Great starter home–ready for move in or remodel in Palo Alto
Beds: 3 Baths: 1 Sq. Ft.: 905 $/Sq. Ft.: $1,133 Lot Size: 6,875 Sq. Ft. Property Type: Detached Single Family Style: Traditional Stories: 1 Year Built: 1950 Community: Barron Park County: Santa Clara MLS#: 81049730 Source: MLSListings Status: Active On Redfin: 89 days Looking for a great starter home, move in ready, remodel or maybe build your dream home in the Barron Park neighborhood, this is the property for you. Quiet area close to schools, Parks and shopping. Perfect investment opportunity for the savvy investor/builder.
Every everyone! Check out this fantastic deal! Just $1,133 per square for for you to tear down, or move into. It’s amazing how things can be both perfect opportunities for investors/builders and be move in ready. But this is the kind of innovative and agile spirit that we have in the Real Bay Area.
So let’s see… buy it… tear it down… build a 2000 sqft home on it… hey, that’s not too bad at all! Just $1.625M all in! Sweet what a deal!
Better buy soon. This is the year Real Bay Area prices roar back. I’m calling it now – $2000 per square foot in Palo Alto by this time next year!
January 31st, 2011 at 7:36 am
Wow – sweet place. Life in P***A*** sure looks fancy. I’d be willing to drop a couple of mil on that ole double wide. It’d be worth it to be REs neighbor.
January 31st, 2011 at 8:41 am
“Seller is licensed Real Estate Agent.” He’s doing brilliantly too. Listed over 100 days and still no price drop in spite of going into and out of contract in October.
January 31st, 2011 at 8:55 am
Gunn High school, baby. With Gunn High, everything is worth 20x what it would be just across Loma Verde and attending Plebian Paly.
Everything in the GHS district sells immediately–just like this property–and the overbid will take this house well into the two-millions.
It’s only a matter of time.
January 31st, 2011 at 9:02 am
Isn’t Gunn where the kids keep killing themselves because they can’t compete with the Chinese students with the tiger mothers?
January 31st, 2011 at 9:06 am
#2- “Still no price drop?” Have you lost your P*** A*** mind? Let me remind you: In P*** A***, as time passes the price goes up, not down.
January 31st, 2011 at 9:17 am
“Everything in the GHS district sells immediately”
Immediate as in over 100 days according to Redfin.
January 31st, 2011 at 9:47 am
This can be a good house after adding about 1000 square feet to the interior. At $200 / sf construction cost, it requires $200K. Then the house will be at $1.2M/2000 square feet, or $600/sf.
January 31st, 2011 at 10:01 am
For 2 times not-a-whole-lot-of-money, you too can enjoy the wonderful Palo Alto life.
Remember, the value is in the land!
January 31st, 2011 at 10:27 am
Take a look at the Streetview for today’s house. There’s a car with a cover on it, parked right on the front “lawn.” Two houses down is a McMansion. If you want a deal on this house, go to the neighbor in the yuppie house and ask how much they’ll pay you to buy out Jed Hatfield and tear this crapbox down. I bet they’re much more motivated than the seller.
January 31st, 2011 at 10:38 am
Isn’t Gunn where the kids keep killing themselves because they can’t compete with the Chinese students with the tiger mothers?
—–
Not true. Actually tiger cubs are killing themselves. That’s how
ChineseChuanese style parenting purges out “incompetent” kids.January 31st, 2011 at 10:39 am
Take a look at the Streetview for today’s house.
There’s also a lovely Pinto.
January 31st, 2011 at 10:42 am
@6:
Everything is “immediate” for the right definition of “immediate”.
I’m surprised they aren’t asking 1.888.888 for this place.–I guess just because the overbid woudln’t be as high.
January 31st, 2011 at 2:07 pm
Oh dear, a lovely little starter home. I do hope it’s still there after I contact my trust fund manager. I just know this is what Mummy and Daddy had in mind when they put away all that troublesome cash for me. I think I’ll ask for $500,000 to put down. After all, that’s not a lot of money.
January 31st, 2011 at 3:07 pm
Ahhhhh. The REAL Bay Area. Thank goodness you found a remaining corner of it. Sometimes I worry it has disappeared completely, but a $1,133/sqft teardown? Automatic qualifier. The values is in the land.
This is one of the stupidest purchases you could ever make. Great post, burbed!
P.S. Last sale 1992 for $278k. The seller is almost EXACTLY using the doubles every 10 years price formula. Real Estater, is this your listing?
January 31st, 2011 at 5:36 pm
Whenever I see postwar tiny little houses like this for insane amounts of money I can’t help but wonder what the original owners would think if they were told back in 1950 that someday their small little starter home would one day command a 1 million dollar plus price. The price of this house is nothing short of absolutely insane.
But hey- this things’s got one nice thing goin’ for it… just look at that nice PICTURE WINDOW! I’ve heard those are all the rage these days.
January 31st, 2011 at 8:56 pm
Where’s the garage?
January 31st, 2011 at 9:17 pm
You don’t need garages with great properties. Definitely not in Palo Alto.
Garages only diminish property value.
January 31st, 2011 at 9:38 pm
This is the Burbed I remember, wasn’t there a rule saying that to be in the RBA, the price had to be over $1000 a square foot?
January 31st, 2011 at 9:39 pm
That’s right. Our local expert said so. A garage is a wasteful use of precious lot square footage.
January 31st, 2011 at 9:39 pm
“This can be a good house after adding about 1000 square feet to the interior. At $200 / sf construction cost, it requires $200K. Then the house will be at $1.2M/2000 square feet, or $600/sf.”
And the next step is to sell at $1,200 psf (or more), thereby doubling your money.
January 31st, 2011 at 9:50 pm
“That’s right. Our local expert said so. A garage is a wasteful use of precious lot square footage. ”
Why store cars when you can store proles instead?
January 31st, 2011 at 10:32 pm
Even better would be to have a negative garage on this property. After all, if 2 is pedestrian and one is chi-chi, and none is de rigeur, than negative is hoity-toity. Such as a sinkhole in the driveway.
January 31st, 2011 at 10:35 pm
Maybe you could get SLAC to whip up a little black hole for you.
February 1st, 2011 at 8:57 am
A comp (in far off Saratoga)
“Golden Triangle” Diamond in the rough. Home damaged by fire July 09. Interior stripped to frame. Most fire damage in the roof. Buyer to determine permits, inspections, repairs, etc. Spacious Single Level Home on Large Corner Lot. Directly across the street from Argonaut Elementary School.
http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/13179-Shadow-Mountain-Dr-Saratoga-CA-95070/19655654_zpid/
Sold for $1.13m in June 2010. Similar to the PA house in that it’s not livable as sold. This one is under construction now.
Considering this comp, I’m actually surprised that the PA house has been on the market for so long.
February 2nd, 2011 at 2:00 pm
Boom. Pending @ 1.025 Mil. $1133 psf.
On the next street over 797 Cereza is pending at 1.5 Mil , ~$750 psf.
Couple streets further down 3695 La Donna is pending at 1.37 Mil, $979 psf.
Barron Park es en fuego.
February 2nd, 2011 at 2:03 pm
I can’t understand why anyone would buy those Barron Park places when properties like 13264 Rhoda in Los Altos Hills are offered at 1.4 million. It boggles the mind.
February 2nd, 2011 at 2:47 pm
Boom. Pending @ 1.025 Mil. $1133 psf.
RE’s new rental?
February 2nd, 2011 at 3:53 pm
Is “Pending with release” still considered pending?
That needs to be updated to something more appropriate, such as “Waiting for a domino to fall somewhere.” Too many people are waiting in a continuous loop chain where everyone is waiting for a someone to start the chain reaction.
February 4th, 2011 at 9:34 am
28- Yeah, the “with release” sure does add some uncertainty. I used to discount this form of pending entirely, but recently I’ve seen a number of “with release” places end up closing- especially the short sales (I guess banks are finally recapitalized sufficiently/tired of dealing with foreclosure sales). Since this place isn’t a short sale, it probably means the prospective buyer is trying to unload another property before they have freed up enough capital to complete this transaction- but something about that doesn’t smell quite right. I mean, what kind of move-up buyer would buy this dinky place? Anyone who has owned a home before knows this is way too small and will need a ton of work. If they are planning on remodeling/expanding it, they should have a pile of cash ready to throw at it, but if that were the case, they wouldn’t need to unload their existing property before closing the sale. Perhaps the offer is low, and the seller wants to invite more offers by making the existing pending status appear to be shaky. It will be tres interesting to see how this ends up!
February 4th, 2011 at 3:14 pm
SanMatean, with “with release” because maryjane (#13) needs to get the trustee to approve it.
February 4th, 2011 at 4:27 pm
Nomadic – he won’t let me have the $500,000 to put down. He said it IS a lot of money. Who knew!
February 4th, 2011 at 4:52 pm
500k wasn’t a lot of money when you could borrow 500k with zero down. If you actually have to earn it, it is a fair amount of money.
April 1st, 2011 at 10:42 am
And Boom. 580 Georgia sold for $1,020,000 3/30/11. Crazy. Looks like the seller had to make a $5K concession. I bet they’re really broken up over that one!
For those keeping track, 790 Cereza (built out, just around the corner) sold for $1,520,000 on 2/24/11. $20K over asking! TO THE MOOOOOON!
Barron Park es en fuego! Nothing currently offered for under $1.5M. Back in the 80s this neighborhood was populated by Palo Alto school teachers, artists, a few SLAC scientists and the rare doctor or MBA-professional type. I have no idea who lives there now, but they must have access to money.
April 1st, 2011 at 10:57 am
“Looks like the seller had to make a $5K concession. I bet they’re really broken up over that one!”
More like $15k:
Feb 24 asking price: $1,035,000
Mar 1 pending
Mar 30 sold for $1,020,000
Ultimately we’re talking about 1.5%–if it were $15k over, BFD.
Similarly for the other sale:
“$1,520,000 on 2/24/11. $20K over asking!”
That’s under 1.5% over.
Much more impressive is selling a small home (905 square foot) for over $1M. My guess: The value is in the land…
April 1st, 2011 at 11:39 am
No doubt someone is valuing that land at insanely high levels. With the construction industry nuked, perhaps building costs have come down enough for this to make sense. But you have to figure that anything new put in there is going to cost $500K to build at a minimum, more likely pushing 700K. For $1.5M-1.7M you could have bought a nice place on half an acre plus in Portola Valley, Los Altos Hills, Woodside, or Hillsborough. Or you can live in Barron Park. It must be the Palo Alto brand. The funny thing is that kids in Los Altos Hills, Portola Valley, Woodside, et al, refer to the kids in PA as “poor people”. Hi-larious.