<p>The flippers who did the Dale Ave house should have used the same flooring in the kitchen as the rest of the house. </p>
<p>The house is very “meh” imo.</p>
<p>Too bad it’s so new: probably nothing but sub-flooring under that carpeting. I personally hate carpeting, so whenever I look at a house, I have to calculate how much it would cost to rip it out and put in a wood or tile floor. 
I’ve looked at a LOT of fixer-uppers over the years. Including, aesthetically anyway, my current house. The interior was covered in cheap vinyl wallpaper and much turquoise high gloss oil-based paint. The renters who lived here were running a massage parlor in the house–yes, THAT kind of massage parlor–but at least they weren’t abusing the place. But a lot of people with no imagination passed on it.</p>
<p>sorry, I was typing too fast. The windows won’t have cracks, but the wall surrounding the windows will, especially the four corners.</p>
<p>emilybee, the house looks small and cheap inside to me. But at least it is clean. In the kitchen, I devoutly hope that over the range microwave has a fan that is vented through the roof, or the entire house will be filled with grease and cooking smells. </p>
<p>I cannot imagine paying that kind of money for that kind of house in that kind of neighborhood. (Chain link fences, concrete, and RVs: no thank you!) It’s a good thing I have no desire to live in Southern California! :)</p>
<p>Yeah, Consolation, it’s a darn good thing we live in low-cost Fairfield County . . . .</p>
<p>^^Sarcasm.</p>
<p>“emilybee, the house looks small and cheap inside to me.”</p>
<p>I agree. </p>
<p>My dearest friend lives just north of SD and two blocks from the beach. Her house is about that size and is worth over $1 million. She is also on a much smaller lot. Has no front yard, no side yard and a wee back yard. Fortunately for them they bought it in the early 1980’s for $180K ish - which we thought was out of this world expensive then! </p>
<p>She has also done quite a bit of remodeling over the years and the interior is lovely - but it is still as tiny as it was the day they bought it.</p>
<p>VH, I know what you mean. I don’t live in SFC any more, of course, but I spend a lot of time there. I don’t think we could afford to move back. At least, not to any house I would like to live in.</p>
<p>Don’t forget, property tax is much lower in CA than other states, therefore the price is higher. I was paying 3.5% in NJ on the assessed value, whereas CA if you keep the house for 30 years it will not be assessed other than the 2% increase limit, besides, it will not be re-assessed if your heir inherited it.</p>
<p>Last year I was online looking for houses for my D and when I found a possible sometimes the property taxes were so outrageous that it just threw it out of the financial ballpark immediately.</p>
<p>Where was that, gouf?</p>
<p>Artlover glad you found the new listing. I was just being lazy going to Zillow. Note they turned that Dale property into a 2 bathroom (and probably fixed foundation) without permits. It’s very common in our market.</p>
<p>Yes, you can do it in our market as well, but as a Realtor myself, the liability is too much to bear for me. If I lost my license, I am not sure what should I do.</p>
<p>I too am flabergasted at pricing in San Diego. Can you believe 469k for that crackerbox?? We’ll see if it ever sells.</p>
<p>In Palo Alto or Menlo Park(Face Book, got it?), that house might sell for more than 800K today, maybe just for land value. I was bidding a house similar size on the “good” side of Menlo Park, but the next door is East Palo Alto (worth only half). It was at the bottom of the housing market, listed 360k attracted 36 bidders, sold for 46x, today that house is 700k-800k easy.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Whatever made them think that was the right shower curtain for that bathroom?!?!?</p>
<p>
But there are many other areas of San Diego county where prices aren’t as bad as either of those - where one can get something much nicer than a crackerbox for $469k and get something very very nice for $1M. There’s a premium for living a few blocks from the beach and for living in certain other areas - just as there is in many other locations in the country. Home prices in the San Diego area are higher than many parts of the country but not quite as bad as these two examples imply.</p>
<p>On the plus side, it’s San Diego…the beach…the weather…the beautiful area…</p>
<p>Here is what I am thinking of flipping in todays CA market. I can see the market is on an up swing for a period time no matter what. The recent surge of prices had slowed down the pace for the short run, but the long run prognosis is going up for a while, it has not plateaued even to the 2006 price yet, based on past history, there is a boom and bust in home prices in an average 7 years cycle. We just came out of the longest down cycle and it should be on a up cycle for at least 3 years. Unless you like to bust chops and fix broken home for labor, I am going to sit on some better location flip houses and wait for market to peak and sell it for a bigger profit.</p>
<p>Since it is very difficult to buy flip houses, so lets say you make your 7% profit each house and you do 2 homes a year, that is 14% on your money. If the home goes up 10% and you get 7% on rent, isn’t it a higher profit and easier money. That is what I am going to do with one of my flippers, I paid 350, took me ONE year to get rid of the tenant, now the home is 650, I will rent it for $23000/year NOI, suppose 3 years later the home went to 800(that is this home sold for in 2006) and I will get 75000 in rent, total net selling price with fees will be 850, profit is 500 vs if I sell today with 300 profit, not a bad return with just collecting rent.</p>
<p>alp: What is “NOI”?</p>
<p>Sorry
Noi is net operating income
That is: Gross rent less all related expenses without finance charges.</p>
<p>In a rental business here is how to project income. We call it proforma income. </p>
<p>Lets say monthly rent is 2500 taxes, insurance and other expenses total 400 a month. So you net 2100. In rental business you cannot calculate your income on a full year basis because there is tenant turnover. In a single family rental you times that monthly net by 11 and the NOI will be 23000.</p>