[El Jefe]

Someone told me that countrywide made a loan to her cousin – option ARM loan with stated income. And then she said – aren’t they supposed to be more conservative?

That’s precisely the point. If countrywide is so much more “solid” than sub-prime, and we know what type of loans they made, then we know what’s yet to come!

Countrywide was making as many or more toxic loans as the next guy. You need to take there CEO’s comments with a grain of salt. The truth is that they high graded all of the sub-prime loans they originated and held on to a very small % of the total loans originated. Keeping the best of the best in their own portfolio. The rest… the vast majority of sub-prime loans they originated were sold on wall street just like any other sub-prime lender would. The loans that they sold are not part of the 9% talked about in the article.

[El Jefe]

Oooops… I completely missed the townhouse part. TemekuT is correct. Townhouses aretypically built just like condos. The builder may take 3 or 4 parcels, create one large lot, and then build 8-10 townhouses. Townhouses done like this are considered condominiums legally, with a couple of exceptions for 0 lot line stuff like what they have done in Little Italy with the “row homes”.

[El Jefe]

When the land was originally mapped, the parcel sizes were often chosen arbitrarily to meet certain long term city planning density projections. In many areas this does not equate to lot sizes for the houses, which many times have lots that are sitting on several legal parcels. There are blocks here in Point Loma where each 5000 sq/ft lot is actually 2 parcels 25×100. There are pockets in cardiff, leucadia, carlsbad and escondido that I know about, that are similar. Those are the golden properties if you are looking to build, as you can easily divide the lot along the parcel boundaries without having to subdivide, and have 4 houses where one used to stand, all without condoizing anything.

As far as the trust goes, there are several benefits when you are estate planning vs a std will. A trust will avoid probate costs and need of a court appointed conservator to transfer the property, is recognized across state boundaries which gets you out of multi state probate if you own RE in more than 1 state, and a trust is an entity and therefor maintains privacy of its assets. There is a lot more but those are the big ones.

[El Jefe]

In Del Mar it would not make much difference at all sale or price wise. It can not legally be considered in the Sq-Ft calc of the house, but the price/sq-ft is a joke in Del Mar anyway.

If they ever did any construction/remodeling on the property that required permits and inspections, they could get in a sticky situation. The Inspector could cite and force them to bring it to code if it is habitable, i.e. obviously a granny flat, and not storage shed or garage, if it was never permitted and inspected when it was built. Read city income from more inspections and permits?!? That could be big $$$$ if it was originally built by inbred jed and the country quire swinging left handed hammers. Or they would make you tear it down if you don’t want to bring it to code. I have seen this scenario play out several times, although not in Del Mar specifically.

Speaking of permits in Del Mar, you need to get approval from the design review board. The DRB in Del Mar is a bunch of worthless bitter geriatrics. My partner has had to sue Del Mar several times to get anything done there. Once had to sue to the actual 2 DRB members personally that would not approve the project but would not give any reasons. Bend over backwards, do everything they want, be in full compliance, and then they still won’t approve your project because it “just doesn’t *FEEL* right for Del Mar”. Del Mar is the WORST area for the “I have mine – now lock the door” syndrome.

[El Jefe]

And to all the folks that say that the corrections never hit the nicer communities… I watched the a guy just up the hill from my old house on Cambridge St in Cardiff buy for 800K in 1989, and sell for $625K in 1992. There was a time that there were SCREAMING deals all over that hillside. Little 500 sq/ft beach bungalows sitting on lots that were actually 2-3 parcels, fully dividable, going for $300-$400k in the early 90’s after the last bust.

[El Jefe]

Don’t underestimate the poor judgment of the buyers in the “nicer”, i.e. tract hell, areas that a lot of people seem to talk about here. The wife of my partner on a project I am working on was an Admin Asst to a Wells Mtg Broker in Carmel Valley from 2002 till mid 2006. From about 2003-2006 they were processing dozens of $1M+ B paper loans a month, and the 4 other brokers were doing the same. Granted very few were teaser ARM’s, but a HUGE amount of no doc/lo doc stated income stuff. It seems that 90% of the people who bought in Carmel Valley since 2000 are self employed and making $250k/yr… yeah right. If cookie cutter housing is your thing, your time will come.

[Author]

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