Over Asking but a Real $550K Loss at the Infinity
April 10, 2017
Listed as an “Ultra Rare Super Sized Home at the Infinity” for $2.4 million in early 2015, the two-bedroom unit #5C at 301 Main Street sold for $2.3 million, or roughly $1,313 per square foot, that December.
Returned to the market late last year, listed as a “Massive sized condo with tons of storage!” for $1,999,888 before being reduced to a “below market price” of $1.75 million, or $999 per square foot, the sale of the 1,752-square-foot condo with a deeded parking spot has just closed escrow for $1,750,000.
And while the sale price for the condo represents a 23.9 percent decline in value for the unit on an apples-to-apples basis since the end of 2015, having been relisted for $1,749,900 this past February, the sale is officially “over asking!” and was in contract “within 3 weeks!” of being listed, at least according to all industry stats and MLS-based reports.
Comments from Plugged-In Readers
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When they compute the SQFT of these places do they net out the ridiculous mid-living-room pillars?
I’m pretty sure the pillars serve a purpose. I’m thinking something like supporting the sturcture of the building. But yeah, that’s pretty ridiculous.
No, they are there to support the retirement accounts of the developers. An exoskeletal steel building would have been slightly more expensive, but with a more spacious interior. This concrete structure is cheaper and much more stupid.
Concrete is quite common for residential due to the inherent sound isolating nature of it. It’s also far more fire resistant. Nothing wrong with it at all … steel is not magically better. These structures don’t hold themselves up by magic.
Heaven forbid that 1/7th of your 90 degree view be blocked by something as useless as a column.
i think the bigger deterrent is not 1/7th of the view but the constraint it puts on arranging furniture. also i’m kind of paranoid about having to rely on every tenant in the building to take care of a structural element in their living room that supports my unit and investment.
Yeah, I would have tried to run the kitchen island off the column for more of a U shaped kitchen. But kitchen islands are like double bathroom sinks, people seem to want them regardless of their functionality.
I’d be really scared if it was BMR down below in that case. At least it isn’t BMR.
Huh? what does a tenant “do” to actually take care of a structural element? Let’s be clear: this is not just a wood column, but complex, large, reinforced concrete column, with a finish coat of interior plaster.
There is NOTHING to do to take care of it.
This is kind of stupid comment. How is “taking care” of this structural element any different than taking care of the support beam you park next to or ensuring you don’t compromise an essential wall in any other apartment? Condoshopper good luck!
decent floor plan, the view not good.
$1.75 million and the best you can come up with is “decent?” None of the bathrooms have windows, the kitchen is tiny and is in the living room, there is no room to entertain more than 4 guests for a dinner party….
Yeah, whatever. I don’t see the point of all the dual sinks if they’re going to be inside the bathrooms; outside I can see as it allows – say – a person to shave and then another to wash their hands after they use the WC, but who would want all those people inside while either the WC or the tub is in use ?? This seems more appropriate for a bus terminal…a bus terminal with big columns and nice views.
similarly, why waste space by having 2 ensuite bathrooms AND a powder room in a tiny condo that will never have a crowd visiting. Americans are obsessed with bathrooms, but it would make so much more sense to open one of the ensuite baths to common use.
I pity the [person] who gets the small closet in the master bedroom whose [spouse] monopolizes the walk-in.
The columns do permit wall to wall windows in all the rooms, so it’s a decent trade-off. Alternatively, it’s just another thing to put up with when you go upscale. Similarly to how you give up water/ice dispensers in a fridge and have to downsize to counter-depth fridge, just so kitchen looks better.
Plenty of high end, counter-depth refrigerators have ice and water in the door.
It was bought during a good “buyers market” (2015) for way too much, and sold during a crappy sellers market for a bit too low.
Given how small most of the dining areas are at the Infinity, I have never understood why they didn’t make those islands with any sort of overhang for barstools to fit under. I’ve also always been amazed how low the HOAs are there comparatively for the amenities they have there. My Civic Center area condo with almost no amenities other than a doorman and parking has HOAs as high as theirs are.
I believe an overhang was a custom option at build time, but not standard. It’s fairly easy to retrofit in a glass overhang or replace the countertop.
The HOA’s are low due to the large size of the development … one of the benefits of a large complex is you spread the amenities out amongst a lot of people.
Never buy a condo. Simple as that.
A couple of things to keep in mind: While there are actually fewer condos than single-family homes in San Francisco, the sales volume/demand is about even.
And while the condo market tends to be more volatile – with higher highs and lower lows – it also tends to be a leading indicator for the market as a whole, which does include single-family homes.
the infiniti has alwasy been a POS compared to other new developments in downtown
That’s incorrect, at least objectively speaking and in terms of price per square foot (and the relative performance of such post-bust).
POS is a subjective term 🙂
Yeah, I’d much rather buy the leaning tower of Millennium.
I love the way the bed in the second bedroom is both wider and shorter than the one in the main.
But I don’t love this floor plan. Between the small kitchen (and it looks like if you open the refrigerator door it hit the window) and the ‘study/office area’ that looks like a very awkward space this feels not right to me.
1700 sq feet is a lot, but it’s not well used. I would’ve shifted bedroom 2 to the left making the living room larger. And then using the space from the “office” as closet and bathroom for that bedroom. As it stands, the “office/study” area has no windows and can’t be used as a family room or anything more practical.
I was thinking about shifting that bedroom. The problem is then then it wouldn’t have any (or few, depending on how far you shifted) windows either.
The whole selling point here is the one big living room with lots of window space. But the rest of the unit pays the price for it.
Both beds are the same length. The width difference is probably King vs. Queen. Or Queen vs. double.
That’s a pantry next to the window wall. The built-in refr is next to that.
Ah. I made the mistake of thinking there was more than three feet of counter space. My bad.
How do you account for the mistake of hiring an out of town agent who never showed up for any of the showings? How much was that mistake worth?
Why would this matter? Is the seller’s agent going to beg the buyer to increase his bid?
Because there is art to selling, otherwise everything would be for sale by owner and sales people would be extinct.
that’s what RE agents are trying to make us believe, that there is art in selling! Wake up folks, do a bit of homework and save $10k’s! RE agents are going the way of the dodo. There will always be the [insert agent name here] for the billionaire who want end-to-end white glove service, but the more earthly buyers/sellers are starting to smell the coffee already and are booting the no-value-add middle men and saving big. Look at the explosive growth of Redfin.
As a Bay Area Realtor for almost forty years, I have heard those words for many years, during many different markets, and the use of a local agents continues to thrive. The internet has been the greatest threat to Realtors services, and it actually has become the greatest educational resource for our clients. Sounds like you might like the services of the new Faira real estate model. You’ll get just what you pay for….and a lot less.
Realtors have proven to be awfully difficult to kill off. In smaller recreational properties that I am involved with in other states, it’s possible to do it all via craigslist, that is, both buyers and sellers use craigslist extensively. I haven’t actually sold any property here in this city but when I do I will find a way not to get gouged by realtors.
The bay area has seen wild boom/bust swings this past few decades. During the boom part buyers start feeling desperate. During the bust phase sellers feel desperate. And desperate people are more focused on just getting the deal done vs shaving off a few percent of costs.
My opinion is that this volatility will continue if not increase, so if there’s a threat to realtor profession it will probably occur somewhere with more stable prices and homogeneous homes.
All these new condos look cheap. The track lighting (because it’s probably a skimcoat concrete ceiling), the lack of molding, the laminate cabinets with bad edges and utilitarian hardware, the obvious shades (couldn’t fit a shade pocket in there?). None of it looks “luxurious”, just “nice”. It’s not the staging either. I’ve yet to see a new condo unit look anything close to something you see in cities like NYC these days.
Unfortunately, not only are prices uber high in SF, what passes for “luxurious” here is generally not. Part of developers VEing their projects which seems par for the course lately.
I looked at some “luxury” condo units in LA last year and they were much nicer than this place and some of the other newer SOMA units I’ve been in.
Well in SF you’re not just buying a condo, you’re also buying 25% of someone else’s affordable condo. If you think of it that way then maybe you’re getting a better deal in SF since you purchased more square feet.
$25,000 per month to live in a two bedroom condo on the 5th floor with a view into other buildings. Sheesh.
I call these “Blade Runner” views.
Who you work with matters.