This is the 1,000th blog posting!
(not counting the 726 that were deleted when we changed to the current WordPress format)
THANK YOU FOR MAKING BUBBLEINFO.COM A GREAT EXPERIENCE!
To celebrate, here’s another bloopers track, with some terrible singing towards the end:
If you ever wanted to take a trip down memory lane, the old blog site can be accessed here:
About a month ago (June 14th) we featured a video of REOs not on the open market yet:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEb3TtG7DDs
They had been foreclosed earlier in the year, and that tour revealed a few reasons why they had not hit the market yet – still occupied, work being done, etc.
A month later, only one of them has listed, the first RSF house pictured, for $1.32 million.
Here is the second installment in the series, a youtube video tour of bank-owned houses in the prime North San Diego County coastal region:
The banks aren’t sitting on a lot of McMansion-type REOs in the region, but it’ll probably just be a matter of time before these tours get longer (#3 is in the queue). Note how many of these are occupied – the occupants are slow to give up hope.
Remember this RSF house that listed in December as a short sale for $799,000?
Even though it’s Hacienda Santa Fe (non-Covenant), the price sounded reasonable, and they did have offers. It was marked pending the first week of January.
But in March it came back on the market – at $1,020,000. The agent remarked,
“Lender has set price – no lower offers”, which just begs buyers to either make lower offers, or ignore it.
The seller cancelled a couple of weeks later, relisting with a different agent who kept the same price and remark, but added this: “House had foundation repair in 2001. Buyer to have inspection by Qualified Geotechnical Engineer.”
A couple of weeks ago they finally lowered the price to $895,000, but it’s still not pending, seven months after first hitting the market.
Think the lender is sorry they didn’t take the first deal?
People have asked about the condos in downtown Oceanside that are being auctioned tomorrow beginning at 3pm at the Carlsbad Sheraton, which is an interesting choice. Why wouldn’t you do it on-site so buyers could get more emotionally-involved? Do a big breakfast bash with mimosas?
A hotel-ballroom auction makes you think of guys running around in tuxedos too.
Twenty-nine residential units (of 38) are on the block, with opening bids from $295,000 to $625,000. In the video, I say that there were no salespeople in sight, but they were on the top floor.
The sales history, by floor:
1st floor – sold all 7 retail units to one family, total of 10,368sf. No price given.
2nd floor – 13 office condos. Seven sold, six for sale, from $256,035-$345,960.
3rd floor – 10 residential, five in front sold, five in back for sale, from $295,000-$355,000.
4th floor – 10 residential, none sold. Ten units for sale, 1,765sf to 2,191sf from $335,000-$475,000.
5th floor – 10 residential, two front units sold $665,000 & $725,000 this year, eight for sale.
6th floor – 8 residential, two front corner units sold, and six for sale, from $445,000-$625,000.
From the MLS tax rolls it looks like 23 sales have closed with cash buyers, and 35 to go.
They’ll try the 29 residential units tomorrow, and if they have 29 bidders show up, they should blow them out at the opening bid price. If they refuse, and make some comment about how the opening bids are “giveaway prices” and nobody would consider selling them for that, then they are crazy – take what you can get.
They’ll probably need at least 50 bidders in attendance to sell out, because so far buyers have gravitated to the premium units – the ones with a glimpse of the 16-screen movie theater next door might not get a bid.
(I said 59 on the video, but I think there are 58 units). Here’s the youtube video tour:
Here’s the price list:
oceanside-condo-price list (with original prices)
Here’s the floor/unit diagram:
Oceanside-prices-floor-diagram
The 679-unit Vantage Point complex in downtown San Diego had been taking $25,000 deposits since 2004, but could only generate a couple of hundred buyers – not enough to qualify for Fannie/Freddie financing (needed 70% pre-sold).
The builder, to their credit, refunded all of the deposits, and is starting over by re-structing the complex into six sub-divisions – some to rent, some to sell.
Today they conducted a broker’s open house from 5-8pm.
I edited out the video’s introduction where I mentioned that on the MLS there have been 377 condos that have closed downtown, 2009 year-to-date, at an average of $411/sf.
But 2/3 of those were under $500,000, and averaging $340/sf.
If the builder offers these condos priced in the low-$300s per sf, and throws an all-out party for realtors, it’ll be a good sign that they get it about how tough the market is, and might have a chance to move some units.
If they want $400/sf or higher, and are offering cheeze and crackers, it’ll be a long road home.
Here is the youtube video tour:
A reader asked the other day about listings being excluded from the internet.
Schahrzad has the story:
San Diego listing agents now have to choose ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ on whether or not they want their MLS listings to upload to other internet sites. Schahrzad said that there are 10% of the listings not on the ‘net.
The change began on April 3rd – maybe the word has been slow to get around?
There have been 2,174 new attached and detached listings inputted in July. Of those, there are 437 that are marked “No” or 20% of this month’s listings that are NOT being uploaded to websites like realtor.com, redfin, etc.
My guess is that it’s due more to ignorance, than blatant disregard for the power of the internet. Why would a listing agent want to advertise to local agents only, and NOT to the general public?
In the Sandicor FAQ’s, they say that the change was due to “a settlement between the U.S. Department of Justice and the National Association of Realtors” that has prompted Sandicor to make some changes.
Here’s the youtube video on the Fallbrook REO.
Turns out that this house has been vacant for months, which happens more often than I would expect – not everyone is working the free-rent program. List price is undetermined at this point, but it’ll need to be sharp, because the house is nothing fancy:
I guess this little gimmick didn’t work out as planned.
They listed today for $599,900:
These owners bought this Bressi Ranch home new for $1,109,000 in July 2005, financed 90%, and refinanced three times since.
I’m fairly certain that this is the seller that called in mid-2007 asking about an offer-to-purchase that was presented to her by a certain realtor working the area, that included a kick-back of $100,000 to the brokerage, and raised the sales price to compensate.
I told her that I thought that she could be seen as a co-conspirator attempting to defraud a federally-insured bank.
The sellers listed it for sale instead, and vacated shortly thereafter. They have really struggled with a number of issues since, and fallen out of escrow at least two times. I don’t think they’ve made a payment since they left, but the NODs have come and gone.
In September, 2007, the list price was $1,300,000.
Today? $799,900.
Here’s a youtube video tour:
We’ve been on the road the last few days, but back in the saddle now.
While gone, Wifey and I were discussing comments left last week about doing more videos.
I appreciate the encouragement, because the videos are my favorite part of the blog. They bring an instant dose of reality to all discussed here.
But according to the bubbleinfo trackers, only about half the people watch the videos.
Wifey speculates that it’s because people don’t have time to watch, and/or that folks are using their phones to access the internet and don’t want to bother with linking to a youtube on a 1-inch screen.
We decided to go for the combo package – have videos augment the text and comments.
There has been a shortage of videos lately, mostly because there’s been a shortage of REOs. While waiting for the foreclosure tsunami to begin, I’m going to try to use video to better demonstrate the actual market conditions.
We can also anticipate an expanded role for the REO Speedwagon:
How does that sound? Your input is appreciated!
Are you looking for an experienced agent to help you buy or sell a home?
Contact Jim the Realtor!
CA DRE #01527365, CA DRE #00873197
