Just a couple quick riffs for weekend discussion. If I sound angry, it is due to losing this post 3 times (so far) due to lightning caused power outages here in Verdi.
– Palladio – They bought the front page and a 3/4 page ad in today’s Real Estate insert in the RGJ to promote their "Developer Closeout" sale. I dug through my archives to their sales sheet from about a year and a half ago. Deja Vu – all the same units are still listed. ZERO developer sales over this period? New pricing is 20-30% down, depending on unit type. Is this enough to stir interest in the Palladio again? At least there will be a Subway off the lobby for your catering needs!
– 533 Crystal Park – This is a new house on the Truckee River in Verdi. 3/2.5 and 2673 SF, listed at $725,000. The developer is used to doing much more upscale projects, but is adapting to the new economy with a "cottage" style that seems cheaper to build than the Tuscan, the Versailles, or the Piedmont. My figures have the net hard construction costs on the home at under $100 / SF (exclusive of land, well, septic, demo and landscape). The home is open Sunday from 1-3, so check it out if you are in the neighborhood.
– "Your Short Sale Specialist Team" – No realtor ad (sorry, I just can’t get my cap key to work on that) is complete today without that tag line. Notice the big TV ad blitz for one group lately? Does having your own home listed short make you the defacto expert?
– My Basic Premise – It has always been that there is no one less objective or qualified to give you real estate advice than a Realtor. Especially one whom owns (ed) multiple properties, and has lost them all to speculation. Mira, Greg, Mad Tony, Rachel, Kristrina, Karen WH, and a hundred others I won’t name, how can you continue to offer your professional services when you have proved yourselves to be market morons? Are you listening RSAA? How low are you willing set the bar?
Grand Wazoo
Frankly, at my age Mike, I’m starting to find your postings to be better than sex.
Well done, again.
Reno Ignoramus
Mike I am personally acquainted with 3 realtors who have lost their house to foreclosure. 3 more that are in the NOS stage, 2 who are at NOD, and 2 more who went to NOS but managed to work out a deal with the lender. At least for now until they default again. These people are the poster children for how to do everything wrong buying and selling real estate. (Please don’t think badly me of knowing so many realtors. I also know a lot of lawyers. And doctors. Just comes with having lived here for a long time.)
There is absolutely no doubt that the realtor community was among the largest kool-aid drinkers. They bought the “you can’t lose money buying a house in Reno” and “Reno real estate never goes down” and “everybody wants to live here” spinjive hook, line, and sinker. For many of them it took on the ferver of a revivalist meeting, or an Amway convention.
You are absolutely spot on when you suggest that perhaps the LEAST qualified person to advise about the real estate market is a realtor. Why would you ask a barber if you need a haircut?
Sorry, Diane, I love you, but the truth is the truth.
reno newbie
this is the best: The craziness continues as Buyer’s Fever spreads across the Reno Sparks area faster than the swine flu at a Mexican kissing booth. Some areas and price points under 200 Reno bank owned/foreclosure homes are at the highest pandemic rating of 6. I, and just about every other Reno agent are writing 1 to 10 offers a day and showing property up until dark to try and get Buyers in as the door is slamming shut and we are seeing 10% appreciation a month under 200K and increasing rates forcing panic buying. Keep in mind, I am a listing agent and don’t normally show homes except to friends and VIPs but both of my buyer’s agents have been trying to keep their buyer’s fever down (with their dozens of buyers).
Raymond
Re the Palladio. They have not had any listings in the MLS for quite a while now. Neither original developer units, nor resales. Does anybody know why? Are they worried that if they go back in the MLS the whole world will know how much prices there have dropped?
Raymond
10% appreciation a month! Houses are appreciating 120% a year in Reno!
Buy today at $150K and your house will be worth $320K in a year!
Better buy NOw or get priced out forever!
reno newbie is a joke, right?
BanteringBear
Why is Crystal Park showing as built in 1953 if it’s new construction? Is this yet another sloppy listing job by an uneducated used house salesperson, or is it a remodel? Regardless, what’s the significance of yet another grotesquely overpriced house hitting the market? $725,000 dollars for that place? Smoke another bowl, dude. The delusion continues…
BanteringBear
Yes, I’m sure reno newbie is joking Raymond. Nobody could be that stupid.
Martin
I appreciate good satire, but it is difficult to do well. reno newbie makes a gallant effort, but comes up short. Nice try, however.
And I am with BB on Crystal Park. What about that house possibly justifies $725,000? Why I could buy Diane Cohn’s house, which is almost 1300 sq. ft. larger, for $200,000 less.
Ralph
That’s a nice 2005 price for Crystal Park. Guy who built it is only 4 years too late.
Carleton
Hey what’s the problem with Crystal Park? All it takes is 30% down, or $217,500 cash down. Finance the balance at 6% over 30 years for $3043 a month. Add about another $800 a month for taxes and insurance. So monthly payment is about $3843. Need about $12,000 a month in income to make the ratios.
So what’s the problem? Reno is full of people with $217,500 to put down and $12,000 a month in income. This is why all the inventory in this price range is just flying off the shelf.
reno newbie
copied directly from ron bell sight………..realtor ethics and credibility.
reno newbie
sorry, ron bell website
MikeZ
RE: “copied directly from ron bell website”
Ha! Just found it.
http://tinyurl.com/mmbqo9
HURRY!! BUY NOW!!
Vale Trujillo
Maybe you should invest in a UPS genius.
Transplant
“…Buyer’s Fever spreads across the Reno Sparks area faster than the swine flu at a Mexican kissing booth.”
Contact me, Ron Bell, for all your racist real estate needs!
Transplant
Mike, reiterating Vale Trujillo’s comment… get yourself an Uninterruptable Power Supply.
BanteringBear
Though this Ron Bell clown is mostly full of BS, I will say that there are plenty of people falling all over themselves and each other to pay way too much for low end housing. As we move forward, this lower end is going to get crushed into oblivion.
What people fail to remember, is the historical standard of affordability in the Reno area. Mike posts a link for a house on the river in Verdi asking $725k as if it’s some sort of bargain. Let’s revisit a particular home sale in Verdi which I am familiar with. 2650 Erminia sold in April of 2001 for $384k. This is a 2356 sq ft home with a detached garage with studio and loft sitting on more than 2 acres of land west of I-80 in what was the old Belli Ranch. A VERY desirable area. Yes, $384K, a price which the SELLER was quite happy with.
A quick browsing of a few sites shows that the seller of Erminia had purchased 60 Cassas Ct in 2000 for $795k. Cassas Ct is a 6144 sq ft 4 bedroom 3 bath estate on more than 3 acres of land out in the Windy Hill area- a VERY desirable location as well. That’s what $795k bought you in 2000. It may well buy you a lot more before this whole thing shakes out.
SkrapGuy
We all know that sales in the under $200K REO market are strong. I suspect that it may be more like the under $150K REO market that is most strong. That is why the median continues its descent. As has been said here many times before, without sales the market cannot move down.
The suggestion that houses in that bottom segment are “appreciating” at 10% per month is absurd, and borders on the fraudulent. However, if you are a realtor you can say anything without having to be held accountable, so it is not surprising that we have such garbage being spewed out.
billddrummer
Good stuff, all. I’m not a realtor.
Ijust like to read satire.
DownButNotOut
The Reno market is going down. Idiot realtors / buyers that don’t understand this are, well just idiots.Why would anyone buy?
Is this redundant?
DownButNotOut
Maybe if your drinking the Koolaid you might think the Reno market has an upside – BZZZZZT wrong- No such thing in the near – or distant future. Only one scenario is written here – more carnage. When will others learn this?
3niner
DownButNotOut said, “Why would anyone buy?”
What counts to a buyer is the individual transaction, not the market. In some parts of the market, there seem to be differences in pricing (of comparable properties) on the order of 3 to 4 times. A purchase made at the low end of the range, might be a good deal, even if the rest of the market hasn’t gotten there yet.
DowntownMakeoverDude
The 13 or so units unsold ‘developer’ left in the Palladio are all the crappy ones facing the hideous structure that is 100 North Sierra Street. It’s no fun not facing the river in a riverfront building, especially for that kind of money. Believe it or not, views heavily influence a buyer in mid-rise structures.
Mark D
At least a little good news for Palladio; a new pub appears to be heading their way, according to the Northern NV Business Weekly link below.
http://www.nnbw.biz/ArticleRead.aspx?storyID=13282