1475 Palisade is the Old Southwest house purchased in December 2004 for $619,000, and gutted to the studs before construction stopped. It had been listed at $479,000, and went back to the bank as an REO. The bank listed it at $313,000, and it just closed escrow at $213,900 in what appears to be a cash deal from a pair of locals (Derungs, Pelster). Listing agent Larry, if you are still out there, can you fill us in on your experiences working with the bank on the short sale, and how the offers you presented the bank stacked up to the final sales price?
Ridge Field of Dreams is still a bit of a work in progress. 2260 Ridge Field (RF 1) was the builder house listed at $912,275. It closed November 16 for $863,495. 2395 Ridge Field (RF 2), purchased in September 2005 for $596,076, was foreclosed on on October 31. In a double closing, the bank sold it to a buyer that pre-negotiated a deal for $531,158. 2385 Ridge Field (RF 3) has been reduced from $1,189,999 to $999,999. This is the only Somersett property that did not come current on their special assessments, and was "sold" for $5811.04 last week (2 year redemption period). 2335 Ridge Field (RF 4) was purchased for $761,906 in December 05 by RF 3’s daughter, and was originally listed at $929,000. It is currently listed at $589,999. The Trustee’s Sale was scheduled for July 2, and seems to have been delayed - there is no evidence of the default being cured.
4390 Interlaken was only mentioned in comments on one of the other blog posts, but is an interesting REO story with walk-on appearances by Guy and myself. It is a nice house located on the east side of Lake Ridge, and was purchased for $293,000 in December 2001. It was refied in 2004 for $265,000 by First Horizon and a Weststar Credit Union Issued a $200,000 HELOC in 2005, setting up an almost ideal investment situation. There was a long listing history, starting at $679,000 and finally dropping to $579,000 or so. The owner only needed to clear $475,000 or so at the time to pay everyone off, but stayed greedy. Guy and I tried to set up a deal similar to the double escrow on Ridge Field at about $290,000, the amount then due on the first mortgage. First Horizon blew us off. I went to the auction on the courthouse steps in January, and the sale got delayed and was never re-advertised. The Weststar rep who showed up never asked me who I was, what I was doing out there on a nasty morning, or what my interest in the property was. On April 1, Weststar stepped up and bought the house for $300,000 at the new sale, trying to protect their second position They listed the house at $399,000 (about what I would have done, before the lawn died from neglect), and the house just closed at $355,000. With holding, escrow and commission costs of about $25,000, Weststar recouped about $30,000 of their $200,000 exposure.
(More fun on the Recorder’s site! Enter a bank’s name in the Grantor field, and search for Deed from the pull-down menu. It is a quick way to see what the banks are actually unloading as REOs)
Today I went out with some buyers looking in the $200K-$250K range. Like all internet shoppers they sent a specific list of properties to see. Of course they’d picked all the best deals, which meant that half were in escrow by the time we hit the pavement. No problem, I found some other best deals for them to consider. Here are three of the particularly interesting properties we looked at:
Got a big family? Six kids and a mother-in-law? Need fabulous schools, easy access to Tahoe, unobstructed views of Mount Rose and a nice acre of land to roam around on? Then check out this property, a 
