I just got home this morning from house hunting in the San Diego area, we looked at several foreclosures and a couple more investor owned ex-foreclosures.
As far as I was concerned three of the five needed to be bulldozed immediately, the other two might been salvageable, but at potentially prohibitive cost.
First House: Detached garage flooded, pool cabana burned down, signs of a recent attempt at marijuana growing, obvious electrical problems.
Second House: Mould everywhere, buckled hard wood floors, exterior windows replaced with junk, tons of cheap cosmetic repairs covering up god knows what else.
Third House: Kitchen and master bathroom completely gutted, only left the cabinets. Some interior doors and light fixtures also missing, septic system destroyed (probably by whoever stole everything and parked their truck on the lawn)
Fourth House: Completely invested with vermin, worried I might have contracted hantavirus just looking at it. Rodent droppings everywhere, stench of urine. Dead dog or coyote made it smell even worse.
Fifth House: Every wall had been kicked in and cheaply plastered and painted over, previous owners appeared to have been using the dining room as an annex to their garage. (I can’t think of any other plausible explanation for the stains) and there appeared to have been a hidden camera setup in the bathroom and bedroom in the apartment in the basement!
2 and 5 were the investor owned properties.
I think I will just build new,
Here’s what happened to me, and I have found out I am not the only one with similar circumstances. In 2006 I entered into a contract to have a home built for me on 6 acres in No. Calif. The total cost was $ 445,000. When it was finish, it was appraised at $ 600,000. I put 100,000 down on it. In 2009, my job with a major company ( WF ) eliminated my position and left me without a job. There were no jobs available in my area for my occupation. I could move, but that meant selling my house. I looked into that, and found out my home was worth less than I had paid for it. Surprise . I decided to cash in my savings and retirement and start up my own business and compete with my prior employer. Today I am doing ok, in the next year, I should be back to where I was before this crap started, but in the meantime, I went through all the HAMP and other programs and was declined. So I went through the short sale process. It is now in escrow for $ 262,000. Which I could now afford to make payments on, but the bank would rather sell it to someone else instead of me. Go figure, but now I can take advantage of purchasing someone else’s problem. What a country !
I’ve been looking at foreclosures in Washington State as well and most of the time they make you sick to think that heathens were able to buy a house and trash it like that.
I’m looking now at getting one of those EcoCottages and have it put somewhere. They are small but quite nice and affordable.
http://nationwide-homes.com//ecocottages/main.cfm?pagename=ecoCottages
I’ve also noticed that Fannie Mae is paying much more for these homes than they are trying to sell them for. Taxpayers are losing big time.
Building in San Diego is not easy. The cost and time getting permits is not owner friendly.
I also do price consulting for lender and know the market from a value point, you have a price point too low for the market