We’re back with our second week of the Blogging from A to Z Challenge, so let’s resume! Today’s post is brought to you by the letter G. And when we hear G on this blog, we think of our absolutely positively favorite development eveh! That’s right, G is for Gables End! Thanks very much to Burbed reader Petsmart Groomer for Guaranteeing Gables End will always be one of our Guideposts.

If you’re a new reader to Burbed, you may not have heard of this townhouse complex before. Gables End was built right at the end of the Bubble, on some land that was under the Gentle Guidance of the EPA, but the development sold out anyway.

Why? Close to Google!

851 DONOVAN Way
Mountain View, CA 94043
Sold for $740,000

3 Beds
3 Baths
1,352 Sq. Ft.
$547 / Sq. Ft.
Built: 2008
Lot Size: —
Sold On: Mar 6, 2013
HOA Dues: $197/month
Stories: 1-3 (Low Rise)
County: Santa Clara
Property Type: Townhouse
Community: Rengstorff
MLS#: 81305251

Fabulous newer townhome! Wonderful floor plan with lots of natural light throughout. Open kitchen has granite counters & ample cabinets, spacious living room w/ large windows, wood flooring throughout main level, crown molding & decorative touches throughout. High ceilings. Lots of storage both inside & in the attached 2 car garage. Close to park, shopping & freeway access. Don’t miss!

We all missed it! Gone in four days!  And Given our Generous coverage of the Gables End Gin-up, watching a resale Generate a Greater fool buyer at 9.6 percent above asking price just brings tears to our collective eyes. And it’s no Glitch! Here’s another Gables End unit, asking $719,000, virtually Given away for $805,000!

You Get it, even Gables End is now part of the Greater RBA. Oh, this is just so Gorgeous.

For those of you joining this blog, already in progress, we’ve been sharing Real Bay Area real estate win since 2006.  (Check out the archives at right!)  So Burbed has been around the block once already, back in the good ol’ days of high prices for not much house.  Then we watched sellers get greedy and wait too long for a better price, until they had to start chasing the market down, and down, and down…

This lucious little lodgement in Los Gatos illustrates that we’re on our way back to 2006 again!  Thanks very much to Burbed reader wahnny for sending it in!  (Of course it’s pending!)

134 LOMA ALTA Ave
Los Gatos, CA 95030
$998,000

2 Beds 
1 Baths 
797 Sq. Ft.
$1,252 / Sq. Ft.
Built: 1930 
Lot Size: 7,000 Sq. Ft. 
On Redfin: 20 days
Status: Pending Without Release
Property Type: Detached Single Family
Stories: 1
Community: Los Gatos/Monte Sereno
MLS#: 81240778

a fine example of the original California Bungalow. Perfect for a small family starting out or ideal for retirement living walking distance to the village. Very deep lot with fruit trees and alley access, too.

Aww, that’s so cute! It’s like a dollhouse, only smaller!  Here’s why wahnny wanted us to wander on over:

For almost $1 million, one can buy a 1930s-style 800sqft bungalow on 7000 sqft lot in Los Gatos!  It actually looks pretty clean inside and out, so it’s not exactly a “crapshack” (as per Burbed standards).  Perhaps “crampshack” describes it better (although in comparison to adjacent homes/lots, it could be argued otherwise).  Well, other than price, this might be quite a deal!

That’s like saying, “Well, other than being on a Superfund site, Gables End might be quite a deal too!”

Success breeds success at Burbed, and our coverage of Google Central just keeps leading to more submissions as close-in as possible. Today’s property is a real treat because it’s so close to everything.  Thanks very much to Burbed reader Michael Boltonestater for this mixed-use manse in Mountain View.

1941 COLONY St
Mountain View, CA 94043
$828,000

BEDS:  3
BATHS:  1.5
SQ. FT.:  1,105
$/SQ. FT.:  $749
LOT SIZE:  0.27 Acres
PROPERTY TYPE: Detached Single Family
STORIES: 1
YEAR BUILT:  1950
COMMUNITY:  Rengstorff
COUNTY:  Santa Clara
MLS#:  81227723
SOURCE:  MLSListings
STATUS: Active
ON REDFIN:  1 day
 NEW LISTING (24 HOURS)

Zoned industrial, currently used as a single family house, not allowed to increase the living sqft. Can be used also as mixed residential/industrial. Currently considered non-conforming use and can be kept this way. City will not allow to change the industrial zoning to residential zoning.

This agent is such a defeatist! Of course the city will allow to change the industrial zoning to residential zoning.  The only question is, how much will it cost to encourage them to do it?  When you see what this house is near, the answer to whether it’s worth it isn’t just yes, but FOUKING HELL YES.

We’ve seen mixed residential/commercial zoning before, but this house enters a new paradigm for the Silicon Valley engineer/inventor who doesn’t want to be limited to just the garage.  Take a look at all you get just on your block!  Places to build things or store things or blow them up to the left, other is-this-a-house-or-a-wrecking-yard mysteries to the right.  It’s a win either direction you go.  

Plus, look at the  neighborhood we’re talking about!  It’s not often that the vehicles go so perfectly with the front yard decor.

And across the street, it gets even better!  No less than Burbed’s favorite townhouse community EVER!

If Burbed were a business that actually made any money, this house would be the place we’d be headquartered. So run out and buy the place, and start your Web 3.1 empire today!

And just wait until you hear where this prime location, location, location is!  Thanks very much to Burbed reader dollarbin for this terrific townhouse!  And of course, it went pending in one week!

1901 Newbury Dr (Unable to map)
Mountain View, CA 94043
$659,000

BEDS: 3
BATHS: 3.5
SQ. FT.: 1,879
$/SQ. FT.: $351
HOA DUES: $197/month
LOT SIZE: –
PROPERTY TYPE: Townhouse
STORIES: 1-3 (Low Rise)
YEAR BUILT: 2010
COMMUNITY: Rengstorff
COUNTY: Santa Clara
MLS#: 81218499
SOURCE: MLSListings
STATUS: Pending Without Release
ON REDFIN: 13 days

Fantastic 2 year old townhome end unit in a prime location. Formal tile entry, 1st floor jr. bdrm suite, hardwood floors, large & open kitchen w/ granite counter, gas stove, stainless appliances & island, inviting living rm w/ office nook, generous size bedrms, grand master suite w/ high ceiling & walk-in closet. Custom shutters thru-out, skylight, central AC, 2 car garage & great natural lighting.

Here’s why dollarbin sent in the townhouse:

This one came on the market last week, I’m pretty sure it’s in Gable’s End: the address is Newbury but the entrance is on Colony St.

Are the photos re-used from a previous listing? It’s supposed to be an end unit, but the exterior shot seems to centered on the middle units. No idea what the interior actually looks like. Seems like a pretty half-assed listing, no mention of Google? No mention of Facebook? I’m going to need some more ALL CAPS HYPERBOLE before I warm up my overbids.

From looking at the original Gables End ads, this photo sure looks like one of their offerings. And there’s some interesting history on this property as well.  Zillow says it sold in November, 2010 for… $208,500!  That’s quite a price, given that they were advertised as starting in the low $600s.

Zillow also gives this place of ZEstimate of $735,800, which means instant equity galore for the lucky buyer!  Or some serious overbidding.  That is, if anyone could find the place, since Redfin couldn’t.

But it’s in a prime location.  Or did they mean a super location?

Here’s a great find from Burbed reader and occasional Guest Editor sonarrat!  Many thanks for this listing in Google’s backyard!

 

1988 PLYMOUTH St, Mountain View, CA 94043
$935,000

BEDS: 2
BATHS: 1
SQ. FT.: 640
$/SQ. FT.: $1,461
LOT SIZE: 0.4 Acres
PROPERTY TYPE: Detached Single Family
STORIES: 1
VIEW: Neighborhood
YEAR BUILT: 1935
COMMUNITY: Rengstorff
COUNTY: Santa Clara
MLS#: 81127711
SOURCE: MLSListings
STATUS: Active
ON REDFIN: 98 days

Great opportunity in Mountain View. Blocks from Google and in the path of progress. This is an older two bed one bath home on a huge lot, perfect for a family who wants property or for a developer. New construction coming two parcels away.

Here’s what sonarrat had to say about this house:

We have a new Burbed classic in the making. This one’s in the path of progress! Why, you ask? They’re building a stairway to Google!

That’s even better than an overplayed Led Zeppelin hit, because it won’t hurt your ears and it costs nothing to look.

In the path of progress, indeed! But doesn’t that mean it’s going to be condemned under eminent domain?

At least it has electricity!

Now, check out the neighborhood.  I’m not sure which parcel has the new construction coming, but there sure seems to be a number of multifamily units quite nearby. You’ll have so many more neighbors to socialize with, or at least so many more cars blocking your driveway.

Actually I think I might have found it, at least I found a bulldozer.

It sure would be a shame to lose that terrific vehicle collection.  Maybe they could put them in that nice parking lot next door.

But this house has something even better going for it than the bridge they’re building to Google.  Look what you have in easy walking distance.

Yes, if you ever get tired of this house, just remember, you could be living here!

Anyone check out Fusion Sunnyvale?  Burbed reader Petsmart Groomer found some of the marketing copy a little over the top:

Your life is a frenzy of color, flashing lights and movement. Facebook. Twitter. Email. Blogging. Texting. Meetings. Deadlines. Commuting.

Every day you take on the world. So, you deserve to come home to a beautiful place where you can recharge and relax, entertain and regroup. You want a neighborhood that is alive and vibrant with a fitness room to workout, places to mingle and space to hang out with your friends. You deserve soothing gardens to wander, a putting green to play and walking paths for your dog. It’s your time to do what you want, when you want, in your own community.

Introducing Fusion at Sunnyvale, a townhome community filled with everyday things that fuse your life. The homes have style and all the features you desire at a price you can afford. At the hub of the neighborhood, there is a fitness center, theater, Wi-Fi bar and fire pit. Everything that you need at the end of a long day.
So take on the world, then come home. To Fusion.

As Burbed reader Petsmart Groomer correctly notes, you can’t spell FUSION without F-U.

So let’s take a good look at this complex that’s such a wonderful place to call home, they show a chair instead of the “Spanish-Eclectic and contemporary architecture by KTGY architects.”

You have to click all the way down to BLOG to find out what the place looks like!  And the name of the blog?  “Short Fuse.”  How clever!  They already worked out that the properties would be selling shortly through their preferred lenders!  (More coming shortly after the break!)

(more…)

A couple of weeks ago we featured this, um, charming house in Palo Alto.  Within 7 days, the price went up $150k, because if house was featured here, it was obviously worth far more than that lazy realtard had suggested!  Obviously he/she just wanted a quick commission and didn’t care how little money the bank netted after eating the first mortgage, the second mortgage, the HELOC, the hazardous cleaning team, and the poo guy.

But after making the front page of Burbed,  the Beautiful Eichler with Pool got a more upscale description: “Live down the street from $7,495,000 home.”

So without any further ado, here is the $7.5M house!  Thanks very much to Burbed reader Petsmart Groomer for mentioning this house in comments.

1535 EDGEWOOD Dr, Palo Alto, CA 94303
$7,495,000

 

BEDS: 5
BATHS: 5.5
SQ. FT.: 7,743
$/SQ. FT.: $968
LOT SIZE: 0.43 Acres
PROPERTY TYPE: Detached Single Family
STORIES: 3
YEAR BUILT: 2002
COMMUNITY: Green Gables
COUNTY: Santa Clara
MLS#: 81117522
SOURCE: MLSListings
STATUS: Active
ON REDFIN: 4 days

Incredible Hampton Style home with all the bells and whistles. Great North Palo Alto location, large lot and terrific Palo Alto schools. A rare opportunity to get a move-in home of first class quality and design. Designed and built for family living, you won’t find anything like this available for sale within 20 miles, let alone in Palo Alto.

We’ve already discussed that a homedebtor can list a house for whatever s/he wants, but it’s what a buyer will pay for it that determines the “value.”  Back in the heady days of Pay Option ARMs and OPM and PPM (whoops, that refers to how much poo per million in the swimming area), a buyer would look at the asking price and offer 15% above that. Then they’d hope the homemade cookies, the family photo, and the offer to hand-wax the seller’s Porsche for the next five years would lead to an offer being accepted.  Now, with the housing market in freefall, anything goes, which unfortunately includes agents too lazy to include the full nine pictures on Redfin when six will do.  Just six pictures, for a house with an asking price of $7.5 million.

So, is this house actually worth $7.5M?  Don’t forget that it’s “down the street” from the Beautiful Eichler, let alone in Palo Alto.  0.7 miles “down the street.”

The good news is that for an extra $6.5 million, you aren’t next to a freeway exit ramp, so you have a better chance of pretending you’re in the Hamptons.  The bad news is you’re next to East Palo Alto instead. 

I mean next to EPA, not “down the street” from it.  Right behind the back yard on the other side of the creek is Collective Roots, a nonprofit that teaches sustainable gardening and food system change (I think that’s PC for eating stuff that was actually alive).  It’s educational, which means lots of East Palo Alto kids visit their site, which is behind this house.

Let’s take a good look at what kind of neighborhood you get for $7.5 million.

Yeah, you won’t find another $7.5 million place next to this much high-density housing within 20 miles!

How are you going to celebrate Easter?  Will you have an egg hunt?  A brunch or dinner with family?  A sunrise service at a church?  Or maybe you’re lining up all the houses you’re going to look at now that Spring Bounce has arrived almost as late as possible. 

The latest Easter can ever be is April 25th, if you wondered… unless you follow the Eastern church’s calendar, where it could fall as late as May 8th.

Easter is a “moveable feast,” meaning the holiday is not set to the Gregorian calendar we regularly use.  Instead, it has an easy-to-understand algorithm mixed with a more complex one.  The one anyone can follow is this:  Easter is the first Sunday after the full moon after the vernal equinox.

That’s the easy part, even if we throw in that we’re talking about the date of the equinox in Jerusalem.  The difficult part is when the Catholic Church decided that “full moon” was going to be the 14th day of a lunar month (on a calendar that was a lot like, but not quite, the Jewish calendar, probably because they worried about getting sued for copyright), not what anyone could observe by merely looking in the sky.  Furthermore the equinox was always going to be March 21st, even though the astronomical equinox can actually take place on March 19th, 20th or 21st.

Anyway, you will be pleased to know that the Church has computed Easter Sunday for the next six thousand years.  Thus an institution dedicated to their Savior’s return is hedging its bets against that occurrence well beyond the foreseeable future. 

And that is also the reason the housing market is still in the toilet: Late Spring Bounce this year.

This is an open thread.  There are probably no Open Houses today, but you can peruse listings online, maybe send in a favorite for us to write up as a featured house, or you could just share it in comments.

Let Spring Bounce begin already!

Here’s a great find by Burbed reader sfbubblebuyer, from the comments.  Usually we prefer that you send listings to us so everyone can enjoy discovering it together, but sometimes a shared find is so notable, so amazing, so completely without any value to a buyer but lots of value to a reader, it deserves the full Burbed treatment.  And there’s plenty to note here!

2115 EDGEWOOD Dr, Palo Alto, CA 94303
$850,000

BEDS: 4
BATHS: 2
SQ. FT.: 1,614
$/SQ. FT.: $527
LOT SIZE: 7,875 Sq. Ft.
PROPERTY TYPE: Detached Single Family
STORIES: 1VIEW:
Neighborhood YEAR BUILT: 1956
COMMUNITY: Green Gables
COUNTY: Santa Clara
MLS#: 81113857
SOURCE: MLSListings
STATUS: Active
ON REDFIN: 5 days

beautiful eichler home * Great value * Backs to the exit from 101 to Embarcadero. Make offer subject to inspection please. ..

Here’s what sfbubblebuyer had to say about this “beautiful eichler home.”  It was not “* Great value *”

If they’re going to drop a deuce like that on us, they should at least PRICE it like a PA deuce.

This isn’t a deuce, sfbb!  This one is at least an eight, as in I sure would eight to live here!  Wow, complete with an exit ramp?  I can’t wait to submit my overbid.

But wait, there’s more!

All those lines, the wall, the ceiling, the radiator, the fence… it’s a perspective exercise from hell.  Agent must have flunked out of art school.

You know who else didn’t finish art school?  That’s right!  HITLER!

…the drawers, the tiles, the transoms, make it stop, I’ll tell you where the secret codes are kept, I’ll confess anything you want…

Did this agent not take Real Estate Photography for Dummies* and Why You Should Never Photograph Outside When Sun Is High?

Plus a US Mailbox, conveniently located right in the backyard!

*But I repeat myself.

Whoa.  That carpet, so suggestive of Bermuda.  If Bermuda’s waters were cut on 90 degree angles and careless aligned.  And what’s with the sky in these pictures?  Did someone take a 2 hour Real Estate Photography and How to Use Photoshop to Make That Sale instead of the full 16 hour series?

Rather nice of them to show us the pool without the Bermuda carpet.  Everybody in!

Ah, blissful summer days, playing Marco Polo until the all the ponies drowned.

Seeing the pool like this sure gives you a whole new perspective on the pleasures of owning one.

I think this last photo is my favorite.  Note clever product placement in foreground.

You know what? This house isn’t a deuce and it an eight either.  This is a Jack!

As in, would somebody please take a Jackhammer to this place?

We’ve got some big changes coming, folks.

SEATTLE, WA – April 1st, 2011 – Redfin, the internet-savvy online real estate firm, has announced an agreement to acquire the award-winning Silicon Valley real estate site Burbed and all its subsidiaries.  Redfin CEO Glenn Kelman explained at an industry conference that their strategy of thinking outside the box meant they had to wander further than most people expected.  “Customers appreciate our online tools and our agents who work on salary, plus our rebating part of the commission back to the customer,” he explained in an interview with Instant Equity Today.  “But we’ve pretty much maxed out on finding clients who know they want to buy property.  Those people tend to come to us.  Now we’re going to find the people who say they don’t won’t to buy.  We’ve found if we can identify those people and give them the right message, they tend to spend even more than the motivated buyer.”

Burbed, based in the renowned Gables’ End complex in Mountain View, CA, has generated quite a following among home aficionados who love to criticize the excesses of the housing market. “Anyone who would buy in this environment must be smoking something,” opined one regular commenter on the site.  The typical fare found on Burbed features home listings that few would consider desirable.  Part of the site’s appeal is its ability to demonstrate how out of whack pricing is with current market reality, although there is also a strong interest in seeing just how bad some of the offered property can be.  And Redfin couldn’t help but notice that all Burbed listings come direct from Redfin’s search tools.

“Yesterday they had this place that a tree fell on,” enthused a regular reader in Gilroy, home of the internationally famous Gilroy Garlic Festival.  The listing had three pictures of this house completely crushed by this humongous dead tree.  Timber!”  Other regulars described the typical Burbed listing as either an overpriced “crapbox,” or a house with no visual appeal whatsoever, or an even more overpriced house with serious flaws the seller was blind to.

Kelman said such strong passions among Burbed’s readership indicate a desire to own a house, and Redfin will find a way to get those people locked into discount-priced mortgages (also sold on Redfin).  “Look, my orders are to get as many people obligated to my financial overlords for the next thirty years.  This is the best way to find people who can buy but don’t want to.  Hey, I’d prefer you not print what I just said.”

Burbed’s CEO and majority shareholder, who would not identify him/herself other than by “burbed,” admitted that the current site content creators might not enjoy working for their new owner.  “But look, they can buy a million dollar place and save $12,500.  That’s a lot more than I was paying them.”  One of the content creators, when asked to comment on the news, unleashed a stream of profanity and turned her guitar amplifier up to 11.

Kelman also admitted part of his interest in buying the Burbed syndicate, which was accomplished via a 10% first mortgage, a 5% HELOC, and an undisclosed number of suitcases of cash, was so he could have first crack at any Real Bay Area listing featuring marble columns.  “Damn, those are some of the best houses out there.  I want one.  I want to pinch myself and say I live here!  How ridiculous is that?”

Both firms, coincidentally, were founded in February, 2006.  Burbed will move its headquarters to Seattle but maintain its RBA presence.  “I don’t’ see how we can update that RBA map if we don’t,” explained burbed, while dodging a falling piano.  A Seattle version of the Burbed site is expected by the third quarter.