Having not been remodeled since the 60’s, the 2,628 square foot home at 1901 Diamond was purchased for $1,450,000 in 2007, underwent an “eco-friendly” and “no expenses spared” renovation, and sold for $2,050,000 with 2,819 square feet in October 2008.
Listed for $1,950,000 this past September, reduced to $1,850,000 “by Motivated Sellers!” in October, and then withdrawn from the market in December, yesterday the hill-top home with a Noe Valley address returned to the MLS listed anew and asking $1,795,000.
Fom the before files and origins of the modern day man cave:
1901 Diamond Before: Bar
∙ Listing: 1901 Diamond Street (4/3) 2,815 sqft – $1,795,000 [Redfin]

44 thoughts on “Origins Of The Man Cave”
  1. This green washing for renovations always makes me smile.
    Did the workers cycle there? Nope, they probably drove in pick-up trucks. Were the materials hauled by grass-fed donkeys? Nope. Trucks again. Were the materials extracted using no fossil fuels? Nope again. Were all these glass panels and metal railings formed using sustainable corn husk combustible? Probably not.
    Any kind of construction work is very carbon-intensive. If you want to have a zero-carbon impact the best way is to take the place as it is as much as possible.

  2. lol wrote:
    > If you want to have a zero-carbon impact
    > the best way is to take the place as it is
    > as much as possible…
    But that won’t creat any “green jobs” (driving trucks) or make any money for the politically connected “green company owners” (who fly back and forth between CA and DC in their Gulfstreams with campaign cash)…

  3. Nice remodel but this location has some challenges. It may be within the Noe Valley border but it definitely feels more Diamond Heights. (It gets very foggy up there.) Also, section 8 housing is just up the street.

  4. “If you want to have a zero-carbon impact the best way is to take the place as it is as much as possible”
    Yeah, that’s the con argument all right. But the point is that over time these builds will begin to shift the carbon needle. Over time.

  5. The point I made was not against remodels, its about calling them “eco-friendly”.
    People remodel as they see fit. But wrapping an extensive redo into the green flag is just a sign that a niche professional made a nice tidy buck.

  6. I hope there are a few more price cuts coming, cause a little more than a 10% discount from 2008 doesn’t seem enough. This is not The Real Noe Valley, as hinted at above.
    Oh, and I don’t feel bad for the seller at all. Buying in October 2008?? I’m sure his realtor told him it was a very smart move.

  7. It has been a little while since ‘everything was the realtors fault’ was added to every few comments. I am sooooooooo glad that is happening again.

  8. The motivated sellers are a current Giants player and wife. Figured out that it’s 100 yards from DH and across the street from Section 8. Had a killing on the other side of the block last summer.
    The Giant’s realtor should be shot/sued for not disclosing to Matty that the home was across from Section 8.

  9. “The Giant’s realtor should be shot/sued for not disclosing to Matty that the home was across from Section 8′
    This is libel.

  10. Despite the above comments, this is a great remodel in terms of style in my opinion. The house was a basic, boring, suburban-type split-level and was at least brought up to modern taste. I used to live nearby on Duncan, and this neighborhood is really quiet and the views are lovely. And to Phongpei, even the glorious ‘real SF’ Russian Hill has had a targeted murder in the last year or two…

  11. agree with @willow. Technically Noe Valley but borders both DH and GP.
    Beautiful remodel but I’m not sure about 1.8m at this location.
    my aunt used to live on Duncan @ DHB but never had any trouble with the sect.8 folks. she didnt know they were s8 till I told her.

  12. Ouch, worst timing ever. I can’t imagine closing right before the stock market went into free fall. Will be interesting to watch.

  13. No kidding, it is gonna take this guy like 5 days salary to pay off that loss (actual days not working day otherwise it would be minutes)

  14. Yeah, no kidding – the owner only works one out of every five days anyway! If he winds up signing a new contract with his company, he won’t even think twice about the loss he’ll take on this.

  15. Ouch, that loss is going to leave a mark in his $15 million salary for 2012 or the $16 million he has made so far in his career (2006-2011). Not counting any money from endorsements.

  16. I wonder if he used a “Green” Realtor?
    The National Association of REALTORS® has created a green designation and benefits program tailored for real estate agents. NAR’s Green Designation provides advanced training in green building and sustainable business practices so that you can seek out, understand, and market properties with green features.
    http://www.greenresourcecouncil.org/

  17. This isn’t green washing. They could have used strongly eco-damaging products like Brazillian hardwoods, but they didn’t. That is the variable that was greened. It is also not always true that maximum use of existing materials is the best path. The largest cost of a building is in its operation, and old construction can be difficult to insulate. Rebuilding ends up balanced against radical shifts in energy use. Thinking that something is either green or it isn’t is overly simplistic.

  18. The biggest greening I have done to my old Victorian place was plugging all the air leaks around the sash windows. It shrunk my power bill by 25%. And it cost a couple of hours of my time + a few bucks.
    For further greening, instead of doing a extensive redo, I was considering electric heaters and solar panels to offset the consumed KWH. It might not make much sense financially because my power bill is

  19. It appears as if Less signs and $ signs don’t go well together.
    “It might not make much sense financially because my power bill is less than $100 but it’d be like showing the finger to PG&E”

  20. That location is high traffic corner – muni runs right along the street and lots of cars on their way to DH Safeway.

  21. I had looked into this place and found lots of issues – termites, dry rot, fog, high crime and other stuff. Not sure why a primier ball player would be living here?

  22. Yes, they are total hypocrites. They don’t use them at the farm, but they do at their job at the mill owned by some “English” guy. Then they buy the lumber from the mill for their barn raising.
    They also have drivers and own vans so they can get a ride to the grocery store.

  23. “I heard that many buyers want to get in now before Facebook goes public (and spawns scores of new millionaires), which is pushing demand.”
    Per the realtor. “Buy now or be priced out forever” is back already?

  24. Whoo boy, NVJ, you sure showed me up! Actual property sits on the market for 5 months and sells for more than a quarter million dollar loss, vs. salesman statements that the area in which they sell is hot, hot, hot and you should hurry up and buy?
    I think I’d take the realtors statements, they are such an honest bunch.

  25. According to Tipster and other Socketsite regulars all the news outlets running these stories so frequently recently is all a bunch of nothing. No reason for it. None at all. Uh huh. That’s how news outlets work all right. Also, it’s always as if you’re saying realtors are actually writing the stories, which plain ole downright weird.

  26. I was just citing the realtor from the referenced Chronicle article, anon.ed. While not every realtor is out there talking up the Facebook IPO, a lot of them obviously are. Why do bad things happen to sexy people?
    Regarding the actual vs. perceived effects of said IPO on the market, well…that obviously remains to be seen, doesn’t it?

  27. The “why do bad things happen to sexy people” guy was actually pretty measured in his comments if you read the NYT piece that the realtor.com article paraphrased. As far as remains to be seen, sorry, seen where? By whom? People not in the market, who don’t go to open houses or talk to people who do, talking junk on the internet? Funny use of “see,” there.

  28. Not much for sale and open houses are pretty busy.
    A non-scientific measure I do is look at my ZIP code (94114) of recent reductions on Trulia.
    From all of last year, the typical reduction list was 2 or 3 dozen long. This month it hasn’t gone one day over 10. Not many reductions could be a sign that sellers are more confident )Twister will say careless). Or it could be a sign they’re selling faster. Future numbers will tell us.

  29. Lol, most people take homes off the market in late december and start puttling them back on this month. If they were going to cut the price, they do it when they put the home back on, so I wouldn’t expect the level of price cuts in February to be the same as it is for the other months.
    Will buyers panic over all the IPOs? Probably for a little while. But panic over a one time event that ends isn’t particularly warranted. Home prices dropped after the google money flow surge.

  30. “Home prices dropped after the google money flow surge”
    No they absolutely didn’t, as any chart showing SF housing for late 2004 and on will attest.

  31. Google stock went up from 2004 to 2006 and so few Googlers sold at the IPO. By the time their lockup expired, it was in the process of rising quickly so they mostly just held on. The surge of that money into real estate was really 2006 when the stock price began to level off.
    That’s when they bought and two years later prices started falling in earnest. Nearly everyone from Google I saw buy a home is underwater on it. There were a couple of the resales featured on this site.

  32. Oh boy. Really? Everybody waited until 2006 even though the timeframe began in August 2004, and everybody bought at that time, because you “saw” it. Let alone you’re talking 2006 and you yourself frequently talk about 2007 as peak.

  33. Yes, really.
    “Purchased for $3,425,000 in May 2006 with what would appear to have been “Google money,”
    https://socketsite.com/archives/2011/01/google_salaries_and_shares_up_2207_scott_street_down.html
    “As plugged-in readers might recall, the seller was a former Google engineer who paid $5,300,000 in cash for the property known as the “the T House” in (October of) 2005″ (Parenthetical added)
    https://socketsite.com/archives/2011/07/the_noe_house_google_facebook_bought_526_duncan.html

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