About Oakland's East Oakland

Ouch-the backlash! I am befuddled by some of your comments (to my last blog post). Yes, it is good to get comments but part of being an independent contractor is just that--being able to make choices and some difficult decisions.

I have tracked a number of homes that have gone down, down, down in price. This one on Church was $112,000 when I first saw it. It was marketed by several brokers and went down to $85,000, less, less, $50-something and finally sold for $34,639. OMIGOD-the land or sewer or whatever is worth more than that!! I showed it several times to no avail. In November of 2005, there was a loan amount of $312,000 and it is assessed for over $200,000. Someone got an amazing bargain!!!

Fortunately, when some of these are REOs, the asset manager can offer bonuses and higher commissions to attract a cooperating broker to effect a sale. This is not always the case.

When a property is "controlled" by an attorney and a probate judge and the attorney won't go to the probate judge to do what it takes to sell something-even when the seller is willing to pay more out of her pocket-what can be done?

It is easy to judge unless one walks a mile in someone else's shoes. Sorry, but I work hard enough as it is for small amounts (less than $2000). At times, the short sales, REOs and first-time buyers do not seem worth the aggravation. I like to think that it all averages out but right now, my average list price is less than $300,000 and many of my listings are shared with someone else and/or referrals to boot.

I am not greedy nor a snob, I'd just like to get a paycheck again someday. :(

Wow, it wasn't easy but I canceled my listing of the little house that didn't sell in East Oakland.

Cute house--needed work, but great potential.

It is a sad state of affairs when price becomes irrelevant and some places won't sell no matter how low they are priced. Lowering the price of one acts as a downward spiral on the surrounding home prices.

No showings, no phone calls, nada. All someone would have had to do was buy, fix up with $20-30,000, rent out with cash flow and wait 3-5 years to triple their investment.

Of course, no one can predict the future, but I can be optimistic, right?

Wow, I am so bummed. For the first time, I am unable to sell a normal listing. This is neither a short sale nor an REO—well, it is a probate and according to the attorney, the court won’t allow more than a 6% commission. This means if I were to lower the price again to a mere $75,000—though not convinced that it would sell at this price—my net commission would be less than $700!!!

Since I am now dating my company’s broker, he told the owner and she told me to cancel the listing. The reward isn’t worth the risk to them? Or me?

I find all of this difficult to believe for two reasons. First, when I sold real estate in Oregon 10-12 years ago, I sold many condos and land in the $50-70,000 range. My biggest sale was considerably less than $300,000. Despite the “nickels and dimes”, I was able to garner $3 million in volume to be an MMDP (the successor to the “Million Dollar Club, stands for Multi-Million Dollar Producer). At one time, selling a million dollars in real estate was a big deal. Now it’s not enough (volume and resulting commission) to rent a studio in the City.

The second reason is that this is a cute house. The land was worth more than $100,000 at one time. Yes, it needs work but the potential!!! This is a solid working class East Oakland neighborhood. Some original details are intact. The lot is deep.

Do I regret taking this listing? (You may recall my ambivalence in a previous post or two?

I know that with some REO’s—and desperate sellers—commissions are 3.5 to 5%--and sometimes a bonus--to the Buyer’s Agent. Somehow the probate court won’t allow this—despite the trustee and beneficiary being the same person? (I have a buddy who specializes in probate—maybe he can do battle with the judge and attorney better than I can.)

I guess that all of this begs the question: Are there really homes that will NOT sell in today’s market regardless of price???? It appears that way to me—what do you think?

P.S. In checking the recent MLS comps, two houses are pending under $50,000 and four recent sales were under $50,000. If my soon-to-former listing sold at this price, I would make $210. I am glad that that I didn’t waste $100 on a sign!

Whereas it is a mixture of pride and ego that I have intermittently been considered "creative", I am flattered that the outlet that is active rain allows me not only to rant and ramble-but to be recognized for doing so--thank-you active rain!!!

Which brings me to the real meat of my post: I am sad. I might be getting a new listing and I am ambivalent about it. Why? I am currently working on three listings in East Oakland-all three are a grand total of less than $800,000. I ran into a former colleague over the weekend. She told me that someone walked in to her new office and was plunking down $3 million for a condo. With transactions in the $200's and $300's, I couldn't even conceive how many it would take to achieve that lofty level.

I recall a decade ago in Oregon when some agents wouldn't work with clients spending less than $300 or 350 thousand. I sold lots and condos in the $50-70,000 range and was proud to sell one house for around $250,000 to attain the distinction of "MMDP" (multi-million dollar producer-in the late 90's this was $3 million in volume in the Portland area).

As usual, I digress. Why am I concerned about taking a listing around $100,000? Because I won't make very much money? No. Because it could be hard to sell? Maybe-but then I pride myself on my marketing so I am reasonably confident that I can sell this house. It is probably one of two reasons. One, that a wonderful old lady lived in this house forever, couldn't afford to fix it up much-other than a new roof-and her entire life has dwindled to less than $100,000 (net). The second reason is even more tragic. This elderly woman wanted to do the right thing and leave her only asset to another delightful woman who cared for her. But the deceased woman changed bank accounts and her insurance company canceled her policy. And the recipient of this largesse is terminally ill and stands to benefit very little other than a whole lot of aggravation. (And owes more than half the "value" of the home to medical bills and an attorney-the attorney will make more than my potential commission.)

So, to answer my own dilemma, will I take this listing, if offered? Yes. But, will I feel good about it? I am not sure. Yes, I want the heir to have her shekels and enjoy her remaining days but I am pissed off that it is not enough for her to enjoy some comfort and reward for her caretaking and inconvenience.

And more than anything, I really don't know who benefits from this screwed up economy as I see many people "losing" in this situation.

Thankfully, I believe in karma and am optimistic about being "rewarded" later.

Just look at those beautiful obelisks near the front door.

I had driven past this house a few years before. It had caught my attention that it could be a Yelland!Back then I remember saying to myself, it looks like a Yelland but what are those crazy obelisks doing there. I was unfamiliar with that design detail in his designs at that time.

When I started showing the S.E. Taylor Residence designed by Yelland, I started noticing some simularities between that home and the one I had seen years before.

In fact I remember that the S.E. Taylor house had me fooled for years too. I remember hearing from the Oakland Heritage Alliance (Betty Marvin and Gail Lombardi) that there was a Yelland on Alma Place off of Park. I had always assumed (and correctly at that) 816 was the Yelland in question at the very end of the street.

It was only when I had seen the collection of photographs at the Berkeley Heritage Alliance that I recognized that 857 Alma was the Yelland that every one had been referring to. It was another one of those houses that looked like it could be but it had those obelisks. The photo collection from B.A.H.A. only just confirmed it.

Obelisks are IN when it comes to Yellandesque

It had always been nagging me that that house up off of Keller and Edwards could be a Yelland and I should go back and give it some further investigation.

I am glad I went back and hunted down the home from my memory of a few years ago. This time I brought a camera.

Have any of you local Oakland agents seen any obelisks on any properties you've seen! Let me know so I can investigate it. Wooo-hoooo too much fun.