Property Profiles

$1.3MM for Land

7 Comments

48 W Le Roy Ave.
Arcadia, CA 91007

Price: $1,300,000 ($754/sf)

  • Beds: 4
  • Baths: 2
  • Sq. Ft.: 1,725
  • Lot Size: 0.44 Acres

This seller did not provide any photos so I’m unable to comment on the physical condition of the home.  All we have for now is a street photo (above) and the following description:

Incredible Value!! One of the best Million Dollar Area. Warm, Cozy home with wood laminating and tile through out. Great back yard with sparkling and gated pool. Guest House over looking the pool and Jacuzzi. This property is good for investor who wants to get immediate income or Built your own Dream Home.

This is a direct copy and paste. The strange use of capital letters and grammar mistakes belong exclusively to the agent. My writing isn’t great but for a potential $39,000 in commissions (3% x $1.3MM), I would make sure this listing is at least presentable.  Hey, maybe the Realtor even knows this is a WTF asking price and no one in their right mind would purchase the 88 year old property for $1,300,000, a whopping $754/sf.

Although here is nothing to indicate that this home was recently remolded or even upgraded, the property looks to be well maintained and shows a lot of potential.

People who tell you that it’s okay to buy now if you plan to hold it for 5-7 years are like the Wall Street idiots who forget any event that is over 4 months. Take a look at the sales history:

Dec. 1988 $500,000
May 1994 $450,000 -1.9%/yr

The 1988 buyer waited 6 years after buying near the peak of that era’s bubble. The result? He lost $50,000 plus several years of paid interest. That was just a 10% loss… can you imagine current buyers who are facing 25-40% price declines?

Using the ’94 sales price, here is my valuation of 448 W. Le Roy:

3%    $680,665    ($395/sf)
4%    $779,254    ($452/sf)
5%    $890,969    ($517/sf)
6%    $1,017,407  ($590/sf)

At nearly half an acre and sitting on a half decent street, I can see someone purchasing this property for around $1,000,000; it’s fundemental value is obviously a lot less. Essentially, you will be acquiring a large piece of dirt… perfect for another Arcadia McMansion.

7 thoughts on “$1.3MM for Land”

  1. Considering MER’s fire sale on CDO’s of 22 cents for a buck, 50% off on this piece of dirt is still too high.

  3. Arcadian,

    I got my car wash after the quake. I’m happy to report the car wash was busy and that the car washing industry is humming along. I imagine that this earthquake will have the same effect on RE as on the car wash industry.

  5. Talk about drinking the Kool Aid.

    ‘Extreme Makeover’ house faces foreclosure:
    More than 1,800 people showed up to help ABC’s “Extreme Makeover” team demolish a family’s decrepit home and replace it with a sparkling, four-bedroom mini-mansion in 2005.
    Three years later, the reality TV show’s most ambitious project at the time has become the latest victim of the foreclosure crisis.
    After the Harper family used the two-story home as collateral for a $450,000 loan, it’s set to go to auction on the steps of the Clayton County Courthouse Aug. 5. The couple did not return phone calls Monday, but told WSB-TV they received the loan for a construction business that failed.
    The house was built in January 2005, after Atlanta-based Beazer Homes USA and ABC’s “Extreme Makeover” demolished their old home and its faulty septic system. Within six days, construction crews and hoards of volunteers had completed work on the largest home that the television program had yet built.
    The finished product was a four-bedroom house with decorative rock walls and a three-car garage that towered over ranch and split-level homes in their Clayton County neighborhood. The home’s door opened into a lobby that featured four fireplaces, a solarium, a music room and a plush new office.
    Materials and labor were donated for the home, which would have cost about $450,000 to build. Beazer Homes’ employees and company partners also raised $250,000 in contributions for the family, including scholarships for the couple’s three children and a home maintenance fund…

    http://tv.yahoo.com/extreme-makeover-home-edition/show/36736/news/urn:newsml:tv.ap.org:20080728:tv_extreme_makeover_foreclosure

  6. the extreme makeover foreclosure is scary funny…

    on the other side of the coin… what would of been its price in the year 99 – 2000…

  7. “This property is good for investor who wants to get immediate income”

    If you are buying a 1.3M dollar home to rent out the back house for $500 to a poor Chinese student for an “income”, then you are a complete financial idiot!

    Do realtors have a warped sense of math? I am guessing many (not all) realtors don’t realize how much they offend the average buyer.

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