Recent Deal Mishmash

It's interesting to see who's making deals at this time of year. The later we get, the more interesting, we suspect.

Here are a few of the very most recent pending escrows to post, and a little background on each property.

513 3rd (5br/5ba, 4000 sq. ft.) is a newer (2002) Mediterranean on a street-to-alley lot near Robinson school and the flat family walkstreets.

Recently we noted that the sellers were "starting to get realistic on price," after cutting to $2.399m. Last year, they were $400k higher.

Here's the sales history from the early part of the decade:

• June 2002 (new): $1.620m
• Sept. 2004: $2.260m (+$640k/+40%)
• May 2005: $2.750m (+$490k/+22%)

It's hard to figure that huge markup from '04 to '05, but if they settle now nearer to 2004, near that $2.399m asking price, it makes some sense. One to watch for the sweet South End.

222 Dianthus (3br/2ba, 2725 sq. ft.) is really not much as a home, a 60s original with some updates here and there, including a kitchen remodel that's less than 20 years old. 

The property has been a long-term rental, and was recently offered for sale and for rent at the same time. We've always been leery of the "master" upstairs sharing its bath with the principal living spaces in this "upside-down" layout, and disappointed with the insufficient views the home gets from its top-of-the-hill location. (The private notes on the listing plaintively say that if the floor were higher up, you'd have better views.)

At least we can say that the sellers' ambitions have adjusted a lot over time. In December 2007, they tried for $2.399m. Klonk! Most recently, this year, they were at $1.875 to start. Klonk! 

A cut to $1.649m, the most recent list price, made it more compelling, as did the custom painting and staging.

Bottom line: That's a 5500 sq. ft. lot with better view potential than the current home features. You can see where someone might go with this. One to watch up on the hill – how do they end up here?

228 23rd Place (2br/2ba, 1000 sq. ft.) has been one of the more unusual offerings in the Sand for a couple of months.

As we described on Labor Day weekend, it's a short sale on a half lot that had been partly renovated inside – until the owner evidently ran out of money and left most of the walls not just bare, but gone. And the flooring, too. The home is almost all bones. You had to tread carefully just to tour it. 

Recent trades of 228 23rd Place include:

• June 2000: $580k
• Aug. 2002: $701k
• Sept. 2005: $1.170m

228 23rd Place began at $825k but came down to $759k before a buyer knocked. That's major punishment below the 2005 price (-35%), not too far up from 2002. But everything's relative. What can you really do with this property? Its long-term fate is surely to be scraped and made new by someone ambitious, even if you can see the remodeling potential for now.

2301 Vista (3br/3ba, 2420 sq. ft.) far surpasses the other properties in the mix in this post, lacking the kinds of distress or question marks of the others.

Still, this newer (2002), modern TH had lingered more than 8 months before finding a buyer this week, and was last barely marked up over a late-2009 price.

No doubt, the style is a smashing statement, and the views are "significant," we've said, from those floor-to-ceiling windows on the glorious top level.

The front unit of this building, 2300 Alma, basically the same size, traded in April at $2.1m.

2301 Vista was last asking $1.939m, or 8% less, and had traded previously for $2.099m in Jan. 2007, $1.9m in Nov. 2009.

What's the market for a top-end TH with "significant," if not commanding, views? Soon we may know.