Music to Someone’s Ears: 552-554 Capp – HUGE Victorian at $1.359M

Detached, Massive and Stately Fixer Next to Music School on the Market

Over by the Community Music Center on Capp Street where yours truly attempted to relearn violin is this giant Victorian screaming to be the next it house where tons of money is poured in and an amazing home worth 2-3x the purchase price comes out the other end (see 111 Liberty for example). The 3250+ sq ft detached home dates from “1900” (code for: building records burned in the 1907 earthquake) and has soaring ceilings, choppy layout and phased period ‘remodels’ and a $40,000+ pest bill. According to the listing agent, parking can be installed for a modest $120,000, modest when compared to the nearly $200,000 estimate to replace the brick foundation. Good thing is that the parking permit would be over the counter according to the listing agent. Those amounts are just the start, of course, and don’t factor in the major renovation you’d have to do inside, which would probably set you back another $200,000 give or take $50,000. But there’s a back cottage and a tree house to boot.

This would be all yours but only if the music school next door doesn’t buy it first, which would be a natural expansion of the school’s current facilities. According to the listing agent the Community Center is interested but is moving as fast as an entity with a board and foundation can. The seller has owned 552 Capp since the 1970s, raised a family there and then rented it out. Only recently did she use the Ellis Act to evict the tenants, but is in no hurry to sell even though the listing agent disclosed her desire to sell the property as part of a capital gains tax-deferred 1031 arrangement. At the current ask of more than $1.3 million it’s steep barrier to entry combined with the $500,000+ needed to bring it into this century. A high-priced fixer yes, but my thought is that once completed, it’d be that house on the block worth at least $2.1 million on up. Roll over Beethoven indeed.

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