Originally posted January 9, 2007
Address: 3 Redbird, Irvine, CA 92603 (Shady Canyon)
Plan: 4240 sq ft – 4bd/4 and 2 .5ba
MLS: U6601263 DOM: 238
Sale History: 3/8/2006: $3,950,000
4/15/2002?: $1,842,500 (From Zillow)
Price Reduced: 06/28/06 — $4,195,000 to $4,050,000
Price Reduced: 08/23/06 — $4,050,000 to $3,950,000
Price Reduced: 10/13/06 — $3,950,000 to $3,850,000
Current Price: $3,850,000
An astute reader emailed me about this flip last week (Thank you!). Here we have a Plan 2 in The Villas of Shady Canyon tract built by Taylor Woodrow. This is one of the few (3?) semi custom tracts in Shady Canyon. The rest of the homes are all custom. It’s a beautiful home and was originally owned by baseball power hitter Mark McGwire.
It appears that a flipper purchased this home from McGwire for $3,950,000 on 3/8/2006 (good timing for Mark but not for our flipper). It was listed back on the market about 2 months later for $4,195,000 with John McMonigle (recent article). At that price, the flipper would barely break even after selling costs.
Over the course of 2006, the flipper lowered the price three times. These are pretty significant dollar reductions. Also, from what I can tell off the MLS listing, this property is vacant and my guess is that the flipper never moved in. I also see a loan for about $1,500,000. The HOA dues are about $560/month.
Excluding carrying and opportunity costs (but assuming 6% in selling costs), if sold at the currenty asking price, this seller is facing a loss of over $330,000!
Private remarks also state: “CLIENT IS OFFERING $20,000 TO ANY BROKER (PARTICIPATING IN MLS) WHO BRINGS IN A BUYER THAT GOES INTO CONTRACT AND CLOSES ESCROW ON PROPERTY.” I suppose that is on TOP of the 2.5% the broker will receive for bringing in a client.
This is definitely the biggest $ flop we’ve seen in Irvine. If anyone has more insight into this (or has information contrary to what I’ve found), please post.
Anyone care to guess if the house will sell quicker if Mark McGwire is inducted into the Hall of Fame today?
UPDATE #1 – June 8, 2007
Thanks to a tip from a reader, I’ve come to find out that the price on this home has been reduced again:
MLS: U6601263
Price Reduced: 05/22/07 — $3,850,000 to $3,695,000
Excluding carrying and opportunity costs (but assuming 6% in selling costs), if sold at the currenty asking price, this seller is facing a loss of over $476,000!
Not an exact comparison.. But there is a Plan 1 on the same street (19 Redbird MLS #: U7000758) asking $3,250,000. It’s been on the market for 110 days. I don’t think anything has sold in Shady Canyon in the last 6 months. Anyone have more info?
when even a baseball player knows when to sell….for double his money…..the real estate market is over…
—–
The scheme is unraveling … and to think there were perma bulls that actually believe this was somehow sustainable.
LOL
Shady Canyon? Well at least they named the place appropriately. Can you imagine the carrying cost on this? These are suicide flips and will contribute to the four horsemen of the housing apocalypse that I have pointed out.
1. Inventory increases
2. Appreciation falling to zero and negative territory
3. Rates adjusting
4. Massive glut of homes in the summer in a major buyers market
Think this will end well?
I hope this mother f*cking flipper loses a lot of money. This IS NOT THE AMERICAN WAY, and these scum f*cks need to learn a lesson so they’ll be afraid to ever do it again.
B —
I don’t know about Irvine, but it’s already happenning in the further reaches of the Inland Empire, Lancaster/Palmdale and other desert communities. What you have to worry about there (and maybe even in Irvine) is the squatters being meth-heads who set up a lab for a few weeks and leave an environmental disaster in their wake. This is a return to the 1990s slump… I know a few people who had to tear down their desert tract homes back then after the tweakers moved out.
check out 35 hidden trails 92603
Prior to 2000, when you had a high end home ($1,000,000+), the sellers rarely paid 6% commissions.
not sure about the price or flip but that kitchen is gorgeous! The house looks awesome too.
it was never meant to be a flip when the buyer purchased it from Mark. the buyer bought it for his family to move into, but decided last minute the home would not accommodate his family’s needs. they also currently live in shady, and love it there.
the reason it hasn’t sold is because the listing agent, john mcmongle does not spend one ounce of his time to show this home. john is busy with his 75 million dollar baby. he is the worst agent in town, and anyone who has dealt with him never ever uses him again. if you are one of john’s sellers, and are reading this, and wondering why john has not returned your calls or showed your homes (which he promised you he would when he took the listing, but has since pawned it off to one of his inexperienced ‘trainee’ agents), you can find him during the week at neiman’s or prada shopping for his latest designer wear or at the bentley dealership picking out another toy. or he could be on one of his many trips to aspen, new york, or simply relaxing poolside at the montage in laguna. now you know the reason the home hasn’t sold. but heck john sure looks swell in his suits, ready to take the next listing and laugh his way to the bank.
The former McGwire property has two uniqueness’ that may be part of it’s current circumstance. Exterior upgrades were removed by the current seller and now very minimal. Secondly, interior wood finishes chosen, may not have been the best choices for resale.
If I were the current seller, I would choose between leasing property for a year or two (if I could stand still for a 2% ROI) or reduce the price to 3.6m. A good 250-300k+ needs to be invested in this opportunity, prudently, to even approach matching comparable neighbors of like-kind.
Bashing the seller and/or the listing agent in this instance is shallow and unproductive.
I’d second that the McGwire property probably isn’t a “flipping” property. Nevertheless, half a million dollars is a whole lot of money to have lost in a year even if it doesn’t siginificantly impact the owner financially because he is high net worth.
I’m seeing greater than $100,000 price reductions on new homes in my neighborhood. New homebuilders are especially eager to sell homes that have now been fully built. Which leads into my question.
What is the reason specifically that homebuilders are MUCH more willing to take offers on already built homes rather than homes that are still in construction? Is it the way the profit & loss is handled in the books? Do they lose money at that much of a greater rate once the house is up and empty? What is their thinking down in the accounting office?
Feel free to correct me on what I am about to write as this is just what I have read. Non-corporate type builders make their money/salary in five parts or five draws. The bank lends the construction costs to the builder in five parts or five draws and a portion of each draw is the builder’s profit or salary. The builder gets paid during the first four draws, irrespective of any offers on the property, so the builder is not as highly motivated to accept an offer during that phase. The last draw isn’t paid until the escrow closes, so everyone involved is much more motivated to sell the house after the fourth draw.
The buyer who bought from McGwire has more money than most people could even imagine. I wouldn’t be worried about him.
This house was not a flip and whatever money he loses on this home is just a rounding error on his yearly budget.
We’d like to build in Shady Canyon, but have a 4000sf $1.76m home to sell in Coto. We’re in the same boat as everyone else selling – lots of lookers, but no serious bites. Fortunately, we get to live in it until it sells but we’d like to move sooner than later.
Anyway, if anyone knows of someone who has a lot for sale in Shady (under $2m) who wouldn’t mind taking a nice Coto home and cash in trade, feel free to drop us an email. av8r48@yahoo.com. Hey, at least we can both take losses on our “spec” properties and get the tax writeoff for the loss. That’s about the most we can expect from this market.
Sorry, we don’t own any property in Shady Canyon, but we have looked there. We live in Coto and decided there rather than Shady Canyon because there didn’t seem to be many children in Shady Canyon, and I am interested in your thoughts. Is your present home the one on Via Coyote? If it is, it is gorgeous.
3 Redbird (Shady Canyon) – Mark Maguire’s old place – just reduced their price again. It’s now listed at $3,495,000. It’s been on the market now for 458 days.
On Market: 05/16/06 — $4,195,000
Price Reduced: 06/28/06 $4,050,000
Price Reduced: 08/23/06 $3,950,000
Price Reduced: 10/13/06 $3,850,000
Price Reduced: 05/22/07 $3,695,000
Price Reduced: 08/16/07 $3,495,000
Just a reminder: 3 Redbird was purchased on 3/8/06 for $3,950,000. Ouch! – now this is a significant loss ($664,700 assuming 6% re commission).
Somebody better let potential buyers know that the high end real estate market will not be affected by recent trends in lower end real estate.
“Somebody better let potential buyers know that the high end real estate market will not be affected by recent trends in lower end real estate.”
LOL – thanks for the chuckle!
3 Redbird (Shady Canyon) – Mark Maguire’s old place – just reduced their price AGAIN by $100k. It’s now listed at $3,395,000. It’s been on the market now for 497 days (~ 16 months).
Just a reminder: 3 Redbird was purchased on 3/8/06 for $3,950,000. Ouch! – now this is a significant loss ($724,750 assuming 5% re commission).
On Market: 05/16/06 — $4,195,000
Price Reduced: 06/28/06 $4,050,000
Price Reduced: 08/23/06 $3,950,000
Price Reduced: 10/13/06 $3,850,000
Price Reduced: 05/22/07 $3,695,000
Price Reduced: 08/16/07 $3,495,000
Price Reduced: 09/24/07 $3,395,000
But, the re agents tell me that prices are not and will not come down in the higher priced market. This cannot be correct, because the “median” price is the 92603 zip code is higher.
Certainly, there are no trees! Sandy canyon was a better name.
It maybe shallow and un-productive, but it sure is entertaining. And I am definitely not too big a person to not enjoy it.
Don’t forget $72,000 in taxes and counting while it’s been for sale.
Assess taxes and roos are $48,000 a year.
And didn’t the owner take a $1.5M loan on it? Wonder how much interest is being paid or accrued on it. Probably another $75,000+ burnt.
This is really interesting. The asking price has been cut by 15%. And it sits empty, which in that price bracket probably means a bunch of maintenance just to keep it looking good enough to sell. Gotta keep up appearances, right?
At $3.4 million, it’s still $800/sq. ft. with an implied rent of $21,000 a month. Would someone pay $21,000 a month to live there? Something tells me not. I think this house will ultimately be sold for less than $2 million, and maybe less than $1.5 million.
Correction: It’s 15% below the selling price. It’s actually 20% below the asking price. At the current asking price, it’s still priced for twice what it’s worth.
The buyer who bought from McGwire has more money than most people could even imagine. I wouldn’t be worried about him.
This house was not a flip and whatever money he loses on this home is just a rounding error on his yearly budget.
Really! Then why is he selling? Just for the fun of it?