and just pay the ticket every week.
    Nice little au pair quarters on the street level, though.

  11. @eddy,
    You appear to be a very knowledgeable real estate (gal?) and I assume you have a license. Your comments regarding Nina’s listings current, future and contracts at TRI led me to believe you may have a inside track to information (sorry if I have come to the wrong conclusion). I have found your comments over many years to be very knowledgeable with a special insight about Pacific Heights.

  12. Nice big house, but I can’t imagine paying that price – or even less than half that price – for a place that did not have a view.

  13. What do people think of 2518 Buchanan selling for $6M (on a $7.5M wishing) vs. 393 Marina having a wishing price of $6M?

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