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Friday, August 1st, 2008 at 7:00 PM

Follow-Up on Trustee Sales

We saw some higher-end trustee sales mentioned last week, and a reader wondered how they turned out.  The trustee sales tend to be postponed, and/or have the opening bid revealed very late in the process – usually the day before the sale, or at the court house steps.  If you are thinking of buying one, have patience, because some of them come out very attractive.


Here are four that offered a very low opening bid, compared to the amount owed, yet still went back to the beneficiary:


2629 Wilson St., Carlsbad  $647,785 owed, $394,273 opening bid (39% off)  HSBC


2916 Rancho Brasado CSB $868,112 owed, $690,914 opening bid  (20% off)  U.S. Bank


7071 Cordgrass, Carlsbad  $1,541,249 owed, $880,000 opening bid  (43% off)  WaMu


3570 CallePalmito, CSB $1,756,702 owed,$1,425,500 opening bid (19% off)  Wachovia


If the trustee sale’s opening bid would have been better publicized, they would have had a much better chance of attracting bidders. 


It banks publicized their opening bids weeks in advance, they could build some momentum at the court house and blow out their inventory with very little in closing costs, and no liability.

Posted on Friday, August 1st, 2008 at 7:00 PM in Foreclosures | 7 Comments » | Print Print You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Reader Comments: 7 Responses

  1. Jim, pardon my ignorance of the subtleties of Carlsbad but what makes Cordgrass worth $275/sf as a Trustee sale no less nevermind the $500/sf last sale price? No yard, habitrail street layout, no view, no open space adjacent. Schools? ! mile from ocean? Easy freeway access? I don’t get it.

    Rob Dawg | August 1st, 2008 at 8:03 pm

  2. Could you imagine being the proud new owners of 7075 Cordgrass Ct? They paid $1.15M on 7/1/2008. About $440/sqft. "Go find our agent Lori. I’ll get a rope."

    JMS | August 1st, 2008 at 8:20 pm

  3. All I can say is, a lot of people would be willing to buy Cordgrass at that price. If the bank relist on the MLS I am sure they will get very close to 1M if not more for that house.

    housebuyer | August 1st, 2008 at 9:05 pm

  4. Thanks for the follow-up, Jim! So for these types of sales, you’ve got to do your leg-work first and hope that the trustee price is at most what you’d be willing to shell out. How exactly do you assist in this process and what are your fees? (Same as representing a seller for the more traditional method of home purchase?)

    robj | August 1st, 2008 at 9:58 pm

  5. In this case, the clients brought the deal to me for my opinion, and then bought it on their own. No charge for opinions. On the sell side I charged 5%, but will probably do multi-deal discounts on future sales with them.

    I’ve talked to others about me finding the properties and them buying at the trustee sale, but that entails a buyer-broker agreement which I hate.

    I just had my attorney do a custom version, so I’m ready if needed, but the fee I’d charge to hunt these down and qualify them is undetermined. I’d like it based on time spent, because it could take months or years. I have buyers now who have been looking all year and not found one.

    Jim the Realtor | August 1st, 2008 at 10:27 pm

  6. Cordgrass? It needs a discount just for the name. Canvasback is another street in there – you won’t catch me living on either one. Can you imagine having to spell those every time you say them to an order-taker?

    I want to live on Pine, or Oak, or Maple Street.

    Why is it worth it? There is some cache with the Bay Collection, it is close to the beach and freeway, it’s one of the few newer tracts near the coast in South Carlsbad/Aviara, and they are getting sucked up by the higher comps up the hill that have big ocean views.

    But other than that, it’s just sticks and stucco.

    Jim the Realtor | August 1st, 2008 at 10:30 pm

  7. I live in Aviara and the Bay Collection and other new homes where Cordgrass is located are very nice homes. Personally I always thought the prices were rediculous but then again I paid a lot less in Aviara so it only helped me. The general area has cache and the schools are the best in the area. In my opinion $880k is a fair price given the area.

    Aviara Guy | August 2nd, 2008 at 4:20 am

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