Time to get rolling. I’m going to start with something that’s been itching at me for a couple of days. I’m going to call it “Knucklehead of the Week”. While knucklehead of the week might be someone that is trying to sell a house for way over price this time I’m going to focus on one that bought it way over price.
Over the past year my wife and I have bid on three different places. That’s okay if you want to write and say why??! The prices are bound to go down. The first one was fun low balling with all sorts of contingencies. The second was a short sale that I learned a lot from. The third is one that is almost reasonably priced but will drop in value over the next year so I went lower. While I will talk about two of those some other time I want to focus on the second one..the short sale.
This short sale was at 19452 Riverdale Ln http://www.redfin.com/CA/Huntington-Beach/19452-Riverdale-Ln-92648/home/3138463. It recently sold at $710,000
If you look at the price history you see that the owner that bought it in 2005 bought near the top of the market. The townhome is a nice place. At the time we looked at it, several price drops had occurred until it listed at $700k. Now the Seacliff area in HB is nice but it is still overpriced. Yes, I know it’s very close to the ocean but many of those units in there they plastered together and made them 2bd/2ba instead of 3bd which I think most families are looking for. Then the builders added a den. Every realtor loves to say, “can easily be converted to a third bedroom”. How come none of them are however? Because it’s a pain in the you know what and if I pay over 600k I don’t want to be dealing with some contractor even if it is a “simple conversion’.
We bid 625k, why? Because that’s what we felt it was worth. This place actually did have a third bedroom, a bit more sq. footage, a nice deck area and was in good condition.
We later found out it had seven bids on it. One was at 675k, another 640k, ours at 625k and four others under 600k. After 14 weeks we finally got a response from the bank.
Sales History
Date Price Appreciation
Aug 01, 1989 $272,500 --
Oct 10, 1990 $350,000 23.4%/yr
May 04, 2005 $765,000 5.5%/yr
Jun 30, 2008 $710,000 -2.3%/yr
Who held the note for this gem? Countrywide of course. A little history about it. The poor soul that bought it in 05 was a mortgage appraiser. Seems his business dried up quite a bit by 07 and he was looking to move back to the Green Bay area from which he came. He seemed like a nice guy and was in the unit when we looked at but hey..he’s a cheeshead fan.
Countrywide finally came back and told everyone that they were raising the price to $750K. That’s right..after all that time, close to 300 days now on the market, they were going to ask 75 grand more than the highest bidder, who I’m not sure was even sticking around at this point. Well everyone said “you suck Countrywide”, or some other expletive and they relisted it at 750k. The final result, they got a buyer and closed at $710k.
I actually pity the realtor on this one. She did call Countrywide everyday but got nowhere with them half the time. So kudos to Sharon of Tarbell Realty, I think you earned your commission (reduced) on that one.
We went through Redfin, which was patient also. The only reason I put this in is after looking at as many houses and listings as I have I will be commenting on some of these HB realtors in some upcoming blogs.
Well the story doesn’t end there. While you say so what, it’s only one place over sold..whatever..the place next door went up for sale. This place, which had less sq. footage, listed at over 100k more! WTF? What makes the place next-door with a few less sq. feet and closer to the pool, (noisier), worth more. Granite counters? I’m not sure. I’m perplexed, someone please tell me! While I never stepped foot inside that one I did go inside the first one and it was a decent place. It wasn’t like some foreclosure in Santa Ana that had a tagging party like this picture posted in the OC a while back. (It sold at auction for $175k by the way) (originally posted in the OC register)
Over the past year my wife and I have bid on three different places. That’s okay if you want to write and say why??! The prices are bound to go down. The first one was fun low balling with all sorts of contingencies. The second was a short sale that I learned a lot from. The third is one that is almost reasonably priced but will drop in value over the next year so I went lower. While I will talk about two of those some other time I want to focus on the second one..the short sale.
This short sale was at 19452 Riverdale Ln http://www.redfin.com/CA/Huntington-Beach/19452-Riverdale-Ln-92648/home/3138463. It recently sold at $710,000
If you look at the price history you see that the owner that bought it in 2005 bought near the top of the market. The townhome is a nice place. At the time we looked at it, several price drops had occurred until it listed at $700k. Now the Seacliff area in HB is nice but it is still overpriced. Yes, I know it’s very close to the ocean but many of those units in there they plastered together and made them 2bd/2ba instead of 3bd which I think most families are looking for. Then the builders added a den. Every realtor loves to say, “can easily be converted to a third bedroom”. How come none of them are however? Because it’s a pain in the you know what and if I pay over 600k I don’t want to be dealing with some contractor even if it is a “simple conversion’.
We bid 625k, why? Because that’s what we felt it was worth. This place actually did have a third bedroom, a bit more sq. footage, a nice deck area and was in good condition.
We later found out it had seven bids on it. One was at 675k, another 640k, ours at 625k and four others under 600k. After 14 weeks we finally got a response from the bank.
Sales History
Date Price Appreciation
Aug 01, 1989 $272,500 --
Oct 10, 1990 $350,000 23.4%/yr
May 04, 2005 $765,000 5.5%/yr
Jun 30, 2008 $710,000 -2.3%/yr
Who held the note for this gem? Countrywide of course. A little history about it. The poor soul that bought it in 05 was a mortgage appraiser. Seems his business dried up quite a bit by 07 and he was looking to move back to the Green Bay area from which he came. He seemed like a nice guy and was in the unit when we looked at but hey..he’s a cheeshead fan.
Countrywide finally came back and told everyone that they were raising the price to $750K. That’s right..after all that time, close to 300 days now on the market, they were going to ask 75 grand more than the highest bidder, who I’m not sure was even sticking around at this point. Well everyone said “you suck Countrywide”, or some other expletive and they relisted it at 750k. The final result, they got a buyer and closed at $710k.
I actually pity the realtor on this one. She did call Countrywide everyday but got nowhere with them half the time. So kudos to Sharon of Tarbell Realty, I think you earned your commission (reduced) on that one.
We went through Redfin, which was patient also. The only reason I put this in is after looking at as many houses and listings as I have I will be commenting on some of these HB realtors in some upcoming blogs.
Well the story doesn’t end there. While you say so what, it’s only one place over sold..whatever..the place next door went up for sale. This place, which had less sq. footage, listed at over 100k more! WTF? What makes the place next-door with a few less sq. feet and closer to the pool, (noisier), worth more. Granite counters? I’m not sure. I’m perplexed, someone please tell me! While I never stepped foot inside that one I did go inside the first one and it was a decent place. It wasn’t like some foreclosure in Santa Ana that had a tagging party like this picture posted in the OC a while back. (It sold at auction for $175k by the way) (originally posted in the OC register)
This is why this guy is my knucklehead of the week. He paid a full 100k over what his neighbor next door paid. WTF!!??http://www.redfin.com/CA/Huntington-Beach/19456-Riverdale-Ln-92648/home/3138459 He paid $810k while his neighbor paid $710k! That ought to be an interesting discussion when he invites his neighbor over for a barbecue. Gee Ralph..so you must be paying at least $700 more a month in mortgage payments when you add your tax bill too. Don't worry the beer's on me...knucklehead!!
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