[temeculaguy]

Here’s a twist, show the owners kids in the pictures. I can understand why they wanted to show the kid hopping on the trampoline because it distracts the viewer from the fact that the screen is only leaning against the sliding door. But the livingroom picture, what is the point of that? Another little tip is if you are not going to put away the vaccuum for the pictures, at least coil up the cord. The listing agent is in the 619 area code and the property is 951, two area codes away, so the homeowner probably took the pictures and e-mailed them to their relative who is a realtor, one can only hope.

http://www.redfin.com/stingray/do/printable-listing?listing-id=591295

[temeculaguy]

Here’s a twist, show the owners kids in the pictures. I can understand why they wanted to show the kid hopping on the trampoline because it distracts the viewer from the fact that the screen is only leaning against the sliding door. But the livingroom picture, what is the point of that? Another little tip is if you are not going to put away the vaccuum for the pictures, at least coil up the cord. The listing agent is in the 619 area code and the property is 951, two area codes away, so the homeowner probably took the pictures and e-mailed them to their relative who is a realtor, one can only hope.

http://www.redfin.com/stingray/do/printable-listing?listing-id=591295

[temeculaguy]

O.K. this one violates the low end caveat but take a look at the back yard photos. The time it took the photographer to walk to three different angles of this backyard oasis, couldn’t they move the random chair, ice chest in the center or uprighted the overturned bucket. It would have taken ninety seconds to move the crap out of the shot but then again maybe they were going for the “strewn” look. The other nice touches are the coats thrown on the couch (10 second fix) and the paint bucket used as a trash can in the kitchen, crap on top of the fridge and that ever so convenient home office placement next to the dishwasher, “honey stop the car.”

http://www.redfin.com/stingray/do/printable-listing?listing-id=676738

[temeculaguy]

O.K. this one violates the low end caveat but take a look at the back yard photos. The time it took the photographer to walk to three different angles of this backyard oasis, couldn’t they move the random chair, ice chest in the center or uprighted the overturned bucket. It would have taken ninety seconds to move the crap out of the shot but then again maybe they were going for the “strewn” look. The other nice touches are the coats thrown on the couch (10 second fix) and the paint bucket used as a trash can in the kitchen, crap on top of the fridge and that ever so convenient home office placement next to the dishwasher, “honey stop the car.”

http://www.redfin.com/stingray/do/printable-listing?listing-id=676738

[temeculaguy]

More distractions, I’m in. I can’t find the one with the piles of dirty laundry on the floor that i posted a few months ago but I’ll keep looking. Here’s an excellent example of staging. there are two pages of pics, 21 in all. It doesn’t look like someone lives there, it looks like someone is camping.

http://www.redfin.com/stingray/do/printable-listing?listing-id=508748

Note the free builder supplied pull down shades, the pictures leaning against the wall and the table with no chairs (two shots of that), three pictures of rooms, all matresses on the floor. All told 3900 sq ft and the entire contents can fit nicely in the bed of a full size pick up. The builder is selling this house for 500k right now, neighbors are listed in the 400’s but, mmmm, I think they’ve done so much with the place and the 710k list price makes me want to pick up the phone and schedule a viewing.

[temeculaguy]

More distractions, I’m in. I can’t find the one with the piles of dirty laundry on the floor that i posted a few months ago but I’ll keep looking. Here’s an excellent example of staging. there are two pages of pics, 21 in all. It doesn’t look like someone lives there, it looks like someone is camping.

http://www.redfin.com/stingray/do/printable-listing?listing-id=508748

Note the free builder supplied pull down shades, the pictures leaning against the wall and the table with no chairs (two shots of that), three pictures of rooms, all matresses on the floor. All told 3900 sq ft and the entire contents can fit nicely in the bed of a full size pick up. The builder is selling this house for 500k right now, neighbors are listed in the 400’s but, mmmm, I think they’ve done so much with the place and the 710k list price makes me want to pick up the phone and schedule a viewing.

[temeculaguy]

Lido, valid point, good call. If the great O.C. area is related to your name (Lido island or Newport) then a three wall teardown will preserve your taxes for the most part but they will add some of the construction costs onto your assessed value however it will still be a bargain in taxes. What makes a remodel, addition or three wall work in some areas (like yours) is that it won’t look or feel out of place there, much like Coronado. Some of the coastal areas that were built out thirty years ago are now dominated with remodels and were primarily custom homes anyway. In some of the older prime areas of coastal O.C., it would look out of place if you didn’t remodel. I think tract homes in the suburbs are a different animal, we should ask the O.P. where his place is, a big chunk of Encinitas east of I-5 is 1970’s and 1980’s tract homes, but the West side is not. But you are right, the five fold increase in property taxes in some situations needs to be part of the mix.

[temeculaguy]

Lido, valid point, good call. If the great O.C. area is related to your name (Lido island or Newport) then a three wall teardown will preserve your taxes for the most part but they will add some of the construction costs onto your assessed value however it will still be a bargain in taxes. What makes a remodel, addition or three wall work in some areas (like yours) is that it won’t look or feel out of place there, much like Coronado. Some of the coastal areas that were built out thirty years ago are now dominated with remodels and were primarily custom homes anyway. In some of the older prime areas of coastal O.C., it would look out of place if you didn’t remodel. I think tract homes in the suburbs are a different animal, we should ask the O.P. where his place is, a big chunk of Encinitas east of I-5 is 1970’s and 1980’s tract homes, but the West side is not. But you are right, the five fold increase in property taxes in some situations needs to be part of the mix.

[temeculaguy]

I was in the same boat about 11 years ago, my 1300 sq ft 3/2 was fine for a young couple when I bought it in 1991 but after having two babies it was cramped. The contractors were dying for work in 1996 so I had some great quotes at about cost and I had a big lot. Having purchased in 1991 I was upside down so I couldn’t sell even though my income had doubled and I could have afforded to move up if the market had been cooperative. The problem was exactly what the others mentioned, room additions would have made the floor plan choppy, the stress of contractors in the home and the delicate nap/sleeping schedules of a 1 and 3 year old would have required a family size bottle of valium to survive construction and it would have limited my ability to be in a financial position to move up when the market changed.

What I did was stick it out for another two years, just as the market returned to 1991 prices (1998) I sold my house for what was owed including sales costs but forfeited my down payment, bought another house exactly twice as big in a better area for 50k more, almost what the addition would have cost.

[temeculaguy]

I was in the same boat about 11 years ago, my 1300 sq ft 3/2 was fine for a young couple when I bought it in 1991 but after having two babies it was cramped. The contractors were dying for work in 1996 so I had some great quotes at about cost and I had a big lot. Having purchased in 1991 I was upside down so I couldn’t sell even though my income had doubled and I could have afforded to move up if the market had been cooperative. The problem was exactly what the others mentioned, room additions would have made the floor plan choppy, the stress of contractors in the home and the delicate nap/sleeping schedules of a 1 and 3 year old would have required a family size bottle of valium to survive construction and it would have limited my ability to be in a financial position to move up when the market changed.

What I did was stick it out for another two years, just as the market returned to 1991 prices (1998) I sold my house for what was owed including sales costs but forfeited my down payment, bought another house exactly twice as big in a better area for 50k more, almost what the addition would have cost.

[temeculaguy]

beanmaestro, you just wrote the 2007 version of the get rich quick in real estate book and could start charging for seminars in hotel ballrooms. Your situation and plan is more than just intelligent, it is magical. Your scenario illustrates why the market isn’t just likely to shift, it’s guaranteed.

fearful, good explanation and I feel the same way looking at the graph, lets just say there is a 90% chance the slope will not be affected but the NOD anomoly is a 10% X factor.

Bugs, another blend of market analysis and psych analysis, that’s why I dig your posts becuase there is always an understanding beyond the math and into the mind.

[temeculaguy]

beanmaestro, you just wrote the 2007 version of the get rich quick in real estate book and could start charging for seminars in hotel ballrooms. Your situation and plan is more than just intelligent, it is magical. Your scenario illustrates why the market isn’t just likely to shift, it’s guaranteed.

fearful, good explanation and I feel the same way looking at the graph, lets just say there is a 90% chance the slope will not be affected but the NOD anomoly is a 10% X factor.

Bugs, another blend of market analysis and psych analysis, that’s why I dig your posts becuase there is always an understanding beyond the math and into the mind.

[temeculaguy]

Fearful, I get your rationale about why the downside will likely mirror the upside and I agree. But in reading your post you alluded to Rich tracking the NOD’s and every month he posts the new chart which includes the last cycle. Every month I look at it to see if it has tapered off or jogged down for one month because stocks and other equities don’t go up or down in a straignt line, they tend to look like an EKG readout. It also was a little jumpy in the last down cycle. But the NOD graph Rich posts looks like the flight plan for the space shuttle, it’s almost a straight line up and each month it just keeps going straight up. It is that graph alone that makes me doubt my own belief that this crash will follow the rules.

[temeculaguy]

Fearful, I get your rationale about why the downside will likely mirror the upside and I agree. But in reading your post you alluded to Rich tracking the NOD’s and every month he posts the new chart which includes the last cycle. Every month I look at it to see if it has tapered off or jogged down for one month because stocks and other equities don’t go up or down in a straignt line, they tend to look like an EKG readout. It also was a little jumpy in the last down cycle. But the NOD graph Rich posts looks like the flight plan for the space shuttle, it’s almost a straight line up and each month it just keeps going straight up. It is that graph alone that makes me doubt my own belief that this crash will follow the rules.

[temeculaguy]

Just saw the UTC condo conversion thread was just updated again, down 25% or 100k from when the thread was started over a year ago by someone frustrated the prices weren’t coming down. See the train has pulled into the nicer area condo conversions, next stop mid level SFR’s, all aboard.

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