Silveira Residence
Buyer Represented
Oakland, CA
3 beds, 1 baths, 1640 sf
Listed 6/19/25 for $949,000
Sold 8/18/25 for $899,000
Designed and built by Tom Lowe, 1964. Lowe passed in 2024 after battling Alzheimer's for many years. Unfortunately, I never got to speak with him but his legacy is solidified through the 80 homes he built in the Oakland and Berkeley hills.
It's no secret I'm a Lowe fan, but this is not what my buyers were looking for. They came to me back in January with a very specific wish list that can be summed up as a turnkey artist loft in the inner East Bay. While not my typical mid century fare, my first career was in design and I love to support my artist community—artist loft, no problem.
We looked at everything. We exhausted the hit list every week, and I encouraged them to keep on saving and keep on being patient. The right place would come up. Then the right place did come up, but we had a small problem: it was a house and it was over budget. We got creative with our lender and realized our position had improved from "nice condo" to "starter home" budget, and let's shoot our shot while we're here. We lost.
Again, encouragement to keep saving and keep being patient. Luckily, by this point we had become fast friends and the journey to this house had become part of our day-to-day and we’ve got the group chat to prove it—my favorite kind of clients.
When this Lowe popped up it was initially written off as "over budget and needs too much work". After some time on market, and the listing agent nearly drenching me with the garden hose while I was crawling under the house...we decided this might be an opportunity. We ended up closing $50k under list, maxed out seller credit, and the appraisal was waived..!
To top it all off, my clients have never lived in a house. Actual tears were shed at the key hand off, Sniff was present to officiate, and I'm lucky to call them friends. Now, we have a lot of work to do!