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Are the Condo Coversions in Your Town Going to Sell?


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2005 Dec 1, 2:21am   20,205 views  70 comments

by SQT15   ➕follow (0)   💰tip   ignore  

The developer's answer to the stratospheric rise in home prices seems to have become the condo conversion. What that usually means is taking a crappy apartment building, throwing a new coat of paint on it, maybe knocking out a few walls and throwing in an appliance or two and calling it a condo.

Do you know of any in your neighborhood? If so, how do they look? What do you think are the long term prospects for the condo conversions? I have heard in the past of condo conversions being turned back into apartment buildings when the market cools. Do you think that will happen again?

And what about pricing? How much are the crappy condo's going for in your neck of the woods? How far down do you think they will go in value?

And one last thing, do you think taking the apartments off the market will affect rents at all?

Per tannenbaum's request

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31   Allah   2005 Dec 3, 11:18am  

LOL…like there would ever be a bidding war on that dump!
That toilet picture is classy.

Actually, I've seen bidding wars on houses much uglier than that, but that was over a year ago.......I don't think you'll find a bidding war anywhere now regardless of what the property looks like.

32   KurtS   2005 Dec 3, 11:22am  

Actually, I’ve seen bidding wars on houses much uglier than that, but that was over a year ago

Some people are fools I guess. Well, I'm still seeing multiple bids, but I think they're a bit better than that ghetto box.

33   Allah   2005 Dec 3, 11:30am  

That toilet looks nice, though…. would fetch a nice price on eBay.

On ebay it would sell for more if it wasn't flushed the last time it was used! :lol:

35   Allah   2005 Dec 4, 12:00am  

Lenders crack down on mortgage fraud

[snip]
"Fraud for property" is the industry phrase used to describe usually honest folks who exaggerate their incomes or tell other white lies to obtain financing.

Now lenders and the authorities are turning their attention to borrowers encouraged to falsify their applications by loan officers who tell them "everybody does it."

Now they are going to do something about it?

36   Allah   2005 Dec 4, 1:48am  

Little jump? That is a 14.36% increase in a quarter. Who are they kidding? I am so sick of the spin about real estate.

Well lets see what they say when it goes up to 50%. Remember Alexis is the president of foreclosures.com and informing people that there are more foreclosures is to help her business..... If she was to say that the sky is falling, investors wouldn't be interested in foreclosures until the market completely corrects. She will always say in her articles that the sky isn't falling and that the market will not crash like the 90's.........and she is right...it won't, it will be much worse given the circumstances. I only read her articles for the data, not her opinion........use your own judgement because hers is obviouly biased.

37   praetorian   2005 Dec 4, 5:21am  

Justice is NEAR!!

Justice? I wouldn't bet on it. Between the likelihood of a federal govt. bailout and the near certainty of economic dislocation, there could be lots of people who deserve far worse than they get and lots of people who didn't participate in the madness who get stomped.

As always, a dark sense of humor will be a handy thing.

cheers,
prat

38   Allah   2005 Dec 4, 5:47am  

03/08/05 (Unofficial -- taken from secondary records)
Conditional Salesperson
License will be suspended if education requirement per section 10153.4 has not been met by 09/08/06.

Looks like he got his license before finishing his tests......I'm sure he doesn't have to worry though since he won't be needing his license by then. :lol:

39   Allah   2005 Dec 4, 8:38am  

Interesting how many news stories are out there that still believe you should continue to buy real estate and that there is no bubble.

Well you would publish such stories if you were a realtor and your job was at stake.......can ya really blame them?

40   Girgl   2005 Dec 4, 9:01am  

From a realtor's blub I found in the mail yesterday:
For sellers, do you really want to sell your home, or are you just testing the market? If you're just testing, please, take your home off the market.. If you absolutely, positively have to sell, and you haven't had any offers recently, lower your price.

I understand that supply is a realtor's enemy these days because it kills the buying frenzy, but WTF?

41   Allah   2005 Dec 4, 10:02am  

You mean this?

42   Allah   2005 Dec 4, 10:07am  

Sellers are desperate and paranoid......they are seeing their equity blow away like dust in the wind! No seller wants to accept the fact that house prices are falling, but yet they are very curious.......at the same time, many buyers don't want to touch this market with a 10 foot pole!

43   praetorian   2005 Dec 4, 10:13am  

How about this:

I sat and mocked
the peoples madness
predicted doom
predicted sadness

And now the piper
has piped at last
and housing gasped
its final gasp

but who is this
knocking on my door?
why uncle sam
and he wants more

A bit tough to do
I'm afraid to say
with the booms end
my job has gone away

_smile_

And a merry Christmas, one and all!

Cheers,
prat

44   praetorian   2005 Dec 4, 10:23am  

My generation is running a race they cannot win.

I totally agree. We are so f**ked.

On the upside, when the generational wars come, we will be young and spry and the boomers will be increasingly rickety. One wild card is, of course, bionic implant technology. (You, gentle reader, think it is coincidence that government research in this area is going gangbusters at precisely the moment that the boomers realize they will need the technology in the coming war?) The other wild card, which I think will have a *much* larger effect on the actual outcome of the war, is which side the mutant nazi monkeys end up allying with.

http://tinyurl.com/bg4k2

You dare defy the primate platoon?

I am now freaking out,
prat

45   Allah   2005 Dec 4, 11:57am  

oops!...missed a zero...how about this one

$369000 - >>>Reduced 355k for quick sale!

Approx 50% cut....unless the seller misprinted, but I doubt it

46   Allah   2005 Dec 4, 11:59am  

I highly doubt there are million dollar homes in bellport, so I'd say the other house price 2.45M is a misprint.

47   Allah   2005 Dec 4, 12:03pm  

:lol: Look what someone posted on craiglist.

48   Allah   2005 Dec 4, 12:14pm  

I guess that $369k house must have been reduced TO $355k....it was probably worded wrong.

49   Girgl   2005 Dec 4, 12:31pm  

Found this:
http://www.babwnews.com/article.php?id=471
in Pop!'s links.

It's Lydia again!

Quote:
Here is a simple example of how advantageous home ownership can be over the long term. Assume that “Jane” buys a home in Oakland for $400,000 (yes, it’s still possible in the East Bay) and she doesn’t put any money down. Over the next 13 years her mortgage payments reduce the outstanding balance by $100,000, leaving a mortgage balance of $300,000. But in 13 years her home has also appreciated in value to $600,000! If Jane had rented this home for 13 years she would have missed out on $300,000 in wealth. As a homeowner, Jane now has $300,000 available to her to invest in another property.

Sounds like a making a mortgage payment, property taxes and maintenance, altogether more than twice your current rent, is the surefire way to riches.

I hope no one sues her for bad investment advice if this does not go according to the plan... :-)

50   Allah   2005 Dec 4, 12:41pm  

Sounds like a making a mortgage payment, property taxes and maintenance, altogether more than twice your current rent, is the surefire way to riches.

I hope no one sues her for bad investment advice if this does not go according to the plan… :-)

Girgl...we talked about that article earlier in this thread, take a look above....she is a realtor for 2.5 years, used to be a headhunter for IT(probably outsourced) and she supposedly is gay and caters to the gay community.

51   Allah   2005 Dec 4, 1:06pm  

Am I reading this correctly? Sounds like this guy wants to sign over the house.......looks like a desperate flipper!

[snip]
THIS BEAUTY IS YOURS FOR ONLY CLOSING COSTS AND 3 MONTHS PAYMENTS UPFRONT!
Move in tomorrow - I am very motivated, and I want to give YOU and YOUR family the opportunity to enjoy the AMERICAN DREAM! You get all the benefits of owning your own home (tax deductions, pride of ownership, appreciation) with none of the headaches (no application with banks, no huge closing costs, no mortgage showing up on your credit report!)

52   Allah   2005 Dec 4, 1:22pm  

It is just unbelievable how desperate a seller can get! $839500 - Last Month of Savings before the Real Estate Agent gets all the Money

53   praetorian   2005 Dec 4, 1:37pm  

From the motivated seller listing:

The kitchen was updated 2 years ago with black granite countertop

I have visions of a vast suburban slum, reams and reams of the proverbial $hitb0xen, falling to pieces around dulling black granite countertops.

Cheerio,
prat

54   Girgl   2005 Dec 4, 3:09pm  

allah says:
Girgl…we talked about that article earlier in this thread

Oops. Sorry. I'll better go catch up on my reading :-)

55   AntiTroll from Oz   2005 Dec 4, 7:42pm  

HI ALL,
Been quite a while.

Property market should get a second wind if builders start substituting GOLD instead of GRANITE. ;)

I have been lurking for a while and the traffic seems to be dropping.
Could it be that people are now finding RE boring......Now that fortunes are NOT being made by flipping. mmmmm

Might be time to start discussing what jobs will be earning wages......

Any views on future oil prices ?

56   Allah   2005 Dec 5, 1:14am  

OMG! Look at what these bastards are up to! They just don't want to stop! I think I'm going to go there myself and crash their party!

57   Allah   2005 Dec 5, 3:15am  

Wow! Greenspan has broken the $1 trillion dollar mark in october with his printing press.

58   Allah   2005 Dec 5, 3:41am  

They profited 225,000.00 in this bubbly market only after owning 9 months, they really hated the house. They were caught up in the bidding frenzy over the summer and are still homeless so to speak. Now that things are starting to cool his wife wants to get back in.

Why on earth would they want to do that? I say, hold on to the $225K you were so lucky to get and wait for the bottom or at least until the fundamentals come back and they'll be able to afford a house they really like. What is wrong with renting? I just don't understand some people!

59   Allah   2005 Dec 5, 3:45am  

He would like to be able to show her some statistical data to back up his arguments.

How about the for-sale signs that are everywhere? ....or the fact that people are cutting their prices.

60   Allah   2005 Dec 5, 4:00am  

Do people really fall for crap like this?

61   Allah   2005 Dec 5, 4:49am  

Their sitting on over 600,00.00 waiting to buy obviously they are not your standard buyer. He needs to numbers to back his argument. They are looking in the 1.8 to 2.2 range.

I'm assuming you mean $600k cash and looking to buy in the $1.8M - $2.2M dollar range. Well, those prices are going to fall pretty hard, especially in that range IMHO. I don't see what is to gain by buying right now. The realtors have finally declared the top of the market....and they are the last to admit it! So if they buy now, they are going to be very sorry in a year from now. People seem to think they are getting a good deal when they see a price is reduced, but the fact is that the property is way overvalued so they aren't getting a good deal. Most of these sellers are desperate as evidenced by the high supply of inventory so late in the year, that is why they are cutting prices to begin with. By the time spring rolls around, there will be even more inventory and more desperation. Prices have risen in the past few years because of "creative financing", but that will soon change after the masses default. You don't want to compete with people who have nothing to lose but their (probably not so good anyway) credit. Your friends have $600k of their own money that can instantly disappear. Those in the RE industry are predicting a soft landing because it is in their best interest to have you believe that.....buying right now would be like jumping out of a plane with a parachute tied around your neck......you may have a soft landing, but you'll die a very painfull death long before you hit the ground! If you want hard data, you will find alot of it here on this site.

62   San Francisco RENTER   2005 Dec 5, 5:04am  

Just talked to a friend I hadn't seen in a while on Saturday night--he and his girl decided it was time to buy and closed on an $800 Grand condo conversion in SF just last month. "In the Bay Area, you just have to get in to the market as soon as you can. Otherwise you'll never get in," he said. I guess I'll never get in then. Boo hoo! I am building equity in my brokerage account and getting paid in dividends and interest as I build my nest egg--I'll happily take the flexibility of that over building equity in a little shi$box and paying ridiculous amounts of interest for the "priviledge" of doing so.

63   Allah   2005 Dec 5, 5:05am  

I think they’re trying to capitalize on people’s growing fear of a market slowdown.

That's exactly what they are doing SQT, and I bet they are people in the RE business who's jobs are on the line......the one I showed you in my earlier post states that it is a free foreclosure lookup database...but if you follow all the links, it will take you to a credit card form that shows that the database is free, but they only if you agree to buy other stuff that is expensive. It is very deceptive.

64   Allah   2005 Dec 5, 5:17am  

His wife thinks rent is a dirty word…the nerve.

It really is sad when a couple doesn't agree on something like this.....It is a very important issue and one that can make or break their financial status along with their marriage.

65   Allah   2005 Dec 5, 5:28am  

You’d have to be pretty gullible to believe you’re going to get a $600K house for $100K, but they’re obviously getting some folks to believe it.

Don't get me wrong, alot of those sites are just bullshit, and you probably won't get a house that cheap(at least not right now :) ), but you can save alot of money on buying a foreclosure if you know what you are doing. There are three phases of foreclosure (lis pending, auction, REO) and the most profitable is lis pending, when the owner is in trouble, you can negotiate directly with them. The only way you can make money in this phase is if the owner has a good size of equity in the property..... in this market, many of those in trouble have already eaten their equity so it isn't going to be very profitable....Another thing, there is going to be a huge crash coming and we don't know how far the fall is so we don't know what a good price is until after the fact. There is way too much uncertainty in this market to even consider buying in any way, shape or form.

66   Allah   2005 Dec 5, 5:57am  

ScottC talked a lot about all the work that goes into the foreclosure business and how you’re often lucky if you don’t get a home that’s been completely gutted.

Not when it's in lis pending......that is when the owner still lives there, I doubt the owner is going to gut their own house while they still live there. You have to get in touch with them personally and actually go into their house. You negotiate by offering to buy the house from them for less than market value in exchange for some of their equity back and saving them from bankruptcy. You are actually helping them by doing this while at the same saving yourself money....but like I say, right now it isn't a good idea being that we are heading for a falling market without a clue as to how deep the drop is....and take a realtors advice with a grain of salt, especially when it takes away from their own business.

67   Allah   2005 Dec 5, 6:29am  

Well, foreclosures aren't for everybody, you have to know what you are doing....it is usually the person who buys the foreclosure that does the scamming.

Anyway look at this. Looks like the mortgage brokers are having their go at the cheap advertising on the craiglist site.

[snip]
The Fed Chairman, Alan Greenspan, said that 80% of Homeowners are in the wrong Mortgage program. We educate our clients, so they can choose the product that best fits their financing needs. Many "Mortgage Brokers" offer "non existent"
Rates, or leave important pieces of information out of their extremely low rates.

They are also stepping on one another.

68   San Francisco RENTER   2005 Dec 5, 10:22am  

What do you guys think? Are we slowing down b/c we’re in the holidays, or because the economy is really bad?

Lola

I am thinking that the housing market is slowing lately due to a few factors: Holiday season, very high prices causing more and more people to get priced out and forego buying, and rising interest rates. The economy is not (yet) really bad--surprisingly it keeps chugging along pretty well. I think that when and if it gets bad, it will be the housing market slowdown/crash that drags down the economy. Possibly this winter or spring. I doubt we can see a last gasp rally out of the housing market, but ya never know...

69   praetorian   2005 Dec 5, 12:46pm  

@all y'all: The lack of now freaking out in this thread vis a vis the talking nazi monkey menace is deeply disturbing.

@SQT: I can't imagine the pressure to buy mid 30's in sac.

@RPatrick: Yeah, I'm just ask jacked as you are. Why become a hipster democrat, when you can become a frothing-at-the-mouth-spittle-flecked-consipiracy-theory-spouting fascist like me? Chicks *so* dig it. I just drop into the black helicopter US out of UN rant at the bar, and it's like *BAM*! Chicks everywhere.

This is especially true in the Bay Area.

I am now freaking out,
prat

70   Jamie   2005 Dec 5, 2:39pm  

Huh? What? My skimming skills must be slipping. Where is the frothing at the mouth spittle flecked conspiracy theorist rant? Did it get deleted? Damn.

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