Thomas Durst, estranged brother of Robert Durst, sells SF home for $7M

Thomas Durst, the estranged brother of convicted killer Robert Durst, who died in 2022, and son of former Durst Organization head Seymour Durst, has sold his San Francisco home in Russian Hill for $7 million, according to public records.

The deal appears to be an off-market sale and the buyer is listed as RH Vallejo 860 LLC. It has the same mailing address as a Redwood City home owned by Osuke Honda, a general partner at early stage VC firm DCM Ventures, according to state records and LinkedIn.

Durst and wife Diane bought the 5,200-square-foot home at 1071 Vallejo Street in 2008 for $5.3 million and have done minimal updates since then, according to permits filed with the city. The changes include some concrete retaining wall work and replacing five rear windows. Listing notes from that time say that the 1912-built home has five bedrooms and four bathrooms. It is located on a cul-de-sac portion of Vallejo between Jones and Taylor and is steps from the Vallejo Stairway, which leads down to Ina Coolbrith Park. 

The 2008 listing notes also say the home has a top-floor pentroom and terrace with 360-degree views of the city and the Golden Gate Bridge.  The primary bedroom suite has its own floor and there are two additional bedrooms and two bathrooms one floor below that. The lower level has “staff/guest quarters” as well.

Durst has lived in the Bay Area since at least the 1980s, far from his famous New York development family, and has kept a low profile. A 2003 story in the New York Post about how he feared for his life while his brother was on the lam in 2001 described him as a real-estate developer in Ross. He has previously owned homes in that Marin town, as well as several in San Francisco, according to public records. He still owns a 1952 ranch home with 2,400 square feet in Menlo Park that he bought with his wife for $3.8 million in 2021.

Durst was subpoenaed to testify at his older brother’s murder trial in 2020, telling the court he was terrified of Robert, according to media reports at the time. He testified that during a trip to New York in 1982, when Robert’s first wife Kathie had been missing for several months, Robert had angrily confronted him because he found out that Durst had given her money months earlier.

“I felt like I was about to die,” he said of the encounter.

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