One for the ROAD!

Sometimes you just got to laugh. This was posted recently on Google Street map, though it's been since taken down. Seems this Aussie passed out next to his Mum's house when the cameras were rolling. Oops. I guess they should just be glad that they weren't having an open house for their property that day. Here's the full story:
http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/editors-choice/2008/08/12/drunk-australian-s-kerbside-nap-caught-on-google-earth-86908-20693777/

Pompano Ranch and my Gold Gucci watch bet

On July 22nd I wrote about the Gold Gucci watch bet with my wife:
http://hbrealestateandmore.blogspot.com/2008/07/gold-gucci-watch-bet.html
Sad to say she won this one.
Let me summarize. We saw a place in HB that I said would not get an offer in 30 days and she said it would.

I thought I was in the clear until they got an offer around 25 days after listing. Here is the property:
http://www.redfin.com/CA/Huntington-Beach/7402-Coho-Dr-92648/unit-111/home/5556829 (love that linoleum floor and 1980 stove)

This is the Pacific Ranch community of HB. Nice community built in the mid to late 80’s. Most of the units are tri-levels, which doesn’t appeal to everyone. Prices here have been dropping almost as fast as world records when Michael Phelps swims.

Just over a year ago a 2000 sq. ft. model sold for $712,000:
http://www.redfin.com/CA/Huntington-Beach/7371-Seabluff-Dr-92648/unit-111/home/5556882
Need another example? Here’s one that in April of last year went for $719,500
http://www.redfin.com/CA/Huntington-Beach/19521-Pompano-Ln-92648/unit-109/home/5559287
The models can differ a bit. They all have a downstairs “bonus room” that can have a bathroom added if one wants. (Most don’t since they already have 2 ½ baths). But they all have right around 2,000 sq. ft.
Fast forward 9/27/07- same model- down to $640,000
http://www.redfin.com/CA/Huntington-Beach/19512-Pompano-Ln-92648/unit-111/home/5561139
By Dec of last year that price is dropped down to $625,000
http://www.redfin.com/CA/Huntington-Beach/19481-Pompano-Ln-92648/unit-103/home/5559311
These are not short sales that I can see either. Just people that have equity and want to sell before the bottom drops out further.
Well, the bottom is still dropping:
In Feb. one closed under what was inevitable: under $600k. This one for $599k
This looked like a short sale but it wasn’t. The owners might have taken a little hit on this one. They were moving up north for a job change and had to get out quickly. They started their listing at $675k and dropped.
http://www.redfin.com/CA/Huntington-Beach/19451-Pompano-Ln-92648/unit-108/home/5559377
One more under $600k a few months later in the “peak selling summer season” and then:
This one started at around $620 and endured a few drops before settling at $560k
http://www.redfin.com/CA/Huntington-Beach/19561-Pompano-Ln-92648/unit-105/home/5559822
There’s another listing that was at $580k and probably sold close to full price, as this home was immaculate.

So why did I take this bet with my wife? Well the property was priced right based on recent comps. The inside was terrible though. Linoleum kitchen floor. No window coverings. Quick industrial carpet slapped down, kitchen appliances that came from probably Gemco (for those of you that remember that defunct store in the 80’s). I’ve visited probably most of these units in the last year and the serious sellers have at least put in wood (or laminate) floors, plantation shutters and made some attempts at upgrading. Though most have a ways to go with their kitchens. This one has quite a bit of work and I figured even at $565k it was a bit overpriced and still had to come down.
I don’t know what the final accepted offer was but it will set a new comp low for these models. From $712,000 to under $ 560,000 represents over a 21% drop in this community in just 15 months. And these were not short sales!! Now what about those with Alt-A, option loans and the pressure these loans will put on the market?
I predict these 2,000 sq. ft. homes in Pacific Ranch will eventually approach under $500k. Probably by the second half of next year.
My only mistake with the bet with my wife is that I should have said it had to close, not just get an offer. Oh well ..shoot ..Now I got to go shopping.

I was already to post this late last evening when I decided to go to bed and wait until today. I’m glad I did. After perusing the listings I saw something more I need to add about Pacific Ranch.
This idiot in self-denial:
http://www.redfin.com/CA/Huntington-Beach/7402-Coho-Dr-92648/unit-105/home/5556811
A little info about this listing which is trying to sell at $639k when they haven’t had one sell above $600 in quite some time now. In fact the last 5 comparable comps are all under $600k (two of them still waiting to close).Wake up pal! This realtard actually posted it originally for $649k and after around 88 days on the market took it off for what was probably no more than an hour and put it up as a new listing. Don’t you just love that? I actually called them when they first listed it since I was interested in seeing it and then waiting to see if it would drop after that. The original listing agent is from this same group, HOM Real Estate Group. What does HOM stand for anyway? They couldn’t spell Home? Or maybe an acronym for Happily Orchestrating Manipulators as that’s what this group seems to do.
When I called the original agent, Sue Saffarans, she was more than happy to show it to me. A few minutes later her assistant, this lap dog Chad called to say she was busy but he could show it to me. He was more than happy until I mentioned I was working with Redfin. Then the a**hole turned arrogant. He said if I’m working with them it’s not worth my time showing it to you. Excuse me? I tried to constrain myself and explained that he would still get his 3% commission. He again repeated it’s not worth his time.
What an arrogant S.O.B. Not worth around $18G they would pull in from the listing? Or maybe the fact that when the listing was under Sue’s name it said that she was the owner/related in the listing. Hmmm..H.O.M.- Happily Orchestrating Manipulators.
Another realtor that wanted to play both sides of the fence. Do they think all buyers are that stupid that we won’t recognize they won’t be representing my best interests? Sheesh.
I was really shocked when the status changed to backup offers. How could someone give them an offer when all around them were better priced listings? Well today that changed back to active. Perhaps the buyers realized they were getting taken or the bank came back with an appraisal that was oh..Let’s say about 80G’s less then what they want. Whatever the reason, I hope this one goes back to the bank; realtors like this deserve to get it stuck to them.

I was on bankrate.com today and saw this ad:

I'm guessing they were paid up well in advance..don't think there are too many takers for this offer though.

Bad Bad Investment

I’ve been relaxing lately watching some of the Olympics like probably many of you. Had an interesting conversation with this guy that recently bought a one bedroom/one bath in LB for $405/sq. ft. A little pricey for Long Beach for this particular property. For privacy sake I won’t disclose the exact property.
He had just gotten done fixing the property up for a rental and we struck up a conversation. I asked him did he think he overpaid for this property. His reply was that in 5 or 10 years the value will go up and plus it’s a great write-off.
I didn’t want to burst his bubble but I had to shake my head. He seemed like an okay guy and I hope he has the money to cover the amount that he’s bleeding every month but I had to wonder.
I know this building well and the rental on this property is about $1100 average though he said he was renting it to a friend for around $1,000. His payments per a month are $1700. Whoa Nelly! He told me his real estate broker did a great job and now he has a “real estate portfolio”. Let’s add a couple of hundred for association dues and a bit over $200 for taxes and he’s paying $2,100+ a month. Yikes, a thousand a month plus whatever he put down?? Why does this have “short sale” written all over it in a year or two?
Maybe he knows something that I don’t? Like there will be an amazing real estate turnaround and prices will go up astronomically again? I don’t think so. I absolutely cannot fathom how somebody could buy that property with these numbers. I can’t. And I’m pretty good in math.
Maybe if some others of you have a CD coming due and you don’t know what to do with your money, contact me. I’m sure I can get you a better return than this. (Disclaimer: this is sarcasm, I’m not a financial advisor but heck send me your check anyway, or blow it on a “great rental property” like this.)
Thinking like this is what got people in trouble.

Piss off your neighbors- Follow up

A while ago I posted on this place, titled how to piss off your neighbors.
This property on Milos drive:
http://www.redfin.com/CA/Huntington-Beach/18862-Milos-Dr-92648/home/3835443
Since coming out with a price that was $70,000 lower than your neighbors there’s been a few twists to this property. After starting out with a price of $530,000 they dropped it quickly to $498,000 a little over a week later. At first I said Wow..They really want to sell. Two days later they dropped it to $459,000 and I began to wonder. Was this done to get multiple bidding going? Now they are approaching 2003 prices on this.
Just to keep it up on people’s mailings and radar they dropped it again $1,000 to $458,000.
So what gives? Under the notes that the realtor sees the listing agent wants to have it close by Aug. 19th. Ok, what planet do you live on that you can get banks, inspections, and what not coordinated to get it all done in less than two weeks? Even with an all cash buyer it would be difficult at best.
My guess is that the NOD, oh did I fail to mention that? Let me back up then. This guy has received a NOD. How the heck do you get a NOD when you have that much equity built into it unless you’re an idiot?
If this were Jeopardy it would go like this:
I’ll take new cars for $50k Alex
I’ll take European Vacations for another $10G Alex
I’ll take shopping spree for another $25k Alex. And so on.
My guess is they tapped out the equity like so many others now they can’t pay the piper.

And since you’re going to default anyway you might as well rent it out to someone and see if you can get some rent money while you’re at it. That’s right, for the past 6 months they have been pulling in the rent money. Now the tenants are getting the boot and these characters have only a blemish on their credit report.

The listing agent, (we believe them don’t we?), says that the list price covers the back payments, interest and everything they owe so there isn’t any additional costs. Sure, if you say so.
Someone might jump on this one but I hope they are careful. Otherwise back to the bank you go.

Knucklehead of the Week! Aug 5

Nothing says I want to alienate any possible woman from buying your place by putting a urinal in your condo...way to go LB! No wonder it's been listed for over half a year.

From Greed to Entitlement?

I posted earlier about this property on 7305 Arcadia Dr. in the Bel-Air tract of HB. This is a group of 102 houses all built and sold around 2005-06 and all upside down now. After unsuccessfully trying to contact this listing agent I called a realtor friend of mine. This husband/wife team in LB I’ve known for over 20 years and their good ethics is why they are probably able to work in this market. I also asked her to check on another property in this same section.
Anyway, she wrote me back the following:
After we spoke yesterday, I pulled up both of those listings. I called both agents and only the one Asian Lady Lillian got back with me regarding Arcadia Drive. It is a newly listed short sale, and she priced it at "Value Range Marketing" from $639,999.-$779,999. She said she did this for marketing reasons and now has two offers around $700k. She said you would have to come in at or above that price for the bank to look at you. There is no lockbox, and the owners only want people to drive by only- they don't want to be disturbed. The other Roxbury Lane in the Bel Air complex is a short sale also. The agent has a voice mailbox that is full and not accepting any messages, and the office number I've left 2 messages at with no response. As you can see from the PRIVATE COMMENTS FOR BROKERS ONLY at the bottom of the MLS I sent you, it seems that they have reduced to a bank-approved price of $799000. No lockbox, and no answer for showing either... I'd say that both of these are a waste of time for you..... Keep searching though.

I thought the “listing price” price was 639k since Redfin had it as that and not the “value range marketing”. All I have to say after that is “Are you kidding me”? Who sets a “value range marketing” spread of $140K?
Secondly, no lockbox?? And the owners don’t want to be disturbed? WTF?? Are these people putting in an offer without even seeing the place? In addition I checked it out on the OC assessor’s site and found they still owe over $12,400 on taxes. Who’s going to cough that one up? Throw in the homeowner’s dues that they probably are behind on and you see this baby starts to add up.
Still assuming they got a couple of offers and these people didn’t see the place it just perplexes me. The place could be totally trashed inside. Would you buy a car without test driving it? Of course not! Then why are there people that would do this with a house? Seems like plenty of stupidity out there to go around still.


The other property is just as bad as it’s been listed over 150 days and they don’t want to show it? And their “bank-approval” price is way over priced.
http://www.redfin.com/CA/Huntington-Beach/18756-Roxbury-Ln-92648/home/5955330
Love the last line of the description “must see to appreciate” Oh yeah..well how about a freaking lockbox and show the place!!

I’m not sure if we are seeing the start of a disturbing trend or these are just isolated incidents. What we have it seems is owners, (if you can really call them that), that bought their house with greed and now feeling that they are “entitled” to stay in this house as long as possible. Almost sounds like a scam to me if you can get the bank to accept a price for a short sale and then the bank will wait it out for offers. After all they are swamped in many cases. Then you don’t allow anyone to see the place!

Here is an example from a Redfin forum:
http://forums.redfin.com/rf/board/message?board.id=LA_OC&thread.id=1681
I've seen some similar strange dealings. One 2-story home that has been listed as active on ALL the sites for about 4 months, yet there is now people in it who at least give the appearance of believing this house is theirs. They are doing work on the place, live there, have their vehicles there. If you call the listing agent (it has never had a For Sale sign in front) she comes up with all sorts of creative excuses for why the house can't be toured, even though it's supposedly still available. She went so far as to tell our agent that we wouldn't be interested because the former owner died in it.I had to laugh at that one.On a similar tack, two weeks ago we went to see a short sale near us. Our agent set up the time, we met them there...and were greeted at the door by the owner(s) who acted like they had *no* idea the house was being showed. Turned out that was a lie (our agent immediately called the listing agent who called the owners who begrudgingly let us in abut 3 minutes later). They were contentious and surly the whole time, but I suppose we ought think they actually liked us, as another agent/buyer team showed up right as we were finishing up (with an appointment), and they actually REFUSED them entrance. Turned 'em away. Sent 'em packing.We made an offer that was at the high end of the neighborhood comps, yet fell about 75k under asking. I expect a refusal from the bank, but who knows. Nice place, nasty owners. No wonder ours was the only offer on the place that has been made in over a month.

Are we seeing greed changing now to “entitlement”? Feel free to comment and tell me if you’ve had similar experiences.

Knucklehead of the Week!

This one was just too funny to pass up. Apparently this guy was under here for around 12 hours. Must have been a former Countrywide underwriter...

From the AP:

This handout photo released Thursday, July 31, 2008, by the Dillon County Sheriff's Office, shows the legs of a man who became stuck under a trash bin after what deputies called an attempted copper theft gone wrong. Gibson Cook, 56, was rescued from under a trash bin Wednesday. Deputies said he broke into a landfill Tuesday evening.(AP Photo/ Morning News via Dillon County Sheriff's Office)

Congreswoman Richardson- Please recall this woman!

You wonder why the US is in the mess it is with the economy, the housing market, etc? There are plenty of people to point fingers at, that’s for sure. I have one in particular that needs to be singled out. Rep. Laura Richardson. This lady is the poster child for what’s wrong with our country, a model for poor ethics and one of entitlement.
No surprise that the bail out housing bill has been passed. In fact look at the voting for CA in the house:
CALIFORNIA: Democrats -- Baca, Y; Becerra, Y; Berman, Y; Capps, Y; Cardoza, Y; Costa, Y; Davis, Y; Eshoo, Y; Farr, Y; Filner, Y; Harman, Y; Honda, Y; Lee, Y; Lofgren, Zoe, Y; Matsui, Y; McNerney, Y; Miller, George, Y; Napolitano, Y; Pelosi, Y; Richardson, Y; Roybal-Allard, Y; Sanchez, Linda T., Y; Sanchez, Loretta, Y; Schiff, Y; Sherman, Y; Solis, Y; Speier, Y; Stark, Y; Tauscher, Y; Thompson, Y; Waters, Y; Watson, Y; Waxman, Y; Woolsey, Y.

Republicans -- Bilbray, N; Bono Mack, Y; Calvert, Y; Campbell, Y; Doolittle, N; Dreier, Y; Gallegly, Y; Herger, N; Hunter, Y; Issa, N; Lewis, Y; Lungren, Daniel E., Y; McCarthy, N; McKeon, Y; Miller, Gary, Y; Nunes, N; Radanovich, N; Rohrabacher, N; Royce, N.

That’s right, every damn Democrat voted for it especially Richardson which I’ll get to in a minute. The Republicans aren’t much better though there are a few that have the cojones to step up and vote against it. I’ll remember this when these people run for reelection next time and I hope you will too.

Nothing says abuse the system more as a Congresswoman that has at least seven defaults on two other houses she owns and one foreclosure with special treatment.
Read the article from the Press Telegram:
http://www.presstelegram.com/news/ci_10002817

Richardson lost her house to foreclosure only to have WaMu rescind the sale after the new owner poured some money into it to fix it up. Preferential treatment to a Congress person? Umm..Yeah.. Evidently the new owner thought so also and sued. Bottom line: There was a settlement and Richardson ends up getting the house back with a new mortgage (with more favorable terms, you think?). Best of all, her foreclosure is wiped off her credit history. Can somebody, anybody tell me of one other person that has gotten that treatment from a bank. Please..E-mail me and tell me.
At least she should have abstained from voting on this bill.

I don’t think this bailout bill will help people from CA for the most part because of the huge hits the banks will have to take. (And I’m glad..Let the market fall on these homes!).
You wonder why the US is trillions in debt, there you go. Representatives that can’t keep their own fiscal house in order making decisions that affect billions of dollars.
Do you really think the presidential election will make much of a difference?

Some people should never be homeowners!

There are those that have had unfortunate situations in losing their homes: a sudden major illness with huge medical bills, or a loss of a job and I understand these. (With the exception of some of those Countrywide type loan underwriters who I have no sympathy for). Then there are others that should never be homeowners. I mean never!
Case in point: Most “reality shows” are just mindless entertainment though yes I have watched a few. But the one that I always have liked is “Extreme Makeover” home edition not to be confused with “Extreme Makeover” Barbie needs a boob job show.

Today I read an article, however, that one of the homes built in Georgia in 2005 went into foreclosure. Seems the family used the equity to take out a $450,000 loan to start a construction business that failed. If this family was so good in construction why didn’t they build their own damn house? Not to mention their timing. Start a construction business when new construction starts, etc. are drying up?.


(Picture from GuelphMercury.com)

Here’s the article”
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080728/ap_en_tv/tv_extreme_makeover_foreclosure
Over 1800 volunteers for this house, $450,000 donated in materials and labor to build it and an additional $250,000 in contributions raised for the family including scholarships for the couple’s three children and a home maintenance fund.
And they blew it? I feel bad for the kids when you got stupid parents like this. The house is up for foreclosure sale on Aug. 5th. Buy yourselves a good tent and enjoy living in your car…you don’t deserve this!