This house has easy access to gasoline station, home depot, best buy
It’s East Palo Alto week!
1912 PULGAS Ave, East Palo Alto, CA 94303 | MLS# 80913446
1912 PULGAS Ave East Palo Alto, CA 94303
Price: $798,000
Beds: 2
Baths: 1.5
Sq. Ft.: 1,260
$/Sq. Ft.: $633
Lot Size: 9,944 Sq. Ft.
Property Type: Detached Single Family
Style: Cottage/Bungalow
Stories: 1
View: Neighborhood
Year Built: 1949
Community: East of U.S. 101
County: San Mateo
MLS#: 80913446
Source: MLSListings
Status: Active
On Redfin: 151 days
HUGE LOT ALMOST 10,000 SQ. FT. ACROSS FROM SMALL MARKET. PUBLIC STORAGE AND GASOLINE STATION NEARBY. CLOSE TO HOME DEPOT, BEST BUY, ETC.
Some people might value being near the water, near good schools, near their church. But let’s face it, in hectic Silicon Valley – you want to be near the essentials. This house is near a small market (food), gasoline (energy and food), home depot (repairs and food), and best buy (fun toys!).
Let’s see what else it is close to:
And, it’s a green house – symbolizing your commitment to the environment. It’s like wearing one of those bracelets saying you support a cause, except that you’re living in it.
However, living in a green house may attract attention… thus:
You see, sometimes you’ll need to keep those crazy tree huggers away. This fence will provide your tree with some privacy.
Hey, for $633 per square foot (though a 10k lot), that’s the least the owner could do!
August 26th, 2009 at 7:07 am
This is absurd. For less money you can get this duplex west of 101.
August 26th, 2009 at 7:51 am
Yes, Sonarrat, it’s nuts. for this you can get something very nice in Cambrian. Or possibly even a fixer in Sunnyvale CUSD or West SJ CUSD. this place is not even that nice inside, the only redeeming quality is the large lot.
Of course the Svale or WSJ houses probably don’t have bars on the windows, or the tree-protecting fence.
August 26th, 2009 at 8:50 am
Home Value Estimates are under $300k for this property. Another EPA owner smoking crack.
August 26th, 2009 at 8:53 am
The duplex sonarrat posted is 10x better for 10% less.
August 26th, 2009 at 9:14 am
I personally like the grill on the windows. Makes you feel safe in EPA.
August 26th, 2009 at 1:02 pm
With 10,000 sq feet, you can install your helicopter pad in the back yard and commute in style! This house doesn’t say ghetto, it says EXECUTIVE RETREAT! This is where you go to get away from your busy CEO job. Why? Because nobody would EVER look for you here.
August 26th, 2009 at 6:12 pm
I noticed that a duplex (or more) for the same price commands a higher rent than the same price SFH.
exhibit a:
The duplex cited above. Asking $710k. Let’s say each half gets $1700 (just a guess). That’s $3400/mo. But, if you were to buy a $710k sfh, it might rent for $2400/mo.
Exhibit B:
I saw a listing for a 8plex in Gilroy, for $1.35m. Let’s say the rents are $1k each. So $8k per month. But a $1.35m sfh would probably rent for around $3500 or so. In fact the 8plex comes close to break even. $8k/mo = $96k per year. 1% prop tax + 6% mortgage on $1.35m = $94.5k per year. (I know that zero down mortgages are not available on multi family, but I’m putting a cost of money on the down payment too. plus this is a swag.) Now, owning an 8plex is a hell of a lot of work to do to break even. but it’s better than losing money on a rental sfh.
Plus, with multiple units, a landlord gets some diversification against a bad tenant or a long vacancy.
So, why should this be? Economically speaking there should not be such a disparity. I can think of four possibiities, but am interested in more.
1- my assumptions are wrong
2- mortgages are higher on multi-family, since the landlord can’t pretend that it will be owner occupied. (not sure if that still works anyhow)
3- SFHs are primarily bought for owner occupied, so people are willing to pay a premium over the rent-equivalent. (like me)
4- SFH rental market is low due to people who inherited houses, or are renting out their starter house. they aren’t really paying the true cost, due to low mortgage and prop 13. and they haven’t considered that they might be better off by selling the property and investing elsewhere.
any other thoughts? Where’s the guy from LA, we need some serious analysis. (sorry, forgot the name).
August 26th, 2009 at 7:00 pm
I think you hit on it with 2, 3 & 4. It’s also the higher density you can get with a multi-family unit – the parallel is how small houses sell for a higher $/sf than a larger house in the same neighborhood.
August 26th, 2009 at 7:05 pm
With that many units, it might just make more sense to hire a property management company. Though I’ve heard not so great things about that too.
August 26th, 2009 at 7:44 pm
You can get economy of scale with duplex or multi-family units. You can even buy a 4-plex for the price of a single family house. There’s a catch, though. Most of these properties are located in commercial areas or less appealing neighborhoods. However, if you’re in EPA, it doesn’t really matter where you are, does it?
August 26th, 2009 at 7:47 pm
Driftwood Salvage is near there also (driftwoodsalvage.com), so at least materials for fixing the place up would be easy to get. (Oops, I posted this in the next thread down by mistake.)
August 27th, 2009 at 8:27 am
Nomadic, you are right on. the land is a big % of the total cost around here, so putting 4 units on the same land is cheaper per unit. Good point.
So I suppose the analysis would be different where land is cheap, like the Midwest. Or Austin. Or TN.
Ok, to the slumlord-mobile!
December 9th, 2009 at 9:07 pm
Reduced to $699K (on Oct 23).
July 21st, 2010 at 5:54 am
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