It’s everything you could want in a San Francisco home: a towering property relative to its neighbors on Haight Street, with views of Sutro Tower and the downtown skyline, painted a distinctive shade of red. It also happens to be Jimi Hendrix’s “former 1960s residence,” according to a listing posted Monday for 1524-1528 Haight St. It’s priced at just under $4 million.
There’s just one catch — Hendrix likely never lived there.
“It’s a bunch of shit,” said Keith Dion, a self-identified Hendrix expert and professional musician. “I’m sort of annoyed they didn’t spell that out.”
But maybe the listing agent knows something Dion doesn’t? When The Standard called the Burlingame-based agency, Green Banker Realty, we were connected to real estate agent Mark Louie.
“I’m kinda everyone and no one,” Louie said, adding that he is not the listing agent on the property. “I do showings, other things.”
“They just call it the Jimi Hendrix house. There’s nothing definitive,” Louie said when asked for more information. “Nobody knows for sure.”
Dion said that there’s no way Hendrix ever lived in the house. While he played many shows in the Bay Area, he never owned property in San Francisco, Dion said. He noted that Hendrix recorded the song “Red House” in London in December 1966, six months before he came to San Francisco while on his way to the 1967 Monterey International Pop Festival.
The late Hendrix biographer Charles Cross said in a 2023 interview with SFGATE that there’s no chance the rock legend ever lived in the house.
“I can tell you unequivocally that is in complete error,” Cross said.
The actual listing agent, Stanley Lo, couldn’t provide information about Hendrix’s connection to the property.
“My staff probably wrote some story,” Lo said.
Lo followed up with an email stating that there are no physical records of Hendrix living there, and the listing information is based on “previous listings, internet articles, newspapers, and other evidence.” Lo also said that Hendrix’s connection to the house is contested.
The house wasn’t always red. Before 2020, it was more of a purple-ish color. There appear to be at least three iterations of murals of Hendrix on the side. The current mural, which shows the rock legend strumming an electric guitar, was painted in June 2022 by graffiti artist Sean Griffin, according to Instagram posts at the time.
So, if you aren’t getting Hendrix’s former home, what are you getting?
Well, there is a ground-floor pet store called Grooming and More, along with two five-bedroom apartments, a two-bedroom apartment, and a studio, according to the listing. Rents for the apartments range from nearly $1,500 to roughly $4,600, while the shop pays $6,000, for a net of $18,178 in monthly income. There are outstanding property taxes of $31,471.66 for fiscal year 2024, according to city records.
Louie said the list price is intentionally low to attract attention and bids.
The building is owned by the Rasmi & Bahjeh Ziedan Revocable Trust, according to property records. The trust is controlled by Rasmi and Bahjeh Zeidan, a married couple whose son, Marwan Zeidan, owns the downstairs pet store. Marwan, who is handling the sale of the property, declined to answer questions and referred The Standard to Lo.
Lo declined to comment on the owners’ reasons for selling but said there are no plans to close the pet store, which is included in the sale.
Larisa Kaplan, who works at the pet store, said she sees roughly 20 people a day taking photos of the building. She said people typically ask about Hendrix’s connection.
“They’re just confused about the mural. They’re wondering about the connection,” Kaplan said.