This week's episode of Million Dollar listing San Francisco got down to business. Every single one of the agents listed and sold a property, although some of the selling tactics were, well, a bit unorthodox. There were no random guest stars, no misrepresenting of neighborhoods, and the word techie may not have even been uttered once, disappointing anyone who had been playing drinking games around the term's prevalence on the show. Instead, there was a familiar property in the Marina, a cool loft in SoMa, and a condo owned by a neurotic seller in NoPa.
Roh's property this week was the huge white duplex at 1627-1629 Beach Street in the Marina. Roh co-lists the property with its owner, who is also one of his colleagues. She explains that she is too emotionally attached to the home to have the listing by herself. They list it for $4.6 million on the show, which is a mere rounding error from its real-life price of $4.595 million, although it was at one point listed for $5.3 million.
Roh worries that the home is dated but manages to draw a big crowd to an open house and subsequent private showings. At one point he complains that his job is repetitive and starts showing the house in costume, but that's the only really silly part of this segment of the show. One potential buyer worries about what would happen during an earthquake, and Roh admits that liquefaction is a major issue and that the entire place could just sink underground one day.
He quickly gets several offers for the home, and the seller accepts $4.7 million. In real life, it looks like the two units may be selling separately. The smaller unit, which includes an unwarranted in-law, sold a few weeks ago for $2.5 million. The larger main unit is still listed for $2.527 million and appears to be under contract.
Andrew headed over to NoPa this week, leaving the door open for claims about bad neighborhoods similar to those he made about Bernal two weeks ago. This time, however, he resisted, simply saying that NoPa "used to be a shithole" but now is "up and coming." He's selling a two-bedroom condo at 350 Broderick Street, a building constructed back in 2007. The seller is restaurant and hospitality consultant Andrew Freeman, and he's very conflicted about selling. He's also the owner of two small dogs who show up with their "dog nanny" in the middle of the showing. Andrew and Andrew list the place for $1.098 million, which appears to be exactly true to real life. Selling it is easy, but once they have an offer, Andrew the owner gets cold feet and asks for both more money and an option to live there for two months after closing. Both conditions are accepted, and the deal closes quickly with a final sales price of $1.16 million. This feels more like the San Francisco that we know, where sellers have all the power.
Finally, we have Justin, and this is where the show's general air of believability for the week collapses. Justin is charged with selling a loft with a private patio, a chef's kitchen, and a master suite with a huge, open bedroom. The 1,930 square-foot loft listed back in March for $1.95 million and even led off its brokerbabble with the news that it was being filmed for Million Dollar Listing. However, on the show, a lot of the storyline around the loft is whether it is a one- or two-bedroom. This is fair enough, given that the second bedroom is really a flex space that isn't a legal bedroom. But on the show, Justin keeps saying that the loft won't sell on the MLS because he has to list it as a one-bedroom. The real-life MLS listing has the place at two bedrooms and then mentions that the second bedroom isn't legal in its brokerbabble.
Because of this supposed MLS issue, Justin heads to Off the Grid with a rented Airstream to attract potential buyers. He claims that all of his potential buyers came from this effort, and that not a single person wanted to see the place based on the MLS. This is so silly that we glazed over during the rest of the storyline when Justin flirts with both the seller's representative and potential buyers, debates a final price with the rep at The Big 4, and finally ends up selling the place for $1.8 million.
· Mediterranean Marina Duplex Wants to be Reunited for $5.3M [Curbed SF]
· 1627 Beach Street [Redfin]
· 1629 Beach Street [Redfin]
· Last Night's 'Million Dollar Listing' SF Got Bernal Heights Hilariously Wrong [Curbed SF]
· 350 Broderick Street #204 [Redfin]
· 38 Lusk #1 [Redfin]