We sorted through this week's four dozen new southern Marin listings—priced from $875,000 for three bedrooms on the outskirts of Mill Valley, to $4.85 million for panoramic views in Belvedere—to come up with a list of the ones you should see this weekend:
BEST $1.46M TEAR DOWN: You wouldn't guess it from the street, but this unassuming corner lot at 5 Hillcrest in Mill Valley boasts terrific southwestern views of everything you want to see from here to the Headlands. The other thing you'll get for your $1.46 million is a walk-to-town location.
BEST LITTLE HOUSE: Somebody was smart enough to figure out how to take advantage of every single one of the 1,249 square feet at 19 Park in Mill Valley. This teensy $1.129m house on the edge of the family-fueled Sycamore Park neighborhood feels ship-shape; but be warned, the third bedroom is so small that it was necessary to put up a sign that says "Twin bed will fit along this wall." (Open from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday)
HOW THEY USED TO BUILD HOUSES: We're a sucker for a gracious, curved stairway, and 1715 Lincoln Ave. in San Rafael ($1.395 million) has one that managed to survive against the odds and the remodelers. 3BR, 2B and we can't help but wonder what happened to the original clawfoot tub.
Saturday, March 29, 2008
Our Picks: New Listings You Should See This Weekend
Friday, March 21, 2008
Sell your house in Northern California, buy this and say so long to The Man
New 3 BR, 3.5 BA on 9 acres in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley for $699k.
You've got your stream. You've got your views of Shenandoah National Park and George Washington National Forest. You've got your 48-inch JennAir cooktop with grill in the center island. There's even enough room for you and your cronies to sit around all day and chillax:
"The wide wrap around porch could hold 100 rocking chairs, and it comes with 6 Cracker Barrel Rockers."
Best of all, you can buy it on eBay. Wish we could make the open house Sunday at noon.
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Open Houses: We Go, So You Don't Have To
Still no sign of a housing slump in rarified Mill Valley. When we showed up at 445 Throckmorton Avenue for the brokers' open house—and free lunch—the place was a madhouse, with enough real estate agents' BMWs hogging the on-street parking spaces to persuade us that we're the only ones who think the $3,489,000 asking price is kind of ballsy.
The first thing we noticed: A piano player had been hired to entertain the brokers. The second thing we noticed: The shrimp platter had already been decimated.
This one-of-a-kind vintage house falls into the same category as such recent listings as 255 Hillside (an old Tudor with commanding views of San Francisco that sold for $3,450,000 in November) and 35 Sycamore (a sprawling Craftsman in Mill Valley's most kid-friendly neighborhood that sold for $3,100,000 last summer).
Pros: Location, location, location. It doesn't get any better than this sunny corner lot if you want the full-on Mayberry experience of daily walks to town, school, the park and the library. Also, the house has five real bedrooms (and by real, we mean we saw an honest-to-God closet with a door and everything in every single one of them).
Cons: This is a matter of taste. The traditional center hall colonial layout and the floral wallpaper in the foyer scream Connecticut and may not appeal to the knock-down-the-walls-so-we-can-live-in-one-room-with-toddlers crowd. A kitchen renovation is in this house's near future.
Due diligence: The Victorian painted lady half a block away at 418 Throckmorton—with a legal second unit—sold for $3,250,000 in April 2007 after an extensive upscale renovation.
