Revenge of the FCB

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irvinehomeowner

irvinehomeowner

Well-known member
Most of the regulars know I've been looking for a home for a quite a few years.

We were hoping to pay less for a similar home than the one we bought during the bubble and the sentiment on the IHB was there would be at least a 40% discount off bubble height prices. Even at 20%, that would be a significant discount. So we waited.

2010 comes along and we are thinking that there may something good in The New Home Collection that we might like. Not really... we're old school and while we understand the benefits of the Great Room and the California Room, we like the older floorplans with circular flow (to the izz-O), a formal dining, a living room AND a pseudo Great Room (kitchen/nook/family combo). On top of that, the prices weren't much less than our previous 3CWG and you get a smaller lot and less bedrooms/living spaces.

So for the next 2 years, and with the patience of IrvineRealtor (Scott Gunther), we looked at various resales in Tustin Ranch, Irvine and even new homes in Lake Forest. We checked out a few open houses on our own in South County but decided to rule those out due to distance from where we circulate.

We came close to a few in Tustin Ranch:

$720khttp://www.redfin.com/CA/Tustin/10545-Costello-Dr-92782/home/4774231
$795khttp://www.redfin.com/CA/Tustin/2615-Bristow-Ln-92782/home/4774374
$776khttp://www.redfin.com/CA/Tustin/10595-Bruns-Dr-92782/home/4774356

Those 3 were all the same floorplan but the biggest cons were they were only 3 bedrooms, had no bedroom/den downstairs and the laundry was the garage pass-thru.

$762khttp://www.redfin.com/CA/Tustin/2470-Bixler-Ct-92782/home/4775464

Really liked that one too but was a 3CLG and the L garage was converted to a den/playroom.

$780khttp://www.redfin.com/CA/Tustin/11575-Nitta-92782/home/4763986

We really like that one. But it was in a gated hood with no pool, did not have a downstairs den/br, and had a laundry pass through to the garage. The upstairs was awesome, it had a loft that connected to one of the bedrooms with a little desk area. We were even considering leasing it just to see how it would be to live in Tustin Ranch.

This might be the one that got away:

$649khttp://www.redfin.com/CA/Tustin/2855-Baxter-92782/home/4774992

It was a short sale and when I went to go look at it, the owner was not there (or pretended to not be there). It went pending the next day and sold so I never got a chance to look at the inside. The floorplan looked good but I knew the inside was classic (ie non-updated).

There was an REO that we had high interest in, one of the few Tustin Ranch 3CWGs that had an upstairs laundry:

$805khttp://www.redfin.com/CA/Tustin/11110-Matthews-Dr-92782/home/4775129

It backed the park and this gated community had a pool, but what we wanted to pay was less than the current offers the realtor claimed they had (and the closing price proved it).

Now you're probably wondering, did we even look in Irvine? We did:

$740khttp://www.redfin.com/CA/Irvine/7-Peppercorn-92603/home/5944646

I really wanted this one. A detached condo in Quail Hill with alley access for the garage except it was a 3CWG. Yep... actually the only 3CWGs in Quail Hill. It was interesting because we first saw it as short sale and then I guess the bank ended up with because I think it became an REO. We even put in an offer, but the boss wasn't totally on board and from previous experience, when there is doubt, you shouldn't go through with it. It had an upstairs laundry and a loft but the rooms were small and the downstairs floorplan was wonky, only one dining space and no down bedroom.

Interestingly enough, similar floorplans to this are now selling north of $900k, like this one (and this one even has a driveway):

$950khttp://www.redfin.com/CA/Irvine/94-Canopy-92603/home/5944528
genMid.OC13136511_9_2.jpg


We were close on another in Oak Creek:
http://www.redfin.com/CA/Irvine/23-Hollinwood-92618/home/5811207

This was another short sale and I think we offered $750k because it was listed at $789k. It was delisted and so we moved on. Ironically, It was relisted again at $750k and closed at $725k. I really didn't like the porte cochere, it was only a 2CG but at least it wasn't a detached condo like the Quail Hill property and it was on a corner lot.

We also finally came upon a 3CWG SFR:
http://www.redfin.com/CA/Irvine/38-Pheasant-Crk-92618/home/4746513

It was a corner lot, upstairs laundry, had a loft and a 3CWG. The only cons were no downstairs bedroom and it was more like an I or T layout. It was originally listed for $820k, dropped a week later to $789k so we thought we could get it around the mid $700k. The only problem was financing. This was when the FHA had changed their loan limit from $729k to $625k (or something like that) and during this time, we were not looking to put 20% down. So we watched someone else buy it for $760k.

I think at this point in time, we decided to take a break and give Scott some rest (heh).

Also, we knew that Laguna Altura was going to open in 2012 so we wanted to see what that product was (Stonegate too).

We were still hoping that prices would go down but the FCBs had other ideas.

To be continued....
 
So IHO - lets say i could see the future. and i told you that irvine prices will remain flat for the next 5 years.

what would you do? would you take the plunge? or would you stay put?
 
You may have got me in '08. You may have got me in '09. Maybe even in 2010. But this decade, I'm not falling for it. Cue Iho's annual April Fool's gag.
 
qwerty said:
So IHO - lets say i could see the future. and i told you that irvine prices will remain flat for the next 5 years.

what would you do? would you take the plunge? or would you stay put?
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If you had said that before the end of 2012, yes.

And don't worry, I won't Fire Blade you guys (http://www.talkirvine.com/index.php/topic,2902.0.html).

Part 2: Where was the bottom?

When Stonegate opened, I didn't have high hopes for Laguna Altura as we knew that TIC was running the Xerox machine and they were just going to clone floorplans with a little tweaks here and there. We even registered with Scott over at Maricopa (?? I forget what that first SFR tract was called at Stonegate) but we really only liked the Plan 2. After seeing the same Plan 2 with the small upstairs tech center tweak at Laguna Altura for more money... it was evident that new builds in LagAlt were out of our price range unless we settled for a detached condo and we weren't too impressed with the layout of the village.

Somewhere within this timeframe, we were still on the list for Las Ventanas in Portola Springs. We really liked the Plan 3 which had many of the things we were looking for (except the 3CWG) but it was far out there and there was concern about that toll road close by. They even called us a few times as our names came up on the list be we declined. Lambert Ranch, which was also far (to us), was above our price range and we barely even looked at the models.

So we have up again for a short while and then this Quail Hill home came up:

Listed at $795k:http://www.redfin.com/CA/Irvine/43-Coriander-92603/home/5945678

This was my favorite floorplan in the Linden tract, a detached condo but felt like an SFR and had all the living spaces/bedrooms we were looking for. This particular resale was well kept and we weren't the only ones interested as there were multiple offers a few days after it listed.

We were comping it with this one which sold earlier in 2012:
http://www.redfin.com/CA/Irvine/9-Coriander-92603/home/5921904

That one was nicer, had upgrades and was on a view lot so we figured that 43 Coriander would go for $750-775k. We were told that $800k would get it done but I just couldn't justify that because I still thought prices were softening. It did end up selling for $800k and in hindsight, I would have been okay if we bought it at that price because not shortly after that... prices in Irvine skyrocketed.

It was also around this same time, I was really looking at Augusta in Columbus Square because the Plan 3 was huge, had a 3CWG and was in the mid $700ks. The obstacle there was Mrs. IHO was not interested. I kept telling her it was short-term and we could probably flip it later but she was more interested in long-term because she was tired of moving. I think both Homie and Qwerchete can attest that we could have made some money had we decided to buy in CS.

We were also waiting to see what The Branches and Willow Bend would shake out at and instead of being closer to what we wanted to pay, they were much farther.... and people (or FCBs) were paying it.

At this point, I think we had made at least 5 offers on different homes and Scott was supportive the whole way.

Turns out... the end of 2012 was the turning point for Irvine prices and we had missed the boat.

Next: Part 3... We need more ammo.
 
Part 3: Ammo

So as 2013 moves on, prices continue to rise. And it's insane because not only are interest rates going up, but so is inventory. Exactly a year ago, you see inventory going from less than 200 to over 550 in less than 5 months. Part of this is because prices have gone up, sellers are getting off the sidelines to make some equity money back.

It's during this time we decide that if we are going to find our long-term home, we can't stay at the price range we are looking at and if we are going to go up in price range, we need to sell the home we are living in. Our plan was to do the same thing we did in the last bubble and keep the home and use it as a rental. But I wasn't up for the landlord headaches again and selling would solve our problem of a higher price point so we decided to list, hoping we weren't too late to catch the price increases.

This is where Scott Gunther came in with his Realtor skillz. We always knew that if we ever were going to list our home, it would be with Scott. If any of you have sold a home with him or seen his listings, I think you can agree that he does quite a bit for the seller.

This was very different from when we sold our previous homes. For those, I had to do most of the legwork, the prepping... even the pictures. With Scott, his service includes a professional photographer, staging, a website and emailed status reports on views, home visits and comps. He held Saturday AND Sunday Open Houses and when it was a conflict with his schedule, he made sure there was someone else to host the Open House.

We put a bit of money and prep work to make the house look "model" like. We did grout restoration on the counter tops and master bath like we had done before. We de-cluttered and gave away over half our furniture and put the rest in our garage. The biggest impact was the staging. Most of the first floor was all their furniture and decor. Our master bedroom furniture was recent and Pottery Barnish so they just had to add the flourishes like bed linen, stuff on the wall etc. In my opinion, I think it was one of the better looking resales on the market at the time.

We had also moved out temporarily to stay with relatives until we were in escrow because the last time we sold our home, having to re-stage it every morning was a pain.

We had range priced our house at the top of what we thought the market would pay (ie the WTF price) but knowing we would drop it if there was no action. The low end of our range was still above our absolute minimum so we had some insurance there.

One of my distinct memories was the day before the first Open House, Scott was on a small ladder that I was holding trying to put a cover over a light fixture we removed. We were both thinking that if he falls, one of us will not survive.

This is where it gets foggy because I think it was 2 or 3 weeks and there was no action so getting a bit scared (because selling our home was priority in order for anyone to consider our offers, even the new builders), we dropped it immediately to our low range. That's when we saw movement. I believe we got 2 or 3 offers that weekend and maybe 1 or 2 more after that. Most were lower than our new price but one of the later ones actually came in higher. When we had informed the other offers that we were going with the highest offer, one of the previous ones went up to match the price as backup (but still lower than our accepted offer).

And yes, I think the buyer was an FCB. It wasn't all cash, but I think it was 40% down or something like that. It was funny because they gave us a photo copy of their funds and they had to translate it from their bank to US dollars. I had some fear because they had to move the money from overseas.

So the good news was we opened escrow. The bad news, one of the homes we had been looking at went pending too. Bleh... so we are getting the extra ammo but now we have nothing to shoot at.

Next episode... My kids to us: "Where will we live now?"
 
IHO,

Great story. Keep it coming.

You've probably seen almost every tract in Irvine by now. Scott should make you an honorary agent by now.
 
irvinehomeowner said:
Next episode... My kids to us: "Where will we live now?"
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Homie said:
next episode is where you move next door to me at JC.
Click to expand...

Part 4: Moving to JC with my son Homie

So we are in panic mode because Phase 1 is going as planned but Phase 2 is totally up in the air. Where will we live? CS with Qwerchete? PP with bones? Stonegate with IC? Northpark resale with OpenSky? CV with test? Or Portola Springs with nobody?

To make a long story (yes, I know it's long) short, we end up selling our home with very little issues. No big repair requests, appraisal comes in at contract price (staging tends to help with valuation) and we can actually close earlier than expected. Luckily, the new owners will allow us to rent back until we can find a new home.

It was kind of weird living in a our house but not owning it. We moved back in shortly after we opened escrow but kept the staging furniture until about a week before we closed escrow... just in case. So now we were in our half empty ex-home trying to figure out where we were going to end up. I kept joking with our kids that we were homeless and they were not very happy with that.

And the big ending... to keep the current IHO location top secret I'll just do the bullet point version:

- We may have bought resale or new
- We do have a 3-car garage, it could be 3CWG or 3CTG
- We do have a formal dining room
- Our house is about 40% bigger than the house we just sold and slightly bigger than our old 3CWG
- We could be in Irvine... or Johns Creek
- Scott was very helpful with our purchase. I can't give him enough credit for all the help and the late night counseling when I thought we were going crazy. If you don't have a realtor, you should at least interview him, he can tailor his services to work for you.
- We also ended up using SGIP (John Wheaton) for our mortgage because the lender we had used for our refis was too high (and John has been very helpful for the past few years with all his help and information... *before* we decided to go with him).
- We paid more than I wanted to, the FCBs got their revenge
- We also put in more down payment than I wanted to, but it was not all cash so I'm not an FCB. We were only able to do this because the home we had sold jumped almost 20% in value (we had refi'ed that house in 2012) from the previous year.

If I had a Hot Tub Time Machine, what would I have done differently?

1. Never bought that 3CWG in the first place and then moved up prior to 2012

2. Probably stayed in our old 3CWG because interest rates took a nosedive and we could have refinanced to a cheaper payment and then sold last year and probably profited. The only question would have been if the money we saved the last several years in our smaller home would have been more or less than that equity.

3. Bought in 2010-11 whatever we could at our lower price range and then turned it around now for resale with our other home. But that would have entailed too much moving and there was no way we could know the price jump would have been so fast and high.

4. Asked Homie to adopt me and not have to worry about all this stuff.

So that's it. Some or all could not be true but that's the story I'm telling today.

I really hate how high the prices are in Irvine and I don't envy anyone trying to buy a home in Irvine today because no matter what the product is, resale or new, Stonegate or PP, it's overpriced for what you get. But, if you want to live in Unicorn Land, that's your choice.

Now I have to figure out what to post about. (<-- that's for TD :) )
 
I actually love your new home IHO.  Thanks for the invite to the house warming too! Hope you and your family are enjoying the gift we got you.  Can't wait for the next bbq at your place!  8)
 
Great writing and enjoyed reading it.  If you did indeed buy congratulations, atleast your story has a fairytale ending.  The only way mine would be is if market crashes :)
 
I find myself in a similiar situation-- feels like we have been house hunting forever.  Congrats on your new home :)

IHO-  tell me,  did you cancel your Redfin Daily search results emails yet?  I often wonder if I would (could) do that after we closed escrow ;)
 
Thanks for sharing your story IHO and congratulations on your new home.

I just can't believe after all this years, IHO finally bought a home.  Hope this is not the April fool post.  :)
 
furioussugar said:
IHO-  tell me,  did you cancel your Redfin Daily search results emails yet?  I often wonder if I would (could) do that after we closed escrow ;)
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I still get my Redfin daily email.

Heh... that may or may not be a clue.
 
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