A brand-new Belvedere Island mansion in Marin County , trumpeted by real estate agents as “Villa Belvedere,” was scheduled to be auctioned off Sunday to bidders willing to fork over at least $25 million.

But before the auction, the developer accepted an offer from a buyer, said auction consultant Guy Masters.

Masters said that under a non-disclosure agreement, he could not reveal the selling price or buyer of the 15,500-square-foot, seven-bedroom home and its surrounding 1.14-acre waterfront lot. He would not say whether the property had sold for more or less than the $25 million asking price.

“I can only tell you it’s under contract,” he said.

Developer Jeff Paster spent about $34.5 million buying the property and building the massive edifice, which was completed early this year. It was first listed for $45 million, then $35.88 million before it was slated to go on the auction block.

The layout of the mansion, designed by architect Sandy Walker, is perhaps more stunning than the asking price, which was considered a bargain for such splashy digs.

Nearly every room offers picturesque views of the Golden Gate and Bay bridges, San Francisco, Alcatraz Island and the bay, which real estate agents noted would come in handy for the millionaire buyer who fancies watching the 2013 America’s Cup races from the comfort of home.

The posh pad also includes eight full and two half-bathrooms, solar panels on the roof, wall-mounted iPads to control room conditions, a temperature-controlled wine cellar, a screening room, an indoor sauna, an elevator to all three floors, an outdoor pool and spa, and a terrace paved with fossil stones.

The Belvedere mansion is the latest of an increasing number of luxury homes that are on track to be sold while not in foreclosure, a welcome change from recent history, real estate agents said.

Properties that were recently sold at comparable prices include a $100 million Los Altos Hills mansion and a $28.8 million mansion on Broadway in San Francisco. Other homes in the Bay Area have sold for $23.5 million to $33 million in the last five years, according to the real estate researcher DataQuick.

But homeowners who have their hearts set on the Belvedere home – and who still have a few extra million bucks left over from Christmas – needn’t despair.

The developer “is accepting back-up offers if someone wants to make another offer,” Masters said. Interested buyers can contact real estate agent Olivia Hsu Decker at (415) 435-1600.

Stephanie M. Lee is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: slee@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @stephaniemlee

Article source: http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Swanky-Marin-mansion-sold-for-big-bucks-4155987.php

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Marshawn Lynch. (Ted S. Warren/AP Photo)

Talk about a Beast Pad!

Seahawks running back Marshawn Lynch has purchased a $3.6 million mansion in Richmond, Calif., a few miles north along the San Francisco Bay from his hometown of Oakland. According to Zillow, a real estate company, the 7,000-square-foot home sits on 134 feet of waterfront, sports five bedrooms and has 5.5 bathrooms.

The mansion also has a 58-foot-long boat dock, an elevator, a wine cellar and a home theater, according to Zillow. Not surprisingly, there are amazing views of the bay through the home’s huge windows.

We can only assume that Lynch will convert the wine cellar into a giant Skittles dispensary, that he will show “Matt’s Chance” on a continuous loop in the theater, and that he will remove the lift so he can simply run up the walls of his elevator shaft.

Check out photos of Lynch’s new digs in the gallery above. Looks like there are plenty of places he could set up his collection of mouth grills. And he could certainly fit this poster of his famous Beastquake run somewhere.

Now, just for the heck of it:

Visit seattlepi.com for more Seattle news. Contact sports editor Nick Eaton at nickeaton@seattlepi.com or @njeaton.

Article source: http://blog.seattlepi.com/football/2012/10/24/photos-marshawn-lynch-buys-3-6-million-bay-area-mansion/

The sale was completed Tuesday, said Patrick Barber, head of the San Francisco office of Pacific Union International, the property’s listing brokerage. He declined to name the buyer. The four-level brick house in Pacific Heights has 11,000 square feet of space and panoramic views of San Francisco Bay.

“Homes now are priced realistically, and they’re selling,” Barber said. Nearby properties listed for $40 million to $60 million in the Pacific Heights section known as the Gold Coast never sold, he said. The 1922 mansion sold for 24 percent less than the original listing price of $39 million and below the most recent asking price of $33.9 million.

Home prices in desirable parts of San Francisco and Silicon Valley have defied the U.S. housing slump, buoyed by investors and employees from local tech firms, who sell shares on private exchanges. The unemployment rate in San Francisco’s metropolitan area is 8.7 percent, the lowest in California, according to the state’s Employment Development Department.

A $737,500 transfer tax indicates the sale was the second-highest residential transaction of the year, according to the San Francisco assessor’s office. The most expensive was a nearby Pacific Heights property that recorded a tax payment in August of $825,000, which translates to a $33 million purchase price, based on the assessor’s formula.

The Tudor-style house is located near the Presidio on Broadway near Lyon Street. The property has six bedrooms, five full bathrooms, two half-baths and a landscaped garden overlooking the bay. Other features include a four-car garage, heated pool and spa, and a wine cellar for 3,000 bottles, according to multiple listings service data.

“There was a time when it wasn’t fashionable to spend money, but today the market sees value,” Barber said.

This article appeared on page D – 4 of the San Francisco Chronicle

Article source: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/11/03/BUFQ1LPL09.DTL&tsp=1

The sale was completed Tuesday, said Patrick Barber, head of the San Francisco office of Pacific Union International, the property’s listing brokerage. He declined to name the buyer. The four-level brick house in Pacific Heights has 11,000 square feet of space and panoramic views of San Francisco Bay.

“Homes now are priced realistically, and they’re selling,” Barber said. Nearby properties listed for $40 million to $60 million in the Pacific Heights section known as the Gold Coast never sold, he said. The 1922 mansion sold for 24 percent less than the original listing price of $39 million and below the most recent asking price of $33.9 million.

Home prices in desirable parts of San Francisco and Silicon Valley have defied the U.S. housing slump, buoyed by investors and employees from local tech firms, who sell shares on private exchanges. The unemployment rate in San Francisco’s metropolitan area is 8.7 percent, the lowest in California, according to the state’s Employment Development Department.

A $737,500 transfer tax indicates the sale was the second-highest residential transaction of the year, according to the San Francisco assessor’s office. The most expensive was a nearby Pacific Heights property that recorded a tax payment in August of $825,000, which translates to a $33 million purchase price, based on the assessor’s formula.

The Tudor-style house is located near the Presidio on Broadway near Lyon Street. The property has six bedrooms, five full bathrooms, two half-baths and a landscaped garden overlooking the bay. Other features include a four-car garage, heated pool and spa, and a wine cellar for 3,000 bottles, according to multiple listings service data.

“There was a time when it wasn’t fashionable to spend money, but today the market sees value,” Barber said.

This article appeared on page D – 4 of the San Francisco Chronicle

Article source: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/11/02/BUFQ1LPL09.DTL

It also surprised many who live in the area. Los Altos Hills has been proud of its rural, easy-going roots, which has been in transition with the influx of more monied residents. As much as we know the value of our neighborhoods, a $100 million-dollar home exceeds the imagination of most, since it’s pegged as the most expensive single family home sale in America.

What does that look like? The architect who originally designed the home for Fred Chan and his wife, Annie, told the Wall Street Journal that there was “no budget” for the 18th century French chateau-inspired mansion, that includes tennis courts, indoor and outdoor swimming pools, wine cellar and ballroom, taking up a tidy 25,000 square feet.

Los Altos Hills is one of the wealthiest towns in America. Yet “home compounds” in the 20,000-square-foot range are rare enough that the handful that have been built have raised eyebrows, and caused civic concern that the town could end up with “white elephants” in the future.

In reality, homes in Los Altos Hills are much more modest than the $100 million that the Journal reported was paid by Russian investor Yuri Milner, founder of Digital Sky Technologies. Of course, to 99.9% of Americans, there is nothing modest about owning a $2.2 million home, which was the median home price of Los Altos Hills in February. Much of the action in very high-end luxury properties, however, is generally acknowledged to take place in communities such as Portola Valley or Atherton. 

Between $2.2 and $100 million, where do the values of most Los Altos Hills homes fall? To satisfy my own—and maybe your—curiosity, I pulled from the MLS the ten-most expensive homes that were sold in Los Altos Hills since 2000.

There’s one important caveat. They aren’t likely to actually be the most expensive homes sold. That’s the thing to remember about homes selling in the highest strata: The sales price is usually nowhere to be found on the MLS, the multiple listings service in which most real estate brokers participate.

These types of home sales are made “off market,” when an agent representing a seller makes it known to his or her network that a property is for sale, and buyers who want discretion also rely on a representative to find an appropriate property through networks. But here’s some perspective: In Los Altos Hills and Los Altos, high off-market sales prices talked about have been in the $25-or-30-million range. 

Through bypassing the MLS, the agreed-upon sales price never appears on a publicly visible database. Once the sale is made, don’t expect to find the sales price reflected on the deed at the county recorder’s office, either.

“It’s called California Revenue and Taxation Code 11932,” said Vic Sharma, the head of the Santa Clara County Recording division. Colloquially, in the Recorder’s office, it’s known as “a confidential,” a request to keep the transfer tax amount off the deed, and thus obviate the ability to calculate the sales price from the tax.

Anyone can request a confidential, Sharma said, and has been able to since 1959. You needn’t be a billionaire foreign investor or Donald Trump. If you don’t want people to know how much you paid for your one-bedroom condo next to the landfill, you have as much access to a confidential  as Yuri Milner does.

The tax, of course, is recorded by the county—which needs to get paid—but once it’s logged in, an employee in the Recorder’s office can’t see it nor retrieve it. “I’m not interested, no—it’s not my money,”  Sharma said.

“There’s a lot of speculation on the price, and that’s all I can say.” 

So here are the top ten highest sales prices paid for Los Altos Hills properties, with the usual MLS admonition that the information is deemed reliable but not guaranteed. Remember that the highest visible price of a home sold in Los Altos Hills can easily be lower than that of a non-public, off-market sale in Los Altos:

 1. 13902 Campo Vista Ln – Sold for $14.8 million (2007)

Topping the list is a 6.89 acre property with views of the Bay and the mountains around. The house sitting on the lot has only two bedrooms with 2000 sf. Obviously, the value was in the land.

2. 25751 Elena Rd. – Sold for $12 million (2006)

This newly constructed Mediterranean estate, sitting on a two-acre lot, has six bedrooms and eight and a half baths with 12,000 square feet of living space. Other amenities include a game room, an exercise room, a wine cellar, a pool, and a detached cabana with its own kitchen.

 3. 25810 Vinedo Ln – Sold for $12 million (2005)

This four-acre private gated estate has five bedroom and eight baths with a stunning formal entry, a designer’s kitchen, two offices, a home theatre, and an exercise room. Besides over 12000  sf of living space, it has its own vineyard inside the estate. (This home is currently for sale at $14,995,000.)

 4. 12775 Viscaino Rd – Sold for $12.7 million (2004)

This 7,000+ square-foot home sits on a 2.36 acre lot with six bedrooms and seven baths. Additional features include a guest house, a tennis court, a pool and a pool house.

 5. 12638 La Cresta Ct – Sold for $12 million (2000)

This private gated estate is located on a cul-da-sac lot. The home has five bedrooms and four and a half baths with over 4,800 square feet of living space.

 6. 10285 Magdalena Rd – Sold for $11 million (2008)

A gated Mediterranean estate with views of the Bay and city lights, this property has seven bedrooms and nine and a half baths. Other dramatic features include a wine cellar, an infinity pool and a cabana.

 7. 26000 Alicante Ln – Sold for $10 million (2000)

This 4,000+ square-foot property sits on an acre plus level lot close to town. It has four bedrooms and three baths, and a tennis court and a pool.

8. 13815 Barton Ct – Sold for $9.95 million (2009)

This gated Tuscan retreat, sitting on an acre-plus lot not too far from the village, was built in 2007. The three-level home has a basement with elevator and handicap access. With over 7,000 square feet of living space, it has five bedrooms and six baths.

 9. 27241 Altamont Rd – Sold for $9.5 million (2000)

This six acre plus estate, with magnificent bay views, has over 6000 sf of living space with six bedrooms and four baths.

 10. 13350 Country Wy – Sold for $9.1 million (2000)

This 2.4 acre estate boosts magnificent views of the wooded hill. The home has five bedrooms with three and a half baths with close to 6,000 square feet of living space.

Los Altos Patch editor L.A. Chung contributed to this report

Article source: http://losaltos.patch.com/articles/estimated-100-million-home-sale-places-spotlight-on-real-estate-in-los-altos-hills