^[1]Remember the newly-built seven houses on Newland Court that back to Carlsbad Village Dr.?

They tried to sell the 3,400sf homes for around $1,500,000 EACH, beginning in mid-2006 when they were completed.

But no luck.

By the end of 2007 they were down to $1,199,000.

No luck there either.

Eventually the builder’s LLC made it into court, and in December, 2008, and the properties were listed in the mid-$800,000s and called a “court-ordered sale’ in the MLS.  But after two weeks, all seven listings were cancelled.

I represented the sellers of this vacant lot when the builder bought it, and the buyer’s agent swore to me that he was made of money.  But in January, 2009, the lender, United Commercial Bank, foreclosed on their $6,400,000 construction loan.

All seven properties were purchased at the trustee sale for $4,690,000, or an average of $670,000.

Want to guess who the all-cash purchaser was?  The original buyer/builder of the project.

I believe he has since rented them out.  If you can’t get your lender to give you a break, you can always pressure them into foreclosing, and buy ’em back at the trustee sale!

Here’s a link to the old youtube video tour:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w03uFO49qvM ^[2]