Landlords in San Francisco inked 391 legally recorded tenant buyout agreements last year, as mapped above, up from 333 agreements in 2020 and including a couple of deals which had been in the works since 2016.
According to our queries of the City’s database, the highest reported buyout agreement totaled $469,563 last year but was split between four tenants in a multi-family building in Presidio Heights. The largest payout per tenant was $225,000, with two tenants splitting $450,000 to vacate a Mission Terrace home which was then sold for $1.4 million (with an unwarranted lower level “space” that included a finished bedroom, bathroom, living room, kitchenette and private entrance). And the largest payout to a single tenant was for $200,000, to vacate one of the units in the Duboce Triangle Edwardian at 40-42 Sanchez Street which was then listed as a vacant three-unit building for $2.798 million and is now in contract.
The average reported buyout agreement in San Francisco totaled $46,676 last year according to our queries, with an average payout of $29,270 per tenant (which was up from an average agreement of $44,714 and $29,216 per tenant in 2020). And for the fourth year in a row, the Mission was the San Francisco neighborhood with the most inked buyout agreements (47), but now followed by the Sunset (37), Haight-Ashbury (36), Eureka Valley (31), Parkside (29) and Ingleside (29).
Cheap, Anne Kihagi paid millions to do it the wrong way.
And guess who the attorney who served the notices was. Yep, Danny himself!
Property ownership in San Francisco is such a mess.
Obviously, this generally only affects those who own property for investment, but still, it’s is so absurd. It’s basically FU tax to any property owner looking to cash out or offload an asset.
Our massive volume of insanely low-dollar rent-controlled units essentially makes it worse/seem disproportionate, but overall, I imagine it balances out relative to the increase in property value over the length of the tenant’s occupancy?
The ease of renting while you build equity.
How long does a tenant typically reside in a unit before a buyout offer?
It should be noted that the $200K went to a tenant who had lived in the unit for nearly 50 years and a family friend of the legacy owner. Sometimes we need to give credit for a deserving and just reward!
Is a buyout settlement taxable to the tenant? Does the payor issue a 1099?
Yes, if the payor is acting in accordance with the law. All buy-outs are taxable.