Serf’s Up in Redwood City!
Sometimes Burbed readers find a great house to share but can’t wait for us to write it up, post it and finally have it appear. After all, we only post one house per weekday. So instead they post the house to comments, and then we think, dang! That’s such a terrific find, if only they’d sent to us for a write-up. And sometimes we think, oh hell, we’ll write it up anyway! So, you may have seen this before, but it’s getting the Full Burby! Our thanks to Burbed reader Tuno for this insightful look at socioeconomic disparity.
Remember, if you prefer the element of surprise, you can always send listings and contributions to either burbed or madhaus (at) burbed.com.
367 Alameda de las Pulgas, Redwood City, CA 94062
$509,000
BEDS: 2
BATHS: 1
SQ. FT.: 750
$/SQ. FT.: $679
LOT SIZE: 0.25 Acres
PROPERTY TYPE: Detached Single Family
STYLE: Cabin
STORIES: 1
VIEW: Neighborhood
YEAR BUILT: 1926
COMMUNITY: Cordilleras Heights
COUNTY: San Mateo
MLS#: 81100851
SOURCE: MLSListings
STATUS: Active
ON REDFIN: 43 daysBank Owned Home located in one of the most desirable areas of upper Redwood City. This home offers 2 bedrooms, 1 bath, kitchen and living / dining room combo. The lot size is approximately . 25 acres. This home has great potential. Seller is extremely motivated – all reasonable offers welcomed.
Here’s what Tuno had to say about the house:
this is one of my favorite houses at the moment, because it is a perfect Serf House. if you go to street view and look at it (you may have to scroll up the road a little), it looks like an ordinary very modest little house. then turn around and see what is across the street. Presto - you can be the live-out serf!!!
the house across the street may not be as magnificant as your examples, madhaus, but *they* don’t include serf huts.
Well, we’d best take a look at that Street View and see what Tuno is talking about! Here’s the so-called Serf House we’re featuring today.
Not many Street View photos manage to fit three different houses on three different lots into one picture, but this one did it! Wondering how? Have a gander at those lot lines!
Hey, let’s have that peek at the house across the street, because its profile is wider than it is deep.
Whoa! The other place had both neighbors elbowing their way into the picture, but this housing tumor just crowds the lens! After looking at this across-the-street view, you’ll feel like you live in picture #9 from the listing:
They’ve even left the door open for you! Maybe the current live-out serf is hard at work threshing the wheat. No wonder the seller is extremely motivated!
February 25th, 2011 at 9:53 am
Who was the idiot who built the tasteless mansion across the street from the dumps? Who would buy such a place?
I guess the gardener’s and maid’s commute is short, so it helps if you need them in the middle of the night, but talk about a house over-built for the neighborhood!
February 25th, 2011 at 10:30 am
I drive by this crackhouse on my way to work and way home every day. I had honestly not looked up the price on this bad boy. I am shocked it is as high as it is. This is NOT ‘upper redwood city’ as it’s on the wrong side of the street. Yup, Alameda is the delineation between trash and treasure as is so painfully evidenced by the mansion overlooking the hovels.
And yes, that mansion is waaaay over built for the location. You need to get over the top of Jefferson and towards woodside or way up Oak Knoll before that house would start to fit in.
February 25th, 2011 at 11:16 am
#2, I was hoping you’d weigh in on this house and its steroid-plumped neighbor. In a way, it reminds me of the Mawbul Kawlum excess on Purissima; not just wrong for the neighborhood, but wrong all by itself because it’s a formerly poor person’s idea of a wealthy person’s abode. The Purissima Palace had fake columns (hollow concrete casts), wonder what corners were cut with the Master’s House here?
February 25th, 2011 at 11:47 am
There are several egregious overbuilds on Alameda between Jefferson and Whipple. This one is one of the worst. Not to mention the fact that it fills the lot from front to back and side to side. If I have a mansion, I do NOT want zero line lot action on it. Where’s my dang grounds for keeping my menagerie?
February 25th, 2011 at 12:44 pm
…housing tumor…
ROTFL! A thumbs up for you.
February 25th, 2011 at 12:47 pm
Did anyone happen to notice what the foreclosed pwners bought the place for in April 2006? Brace yourself. $750,000. No joke.
February 25th, 2011 at 1:08 pm
#6 => 50% instant equity.
February 25th, 2011 at 5:06 pm
750k? What would this rent for? 800 a month? A thousand times monthly rent.. Absolutely hilarious.
February 25th, 2011 at 6:30 pm
It’d rent for more like $500 a month. Taken out of your paycheck for maid/blowjob services across the street. Probably has a dirt floor just inside that door and is a poorly converted stable or something.
That neighborhood is a slum anyway. A friend of mine was robbed at gunpoint not far from there.
February 25th, 2011 at 7:50 pm
“What would this rent for? 800 a month? A thousand times monthly rent.. ”
Are you forgetting that renters, definitely not owners, are the ones who get priced out forever? lol
February 25th, 2011 at 11:29 pm
Redfin: now with 700% more foreclosures! New feature today:
http://blog.redfin.com/blog/2011/02/redfin_now_showing_700_more_foreclosed_homes.html
A quick look at a couple of the better zips doesn’t exactly make me fear shadow inventory. However, I suppose the 320 in San Jose erodes the foundation of the local housing market a bit.
Just for fun, here’s a few:
East Palo Alto, 29
Palo Alto, 2
Menlo Park, 6 (all North of 101)
Mountain View, 3
Los Gatos, 8
Sunnyvale, 16 (most are North of 101)
Saratoga, 3
Los Altos, zero
February 25th, 2011 at 11:51 pm
Well, dang. And I was planning to pick myself up a few Serf huts across the street from the Beverly Hillbillies.
February 26th, 2011 at 2:14 am
very nice write-up, madhaus!!!
I actually kind of like the serf hut. but if I lived in it, I’d have to look at that giant piece of excrement across the street. it reminds me of those revolting enormous funguses that grow on corn, that people in South America cook up and consider to be great delicacies.
February 26th, 2011 at 6:47 am
“A quick look at a couple of the better zips doesn’t exactly make me fear shadow inventory.”
While in some areas the so-called shadow inventory is in large part a result of foreclosures, I know a few people who are not underwater, but expect the market to suddenly go up by 20%, or more. Why sell today for $1M when you can wait a short period of time and sell for $1.2M. Of course there is no guarantee here, and more likely, some sellers might be surprised to find that the $1M homes are now worth less than the $1M.
February 26th, 2011 at 11:42 am
The only thing we have to fear is fear itself… lol…
Unless one is in a mid to upper tier home. The type of home which people usually rolled their pretend bubble equity from a starter home into. With scores and scores of underwater home”owners” from circa 2005 – the ones who would be ‘move up buyers’ except for the fact that they’re under water – there won’t be much ‘rolling over of the equity’ for a LONG while…
May 6th, 2011 at 2:27 pm
When I watched that thing going up, I was sure it had to be a condo duplex or trio. Right? Right?
So wrong.
June 24th, 2011 at 9:31 pm
SOLD for $450K on June 15th. That was after 3 price reductions, and the house sold in 2006 for (get ready) $750K.
Thanks for sfbubblebuyer for mentioning this in today’s thread, and of course to Tuno for first bringing this treasure to our attention.
November 2nd, 2011 at 5:07 am
[...] are two reasons Tuxxi sent this in to Burbed. First, the neighborhood. Serf hut next door, [...]