NNN Brokers USA – San Francisco Commercial Real Estate Brokers: "The Scoop"

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New to the market is this 3-bed, 3.5-bath condo near Buena Vista Park. Listed at $1,725,000, we think you’re paying mostly for the jaw-dropping views rather than the nicely-done paint jobs or the questionable layout. For example, we tried the counting bedrooms game, and came across a diagonal daybed in a room which has no doors and faces the main foyer. So knock it down to 2-beds right off the bat. As for the baths, we found a toilet next to a bay window and a seating area. Unless you prefer to hold court while you’re doing your business, this is quite strange. Could this have been the missing bedroom, pre-remodel? We may never know. Oddities aside, it is a light-filled, spacious condo. You get two floors, a gorgeous open kitchen, skylights in the master, your very own parking, and HOA is only $300 per month, leaving you with plenty of pocket money to boot. We suggest you spend it on very modest window treatments for your very exhibitionist bathroom.

· 55 Alpine Terrace [Redfin]

Hello and good afternoon, gentle Curbed readers. You might have noticed some additions to our regular lineup over the past few weeks. That’s because Curbed SF has brought on two new contributors, Abby and Andrew. Without further ado, then, let’s have them introduce themselves.

Meet Abby Pontzer, in her “professional” blogging debut. When she’s not pretending to put that journalism degree to good use, she makes popsicles for strangers and organizes the sorriest kickball team this side of the Mississippi. Originally from Minnesota, she lives in the Lower Haight and refuses to call it Hayes Valley, no matter what any realtor map says. She enjoys writing about any topic with a public urination angle and hopes someday to have an unwarranted in-law unit to call her own.

Andrew Dalton blogs around town for SFist, the SFAppeal and from his own neighborhood (whose name he disputes with the Association of Realtors) at Aggressive Panhandler. You may also recognize him from a brief stint as guest editor of our sister site, EaterSF.

Zillow just released a list of the top 10 haunted homes in the U.S. Top of the list? The Winchester House in San Jose, which is more bizarre than haunted. Number 7 on the list is our very own Chambers Mansion in Pacific Heights with it’s notable ghost Claudia. “Legend goes that Chambers lived here with his two nieces who hated each other. When Chambers died in 1901, the nieces inherited the mansion. One reportedly bought the house next door and moved in while the other sister, Claudia, stayed. Claudia reportedly loved pigs but met her fate one day when she was nearly cut in half from what her family called a farm implementation accident.” [Zillow]

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Although we can’t pinpoint the original architect of 227 Edgewood in Ashbury Heights, we do know that it underwent a remodel by architect Henrik Bull of Bull Volkmann Stockwell Architects in the mid 60′s and again in the late 80′s. Standing large at 3,116 square feet, this 3-story, 4-bed, 4-bath singled home has just hit the market with an asking price of $2,599,000. Although there are all sorts of special bells and whistles that we want to highlight, we’d rather start our focus on one small detail that’s close to our hearts that we think makes this home just a little more special: cork flooring. Not throughout, but in the bedrooms and workroom. It’s natural, extremely rapidly renewable, soft on the feet, holds warmth better than wood, and a rarity around these parts. It’s a real win. With that said, we’d like to point out the pot rack in the kitchen. Readers, dear readers, when will San Franciscians learn that a pot rack is not appropriate for homes built on a fault line? We understand that it’s a certain aesthetic and even practical but in the event of The Big One you don’t want to worry about Grandma’s cast-iron skillet falling on your head. Other property highlights include: fantastic views of pretty much everything; location, location, location; landscaped outdoor space aplenty; skylights throughout; two wood burning fireplaces; and Corian countertops in the kitchen.

· 227 Edgewood [Redfin]

[Ten Ten via Curbed Flickr Pool/Chris Saulit]

· Appreciate the beauty of Stow Lake [Civic Center]
· Will Clipper cards single-handledly destroy SF transit? [Mission Local]
· San Francisco awarded for its greening [SF Appeal]
· Newspapers react to the Giants winning the pennant [McCovey Chronicles]
· Sunday Streets happened in the Tenderloin. It rained [Tenderblog]
· Riding the 14 all night long [Mission Local]
· Taggers behaving badly [Uptown Almanac]
· San Francisco: then and now [OPEN SPACE]

“Passage,” a 25-foot stainless steel sculpture meant to mimic an old wooden ship, has been installed at the Moscone Recreation Center at the corner of Bay and Laguna Streets in the Marina. The sculpture “pays homage to ships that carried early settlers to the San Francisco bay.” The sculpture was designed by local artist Kent Roberts. [SF Gate]

[Alamo Square, 6:52AM via Curbed Flickr Pool/Octoferret]

· 505 Montgomery’s wacky architecture explained [SF Appeal]
· Gosh, San Franciscians, get a hobby! [SF Citizen]
· PAWS opening up in the Mission [Mission Local]
· Cool photos of Muni in action [Muni Diaries]
· Berkeley is so stereotypically Berkeley [Go Back To Berkeley]
· We will always and forever have a surfer population [Uptown Almanac]

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Was: $1,895,000

Then: $1,795,000

Now: $1,695,000

You Save: $200,000

This 2-bed, 2.5-bath condo on the 35th floor of the St. Regis residence can’t seem to catch a break. Perhaps it’s the $2,174.29 monthly HOA dues? Certainly it’s not the $225 leased parking fee, that’s chump change to these folks. So, what’s the problem? Listed in June for $1,895,000, the current owners have taken two $100,000 chops to the place, bringing down the current asking price to $1,695,000. Unit 35B is one of the highest NW corner B units available. It’s got views of Twin Peaks, Yerba Buena and the general SF skyline. Everything inside is as fancy smancy as you’d expect: Poggenpohl kitchen; espresso hardwood flooring throughout; Creston media system. And hey, guess what! If you get too tanked downstairs at the bar with Willie Brown (who happens to also be a resident of the St. Regis), your unit comes with blackout shades so that the next morning’s hangover is a tad bit more bearable.
· 188 Minna Unit 35B [Redfin]

If there’s good news to be gleaned from this recession and housing crisis, it’s that America apparently now has a shrinking appetite for McMansions. Whether it’s due to growing environmental awareness, the loss of cheap credit or just a simple return to common sense, we’re excited to hear that this year builders are marketing a new ideal of around 1,700 square feet compared to the average 2,500 square feet that was all the rage during the bubble. [Streetsblog]

Curbed Horror Stories are firsthand reader reports about terrible apartment experiences past and present. Got a Curbed Horror Story of your own? Send it to sf@curbed.com.

“My ex-roommate had a shaved dyed black head of hair. She would tell me adamantly, “I would do anything to do anything to Marilyn Manson.” She argued that Halloween should be celebrated all year round, and had devils and goats plastered to her wall. I lived with her for a year. One afternoon after walking home from class, I walked up the stairs to see something lifeless placed at the foot of our doorstep. Upon closer inspection, I realize it was the corpse of a semi mummified cat, and it was very obviously placed there, having been dead for months. There was no odor left, but its dead body lay there, a horrifying sight, as if a predator had gathered it for its master and presented it on the step. I asked my roommate if she was responsible for it and she said yes. She later rationalized her treasure, saying that its death was beauty, its body organic, blah blah blah. Gross. Our “relationship” (as people sharing a small living space) quickly plummeted. Once tolerable, this girl would now stay up watching The Craft and performing do-it-yourself seances accelerated by speed and cheap liquor. We stopped communicating, only a foul stink eye exchanged in passing. I avoided the house. We were both equals on the lease. 

I came home early from class one afternoon, to find music blaring and lit candles surrounding a small roundish thing on the coffee table in our living room. I walked up to it, expectant to see yet another alter. Nope. This was a little wax figure. With my name on it. And hair. My hair. The creepy little doll had a vague resemblance to me, i suppose, but was fat. Very very fat. The word fat was scraped into the wax along her chest, below my name. And it had a razor blade in her arm and throat.  

Sometimes, moving is a better path taken than battling for a small rundown space near campus. This was certainly one of those times.”
· Curbed Horror Stories [Curbed SF]