Details: 5 bed/7 bath 6,397 sq ft house, 8,700 sq ft lot, 2006 construction, "landscaping and other areas still need to be completed"
Description: SHORT SALE SUBJECT TO LENDER APPROVAL. HOME FEATURES 5 BED/7 BATH. LANDSCAPING AND OTHER AREAS STILL NEED TO BE COMPLETED. HOME IS BEING SOLD AS IS. BUYER IS RESPONSIBLE FOR DOING ALL INSPECTIONS AND DUE DILLIGENCE. PLEASE SEE PRIVATE REMARKS.
Previous Purchase: 4/22/02 - $1,625,000
Listing History: 1/19/11 - $2,995,000
The last suspicious looking short sale on 25th that I featured was south of Montana. This one is north of Montana. Both are (in my opinion) pretty ugly spec palaces. The one south of Montana is still listed as "pending" as I write and it went into escrow at 0 days on market. This listing here was apparently on the market for 8 days before going into escrow and it is now listed as "looking for backup". But the odd thing is that if you go to the MLS and search for properties that are in escrow, you won't find this one. I was able to pull the listing page off of another link on the internet. But why, if you are trying to get top dollar and trying to get the widest audience, would you list a property in a way that limits the ability of people to see it?
From the description, we see that this property still isn't fully finished. They listed landscaping and "other areas" as incomplete. This thing is listed as being 2006 construction. So after 4 or 5 years they still couldn't get it together and finish the landscaping? Huh? Have people ever heard of the terms "holding cost", "time value of money", "cash burn"? How long have they not been paying the loans on this thing? Hard to know, but RealtyTrac shows that the property is in pre-foreclosure so I'm guessing at least one notice of default has been filed.
As to valuation, this is a very prime lot and the land itself is worth not too much less than $2mm. Probably $1.8mm -$1.95mm. Even with the fact that you need to spend some money on landscaping, I think the $3mm asking price for this short sale is low. Of course, I could be unaware of some major construction flaws or maybe it needs a ton of work inside (I don't get that impression though). I just get really suspicious when I see short sales like this where they aren't widely marketed for at least a few weeks. If anyone has any info on this situation, please feel free to share or anonymously e-mail me.
Examples like this show that despite my more optimistic outlook for Santa Monica real estate, there are still a bunch of buried bodies that need to get cleaned up. It should still take some time, but these types of situations are not common enough to pull down the entire market by a large degree in my opinion. I just don't like seeing suspicious activity in the market so I use this blog to highlight things like this. Thanks to the reader for the heads up on this property.
0 comments:
Post a Comment