Written by Jim the Realtor

November 16, 2009

The REO tsunami dripped another drop today, I was assigned this property whose trustee sale was just last Thursday, November 12th. 

The former owner was from Newbury Park, which, according to wiki, has the highest median prices in Ventura County, and among the most affluent areas in the country.  It is typical for these types of folks to come to Oceanside, thinking they are going make a killing on beach real estate.

This is a unique property, so let’s have a contest!

Guess the eventual sales price!

On the tax rolls it’s 3 br/2 ba, 1,300sf on a 1,500sf lot.  There aren’t any great comps, and no appraisals or BPOs have been completed, so I don’t know what the list price will be.  But the opening bid at the trustee sale last week was $513,000 with no takers.

The vacant lot in the video below had listed for $499,000 but had to get down to $275,000 before going pending (sellers paid $399,000 in 2004), and the new condos featured in a previous video have all closed between $405,000 and $781,000, so it appears there is still an appetite for beach real estate in Oceanside!

You can see photos at this link, where they are asking $1,900 per week in winter, and $2,000 per week for summer rentals:

http://www.vrbo.com/71346#photos

The person with the closest guess to the sales price will win a T-shirt!

74 Comments

  1. Downturn

    I’m an optimist when it comes to the crazies still willing to bid these up:

    $637,900.

  2. captcha

    $610,000

  3. pemeliza

    $550,000

  4. Happs

    $529,000

  5. François Caron

    $485,000

    On a side note, when are you going to tell us the story of how the car got in the pool? We want details! And maybe a video of the pool itself!

    C’mon Jim! Don’t hold out on us! 🙂

  6. Geotpf

    $680,000

    It’s a prime location, IMHO, and will therefore hold it’s value better.

  7. Paul

    $494,000

  8. Erica Douglass

    $630,000 — and I don’t think it’s worth that, but someone’s going to see “$2000 a week!” and think it’s worth taking the plunge.

    -Erica

  9. Local Boy

    $652,000

  10. Kingside

    $535,000, all cash.

  11. Chuck Ponzi

    613,000 List

    620,000 sold

  12. UCGal

    $624,900

    Personally, I’d never buy it… It’s “view adjacent” and the ant-hill behind it is a HUGE detraction. But I’m sure you’ll be able to market the “steps to the beach” aspect and get a good price.

    Sure beats selling houses in Hells Canyon.

  13. sosad

    $599,000

  14. mtb

    $649,000

  15. Mike

    Sits for 4 months, then sells for $495k.

  16. Nathan

    $539,000

  17. dafox

    $685k, Bob.

  18. Adam

    685000

  19. KO

    $590K

  20. W.C. Varones

    If this thing goes for more than the Carlsbad turret house, something’s wrong.

  21. Anonymous

    “It’s a prime location,”

    a prime alley perhaps…

    $545,000 insane dollars

  22. Blissful Ignoramus

    $615K.

    Pappy’s!

    I have a friend who has an oceanview condo very close to that that I’ve stayed in many times. North of the pier, that’s a nice beach. Not only is there the wide sand and the pier, but Oceanside gets more nice weather than just about anywhere on the coast in Southern California.

    The problem is that the vacation rental business has dried up horribly. The rates listed are too high for the current market. I stayed in a place in OC in March and the owner told me that he normally has the place booked up in advance for many months ahead, but by March he was scrambling to fill in the summer. Maybe it’s going to get better? This was a place written up in the LA Times. For a place like this one that isn’t on the ocean, I’d be concerned if I were needing to get rental income, but as a place to live, you could do a LOT worse.

    Oceanside is a prime location geographically, but as long as the base is there it will be a struggle for it to make it out of the (relative) dumps. That is not a slam against the military, it’s that you have a large transient population of young, low income people from all over the country.

  23. Dwip

    $585k

  24. UCGal

    Jim – I noticed on the VRBO ad that there are reserved blocks in the spring and summer… Who gets the unhappy job of notifying the folks who rented it.

    It would stink to be a vacationer who shows up to find the house is sold and to have no place to stay.

  25. Al in IC

    605,900

  26. chris g

    $543k, no termite.

  27. tj & the bear

    $575K, and yes that’s insane. Sigh.

  28. Jinx

    RE #26 – that happened to me! I rented a condo in Hawaii (Oahu) in Jan. 2009 and when we arrived the building manager told us the unit was in foreclosure and the power was going to be shut off that day! Apparently someone called our home phone to notify us a few days before our arrival, but we had already left for the island and didn’t get the message. Anyhow, things worked out. We stayed a couple of days and the power stayed on 🙂

    Back to the subject…if that place sells for under 500k, I just might have to take a look and ignore the crummy schools.

  29. bobfather99

    $588,000

    Just a guess……

  30. ocsecondhome

    $564,900
    You can’t make any more beach property-just make it better.

  31. JordanT

    660K.

    Somebody’s going to figure they can clear 5K in vacation rental fees and figure that 660K is worth it. It’s too small of a lot and too surrounded by condos to really figure on buying, tearing down and building a dream house imo.

  32. Genius

    $505k

  33. Jim the Realtor

    The Gilligan in Valley Center overlooking Hell’s Canyon listed Friday for $349,800, and we’ve received five offers already (two all-cash) and we’re over list price.

  34. aljanet

    513K

  35. DKO

    Not a place for a dream home. Works well as is.

    $623,000

  36. CA renter

    $450K, even though I know it will go higher. 🙂

  37. shadash

    A trustee sale fails at $513,000 and everyone posting seems to think the house will sell for 600k+. Maybe I should get into the buying at trustee sale business.

    One sale like this and I’ve made 87k. Even after paying off the lenders and other fees I would still probably make 50k cash.

    Hmmm…

  38. ocrenter

    ok, the vacant lot nearby went for ~$300k. cost ~$100/sqft to build, so $130k on the improvement.

    I say $450k.

  39. bubblenerd

    Is that house for rent? How much? You can pretty much figure out the price going by the asking rent.

  40. Geotpf

    If you can actually get two grand a week for this, even accounting for, say, 25% vacancy, as well as all expenses, it should be significantly profitable at my estimate of $680,000.

  41. Former RB Resident

    I kind of went all over the place on this and finally settled on $587K. I might say higher depenidng on what the weekly rental market in OC is actually like.

    Absent a catastrophe, this place will always be near the beach. A bubble or anti-bubble can’t change that.

  42. Geotpf

    Exactly. Beach front (well, beach front adjacent) property like this will hold it’s value a lot better than almost any other property.

  43. JAP

    I predict a bidding war…

    $710,000

  44. Art Eclectic

    Given that I think the vacation rental market is going to be hurting for a long time and you can do waaay better than this for $2k a week…

    I’ll say $485

    There is always a possibility of a full time rental that close to the beach for $1800 a month, so $485 should pencil if you are looking to cash flow.

  45. Houses only go up

    $666,666.66 WTH its So Cal almost beachfront packed in like a rat. Multiple Bids. Rule! Don’t forge you have your own personal pier. XL size please.

  46. calhousebear

    $595k —

  47. LC Jim

    $525,000

  48. clearfund

    Art – I am missing how $1,800/mo minus expenses cash flows? An all cash purchase only nets 3% using extra low expenses of 25% of rent (likely high I would guess). Once debt comes into play it becomes negative. $1,800/mo is only 0.3% of value and we all want to get as close to 1% of value (or more) on a monthly rental ratio to cost.

    Perhaps I am missing something???

  49. doughboy

    729k

    I was just up in West Lake Village/Newbury Park for a meeting and it is wealthy old valley money and new Amgen money.

  50. bubblenerd

    Hmm, assuming 2k rent, my calculations put the value of this house at $470,000. More than that, and you’ll be better off just renting the place and putting your money elsewhere.

  51. Geotpf

    $2k a week, not $2k a month. I would think there might be some doubt as to whether or not that’s realistic (especially since the previous owner lost it to the bank), but if somebody can convince themselves that that’s even remotely possible, it’ll sell for a lot more than $470k.

  52. Anonymous

    I pretty much have no rational basis for pricing it.

    as a monthly rental, it should go to an investor for $250k or so. for an owner/occupant, maybe $400k.

    as an object of speculation, I’m going to say $599,990 list, $617k sold.

  53. FreedomCM

    oops, that was me at 1052

  54. Geotpf

    The thing we are missing here is what realistic rental and vacancy rates for a property of this sort in this area is. Is $2k a week ($8,500ish a month) reasonable? Is $1,500? Less? Different rates for different times of the year? If you charge that much, will it be empty half the time?

  55. Jason

    $640K

  56. osidebuyer

    thats a few doors down from where I rented a beachfront condo for 2 years. I walked down that alley once and noticed this place. You are right Jim there are really no comps around there that would provide a good guide.

    690K ?

  57. Punky

    480,500

  58. NateTG

    What the heck:
    579,999.99
    (Seller throws in a set of steak knives to sweeten the deal.)

  59. Muffler

    1.3 million

  60. Bill

    Where do you park? Can you park on a weekend?

  61. Scooter

    $ 521,250.

    That’s 20% down and 417K financed.

  62. BillyAtwater

    $552,500 but it won’t close escrow until late spring.

  63. Homer Simpson

    I’d guess 613,000

    Its all about “location” and say what you want, it’s only a stones throw to the sand…

  64. KBX

    really difficult to guess…

    Great location, but somehow a really small lot with an almost tear down building. you gotta love it or hate it.. If the right buyer shows up it could easily sell in the high 600 (678,678 $ )

  65. CA renter

    ok, the vacant lot nearby went for ~$300k. cost ~$100/sqft to build, so $130k on the improvement.

    I say $450k.

    ocrenter | November 17th, 2009 at 6:36 am
    —————–

    No can do, ocrenter. That’s mine. 😉

    But since you’re one of the old-timers on these blogs, I’ll share my shirt with you. 😉

  66. François Caron

    Jim, that car isn’t “in” the pool! It just dipped its “big toe” in the water! 🙂

    Not too surprised that it would still roll even when in reverse. At idle, an automatic transmission will mostly be disengaged. Ever had a car roll back on a hill even when you were in drive?

    Dafox’s bid is $685K. Will he make it two for two?

  67. Emma

    Okay, I’m going to try out my bottom seeking formula in reverse. This should be interesting.

    $481,194.00

  68. VacationRentalMiniger

    Don’t know about the Oceanside market but if there were such a “Beach House” available in South county it would bring in $40,000 – $50,000 per year in Vacation Rental Income. Expenses on vacation rental are higher than monthly because the owner pays all the utilities, cable phone etc.
    You would need a different pricing schedule than this owner because winter rentals are 3-4 day or monthly “snowbirds”
    You can see this place below, note there are some rentals already scheduled for summer.
    http://www.vrbo.com/71346
    If I were in that market I’d buy it for $500,000.

  69. doug r

    Let’s see 1300 sq ft-should be $260,000.

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Jim Klinge
Klinge Realty Group

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