‘We were off on this one’: San Francisco home sells for $2.1M over asking

In addition to the home, there is a small vacant lot adjacent to the property that was listed for $500,000. The previous owners had used it as a backyard, Bellings said, and wanted to sell the parcels together.

Together, the property sales set a record for Cole Valley, according to MLS data. The home sold for $4.6 million, while the vacant lot sold for $1 million.

This is the second home to sell for more than $2 million over asking in San Francisco so far in 2021. The other home — 15 Walnut St. in Presidio Heights — was listed at $7.5 million in May 2021, but sold for $9.99 million. That’s 32% over asking, while the Cole Valley home at 177 Belgrave Ave. sold for 60% over asking.

Bellings said the home received a total of 15 offers, seven of which were cash and seven of which were more than $1 million over list price. The winning offer was a cash offer, and the home closed within seven days after sitting on the market for only 11 days.

Interest in the home was immediately strong, Bellings said, and people who weren’t even looking to buy a home or who had been passively looking for years made offers. It has three bedrooms, two bathrooms and ample open living spaces. The living room features exposed beams, floor-to-ceiling windows, and a large fireplace.

Because the space needed some updating, Bellings did consult an architect to get plans for a new house that could be built on the property, thinking that a potential buyer may want to tear down the home and start from scratch to include a larger home on the two lots. The architectural renderings showed a more than 10,000 square foot home with seven bedrooms, eight and a half bathrooms and an elevator.

Bellings said the majority of the people who came to see the property didn’t even want to see the plans, because they fell so in love with the original structure.

While it’s not uncommon for homes to sell for over asking price in the Bay Area, Bellings said they did not intentionally price the home much lower than he thought it would close for. “There was no data that would have showed you that this would sell over $1,600 a square foot. We priced it slightly below market value based on the comps,” he said. “… in San Francisco when someone prices something too low, there’s chatter about it. People say, ‘What are doing?’ I didn’t get that once.”

He said he doesn’t think anyone anticipated this for this property. “I’ve never seen such a visceral reaction to a house like I had with this house,” Bellings said. “Never in our wildest dreams did we think it would sell for almost $2,400 per square foot. …We were off on this one.”