The problem of that Baker St. house is its price, it is priced at the market and there is no room for flippers. Other than that, I won’t put too much thoughts about the views. If the neighbor can add a second story, you can as well. Those ideas are mostly put on the back burner for a LONG time, some times never. My mom’s house had a plan to add a second story, they planned for 35 years and nothing was done and both of them had passed away.
I am sure in today’s market, you will not have the same margin as flipper #3 , for me, I will give up Baker St. as well. I have looked all over bay area, many total rebuilds, the conclusion I got was the price does NOT warrant for a flipper, perhaps it is different in SD.
Back to Property #6 in Point Loma. The buyer’s bank appraiser cannot even show up until this weekend to start the appraisal. That will be very tight for buyer to release all contingencies by May 11.
I made a mistake above when I said I made an offer in #7. I put an offer in on Property #8, the one in La Mesa. I passed on Property #7 because it was hanging over the high school football field and I think it is priced about $150k too high.
My offer has already been presented to the Sellers and they have it in hand. The appraiser has already come out and they should know by early next week if there is going to be an issue with the appraisal and/or buyer’s contingencies.
Good luck! Hawaii’s real estate market is so high, it’s hard for flippers, I believe. I know of a few people who have done a flip or two if they happened to learn about a very reasonably-priced property and were able to upgrade it inexpensively but mostly it is tough to do in HI.
I think you have labeled two properties as property #8? The one in post #92 in La Mesa and the one in post #110 in Bay Park on Baker Street. Or I might just be very confused.
Property #6 is the one in Point Loma where I am sitting as contractual backup offer.
7 is property in University City that I decided against because price is too high, sitting above high school
8 is small La Mesa property with carport, garage conversion. I am sitting as backup offer waiting for appraisal. Listing agent does not think it will appraise at the purchase price
AND YES… I misnumbered #9 as duplicate#8. #9 is Baker Street with the views
This is going to be very hard. Inventory is low, lots of competition for houses. I’m having a hard time even finding things to go look at. Usually I would be up to about #15 by now
You do a lot of hunting which is good. Hoping something works out.
Around here, this is the time when prices are highest because this is when the most people put their homes on the market…and plan to move by summer’s end. I live in a lake community,many I honestly believe some folks put up for sale signs with ridiculously high prices in the summers…and if they get them, they will sell. If not, no big deal.
Just checking in - assume we are waiting for the other buyers’ financing to fall through.
I’ve continued to track the local market (as we madly pack for our move) and its a killer At least we made the right move buying when we did - if we’d waited, we would be renting for quite a while.
Continued the hunting this weekend and more today.
I went to the #9 Baker Street Open House yesterday afternoon. Lots of other investors snooping around. But, the house is poorly laid out and needs a gut job. I would have to reconfigure the living/kitchen/dining areas to take advantage of the views. Have no idea how much money it would take to jack hammer out the concrete in the back yard and I’m worried about the huge expense for proper retaining walls. Based on the high price, I confirmed my pass on it.
Still waiting for news on #6 in Point Loma and #8 in La Mesa. Probably will follow up at the end of the week.
Property #11 is a large house in San Carlos area. This house is another short sale. It was priced at $525,000 and went into contract but the bank came back out with a ‘Broker’s Price Opinion’ of $630,000. The confidential remarks in the listing are hilarious. Basically the agent says “What was that Broker smoking???” When there is a short sale request the bank will hire an independent Broker to go and do an informal Broker Price Opinion (known as a BPO) and will counter back to the buyers at that price. The listing agent is looking for another buyer to come in at same $525k to convince the bank that their asking price is wrong. I went through the house and it is not worth the hassle at all. Not a neighborhood I am interested in
6239 Lake Apopka Pl, 92119
Property #12 is in Fletcher Hills, but it has a slightly undesirable El Cajon zip code. I have had issues where I had a gorgeous house on the East side of Mt Helix with huge views. Similar in size, privacy and desirability of Mt Helix wooded homes. Because it was just inside the El Cajon zip code, it missed a lot of the buyer searches for that type of property. In fact the only reason we got a couple of buyers in for showings was to ‘accidentally’ list it in the La Mesa zip code in the MLS for one day. So, I am very careful with properties in this zip code.
House is on a nice wooded street and has a lot of character. Needs a ton of work and it is priced right. There’s a small illegal addition office that can be fixed up to code, everything else needs a lot of work. I have some concerns that I see the floor ‘dipping’ in the really large great room so am going back tonight with carpenter to do some serious inspections. Will probably make an offer through the Listing Agent Tuesday morning.
Property #13 is in a gorgeous little wooded pocket in La Mesa where homes rarely go up for sale. It is not on Mt Helix, but has the same rural wooded feel as you drive down the street. This is a nasty divorce sale where wife has already moved out. It came ‘back on market’ because it went into contract in 3 days but there were foundation cracks and settling issues discovered during the home inspection. I think I can swoop in and get a good deal if I move fast. Taking carpenter out there tonight for detailed inspection.
I’ll post tonight on how these two inspections went
Wow, #12 was a holy moly mess. On the surface it didn’t look that bad. Thank goodness I brought my carpenter out there. Termite damage everywhere, including all the original window frames. Those are really hard to fix because they are embedded into the original stucco. Window AC units in holes in the walls. The original hardwood floors are so badly stained I don’t think they can be saved.
But the major issue is he got into attic - termite damage in the roof trusses. Got under the house, foundation stem wall on one side of house is caving in and someone has propped it up with a piece of concrete. Piers have to be replaced and worst of all, major sewer smell… it’s obvious the old cast iron piping is broken and needs to be replaced. Oh… and did I mention that someone cut up a bunch of old asbestos heating pipe and threw it under the house and in the attic! Yikes, guess who would have to figure out how to haul it away. Me
Several other investors were combing through the house but I could tell that they were missing all these clues - just standing around outside taking notes. They are obviously going to offer much higher than I would on this house. But, I will have a conversation with the Listing Agent tomorrow morning to see if the type of offer I have to make would have a chance. But, not the type of project I’m looking for right now.
13 - Yes, yes yes!!! Big huge house on large wooded lot. Cosmetically it looks wonderful, but there are serious foundation issues at this house. And it needs new sewer piping underneath the house and new kitchen. The bathrooms are in good condition, but they just aren't my taste. I may need to restrain myself from redoing every bathroom in the place. Also needs new flooring throughout. That is all doable. I had brought a typed up offer with me, just ready to fill in the number. Talked with the Listing Agent and he said that it would take $X to get the house today. I couldn't get up to X but I knew that he would double-end the commission so I made my offer at $Y. I made my offer good for only 2 days so I should know very soon.
Congrats–a huge house on large wooded lot sounds LOVELY! Hope you get this house and can work your magic on it. So glad you and your carpenter found all the flaws in #12, so you don’t pay way more than you should. Some of those flaws should be DISCLOSED by the listing agent or there may be some big lawsuit down the line that these things SHOULD HAVE been disclosed.
I don’t think the Listing Agent knows about most of these items. Believe me, they don’t crawl into attics or under houses. And the prior owners are dead so the daughter (who is selling the house) can hide behind that for No Disclosure. Sometimes I have to debate with myself on whether I should tell the Listing Agent about all of these things or not. If I tell him, he is in the situation where it could be ‘hearsay’, but he has to disclose to any other buyers. In these situations it is truly Buyer Beware and I have to balance whether to share all of the information I know because I do a lot of due diligence before submitting an offer.
A lot of other investors play a big game. They will offer full price with an inspection contingency period. Then they come back with all kinds of scary stuff and demand a $40k credit while they are in escrow. This puts them right back where my original offer was - but I didn’t waste their time and there were no contingencies. It really pisses off listing agents who have experience with these types of properties.
