Home services

San Francisco’s ‘worst home on the very best block’ bought for $2M

There’s a common truth in real estate: “Buy the worst house on the best street.” In doing so, buyers can reap the benefits of owning lucrative property for cheap — and have a fixer-upper to call their very own.

But the San Francisco real estate market has warped that idea quite considerably, after a decrepit Noe Valley home with zero bedrooms and two bathrooms sold for $1.97 million.

The pre-1906 fire property, sold last Friday in a conservatorship sale, is billed by sellers as a “contractors special” — real estate speak for major fixer-uppers that are a time and money sink. The property listing on Zillow makes no bones about its current state of disrepair and brands it as a diamond in the rough, going so far as to call it “the worst house on the best block” in the listing.

It sits on 2,158 square feet of land, and according to the Real Deal, which first reported on the sale, is zoned for two homes.

“Surrounded by many multimillion dollar homes; this is the best opportunity on the block and your chance to make it shine as bright as the neighbors,” reads the listing.

(They’re not entirely wrong: Properties in the same ZIP code with comparable square footage sell for more than $2 million, according to a recent Zillow search.)

It was first listed in September for just under $1 million, but was in contract for $1.4 million before the final buy.

Local real estate blog The Front Steps listed some major gripes about the structure going as far back as 2006 — with neighbors alleging that the building shed lead paint and was “blighted.” The property most likely has bedrooms, but as explained by the Front Steps, none of them are inhabitable and cannot be advertised as bedrooms.

It went viral on the Facebook page Zillow Gone Wild on Wednesday, with commenters griping about the cost of living in California and some others clamoring to fix up the place themselves.

“Never have I ever wished to be able to flip a house until this minute,” said one commenter.

Compass, the real estate agency for this property, did not immediately respond to a request for comment from SFGATE.

Related Articles

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Back to top button