Spreckels Mansion Sold to Flippers

by | Oct 31, 2011 | Flips, Interesting Houses

From the U-T:

The Coronado mansion at the center of two deaths and much speculation is being sold.

An investment group is in escrow on the historic Spreckels mansion owned by Arizona pharmaceutical tycoon Jonah Shacknai, whose 6-year-old son Max died after accidentally falling over the second-story railing, and whose girlfriend Rebecca Zahau was found hanging from a balcony in July.

Scott Aurich, a Realtor for Pacific Sotheby’s International Realty who brokered the transaction, would not disclose details about the deal, including the purchase price or the identity of the buyers.

The group, which includes a local developer, plans to remodel the property and then put it back on the market. The 12-bedroom oceanfront home is currently listed on Aurich’s website for $14.5 million, although it could be sold for less without the renovations.

Shacknai, who is founder and CEO of Medicis Pharmaceutical Corp., bought the home in 2007 and used the spread as a summer home when he wasn’t in the Phoenix area.

Aurich said he hopes potential buyers will be able to look past the deaths. The home was built 103 years ago by John D. Spreckels, one of San Diego’s first tycoons.

“Hopefully, the rich history of Spreckels owning it and the luminaries who were entertained there outweigh the recent history of the tragedy,” he said. “It’s still one of the most premiere estate properties in Coronado.”

More photos here.


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Another Flipper

by | Jun 10, 2011 | Flips, Real Estate Investing | 16 comments

The guy from the TV show, Flip This House, wants to show you how to do it too.

He has a seminar tomorrow to discuss how he is going to make $150,000 profit on this house at 1036 Edgemont in South Park.

The house had been purchased at the trustee sale by our favorite flipper J.Mann for $330,000 (corrected, $269,800) in March, but apparently things didn’t work out, and he sold to our new flipper for $270,000 a month ago.

The new guy has invested enough that he’s looking for $600,000+ now.  Link.

Here is his website promoting the seminar, with video: Link.

Listing photos by our friend Jakob!  Link.

Foreclosure Economy

by | Jun 3, 2011 | Bubbleinfo TV, Flips | 9 comments

The media wants you to believe that foreclosures are tanking the values of every neighborhood. 

 They need to look a little harder at what is really happening on the street.  If the banks were more realistic about their opening bids at the trustee sales, they could be blowing out more of their defaulted properties, because there are plenty of investors looking to flip everything in sight. 

We’re in a foreclosure economy!

Yes, this flipper hasn’t sold this yet, and he might only get what he paid for it – although this particular long-time investor is known to rent, rather than dump.  But at whatever price he sells this for will define the true retail value.

If almost a third of trustee sales are being flipped for retail, the media should not only report it, they should factor the new values into the overall equation – and quit pushing the standard garbage.

Realtor Fraud Being Exposed

by | May 10, 2011 | Flips, Fraud

Hat tip to MB for sending this along, from the wsj.com:

Reports of mortgage fraud, which have been increasing since the housing boom, rose to their highest level on record in 2010, Treasury Department figures showed.

The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, a Treasury agency, reported 70,472 “suspicious activity reports” related to suspected mortgage fraud, up from 67,507 in 2009, or a 5% increase. That’s the highest number recorded by the government since tracking began in 1996.

At the height of the U.S. housing boom, in 2006, more than 37,000 fraud reports were recorded. In 2001, before the housing market heated up, there were 4,695 reports of suspected mortgage fraud.

Much of the suspected fraud being reported took place several years ago and is only now coming to light, according to Lexis-Nexis’s Mortgage Assert Research Institute, a data service, which issued a report Monday highlighting the statistics.

The past suspected frauds are surfacing as financial institutions and mortgage lenders, still handling a high number of mortgages falling into default and foreclosure, take “a look back to see if people misstated or misreported their income,” said William Grassano, an agency spokesman.

Fraud artists are refining their schemes to take advantage of market distress, the report said. For example, some real-estate brokers, in a scheme known as house “flopping,” target homes that are underwater—meaning their owners owe more than the market value of the house—and obtain artificially low valuations of homes.

Then, using these valuations, the brokers convince the lender to agree to a short-sale, in which it sells a home for less than the mortgage. The buyer, in turn, quickly sells the home at market value, profiting, along with the broker, from the difference in sale prices.

“If people are about to lose their jobs or lose their homes, there are scammers out there who are ready to go in for the kill,” said Grassano.

Evidence of mortgage fraud is one by-product of the broad investigations federal regulators and state attorneys general are conducting of the industry’s practices following ast year’s “robo-signing” scandal. Facing the possibility of a costly settlement, mortgage-servicing companies are being pressed to revamp their foreclosure paperwork-filing practices, hire more staff to handle the heavy volume of foreclosures and impose tighter standards on their dealings with borrowers.

Last July, the Obama administration began a broad effort to investigate and prosecute mortgage fraud that resulted in 485 arrests and 1,215 criminal defendants in cases that resulted in the recovery of about $147 million of $2.3 billion in losses, according to the Department of Justice.

The first installment on flopping:

http://bubbleinfo.s020.wptstaging.space/2010/11/15/flopping-fraudulent-short-sales/

Not McMansion

by | Jan 30, 2011 | Flips | 6 comments

Our blog-friend Tom Tarrant is wrapping up his last flip in San Antonio, and bringing his talents back to San Diego.    Hopefully once Tom and family are back in town we can experience some of his fine work in person.  Here is the youtube of the latest project (love the Chevy truck in the garage!)  from his blog, tomtarrant.com:

We had tons of fun this year sharing our adventures on the blog and attracted alot of attention doing it. This Spring my blog was voted Top 10 Real Estate Investing Blogs by Biggerpockets.com. This summer I was approached by 2 different production companies to do Real Estate Reality Shows and we completed and sold 2 big rehab high-end projects;  The Neighbors House and The Target House.  My killer rehab called The Hat Trick House was also featured on the front page of the local newspaper this summer which drew the attention of a local City Councilwoman who called us in to consult on urban redevelopment for the City. Our blog traffic doubled from last years numbers to over 80,000 visitors and my YouTube channel is blowing up. Happy New Year to everyone who’s followed along with us, thanks for all your comments and in less than 4 short weeks you’ll get to see a Great change of House Flipping Scenery from us, San Diego here we come!

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