SF and Daly City: Beauty Is in the Eye of the Beholder
We know well by now that staging has definite impact on sales. Susan Brady, Redfin editor, is not alone in her opinion that staging should be among Redfin’s research backed tactics for selling your home. But staging is, after all, a matter of taste, and one only need walk down Haight Street on a warm Saturday afternoon to see that tastes vary widely.
Here’s a brilliant example of unusual staging, courtesy of CurbedSF. Basically we have what appears to be a Potrero Hill Victorian that has been taking LSD and drinking absinthe: 237 Texas Street.
Not sure about the living (?) room…
But the bedroom is exciting, no?
Actually, I kind of love the place. But others not so much (One Curbed reader’s reaction: “Someone was tripping out.”); thus, will this unusually styled 3/2 single-family abode command its 1,099,000 asking price?
Let’s move on to a brand new condo building that has been, by all accounts (or at least by TheFront Steps’ account), enjoying much interest from buyers. The Greenwich offers 1, 2, and 3 bedroom condos (starting at $589,000) in a swanky Russian Hill/Cow Hollow location, so that popularity is not hard to understand. (Take a peek at #601 here.) What is hard to understand is this fireplace, noticed first by SF Schtuff.
Set oven-like closer to the wall’s center than the bottom, one has a hard time imagining good times cuddled up by the fire. But maybe one has a bad back and prefers to stand, warming the offending body part for relief. Again, the beauty here is in the eye of the beholder.
Speaking of beauty, or its dearth, I turn now to some listings in Daly City. Really, DC sellers, you guys should be more on the ball here. Your city’s prices are suffering while SF, so close to you, continues to construct (and sell!) multi-million dollar one bedroom condos. Why not try to advertise yourselves with more pride: “Look here, potential SF buyers, at how much more you can get for your money! We’re so close by geographically, but the housing market is a whole nother planet!”
According to my own taste, for whose taste can I more confidently draw on, these houses need some staging voodoo, or at least some new bloody carpet, if they are to sell for asking:
74 Parma St., Daly City: $680,000. Good bones. Bad clothes.
119 Vale St., Daly City: $512,900. Not a lot for a 2/2 until you think about how much you’ll need to spend on the yard. Perhaps hire a gardener pre-listing? Or put on some gloves and weed for an hour, at least?
And now back to my rented apartment, where I sit in (probably not very stylish) comfort, criticizing.
