From our friends at the L.A. Times:
http://www.latimes.com/classified/realestate/news/la-fi-stonebrook25-2009apr25,0,7774801,full.story
An excerpt:
The classic half-timbered home, built beginning in 1914, was a ramshackle relic when it was purchased a decade ago for $5 million by Kelly Porter, a television executive turned Internet investor. He and then-wife Christina, a designer, took to its renovation with the artistic flourish of William Randolph Hearst, spending tens of millions of dollars on a dot-com-boom-financed face-lift.
But Stonebrook has become an inadvertent monument to a residential downturn that has spread to the highest-end homes and touched buyers and sellers of considerable wealth.
Porter, divorced and ready to move on, put the home on the market in January 2008 for $45 million.
With no takers, he lowered the price in July to $38 million — an amount that matches the most expensive California sale logged in public records that year: a six-bedroom Bel-Air mansion that sold in October. (This year, the record is $31.5 million for a Beverly Hills mansion that sold this week.)
*******
Porter gave a flurry of tours to buyers when Stonebrook went on the market; then they slowed to a couple each month. Since the beginning of April, however, five have toured the home, and real estate agent Decker and Porter spent four hours on a recent evening trying to put a deal together.
Like so many wealthy owners, Porter could bide his time. “He owns the house free and clear,” Decker said. But he may be ready to sell.
“As long as my energies are here, it holds me back from moving on and doing new things,” he said.
And if Realtor Miller’s adage applies to this topsy-turvy market, Porter may not have to wait long for a sale: The high end has traditionally been, Miller said, the “last to feel it and the first to recover.”
This is what ‘s going on in Del Mar. Not as high on the list prices, but same concept: Sellers (and probably listing agents) just pull a figure out of their rear ends and decide that’s what the property’s worth. I love looking at Del Mar listings on redfin – houses bought for a few hundred $k in the 90’s are now listed at $2-3 million. Wake up, people.
“television executive turned Internet investor,” pretty much says it all.
There’s also this quote:
But, his listing agent said, Porter may be more flexible now than he was last summer.
“He’s not lowering the price, but will consider less.”
Just in case you were short your ‘wtf’ quota for the day.
There’s a lot of dreaming on the high end. These are the opposite of distressed sellers. If somebody gives them their WTF asking price, they are happy-if not, no big deal, they will hold on to it until that one in a million idiot comes along. Since they usually own it free and clear, all they have to pay is basic maintenance and taxes, which probably are nothing considering their income.
Here is what is happening on the low-end–This is an actual email from an unnamed agent–gotta love the attitude!!!
Thank you for your many emails, phone calls and dropped off and faxed offers. Thanks for your patience as you have filled up my email and phone services. The agents receiving your calls thank you for your courteous manners as well.
We have received 12 offers thus far. The majority are cash offers well over the 200’s. FYI- After working with this client for over 7 years, This client prefers cash and quick closes and large, non refundable earnest deposits, CLEAN OFFERS!!!. (This is a hint, I don’t make the rules).
EMAIL ALL OFFERS IN ONE EMAIL, RIGHT SIDE UP, (yes, I have gotted them side ways, upside down and the best, is 20+ emails one page for every email). If you are not learned on scanning please go to Kinkos).
ALL offers MUST include copy of the earnest deposit check, PROOF of funds, 8 page Purchase Contract and 2 page buyer advisory, Agency and WPA if seller paid termite work is being requested.
Please submit your buyers highest and best offer as the seller will not counter, only the 2 highest offers will be submitted (per seller instruction), one for acceptance and 2nd for a back up offer. CLEAN OFFERS ONLY. Bank owned are TDS and Statewide exempt. Submit only emailed offers (this email to all inquiries, this does not meant to suggest you did not email your offer). YOU MUST VISIT THE PROPERTY BEFORE SUBMITTING AN OFFER, REALLY!!!
SOLD AS IS- seller has no knowledge on ANYTHING, if you need to talk to me or have questions concerning this property, it is not the right property for your client. NO FHA OR VA OFFERS, because the MLS says so!!!!!
If I pissed you off, please feel to do what you must, I work for the seller and not you.
This email is intended to save me, agents and your clients from the frustration and time it takes to submit an offer on something they most likely will not be purchasing.
Thank You,
The low end is hot. If they already have a dozen offers, they can afford to be rude.
this house was also on Nightline last year with a bunch of other houses in the Bay area with a tour of some expensive homes.
Rude is an understatement–I feel she is downright condescending–NOT good for the profession. After all, she is the one who came up with the BPO 30% below market value–of course there are going to a dozen offers in the first day–just deal with it professionally, that’s all!
Rude or not, she knows she’ll get paid. The sale price hardly changes her commission, so the less work the better to her.
Eh? A REALTOR acting in a silly, unprofessional manner? You don’t say! That seems so unlikely.
Please, I just wish once people would get it right. You submit bids, not offers.