oh coralbook, your house is such a gem!
just looked through those houses. I cant fathom why realtors would post some of those pictures- showing personal items in bathrooms and words written in dust on the windows! 1Million+ is alot of money - it doesnt make any sense! and i cant imagine wanting to buy some of them.
your house makes alot of sense. it’s beautiful. Good luck & well done
I agree about the photos. If an agent is taking a listing at that high dollar mark the least they could do is help clear off the counters and take some decent photos to help sell it. I think the Carleton house may be a situation where owner is deceased and the heirs haven’t cleared out the house yet. But, really… are they in such a hurry that they couldn’t clear the stuff off counters and stuff before trying to sell the house?
And here are my two competitors that bought a tear down and basically built a brand new home. They have been at it a lot longer than I have so I am kind of proud of fast completion, even though I am personally 2 months past my original date I had hoped for. I missed October 1st because of the engineer/draftsman taking 9 weeks to finish the plans. They should have had them done in less than 4 weeks, considering I had blue print and design done before taking it into them. I missed my November 1st date due to issues we encountered along the way such as having to jackhammer out the foundation and fix the garage stairs, deck construction taking up much more time than I estimated and baseboards/trim install/prep/paint taking forever. I didn’t estimate how much was involved for such a large house.
I think one of the things that made us go faster than other construction jobs is that I staggered all the work and we did a lot of things in parallel. For example, we insulated, drywalled and finished each floor while another floor was being built. Everyone thought I was nuts but it only caused an issue that one time when we had a rain storm in the middle of building. Most contractors will do all the framing and rough plumbing and electrical for the entire house before even starting insulation and drywall because they only want to call those subs in at one time. My inspector thought it was crazy, but it worked. Essentially he had to come out 3 times for rough/electrical/plumbing/insulation/drywall. Multiple inspections for each floor.
Another thing that let’s us go out to market faster is that I focused on finishing up the front of the house. The back yard, fences and gates are not done. But my experience is that buyers can see past those issues. It’s obvious where the fences are going and I will try to get away with “Excuse our mess in back yard and basement”
Our livable square feet is 2,870
Decks and balconies another 700 sq ft
Garage 440 sq ft
Workshop 300 sq ft (but there is 100 sq ft behind non load bearing walls that can be opened up after final inspection)
Basement 850 sq ft
4414 Monaco 92107 (this one is located in superior Sunset Cliffs neighborhood)
4483 Adair 92107 (this one is located in slightly superior Sunset Cliffs location but you have to go onto rooftop deck to get views)
They made the mistake of coming on the market at a high price before construction was completed. Both of them are still under construction (they haven’t even removed their green construction fencing) and one is very close to completion (Adair) but, for some reason, they haven’t even passed their framing/rough or final insulation/drywall inspections (not that I’m snooping into the City Building system or anything! There’s a public website to view inspections, etc)
They are still lingering out there and it will be a disadvantage in the long run. We took the marketing approach of just some quiet word of mouth and some private showings. Obviously that didn’t work 
is this something you plan to do after the final inspection or are going to leave that option to the new homeowners?
cb: I took a good look at the six houses you posted in #4758. I saw what they are asking for each house and looked carefully at the pictures and the details. On average those houses listed are asking $1.754. I think your house should be listed at $1.9 million. I genuinely think that that is a very reasonable and realistic price for your house.
(IMO, the $1.9 list price for both Martinez and Alhambra is very optimistic on the part of the owners. In other words, unrealistic.)
Of course, if you wanted to push the envelope (and Tarek and Christina always seem to, and have great success doing so), you might list it at $1.995 million and see what happens. Your house is definitely a gem.
Other opinions?
Of the comps, I like Southernwood best for the architectural style (although no views), and also Trumbull but there’s no yard. The Martinez house has stunning views and that large deck but obviously needs tons of work or (from the description) a total remodel.
Regarding the workshop enclosed area. It would cost about $500 to remove all the walls, haul them away and paint up the walls behind there. So I will offer to do it in escrow for $500 after a buyer clears contingencies.
I still have way too much work trying to clear the garages and basement to make them presentable
Alhambra house: The one with the weird and unfortunate built-ins. When they refinished the floors they obvious ripped off the old baseboard. They installed crappy-looking quarter round, instead of a nice baseboard like you did, so many of the rooms look oddly unfinished.
Martinez: great views, but everything shown inside the house is horrible. I also find the non-disclosure disclaimer off-putting. Sounds like they are hiding some major problem(s). Even if they aren’t.
Liggett: landscaping is cool. personally dislike that style of house. What is doG’s name is on the floors?
Carleton: The only thing in the house that I like is the range, which looks wonderful. Unfortunately I think I’d have to be medicated if I had to stand and look at that backsplash for long, and I hate the cabinets. Seems like a collection of expensively weird bathrooms.
Southernwood: are they serious with that carpeting? Even in the BATHROOMS? Ugh. I’d have to tack on the cost of installing real floors throughout the entire house.
Trumbull: not my taste in interiors and too much carpeting, but better than most. Hate the kitchen color and cabinets, but at least it has space, although the living/dining area seems vestigial. Neighbors literally breathing down your neck, and I’m not keen on the entire yard being taken over by a raised concrete platform. This really seems like a townhouse, more than a house.
Generally, I agree with the assessments of VeryHappy and Marilyn, above.
Here are my opinions. I don’t think any of these homes are as nice as CB’s but for a variety of reasons.
Liggett-space is OK but needs work. Too many pics of outside…which makes me wonder about the inside!
Martinez- what’s with the painted animals on the paneling walls? Needs extensive updating with removal of that paneling everywhere. Ugly.
Alhambra- why didn’t they take the dated curtains DOWN in the main LR? Kitchen and baths need extensive redo. Very dated.
Carleton- what a mess. They took a few pictures of the mess…but where is the rest of the house? Was it messier?
Southernwood- I liked this space the best…but agree…carpet would have to GO…especially on the bathroom.
Trumbull- what odd stuff! Why the sculpture and big oversized chair in the master bath? Looked awful. Didn’t like the rugs on the carpet look in that one bedroom.
The outside areas really fluctuated in these pics. Some houses had great views, and others were views of cars in alleys. Really? Yards also varied.
CB, your house has a trifecta…great interior, great private yard, and great views.
None of these comps had all three, in my opinion.
Did any of the staging get done today?? I can’t wait to see this place staged!
Well, staging did not go on the schedule I had hoped.
Original arrival time was 12 noon and my agent said she would definitely be there by noon. I made all the guys pick up all their stuff and all the paint (madly touching up the staircase) and clear the ways because furniture is coming at noon. No arrival
I keep them away from hallways and staircases. Get a text from my agent about 12:45 that she is on her way. I let her know that noone has arrived. Finally I get a text back … arrival 2:30pm. My agent shows up about 2:15
Of course they don’t show up until about 3pm and now I have wasted half a day keeping my guys from finishing the touchup paint, although we have plenty of other stuff to do. My carpenter was able to finish moving all the plumbing in the bathroom and walls are patched up and drying overnight. All of the cabinet boxes got built so we should be able to build in the cabinets tomorrow.
She brought the main furniture pieces and a bunch of horrid bright turquoise art. The art is fine for contemporary / coastal staging, but we wanted to make it clear that we cannot have that type of staging in this house. So, in the end we have the main furniture pieces set into 3 bedrooms and an office desk setup in the 4th bedroom. But she is coming back tomorrow with some different bedspreads and to hang the art. My agent and I went out to the giant moving truck and hand picked the art to come into the house. She did have several nice wrought iron, dark wood wall pieces that we scavanged.
I have loaded some bare bones pictures loaded. Don’t exactly like the contemporary bed setup in the master, but these stagers do not have very many selections for a king size bed and that is what we wanted in there.
We are thinking we might have to go out with a lower asking price because we haven’t had any interest with the email flyer in the last week.
I think the list of properties above represent the ones that are priced too high and have been stuck on the market too long. I’m now going to search to find anything that is Pending in the price range and see what actually sold in the price range.
I have to ask…what is with the wrought iron wall h gongs? They have been in a bunch of houses I’ve seen for sale…in Florida. A friend sent house links and everyone had wrought iron wall hangings someplace.
The turquoise wall art sounds awful.
Shaping up nicely, CB! 
=D>
I think they are on sale at Ross and TJ Maxx… that’s why the stagers show up with them
The stager showed up with everything still in bags and with price tags (everything seemed to come from Ross). I think she had to run out and buy some stuff for us or something. She stages all of the flips and mid range houses that I see. She probably has at least 50 homes staged right now
Staging must be worthwhile for her, even with the overhead, vans, purchasing, etc. How frustrating for you having to wait for agent AND stager and work around where they were SUPPOSED to be!
Here is my research of pending and sold houses in the price range. I am only including houses that sold quickly
3606 Rosewood 92106. Superior neighborhood (Wooded Area) but no views. It’s funny, in the confidential remarks it says that the house is occupied and you have to call for an appointment for a showing, but it is obvious that only a few rooms are staged. If you look closely in kitchen, there is nothing in the cabinets
SOLD
712 Stafford Pl 92107. Very dated but sold immediately over asking price because it is a supreme location in Sunset Cliffs
Everything else took forever to sell and started too high
I can’t seem to get pics of the Rosewood house!
That Stafford Pl house might be dated, but it is terrific!