In October 2008 the sales office at Symphony Towers (750 Van Ness) “smashed” prices by up to 30% with penthouse studio #T907 being reduced from $515,000 to $419,000. The verbiage at the time:
For ONE WEEKEND ONLY, your clients can take advantage of dramatically reduced prices on Symphony Towers’ Tower One residences.
This sale will take place from November 14-16, so don’t miss out!
For those who did miss out, however, the sale was extended.
Due to an overwhelming response, we are extending the Tower One Closeout prices to our VIP clients and brokers through the end of November.
There are only a few homes left, so CALL TODAY. Don’t miss out on this last chance to own a home in San Francisco at unheard of prices!
And don’t fret if you missed out on that last chance unheard price of $419,000 for #T907 in 2008, for last week the sales office at Symphony Towers announced a studio sale “in celebration of the weather” with #T907 now priced at $389,000 (which happens to be the same price they were asking for “one weekend only” in February 2009 as well).
Having sold half of the 26 units that were temporarily turned into rentals over a year ago, Symphony Towers is now 90 percent-ish closed or in contract.
∙ Price Cuts Of Up To 30% At Symphony Towers (750 Van Ness) [SocketSite]
∙ Symphony Towers Moves To Sell Twenty-Six Leased Leftover Units [SocketSite]
And here’s why it still wont sell, even at this quadruple last-chance one-time offer: Even at $389,000 it’s still $1,054 PSF for this postage-stamp-sized 369 sq ft condo.
You can twice the space for less money in SOMA, three times the space in Potrero/Mission/Sunset. But if you must stay near Van Ness, look what $375k gets you a few blocks away: http://www.redfin.com/CA/San-Francisco/1200-Gough-St-94109/unit-3B/home/1419081
Retailers do this kind of stuff all the time. (Car dealers, furniture stores, electronics, airlines, vacations, you name it.) No surprise to me that RE sales would now be doing the same thing. It is tried and true sales and marketing, pure and simple.
Retailers do this kind of stuff all the time.
Still looks like used car salesmanship tactics. And we know what the outcome is. You always end up overpaying.
Better buy from the future distressed resales in the next 3 years. The new condo smell costs you 20% but only lasts until the day you first cook that great salmon dish.
It’s pretty funny, though, to talk about the “overwhelming response.” If it were really overwhelming, they wouldn’t have to extend the deal; all the places would be sold. I love marketing BS.
even in the context of marketing tactics, the unbridled shameless BS here is really thick.
I am sure the response was so overwhelming that they couldn’t process all the offers in such a short period of time, so that is why it was extended!
Still looks like used car salesmanship tactics. And we know what the outcome is. You always end up overpaying.
I thought the point was to imply that the reduction/sale/pricedrop is “temporary,” thus preserving the hallucination among sellers and buyers that prices aren’t crashing and that it’s a good time to buy. That’s just my interpretation, though, it’s pretty much two sides of the same coin that the intent is to keep prices higher than the market would otherwise support. Maybe in the future we’ll start hearing stuff like “Oh, that price is rhetorical.”
Something I laughed at is the increase in asking we sometimes saw earlier this year. I mean, how delusional can you be? The salesmen that did that tried to get “panic buys” by buyers horrified of seeing themselves priced out ~f~o~r~e~v~e~r~ (do your best Vincent Price impression there). Shifting grounds does induce vertigo and can therefore cause massive overpayment.
Why bash the developer for trying ? They are entitled to ask for whatever they want. I didn’t buy it. You folks didn’t buy it. Evidently no one bought it. It will sell when the price comes down to meet the market. All the 490 sq ft dark studios facing a wall at The Montgomery sold when the price came down from 500k to the mid to low 300s. Or they may get lucky when some foreign buyer drops in not in tune with the SF market. After all, 400 sq ft is considered a decent size 3/1 in places like Hong Kong, Tokyo or Shanghai and the price here is fraction of what similar units go for at those locale…
I fail to understand how a studio can qualify as a penthouse.
If they truly have sold 26 units that were formerly rentals the sales office are doing something right. The marketing is cheesy but who cares?
The prospective buyers are looking for a Chevy people, not a Cadillac.
A former co-worker bought here a few years ago. He literally told me he was buying because he was “afraid of being priced out forever”. I feel horrible for the guy.
Where is the planning department?
The developer bashing is appropriate. We are stuck living with these badly designed buildings for the rest our lives. They will stand year upon year as we hurtle past them for the rest of our lives. Its not cars, or couches, or ketchup which cycle out and get replaced.
Designed by spreadsheet, these builds add nothing to the quality or the beauty of this city.
“The developer bashing is appropriate. We are stuck living with these badly designed buildings for the rest our lives. They will stand year upon year as we hurtle past them for the rest of our lives. Its not cars, or couches, or ketchup which cycle out and get replaced.”
This building is pretty uninspiring and can be best described as bland or innocuous but I wouldn’t think it has that much of an impact in the overall scheme of things. ORH on the other hand is an eyesore that will be on the city skyline for a long time.