This Million dollar house can be a million dollars with some work
814 HARPSTER DR
Mountain View (Mountain View) 94040
Attached Single Family (Class 1)
Bed/Bath: 3 / 2
SqFt: 1,217
Lot: 5,076 sq ft
Age: 58 years
List Price: $949,000
Assoc Fee:
Live near downtown Mountain View. Walk to parks and Pete’s Coffee. Great home with decent sized lot. Clean and well landscaped. Room in price for your improvements on kitchens and bathrooms to turn this into a real GEM. Newer roof and HVAC.
Lot size has been corrected to reflect County records. With 5076 sf well landscaped, you are ready to enjoy this home from the start. Even if you have only the slightest creative abilities, you can see that the basic layout of this home provides any buyer an opportunity to really do some fun things on the interior with bathrooms and the kitchen. This is a home that I would want to own myself. As a licensed General Contractor, I see this home as being easy to work on and improve to that million dollar level that other comps on the market are priced at. If you look at size and location, it has all of that. It doesn’t take a whole lot of imagination to see the potential in this home. I would be happy to show this home anytime. Feel free to call me with any questions. There should be some flyers in the box out in the front of the house. By the way, the owners are willing to get creative with financing. All of which would be subject to lender approval.
So let me get this straight… with some work, this million dollar house can be as great as… a million dollar house!
WOW! What an opportunity!
That’s the one advantage homeowners have over renters: freedom to improve their housing. Poor renters, never able to spend money on their residences, never being able to spend their weekends mowing the lawn, fixing the roof, fixing the bathroom, or fixing the kitchen. They’re just throwing their money away when they could instead be investing in assets like remodelling.
Talk about a deal!
March 20th, 2008 at 7:37 am
Mountain View will be following Redwood City into the pit soon. Look at all the homes in that fine peninsular town clustered between $300-350K, which are still not moving at that price, for an illustration.
March 20th, 2008 at 8:15 am
Best line ever:
“By the way, the owners are willing to get creative with financing.”
March 20th, 2008 at 9:07 am
>> Live near downtown Mountain View. Walk to parks and Pete’s Coffee.
Damn. too bad it’s near Pete’s Coffee. If Starbucks, I would buy it immediately.
March 20th, 2008 at 10:32 am
That’s the one advantage homeowners have over renters: freedom to improve their housing. Poor renters, never able to spend money on their residences, never being able to spend their weekends mowing the lawn, fixing the roof, fixing the bathroom, or fixing the kitchen.
—————
I cannot see the listing at MLS-2 anymore. Damn, one more home is “snapped up” in “Spring Bounce”! Probably one of those Facebook employees. These guys are making my life hard. They deprived me from “enjoying the warmth of my own home” and “left out in the cold”. Now I look like a homeless – carrying my belongings in stolen shopping cart from grocery store.
And worst of all, they deprived me from “watering my lawn”. Above picture shows that this home has a nice big lawn. Damn, if I bought this home, I could water my lawn all days, all nights. I could stop going to movie theater, save $9 and water my lawn – all days, all nights. I would stop going to vacation, save $2000 and water my lawn – all days, all nights. I could tap my home equity, stop working and water my lawn – all days, all nights.
Shame on me! I am missing the “pulse of the market” and ending up losing this amazing with home.
BTW, if you know what I am talking about, read post #45 from here:
http://www.burbed.com/2008/03/14/spring-bounce-is-here-5-monthly-appreciation-is-back/#comments
March 20th, 2008 at 12:26 pm
How about this one?
http://mlslistings.com/Reports/Main.aspx?propertyId=835195
The $1,299,000 price is “Priced as a LOT, house included at no extra cost-needs TLC” – pay $1.3 mill just for the luxury of tearing it down & rebuild or to spend lots of TLC fixing up the existing place
March 20th, 2008 at 2:41 pm
Link doesn’t work. What’s the address?
And that’s not that unusual. This is not actually a housing bubble.. it’s a land bubble.
March 20th, 2008 at 2:49 pm
A mil for a 60 year old, POS fixer upper? “near downtown mountain view” is NOT a selling point in my book, some nice areas and some hinky areas around there.
But you WILL be close to Scientology! Getting audited? Collect E-meters? Working towards the Bridge? Mountain View’s the town for you! And since Scientology will demand every penny you can get for them, you can give up your car and just walk there. Why, you can put in bunk beds and turn it into housing for little Scientology sea cadets. Eventually the ghost of Elron himself will tell you in a hunger and sleep-deprivation inspired dream to hand the house over to them for the Cause, and your loss will be well …. RE goes up and up and UP forever right?
March 20th, 2008 at 6:53 pm
I hate to break the bubble. But this POS just sold to the tune of…drum roll….
2/21/2008
Sold for $938,500
Now i wonder who this stupid MF is?
The whole house is only like 60 yrs old, with nothing ever changed. The trees on the lawn are killing your garden, i saw it when i drove by.
But you get lots of action with Pete’s nearby(and Rose market bring on the dead lambs and meat butcher aroma) and also complimentary Homicides just across El Camino on Elkhorn.
Maybe a gangsta bought this. If that’s the case neighbours start packing.
Just when we thought we ran out of Morons… another one bites the dust….
March 20th, 2008 at 8:09 pm
Dumb, dumb. Nothing like being a slave to pay off a mortgage on an asset that won’t appreciate at that price for at least five years. At least they’ll get a nice tax deductions…
March 20th, 2008 at 8:12 pm
Could that possibly be “Peet’s”, not “Pete’s”?
March 20th, 2008 at 10:11 pm
Dammit it’s Peet’s people.
Oh and the Bean Scene in Mountain View sucks. In fact, most things in Mountain View suck. The only things that don’t suck that I know of are the really cool fish/reptile store, and the really bitchin’ convenience store across from it. That is the most perfect convenience store I’ve ever seen. You owe it to yourself to spent serious time in both places, really.
March 21st, 2008 at 9:00 am
The only downtowns that have any appeal for living next to them are Palo Alto, Los Altos, Los Gatos, Burlingame and Willow Glen. I’m not sure about Saratoga. Any Real estate agent that puts “WOW! live next to Mountain View… Sunnyvale… Redwood City… etc” in their ad is obviously a newcomer (likely foreign) or just stupid. The problem with most downtowns is they are on the *wrong* side of el camino, once the wrong side of the tracks, although very expensive now. But the houses next to these areas esp mtn view and sunnyvale were built for almost nothing because they were for the lower income people. Thats the problem, and it continues to be true. Palo Alto and Burlingame are an exception, even though they are on the left side of El Camino. Willow Glen doesn’t have El Camino.
Oh and by the way, people probably aren’t old enough to remember that real estate used to be a largely discriminative profession. The industry of real estate was fined countless times for steering whites away from certain areas and others to other areas, about 40 years ago. Well in my opinion that is still somewhat true today. Many of these “downtown” areas have houses that are only slightly less expensive than the good areas like this house. For one million you can get a smaller house in a GOOD area of Mtn View, why would anybody want this. What you will find is these less desirable but still expensive houses are full of people with subprime loans that real estate agents have pushed in there. Thats who winds up with all the too expensive, dumpy houses- the subprime crowd.
March 21st, 2008 at 9:09 am
I guess I’ll disagree.
I like living near Castro Street. I run at night around 11 pm and have no worries about my safety. I can bike from my residence to Foothill Expressway and then off to Woodside and up to Skyline pretty easy. Easy access to Stevens Creek Trail. Eagle Park has a great swimming pool for lap training. The library is within walking distance. The farmer’s market is within walking distance. A couple of good Asian restaurants on Castro, esp the new Kyoto style NamiNami. A good used bookstore.
The Nob Hill nearby has been renovated. A great Japanese supermarket down the street.
If you don’t like driving, being near Castro is amazing. What’s the point of living in the Bay Area if you aren’t going to be outside to enjoy it.
Now the pricing is ridiculous, I’ll grant you that, but the hate for Mountain View is unwarranted. (I guess that’s the difference between the outdoorsy folks and those that think that Dave and Buster’s is entertainment and good food)
March 21st, 2008 at 9:13 am
If you don’t like driving, being near Castro is amazing. What’s the point of living in the Bay Area if you aren’t going to be outside to enjoy it.
But I work 80 hours a week… don’t the rest of you?
March 21st, 2008 at 9:55 am
Right, Castro is the only decent area in MV. Though it’s surrounded by ghettos with low income apartments and 1 million shacks that will collapse if major earthquake hit them. Bad school is a good bonus for living in the area. That’s why it’s so fun for singles now. Family people live in the beautiful PA.
March 21st, 2008 at 10:02 am
> Burlingame and Willow Glen. I’m not sure about
> Saratoga. Any Real estate agent that puts “WOW! live
> next to Mountain View…
Dude, you probably need to learn local geography before posting. Sunnyvale’s DT is not in the low income area. School district there is decent too. Check out movoto.com. Besides, they’re rebuilding mall and going to put multi-million $ houses in the area.
P.S. With all respect Willow Glen’s downtown just plain sucks. Sorry. Burlingame is ok, but nothing special.
March 21st, 2008 at 10:20 am
I agree that Mountain View downtown is pretty nice place, but have you checked the schools? They are not as bad as the schools in East Palo Alto, but close. What else would you expect from the town with dozens of cheap apartments and low income housing complexes? Paying a million for the house and sending your kids to ghetto schools just does not make any sense… Even if you do not care about schools, people who do will not buy nearby, your neighborhood will not be getting any better. For the money you have to pay for that place you can find a house in Los Gatos or just rent something nicer petty much anywhere you want and save the money.
March 21st, 2008 at 10:38 am
Are the schools in Mountain View really that bad? That’s completely contrary to what I’ve heard.
Data please.
March 21st, 2008 at 11:16 am
Crossroads, the schools and the neighborhoods that are west from El Camino (close to Los Altos) are good. But this is not the case with the areas around downtown. “Half Elementary” – one of the good schools in MV, that I know about, but good luck finding decent middle or high school.
March 21st, 2008 at 11:27 am
Misprint above “Half Elementary” in my post should be “Frank L. Huff Elementary School”
But here are not so good ones:
Look at “Student Ethnicity” and “Students participating in free or reduced-price lunch program”:
http://www.greatschools.net/cgi-bin/ca/other/5577#students
http://www.greatschools.net/cgi-bin/ca/other/5575#students
http://www.greatschools.net/cgi-bin/ca/other/12071#students
March 21st, 2008 at 11:32 am
Have problems posting the reply with the links to school ratings and stats for some reason…
Misprint above “Half Elementary” in my post should be “Frank L. Huff Elementary School”
March 21st, 2008 at 12:05 pm
Sorry, there’s a 2 URL limit before a comment gets caught in the anti-spam filter. Approved your comments though.
March 21st, 2008 at 12:10 pm
Oh. I see. If possible, please delete my posts 21 and 22 as duplicates as well as this one…
March 21st, 2008 at 4:20 pm
I know Huff, and I know the schools in the area. I grew up in the bay area and am over 40 now, so you do the math. Huff is on the other side of El Camino, not the downtown side- Huff is on the “Los Altos” side of mtn view I guess you could say. The downtown side of Mountain view (East side) is where the bad schools are. Its residual from the past, but believe me, it takes FOREVER for that residual to die down. I don’t think the people here are getting my point about downtowns. Its not that the downtowns are any good or not. Downtown SJ is great to hang out in, but you wouldn’t want a house there. The problem is the neighborhood AROUND the downtown. It shows up in the schools and other things. Mtn View, Sunnyvale, Redwood City, etc are all downtowns who were bad parts of town years ago, and even if they put “million dollar” homes in there now- check out the schools, they will never be the best. Willow glen different story, which is why the houses in WG are the most expensive in SJ. There are a bunch of CA distinguished schools right there- Booksin is one. High schools not good because those are larger and contain kids that are not from the immediate willow glen area. I highly doubt that Downtown Sunnyvale has the best schools in Sunnyvale. Downtown Sunnyvale and Downtown Mtn View are east side.
March 21st, 2008 at 4:22 pm
Mountain View is nice, although there are many areas of Mountain View where I would not want to live. The library downtown is much nicer than the libraries in Palo Alto or Sunnyvale. Mountain View has a really nice small town feel to it with a nice civic center and theater. The Bean Scene has good food but lousy bakery items and the coffee is decent. There are a lot of nice restaurants and great places to spend a friday or saturday night.
It is a great place to live if you work in Mountain View, Palo Alto, Sunnyvale or San Francisco.
I still don’t feel the prices for the homes are justified, and neither are the rents these days.
March 21st, 2008 at 4:44 pm
Bubb and Landels are also on the distinguished list, Huff is not.
Both Landels and Bubb have students from the downtown area, or areas within walking distance to downtown.
The schools seem to change as the demographics change. My old high school (also in the bay area) wasn’t a very good school until more college educated professionals began to buy houses and the working class people moved out. The scores began to change for the better as more Asian and Indian immigrants began to move into the area.