Irvine Housing Blog

these sheeple with their amazing urge to spend on redecorating—i never understood that passion. if i can sit down in a chair and sleep on a mattress—i don’t even have a box spring—why upgrade? they work fine.

but a great hungry mob of jerks out there want to top each other with furnishings costing in the five digits. what an incredible era of waste and foolishness it has been. thank you greenspan. thank you boomers. thank you first-time unmarried house buyers. thank you for giving us a new dust bowl.

A must read:
How Fannie and Freddie weren’t reined-in
http://news.mobile.msn.com/en-us/articles.aspx?afid=1&aid=26695074&pg1=1

Read it now. It is getting pulled out from the servers.

My first impression of the exterior is that it has a prison watchtower. The little windows in high blank walls don’t totally dispell that idea.

Have they blocked the garage door? Is that where they put the last vestige of a lawn?

Of course inside it might be really grand and well done. The $1.8 million has got to be hiding somewhere.

Every 90 days, this seller lowered the price another $200,000 and chased the market as it fell even faster. He might have got out for enough to pay off the debt if he had cut the price early

Where was the savvy market analysis that would have allowed this thing to have been (possibly) sold a long time ago?  This is WTF marketing - an arbitrary $200k off every so often - to do what?  To attract what kind of attention?

If this was the guy’s primary business, he’s just blown the whole thing by not understanding the marketing and selling aspect.  No interior pictures….. Hmmmmmm…. what all does that look like on the inside?

Anyone else envisioning the “Kron Kastle” where there were exposed plumbing and electric conduits on the inside of the house, despite the looming exterior full of oversized stones, bricks and other heavy building materials?

That is just sad.

It looks like today’s seller is learning about theory of the free lunch.  Pay close attention kids - do not become like these people.

The market has apparantly decided that we have enough used-house peddlers and lipstick-on-a-pig hustlers.

Let the seller go out and find a real job now.

Renovating old houses and re-selling them for a profit is a perfectly noble way to earn a living - however, at the very least, take on the risk yourself. 

If you want to build over-done, over-the-top, self-grandiose, million dollar starter castles for people earning 150K then be a big boy and finance it with your own cash rather than using a mortgage equity Ponzi scheme to fund your enterprise. 

But no, of course, we could never expect any of these Tycoons to put up large sums of their own money.  No, we will just make them risk their holy credit rating and then bail the bank out with tax payer dollars when they default and walk away.

Tuscany-styled home? I know Tuscany. That is a San Gimignano-ish tower grafted onto a glorified stucco box. UGLY.

Alan,
The lawn grows in little concrete squares. You can drive on ‘em.

(Not like the Sunday real-estate section photos of new houses where they throw sod over the whole driveway and put potted shrubs in front of the doors.)

I’ve always loved those towers and minarets on McMansions, much in the same way you love that guy your friends invite to their parties who sticks his head in the fishtank and then somehow manages to puke on the ceiling.  It’s love when it’s someone else’s misfortune, not yours.  Here in Dallas, I regularly go by one that, and I’m not kidding in the slightest, looks like a miniature version of the Disneyland Castle, complete with little banners waving off the minarets, and it’s still not the tackiest house in the whole overpriced neighborhood.

Of course, we all know the real reason why these places have those idiotic towers.  This is so the owners can lie above the masses and take out the bank agents sent to repo the house.  One good sniper rifle, and every neighborhood can have its own Charles Whitman when the economy really goes to hell.

Deja-Vu

In the early 90’s I knew an ER doc who pulled the same stunt in PV, thinking he could be a real estate developer.  Then the downturn hit.  Ultimately sold his property at a loss and had to declare BK.

This time around, people are just walking and not have to BK.  I find that appalling, these people should pay the price and not skate buy with a slap on the wrist temporary credit hit.

Almost 4,000 square feet, built in 2007 for under $1M.
Are you kidding?
Those numbers look very good.
It’s unfortunate the house lacks overall appeal. Either that or the two pictures don’t do it justice.

I happened to pass by “2 Angell, Irvine, CA 92612” few days ago. It is also avilable for rent for 7000$/month (per fatwalletdeals.com).
I guess the carrying cost is that much not the rental value.

As a wannabe home owner in OC I pour over email MLSs every day and never take a property seriously that only shows a couple of drive-by photos. You realtors are wasting your time if you don’t at least sneak up to a window and get a couple of shots of the inside. Also, I need to see the back yard- but don’t think I don’t know what you’re doing when you fog up the border of the photo so I can’t see the 4 other homes staring in on the “entertainers dream yard”. I don’t want any surprises when I show up to check it out so just tell it like it is….. “typical OC overpriced house built in the 80s. No AC, high mello roos and high HOA dues. Your neighbors are RIGHT on top of you and will hear EVERY argument that you and your spouse have. Also, there is a 15 year old learning the drums next door. Your living room IS your TV room and your bedrooms will not fit a bed AND a dresser and your CLOSETS are tiny. By the way, you are not allowed to have company park on the street overnight. WELCOME HOME!!!!!!!!!!”

Wow, this is truly a McMansion, how’d they get permit approvals?  Looks like they don’t even have a real driveway, that house is sooo cramped in that lot size, which means you’re even closer to your neighbors than before.  Uh no thanks.

Classic, classic mistake of overbuilding for the neighborhood.

Was just musing about the 2 Angell property…
http://www.redfin.com/CA/Irvine/2-Angell-92612/home/4697876?src=blg_irvine&utm_source=irvinehousingblog&utm_medium=blog&utm_nooverride=1

Listing Price History
Jul 12, 2008   $1,199,000
Jul 28, 2008   $1,469,000
Aug 01, 2008   $1,199,000

Dear Diary,

I think I’ve figured it out! Apparently, lowering my price causes people to think the price might continue to go lower. Anyway, I’ve let the old listing expire. Now I can show up fresh at the current market price. Smart, huh?

July 28, 2008

Dear Diary,

I think I’ve figured it out! The market is tanking and people are looking for the rebound. Well, I’ll give it to them, I’m going to raise the price to what I deserved in the first place! They’ll see that the price is going up and will want to buy now before I raise it again!

August 1, 2008

Dear Diary,

I hate that Irvine Housing Blog. The idea of this custom-built property being based on some kind of rental price fundamental like it was a tract home or something! Outrageous! Who do they think they are!

I’m lowering my price to what I originally listed, that’ll tell everybody that I am absolutely not going to go any lower! The best part is, now my original listing price looks like a steal!

I live in this tract and it’s a very nice neighborhood, but this house is totally out of scale.  This is not a neighborhood of competitive snobs; in fact what makes it nice is that its perfectly normal and middle-class.  Furthermore, the fact that it’s on a corner lot and looms over the street makes it’s size seem even worse

This house looks like it belongs to some South American drug kingpin. 

“Say hello to my little friend!!!!”....

I think (from the front) the left side of the house is actually on the street & there is almost no driveway. Wow!  Didn’t think the City of Irvine would allow that… Don’t you have to get permits?

AWWW come on guys… the watch tower is so charming!  I agree, there should be a mote

What was the article about?  It was pulled off before I got a chance to read it.

Ok all, this is more of a macro-news instead of Irvine specific but, nevertheless, is still related.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601213&sid=aJs41o1Rt_uk&refer=home

I think it is the perfect home for an Italian opera singer.

Wait a bit here…. we torn our home down to studs and rebuilt it, but we didn’t do it because we’re flippers. 

No, we’re very long term owners and we needed a larger house, so it was cheaper to tear the old 1800 sq foot home and build a new 2700 house.  We like the location and Prop 13 is our friend.  Also, quite a few of the homes around us have/are doing the same thing so the scale of the home is nowhere our of scale.

As in anything, if you rebuild as a flipper you take a big risk and perhaps the quality won’t be there.  But if rebuild with cash and plan to stay then you’re in a different ball game.

BTW- my house is modest on the outside, but inside I got 1600 feet of Cat5 and 500 feet of RG-6… besides the fact that my electrical wiring is “structured” too.  ;-D

So, don’t put all of us “extreme remodelers” or as I think it’s more proper “rebuilders” in the same pot.

go wireless/cat5 so yesterday

Irvine will need a museum to mark the Great Housing Bubble of the early 2000s, won’t it?  The city should probably buy this for that purpose and charge an entry fee to see the bloody mess.    The watch tower will come in handy, probably will need one more in the rear.