https://www.redfin.com/CA/Sunnyvale/873-Birch-Ave-94086/home/608416
Huh? Not exactly going out on a limb there…
"There is a 75% chance this home will sell in the next 13 days – "
I flipped the house across the street in winter 2011/12. Bought for 327k (trust sale, not trustee sale), listed for 425k, sold for 420k. Similar size etc.
Remodeled, staged and listed by myself:
https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/878-Birch-Ave-Sunnyvale-CA-94086/19545032_zpid/
And now 799k is considered aggressively low priced.
3 Likes
May I ask why you didn’t keep it as rental? My Big Bro has worked in Sunnyvale area for over 25 years and I don’t recall him ever saying the rental market there was remotely bad (although he didn’t own in the immediate area of his employment).
No one had the magic crystal, at that height of downturn period 2008-2011, that bay area cities like Sunnyvale and mountain view would have such an impact !
Many times,more than 10 times, my realtor told me to buy in Sunnyvale or mountain view. She had the clairvoyance which we did not cash in !
When many people advised us to sell our WSJ and take primary home capital gain exemption, we approached our realtor.
She was our buyer’s agent of that primary home, the same realtor told me to put my West San Jose home as rental instead of selling. Good we listened her at that time.
We know the truth hindsight !
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we were in a growth phase back then, flipping 10 to 12 homes a year. Although, in summer 2012 the flip profits had shrunk so much, I ended up buying 3 long-term rentals in the second half of 2012. Still have them. Of course, they are not in Sunnyvale.
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I would not have kept a SFR in Sunnyvale as a rental because I thought the income was to low in relation to the value. $420k… annual rent possibly $30k (in 2012)?
Instead I bought a 4plex in Watsonville for $270k (trustee sale) that rented for $56k/yr (in 2012 - with 10 year old contracts!). Another Watsonville property has an even better ratio: [annual rent] * 3.5 = [purchase price]
And Sunnyvale is not the only location to have increased in value. That Watsonville 4plex was refinanced 4 months ago… appraised $790k (actual value is over $800k). Value increase 800/270 = 3
What is the Birch hood going for now? $1M? Value increase 1000/420 = 2.4 only.
5 Likes
maybe my numbers were wrong. I just saw 318 America Ave, Sunnyvale, CA 94085 is listed for $1.3m (house is half the size and in inferior location).
Birch is in “Victory Village”… I flipped 2 houses there… one on Birch and one on Dwight - Dwight was my first flip without outside partners… made over $100k in 90 days… Birch was already much less profitable.
This is not a great neighborhood, but the one on America Ave is worse… asking $1.3M?
Maybe Birch is worth more than the $1M that I wrote above… maybe the values in these “lower quality areas” of Sunnyvale have gone up more than 3x! Insane.
I mentioned it before… while I was busy remodeling and later, spec home building, someone who bought a few properties at foreclosure auction with me, she simply bought a bunch of cheap shacks in EPA with her HELOC, did minimal work, and kept them all as rentals… no huge gains and taxes to deal with, no city building officials to please, no picky buyers to satisfy…
…many ways to play the game.
1 Like
Don’t worry, so long is in SV, can ask for the sky. Patient, there is always a greatest fool around, if can’t sell, pull off the market and relist 3 months later or next year, try to rent it out at high rent, engage a PM, can’t rent? never mind, the capital gain of the house next year is still higher than annual rent, go figure. Why does it work? Inventory is ultra low. Exploit!
Don’t worry about Trump and automation. Some years away before these headwinds can impact RE.
When the market turns down, it takes some gumption and money to go against the grain and actually dump more money into properties. Who is to say the bottom was reached? How long will it take for the market to return? Will I survive to see that day?
That is why I only listen or take advice from folks who have truly done it (whether it is remodeling or buying/selling). If you haven’t ever had any skin in the game, I don’t want or need to talk to you.
The knife cuts both ways.
In 2010 we got our green cards and decided it was time to become homeowners no matter what. As many were told, we were asking for a palace paying for a shack. We quit, but in my stubbornness, I found a program by the city of San Jose and we fulfilled our needs, be became homeowners.
Going back to the end of 2006-2007 or 2008, I forgot the exact dates, we were invited by this organization to attend a meeting and in it they gave us the opportunity of buying a brand new home, by the same program in San Jose. We could of, should of, would of, but our immigration case pending (does it sound familiar with today’s scenario?) made us stop in our tracks.
Then, I happen to go to the flea market and I’ve talked to many people there that were owners of up to 7, yes, 7 homes, fourplexes, you name it, they owned them. Bad deals? They couldn’t manage them? I don’t know, the only thing I know is that they never saw it coming with the last recession. Jobs lost, people gone! Empty homes, the economy stagnates, then it starts to gain ground, wash, rinse and recycle.
