Purchased for $7.3 million eleven months ago, the full-floor, two-bedroom unit #3 in the iconic Beaux Arts building at 1001 California Street has suddenly returned to the market with a $7.9 million price tag.
The 3,500-square-foot unit was completely overhauled in the late 90’s by Andrew Skurman and Suzanne Tucker, traded for $4.5 million in October of 2011, returned to the market priced at $12.8 million in late 2018, and had been reduced down to $7.9 million in April of last year, prior to last year’s sale at roughly $2,100 per square foot, which was officially “within 8 percent of asking” according to all industry stats and aggregate reports.
If you think you know the high-end market in San Francisco, now’s the time to tell.
How can people with so much money plan so poorly? Did they even move in?
Maybe the sellers never planned to live here, and they are just looking to recover that $600,000 difference from eleven months ago. After all, don’t they say in real estate that you make money on the buy? Hope they managed to snag a good rate on an interest-only ARM.
HOA fees $6,600 per month? Is that typical for high end condo bldg?
As one data point, you can compare The Park Lane, at 1100 Sacramento St. about a block away, which has a Penthouse Apt 1002 currently on the market asking $7,995,000 for 3 bedrooms, 3.5+ bathrooms, 4,320 ft.² and HOA fees of $6,357 per month.
For my $8 mil, that unit at the Park Lane is much nicer in terms of finishes (the dark paneling in the unit that is the subject of this post might have a more limited audience). The views from this unit cannot be compared to those provided at the Park Lane penthouse. Also, my dog would appreciate the patio at the Park Lane unit.
Given that the unit at the Park Lane has been languishing for >6 months, this one appears to be seriously overpriced.
That doorman gets paid.
There are some buildings like this around the city. I asked the building manager in one of them on Vallejo why the fees were significantly higher than other buildings and he said that there is a concierge who basically handles part time residents. That means, when you are about to fly in, the Bently will be gassed up, your condo will be cleaned. Any damage will be repaired, and your fridge will be stocked to your specifications. They’ll check the AC and plumbing and fix everything before you get there so there are no problems with your stay. If something comes up, they have services that will drop everything and come right away. Whatever else you need is a phone call away. When you leave, the fridge will be cleaned out, the Bently drained and the condo will be cleaned again.
I asked him if all that was done for free and he said of course not, they charged an additional amount for every one of those services. The high fees were just to have someone on staff who would arrange all that stuff and then check to make sure it was done right. Those fees are a share of someone earning $300K that you can trust to just handle everything intelligently who will never tell anyone no. You call and it’s done and done right and to the highest standards and that person does all the inspections and arguing with the service providers while you do nothing but show up and find there’s nothing that was done even 1% wrong.
The math still didn’t seem to work, but they probably have a higher standard for groundskeepers, housekeeping staff, maintenance, the painters probably come by one a month to touch up paint, and they likely even have a security service on retainer they can call.
Yeah, this building doesn’t have that. Just standard union doormen.
I dont see this selling until a more than $1MIL reduction from asking….i.e. $6.5 MIL or less.
Its noisy / streetcars.
Nice but not broadly appealing interior design.
High HOA’s.
Tree top views but not too many real views.
UPDATE: The list price for 1001 California Street #3 has just been reduced to $7.5 million, a sale at which would represent total appreciation of under 3 percent over the past two years on apples-to-apples basis.