Monthly Archives: May 2007
The City of Lights
Asking Price: $899,000
Purchase Price: $897,000
Purchase Date: 7/5/2006
Address: 15361 Siene Circle, Irvine, CA 92604
Beds: 5
Baths: 3
Sq. Ft.: 2,982
Lot Sq. Ft.: 7,995
Year Built: 1969
Stories: 2
Type: Single Family Residence
View: Park or Green Belt
Neighborhood: El Camino Real
$/Sq. Ft.: $301
MLS#: S484070
Status: Active on market
On Redfin: 11 days
From Redfin, “Almost 8000 square feet lot in the center of Irvine. Prized end of cul -de-sac location backs up to greenbelt-lots of privacy!Park-like yard that includes a large patio with fire pit. Family room with fireplace, . No mello-roos, no HOA. Surroounded by greenbelt, park, & tennis courts. With nearby college & golf course. Newly remodeled with granite counter tops, new light fixtures, new carpet, travertine, and hardwood floor. New paint, sinks & faucets, new vinyle windows, scraped texture ceiling.”
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El Camino Real is one of the most “tractlike” neighborhoods in Irvine. There is a lack of parks, play areas and pools. It is probably the best value on a dollars-per-square-foot basis as there is little else to bring people to the neighborhood. As the description mentions, there are a few beltway greenspaces where they preserved the old windrows from the agricultural operation. Those neighborhood criticisms aside, this property is nice and updated albeit a bit old.
Eiffel Tower at Sunset – Seine River, Paris
This property appears to be owned by a local realtor; either that or the owner coincidentally has the same name. This property is shown as one of her “featured listings” for $949,000. The property is empty, so it appears to be a flip that is bleeding cash. The seller has a first mortgage for $717,600 and a second for $89,700 through Countrywide. With a combined debt of $807,300 (and likely a 3% commission), the seller has some room to negotiate how much she is going to lose before this becomes a short sale. It doesn’t look like this flip will be financing any trips to Paris. Seine Circle is as close to the Siene as this seller will get.
Glen Garden Homes in Turtle Rock
Address: 25 Rainbow Falls, Irvine, CA 92603 (Turtle Rock)
Plan: 1572 sq ft – 3/2
MLS: S472630 DOM: 101
Sale History: 5/20/2005: $725,000
1/8/2003: $490,000
Price Reduced: 03/13/07 — $798,000 to $789,000
Price Reduced: 03/14/07 — $789,000 to $778,000
Price Reduced: 03/22/07 — $778,000 to $760,000
Current Price: $760,000
It looks like this is the first property in the village of Turtle Rock to be featured on our blog. Turtle Rock is the original hilly village of Irvine and in the future, we may do a Community Profile on it. This Plan E in the Glen Garden Homes tract was purchased in May of 2005 and then listed on the market early this year for $798k. After a month and a half, the seller started reducing the price. 3 reductions later brings us to the current asking price of $760,000.
If sold at the current asking price and assuming 6% in selling costs, the owner will lose about $10,000. When this home was listed on 1/22/07, there were about 900 properties for sale in Irvine; now there are close to 1200!
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There is only one other property that I see for sale in this tract:
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12 Cool Brook (MLS #P572667) – 3bd/2ba 1628 sq ft – $629,000
Here’s the description for 12 Cool Brook: “Want a ‘Hot Deal’? This is it! This is a Turtle Rock estate sale that has been a rental. Seller priced it $120,000 below our competition for a fast sale. Most buyers will want to update paint, carpet, and flooring. The low price and unbeatable location far outweighs the need for TLC. Cul-de-sac location, backing to a greenbelt hillside. Move fast, going going gone.”
And the private remarks for 12 Cool Brook: “Seller will provide a termite clearance, otherwise the home is being sold as-is. Seller has not lived in the property and acquired the property by inheritance.”
Sure enough, it was priced well and the status in MLS is now ‘Accepting Backup Offers’. 12 Cool Brook has been on the market for 15 days (compare that to the 101 DOM for 25 Rainbow Falls).
As some of you may know, I’m a big fan of the Turtle Rock area. Did anyone have a chance to check out 12 Cool Brook? Once this property closes escrow, I imagine it’ll be harder for 25 Rainbow Falls to sell at the $760k price.
Protestors trouble Liarnar Homes
Saturday I received a phone call from a friend that went like this: “Hey do you know why there are people protesting Liarnar at Riverbend? They have a big ole sign that says buyer beware of Liarnar Homes.” I said, “Probably because they build crappy homes.” Now I wasn’t sure that was going to be the case because it is a much better story when it’s the FBer’s protesting the price reductions. Like a good blogger I decided to go check it out for myself and here is what I found.
Sure enough the protestors were local 2361 carpenter union members letting people know that Liarnar builds crappy homes. Unfortunately the gentleman in the picture wouldn’t say much but he did give me the flyer below and the business card for an attorney. He said the attorney would be more than willing to give me more information. I called the attorney late yesterday and I will try again today to get some more info. I know it is not Irvine but he did say that there are others protesting at Liarnar projects. If anyone else has seen something like this in or around Irvine please let us know.
Now I am not sure how many people read Mish’s blog but he has been following Mike Morgan’s fight against Liarnar in Florida for their faulty construction. Mike Morgan is in so deep that Liarnar is even suing him over his website. If you have not read some of the stories on his site and Mish’s I highly recommend that you do. Some of the stories are so disgusting that you may never look at Liarnar the same again. As you can tell from the flyer it sites an OC Register article that can be found here. As with most in the MSM the Register has not done any follow up. I checked www.occourts.org and searched for Liarnar but nothing came up. It will be interesting to see how Liarnar handles these types of things because they have a majority of the units in the pipeline for OC. They have a big pipeline in Irvine with the Great Park project of 9500 homes and 1400 homes at Central Park West. Of course Liarnar touts its commitment to quality.
For the record I have nothing against Liarnar nor are they the homebuilder that I used to work for. I just do not know of any other major homebuilder who receives as much negative news about faulty construction as Liarnar.
Whiner, Whiner, Whiner
Selling Price: $1,050,000
Selling Date: 4/18/2007
Purchase Price: $1,188,000
Purchase Date: 1/25/2006
Address: 25 Lakeview, Irvine, CA 92604
Beds: 4
Baths: 3
Sq. Ft.: 2,500
Year Built: 1977
Stories: 2
Type: Condominium
View: Lake Front, Lake, Mountain, Panoramic
Neighborhood: Woodbridge
$/Sq. Ft.: $420
MLS#: S475949
Status: Active on market
On Redfin: 71 days
Premiere property in the heart of Irvine: This flip should have been a no-brainer…
Perhaps you saw the following letter written by a local realtor published in the OC Register [italicized comments in brackets are mine]:
Late breaking letters: Media experts and the ‘coming’ real estate market crash
Posted, Wednesday afternoon, April 11
It was with great disappointment that I read the latest Jonathan Lansner diatribe on how the sky is falling as it pertains to the Orange County real estate market [“
Both Lansner and Schiff, as well as UCLA and Chapman College representatives have all been predicting the bursting of the real estate “bubble” year after year. They have all been consistently wrong and have probably cost the would-be homeowners, who held off due to these dire and inaccurate predictions, untold thousands of dollars in returns on a sensible real estate investment [so sensible the writer lost his a$$], and the subsequent appreciation (not to mention the significant tax deductions.)
For those foolish enough to listen to them, and who held off purchasing a home, it may be too late. Many will probably never be able to afford a home in Orange County [priced out forever, LOL] now thanks to the doom and gloomers. Particularly offensive was Schiff’s advice: “When everyone in real estate is waiting tables (or in jail) [ROFLOL] and your neighbors think you are crazy for even considering real estate, then it will be time to buy. [Peter Schiff is my new hero]” I have spent much of my life in Southern California real estate. I do my best to provide accurate advice and handle my clients with professionalism and courtesy. Schiff’s broad-brush stereotyping of thousands of hard-working real estate professionals reflects much more on his reputation than ours [Realtors are considered by the general public to be on a par with used car salesmen]. I still consider O.C. real estate an outstanding long-term investment [liar], and history unerringly proves me correct [except in the 90’s when it didn’t].
The primary cause of the recent (and temporary) slow down in this market, in my opinion, is due to the piling on of media and pundits that must feed the fears of their readers on a daily basis in order to stay in business [I feel so powerful. I and a few other bloggers ruined the market. LOL]. Schiff’s prediction of a 50 percent decrease in O.C. home values is beyond ridiculous [he is probably right on]. Despite what Schiff and other fear mongers predict, the law of supply and demand hasn’t stopped working and the whole world still wants to live in Orange County [The whole world wants to live here, LOL. This guy should do stand-up comedy. He managed to make every ridiculous kool-aid-drinkin’ bullish statement in one writing. Great stuff.].
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Boo Hoo, somebody call the whambulance; perhaps our crybaby realtor friend wants some cheese with that whine. When you read a diarrhetic thought stream like that you can’t help wondering if there is more to the story. There is.
(Chuck Ponzi at Southern California Real Estate Bubble Crash wrote a great post concerning this letter.)
This letter to the editor was published one week before our realtor / failed flipper lost $138,000 plus commissions on the property above. He bought a great property in a great neighborhood (waterfront in Woodbridge) and still lost a bundle. Does it make you question the sincerity of his feeble assessment of the “recent (and temporary) slow down in this market?” If it was only temporary why is he dumping this property at a $138,000 loss? Did he write the letter above to generate business while his real opinion about the market shows in his actions? Do his actions speak louder than his words?
Besides being a whiner, what would you call him (I’ll give you a hint)?
Liar, Liar, Liar
Liar, Three Dog Night – 1971
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