super crappy listings

I'm not a perfectionist but I do expect a level of competence from people in their chosen profession. I don't think it's too much to ask of a CPA to have math skills or a doctor to have medical skills or even a realtor to have basic sales skills. So when I run across listings that I swear my 11 year old could do better with it really torques my nutz. Like this one for instance;

8037 Armagosa Dr, Riverside. This listing is PATHETIC! The pictures are ridiculous and my guess is that they were taken with a cell phone. It's the only way I can think of that would produce such crappy pics. But even a good camera would have had a hard time with the angles and locations of the pics. Then there is the fact that they didn't even clean up the place. It's not horrid dirty or anything but is it too much work to move the dirty towel from the bath, or the roll of toilet paper from the tank or the laptop and water bottle from the kitchen island. The pics are so bad I'm not even going to post them here.

The written description is bad, English is obviously not his native tongue. Get it proof read! The broker should be bitch slapped for letting this listing post.

Now, the price of this thing isn't bad at all. This is one of the nicer tracts in the area. If you could pick it up for $300k you would really piss off the nieghbors that have been paying closer to $400k in this tract.

Everything but the location

Here's exactly what I'm looking for. It has everything but the location. 15881 Rawhide Ln is a custom home up near Lake Mathews. This was on the market as a spec home for very long time. They started off asking around a million and slowly came down to about $800k. Looks like the bank took this one off their hands. The bank's asking price is quite fair at $359k. In fact I might even go so far as to say this one is a great deal (assuming it's finished and not thrashed inside).

The home is a custom build. It sits on just over 2 acres of dirt. It has 4 beds and 4 baths spread out over 3615 sq/ft. Best of all it has a 4 car garage. It's hard to tell from the pictures if there is flooring installed. Some might consider this a positive since you can pick your own. But if there is no flooring you need to factor in at least 20k for decent flooring. Even so the price is still very good, if only the location was.

The only drawback to this house is the location. It's off the beaten path on a dirt road and it looks like it's surrounded by commercial lots (a nursery and who knows what else). I guess that's why the price is so low. I will be checking this one out though!

So close.......

Bridle Creek under $400k

Bridle Creek is a horsey development in Southern Riverside near Lake Mathews. The homes are being built by Lyon and are decent sized houses on one acre lots. I like a couple of the floor plans in this tract so I keep an eye on it. Last year the builder was trying to get $700k to over a million for these units. Being a relatively new development it's now peppered with REO's and homes in various stages of foreclosure. Lately there have been some big price reductions on some of the REO's. A few were down in the mid $400s. Those reductions must have gotten some interest as I see a few have gone pending. We will have to wait and see what the selling price was on those. This weekend I see a new listing hit the market and it's an attention getter if you are interested in this area.



17741 Canyonwood Dr. is a 3266 sq/ft 4 bedroom, 3.5 bath home. It's plan number 2 if I remember correctly. It's not one of my favorites but it is a nice floor plan. This home was purchased in Oct 2004 for $638k. It went back to the bank in April for $539K and it hit the market this weekend for $377K. From the pics the home does not look to have much in the way of upgrades. On the bright side it does not look like the last owners thrashed it on the way out either. If you can pick this up for asking price it's probably a decent deal. The asking price is very close to what homes of this size on lots this size were selling for in 2000/2001. I think this will probably sell for quite a bit over asking. My guess is it will go for around $420k~$430k.

A couple of signs of things to come

Here's a small taste of what is we are likely to see a lot of in the future. Up until very recently the banks have been slow to price their properties aggressively. Here's a couple that buck that trend and hopefully we will see many more of these soon.

14317 Ashton Lane in Riverside. This 3090 sq/ft 4 bedroom home is in one of Riversides best areas. This is snob hill, this is where you want to live if you have to live in Riverside. These homes were built in 1999 and this one sold new for $410k in 99. As you can see, this was a pricey home, $410k was a lot on money in 99. It sold last in 2005 for $775k (there is a $400 sale listed too, I dunno what that is though). They lost it to the bank a few days ago for $677k. Even though the bank was owed $677k they have listed the home for $450K making the loss $325k from the 2005 selling price. That is only slightly more than this home sold for new in 1999! At $450k this home should sell. would not at all be surprised to see it go for above asking. This listing is going to make the next door neighbor faint. He has had his home listed for 215 days. He started off asking $899k and is down to $639k. Both houses are identical although the more expensive one is landscaped better. The REO is listed for exactly 1/2 of the original asking price of the neighbor. I have been watching the neighbors house, I actually like that house. Hopefully I will get over to look at the repo this weekend. At that price I might be tempted if this house is decent inside.



18828 Malkoha St is in the development called "The Boulders". It's near Woodcrest, but it's actually in the city of Perris. These are big homes on big lots that at one time had big price tags. I've posted about this development before since some of the price declines are epic. This one is no different. Well it is actually a little different, it's MORE epic. The home is 3725 sq/ft home and it sits on a one acre lot. The home sold new in early 2006 for $787k. It just posted as a bank owned property for $371k! That is a loss of $416K or 53% in 2 years.

Price leaders in Orangecrest

The Orangecrest area of Riverside is starting to see the same declines that happened in MoVal 3 or 4 months ago. In Sept the lowest priced homes in MoVal were in the $130 sq/ft range. In October a few short sales and REO's popped up in the $110 sq/ft range and now there are dozens of homes under $100 sq/ft. The price declines are spreading slowly westward. Now we are starting to see the prices in Orangecrest creeping down into the low $120s sq/ft and in some cases under $120. If the same time line holds, by Spring we may start to see $100 sq/ft in Orangecrest.

Here are some of the low price leaders,

7940 La Crosse WAY, Riverside, CA 92508. A 4 bedroom, 3 bath home, 3000 sq/ft. Lat sale was to the bank back in June for $531k. The bank owns in now and wants $352k, or $117 sq/ft

7932 Devon CT, Riverside, CA 92508, this home is a 5 bedroom 3 bath and it's 3390 sq/ft. It last sold for $425k in Dec 2004. It's listed for $410k or $121 sq/ft.

8387 Attica DR, Riverside, CA 92508. This home is a 4 bed, 2.5 bath and is 3096 sq/ft. Sold last 8/2005 for $540k. Currently listed for $384k or $124 sq/ft.

19956 Lonestar LN, Riverside, CA 92508. This is a 5 bed, 4 bath home, 3691 sq/ft. It sold last in July 2006 for $715k. It's listed for $421k or $114 sq/ft


These homes would probably rent in the $2000/mo to $2500/mo range. That puts there "value" in the $240k to $300k range using a rent multiplier of 120. These are not the only homes in the $120 sq/ft range. I found over a dozen using a search for homes over 2500 sq/ft that were under $425k. There are probably many more of them that did not fall into my search criteria. I will take another look in a few months to see if we can't find some under that magic $100 sq/ft barrier.