Anybody with a toehold in the exorbitant San Francisco housing market holds the potential for reaping major rewards, but Zhengtao Ji may have made a uniquely savvy investment.
In 2021, Mr. Ji, a Silicon Valley software engineer, bought a one-bedroom condo on a small alley in a neighborhood dotted with freeways and auto body repair shops. It was not exactly the stuff of glossy real estate brochures.
But it did have one distinguishing feature: For 17 years, Vice President Kamala Harris owned it.
She lived there until she moved to the upscale Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles with her husband, Doug Emhoff, and then to Washington, D.C.
Mr. Ji, who goes by David, paid $860,000 for the condo, and did what any shrewd Bay Area entrepreneur might. He listed it for rent on Vrbo and Airbnb, the short-term rental sites and, in all capital letters, described it as “AN AMAZING OPPORTUNITY TO LIVE INSIDE THE HOME PREVIOUSLY OWNED BY VICE PRESIDENT KAMALA HARRIS!”
This isn’t meant for just any casual lookie-loo, though. You’ll need a month to spare, along with at least $6,000 to stay here.
San Francisco’s strict rules on rentals shorter than 30 days led Mr. Ji to rent the property for a minimum of a month at a time, charging about $200 per night.
The condo also is not a spot for tourists wanting to soak in familiar postcard views of San Francisco. There is no lookout on the Golden Gate Bridge, Golden Gate Park or much of anything golden at all. The condo sits in the South of Market district, which has been hard hit by homelessness and the fentanyl epidemic. The nearby streetscape, flat and gray, unfolds under the shadow of Interstate 80 leading to the Bay Bridge.
Ms. Harris bought the unit for $489,000 in 2004, shortly after she was sworn in as San Francisco’s district attorney at age 39. It would have been convenient: It is a short walk to the Hall of Justice, a hulking building known for courtrooms as well as cockroaches and clogged toilets.
The condo was the site of at least one pivotal moment for Ms. Harris. According to her memoir, “The Truths We Hold,” it was in the condo’s kitchen in 2014, as she perused a Thai takeout menu, that Mr. Emhoff got down on one knee, saying, “I want to spend my life with you.”
A decade later, on Tuesday night, Ms. Harris was back in that condo — well, on the large TV over the fireplace, anyway. Mr. Ji’s current renter, Lata Setty, hosted a presidential debate party, packing dozens of Harris supporters into her old kitchen and living room.
Ms. Setty is a venture capitalist, lawyer and big fan of the vice president, and rented the condo this month to host events in the run-up to the election. She served her guests South Indian dishes and sparkling wine and reminded them to donate to the woman she describes as “a rock star.”
Ms. Setty also offered her debate party guests a look around the condo, joking that the full tour would not take much time at all.
Downstairs is a kitchen, half-bathroom and living room. The room’s gold and cream striped curtains and gold paisley wallpaper date to Ms. Harris’s time. A collage of framed photos of Ms. Harris, including one of her being sworn in as vice president in a purple coat, are new — part of Mr. Ji’s decorating scheme.
The windows offer scenes of whizzing traffic, utility poles and the backside of a billboard for the Bay Bridge Inn across the street.
“She seemed to be a simple person,” Ms. Setty said. “I mean, look at the view.”
Upstairs includes a full bathroom, closet space and a bed. The panorama from there? A wall of the next building over.
“You can change the comforter, but you can’t change the view,” Ms. Setty said.
Unsurprisingly, the guests for the gathering inside Ms. Harris’s former home were pro-Harris. They seemed nervous at first, growing calmer and more buoyant as the evening went on.
At one point, when Ms. Harris noted that she owned a gun, someone hollered: “Hey oh! Check the house!”
When it was first for sale, the condo was not advertised as belonging to Ms. Harris. Only after potential buyers expressed interest did the vice president’s real estate agent, Anne Herrera, let them know that the disclosures would include a famous seller.
“They perked up!” Ms. Herrera recalled, noting that Mr. Ji was enthusiastic from the beginning and grew even more so after learning that Ms. Harris was the seller.
Mr. Ji declined to be interviewed, saying he wanted to maintain his privacy. He responded briefly to some written questions, saying that owning Ms. Harris’s former condo “was an overwhelming experience at first” but that he had grown used to it. It does make for good stories to tell his friends, he wrote.
He said he has not thought about how much his investment could grow if its former owner becomes president.
Regardless, he wrote, he is pleased with his purchase.
“I think it’s just a nice and cozy place.”
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