From Curbed Marketplace: Noe Valley Abode Just a Pinch Over a Million

× Like us and you'll find top breaking news in your Facebook newsfeed. Sign up for our daily email newsletter and get top stories and breaking news delivered to your inbox. Tuesday, March 6, 2012, by Sally Kuchar

Here now, From Curbed Marketplace, highlighting an intriguing real estate listing from the many thousands of properties found in the Curbed Marketplace. Browsing the Marketplace and spot a property worthy of being featured? Send it to the tipline.

A very charming 2-bed, 1.5-bath, 1,064 square foot single-family home in Noe Valley just landed on the market with an asking price of $1,059,000, or $995 per square foot, the neighborhood average. The home last sold in 2007 for $975,000. We should point out that in addition to the two proper bedrooms, there's also a smallish bonus room that the listing suggests be used for an office or nursery. We think this place's adorable, but the real property highlight is the terraced backyard, which is perfect for entertaining.
· 416 28th Street [Zillow] 416 28th Street, San Francisco, CA

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CurbedWire: Karim Rashid For BoConcept; Million Dollar Listing New York

× Like us and you'll find top breaking news in your Facebook newsfeed. Sign up for our daily email newsletter and get top stories and breaking news delivered to your inbox. Friday, January 27, 2012, by Sarah Firshein

BoConcept's new Ottawa Collection, designed by Karim Rashid. Photo via Contemporist

WORLDWIDE—New from BoConcept is the Ottawa dining room collection, which was designed by Karim Rashid. [Contemporist]

NYC—Bravo's Million Dollar Listing New York, a spinoff of the network's original series profiling high-rolling agents and brokers in L.A., will kick off March 7. [Curbed NY]

WORLDWIDE—House Beautiful welcomes two new contributing editors: Blair Voltz Clarke, a private art dealer, and Rebecca de Ravenel, a designer and stylist. [Editor at Large]

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Room Service!: About $3.6 million, courtesy of the...

× Like us and you'll find top breaking news in your Facebook newsfeed. Sign up for our daily email newsletter and get top stories and breaking news delivered to your inbox. Wednesday, September 14, 2011, by Philip Ferrato

About $3.6 million, courtesy of the feds, will go to temporarily house the residents. At the Ritz-Cartlton? Part of an $11.6M package from City Hall and the Federal Government to the Chinatown Community Development Corporation. Matier & Ross connect the political dots in what sounds like another deal made in the nano-seconds before Gavin Newsom left office. The displaced persons will be offered new digs in a long-planned, oft-delayed affordable housing project at Sansome and Broadway- which gets the remaining $8M. [Matier & Ross/SFGate, plus previously at Curbed SF]

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PriceChopper: Very Fancy Pacific Heights Penthouse Hacks More Than a Quarter Million Off

× Like us and you'll find top breaking news in your Facebook newsfeed. Sign up for our daily email newsletter and get top stories and breaking news delivered to your inbox. Wednesday, August 3, 2011, by Sally Kuchar Was: $5,250,000
Now: $4,900,000
You Save: $350,000

Oh dear. The penthouse atop 1800 Gough has just taken a significant price chop: $350,000. This 4-bed, 4.5-bath, 5,209-square-foot, two-story penthouse is a prime piece of real estate tail. The building was designed by San Francisco favorite Conrad Alfred Meussdorffer and was built in 1923. It's a co-op, so bust out grandma's pearls and put on something nice; the board is not going to approve your application to write them a check for millions of dollars if you don't look the part. The penthouse has everything you could ever ask for, including an au pair room (that's currently being used as a work-out room). Oh, and there's monthly HOA dues of $1,900 but who cares, right? You're about to spend close to five million bucks on an apartment. Dear readers, will this beauty finally sell? Or should we expect another chop?
· 1800 Gough [Redfin]
· Let's Take a Look at Some Swank Penthouses [Curbed SF]
· Prime, Pristine and Pedigree for Pacific Heights Penthouse [Curbed SF]

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Reality TV: New Show Alert: Million Dollar Contractor, on DIY Network

× Like us and you'll find top breaking news in your Facebook newsfeed. Sign up for our daily email newsletter and get top stories and breaking news delivered to your inbox. Wednesday, June 8, 2011, by Sarah Firshein

The Twitter feed of contractor-to-the-stars Stephen Fanuka just tipped us off to a new DIY Network show entitled Million Dollar Contractor. No additional info is available yet on the Scripps website, but if his clients are any indication—Thom Filicia, Beyonce, Tony Bennett, and more—the affable, outgoing Fanuka promises to please as he (presumably) builds stuff inside rich people's homes. (Not to mention bowl over his viewership with his smoldering good looks.) Plus, if the old adage is true, any reality TV project entitled "Million Dollar" anything turns to gold. Million Dollar Contractor will premiere sometime in fall.

· All Million Dollar Decorators coverage [Curbed National]
· @StephenFanuka [Twitter via @House_Beautiful]
· Cable Guide 2011 [Scripps]
· Fanuka, Inc. [official site]

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Off the Market: Here's Mary McDonald's Project From Million Dollar Decorators

× Like us and you'll find top breaking news in your Facebook newsfeed. Sign up for our daily email newsletter and get top stories and breaking news delivered to your inbox. Friday, June 10, 2011, by Sarah Firshein

On Tuesday night, we watched with baited breath as designer Mary McDonald finished the guest house of a longtime client who, readying for a divorce, had plans to put her Beverly Hills, Calif., estate on the market. In response to the Realtor's request that the space be kept minimalist, McDonald said, "I’m not really interested in Realtors! Sometimes you have to teach people what they think they want!” Fast forward to now: listing photos of said property have surfaced on The Real Estalker, showcasing McDonald's work in its entirely—she decorated the main house, too. Some vital stats: the manse measures 5,545 square feet, has seven bedrooms, and sold for approximately $7.773M to a producer/director in December 2010. No word whether McDonald still considers the house "hers."

· Episode Two: Hypnotism, a Pickup Truck, and Really Old Tile [Curbed National]
· Mary McDonald Sunburst Madness in Beverly Hills [The Real Estalker]
· Episode One: the Osbournes, Divorce, and Snotty Guacamole [Curbed National]

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Million Dollar Decorators: Last night on the premiere of...

× Like us and you'll find top breaking news in your Facebook newsfeed. Sign up for our daily email newsletter and get top stories and breaking news delivered to your inbox. Wednesday, June 1, 2011, by Sally Kuchar

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? Previous: IKEA Knuckle Tattoo; BARTboarding; Fun and Free in June; More!

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Reality TV: Million Dollar Decorators on Gold-Leaf Garages, Housewives, More!

× Like us and you'll find top breaking news in your Facebook newsfeed. Sign up for our daily email newsletter and get top stories and breaking news delivered to your inbox. Thursday, May 12, 2011, by Raina Cox

After teasing us with video sneak peeks and jumping the gun with the premiere date, Bravo TV is finally set to unveil its most anticipated reality show to date, at least in these parts: Million Dollar Decorators. On May 31, the elegantly trimmed curtain will be pulled back on the professional and personal lives of five high-end Los Angeles designers.

Today, Bravo hosted a media-only chat with three of MDD's designers: Martyn Lawrence-Bullard, Kathryn Ireland, and Jeffrey Alan Marks. These three friends on- and off-screen were more than happy to dish the dirt on their celebrity clients and what happens behind the scenes of the new series.

10. Instead of the glammy shabby chic vibe Real Housewife Lisa Vanderpump now has in her Beverly Hills home, Lawrence-Bullard thinks she should bring in a more rustic European country look: "[In her restaurants] it feels like you're in Marbella or something, and I feel that she should translate a bit more of that sort of south of France/southern Spain flavor to her own home."

9. Lawrence-Bullard questions the taste of the other Real Housewives of Beverly Hills: "Those girls seem to have a lot of money but not a lot of style going on there."

8. In a bit of reality TV scoop, Lawrence-Bullard revealed he will be working with a fellow Bravo personality in the near future: "Camille Grammar has just reached out to me and said when she buys a new house she actually wants me to decorate it."

7. Marks wants to redecorate superstar stylist Rachael Zoe's house. "I would just clean it up and make it maybe a little bit more in line with her fashion. A little cleaner, a little more hip, not so scary."

6. Ireland is horrified by the Real Housewives' homes in general: "I think any of those Real Housewives all need our help. Atlanta, New York, New Jersey—any of them—they could all use us because their houses are all slightly desperate."

5. Lawrence-Bullard promises lots of "star glamour" with appearances by his celebrity clients including singer Elton John and his husband David Furnish, British model Sophie Dahl, "crazy adult industry mogul" Joe Francis of "Girls Gone Wild" fame, TV personality Daisy Fuentes, and Sharon and Ozzy Osborne.

4. Ireland spoke of the frequent imbibing viewers will see on the series: "One thing we all have in common is we all like to have a good time. There is not one teetotaler in the group." Describing her own proclivities, Ireland said: "Detoxing during the day, and then I retox at night."

3. Lawrence-Bullard has no qualms about reining in the outlandish desires of his wealthy clients: "I had a request once to goldleaf the entire interior of a garage, which I actually have to tell you I declined because I thought if that ever gets out to the press that will end my career."

2. When installing Joe Francis's house in Punta Mita, Mexico, Lawrence-Bullard was the victim of a roadside heist: "I had most of the furniture made in either Indonesia or the US. [...] It was all taken in lorries [trucks] down to Mexico and I had one of the lorries highjacked. I ended up having to do an illegal gangster-like deal by exchanging money with the hijackers to get my van of furniture back."

1. Even high-end design professionals like Lawrence-Bullard have to deal with extremely unusual requests from clients: "I once had a rather famous diva ask me to take a bath with her, which I politely declined." On his website, the British decorator lists the following celebrity clients, all of whom could be described as "divas": Sir Elton John, Cher, Christina Aguilera, and Jimmy Choo CEO Tamara Mellon. Any guesses as to who wanted to get randy?

· Watch a Sneak Peek of Million Dollar Decorators [Curbed National]
· Million Dollar Decorators Pushed Back [Curbed National]
· Martyn Lawrence-Bullard [official site]
· Million Dollar Decorators website [Bravo TV]
· All Million Dollar Decorators coverage [Curbed National]

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That's Rather Hideous: All the Colors of the Rainbow, for Less Than a Million Bucks

× Like us and you'll find top breaking news in your Facebook newsfeed. Sign up for our daily email newsletter and get top stories and breaking news delivered to your inbox. Thursday, April 28, 2011, by Sarah Firshein

Call us obsessed, but crazy Houston properties are on the brain this week! As for this one: royal-purple window awnings were the first hint that this traditional-looking Texas property was more than meets the eye. And lo and behold, inside lies a Technicolor madhouse, with each wall a different tone and various ceilings painted, too. The three-bedroom house, built in 1940, hit the market in August '10 for $1.089M and has since been price-chopped down to its current ask of $985K. Anyone care to venture a guess as to why the place hasn't sold?

· Unassuming Midcentury Modern is Actually Creepy House of Dolls [Curbed National]
· 3245 Locke Ln Houston, TX 77019 [HAR via Swamplot]

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Recaps: Million Dollar Listing Recapped, Ep 6: Condo in WeHo

× Like us and you'll find top breaking news in your Facebook newsfeed. Sign up for our daily email newsletter and get top stories and breaking news delivered to your inbox. Wednesday, March 9, 2011, by Sarah Firshein

Welcome back to Million Dollar Listing, now on its new night, joining Glee to make America's dumbest night of television. This week Madison struggles to sell in WeHo and the two Joshes deal with foreigners. Josh Williams recaps as usual. Onward!

This episode Josh Altman and his dim-witted assistant Mikey have an urgent Saturday meeting because a potential big commission is in the making. An East Coast family friend, Evan, has contacted Josh A. looking to buy a property in Los Angeles for his client, a mysterious European businessman. Josh A. describes Evan as "a high-end concierge" who basically caters to his wealthy clientele. Evan is flying in for one day to look at "the best properties on the market." Evan is interested in looking at homes in the $10M to $20M range. You can practically see the drool coming out of the side of Josh A.'s mouth as he counts his commission in his tiny head. He goes on to explain to slow-learning Mikey that the Evan in isn't buying the house himself—he's just making the recommendation to the buyer on which house to buy.

Josh A. picks up Evan from the airport and at some point in their 24-hour whirlwind of activity, they make a stop at a nine-bedroom, nine-bath home located at 12300 Mullholland Drive. The home is listed at $12M and includes a two-story guest house, twin mirrored staircases and canyon views. The interior of the home is massive, and per the listing includes parking for 100 cars. Is that even possible? Midway through the showing, Evan has seen enough and tells Josh A. that they should move on.

They bolt from the Mulholland property and go to another listing in the exclusive Beverly park neighborhood. The home located at 72 Beverly Park Drive is uber-slick, featuring 20,000 square feet, 11 bedrooms and 18 bathrooms, a private gym, a guest house, a panic room, and a 12-person Jacuzzi, all on 6.7 acres and listed at $19M. You can tell this house has an interesting story—like it was built by a Qaddafi son or an heir to the Lap Band fortune. Something like that. And in fact it sort of does. Per the Real Estalker, the home was owned by "porn purveyor Norm Zada":

"Although Mister Zada earned a doctorate from UC Berkeley, worked as an adjunct professor of mathematics at institutions of higher learning like Stanford and Columbia, became a champion poker player and a money manager, he chose to make his big bucks and major mark on the world with a seriously smutty magazine called Perfect 10 in which women who have not had any cosmetic surgery are pictured baring their naughty bits and nether parts in all their extremely explicit glory."

Head to million-dollar-listing land Curbed LA to see what happens next. >>

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<b>Real Estate</b> Portal USA Surpasses 100 Million Vectorized Parcels <b>...</b>

CLEVELAND, OH—March 1, 2011—Real Estate Portal USA, a leading  provider in Web-based real estate information for searching and mapping parcels, announced today that its national coverage now includes more than 100 million parcels (property boundaries), encompassing more than 70 percent of the United States population.

The company’s download-ready data—stored in vectorized polygon format rather than point location—is rich with attribution, including assessor parcel number (APN), address, ownership and up to 70 other neighborhood, valuation, land use, and building characteristic attributes as available. The broad coverage of data that Real Estate Portal USA offers enables professionals in any industry to utilize the information on both a regional and national scale.

Parcel data is becoming increasingly important, as government, utilities, insurance, real estate, appraisal, legal, remote sensing, clean energy, data integration, oil/gas exploration and Web and print mapping industries rely on this type of information for fast and accurate access to land records, associated ownership, land valuation and sales trends. In addition, the vectorized, geo-referenced polygon dataset serves as a detailed and accurate base map for operations and inventory management. Access to extensive data provides entities with a stronger knowledge base, resulting in better business decisions and more cost-effective and profitable operations.

Real Estate Portal USA solves the problems of non-standard parcel data between regions by normalizing parcel attributes to a single naming convention and cleaning and transforming each vector data to utilize a uniform map projection, allowing for seamless integration and interoperability with Web map APIs, including Google and Bing Maps, Google Earth® and standard GIS applications.
Parcel data is accessible for search and browsing through the company’s website (http://reportallusa.com) or by downloading PARLAY (Real Estate Portal USA’s parcel layer for Google Earth®). Through the website, subscribers have instant access to the available United Statesdataset, which can be downloaded in shapefile, Microsoft® Excel® or KML formats for easy analysis and visualization in GIS, spreadsheet or Google Earth® software. The company’s fully automated Web store enables subscribers to purchase data and instantly download files 24 hours a day, seven days a week. For more information on purchasing county parcel data or for more product details including sample downloads, please visit http://reportallusa.com/products.html.

Building on the company’s strategy of acquiring, transforming, organizing and displaying parcel data, Real Estate Portal USA plans to further expand its coverage in 2011. The company more than doubled its parcel polygon count in 2010 (from 43 million in 2009) and has increased its county coverage from 450 to more than 1,300 counties. Real Estate Portal USA leads the industry in data freshness, with 80 percent of data updated within the last year and 50 percent updated in the last quarter.

About Real Estate Portal USA
Real Estate Portal USA is one of the nation’s largest parcel data providers, leading the industry with the most up-to-date information in an integrated national Web-based mapping platform. Covering more than 100 million parcels in more than a thousand U.S. counties, the company’s data architecture solves the problems associated with non-standardized parcel data between counties, regions and states. Real Estate PortalUSA is based in Cleveland, Ohio.

###

Media Contact:
Joe Harwood
Real Estate Portal USA Inc.
+1-216-712-7779
info@reportallusa.com
Trademarks
Microsoft, Microsoft Excel and Bing are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation.

Google and Google Earth are registered trademarks of Google Inc.

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Recaps: Million Dollar Listing Recapped, Ep 4: Party Foul

× Like us and you'll find top breaking news in your Facebook newsfeed. Sign up for our daily email newsletter and get top stories and breaking news delivered to your inbox. Friday, February 25, 2011, by Sarah Firshein

Please welcome Josh Williams, who is recapping Season 4 of Bravo's Million Dollar Listing. And off he goes: Smiles everyone. Smiles! This time around, the million-dollar housing market woes are just a thing of the past and the gilded age has returned. There are crappy Los Angeles-area McMansions to be had! Old friends Madison Hildebrand and Josh Flagg are back, and we're introduced to Josh Altman. Let's get to it.

Madison Hildebrand continues to work on the sale of the Malibu property owned by his friend, prominent boob doctor Dr. Shah. In an attempt to get more foot traffic into the house, Madison hosts a caravan of realtors driving up from Beverly Hills in a party bus. They've also chopped the price from $5.695M to $5.5M, after the house failed to generate any interest. As part of the caravan, Josh Flagg and his twinterns tag along to see what's available in the Malibu market. This presents a great opportunity for Madison and Josh to get their required face time. Unfortunately, these two just won't fight the way the producers were hoping. Nary a hair pull or angry word to be had. These two might as well be pieces of driftwood bobbing up and down in the ocean.

Later, at a private showing generated by the caravan, Madison meets with a couple who have an accident-prone baby. Said baby can run through glass doors and roll into the ocean at any moment. The home continues to generate little interest, so Madison holds out hope that the couple will get over their fear of baby death and scoop up the beach house. While waiting for an offer, Madison gets a sexy massage to relax. During the massage, Madison receives a text from the scared-baby-couple's agent with an offer of $5M. Madison groans in disappointment—and unbridled passion as the masseur works his strained muscles. Madison immediately calls Dr .Shah to discuss the low ball offer, while the camera lingers on the hunky masseur's hands kneading Madison's flesh. The touching of man flesh continues as Madison and Dr. Shah agree to reject the low-ball offer and present a counter offer.

Later, Dr. Shah tells a relaxed looking Madison that his base price is $5.3M. Madison sits with Dr. Shah and calls the buyers agent, presenting a counter offer of $5.35M. The buyers counter the counter offer with $5.15M, which is still too low. Madison proposes a creative counter offer, with a final price of $5.3M, and the replacement of bathroom windows that the buyers didn't like. The clients agree to the deal and the home is sold. A happy ending for everyone!

Head to million-dollar-listing land Curbed LA to see what happens next. >>

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Video Interlude: Million Dollar Listing Sneak Peek: Josh A. Versus Homeowner!

× Like us and you'll find top breaking news in your Facebook newsfeed. Sign up for our daily email newsletter and get top stories and breaking news delivered to your inbox. Thursday, February 17, 2011, by Sarah Firshein

It's Thursday, which means there will be an inevitable bout of trouble plaguing the L.A. area tonight on Bravo's Million Dollar Listing. Just what sort of trouble? Bravo reps just sent us a sneak peek of the episode, and there's lots of awkwardness when a seller decides to be present during a broker open house that's been organized by Josh Altman. Jump for the minute-long preview clip, and then stay tuned tomorrow for the full recap.

Video: Always Hard when the Owners Present:

· All Million Dollar Listing coverage [Curbed National]

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Recaps: Million Dollar Listing Recapped, Ep 3: When Nothing Sold

× Like us and you'll find top breaking news in your Facebook newsfeed. Sign up for our daily email newsletter and get top stories and breaking news delivered to your inbox. Friday, February 18, 2011, by Sarah Firshein

Please welcome Josh Williams, who is recapping Season 4 of Bravo's Million Dollar Listing. And off he goes: Smiles everyone. Smiles! This time around, the million-dollar housing market woes are just a thing of the past and the gilded age has returned. There are crappy Los Angeles-area McMansions to be had! Old friends Madison Hildebrand and Josh Flagg are back, and we're introduced to Josh Altman. Let's get to it.

Madison Hildebrand and his client Ismir continue their quest to purchase the Jamie Kennedy estate in Los Feliz. Ismir and his deeply furrowed brows tag along with Madison to the negotiation meeting with Jamie Kennedy's listing agent, Burt Bakman, of the Studio City Bakmans. They offer a ridiculously low $2.1M for the house (with furniture) and the Shelby Cobra parked in the garage. As a reminder, the house was listed at $2.5M. Just to be clear, in his best Ivan Drago voice, Ismir growls "I vant the car."

Burt calls Jamie with the offer, and we imagine they had a real good laugh offscreen, but Jamie rejects the offer. Madison and Ismir regroup and return with a retooled offer of $2.2M for the house and furniture, but without the car. Again, the offer is totally rejected. Ismir looks defeated, furrowing his brow to a previously un-furrowed level, and decides to walk away. Outside, Ismir criticizes Madison's negotiating skills, telling him that he should have "pushed harder." Ismir wonders aloud whether their relationship will work. Quick-thinking Madison realizes he's getting canned, which is probably for the best.

Madison moves on from his let down with Ismir to a new client and friend, Dr. Darshan Shah, a plastic surgeon who specializes in boobs and body surgery. Dr. Shah's home at 26508 Latigo Shore Drive in Malibu sits above the beach and used to be owned by George Foreman of boxing and grilling fame. The 2,817-square-foot house sits on a 5,218-square-foot lot, with three bedrooms and 3.5 baths. Madison suggests a listing price between $5.5M and $6M. The good doctor counters that the house next door is going for more and, just like every other seller who has ever been on this show, believes his house is therefore worth more. With Madison's guidance they agree to list the house at $5.695M.

At the broker open house, Madison's previously unknown, and still unnamed young intern (he has a Pepperdine look to him) makes an appearance for the first time. They work together to bake cookies and move a Lamborghini, but fail. The showing goes swimmingly and the other brokers eat Madison's cookies.

Later, at a private showing, Josh Altman shows up to the home with client Maks Chmerkovskiy from television's Dancing with the Stars. After a tour around the house, Josh A. and Maks sit down to discuss how expensive the house is for the size and how it has nothing they want. Perfect. Josh A. tells Madison that they're not interested and that the house is overpriced. Madison gets huffy and defends the pricing. They agree to disagree, but we can already see the seeds of their impending hate f*ck.

Head to million-dollar-listing land Curbed LA to see what happens next. >>

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