Friday, September 25, 2009

My house is so much better than yours.....


This is a tale of two neighbors.......

The first one lives at 18365 Berry Rd in Riverside. His house would fall under the classification of mini mansion or baby estate. It's a 4000 s/f house with 5 bedrooms and 4.5 baths. It sits on an expansive lot nearly an acre in size. It has fully landscaped ground, although nothing to fancy. The kitchen is actually rather basic looking for a house in this area. Purchased in 1999 for $430k the owner should be able to get out of this without losing any money (assuming he didn't tap the equity). Unfortunately the owner has been smoking the dream pipe and he thinks he can still get the peak price for his little chateau. He has it listed for $999k. The home looks empty so he has either moved or it may have been a rental, who knows. The listing does not indicate it's a pre-foreclosure or short sale.



Neighbor 2 lives right next door at 18383 Berry rd. This poor fella bought his mini mansion right near the peak in 2005 for $900k. It originally sold for $407k in 1999. His place is a little smaller that the pad next door. At 3400 s/f with 5 bedrooms and 2.5 baths it's a little easier to clean. The lot is about the same size although this one looks to have had a little nicer landscaping. Much of that is in serious need of water though but nothing a few thousand in plants wouldn't fix. This fella hasn't been hitting the happy pipe though. He's in trouble and he's looking to short sale this turkey. His price..... a more reasonable $499k. That's probably a fair price for this area right now. I've seen a few sell in this price range in the last few months. I think there is a good chance this will fairly quickly.

Neighbor one put his place on the market first. But his realtor should have told him there is no chance of getting a million bucks for it. Now his next door neighbor list his house for 1/2 his asking price. Maybe that will act as a reality check.....nah, he will just rationalize that because his house is a little bigger and his grass isn't dead it's worth an extra $100 s/f. These two homes sort or typify the marker right now, overpriced turkeys and short sales. That seems to sum up the current inventory!

7 comments:

Rogers said...

This is common among neighbors. But according to me the first neighbor has better house.
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Unknown said...

dayum, $500k in riverside? That doesn't seem like a good deal to me. These size houses and lots in South Corona are less than $350k and in brand new tract with much better curb appeal.

That still seems waaaay too high imo.

golfer_X said...

That area is kinda like the "Beverly Hills" of Riverside. It' comparable to the Amberhill area of Corona. $500k is a good price for this area.

Luanne, I agree #1 is better, just nowhere near $500k better. It's maybe $50k nicer.

VectorzSigma said...

Golfer_X: What's your personal opinion on .. say a property in Sycamore Creek that is currently $330k , projected price at the future bottom? $100k difference? $75k diff?

golfer_X said...

That's hard to say, each property is different. My general yardstick is "what would it have sold for around 2000?" That's roughly the last time that all the ratios were in line with values. In South Corona that price was between $90 and $100 s/f. Sycamore Creek is pretty close to than now. Will it go lower? I suppose it could but the more central areas would have to fall first. If central Corona falls to $100 s/f then Sycamore will have to fall farther.

Anyone seeing any action at open houses. I went out today, the first time in a couple of months and it seemed really dead at the places I stopped at.

VectorzSigma said...

golfer_x: last weekend at open houses there was a decent amount of traffic (at least always 1 other couple at any given , to view the property at the same time as us).

Narf said...

As the $8k credit expires in 2 months (which BTW, I need to amend/file for so I can get the money sooner rather than later), there's that up tick in traffic.

That said, the lower priced properties nearly always benefit from the delusional sellers; it makes their price look like it's a much much much better deal. When the lower priced property sells, it's now a comp ... and that's where one can make the delusional seller face reality - on the appraisal report!

As for 1/2 million in Riverside, the same could be said for the Phillips Ranch area of Pomona. The area is much nicer than what the city's reputation would suggest.