Motivated Seller Still Seeking Offers for a Luxury View Home
February 8, 2023
Built in 2009 and hidden behind a relatively modest façade, the single-family home at 60 Clarendon Avenue steps down the slope of Clarendon Heights to yield 3,650 square feet of conditioned space, not including the square footage of its five decks, with panoramic views.
Purchased for $5.15 million in July of 2021, the four-bedroom home returned to the market with a $5.15 million price tag at the end of last year. And despite having been reduced to $4.95 million a few weeks ago, the “motivated!” seller has yet to receive an acceptable offer.
If you think you know that market for luxury view homes in San Francisco, now’s the time to tell.
Comments from Plugged-In Readers
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$4.25
No wonder the seller is motivated…it’s a confusing mess!
I’m going to say $4.1. The vertical nature of the house knocks out a bunch of buyers — the spaces are so cut up — 3650 sq ft spread over 4+ floors means none of the spaces feel very big and there is no way to fix that. Plus they made some really poor design choices that will require renovation:
–the hardwood floors throughout are hideous — that red-ish color is super dated and the custom inlaid light wood boarder just makes it worse
–the kitchen glass bar counter has to go
–a bunch of wall coverings are very specific
–koi pond taking up most of the backyard? Nope
–bathroom finishes are bland
Also, the fact that the seller isn’t willing to spend money on staging demonstrates a complete lack of understanding of what it takes to sell a house in the $5M range
I appreciate the lack of staging because furniture isn’t part of the sale and just clutters the home, making it harder to assess what is for sale. As for the ‘dated’ red floors: that looks like red oak treated with a clear finish. If that is out of style right now, expect it to revert back into style. Natural colors have a habit of coming back.
The floors are described in the listing as “Brazilian hardwood floors” aka Brazilian cherry. I normally love those, but the (white oak) borders make them look terrible imo.
if you have multiple kids, the cut up space is actually very nice
Not really, kids fall down stairs and hurt themselves playing etc. In addition, anyone who wants a new born wants to be in adjacent bedrooms for all those sleepless nights.
Not to mention the place is absolutely FILTHY. The first interior photo shows a grimy light switch plate with paint on it (cheap paint job), random cords along the floor, and the wood floor is scratched to hell. Every photo shows a thick layer of dust on all the floors. There are TV brackets on the walls with nothing on them, open electrical boxes (?), and the bathrooms look like they have soap scum on the glass. Clearly the owner DGAF about selling the place.
I didn’t notice the dusty floors. There’s no excuse for that !
Yep, was about to say the verticality is a huge issue.
Light title research indicates the seller has no debt on the property.
A little googling suggests the seller may be related to a very wealthy family with holdings in the financial services and professional sports arena.
I would bet dollars to donuts this house is not furnished because it was never lived in.
Purchased overpriced at a peak, for sale empty and overpriced now, I am not sure of what this sale is apropos, perhaps nothing.
where can you look up title holder and property debt information?
All of the title information is available at the San Francisco Recorder’s Office.
There are data services that republish the public filings.
seller may be related to a very wealthy family with holdings in the financial services and professional sports arena….I am not sure of what this sale is apropos, perhaps nothing.
You don’t think it’s apropos of why housing in SF is expensive…at least a little?
If a great deal of the sellers of homes in San Francisco were relatives of billionaires willing to walk away from their homes and list them for sale in a messy state, the house would be representative of the overall market.
What a myth… housing has been tumbling and SF is overall a bargain right now. Condos have dropped 30 — unheard of.
Oakland and neighboring cities have seen MUCH higher appeciation.
What bargains? Can you link some? Seems like prices are down from the astronomical highs of a big run up to just too expensive.
Insightful. Sure, housing may very well have “been tumbling”, but that doesn’t mean SF is an overall bargain right now. At this point, declines in the overall housing price level are only reducing pandemic housing price boom gains, and by less than fifty percent.
Good views don’t always trump (sorry!) ugly!
There are too many decks and zero coherent, singular entertaining/living spaces. Fill in a deck near the top with conditioned house to great a proper “Great Room.”
i really like it but if they were redoing it, they could’ve put a hydraulic elevator in there and put the machinery part in the backyard under one of those 5 decks.
the no staging furniture is fine as it would’ve made the place look smaller. plus more expensive listings take a longtime to sell which is basically buying the staging furniture, which would be like $50K+ when that’s tallied.
those views are why we live in SF – 1st class mezzanine seats
$50K towards new kitchen counters, removing some taste-specific wall coverings, and generally freshening up the place would have gone a long way, as some other commenters have pointed out. This place is being drastically under-presented for what it is.
If you look at the 2021 sales photos, you’ll see the current owner added the koi pond, the colorful lighting and questionable wall installations. I mean, sometimes with these short-term holds, I wonder what they were doing, but it does seem like whoever owned actually LIVED the heck out of the house, if scratched up floors are a hint. Said living appears to have diminished return on value since the style is really not many people’s style, but hey, I hope they had some good times.
I grew up on this stretch of Clarendon, and it is sad how the modest older houses are being blown up with these kinds of cheap renovations–Poorly designed new(er) houses too seem to greedily claim vertical space and are glutinous when it comes to the views–see 100 Clarendon and the monstrosity next door, as well as the McMansion raze and raise on Belgrave.
Disagree. Outdoor space in SF is generally underutilized due to the weather. Expand the houses to allow for more people (including ADU’s) and larger property tax bills (helps the city and everyone in it).