Watchhttp://www.redfin.com/CA/Union-City/2509-Begonia-St-94587/home/530127?source=Patrick.net
Similar houses in this area were selling for upper 300's lower 400's a few months ago. I checked this house out. Seems like some upgrades were done, all the appliances have stickers hanging off them. Never been used is what the realtor said.
For the area it seems expensive to me.
I live on the same street and rent for 1750 + gardner.
(never owned, rented for 15 years in different cities)
We were planning on making an offer of 435000. Suggestions?
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Pleasanton, CA
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Nice paper house. Half a million sounds about right. That is a good price for approx. 6000sqft of landfill. Just don't plan on doing a vegetable garden in the back.
On the plus side, if there is a fire, you can just punch your way out through the walls. Hell, if you are lucky enough to be in the kitchen, a steak knife would be enough to cut a new door if needed.
:)
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Also, just so you know. The place is in a "very high" grade of liquefaction. Check it out
http://geomaps.wr.usgs.gov/sfgeo/liquefaction/susceptibility.html
I'd get your helicopter license and have one sitting in the backyard in place of vegetables.
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San Jose, CA
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Sunny,
Is your rental bigger, smaller, or the same size? I wouldn't bother submitting an offer for $435k. I don't think they will entertain any offer below $475k. That'd be my guess.
This house used to be a rental. The owner renovated the house hoping to get top dollars. The house is paid off with very low property tax. Owner is very well-off. Owner owns more than a hand full of free and clear properties and lives in a nice house in Orinda. Owner has plenty of time to wait for the right offer to come in. That's my opinion.
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Redwood City, CA
E-man has learned how to access far too much information on his own, and he knows exactly how to use it.
Sending in an offer means understanding what is motivating the owner to sell, and E-man closes deals because he knows what is motivating the seller and how to approach them and he's very likely pegged it here. The guy has no strings you can pull. He's got plenty of money, he renovated for a reason, and now he can wait it out.
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Union City, CA
Thanks E-man, pkennedy.
E-man, Is this real information or just a likely scenario?
My rental is a 100 sqft smaller than this one.
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Union City, CA
RentingForHalfTheCost,
I actually do have a vegetable garden in my backyard.
I'd probably put my ham license to use and radio for a helicopter.
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San Jose, CA
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SunnyCal says
@Sunnycal,
It's real info. I'm not kidding. :)
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Union City, CA
Latest on this...
The deadline to receive offers was changed twice and this Saturday they had another open house.
I talked to the 'sellers' real estate agent and he said that there was very good response and the owner is trying to get more money for the house. He said that the highest offer he received was 535K.
I guess he is waiting it out...
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SunnyCal says
Based on the information you provided about the comparables in the neighborhood, I say $535k offer was probably from an FHA buyer, and they knew the property would not appraised for that price, and the FHA buyer has no money to cover the difference between the offered price & appraised price. Basically, they are looking for a conventional or cash buyer buyer.
Just submit whatever you feel is reasonable & let them counter you. If your offer is too low, they may ignore it, or counter with a BS price because they feel insulted by your offer. Otherwise, let it sit for 60 days on the market before submit your offer.
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I think you should put in your initial offer unless it is a lot of hassle since it is very likely not going to be accepted (the winning bid can always fall through though). I think once you are pre-approved or have all cash, putting in offers is no work at all (I only bid once on a place and all we had to do was telling the agent the amount). If you have the time to determine the amounts you are comfortable with (as opposed to what is the asking price) you might
a) either luck out one day
b) determine that the market is on steroids aka cheap credit (again) and overpriced
or both :)
I am not looking but I have been to a couple of open houses throughout the years and never had a problem telling anybody who was present (realtors, owners, other buyers) what I would pay for this place and it was usually at least 20% below asking price ;)
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Union City, CA
Thank you E-man, mell. Since I have never made an offer before. I think I'll probably just make an offer.
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SunnyCal save yourself lots of money and buy in February or early March before the spring rush.........
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SunnyCal says
Looking at the pictures, the roof is at the end of its life. That would be a $7k-$8k expense. Does the outside need a new coat of paint? The front lawn can use a face lift too. Too much weeds on the lawn from the picture. So I guess another $12k improvement would make this house look very nice inside out. The grease and dirt on the driveway can be cleaned with a 3,000 psi pressure washer.
Renting for half the cost, almost the entire Bay Area is in liquefaction zone. As long as your property is not located on an old landfill or hydraulic filled sand, you should be okay in most cases. Look at the geology of Foster City, San Francisco, Marina, and Oakland. People are still buying in certain part of these areas where properties are sitting right on top of liquefy able sand. Crazy.
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SunnyCal says
In this supposedly hot market, the property will go stale after 30 days on the market. However, the owner will eventually get the price they want if they hold out long enough. There's a saying that a sucker born every minute. :)
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Union City, CA
yup1 says
Looks like I am headed in that direction.
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Union City, CA
E-man says
Seems like that. Latest is that there were 12 offers on this and the highest was 540K. Another realtor told me that there is a crazy bidding war going on.
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Union City, CA
E-man says
Thanks. I am amazed you can tell so much by just looking at the pictures.
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San Jose, CA
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If they truly have 12 offers, that means they are still accepting offers as they're coming in and countering them. Highest offer doesn't mean squat. The highest offer could have the worst terms, which makes it a no go. If that's the case, the recent open house is to fish for new buyers and sellers. Did you know that some sellers go to open houses to find a listing agent for their house? It may sound odds, but it is what it is.
Yeah, that's a 25 years shingle roof. The edges of the roof tell the whole story. Too much weeds on the lawn means they revived it with fertilizer, but the lawn needs to be replaced too. Weed killer no longer does the trick.
Gas is not cheap so I learn to do my analysis through pictures and Google Map. Believe it or not, I've bought properties site unseen before. They're all here in San Jose. Fortunately, it has worked out great so far each time. My wife owns rental properties under her sole name here in San Jose, but she has never seen them or knows where they're at. She only shows up at the Title Company to sign docs. :)
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SunnyCal says
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SunnyCal says
@Sunnycal,
So it was correct that the highest offer was not the best offer because it sold for $505k. If you look at the time frame, it took about 3 weeks for the property to go pending. That means they had some offers by the 2nd week to play around with and the counter and re-counter offers took about a week or so.
It closed in 3 weeks. Wow, the loan officer was doing his/her job.
yup1 says
Yup, looks like that was not the right bet. :)