Squatter-battered San Francisco house sells for $400K over asking price
Chalk up another one to San Francisco's utterly deranged real estate market.
This house — listed at $799,000 on Feb. 24 and described in its own sales listing as "in a deteriorative state; needs everything, not for the novice" — just closed at $1.21 million, all cash, according to Curbed San Francisco and confirmed by Yahoo Homes.
Just seven years ago, in May 2008, the same house was marketed as a "beautiful oceanfront view home" with "a beautiful sun room with new picture windows," an outdoor workshop and hot tub, a "tranquil east-facing garden" and more. The listing pictures showed a cute and well-kept century-old cottage with pride of ownership inside and out. It was listed at $899,000 and sold within weeks for $935,000.
What happened? In a word: squatters.
"I'll tell you this," listing agent Nana Meyer told Yahoo Homes. "I looked at the [2008 listing] pictures and I almost started to cry. ... I had assumed that it had been deteriorating for a long time." Squatters had occupied it for the last year or so.
We asked her whether she was surprised that she'd managed to sell it for $411,000 more than the asking price.
"It was a difficult property to price," she said — it's in a "terrible state" and needs "absolutely everything." So she assumed she'd need to get the attention of contractors and decided to "price it very attractively."
But it's in the Outer Sunset neighborhood, and she was "not counting on the popularity of this house and its location," she said. Twenty years ago, no one wanted to live there, she said, but now "that neighborhood is so in demand. ... There's this whole hip surfer dude thing happening right now." And Great Highway, where this house is located, "is a thing unto itself," Meyer said.
"Fielding inquiries on this listing became a full-time job by itself. All I did for those two weeks was answer emails and return voicemails and texts." She'd arrive for a showing and find seven or eight agents and their clients there already.
Ultimately, Nana Meyer fielded 13 offers — and the winning bid wasn't a contractor at all, but a young couple with children relocating from Cambridge, Massachusetts. And no, they aren't in the tech industry, she said.
"They're a lovely family and they're going to make it into a really nice home again, and that's a nice thing."
Click here for a slideshow of the home, including pictures before and after the squatters.
Also on Yahoo Homes:
• Vacationing family stumbles across abandoned French chateau, decides to restore it (55 photos)
• Silicon Valley single mom lives in one-car garage for $1,000 a month (20 photos)
• Rundown trailer is $1.2M, after price increase (11 photos)
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