Hotel California?

Written by Jim the Realtor

May 24, 2009

This is located just north of the 395 exit from the I-15 freeway, between Gopher Canyon and Mission off-ramps.

The owners had paid $170,000 for the lot in 1999.  Countrywide gave them a $1,140,000 mortgage in February, 2006, but that wasn’t enough, apparently, because they got a new loan for $1,499,000 on 12/29/06 to build 7 bedrooms, 5 bathrooms and 6,237sf on 15.82 acres.

Now it’s listed for just $466,900!

Here’s a youtube video tour:

Here are shots of the exterior stucco, where leaks are happening:

32 Comments

  1. arizonadude

    oops!Someone took it on this deal.Where is angelo mozillo now?

  2. Susie

    Silly question but… how does stucco leak?

  3. Martin

    Just how many grannys can you have?

    If problems are showing this early and that obvious you really gotta be worried about what’s behind the walls and under the floors taht you can’t see.

  4. François Caron

    The ceilings look like they were suppose to have drywall on them, but someone changed their mind or got lazy.

    Nice way to finish off the video. One last chirp from one of the smoke alarms. 🙂

  5. Average Joe

    You couldn’t give me that house. It is not worth $1. How many of you would take that house if you had to put more money into it and then live there? In other words, how many of you would take that house if the conditions were you had to keep it forever?

    The only person who will buy that house is someone who thinks they can fix it up and sell it to someone else. The investor will find that there are no takers, except maybe other more optimistic investors. If you think that it would make a wonderful house all fixed up, then ask yourself how much money would it take for you to fix it up. Then ask yourself if there are any buyers in that market right now? Specifically someone with over a $1,000,000 to spend who doesn’t have litterally thousands of better choices of better houses in better locations.

    As I said, there are no end buyers for this. It’s not worth $1 to anyone. (except to strip for scrap of course)
    Then I would have to pay taxes, insurance, and upkeep to live there.

  6. shadash

    That is a huge house. I agree with Jim there is potential. The only downsides are the freeway noise and the weird master. A contractor with a big family or comeone that wants to keep their employees close might be able to finish it off correctly.

  7. Skeet

    Wow! There is a lot of money into that! That is a steal for the buyer that wants something like that.

    Do you think all that leak is from the exterior walls? What did they forget to paper under their lath??? Inspectors look at lath.. what is going on?

  8. Jim the Realtor

    I added the exterior stucco pics. They may have left out the flashing, or just did lousy work. It’ll take a pro to match the stucco color/finish if you tear out all the problem areas.

  9. Tyrone

    Might make a nice compound for a cult.

  10. ArtEclectic

    I vote ugly and badly designed. Who knows what other water damage is waiting, unseen? With construction quality this shoddy, the whole place is questionable. The master is weird, the property barren of landscaping…and that staircase to get to the downstairs area…killer on the knees of anyone over 50. Good luck getting furniture down that, too.

    My final words: hillside brush fire.

  11. JAP

    Shoddy construction is an understatement. The whole layout of that place is strange. Can you imagine $1.5 mil to build it and now it’s going for $467K… yikes.

    Mozilo should be hanged.

  12. COLLEEN

    JIM YOU ARE THE BEST!!!! LOVE YOUR HONESTY!!!! IT IS SO REFRESHING TO FINALLY MEET A REAL ESTATE AGENT THAT TELLS IT LIKE IT IS….

  13. Susie

    My late husband was a contractor/finish carpenter and always said to look at the “bones” of a home. This house has broken bones! For a new home to already be falling apart with leaks from a bad stucco job and the shoddy workmanship on the sprinkler system tells you all you want to know on HOW this house was built…

  14. Consultant

    Jim, everyone else out there in San Diego. Don’t they have county building inspectors in San Diego? What about code violations?

    Please, educate me.

  15. no bubble here

    I don’t see that house surviving a rain storm without all the circuit breakers tripping.

  16. mybleachhouse

    Just think you could own this for the same price as a dump went for in Oceanside 3 years ago. Some of those seem to be constructed on par with this
    one.

  17. NateTG

    Does being at the top of a steep hill like that make for more of a fire hazard?

  18. doug r

    Jim, you are the stair master.
    Looking at that one outside stairway, is that slope stable? I’m thinking one good rainfall, especially after a hillside brush fire, and the whole thing slides down the hill.

  19. UCGal

    Consultant – yes they have inspectors… I suspect that the contractor screwed up so much they walked when they realized it wouldn’t pass inspections.

    I suspect that because we had a contractor do that to us. Fortunately our project was smaller… but it was still seriously expensive to get final occupancy.

    Jim – is this property certified for occupancy?

  20. Myriad

    what a mess. I guess if you know good contractors, maybe you can make this property work for you.

  21. CA renter

    Bad location, weird layout, poorly constructed with questionable materials and workmanship.

    It might be worth something for the lot, but the house is a liability, IMHO.

  22. Consultant

    In the run up to the housing collapse, building this house was just a cover to get lots of money from a bank.

    It’s pretty clear no real effort was made to build a livable home. Our housing Ponzi scheme was so vast, that people could get loans to build “fake homes”.

  23. Sol

    Looks to be about one cigarette butt out a car window away from ending up a torch job.

  24. Jim the Realtor

    You’d think that if they were lent $1.5 million, there had to be some sort of voucher program.

    They already had to borrow another $300,000 they didn’t think they needed, and one good rain was the last straw.

    I’m guessing that the price is low because they’ve been told that the stucco needs to be re-done.

  25. becky

    not that I want to give these guys too much credit, but I think the wacky layout is to maximize views from the living spaces. All those hallways on the flat size and bedroom/living room on the slope side.

    Of course, that doesn’t excuse the general fugliness of the house.

  26. Desert Realtor

    Photo #2 – looks like no weep screed construction – stucco in direct contact with ground. I believe this is contrary to current building code.

  27. Geotpf

    Horrible house. What a mess. Construction quality is poor and the design is retarded.

  28. jbirdfunk

    I agree with everyone who says the layout is bad and just really poor construction. The master is horrible, the living room should be 30% bigger and the kitchen is also poorly designed and constructed. 2 Granny flats and a “pool house”? The neighbors hope someone bulldozes it and starts over. It’s salvagable, but at an enormous cost.

  29. Blissful Ignoramus

    These recent desert hillbilly mansions featured here are interesting.

    I simply don’t understand why anyone would buy that house. Can’t you get a very nice, good-sized house in Temecula on a large lot for $450K? One that isn’t next to a freeway, and perhaps IS next to some conveniences? In a good school district? Why would anyone choose this place over one of the many, many such options available?

    No, you probably can’t get a 7000 sq ft house for that, but when you’re talking about 7000 sq ft of crap, the extra space is a burden, not a benefit. Unless you plan on running a cult or a halfway house, but where’s the market for that?

    People think the bubble is over, but as long as there are people who look at this and think it’s anything approaching a good deal, the bubble mentality remains.

  30. François Caron

    I figured out a solution!

    Disassemble the house piece by piece, throw away the bad stuff, and build a smaller house with what’s left! You should be able to build a decent and properly built mid-sized home with all that crap, possibly two. 🙂

  31. Dr. Kibble

    It’s already in escrow, so someone saw something in it.

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