Blowin’ In The Wind — Bob Dylan
How many times must a man look up
Before he can see the sky?
How many days must a property be on the market before an owner realizes he has priced it too high? Usually after 60-90 days a realtor will sit down with an owner and have the “your property is overpriced” discussion. What discussion do you have after 180 days? or 1 year? And what discussion do you have after 1000 days?
I have never seen a property stay on the market for over 1000 days. It is pretty rare to see one on the market for over a year. Are there people out there who just list their house for a vanity price and keep it perpetually for sale? I suppose you see some of that on Zillow with the “make me move” listings, but it isn’t common on the MLS. Is there a limit to how long a property can be for sale?
How many years can a mountain exist
Before its washed to the sea?
Today’s featured property has been profiled before. Back on May 25, 2007, this property had already been on the market for 437 days. I would see it now and again when scanning for properties on Redfin, and I was always amazed that it was still on the market.
Asking Price: $1,195,856
Income Requirement: $298,964
Downpayment Needed: $239,171
Monthly Equity Burn: $9,965
Purchase Price: $635,000
Purchase Date: 2/19/2004
Address: 3751 Hendrix St., Irvine, CA 92614
| Beds: | 5 |
| Baths: | 4 |
| Sq. Ft.: | 3,450 |
| $/Sq. Ft.: | $347 |
| Lot Size: | 8,216
Sq. Ft. |
| Property Type: | Single Family Residence |
| Style: | Spanish |
| Year Built: | 1971 |
| Stories: | 2 |
| View: | Park or Green Belt |
| Area: | Westpark |
| County: | Orange |
| MLS#: | S430193 |
| Source: | SoCalMLS |
| Status: | Active |
| On Redfin: | 1024 days |
 Unsold in 90+ days
|
|
Elegent remodeled home with new landscape situated on a cul-de-sac in
the Paseo West Park. Designed for intimate living.Approximately
3,450-sq-ft. The residence inclusive of 5 bedrooms, and 4 bath. Gourmet
center island ktchen with top-of-the-line appliences opens to family
room.This home features beutiful travertine flooring throughout the
first floor, granite countertops, entertainer’s delight custom built-in
bar.Outside, entertain poolside on the patio area as well as built-in
BBQ center.
Unsold in 90+ days… LOL!
Elegent? ktchen? appliences? beutiful? Four misspellings in 71 words.
Notice the monthly equity burn calculation says this property is losing almost $10,000 a month in value. It was originally listed for $1,595,876 back in 2006. In 34 months, the listing price has come down $400,020. That is $11,765 per month in fantasy equity loss.
This property was purchased for $635,000 on 2/19/2004. The owner used a $499,999 first mortgage, a $60,000 second mortgage, and a $75,001 downpayment. On 1/9/2006 he refinanced with a $747,500 first mortgage taking out his downpayment plus more than $100,000 in free money. Shortly thereafter he put it for sale to make the extra $850,000 he is entitled to.
If this house sells for its asking price, and if a 6% commission is paid, the owner stands to make $489,104. Given that most people have been losing money on their 2004 purchases, it doesn’t seem likely that this owner will get that much. What do you think he will be asking for it next year?
{book}
How many roads must a man walk down
Before you call him a man?
Yes, n how many seas must a white dove sail
Before she sleeps in the sand?
Yes, n how many times must the cannon balls fly
Before theyre forever banned?
The answer, my friend, is blowin in the wind,
The answer is blowin in the wind.
How many times must a man look up
Before he can see the sky?
Yes, n how many ears must one man have
Before he can hear people cry?
Yes, n how many deaths will it take till he knows
That too many people have died?
The answer, my friend, is blowin in the wind,
The answer is blowin in the wind.
How many years can a mountain exist
Before its washed to the sea?
Yes, n how many years can some people exist
Before theyre allowed to be free?
Yes, n how many times can a man turn his head,
Pretending he just doesnt see?
The answer, my friend, is blowin in the wind,
The answer is blowin in the wind.
Blowin’ In The Wind — Bob Dylan
I put my listing for at least 6 months and finally got a buyer, so things worked out for me after 180 days, so I would suggest you don’t negotiate your price before 180 days😉
I would also not move my listing before 180 days, I would rather keep my house off the listing and will sale it some other time at the same or increased rate.
Dave:
Really? You must be one who believs in “make me move”?
“I would rather keep my house off the listing and will sale it some other time at the same or increased rate.”
Since real estate always goes up, your plan must work pretty well. Do you own any property you plan on selling in the next 5 or 10 years?
What home owners do not understand that if you have a buyer don’t lose them negotiate a price. If they are looking at your house they are interested. I went to one in Tustin a few times and the real estate agent blew it big time by being cocky with me. Those days are over my friends. He said just make a bid and I said what with broken roof tile so easily in view are you kidding me. What is the deal with that? If the agent does not know a thing about what is wrong with the house then how in the world do you think you can sell it? I have very little respect for agents. If I ever buy here in CA again it will be without an agent. Renter forever—unless my home goes foreclosure–LOL—
Wow, that 2004 purchase price is $184/(sq ft)
How did that happen?
The $1.59M price was $462/(sq ft).
This listing tells tale about the great real estate bubble pretty well- it entails all phases of the bubble.
It is in “chase the market” phase for quite a while.
at this price you would expect three car garage and a pool–totally over priced big time!!!
Opps just saw the pool–still over priced–LOL
Is it possible they just forgot about the listing? Zillow shows the asking price as roughly 2x the value of neighboring properties, which seems a bit absurd.
I think it’s a nice looking house with an ugly backyard. If they made that space more appealing then perhaps they could sell it at the current asking price, or maybe not considering its location.
I agree. I think the house looks very nice, but the all-patio backyard is somewhat depressing. I guess a real yard with grass and flowers is too much to expect for 1 mill?
Are you people smoling dope?
I think that may be the most butt ugly home I’ve ever seen that someone had the nerve to ask 7 figures for. I think the front elevation can only be classified as a Tudor pagoda made even more awful by the atrocious pink color and the interior would be categorized as a contemporary Tuscan colonial.
Barf. Those are styles that should never be combined, as proven by the photos.
What jumped out at me was that the house was totally remodeled except for the 1970’s era bubble lights on the kitchen ceiling. Why would anyone doing a complete remodel leave those things in place?
While this home is lovely, it is not a million dollar-plus property. It looks like the owner went berserk on the upgrades and over-improved the home for the neighborhood.
Well, maybe now he’s “over listing” for the benefit of his neighbors. They can sit back in their $465,000 homes and say, “Wow, they really must be worth at least a million because Mr. NoSale has his listed for that much.”
3 years on, I wonder how well it corresponds to the photos? I guess it is either forgotten, or was done as a joke or dare (and then forgotten). They can’t be serious about the price, or even the hope that this will make knife-catchers start bidding at a 10% discount.
It does look like a nice enough house with even reasonable furniture. Maybe not in the bedrooms or bathrooms though. Interesting once it starts falling below the 2004 price. 😉
The price was last adjusted last month, Nov 2008. Therefore one could assume that this listing is not a joke or dare, nor is it forgotten as the listing agent is still fiddling with the price.
I would conclude this is just one extremely delusional owner with rosy bubble glasses on that throws away the business section of the newspaper.
Don’t let the “Paseo West Park” moniker fool you, this house is in Culverdale- an “early Irvine” neighborhood built alongside the 405 freeway in 1970. They didn’t even plan for the rest of Westpark until the 1980’s. This is the very definition of “overimproved for the neighborhood.” Culverdale, aka Westpark Village I, is not the place where I would shop for a million-plus home. On the plus side, the school over there is highly regarded. :cheese:
It would be interesting to see if the agent selling this property is related to the owner in some way. You’d think any other unrelated agent would get fed up with this after 6 months or so….
Does anyone know if the MLS charges to list a house? Does the listing ever “expire” or can you list your house for sale for free theoretically forever?
The Purchase Price: $635,000
The Purchase Date: 2/19/2004
It’s funny because on msnbc.com this morning I was reading about how prices are now back down to the 04′ levels. I guess these guys haven’t read the article yet.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28365973/
What’s call denial.
I don’t know about houses; but I have listed all my (mostly professional) books on ebay at generally a high prices. I use that as a database for my library and simultaneously a market – if you want to pay this price, you can have it (you are probably in greater need than me/you have a better use for it than me).
I list mine lower and sell them. Paying eBay fees for listing higher prices than the market will bear is dumb.
Man for a price like that I hope the house comes full of hot young virgins with no boundaries.
Sorry, but the only thing that could be funnier than someone asking that price for that house is someone buying it for anything more than 50% of it.
What, IR, no WTF tag on this one?
Do a search on Redfin for Irvine homes with a lot size greater than 8,000 sqft and see what your choices are.
Is there any chance that he is listing his house for tax benefit reasons? Able to write off some sort of cost associated with keeping the house in “viewing condition”??
Otherwise, I see absolutely no reason to list for 1000+ days (as ya’ll have stated).
Wow, listing agent is my old boss!
You know how sometimes (at least in the past) other homes for sale were used as comps? Maybe the local realtors are encouraging this seller to leave his price high so that appraisals and zillow will yield higher numbers for others in the area.
I don’t know the particulars for realtors in California, but in Texas, most realtors will give up after six months if an owner refuses to lower a price. In my immediate neighborhood, I see a lot of “For Sale By Owner” signs, all from longtime residents who want to retire and demand that they get what the last value assessment stated was the house value. Of course, most of these were done three years or so ago, so there’s no way in hell that they’re going to get what they’re expecting, but they all go to attempt to sell the places themselves once every realtor in the area realizes that the house price will have to come down, a LOT, to make a sale.
I had experience with this situation a decade ago, which should give an idea of what’s going to happen with this house. In my case, I lived for almost five years in a house owned by a man with similar delusions of value. He and his ex-wife co-owned the place, and they set a price that would allow them the maximum profit for their investment, whether or not the place actually sold. They also refused to make plenty of major improvements that the house needed, such as about $50k in foundation repair, repair of extensive termite damage in the kitchen, a godawful Santa Fe color scheme, general and extensive damage due to their incessant smoking (one room literally had tar stalactites and stalagmites on the ceiling and floor from the smoking), a garage that was literally about to collapse, and a scattering of grass seed to replace that killed by their four golden retrievers in the back yard. The house sat on the market for nearly two years, until the realtor finally convinced them to rent it out, because nobody was willing to offer what they wanted for the place. That’s where I came in.
Well, after four years of idle threats from the realtor about how I’d either have to buy the house or move out, and quiet offers to renew the lease when he realized that I wasn’t going to buy that wreck, the owner killed himself, and his ex-wife inherited the house. This was right at the beginning of the housing boom, and her new boyfriend fancied himself the next Bob Vila, so I was asked to leave. The house was then gutted of any of its Fifties-era charm, fitted with the cheapest fixtures he could buy from Home Depot, and put back on the market. Again, it was at $50k above what the market could bear, and they still didn’t fix the foundation. Again, it sat on the market for two full years, at the first swell of the boom, before being rented out to another sucker.
Every once in a while, I go past the old place just to see what’s happened. The “FOR SALE OR LEASE” sign tends to fall over on rainy days, and it’s in a neighborhood where most of the houses are being foreclosed upon. I hope the owner gets what she deserves.
Sorry to hear about such a neglected place.
If you ever encounter the nasty smoking tar again, I found out what works. One of my friends had gotten me a gift of a tequila which I absolutely hated. It took the tar right off the windows, and any other smooth surface.
Just leave the windows open when you are done, and take a shower.
I think its a better idea to drink that tequila, maybe then the price on this house will make more sense.
You aren’t kidding. One of my new neighbors was a flipper back when that was actually a decent profession (he’d buy up neglected houses, fix them up very well, and sell them at reasonable prices because he was proud of the work he’d done to get them in shape), and he related how he’d offered the owner about $125k for this house back in 1995. The owner laughed at him and said that he wouldn’t sell for less than $150k. The market in my neighborhood finally reached the point where a house could sell for $150k in 1999, and that was with a house that was pretty much gutted and rebuilt. Is it any surprise that when my old house was put back on the market, the owner’s ex-wife wanted $200k for it?
I’ve wondered myself why a realtor would accept a listing that is so obviously overpriced. Do they hope for the one sucker to come along and pay more than the house is worth? Or is there some realtor-code that you can never turn down a listing? It’s money out of their pocket to market a home! There is a home in my neck-of-the-woods that just came back on the market after being off for awhile:
http://www.redfin.com/CA/Rancho-Santa-Margarita/6-Snowdon-92679/home/17369320
I think the first time it was listed (6 months or so ago), it was slightly over 900k. It wasn’t worth that then, and it certainly isn’t now. I guess the owner thinks there is something special about it. It will just sit and sit and sit (again).
The hard numbers are in:
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aQ7HBEgYCzUE&refer=home
My fellow renters, have a Happy Holiday.
Ah, big deal. I’ll see your 1000 days and raise you 500! I have one of these on my block. It was already on the market when i was looking in Summer 2003, Now in December 2008 it is STILL on the market. Sounds like Texas Triffid story a bit. There is a divorce involved and the guy (a doc) has to move out and split the $$ when it sells, so he does not have any motivation to drop the price ($100K overpriced).
I guess she has just moved on and is not putting big pressure on, or they are both holding for a price noone will pay.
here is the listing
http://www.jenningsmill.com/?pageId=159636&action=view_listing&itemId=180437
If you miss the train Im on, you will know that I am gone
You can hear the whistle blow a hundred miles,
A hundred miles, a hundred miles, a hundred miles, a hundred miles,
You can hear the whistle blow a hundred miles.
Lord Im one, lord Im two, lord Im three, lord Im four,
Lord Im 500 miles from my home.
500 miles, 500 miles, 500 miles, 500 miles
Lord Im five hundred miles from my home.
Not a shirt on my back, not a penny to my name
Lord I cant go a-home this a-way
This a-away, this a-way, this a-way, this a-way,
Lord I cant go a-home this a-way.
If you miss the train Im on you will know that I am gone
You can hear the whistle blow a hundred miles.
IrvineRenter, you should have used the WTF picture too.
I grew up in a house almost identical to this in Culverdale, so this listing gives me goose bumps and the heebee geebees at the same time. I’ve been watching this house for a few months, and have been asking similar questions. So I’m grateful that you’ve listed it today.
My sense is that the house has been renovated with a foreign buyer in mind. The high ceilings, the carpetless flooring, and the maintenance-free backyard makes me think that the owner is holding out for someone unfamiliar enough with Irvine to know better, but someone naive enough to think that the high price and the Irvine location equals prestige. But the realtor/seller make several spelling errors in the Redfin description that makes me think that they might be unfamiliar with the market too. So maybe it is the seller who is unfamiliar. I’ve been scratching my head for days.
Personally, I absolutely hate what they’ve done to the exterior facing the street. Because my home was almost exactly the same model, the octagonal addition stands out. And somehow not enough has been done to shake the original design of the 70s, and all the mystique that goes along with it (e.g. bell-bottom jeans, lightening bolt skate boards, van halen rifts, Z-28 Camaros…). Good times!
I suppose if you plan to spend $1 million in Culverdale, this house is my personal fav:
http://www.redfin.com/CA/Irvine/17532-Wayne-Ave-92614/home/4657018
This house preserves the original home design, and updates everything inside. They did a really nice job upgrading the interior, and I think I could really get into the 70s design with the benefit of more current amenities. These homes have generous amounts of space, with generous lot sizes which offer even more room to build out (not like newer neighborhoods that pack homes side by side).
Getting back to the home you’ve listed here, there was a home for sale a few months back where the interior was renovated in a similar fashion… probably for newly arrived Chinese. It was not done as well, but perhaps the home is as close a comparable as you’ll find:
http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/3831-Cosley-St-Irvine-CA-92614/25481385_zpid/
Definitely looks like the owners wanted to catch some rich Persian with this trap. Looks decorated by Ahmadinejad’s wife with all the potted palms, persian rugs, faux pottery, and pergraniteel.
That is funny, but I honestly think the house was renovated by or for Chinese. The carpetless flooring, high ceilings, wide open rooms, and maintenance free backyard speak strongly to this, I think.
Well, I like the neat and uncluttered look of what they have done to this home. I like the presentation of the floor plans all the way out to the stone patio. It reminds me of some of the homes on Balboa Island when you walk around the perimeter. No grass, but they have lovely hardscaped patios with some planters built in and some potted flowers/trees/plants for accents. The simplicity gives the appearance that it is easy to care for and keep clean. It gives the appearance of an upscale summer/vacationer home that you can step in and out of easily with little fuss.
What’s with the gun turrett out in front? Why no photos of the actual pool(pools can be extremely costly to keep up – was this one upgraded in the last 37 years?). No photos of bathrooms and living spaces like the bedrooms. I consider those red flags for a million dollar place.
Do Culverdale residents get to go to University Park High School? That seems to be a big draw for folks. I agree that this appears to be targeting a market that doesn’t know the area well, except for some prominent features like schools, safety, etc….. I think it has a decidely asian feel to it and maybe they are getting some interest on the listing someplace else, maybe in some other language….Where the misspellings would not really be noticed.
The house is located in the furthest corner of the development from Culver and the 405, but it still gets those dirty winds from the ocean passing over the 405 during most of the year for a million bucks.
Back in the day, Culverdale was located in University High’s region. Then in the early 80s it switched to Woodbridge. Then in the 90s, the school district changed the policy and you could go to any high school. That changed again a few years ago and now they are back to the neighborhood-feeder idea, meaning that where you live dictates what high school you attend. The listing on Redfin or Zillow says Woodbridge, but I am not sure.
I went to Uni, and so it kicks ass.
Over 15 years ago, we looked at Culverdale, The Ranch and College Park as move-up options from our condo in Woodbridge. The Ranch had very large houses, no HOA and you could pretty much do with the property as you wanted (ie, Krom Kastle, presence of Ham Radio mega towers etc….). The best value we found for our growing family was in College Park. We pretty much eliminated Culverdale because the places that were for sale at the time were close to the freeway noise and dirt. We really liked the community in University Park but it was beyond what we were willing to pay. I don’t care for most of the housing looks in Uni, but the make up of the community was attractive at the time.
Homes were listed near or at a million dollars at the peak in College Park, but I really don’t think anyone with any sense believed that. Turnover in CP has been quiet and slow, but steady.