Beacon Short Sale: 250 King St #450

A Short Sale at The Beacon: 250 King St #450

photo courtesy of socketsite.com (and I just noticed from a post referencing this unit when it first hit the market in oct '09)

40% drop in value if the sale goes through at the last list price of $360,000. 2006 purchase price was $599,000 according to tax records. That's some rough stuff for the struggling Beacon.

800 SqFt 1 bedroom Condo - leased parking and $550 HOA dues, but still, $360,000 looks like a BMR. In fact I came across 250 King St #450 when researching BMR's (San Francisco "Below Market Rate" Mayor's Office of Housing program). Unforunately among many terrible marketing mistakes on this particular listing, one is that the agent checked the "BMR" box in the MLS when it appears NOT to be a Below Market Rate unit.

Which leads me to my next post (above when it's ready) is how the BMR market is doing in San Francisco? Hint, not well.

Beacon REO: 250 King St #810

250 King St #810, The Beacon, a banked own "REO" San Francisco condo with a past due offer date. What happened?

Per the San Francisco MLS "All offers due 2/25/10 @ 5pm". Yet the condo is still "Active" on the MLS a week later. I noticed it because even for The Beacon it looks like a "deal".

In 2006 it sold for $675,000 - this for a 1 bed, 1 bath with 822 SqFt. I called that "north end of town pricing" and told my clients when I could not make sense of values. But now? At $408,900 I would have at least expected someone to put in a low bid. So either we have "offer deadline-itis" where everyone stays away because they don't want to compete for fear of over-paying or simply wasting time. Or we have an out of town Listing Agent without direct access to the MLS who can't or won't get the status changed a week after accepting an offer.

But if you're in the market for a 1 Bedroom near AT&T Park, let me know and we'll give them an offer appropriate for a failed offer deadline.

The Beacon has additional problems: COA vs HOA

Unpaid bills at The Beacon (250 & 260 King) made me think my prediction (read here) was far ahead of it's time, but instead the building has other problems. I'm not familiar with the issue until reading this post at SocketSite, a San Francisco real estate blog.

For what appears to be a pretty good explanation read the comment posted by "War" at on February 9 at 11:30 AM.

Apparently a new property management firm found an accounting error that showed that the Commercial Owners Association (COA) was paying less than it's intended share for common area expenses, with the Home Owners Association (HOA, or as the Beacon refers to it, the ROA) paying too much. Now the HOA or rather ROA wants this problem corrected and is only offering to pay the amount of things like the PG&E bill that they deem accurate.

Whatever the outcome, all I can say is "yeesh". A building that is seeing a nose dive in property values has yet another issue that could dramatically effect the building negatively. If the two Associations can't get this straightened out soon, and potential Buyers learn about it (which they should since it certainly seems to be a material disclosure) it will attract even fewer buyers and push prices down even further and faster.

The shine on this ugly penny? If you are a Buyer, and you like the location, it's bargain hunting time.