This afternoon my plans after the gym was to go to the open house at our old place. I ended up going to 2 other open houses in the neighborhood. I was tempted to look at 2 others. On my way to grab a late lunch, I stopped at the open house on 1362 8th Avenue.
There were 2 women that were leaving when I got there. I was there no more than 10 minutes and no one else came in during that time. The condo is about 1200 square feet, with many renovations, 3 bedrooms and 1 bath. It was nice enough, but the rooms felt small. They updated the stove and refrigerator, but not the cabinets. It didn't look quite right. I did like the back yard and garden. Asking price is $789K. I think that's still a bit too high.
I then headed to Rain Tree Cafe for lunch. Afterwards, I trekked over to our old place. When I got to the building, I walked in and immediately went into Caroline's and Esther's old place. I thought the floors were polished. They weren't. Their kitchen, as shown in SF's Multiple Listing service, was renovated. I saw Ruby's (Caroline's and Esther's daughter) room and saw that the room had a back door which led to the utility room. If I hadn't lived in the building and saw this for the first time at an open house, I would have not been impressed.
Time to see our old place next. Walked up the steps and found all the staging and pictures were done from here. Living room looked fine. First bedroom, which was our study/guest room looked fine as well. Typical staged stuff, but again, nothing that said wow to me. Then our bedroom. No wow factor there either. Next stop, kitchen. Based upon the pictures I'd seen, I knew this was going to have the most dramatic transformation.
It was. Everything I described on Friday was pretty much how I saw it. Because I like to cook, seeing the changes impressed me. Especially where they moved the refrigerator and added a cabinet area to that side of the wall. And I was right, the stove and dishwasher weren't Bosch. All of the major appliances were Frigidare.
The paint job done on the outside of the building 9 months ago is showing its age. The window bars in front of the ground level unit show rust marks. It looks like somebody just painted over a building without fixing up the blemishes and cracks. The good part is that at least 4 parties came to see to the place while I was there. Again, whether or not anyone bites is the catch.
On the way home, I attended the open house at 225-227 Judah Street. The upper unit was the only unit being shown because the lower unit is still tenant occupied. Unit was large enough and some rooms weren't completely finished with renovation. I didn't like that the floor mat at the base of the staircase was soiled and that the bedrooms had ugly oatmeal carpeting. Two of the bedrooms had sliding doors that opened out onto a deck large enough for entertaining, but don't like that access to it is through the bedrooms.
Gloating enthusiastically now. Don't these people ever watch "Flip That House"?
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