Marble floors but only one bathroom?  I don’t think this will be a really practical choice . . .

1100 sq ft?  that seems impossibly small to me for a $500k+ home, but then I guess that’s why I left Orange County.

Flipping in a declining market. I don’t think the “owners” have a strong grasp of the conventionally held “reality” in general. Who in the world would pay $599/sqft for a “practical” house, obviously you only get that kinda moola for an impractical house.

There must be a mistake on the number of bathrooms. In the property description they refer to “bathrooms” twice. Even with one or two more bathrooms it make you wonder what these people are thinking.

Even at $540k this is way over priced.
$2000 rent at RRM 160=$320k.

Somebody needs to hit this owner with a 2x4 to wake him up.

Never mind the price for a second.  Was this house build to live with only 1 bath for a 3 bedroom house?  What was the builder thinking when he/she thought about the liveability of the plan?

I’m talking to lenders right now, and even though GNMA and FNMA have lowered requirements, lenders have become pretty risk-averse, and are pricing further price declines into mortgages.

They want a FICO of at least 700 and 10% down (at least)for SF homes.

They want mostly 20% down (and at least 10%) for condos, and require that the bldg. be at least 70% owner-occupied, and that at least 10% of all assessments (or HOA fees, if you prefer)go to the complex’s reserve.

The Alt-A resets are going to drive foreclosures to new highs, and right now, 2006 and 2007-vintage mortgage pools are the worst performing pools of any so far.

So expect more inventory and more price declines and tighter lending requirements, for the forseeable future.

We might not see daylight till 2011 earliest.

I feel like someone may have bought this property originally at those outlets where they sell defective clothing… 

“This one is missing a bathroom.  Box it up and send it to our store in Cabazon.“

lol

LOL! Definetely an outlet buy!

If you click through to the property description on “Owners.com”, it lists the property as having two bathrooms.  But at 1100 square feet, this is a small house.  Maybe that’s why there are no pictures of the inside.  Still, it’s significantly overpriced.

I’d like to see a postcard sent out to each of the homes listed here.  Something to the effect of:  Congratulations!  Your Listing is being featured on the Irvine Housing Blog on _____(date) at www.irvinehousingblog.com.

Please stop by and read the reviews and make comments of your own!

I can’t even believe these buyers bought the place for $540k for 1100sq ft. Someone got lucky with this knife catcher.

Regarding the house on Sierra Siena that IR references: I visited an open house there about 6 months ago when it was listed for $1,095,000. The RE agent, a typically blow-dried, overconfident, too-smiley type, let loose with this zinger: ‘This is Irvine, not Riverside. You’ll never see this home sell for $100,000 less than the asking price.‘

Apparently not, dude. It will be significantly MORE than $100,000 off since the ask is now $145,000 lower. IPO says this one is in escrow now. If it closes, can’t wait to see the final price.

My Offer
After giving this property a thorough look, my offer today is $216,150.00. I believe this is what this property is worth.

Given the current average price-per-square-foot in Irvine, this place figures to be worth about $400,000, give or take. What strikes me is that this flipper paid almost $500/square foot just two months ago. The seller in that transaction must have thought he won the lottery.

I am looking at a property in Fullerton (East Coyote Hills) and want to find the sales history, refinance history, and heloc history. Can anyone suggest the best place to find this information?

Thanks,

Jeff

haha

That would be awesome.

I am getting the same results with lenders, they may allow only 5-10% down, but they will find any reason to increase a down payment requirement. In my recent experience, 20% down is not enough for a lot of buyers.

There are lots and lots of folks still buying as flippers, for some reason they think if they buy at Auction they can instantly flip the property for profits. These are the idiots who will get burned. 
1. Before we saw flippers who bought with $0 down sold in bidding frenzy. They are now out of the market. 
2. Next came the wave of flippers who bought with $0, did community service by upgrading the units and sold for higher values, those folks are burned as well.
3. Now, we are getting the last of the flippers who think they are investors who have cash and they can afford to pay cash buyouts at Auctions. Now its their turn to get burned as well as the forget that Auctions, REO, all set the comps.
4. Soon in 1-2 years, would come investors who will look for properties not to flip, but for positive cash flow. That will be the moment when I would call bottom and get a decent home for my family.

Give these flippers some credit.  This kind of play in a market like this takes some serious chutzpah, if not a surplus of brains.

I believe Irvine Renter has said you need a subscription service to get this kind of info.

A had a dog once that used to chase cars.  He had ‘chutzpah.‘  God rest his soul.

That is really a crazy price. but that is where you get all of the really crazy prices—for sale by owner.

At least it is a big, wide corner lot. So that everyone can see what big idiots you are.

Let’s look into TR for a second and the “comp” that you set up:

The comparisons of those two homes in TR is incorrect.

Sierra Sienna is a Broadmoor home, outside of the tract.  It’s a Plan 3 with a reasonably large lot and in reasonable shape.

The other home is a fixer upper in another HOA and inside the loop. 

Homes inside the TR loop are generally larger and more expensive than those outside.  Only rebuilt homes (on the outside, only the “Broadmoors” allow second story additions, the rest are forbidden or already built as such) will price top the lower priced homes inside the loop.

Also, that 800K is a fixer upper.  If it were in good shape they’d be asking at least 1MIL.

So, your statements are incorrect because appraisers will compare like with like. 

(a) the homes are in different areas
(b) one’s a fixer upper, the other seems OK.

So the comps for the home in Sierra Sienna should not be affected by the $800K fixer upper.

I think they call them schmucks

Look at their taxable value:  $90K.

Look at the pictures of the house.

These people have owned this home since it was brand new, so unless they did the HELOC thing, they got equity to burn…

The lot is also very large for TR.  However it backs to Bonita Canyon Rd and the traffic has increased significantly back there.  Although the speeds are slower.  No more 100mph banzai runs on our private TR roads as it used to be 20 years ago.  I imagine that ten cars going 50 make far less noise than one going through the gears at redline:  WRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!

I’ll betcha the house goes for close to $925K.

The home description is not bad!

Oh…its a FSBO.  That figures.

“Call today for a private showing of this spectacular home!“

...Or visit the IHB website for a “public showing”!

660k and only 1 bath?  hahahahahahahahahha hahahahahahahah hahhahahaha

Good luck sucker! hahahaha

This listing really shows how bad we have it here in CA. Look at this gorgeous home for $460K, look at the pictures.

4 and a half baths! 4086 sq. ft., 0.43 acres and built in 1994.

I’m in “the biz” (22 yrs) and can assure you the appraisal will not hold up. The sales history, the comp killer nature of the last sale in the tract, and other factors will slice the appraisal way down into the 5’s.

As for down payments, sure you can get 5% down but anyone making a bazillion dollars to qualify for a 5% down, full doc, fully amorizing loan will not be buying this turd of a home at the price the sellers think they can get.

Boy, if that were done, IR & all the gang would really have to go into deeeeepppp cover

Left Cali in 06 and half of 07 because of insane prices here. I got back a year ago this month just in time to see the bloody reversal! Do you know how many arrogant RE agents told me I was priced out 4 ever? I love the payback currently playing out hoorah!. I have a 760 Fico, 10% cash, watching for the bottom like a hawk. Fundamentals always return to the norm eventually.

Ok, I guess all of you will jump on me, but I think that we are close to the bottom in Miami-Dade.

We are now reaching the half-off sale point.  I don’t think that all ordinary sellers are realizing it, but we are beginning to see buyers at the half off point.  Even in nice neighborhoods like Coral Gables, and the Road area near downtown.

It may go down another 5%, but on average, I think that will be it.  So a 400,000 house at peak will be 200,000, or at 5% less, 190,000.
If you put 10% down, a lot of people, even here in
the land of low salaries, can afford that.  That is in line will the normal inflationary line as drawn by IR for you guys in California.  I sold my nice house for 130 in about 1995.  Almost 10,000 square foot lot, 1750 square feet, pool, basically totally gutted after hurricane Andrew, and redone with very nice fixtures, 3/2/2.

If you assume 4-5% appreciation a year since then, it gets you to about that point.

This is only SF houses tho.  Condos, who knows?
70% or more off for them.

My broker buddies who closed shop, but still have their licenses, are referring me some deals.  And re-fis!  Gosh, have I forgotten by now how to do an institutional loan?

An officer in the bank branch where I have my escrow account was telling me about all the strict
“new” standards.  They are, of course, the old standards revisited.  He was also telling me about a title co, that was negative on their office balance.  He wanted to send him a deal, so he could get current, which does contradict what I said above.  And how dumb is that?  You have somebody who is underwater on the ofc account and you want to send them say a couple hundred grand to finance something and it doesn’t even occur to the branch guy that this is a bad thing, cause the guy’s desperate, and might steal it?  To solve a few thou in overdrafts.

You mean “surveiller” in the sense that Foucault had it?  Public torture and hanging?

i’d say that half-off is a good guestimate (though 1/2 of a 2006 dollar may well be more like 1/3 of one in 2010 thanks to inflation).

when the CA median settles back into the 250-270K range, it will probably be time to buy, and the cost of owning will probably be fairly close to renting.

It’s in Ohio for chrissakes…. you might as well compare Manitoba with Long Island, NY.

Who cares about a place like that.  Just the fuel bill for the riding mower and snow blower will make the difference in mortgage payments.

It is not only in Ohio, it is in a suburb of Cleveland, which is a pretty seriously depressed area. The low price for this very attractive home reflects absence of jobs for buyers even at 460K.

check out the article about the smart money renting beautiful S. Florida condos in Friday’s wsj.  $2,000 per month to live like a millionaire.

Too funny. A bunch of angry renters hoping they can afford a house in 2011. Which is worse - the fact that you didn’t buy a house in the biggest run up in history or that you spend your time on this site with the other losers?

If you watch for the bottom like a hawk you risk to become a knife catcher.

Actually, I think you can do better than 2 grand
a month.

picflight, I went to your link and viewed the palace in Ohio for $460K. It only shows how local real estate is, and that you can’t make an apt comparison between the $460K palace in one area and the crapbox condo for the same price in another.

Fact is, this Ohio palace just might be bubblelicious for the area, for Ohio is one of the most economically depressed areas of the country. I viewed an unbelievably large and elegant vintage condo in Cleveland’s elite old suburb, Shaker Heights, that was priced at $140K for 2200 sq ft of herringbone parquet floors and incredibly beautiful millwork that you can hardly even get now, but just try getting a job in Cleveland. So it’s no use to consider that such an apt. would sell for $500K in Chicago even at current prices.

You can do still better in Detroit, where you can pick up a luxury suburban home with about 3000 sq ft and incredible architecture, for less than $100K. Detroit is being given away at the rate of about 5 cents on the dollar, and there’s a reason for that- it is a badly failing area with no employment and business opportunities whatsoever, that stands in danger of losing what businesses and jobs it still has.

So any comparison of property prices between Ohio and Orange County, say, or Detroit and Chicago, will only tell you just how badly one area is suffering economically compared to another.

ON the other hand.. I believe that once these extremely depressed areas give up any thought of rebuilding dead industries that made them successful in the past but are now gone forever, and rebuild their economies on a different template, that they will experience stunning revivals. If I had huge amounts of money to park for twenty years, I’d buy heavily in Detroit, for I believe that this city, and other trashed midwestern cities, will blossom again as energy becomes more expensive, water transportation regains its importance, and desert cities like Las Vegas and Phoenix become impossible to sustain because of the difficulty and mounting expense of building and maintaining the water diversion projects that make them possible.

Good to hear from you, lawyerliz.

I’m watching the condo situation in Miami with beady, greedy eyes, but I’m very afraid. I’m hearing of offers 60% off the ask for glossy new places, but buyers are insisting on contracts that guarantee them against getting hit with extra assessments and utility bills due to so many units in the building in foreclosure and delinquent on these bills.

My guess is that many of these gleaming new places will sell at 20 cents on the dollar, because of the high risk of being stuck with really high assessments and utility bills, due to the difficulty of collecting them when the place is in foreclosure. A place can accumulate a lot of unpaid assessments before it becomes bank owned, and then there seems to be a large problem in shaking down the banks who are the owners of the foreclosed units, for unpaid assessments needed to cover utilities and maintenance. This risk makes these units appropriate only for well-heeled investors.

We have a situation similar here in Chicago, in the overbuilt South Loop. Worse, many large South Loop buildings have horrible construction problems such as water infiltration, requiring millions of dollars to correct, thanks to the unspeakable corruption among Chicago city building inspectors, who were signing off on bad buildings in return for $100 bribes.

One longtime agent here in Chicago says that she expects that units in these buildings will go for 20 cents on the dollar, due to the huge oversupply and number of foreclosures, not to mention the prevalent shoddy construction.

We vacation a lot in Kauai. We found out that you can rent a timeshare on eBay for the same rate (or less) than what the owners pay in weekly fees. If the idea is to have a nice place where you like to go all the time, then I suggest checking out eBay. We have done this several times for weekly rentals and it’s always worked. If the idea is to get an investment and perhaps a retirement home, just be careful that the fees don’t eat up any potential return.

BTW, spent two years in Chicago for my Masters. It’s the only livable place in the Midwest. Lot’s of memories of taking the EL to watch the Cubs…and then freezing while drinking a tall one.

With respect to water infiltration. Be very careful. If it’s an architectural problem, then make sure that they have fixed the architectural/design problem and not just applied better sealing.

Agree that Chicago is currently the only livable place in the Midwest, and it is great. I love old Northern cities, and this is, IMO, the best for most people.

However, like most major metro areas, the speculation and overbuilding was insane here. The South Loop, for example, was all put into place at once- a newly created neighborhood that used to be a blighted, post-industrial slag heap. Strange thing about these types of neighborhoods that their builders don’t consider and that their sleek plans don’t allow for: the commercial and retail that make city nabes walkable and vibrant. What’s the use of living right next to downtown if you have to drive a mile to get a loaf of bread?
The South Loop is beautiful and glossy but has the necrotic blandness to it that you associate with really dull, bland, over-planned white-bread suburbs. As for as I’m concerned, it is DOA as a neighborhood and will never retain its value compared to the dense, “messy”, vibrant, varied north neighborhoods.

And, of course, having a vast oversupply of badly built 50-story condo towers with massive construction problems isn’t going to help it. One developer known for extremely shoddy construction has been permitted to build or rehab 5 buildings in the area, and it is these that have really massive water infiltration problems. You NEVER cure a building of this type of problem, no matter how much money you spend in remediation. At this time, the residents of one large bldg. were just hit with assessments of $50,000 each on average, to pay for about $2.5 million dollars worth of work. It won’t be their last assessment, I feel. The units sold for $500K-$600K, and would now be lucky to sell for $350K if the places were perfect. Now, they could scarcely give them away.

The only thing I feel bad about is having to bail out all the losers who bought in this runup and are now 20 fathoms under and can’t make the payments on their adjustable mortgages.

Stuff here is quickly rolling back to 2003 prices, and I will make a move when the places I want are at rent-parity.

I feel bad for the poor losers who bought in 2004-2007, and I can see why 2006 and 2007 vintage mortgages are the worst-performing on record.

Have fun trying to unload the place you overpaid for during those years.

“When prices are declining like they are now, the lender will look at the lowest comparable sales or asking prices to establish the value upon which they will base their loan.“

IR, I didn’t know that. That’s fascinating info. If lenders look to lowest comp asking prices, then some fancy areas of OC are going to fall quickly based on what I’ve been watching.