Happy Birthday Socal III
Chuck Ponzi May 5th, 2008
Today’s Happy birthday post has been for sale considerably longer than a year, but it’ll do for the discussion. This little puppy comes directly to us from Corona, the ugly stepsister to Orange County. Though, you wouldn’t be able to tell from its listing price of 635K that it’s not near the coast at all.
Even more interesting is that the asking has not changed a single time while on the market for now 490 days. I can only think of 2 reasons for this possible problem:
1. The sellers don’t really care to sell
2. The Realtor passed on and noone thought to cancel his/her listing. A quick lookup shows that the listing agent is “OUT OF AREA ESTEIBAR” Excellent.
It appears that the agent might have been having a heart attack as he/she wrote the description on the property:
SUPER SHARP HOME!! SHOWS LIKE A MODEL. THIS HOME IS READY TO MOVE-IN. DOWNSTAIRS MASTER BEDROOM & BATH. LIVING ROOM & FAMILY ROOM WITH FIREPLACE. LIVING ROOM ENTRY WITH CATHEDRAL CEILINGS. NICE LANDSCAPED BACKYARD KOI POND ON THE FRONT YARD. LOCATED IN QUIET CUL-DE-SAC NEIGHBORHOOD.
I can only assume that the realtor was dictating and therefore the secretary took the agonizing screams of pain as the cue to capitalize everything. Nice touch. This really adds to the ambience of the listing.
We can only assume that the seller really needs to get this price, as it’s really a bit over the top for the area. That seems to be the only really wrong thing with this listing, as there seem to be no congenital defects with the property (other than it’s location in the inland empire). It’s even close to Norco (and I believe in the Norco school district, which is considerably better than Corona).
How over the top might you ask? Judge for yourself. Here’s another listing also on Ginger, with almost 200 sq ft more listed for 275K less (43% less than the first), and in my mind, a prettier exterior to boot plus this one has a 3 car garage. Sorry, no caps on the description.
Happy birthday, hardly seems a year has come and gone so quickly.
KOI POND
LoL.
I would be surprised if that house is actually for sale at that price. When using Redfin you have to remember that it has frequent glitches and bugs in its system. Redfin had a house in Corona my wife and I were interested in listed at $535,000. Too high, but a few weeks later it was listed at $435,000. We placed on offer, but they went with someone else, so the $435,000 listing is gone from Redfin. However, 2 months later the $535,000 listing is still visible and listed at 200+ days on Redfin.
This listing is probably out of date and has simply not been corrected. I doubt anyone is contacting any agents about seeing the house, so no one realizes the listing is still there.
Yes,
I agree. However, it’s a far cry from the time that the house went on the market in 2005… it was a feeding frenzy then.
Still, the MLS ID is still open. Whether they’ve abandoned hope of selling it is in question. It’s realistically just a “wishing price” that someone could come by and whisk them away off into neverland. Even Zillow has it pegged at 435K value. The street level map shows that the house has been repainted on the exterior (a much better looking set of colors) since the listing date:
http://www.realestate.com/Prop.....92879.aspx
Happy Birthdays are about having some fun in the local real estate market, nothing more.
Chuck Ponzi
In one of the pictures for the second home (the one in Norco) they have the actual family in the photo… and they don’t look happy at all.
At least the Real Estate Agent could have hired models to be in the picture so they could portray a happy, not “up-to-my-eyeballs-in-debt family!
It was kind of pathetic.
Yes,
I showed my wife those pictures and considered making a comment, but it was too depressing for me. I felt dirty by even looking at them.
They even have kids… must suck to tell them that you have to move out of your house after making the worst financial decision of your life. Wow, too much drama for a Tuesday.
What a way to find out that your parents don’t, in fact, know everything… or even enough not to bankrupt themselves…
It’s very strange that Zillow shows the last sale in November 2006 @ $635,000 for the 2nd home and now on the market @ $360,000?? I understand the financial dynamics, but Zillow does show a current market value of $438,000…. this is pretty amazing that the seller is ready to let it go for $80,000 under the current street rate….. but the picture of the back yard (or lack of a yard) really tells the story of this situation with the fence line right off the back porch…. wow!
Couple of comments:
1. Zillow is not near the “street rate”. Not by a long shot. It more often than not overstates the value by A LOT in a declining market. In an up market, it lags it, and at turning points, it is totally screwed up. High 300’s is probably about right. They overpaid in the biggest frenzy of all time.
2. All yards are like that after 1995 in SoCal. More or less
3. If it’s a short sale (which it is), who cares what the sales price is. There is no motivation for the seller to get a better price. More important is to get offers, and lower listing prices does that. Often, they will get multiple bids that they can then present to the bank to show them what the “current market” amount is.
Chuck Ponzi
You mention the Norco school district is better than Corona’s? Aren’t they the same? Its the “Corona Norco Unified School District”.
Confused…
By the way, I’ve linked to your blog from mine:
http://eastvalehousing.wordpress.com/
Feel free to link back.
Thanks!
Razor
Sorry for the late reply…
I don’t live there, so I am only going off of information that I was told, but it appears you’re right. Maybe it is that the Norco area schools are supposed to be superior, not that they’re different districts.
We have examples of that like Mission Viejo in OC. Some are great, some are trash.
Chuck…. totally agree with you on Zillow’s assessments since my area seems to hold a higher value than what I know is selling in the area (on a square foot basis). I do see that Zillow does give a significant lower amount on the bottom side of their estimates vs. the higher end….what’s this all about as it appears they are predicting further rate declines without stating them. Median to me says it should have a similar range on both sides of the scale?? I’m not sure now where this will all settle in with the recent economic conditions (company downsizing, fuel & food price surges…etc) as I had predicted earlier a 35% drop in housing prices from tip-to-tip? Looks like it could get much worse given the recent events….
Has anyone else seen Mr. Mortgage’s videos on YouTube?
Here is a link to his newest foreclosure analysis (April Foreclosure Report) from ForeclosureRadar.com.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCW4A0ACDKM
Here is a link to all of his video analysis of the mortgage market.
http://www.youtube.com/profile.....ti&p=r
This guy is awesome, a must see!
Chuck, let us know what you think after watching these…