Remember Flipper?

Flipper — Vars and Dunham

No-one you see, is smarter than he,
And we know Flipper, lives in a world full of wonder,

Do you remember the extreme arrogance and smugness of flippers and other kool-aid intoxicated people during the bubble? Isn’t everyone who buys in a bull market a genius? They were all so sure the market could only go up, and every property was a gold mine. They were all living in their private wonderland.

And we know Flipper, lives in a world full of wonder,
Flying there-under, under the sea!

And of course, now they are under water, drowning in debt and sinking to the bottom. When it comes to flippers, my schadenfreude overfloweth…

Today’s featured property has been profiled before. It has been on and off the market for about a year and a half. This is the third listing we have documented here. It takes a great deal of courage to flip a $2,000,000 property. Either that or a great deal of ignorance and kool aid.

Mahogany Kitchen

Asking Price: $1,880,000IrvineRenter

Income Requirement: $470,000

Downpayment Needed: $376,000

Monthly Equity Burn: $16,666

Purchase Price: $2,050,000

Purchase Date: 5/23/2006

Address: 29 Mahogany, Irvine, CA 92620

Beds: 6
Baths: 7
Sq. Ft.: 4,200
$/Sq. Ft.: $448
Lot Size: 0.27

Acres

Property Type: Single Family Residence
Style: Spanish
Year Built: 1996
Stories: 3+ Levels
Area: Northwood
County: Orange
MLS#: S551434
Source: SoCalMLS
Status: Active
On Redfin: 1 day

New Listing (24 hours)

This home has it all!!! An Entertainer’s Home in a Guard Gated
community in Irvine. A MUST see luxurious 7 bedroom (office or optional
7th bedroom) 6.5 bathroom home available in Irvine. Home has it’s OWN
private gate with intercom and video surveillance. Heated waterfall
Jacuzzi, BBQ with Gazebo on a 12,000sqft lot makes this an
entertainer’s home. Home has everything you would expect and more, such
as granite counter tops and marble tile flooring.

These owners managed to perfectly time the top of the market. They paid $2,050,000 on 5/23/2006. They used a $1,500,000 first mortgage, a $400,000 second, and a $100,000 downpayment (don’t expect to see that kind of leverage on a $2,000,000 property again in your lifetime). Can you imagine this couple’s mortgage payment? Anyway, they first listed this property in early 2007 for $2,299,500. They wanted the $300,000 profit they were entitled to for owning less than a year. When it didn’t sell the first time, they relisted in September 2007 for the same amount. As I noted at the time, “The same house; the same price. Still no chance…” Well, here we are just over a year later, and the owners have begrudgingly admitted that they paid too much. They are now asking $1,880,000.

Wow! A whole 5% off the peak. I guess the high end hasn’t dropped much, right? What we are seeing here is classic denial pricing. This owner will likely chase the market all the way into foreclosure.

Their downpayment is gone, they are over the market, and they are putting wishing prices out in the market. Perhaps they will get lucky and some knife catcher will perceive this as a bargain. I doubt it.

{book}

Flipper They call him Flipper, Flipper, faster than lightning,
No-one you see, is smarter than he,
And we know Flipper, lives in a world full of wonder,
Flying there-under, under the sea!

Everyone loves the king of the sea,
Ever so kind and gentle is he,
Tricks he will do when children appear,
And how they laugh when he’s near!

They call him Flipper, Flipper, faster than lightning,
No-one you see, is smarter than he,
And we know Flipper, lives in a world full of wonder,
Flying there-under, under the sea!

Flipper — Vars and Dunham

67 thoughts on “Remember Flipper?

  1. Agent#777

    Over 2 Mil for a property on .27 Acres? Insane.

    And you would think redfin would have a way to list the lot dimensions, not just lot size.

    1. phil

      Actually, you can see the exact lot dimensions on Redfin. Just click on one of the Overhead views on the listing page.

    1. Bitter Renter

      I was going to say “nice work on the fake cast”, but I see they actually made this film (minus the underwater houses) in ’96. Guess I missed that one. I see there was a “Crocodile Dundee 3”, too — who knew? 🙂

  2. AZDavidPhx

    The realtor is really excited about this house being an Entertainor (proper noun) home that they say it not once! but twice! Just to make sure that you know how badly all of your friends are going to want to come over to play HALO with you and sip wine and eat cheese.

    Relax out on the Gazebo with your neighbors, reflecting on the good ole days when defrauding your shareholders was a hoot and a hollar recreation and lying on your mortgage documentation was just a wink and a nod.

    Oh man, it even comes with a BBQ. Holy cow! A BBQ! We’re living the high life now with these fancy posh BBQ thing-a-ma-jigs that po people don’t have.

    And just to complete the over-the-topness – if the mickey mouse guard at the front gate isn’t enough, you will have a video monitoring system to alert you whenever your neighbor’s dog pees on your lawn.

      1. Kirk

        You’ll need it once Obama wins this election and brings back Janet Reno and her ATF thugs that shoot and kill innocent Americans whose only crime is exercising their 1st and 2nd Amendment rights.

        Think this won’t happen? Think you are safe in your compound? Think again. It will happen and that barbed wire you bought at Home Depot, contrary to what the salesman said, can’t be electrified and can’t stop their nefarious onslaught.

        Think you can “wait it out” in your bunker? Do you really want to spend the next four years down there? I don’t care how nice the thing is, people can only stay underground for so long.

        Video surveillance is the most realistic and cost effective protection you can get. I don’t understand why more people don’t do it.

        1. maxo

          it’s not a foregone conclusion and mccain has been the come-back kid before but i’m hoping mccain is out of lifelines this time

          look, obama is flawed. some of his associations belie poor judgement.

          however, same is true of mccain (the reverend with very anti-semitic and anti-catholic views – mind you, the latter may not be such a stretch)…him and palin have incited racist shite at their rallies. the fact is 3 weeks of awful, distasteful comments being made, he repudiated some ignorant scum bag woman by indicating obama wasn’t arab and a decent family man…kudos..3 weeks late..but fine….obama repudiated wright (granted, late too)

          if you’re better off now than you were 4 years ago, you want more of the same destructive policies (it’s both parties are engaging emergency socialism? wtf – to credit the GOP is fair as they’re more market oriented but they’ve gone too far on the right..i hope it doesn’t overcorrect to too far on the left but that may be the risk needed..time will tell).. and also, if you respect the erosion of church/state with religious wingnuts, crave more war…hoping for the ‘final days’, – have at it with mccain/palin.

          see you in the afterlife…

          1. Kirk

            Maxo, while I appreciate your endorsement of McCain/Palin, others here may not share the same political views. After an unfortunate foray into a political discussion here, I found it best not to mix politics and housing. I was merely making the case for video surveillance and am a bit confused as to how this became a political conversation.

          2. Party Pooper

            are you serious? you don’t know how this became a political conversation? & you find it best not to mix politics and housing?

            do you even know what you wrote, FIRST?

          3. maxo

            Make no mistake about it. I’m not endorsing McCain/Palin! Nor do I make this a political forum. I just felt that your post was vulgar and unasked for and needed a response to tone down your rabidness.

          4. Robert

            Isn’t the collapse of Fannie and Freddie caused by the Dems allowing them to take on more and more leverage? So why are we blaming the Republicans for the crisis? And the solution….let’s spend more..like a trillion dollars over four years and increase taxes on the very people that create jobs. I just don’t get it.

          5. 26w100k+

            Yeah it was both. They both suck. If you think the fact that the Dems put pressure on Fannie and Freddie makes the GOP innocent..you’re smoking crack.

          6. Kirk

            Come on guys, let’s keep this conversation about video surveillance. There’s no need for this mud slinging.

            I’ll try to put this thread back on track by further addressing SnowKat’s original question: I would like to point out that Irvine has a sizable population that has immigrated from the middle east region. Now, no matter what political affiliation you have, I think that we all agree that middle east policy is a challenge for this country.

            But, it’s not my intention to get into a policy debate. I’m just pointing out that this is something we all agree on.

            My main objective here is to point out, once again, that video surveillance can protect you in this situation. That is why I think everyone should have cameras installed on and inside their houses. I would even support having the city mandate the cameras to promote a since of unity in these difficult times.

          7. Bitter Renter

            After witnessing a number of Kirk’s absurd and illogical rants (and falling into the trap of responding to one) and visiting his web page, I have come to the conclusion that he is most likely a troll, and does this wrongheaded extreme right-wing character on the web to amuse himself.

            The claim that he didn’t know how this became a political discussion (after obviously making it one himself), and the carefully worded insinuation that you need video surveillance in Irvine because of neighbors of Middle Eastern descent, along with the “this is something we all agree on” seem pretty clearly to be bait.

            His good vocabulary and spelling also seem to be a giveaway that he’s not the dullard he makes himself out to be. The claim on his website that he has a PhD in economics may actually be true.

            I suggest no one feed the troll by responding to Kirk. I would also suggest IrvineRenter consider banning this consistently disruptive person.

          8. IrvineRenter

            Actually, I find him rather amusing. He is like the court jester that stops our astute observers from taking it all too seriously.

          9. Hizkel

            Actually, his are among the best writings I ever read that systematically debunk right-wing ideas/claims. These ideas may seem absurd to some here, but I have met many, otherwise good people, who subscribe to similar ideas and do not see (or refuse to see) the falacy in them. And the most asstute of them phrase them the way Kirk does. But well-presented does not mean well-reasoned and Kirk shows that really well. It would have been more fun if we have someone who does the same for left-wing ideas,… as no extreme position can be free from some falacy.

          10. occasionalreader

            I would believe he were a troll if not for that every forum i visit or read or posted on has at least a few people with this mindset.

            Koo-koo! :gulp:

          11. Kirk

            As I read these negative comments I can’t help but wonder if some people get a perverse enjoyment from attempting to bait others by suggesting that those others are in fact baiting them. Well, I’m sorry to disappoint you, but I won’t take the bait.

            Pride is a fool’s fortress and I simply have no need to respond to attacks on my character.

          12. WaitingToBuyByAndBy

            Witty:

            “/sarcasm on

            You’ll need it once Obama wins this election and brings back Janet Reno and her ATF thugs that shoot and kill innocent Americans whose only crime is exercising their 1st and 2nd Amendment rights.

            sarcasm off/”

            Troll:
            “You’ll need it once Obama wins this election and brings back Janet Reno and her ATF thugs that shoot and kill innocent Americans whose only crime is exercising their 1st and 2nd Amendment rights.”

            Kirk, if you are being sarcastic (and from most of your posts I’d say that’s the case). Then just say so.

        2. Alan

          Video does let you or someone else watch them coming in, if they don’t destroy the records once they are in. I don’t see how it offers any protection in the slightest. Unless you want to spend your life 24/7 watching a bunch of monitors around your property, and then hoping that the police don’t treat your call as yet another false alarm if you do happen to be attentive at just the moment they go over the wall or through the gate. Or paying a team of security guards will make the $2 million mortgage payment seem cheap.

          1. Bitter Renter

            You can always set up a computer to capture the footage and have recording only be triggered when there’s significant motion in the frame. You can then review the footage at your leisure, or if you’re worried about the thief successfully breaking in and stealing your PC (I would imagine the vast majority of thieves would give up the attempt upon seeing the cameras), you could have it set up to be regularly uploading the most recent footage to some off-site server that you have an account on.

    1. Bitter Renter

      “…you will have a video monitoring system to alert you whenever your neighbor’s dog pees on your lawn.”

      I have actually been considering setting up makeshift video surveillance out the window of my IAC apartment for almost that exact reason: to identify which of my bastard neighbors (I think it’s actually people from two different apartments) leaves their dog’s crap on the grass in front of my apartment almost every single day. :shut:

  3. Forbear

    The person who bought in 2000 and sold in 2006 sure did well, I wonder how much of the profits they have left.

    1. NanoWest

      I purchased a home on runningbrook(around the corner) in 2000 and the price was $200.00 per square foot. So the purchase price for this home was around $850,000 in 2000. This home will be in the $900,000 range by the time this housing crash is finished. As prices in the beach cities start to tank, it will force the prices of tract homes in Irvine down.

  4. Larrygg

    At least when these people move into their next home at the trailer park they can sit back and reminisce about life in the good ol’ days when they were rich!

    1. ipoplaya

      Some places are have sold for $500/sf recently, but they are in Turtle Ridge. NW Pointe has rarely seen above $400/sf of late.

      I’d put this place at a current market value of around $1.6M or so.

      1. Hormiguero

        Who is lending at those prices? I really don’t know how anyone can value properties north of a million bucks these days with any certainty.

        1. AZDavidPhx

          You would not think that we are in the middle of an economic crisis judging by the amounts of money that banks are still loaning for houses.

          It’s pretty clear that the policy being implemented is an attempt to draw in large groups of knife catchers with sizeable down payments.

          After a couple of years, the knife catchers will see their down payments evaporate, get frustrated and sell to other knife catchers. Rinse lather and repeat.

          Eventually we will bottom out when enough bubble money has been returned to the market.

          As the process plays out, government can slowly increase the mortgage rates back up to a normal level. Otherwise, if they shot the mortgage rates up too high today, the entire market would freeze up.

          The goal is to let a bunch of people for the next 5-6 years throw away down payment money (give it back to the bubble).

          1. MalibuRenter

            If you wanted to minimize losses to banks, but still get to equilibrium, one way would be if prices slowly dropped and multiple purchasers lost their downpayments on the same house. If it happens all in one big drop, more of the loss belongs to the bank.

          2. Anonymous

            Huh?

            http://calculatedrisk.blogspot.com/2008/10/jamie-dimon-if-you-are-not-fearful.html

            Jamie Dimon: The origination business, and I think it’s true for a lot of people in the industry, Meredith, people have gone back to old fashioned 80% LTV, real verified income, more disciplined appraisals, and then in some areas they won’t even go to 85% LTV because of expected home decreases so we are not at 85% in California, Nevada, or Florida we’re at 65. So that’s why it’s down. I think it’s true for us and everybody else. Almost everything being originated is eligible for Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, or FHA. So therefore you have this great reduction. Obviously the quality of that stuff is going to be much higher.

      2. alan

        ipop…

        At $350 sq ft this place comes in a shade under $1.5 Million. I doubt they will get more than $350 since this close to max that the comps go for.

        Clearly a wishing price, this place will be in foreclosure soon enough.

        1. ipoplaya

          I was using the most recent close in NW Pointe, 7 Green Hollow, as my most relevant comp. It closed for $367/sf and sat on a tiny lot around a cluttered culdesac.

          It will be interesting to see if this short gets done. If the lender was smart, they would let it go short for $1.5-1.6M.

  5. Mel

    I still can’t get over that houses this expensive ever existed (and still exist) in this part of Irvine. If I had that kind of cash, there’s no way I’d want to move that far from the ocean and live in a track home. It’s a nice house, but not that nice.

  6. Transplant

    Nice Yard… not. Who would buy a 2 million house without some land to actually entertain on? Its SoCal, people. Stay outside. Its not like we live in Detroit or somewhere unpleasant to go outside.

    When the market returns to normal and people reassess what has value and what doesn’t, my prediction is all these McMansions will be way less than they should because if you have the means to purchase a house of this size, you will want some actual real estate around it. Meanwhile, more modest homes on larger property will be hit less (they also probably didn’t balloon as much). A .27 lot is always going to be too small for a 4000 sf house. A .5 lot for a 2000 sf house looks positively palatial by comparison…

  7. huas

    Once upon a time, in a village, a man appeared and announced to the villagers that he would buy monkeys for $10 each. The villagers, seeing that there were many monkeys around, went out to the forest and started catching them. The man bought thousands at $10 and, as supply started to diminish, the villagers stopped their effort. He further announced that he would now buy at $20 for a monkey. This renewed the efforts of the villagers and they started catching monkeys again. Soon the supply diminished even further and people started going back to their farms. The offer increased to $25 each, and the supply of monkeys became so small that it was an effort to even find a monkey, let alone catch it! The man now announced that he would buy monkeys at $50! However, since he had to go to the city on some business, his assistant would now buy on behalf of him. In the absence of the man, the assistant told the villagers. “Look at all these monkeys in the big cage that the man has collected. I will sell them to you at $35, and when the man returns from the city, you can sell them to him for $50 each.” The villagers rounded up all their savings and bought all the monkeys. They never saw the man nor his assistant again, only monkeys everywhere! Now you have a better understanding of how Housing market works.

    P.S. Bush –> the Boss.A.G/Wall St –> assistants.

  8. alan

    I agree cities should have better zoning for house size and lot size. A 4000 sq ft house should require at least 3/4 of an acre. Developers are getting too greedy.

    Montery Park has a lot of these 5+ bdrm homes because the Asians there prefer to live in extended family situations, multiple generations under one roof. I wonder if that’s the situation here. If so you also need a 4+ car garage and more parking as each family member needs their own car.

  9. Gromit

    Another theme (in addition to “Flipper”) is suggested by the street name, “Mahogany”:

    Do you get
    What you’re hoping for
    When you look behind you
    There’s no open door
    What are you hoping for?
    Do you know?

  10. freedomCM

    My only thought looking at this MegaMcMansion on a postage stamp is will the MMM drop back to the 2000 price of $950k, or all the way back to the just-built price of $560k now that it is 12 years old, inland, and cooling costs have gone up?

    How many people (besides IPO) think this will sell for more than $1M?

  11. Transplant

    I won’t claim to know this part of Irvine at all, but blow 1M it won’t sell at all, its straight to foreclosure. A short sale is one thing, but will the banker accepta a 800K write off? I doubt it….

  12. Hans

    This properties location has it at a bad disadvantage. It was built in the mid 90’s and is inland Irvine,

    A buyer has far more incentive to spend at this level in the upper streets of quail hill or Turtle Rock for less money with better weather, a view, and easier acess to freeways, shopping, and the beach.

  13. dilbert dogbert

    I read IR with fear and trembling because we were expecting to have to sell the house to be able to buy other family property. It came to pass that the others wanted the money so the house was just put on the market last weekend. About 50 people walked thru and we are meeting to look at an offer this afternoon. Fingers crossed.

    Stats:
    2000 sq ft on one level
    10,000 sq ft corner lot in a flood zone
    built in mid 1950’s
    well maintained and improved a bit
    wife is a gardener so it has great street presence
    asking 2,000,000
    flippers welcome!!!!!!!!!!

    This is Palo Alto, Crescent Park in the servants quarters as I call it.

    The featured house looks good to me. Yummy coolaid!

    I am connected loosely with Sequoia Capital and heard about their prediction for the floor to fall out from under Silicon Valley. Please please please not just yet.

  14. Major Schadenfreude

    “As the process plays out, government can slowly increase the mortgage rates back up to a normal level.”

    Meanwhile, home prices will commensurately decline. However, the realtors will bark that “interest rates are rising, so you should buy now!” along with “the market is now bottoming!” The ignorant will bite and watch with exasperation as their downpayment slowly evaporates. Another house, another sucker.

    Questions circulating through policy maker heads right now are how many suckers are there and how long before it is realized by them that home ownership is a losing proposition until prices decline to fundamentals?

    Expect realtors, the media, and policy makers to be bedfellows during the orchestrated deflation of the bubble.

    1. AZDavidPhx

      Agreed. That is surely going to become the new line.

      “Buy now before interest rates go any higher and you get priced out”.

      Mark these words. It hath been foretold.

      1. IrvineRenter

        I know a family that fell for this very fallacy. It will be an expensive lesson they learn.

        These people all fail to see that if they are being priced out because their bids will decline, so will the bids of everyone else who is competing for the property. Prices fall. Failure to understand this basic economic point is going to be very costly to many knife catchers.

        1. Matt

          Ah, but will they fall equally?

          Take 3 families.
          Family 1 is a young couple of highly-paid types just starting out. Lawyers, or doctors, or other kinds of professionals. In other words, high income, low savings.

          Family 2 is more established, having already bought a home while Family 1 was still in school. They don’t make as much, but they’ve been making money for longer (and maybe even go some equity appreciation in their first house), so they have a decent downpayment. Middle income, middle savings.

          Family 3 is a retiring family looking to move down. They have a lot of equity, but obviously very little income. Low income, high savings.

          Assume these 3 families could all afford a 400K house at current rates (and are looking for something similar). As prices fall and rates rise, will all 3 be able to afford the same houses? I don’t know the answer. But, just off the top of my head, it would seem to me that as rates rise, cash is king. All 3 might be BETTER off (because they could refinance if rates came down), but are they EQUALLY better off?

          1. Anonymous

            More like family 1 used to have a high income, but economic downturn is cutting into their practice, income is down. Family 2 had a home with equity and some investments, but both got nuked in the downturn, none left. Family 3 had a lot of equity and some investments, those got nuked too.

            Everyone just stays put and no one moves.

  15. alan

    Do you know what happened back on September 9, 1850, 158 years ago?

    California became a state.
    The State had no electricity.
    The State had no money.
    Almost everyone spoke Spanish.
    There were gunfights in the streets.
    So basically, it was just like it is today, except the women had real breasts and the men didn’t hold hands.

  16. dilbert dogbert

    Just accepted full price offer on the Palo Alto house. No contengencies, where is as is.
    Is this the bottom? Buy now or be forever priced out?

    1. Jack-Booted EULA

      >Is this the bottom?

      No.

      This has been another edition of simple answers to simple questions.

      :o)

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