bubbleinfo.com

This story has been in the works since it closed in August, 2005.  The buyers are suing the agent for selling them a $1,200,000 house in Carlsbad that they claim was over-priced.

from the New York Times:

"The Ummels accuse Mr. Little not only of withholding information but of exaggerating the virtues of their house to push them into a deal.

Ms. Ummel said in her deposition that Mr. Little had told them “many times that it was a very good buy.”

“And you believed that?” asked David Bright, the lawyer who represents both Mr. Little and ReMax Associates, which was also named in the suit.

“Yes, we trusted Mike Little,” Ms. Ummel replied.

another excerpt:

Ms. Ummel’s original suit included the appraiser, who was accused of skewing his report to make the Ummel’s house seem worth the purchase price, and the mortgage broker. Modest settlements have been reached with both.

In a brief phone interview, Mr. Little called the case “ridiculous,” adding: “The lady’s a nut job. I didn’t do anything wrong.”

Mr. Little said that contrary to Ms. Ummel’s claims, the suit was motivated mainly by the declining market. “When people see their home values and assets declining, they always feel there’s someone to blame,” he said. “This is a dangerous time for all of us in the industry.”

The agent declined several requests to expand on his remarks. His lawyer declined to be interviewed. So did Geoff Mountain, a co-owner of ReMax Associates, which owns the office that the Ummels were dealing with.

Both sides have hired appraisers who have combed the surrounding development. Mr. Little’s appraiser concluded the four-bedroom, 3.5-bath house was worth $1,150,000 to $1.2 million in the summer of 2005. The Ummels’ appraiser said it was worth $1,050,000.

A link to the full story:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/22/business/22agent.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

picture by Sandy Huffaker for the NYT

greenlander suggested a couple of months back that we should have a contest for guessing what the median asking price of SD properties will be on January 21st, as listed on:

http://www.housingtracker.net/askingprices/California/SanDiego-Carlsbad-SanMarcos/

When this contest began on November 15th, the median asking price in San Diego was $467,900.  Today it is $449,000, which is a 4% decline in just over two months.  

Here is the list of guesses:

$415,000 CA renter

$422,000 SMC

$432,100 Arty

$435,000 Mike

$437,750 Angela

$438,900 Jon Bristow

$440,000 Amey

$440,000 greenlander

$442,000 David J.

$445,000 Simone

$446,000 Horse Racing Man

$447,000 Kenny

$449,900 CV Bidder

$451,000 Westparker

$452,225 Bots

$454,400 Rob Dawg

$456,202 jd (+.50)

$456,900 FirstTimeRenter

$457,500 I-man

$458,500 OCVulture

$459,500 SurferNate

$461,000 norcal ray

$465,000 House Dog

$466,450 KC_to_SD

$467,900 CVman

$470,000 Cccactii

$475,000 Colleen

$479,500 South swell

$480,000 PoorHouse

$493,975 No Such Realty

$500,000 doughboy

CV Bidder, you’re the winner!  4 tickets to this week’s golf!

Greenlander, thanks the suggestion – and reminder.  I have another four tickets to the Buick Open, do you want them?

Bob Dyson sold his San Diego branch of Dyson and Dyson to Coldwell Banker a few years back, and went to the desert to retire, or at least that’s what some of us thought.

Bob is back – he started up Sotheby’s in Del Mar recently, and has rolled out this new/old program:

Sellers (and agents) want to believe that things are “picking up”, and the spring buying season is ahead, but something has to give here. The new listings coming on the market are going to over-shadow the number of closings:

Attached and Detached Listings in SD County, January 1-15

There are fewer new listings, -10%, during the first 15 days of this year, compared to last – but the sales are down 33% over the same period. If you add 10% for the late-reporters, it will still be -26%.

How is the big game going to turn out today?

One of these three things will happen:

1.  Rivers really is hurt bad enough that he can’t play, and Billy Volek leads the team to a surprising victory after the Chargers defense takes out Brady in the first quarter.  (Who is Brady’s back-up?)

Rivers is then traded to the Packers for a case of brats and a pony keg of beer – and backs-up Favre for a couple of years.

2.  Norv pulls a fast one.  Rivers really isn’t hurt, and LT’s comment on Friday ("I just hope we don’t get embarassed") was staged.  We shock the world by coming out without undershirts or coats, and put a whoopin’ on the Patriots after taking out Brady in the first quarter.

3.  We get embarassed.

I don’t see it being a close game – if the Patriots get rolling, it’ll be hard to stop them and re-gain enough momentum to overcome our injuries.

What do you think?

Are far as homes go, most of the Chargers live in Poway or Scripps Ranch, close to the Chargers’ training facility and to Qualcomm Stadium ("The Murph").

But one of today’s players lives in North County Coastal, Junior Seau.  When the Chargers played in their only Super Bowl in 1994, do you remember the announcer saying that Junior came from Oceanside, that gang-infested town in North County?  It was quite a setback for Oceanside’s reputation.

At the time Junior lived in La Jolla, then he moved to Cielo near Rancho Santa Fe.  Where does he live now?

He’s back home in O-town!  He bought here in 2005:

There have been 187 new listings of detached homes this year in Carlsbad, Encinitas, and Carmel Valley.  How many are hot, fresh, new product, and how many are retreads?

There were 64 of the 105 (61%) that I checked that had been on the market in 2007, but failed to sell and have relisted. 

Thirty-five of the 64 didn’t bother to change the price, and those that did lower, didn’t lower it much.

Six of the 105 had tried to sell in 2006, took last year off, and are now back on.  Two of the six raised their price.

Grand total of 70 of 105 have been on the market previously – why do they "freshen-up" their listing?  Our MLS numbers start with the year, 08xxxxxxx, and by February the listings from last year look old and stale.  Because they are so easy to identify with their MLS number, realtors will re-input them to get a re-start on the market time.

It’s in the sellers’ best interest, and because the MLS doesn’t do much about it, don’t be surprised if it continues.  I even get caught every once in a while – that guy on Mona the other day who had a trustee sale date on his $700,000 loan who listed for $1.1 to $1.2 million?  That was a re-list, he has been trying since October 1st and hasn’t lowered his price.  The MLS police must have been alerted though, because the agent has since cancelled the new listing and had to re-activate the old one.  It is against the rules to re-list, but you only get caught if another agent turns you in.

On a separate note, Erin asked this question:

BUT…I do have something I wanted to ask you. We were in Carlsbad during December house/rental hunting. We were out there visiting relatives for Christmas and wanted to drive around the area in preparation for our move to so cal. We did it with no realtor, we just wanted to get a feel for the area.Anyway we picked up a TON of fliers and were able to see a lot of neighborhoods. There was one house in Carlsbad that had a flier but no price on it. I called the 1-800 voice recording to hear the price and hung up at the end of the recording.A week later I got a phone call from a realtor who said he was returning my phone call about properties in the area. Umm….wait a minute. I NEVER even talked to a realtor while we were there! I was totally confused, but then realized when he said who he worked for how he got my #. It was through caller ID when I called to hear the recording about that property.

Today from Bank of America:

Conforming loans ($417,000 and under), 30-year fixed:

5.125%, 1 point

5.375%, 0 points

Jumbo loans, 30-year fixed:

6.375%, 0 points.

2nd mortgages - 30-year fixed, full-amort, due in ten years (balloon)

6.25% up to 90% LTV

7.25% up to 95% LTV

‘Doctor Loan’ zero down payment up to $1 million, full doc, no MI.

ACORN loan, 3% down to $500,000, no MI.

These are for demonstration purposes, don’t hit me for APR violations please.