San Diego Housing Bubble News and Analysis

Why would he/she come back to the house? Was he/she a white-collar drug dealer or a scarface? How much is the house selling for? What's the address? Is your source reliable?

Use the drug dealer thing to deal down the price.

Check every drain and behind every wall outlet too ;-0

It is the one in the Biggest Percentage Thread:
Listing at $789,900
Sale History
04/21/2006: $1,015,000
07/18/2003: $710,000

22% loss!

http://www.sdlookup.com/Property-69AE5A8......

We stayed a little longer and talked to the neighbors after the showing. Several curious neighbors waited the seller agent to open the door to see that house.. :(

But when I talked to one neighbor earlier, who is a mortgage guy, he didn't disclose it but rather say it's a nice neighborhood.

HLS,

What're you suggesting?

Does any one have idea where to verify this information?

is there a risk ?

This is not advice; just a recollection.

When we bought our home in 1993 in San Diego County, it was a pretty down market and the house was on the market for a long time. The owners had bought another house and wanted to earn some money by renting this one. They rented it for some time and it didn't work out well (he stopped paying and was evicted). When we moved in, after a week or so, I observed some large thrash bags stowed at the top in the garage filled with what appeared to be dry leaves. Further inspection revealed it was 'grass'. I was a little scared and didn't know what to do. Finally, I just tied it all up and disposed off in the trash. My wild guess is, it was atleast a few thousand $ street value.

Later on, our neighbor revealed that the "renter" was growing pot in the garage and also on the deck. The garage was wired up with pretty high grade (at least 20 amps) wiring, better than rest of the home!

For many years after we bought, we used to get letters (for the renter) from various police/sheriffs departments about impounds/seizures of cars etc., At first we were a little apprehensive, but nothing untoward ever happened.

Just make sure that nothing is hidden that somebody would want to come back for, even after 10 or 20 years in the pen !!

Is there a jacuzzi out back? I know someone thats looking for one;)

I am going to get my friend Poway seller on you again.BTW if one is not bi-polar what are they monopolar or unipolar or just polar? If you really want to make fun of me wait until I bring out the lyrics to the "chunky" song. I mention you in it. Do monopolar people laugh at their own jokes..hahahahahaha

Finally, I just tied it all up and disposed off in the trash.

Talk about drug abuse!

Jeeze!

bsrsharma ,

Thank you for sharing this experience. I just called the neighbor (mortgage guy) and asked why he didn't disclose it to me. He said that no something he's proud of the neighborhood but the neighborhood decides to leave it behind. I can understand him.

HLS,

What if you removed "that somebody would want to come back for, even after 10 or 20 years in the pen", but that guy didn't know and still come back for it?

Will you and your family get hurt?

Or this could be an opportunity. This is why you look in the drains, behind the outlets, in the attic, etc. Talk about built-in equity ...

http://www.local6.com/news/14228121/deta...

Will you and your family get hurt?

I read about this sometime back: A guy who had bought a nice car for less at an auction in US drove across the border and was re-entering from Mexico. I think a customs dog smelled the tires, he was stopped, the car was stripped and for reasons I don't remember, he ended up in Mexican jail. Pretty horrible experience for an innocent guy; of course he lost his car too, since it became 'evidence' (and was probably pretty badly cut up anyway).

NIC,,,
Find out how long the guy gets and just sell and move before his parole date. Nothing to worry about. !!

Life in San Diego is a risk...
Even people in La Jolla have faults...

But never forget..the weather is ALWAYS good, and EVERYONE wants to live here...

I wouldn't worry about anybody coming back for anything.
The drugs will affect their brain and they will have forgotten where they lived.

HLS,

Interesting posts. Is there way to find out a criminal's term in jail? Any one knows how to find it? Links?

Make sure it wasn't used as a meth lab. Haz mat experts have to come in and detoxify the place to make it liveable - very expensive.

Somebody related the following RE horror story of his friend - rented out small house in the sticks - cops roll in on meth lab - EPA jumps into the fray - renter gone & in jail - EPA says house is "toxic" - must tent / nobody allowed to live there - two years later EPA say the house needs to be torn down by Haz Mat crew - $200k billed to owner / house now gone!

Ouch!

MGL

Yes, you better have the walls and carpets tested, my brother bought a house in Oregon back in the 80's. It was unknown that it was a Meth house. He tore out the carpets (the urine smell was really bad, the owner claimed it was several big dogs) took out the cabinets, stripped the walls, then found out it was contaminated...needless to say, he never lived in that house, it was eventually burned down, I think. A total loss...he still has check-ups and is afraid he will get some wierd cancer eventually.

MANmom

Carefully interview the neighbors to make sure you understand the situation...

There are paid services such as intellius.com where you can do a criminal records search on a name and city/state.

Get a thorough home inspection. Also check for mold under kitchen sinks, in the bathrooms and anything else suspicious. I would suspect anything freshly painted. I hope they're not using those air fresheners during the showings--they're often used to mask odors.

If the drug story is true, I would consider getting the police to go through with a drug dog before you buy. If you are in possession of the house and something illegal is found you could be charged.

If the story is true about the former owner being convicted of drug charges I would definitely use that to negotiate the price down, assuming you're still interested.

-K

Another hint: If an inspection reveals rewiring for large Amperage (heavy gauge wires), get a proper electrician to check out circuits & circuit breakers are OK (for domestic currents). You don't want a short circuit in your toaster NOT to set off the circuit breaker and cause a fire. Many of the weed growers & Meth cookers need high currents for their "Job".

Many thanks to all the repliers, especially Critter, mglsharkson ,MANmom , ralleia and bsrsharma. Your experience /stories shared really educated me. There is so much risk out there for this house that I am not interested in it any more.

If we translate this extreme story to a generic question, don't you agree that buying a new house has less risk involved than buying a resale one? Everything starts from scratch.

buying a new house has less risk

One thing that worries me is the ground compaction problem Many newly graded lands in hilly areas like SD take a few years to settle. Since the new homes are built before that, you may end up having large settlements & cracks (mini version of La Jolla problem). If you buy after 5 years or so, the settlements have mostly finished and you can see if there is any damage.

Second issue is: in the recent run up, last 5 years or so, a lot of builders used illegal and unskilled labor both for profit and due to worker shortages. I have seen videos of building construction (including some larger buildings) on TV that shocked me - poor skills even in estimating & measuring steel and wood - they would order beams & columns too long or short and then fix in the field by cutting or joining/welding. I don't have any construction experience, but their stupidity was too obvious! They just couldn't read a drawing properly and get the right materials. I would be very concerned about buying anything built in the last 5 years or so.

Do you think builder reputations would make any difference? Or should we start to learn a land-grading-101, and watch the construction from the scratch?

Problem 1 is a geological/engineering issue that can be guarded against but almost never guaranteed unless pretty high end construction is used - not likely for production homes. Best guarantee is test of time - I use 5 years as my criterion. More for unusually steep slopes/hillsides (but I am never interested in those anyway at any price) and less for flat lands.

Problem 2 may be resolved if you know someone very familiar with builders. Some real estate professionals on the board may have some knowledge of various builder's labor practices.

But because of problem 1, why bother with problem 2?

I have a question regarding the Meth Lab thing. Would those drug maker live in the Meth Lab house, or they would buy an old (probably isolated) house for the "lab" but live a better house somewhere else? I read this listed house was a formal modal in a relative newer area.

I tried put in an offer on this property yesterday and was told that there were four other offers WAY higher than mine. I had the impression the agent was full of crap and I have zero tolerance for agent games these days. She actually tried to convince me that 6mo. old comps were reliable indicators that I need to offer full price or more if I didn't want to lose this gem. The place was in poor condition and it didn't appear that they tried to cover anything up with paint, and carpet was disgusting. It was extremely obvious that it was not maintained and the pool and waterfall needed much repair. I wish I had this info yesterday as I would have looked closer at the electrical for indications of a hydroponic garden or other clues. I'm curious about the residual toxicity from meth labs and the health risks. Gotta love this forum.
Thanks Rich!

CDMA ENG...

The new thing in pot growing is "Hidden in plain view". You will find, probably on youtube, plenty of examples where they took a very nice house and turned it into a greenhouse. Thought being "why would anyone look in a nice nieghborhood?". I am sure you can find the same for meth. But in all of these case there was no one living at these sites. The people maintaining these places you come and go at night to keep exposure to a minimium.

Then again, if you tore out the old carpet the street value of it could be in the millions with the right connections!

j.k.

C.E.

I bought one of those cars at the auctions down in San Ysidro. Great deal on a truck. 7200 for a five year old 4X4. Drugs were supposedly in the trailer the truck was pulling. Two weeks later the thing dies going up a hill. I get a tow and tell the mechanic where I bought it. He says he'll have to call the DEA if he finds an "extra" somewhere or a kilo broke open in the gas tank. Talk about sweating bullets! (It was the cat converter.) Anyway I took it to the military base and had the dogs sweep it. All clear but I don't think I would buy another one.
Todays environment has me the same way with "drug dealers" carnage (or EPA for that matter). How do you explain to a DEA guy or LEO that your house was a prior DD's? Because the plumber found a kilo in the sewer cleanout. You'll still go to jail, you'll still be on the news, you'll still be a suspected offender...god save you if your job has security issues. Just because it's a deal!? I got just a little close to it and wouldn't do it again. Images of downtown jail and the explaining I'd have to had done (plus legal costs) ain't worth no amount of cash. Not to mention involving the family and anyone home at time of the arrest.