This is “The Find,” an obsessive house hunter’s index of the four best San Francisco real estate buys of the moment.

In San Francisco, you have two choices if you want to buy a home.

Choice 1: Pay the most money for it. This is all well and good but involves having more money than the Nvidia engineer bidding against you. Good luck with that.

Choice 2: Have a vision for how the home could be transformed, one that other homebuyers don’t see. If everyone else disregards a house because of its style, layout, location, size, or — as with one of this week’s homes — it’s saddled with tenant-occupied units, they are not going to put an offer on it. On those rare occasions when a diamond is spotted in the rough, you can lock in a lower price than if there were a lot of competing offers.

As an exercise, try to make your first thought when you see a home “What could this be with a little bit of effort?” rather than “Ugh, never!” Who knows, maybe you will see an angle that the rest of the market is missing. The four homes we’ve found this week all have that potential.

By the time you can afford a $4 million home in San Francisco, you may think it’s time to kick back and enjoy your awesome new house. Well, I have news for you: Sometimes, the work has just begun.

The Gatewood-Keane Mansion is an Italianate Victorian constructed circa 1875. And like most homes constructed a century and a half ago, it will be a labor of love to restore. While it maintains the grandeur of a 4,522-square-foot mansion, certain enhancements over the ages, such as vinyl flooring in some rooms, do not fit with the Victorian style. The home also does not currently have parking, and there are two tenant-occupied units on the property. Having tenants can be a plus for buyers seeking investment income — or an impediment if you’re looking to massively renovate the home. 

But if these obstacles aren’t too imposing, you may have lucked onto an opportunity. The home has been on the market for 38 days. Perhaps that opens the door for you to bring it back to its former glory.

A view of the Transamerica Building, garage parking and a renovated kitchen: What more could you ask for in a San Francisco apartment? 

Located on two levels, this home features two bedrooms plus a bonus room and an atrium for lounging in the sun. The kitchen appears to be brand new and features a stove from Wolf, the luxury appliance brand with the iconic red knobs.

The home is in a stately three-unit ivy-bedecked brick building in Nob Hill. Given that downtown San Francisco is slower than it used to be, you’ve seen a pullback in prices in the surrounding districts. Additionally, anytime you see a brick building in San Francisco, you should consult with a licensed professional to assess the building’s structural integrity during inspection. Sometimes it’s not a big deal, sometimes it is, but only a professional can let you know.

This apartment has been on the market for 36 days — longer than usual for such a beautifully appointed home. To me, that means it’s a candidate that you should consider touring.

The ’80s called and it wants to sell you a condo! This mirror-clad apartment with gold trim in Opera Plaza is one of the lowest-priced homes for sale in San Francisco. And at 754 square feet, it’s not small for a one-bedroom either.

This condo building was constructed in 1982, and it’s clearly a period piece from the era. If you don’t favor the Miami Vice aesthetic, no problem — you can tear out the mirrors, trim and carpet and start fresh. 

But before we get too excited, the HOA fee is $1,120 per month. Add in your property taxes, insurance and the lease on a parking spot, and your non-mortgage monthly costs quickly become higher than your mortgage. Even if you got this condo for free, your monthly payments would be significant.

On the plus side, the condo is currently bank-owned, meaning the former owner defaulted on their payments, and the price has been drastically cut from its previous listing price of $650,000 in 2020. And did we mention that the building has a swimming pool?

We’ve all heard of the travails of Millennium Tower, the city’s famous, formerly sinking luxury condo building. But after $100 million in renovations aimed at fixing the issue, you’re starting to see buyers take a chance on the Millennium again.

Part of the renewed interest in the tower derives from sellers offering attractive list prices. Here we have a stunning two-bedroom condo overlooking Salesforce Park that’s priced similarly to your average random dilapidated two-bedroom condo in the city. The HOA fees are a whopping $2,033 per month, but you get full-on luxury services for that outlay, including a swimming pool, hot tub, fitness center and private club room. The unit also comes with a parking space. (Unfortunately, there is still some question whether the building repairs have fixed the sinking issue.)

For the contrarian homebuyer willing to take the risk, it may turn out that buying in Millennium Tower in 2024 could be a tremendous value. Only time will tell.

Rohin Dhar is a licensed real estate agent who lives in the Richmond. He has an MBA from Stanford and a weird portfolio of properties that includes an Earthship. You can find him on X, where he has a popular real estate account.