Menlo Park, like its nearby neighbors, is having a bit of a real estate run right now.  Fortunately, some properties have that certain je ne sais pas that put them on our front page no matter how much Facebook employees want to buy a house.  Today’s featured facade, foisted upon us by Burbed reader peninsula.man, punctuates this perfectly.  Please proceed.

410 8TH AVE
Menlo Park, CA 94025
Offered at $699,000
- Pending (Do Not Show)

Type: Single Family Home
MLS #  ML81233923 
SqFt  2,170
Beds  5  Baths  3 Full / 1 Partial 
Lot Size 5,350 SqFt
Year / Age  1935 / 77
Virtual Tour
BuildFax 
 
This spacious and newly remodeled home with 2170 sf is in immaculate move-in condition. Beautifully updated kitchen, baths, recessed lighting, crown moldings, dual-pane windows, and Cherry engineered hardwood floors. Secure front gate with professionally landscaped yard. A perfect home with great convenient location, ready and waiting for its new owner.

And here’s what the P-Man himself has to say about this place:

Can not wait to live next to pizza hut! for just over half a million

More like almost half again over half a million. You’ve been living on the Peninsula too long if $199,000 isn’t worth mentioning in a home price.

More importantly, these photos suggest that this not-quite-vintage-enough-to-qualify-for-the-old-house-tag listing has had a few upgrades put in recently.  Very recently.  Because let’s have a look at the last time this place went pending.

410 8TH Ave
Menlo Park, CA 94025
$355,000 –  Last Sold Price

4 Beds 
4.5 Baths 
2,000 Sq. Ft.
$178 / Sq. Ft.
Built: 1935 
Lot Size: 5,350 Sq. Ft. 
Sold On: Jan 13, 2012
Property Type: Detached Single Family
View: Neighborhood
County: San Mateo
Stories: 1
Community: County Area/Fair Oaks Ave
MLS#: 81150047

This property is a fixer upper need cash buyer to buy this property

Someone had the cash, as the place went pending in eleven days.  Now look what they did to it!  This time it went pending in only seven days. 

Whoops, according to Zillow it went pending in seven days after the $76,000 price reduction five weeks after the $50,000 price reduction which was a month after this place was first listed for an eye-popping $825,000. 

Where the heck do they think they are, Mountain View?  Bunus: House is not actually next to Pizza Hut. 

You can clearly see there is a Quik-Stop in the way.  Be sure to check out the Streetview so you can appreciate this location, location, location! 

Score! Trash bins and DHO!

Remember when we asked for homes not in Mountain View?  Burbed reader Tracy Tea House did what we asked, and obliged with this wonderful Willow Glen walkup.  Thanks very much!

869 Buchser Way
San Jose CA 95125
Price:  $829,000

Bedrooms: 4
Bathrooms: 2 full, 1 partial
49 days on Trulia
143 views
Property type: Single-Family Home
Size: 2,191 sqft
Lot: Ask agent
Price/sqft: $378/sqft
Year built: 1970
MLS/ID: 81233324
Neighborhood: Willow Glen, 95125

This beautiful updated home features 4 bedrooms, 2 1/2 baths locates on a quaint Willow Glen cul-de-sac. Set back off the street with a large landscaped front yard and walking distance to popular Downtown, Fresh & Easy grocery story and River Glen Park. Convenient location, great neighborhood.

Here’s why Tracy thought this house belonged on the front page today.

TV’s on, but nobody’s home. We have an ice chest out by the pool, a full side of refrigerator notes, ominous tilting pictures, and a close up of the crack in the pool deck complete with  gloomy shadows. The front of the house takes a long view at ground level. Looks like an easy walk to the market too!

This isn’t just any tilting picture.  This is a tilting picture complete with a space-time anomaly. Buy this house and get the portal to Alpha Centauri III behind the pool heater. It’s the extras in this house that make it so quaint.

“Bunus”: A Willow Glen listing almost in Willow Glen.  But close to Fresh & Easy grocery story.

Today’s featured home is an architectural aristocrat among stupendous school districts.  Translation: wtf?  Thanks very much to Burbed reader wahnny for sending this Cupertino castle in!

7367 RAINBOW Dr
Cupertino, CA 95014
$995,000

3 Beds 
2.5 Baths 
1,523 Sq. Ft.
$653 / Sq. Ft.
Status: Pending Without Release
Built: 1995 
Lot Size: 1,742 Sq. Ft. 
On Redfin: 20 days
HOA Dues: $150/month
Stories: 3
County: Santa Clara
Property Type: Detached Single Family
Community: Cupertino
MLS#: 81234699

This is one of the only two single family homes in this five unit complex. 17 years new. Comtemporary floor plan and bright, sunny natural lighting. New carpets. Newer paint. Crown molding. Hardwood floor in living and family room. Granite kitchen counter top. Private back yard. Award winning Cupertino school Regnart Elementary, Kennedy Middle and Monta Vista High.

Here’s what wahnny had to say about why this building block became Burbed:

Just came across this gem in Cupertino.

Asking price is just under $1million for a “17 year new” 3-story 1500+sqft cube house on 1700+ sqft lot.  Not exactly a “crapshack”, but it does seem pretty cramped (small rooms) and probably noisy too (close to highway, major thoroughfares).  Perhaps a small price to pay for access to the “award winning Cupertino schools”, and/or bee-line to Apple Inc.

It can’t be that bad.  The lot is 200 square feet bigger than the house, and there is some green amid all that low-maintenance cement. Plus, fewer windows means less work cleaning them and less sun damage to your drapes and artwork.  We’d say this detached home features all the benefits of townhouse living, right down to the HOA fees!

And wahnny must have been exaggerating for comic effect about the thoroughfare and highway nearby. 

See?  We know it wasn’t that bad! There’s a handy offramp as a buffer zone!

And if we’re showing such waaaaaay out of the RBAaaaaaa listings again, that must mean we’ve heard from Burbed reader Tom Paine!  Thanks very much for sending in these properties that are of zero interest to anyone working at Google.

5636 Mcfarlane Rd
Sebastopol, CA 95472
$395,000

2 Beds
2 Baths
1,232 Sq. Ft.
$321 / Sq. Ft.
Built: 1947
Lot Size: 2.72 Acres
On Redfin: 9 days
Property Type: Residential, Detached, Single Family
Stories: 1
County: Sonoma
Style: Ranch
Community: Sebastopol
MLS#: 21222490

Contractor Fixer on close to 3 acres at the end of a private lane. 2 bedroom , 2 Bath, 1300 sq ft home on Sunny, level, gorgeous park like setting that includes fruit trees, mature oaks and a lovely pond. Nice Large clean 2 car Garage that can also be used as a workshop, additional outbuildings and plenty of room for gardening complete this private serene location. Septic and well reports on file. New 1/2 HP submersible pump. Do not miss this.

Here’s what Tom had to say about this yallar thang.

The Lovely Pond…

Is on the neighbors property.There’s a mudhole on this one. Carpets smell like something wild peed on them, the ceilings are 6’6″ and if there is any part of this house that was ever up to code it’s the rain gutters. It’s actually a nice 2 acres and change, but the house is a teardown.

Plenty more to check out in the pictures.  Lots and lots of pictures.  And not a single one of them inside.

Thanks to Burbed reader Petsmart Groomer for bringing this to our attention.  Seems all isn’t as perfect as proclaimed in Palo Alto.

Residents fight burglaries with lights, cameras, action

Neighbors devising crime-fighting strategies

by Sue Dremann, Palo Alto Weekly Staff, Friday, October 5, 2012, 8:59 AM

Many Palo Alto neighborhoods are organizing in ways they have not since the rise of Neighborhood Watch programs in the 1980s, following a string of home burglaries that have plagued the city.

From surveillance cameras to neighborhood-warning signs, residents are strategizing to deter and perhaps even catch the thieves, who have made off with tens of thousands of dollars in jewelry, cash and electronics since late last year.

Email lists from Crescent Park to Barron Park are crackling with the latest news about suspicious vehicles cruising residential streets. Last week, concerned north Palo Alto residents discussed a white van seen on their streets and gave information about it, complete with license number, to the Palo Alto police.

Neighbors’ increasing vigilance might help nab thieves like the ones who on Sept. 24 pilfered UPS parcels from a Crescent Park front porch within 30 seconds of the delivery. The resident, who asked that her name and home information not be made public, has shared images from her surveillance video with her neighbors and with police, she said.

What’s this? Crime rate up in Palo Alto, the most perfectest amazingest, wonderfulest Specialiest place in the universe? Nooooooooooo!

But we here at Burbed are confident that this approach of crowd-sourcing suspicious incidents will lead to these lowlife scum getting caught… until, as is often the case with crime in a wealthy neighborhood, the victims discover that the perpetrators were the teenaged children of their own neighbors.  We already know what those spoiled brats have been up to, hurling milkshakes at innocent pedestrians.

And don’t get too smug looking at that incident map on the top right. While that was what spotcrime.com generated for “Palo Alto, CA,” entering specific zip codes yields more crime events away from the Middlefield and Embarcadero area.   This incident map for 94301 shows more burglary and theft further northwest, and in only half the time period covered.

And dang it, that time period reported just missed the hurled milkshake.  But good news. There has been at least one arrest for car burglary.

Wow, what a week!

We started off with a bang, or at least a toilet that could have used some blowing up.  We had an abandoned construction project featuring garage space for seven cars. Not only did we have a Burbed-style debate, our Friday feature wasn’t just the usual mawbul kawlum love.  No, that house turned out to have had a murder take place on the property… while the owner was in court defending someone accused of an even more infamous murder just a few miles away.  That’s the East Bay for you!

Good thing we’re just going to sit back and read a delightful children’s story now.  It’s all about you and your shadow… inventory.  Thanks very much to the shadowy folks at Movoto for this terrific tale.  You can check out their blog for other real-estate-related tomfoolery.

Have an idea for other great kids’ books that would do double-duty explaining real estate trends?  Share them here, or share anything you want in this Weekend Open Thread.  Any Open Houses in your book?

9:50 AM: See end for update.  It’s worth it.
12:09 PM: Another update on the other murder.

It’s time to play Build a Ginormous House Somewhere Not As Expensive As The Real Bay Area and then try to find a buyer! Ready?  It’s Burbed reader J from Alameda‘s turn with this lovely Lafayette listing.

1901 HUNSAKER CANYON Rd
Lafayette, CA 94549
$1,998,000

4 Beds
3.5 Baths
6,200 Sq. Ft.
$322 / Sq. Ft.
Built: 2003
Lot Size: 13.50 Acres
On Redfin: 39 days
Type: Detached
Stories: 3+
Community: Burton Valley
MLS#: 40587017
Style: Other
View: Canyon, Carquinez, City Lights, Forest, Hills, Mountains, Mt. Diablo, Valley
County: Contra Costa

WOW! $1+M price reduction! What a buy!! 13+- acres. Gated 360% View! Italian Villa/ stone, hardwood fls, custom & antique lighting. Finest materials including stone, hardwood, beautiful moldings and mllwork. Sunrise and Sunset included ! Rm for pool tennis/guest house/vineyard. PRICED TO SELL !!!

Here’s why J from A sent this in:

As promised, a lovely chateau – in the Lafayette hills. Of note: a million dollar price reduction, a reasonable $322 a square foot and lots of columns.

Somehow it seems that 3.5 bathrooms spread across 6,200 sq feet of living space is not quite the usual ratio – a new way to measure houses – bathrooms per square feet? I am sure the buyer will be happy to have an elevator to navigate all those stories. Enjoy!

You’re right, J. We’ve noted the business of beaucoup bathrooms in ginormous houses for people with too much money and not enough taste. No wonder this place had a million dollar price reduction.  According to the LA Times, this house needs at minimum 8 rooms for waste disposal and sluicing.

Good thing it was PRICED TO SELL !!! We’ve seen enough houses that were priced to stay empty or priced to sit on the listing service for years and years.

Like, um, this house:

Even Zillow thinks the house is worth $2,169,784. Instant equity!  Ka-ching!

Update 9:50 AM: Burbed reader magdalena alerts us to this 2005 SF Chronicle article that specifically mentions the house.  In a this-would-never-be-believed-as-fiction tragedy, the wife of criminal defense lawyer Daniel Horowitz was murdered in “the entryway of the home.” Wikipedia says she was murdered in a mobile home on the property while their “dream house” was being completed.  The murder occurred four days after the beginning of a high-profile trial where Horowitz was defending Susan Polk, accused of killing her husband in their Orinda home. Horowitz had taken the case after Polk had fired her previous lawyers for encouraging her to plead insanity.

This led to a mistrial, but as Horowitz prepared for Polk’s second trial, she fired him, convinced that he had something to do with his wife’s murder.  16 year old Scott Dyleski was convicted of the murder; supposedly he intended to kill a neighbor who had run over his dog and went to the wrong house.  Polk’s story manages to get even more bizarre after Horowitz was fired (this Dateline NBC link confirms the mobile home claim from Wikipedia).

WOW!  Sunrise and sunset is just the entryway of what’s included with this house!

Update 12:09 PM: Murder kills home values as well as people.  Check out Susan Polk’s house.  We found a listing e-flyer, and Redfin has the price history:

It’s that time of year, where we watch a couple of politicians make a series of speeches talking past each other, trying to convince you to vote against the other guy. In honor of last night’s Presidential debate, we have two homes for your consideration.  Let us know which one you think is the “winner.”

Wearing the green trim, this house from the powerhouse of Palo Alto is either rolling out the red carpet or sticking its tongue out at you.  It confidently flies the Redfin flag.

253 ADDISON Ave
Palo Alto, CA 94301
$889,000

2 Beds 
1 Baths 
1,164 Sq. Ft.
$764 / Sq. Ft.
Built: 1933 
Lot Size: 6,272 Sq. Ft. 
On Redfin: 147 days
Property Type: Detached Single Family
Stories: 1
Community: Downtown
MLS#: 81217474
Style: Cottage/Bungalow
View: Neighborhood
County: Santa Clara

TFT. Leasehold. $100,000 Reduction. Charming 2 Cottages on Beautiful Roses Garden. Walk to Downtown Palo Alto. Hardwood Floor. Double Paned Windows. French Doors in Living Room Open to Dinning Room. Sun Room with Custom Built-In Bench. Remodeled Kit & Bath with Stone Slab Counters. Fruit Trees. Mo/Mo Rental for Back Cottage. Leased Land w/ 54+yrs left. Downtown Living at a DISCOUNT!Better Alternative than Condo.

And built like a brick… um, chimney, this entry in hot, hot, HOT Mountain View won’t pull out of the debate just because the agent pullled its listing.  We found photos on Zillow, so all is fair.  And it also welcomes you to the debate, giving you two different welcome walkways!

60 Starr Way
Mountain View, CA 94040
Not for Sale

Zestimate $905,916
Rent Zestimate $2,581/mo

Beds: 2
Baths: 1
Sqft: 1,049
Lot: 6,875 sq ft / 0.16 acres
Type: Single Family
Year built: 1949
Construction quality: 6.0
County: Santa Clara
Garage sqft: 360 
Last remodel year: 1949 
Legal description: TRACT 261 BROOKDALE BOOK 13 PAGE1 10 PAGE2 11 LOT 51
Lot depth: 125 
Lot width: 55 
Parcel #: 18904021 
Per floor sqft: 1,049 
Total rooms: 4 
# Stories: 1 
Structure type: Other 
Unit cnt: 1 
Zillow Home ID: 19529422 

Developers Dream! This 2 bedroom 1 bath, home sits on a6,800sqft lot with plenty of potential. Located in a prime location of MountainView with nearby shopping on Castro Street. Looking for a fixer upper Location,Location, Location! Bring your hammer, nails and imagination!

Starr starts out with a trash bin.  That’s going to be tough for Addison to counter with just a rented cottage in the back “yard.”

But wait, Addison’s on leased land!  Try finding any of that in Mountain View! Even Google hasn’t dared that trick to sneak employee housing by the City Council!

What’s Starr going to do now?  Oh, oh, speaking of Google, it’s reaching for teh interwebz, and… here’s the Redfin page!

That one’s going to leave a mark.  Streetview trashbins, plus it’s not for sale at any price. And when it was for sale, the asking price was $800,000.  That means $762 a square foot, or essentially the same as Addison.

And the winner is… which listing copy interrupted more?

Our readers have mentioned what they’re looking for in an ideal home.  Some want a big, well-organized kitchen, some want spectacular views, some want the best school district possible.  And since Silicon Valley is We-Built-That Central, we’ve heard from many readers who want nothing more than a lot of garage and workshop space.  This lascivious Los Gatos listing, lobbed in by Burbed reader nomadic, may be where you’ll end up dropping your tools, banging your head, and having the time of your life.

Oh yeah, there’s supposedly a house somewhere on the property.

119 HARWOOD Ct
Los Gatos, CA 95032
$2,895,000

5 Beds 
5 Baths 
5,361 Sq. Ft.
$540 / Sq. Ft.
Built: 1987 
Lot Size: 1.49 Acres 
On Redfin: 20 days
Property Type: Detached Single Family
Stories: Bi/Split Level
Community: Los Gatos/Monte Sereno
MLS#: 81233794
Style: Mediterranean
View: City Lights
County: Santa Clara

Under Construction! Unique opportunity to complete construction to your own taste. Serene setting next to natural open space & trails. Mediterranean home, 4 BR & 3.5 BA (2 BRs are suits with Jacuzzi), sweeping city light views from all rooms. High ceilings & skylights bring lots of natural light. SF includes separate guest unit(960 SF) w/ 1 BR & 1.5 BA * Unit has 4 car garages. Total 7 car garages.

Here’s why nomadic sent in the gorgeous garage (with ginormous garrison).

A trunkey Mediterranean (sic)! 7 car garages (huh?) 2 of the bedrooms are suits with Jacuzzis (how do you keep the water out of your shoes?)

Purchased at the height of the bubble for $2.3M, now in the “middle of remodeling” and the seller is trying for $2.9M.  Comparing with the 2008 listing, it looks like they added 1500sf, but I suspect that’s the size of the “guest house” because looking at the site, it doesn’t appear that they’ve expanded the house.  The bedroom/bath counts match up with the old 2008 listing too.

I go past this house regularly, and it seems like they’ve been working on the new tile roof for at least a year.  I figured the owner was doing it himself and was low on cash. 

Alas, the listing doesn’t show the garage as it goes through construction.  Instead, all we get are exterior shots such as this smoggy and obstructed view of Milpitas, except there’s a bunch of buildings blocking The Great Mall.  (The photo at right is from the aforementioned old listing.)

Fortunately, nomadic took some actual on-site pictures!  Ready?

As promised, here are the pictures of the current state of the house on Harwood.  It’s kind of bizarre that he started putting pavers down for the driveway and quit part way through.  Usually you can put them in pretty quickly once the hard part (the base and leveling) is done.

The guest house (bottom left) looks kind of abandoned, just like the main house.  The view from the main house is pretty good; you can see Communications Hill (no big deal) and downtown San Jose.

Still can’t see the Great Mall.  Might as well go back to the garage and enjoy that seller financing.

If you’re looking for a house, or simply enjoy looking at houses, sometimes you may think that they all are starting to look alike. (Well, except for yesterday’s featured folly.)  Today we find out it’s true, courtesy of Burbed reader Dr. Jim.  The doctor is in, and he wants this Los Altos Hills listing to say “Ahh, instant equity!”

27540 Sherlock Rd
Los Altos, CA 94022
$1,649,000

Zestimate® $1,655,794
Est. Mortgage $5,754/mo
Beds: 4
Baths: 3
Sqft: 2,056
Lot: 119,790 sq ft / 2.75 acres
Type: Single Family
Year built: 1952
On Zillow: 130 days
MLS #: 81219574
View Virtual Tour (opens new tab)

Private Retreat on 2.75 Acres with views out to the Bay! 2 level home with opportunity to remodel or expand. Wrap around front deck showcasing the view, paneled cathedral ceilings with exposed beams, spacious rear deck and patio with spa and fire pit. 4.2 kW solar panels (6400 kWh per year) supply much of the home’s electricity & heat the hot tub. Excellent Los Altos schools!

Since we had to showcase one property, we chose the 540.  Any listing that doesn’t lead with the front of the house must have a problem somewhere.  It’s peppered with photos (like these) that we suspect are not to be found anywhere on those 2.75 acres.

Now here’s what the doc had to say about this precious pair of properties:

I’m still enjoying Burbed immensely.

Here are a couple of listings in Los Altos Hills that use the same picture for the purported view.  Perhaps we should cut the realtor some slack because the street name is the same. 

However, he is looking at $100k in commission for these two babies, so I’m not cutting him any slack!  I think the street name is very appropriate, given my incisive powers of observation!

No ship, Sherlock! Click on either picture to observe the Zillow listings for yourself.  The photos are #13 for 27223 and #10 for 27540.  Also the former had a $100K haircut so far.  Just sayin’.

We note a couple other curiosities besides the matching photos (which may not be on either property).

1. According to Redfin, these properties are in Los Altos Hills.  But the Zillow entry states they are in Los Altos.  One of them rejects your realty and subdivides its own!

2. Speaking of Redfin, only 27223 is listed, and the duplicate photo has mysteriously been removed from the collection.  27540 is not to be confused with 27640 Sherlock Court. (which looks like it needs a big ol’ Burbed hug of its own someday).