Stephen Curry isn’t used to losing—at least, on a basketball court. But in the realm of real estate, this Golden State Warriors point guard proved that not all he touches turns to gold when he recently sold his home in Walnut Creek, CA, at a loss.
So what’s the score exactly? In November 2015, Curry and his wife, Ayesha, bought the 7,520-square-foot, five-bedroom, six-bath Mediterranean-style mansion for $3.2 million. Then the couple poured an additional half-million into renovations. A year later, they put it back on the market for $3.7 million. But apparently they’d set their sights too high, because it sat warming the bench with no takers.
Finally in July of this year, the home sold for the lowball sum of $3,195,000—more than a half-million less than what Curry was hoping for and less than what he paid for it almost two years earlier.
This defeat seems all the more resounding considering the fact that his home is situated near the San Francisco Bay Area, where prices are astronomical. Perhaps the Mercury News said it best in the headline to their recent article: “Steph Curry Did It. How Do You Lose Money in the Bay Area Real-Estate Market?”
Good question. What did Curry do wrong?
A lot, actually. Here’s a rundown of his mistakes.
The remodel was a waste of money…Pumping in $500k for a kitchen remodel and some bedroom uogrades was stupid…But if you make $11m a year who cares…Plus the house is a white elephant. …4 stories, too big and no usable yard…Quoting the OC dude…a real turd…
Cheapest using what metric? Absolute price, subject to a minimum lot size or built-in, the usual show-stoppers apply… I prefer to buy the median, median price for median house configuration for the neighborhood.
I think buying the cheapest is a mistake. .All buyers are focused on the cheapest…They come up on everyones alert…Look for the best bargain…Often the cheapest is small and has a higher price per foot.
Or it has incurable defects…Pick the ones that were overpriced and got stale on the shelf…Search for houses with high DOMs and make low offers…No competition
We all know that. That’s why they are cheap. But you mentioned “incurable defects.” Would you mind listing out the defects where you think are “incurable”?
Incurable defects
Location. …can never fix that…if you have a bad location nothing you can do…bad neighborhood, freeway, noise, crime, bad schools, awful neighbors, earthquake fault on property…anything beyond your control
Too many stories or stairs…not fixable.
Horrible floor plan…usally too expensive to fix
Serious foundation issues…like a steep cliff or bad underlying soil.
Bad neighborhood/crime/bad schools: I bought houses in Pittsburg and Antioch (66% price discount compared to SF and South Bay!!!)
Freeway/noise: I bought several properties next to Freeway/on busy road (10-20% price discount!!!)
Bought one property with serious foundation issues – sagging floors everywhere (35% price discount!!!)
So I tried most things on your list. I think the only deal breaker for me would be if the foundation is falling off a cliff – too much for me to handle on that one. But if price is low enough I don’t think I would mind…
Buy the one in Lafayette. .$850k…I have bought houses with incurable defects too…But a lot of foundation issues are curable…However maybe not worth the cost of repair. .I bought a rental house in Tahoe that is 5" out of level…great rental return…Hard to sell as a flip. .Average buyer would freak out…Will sell someday to an investor who only cares about cash flow…
5" out of level: why don’t you just float the floor and level it out? If the foundation ceased to sink already then there really is no need to spend incredible amount of money to lift it back up. Floor will look good as new after you floated it.
Floor was lifted by a tree in one corner…The only fix is to jack up the whole house and relevel… $30k on a $250k house. .not worth it…Not just the floor but the doors and windows around by the tree are jacked crooked…adds to the cabin charm…lol…Rents for $1700/m…tenants don’t care…Tree was removed a couple of years ago…Dont know why the previous owner didn’t do that years ago…
