Real Homes of Genius

One of the blogs I frequent is Dr Housing Bubble in LA County.  (http://www.doctorhousingbubble.com/  ).  Great commentary on the state of So Cal real estate.  Besides his personal pet-peeve for garbage cans and Realtor cars in listing photos on the MLS (which I share,) he regularly posts about "Real Homes of Genius".

A real home of genius is one where a bank and buyer broke all rules of sanity in overvaluing a property to the point of ridiculousness.  We've got one here in my area this week, and I think I"ll keep them coming.

Real Home of Genius - Santa Maria Style...

First,
The original sales info.  Purchased in 1/2003 for $320,000

Second, Purchased in 11/2005 for $450,000!!

Third, Notice of Default, Notice of Trustee Sale 4/22/2009

Fourth, Trustee Sale on 1/14/2010

Finally, onto the market in 5/23/2010 for $165,500 and reduced on 6/17/2010

Here's the video I shot this morning. A true gem.



Enjoy!
Taylor

Bank Repairs Property Without Asking!

I know it sounds crazy.  I didn't believe it myself when it happened, but I have video to prove it.  Check it out.



Here's the backstory.

I have a client that made an all-cash, as-is offer on a bank-owned (REO) condo.  It was in pretty good shape and she loved the unit so she offered close to retail.  In fact, all the unit needed was carpet, paint and install some hand-rails and it would be good to go.

Offer was accepted in a day and we moved into escrow.

Yesterday, the listing agent called me in a huff because there were contractors in the condo tearing out carpet and it looked like a painter had already come and gone....

I called my client and she didn't know a thing about it.  No answers...

Until later that afternoon when the listing agent called me to apologize.  The bank had hired and scheduled to have the contractors paint and carpet the unit and didn't let the agent know.  (weird.)

So, my client gets carpet and paint.  On an AS-IS bank REO.  Gratis.

Gotta love these banks... Never the same thing twice.

Cheers,
Taylor

You're Nobody 'til Somebody Loves You

I made it on a list!

Best Blogs on Real Estate ranked my blog as on of the top 50 real estate blogs!  

Very Cool.  

Thanks everybody!  

(Click link below to check out the list.)

Cheers,

Taylor

Been Gone So Long

Missed you guys.

I started this blog as an effort to share my experiences as I grew my real estate investing business. However, things didn't really go as I had hoped.

After some initial success in early '08 in Virginia Beach/Tidewater, we sold (lease option that went south and ended up as a short-sale) our Virginia Beach house and moved home to CA.

Turns out that I couldn't have picked a worse time to move and try the wholesaling method of the real estate business in California. The whole financial world was on a tilt after the collapse of Lehman and the 300+ lenders that melted down in 2008-09 and I was trying to wholesale properties in a free-falling market. It sucked. I won't even tell you about how bad, just trust me. It sucked.

After just one successful wholesale flip in March of 2009, and after encouragement of my lovely bride, I decided to get my license and continue moving forward in real estate as an agent/Realtor rather than return to my previous career in the insurance industry.

I got my CA real estate salesperson license Aug 2nd, 2009 and continued to try and manage my 'investor' leads as well as build a clientele as an agent. I ended up getting many of my initial listings from those leads, but as the market has continued to slide downward, getting 65 cents on the dollar minus repairs to use as a wholesale deal became more and more unlikely. I shut down 11 Day Sale on 12/31/10 and have focused all my efforts on building a career in real estate as a Realtor.

Since I was no longer attempting to be an investor/wholesaler, it didn't seem that I had much to write about on the blog. But as time has gone along, I have come to realize how much I have learned about investing in real estate, and about my market and there are a lot of things that I would have liked to share, but didn't because they weren't 'investor' topics. Plus, writing is good therapy, it's free and I like it.

But, like I said, I missed you guys. So I've decided to change the content of the blog and keep writing about the crazy stuff that happens to me as I wander along on this new career path.

Sound good to you?

Nice to be back.

Taylor