{"id":173536,"date":"2026-02-11T15:02:45","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T15:02:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/173536\/"},"modified":"2026-02-11T15:02:45","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T15:02:45","slug":"a-luxury-listing-with-a-hint-of-hogwarts-for-14-5m","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/173536\/","title":{"rendered":"A luxury listing with a hint of Hogwarts for $14.5M"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you want to know just how dramatically the San Francisco real estate market has changed<\/a> in the last two years, look no further than 2500 Divisadero, an English Tudor Revival that last sold in 2024 for just under $10 million. In late January, the 9,000-plus-square-foot house returned to the market with an asking price of $14.5 million.<\/p>\n

When one agent who toured the corner-lot home questioned the nearly 50% higher asking price, listing agent Andy Ardila was ready with a rationale.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cDidn\u2019t we all wish that we bought Nvidia stock 18 months ago?\u201d he said. \u201cThe market changes. It\u2019s improved considerably, and there\u2019s no supply right now.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

It was an apt comparison, given how many luxury buyers are connected to AI<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Yes, the market is moving again, but Ardila and co-listing agent David Costello also point out that the official March 2024 sales price of $9.9 million was more like $11 million when including the amount spent on agent commissions on both sides and transfer taxes \u2014 sums normally paid by the sellers, but which the buyer agreed to cover to close the deal.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"AThe home on the corner of Divisadero and Pacific was built in 1933 by Angus McSweeney, a partner at Willis Polk & Company. | Source: Courtesy Philippe Newman<\/p>\n

Their client, Dr. Sherman Tran, a spinal specialist, also dropped nearly $400,000 buying the furnishings and art from former owner Mike Depatie, the senior real estate adviser to the Shorenstein family and onetime CEO of Kimpton Hotels. After closing, Tran spent another $750,000 on deferred maintenance in the 1933 eight-bedroom, eight-bath home and overhauled the lower floor to make it suitable for long-term visits from their family members.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"AThe bar sits just off the grand entry and living room. It was designed by Ken Fulk for the previous owner, former Kimpton CEO Mike Depatie. | Source: Courtesy Philippe Newman<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not that big of a profit,\u201d Costello said, considering how much Tran has put in.<\/p>\n

That lower level, with its own kitchen, bathroom, and laundry, appeals to international buyers looking for multigenerational living, the Compass agents said. Other prospective buyers have come from within the neighborhood, wanting to upsize.<\/p>\n

Tran and his wife decided that the home was too large for their family of three. They considered taking on another major renovation, even going so far as having architectural drawings made, but ended up falling in love with a penthouse downtown. They are in contract on that new-construction condo, which is roughly half the size of the Pac Heights home.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The house was built during the Great Depression for the Bissinger family, whose matriarch Marjorie Walter Bissinger was the cofounder of the Asian Art Museum. It later housed the Canadian Consulate from 1974 to 1994.<\/p>\n

\"AThe dining room has original leaded-glass French doors that lead to the courtyard. A gas fireplace has what appears to be a stone surround but is actually wallpaper. | Source: Courtesy Philippe Newman<\/p>\n

Even with updates likely needed in the kitchen and en suite bathrooms, the home has been a hit among inventory-starved<\/a> high-end buyers hunting for a big home just off Billionaire\u2019s Row. People started ringing the doorbell as soon as the \u201cfor sale\u201d sign went up, before the home hit the market. Tran gave several impromptu tours before the agents asked him to stop so they could work their magic first.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Gallery of 5 photosExpand photoClick arrows to view
the slideshow<\/p>\n

The living room is one of the only spaces completely reimagined for the sale, with staged furniture and original woodwork painted off-white, rather than the black molding favored by the previous owners. | Source: Courtesy Philippe Newman<\/p>\n

The butler\u2019s panty between the kitchen and dining room has Caesarstone countertops and custom cabinets that used the home\u2019s archways as inspiration. | Source: Courtesy Philippe Newman<\/p>\n

Hidden away on the upper level is a media room with a classic movie theme and a popcorn machine. | Source: Courtesy Philippe Newman<\/p>\n

The jack-and-jill bath that connects two bedrooms, one of which is set up as an office. | Source: Courtesy Philippe Newman<\/p>\n

The bedroom attached to the jack-and-jill bath. | Source: Courtesy Philippe Newman<\/p>\n

They repainted the ornate, original woodwork in the entry and living room from black to off-white to make the front rooms look more contemporary and less like a Gothic church. But otherwise, the main floors are much as they were when Tran bought the house. There\u2019s a\u00a0Ken Fulk-designed main-floor bar and, one flight up, a massive primary suite with an animal-print theme running through the sitting room, bedroom, and his and hers closets. The top-level entertaining space has vaulted ceilings and overflows with English-inspired accents \u2014\u00a0so much so that it has reminded some buyers of Hogwarts, complete with hidden doorways to a home gym and bathroom on one side and a billiards room and home theater on the other.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"AThe primary suite has a fireplace, a separate sitting room, his and hers closets, and a bathroom with a soaker tub. | Source: Courtesy Philippe Newman<\/p>\n

More than 14,000 people have looked at the listing online since it came to market Jan. 25, the agents said; a few hundred is the norm. There have been requests for private showings daily and a few serious buyers circling. A year ago, it might have taken six to eight months to sell a home at this price point, Costello said, but with the market on the upswing and a lack of inventory, he is expecting a much quicker sale this spring.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI do believe we\u2019re going to get what we\u2019re asking for,\u201d said Costello. \u201cVirtually everything around us has sold, and not as nice.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If you want to know just how dramatically the San Francisco real estate market has changed in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":173537,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[13781,45291,11853,101,103,102,104,106,105],"class_list":{"0":"post-173536","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-francisco","8":"tag-luxury-real-estate","9":"tag-pacific-heights","10":"tag-residential-real-estate","11":"tag-san-francisco","12":"tag-san-francisco-headlines","13":"tag-san-francisco-news","14":"tag-sf","15":"tag-sf-headlines","16":"tag-sf-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173536","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=173536"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173536\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/173537"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=173536"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=173536"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=173536"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}