Huge (16,330 square feet) home in foreclosure doesn't muster one bidder

[UpInArms]

Source: San Diego Union Tribune

It's a bad sign when a new home that cost more than $10 million to build fails to attract even a single bidder at a foreclosure auction.

Yet that's what happened Feb. 13 when Chevy Chase Bank put a 15-bedroom, 17-bathroom Encinitas property on the block with an opening bid of $2.275 million. The 16,330 square-foot home, which has a library, yoga room, swimming pool, fountains, lush landscaping and much more, is described by local foreclosure experts as the county's current largest home foreclosure.

Vivienda Estate, built between 2004 and 2006 on Fortuna Ranch Road in Olivenhain, was the dream of Suzy Brown, who originally partnered with the Deepak Chopra organization and 60 investors to create a spiritual healing drug rehab center on par with Promises in Malibu. Neighbors fought against the project, however, dubbing her property “the monster house.”

She searched unsuccessfully for other uses. Brown eventually defaulted on her mortgage payments a year ago but still maintains and lives in the home with several tenants. She says she knows of buyers willing to pay well over the auction price who have been unsuccessful in getting the bank to act on their offers.

Read more: http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/2009/feb/28/1m28bell00331-huge-home-foreclosure-doesnt-muster-/

---

I can't make the link work - but I guess you can go to news.google.com and google the title in and get there that way :shrug:

http://onlineforeclosureinfo.com/foreclosure/bankruptcy/auction/guide/huge-home-in-foreclosure-doesnt-muster-one-bidder-san-diego-union-tribune

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

1. Madness.

Sheer madness.

[Lost in CT]

2. Well it was going to be used as a "rehab" spiritual center...

Perhaps the future owner of the worlds largest bed and breakfast would be interested.

Kind of reminds me of all those English Castles that are rented out to tourists...

[Warpy]

24. That's exactly what these pleasure palaces will be

which makes the yuppie barns with few bedrooms but plenty of party rooms fit only for the wrecking ball.

It's always interesting to see what happens to the excess created by a gilded age when it all goes bust. I lived in a couple of brownstone mansions in Boston in the 70s that had been turned into cheap rooming houses and have now been yuppified back into brownstone mansions. My guess is that they'll end up being rooming houses once again. Pleasure palace ghettos like Aspen and Palm Springs might morph into museums like Newport where those of us with brains can get lessons in class theory and why wealth will never, ever trickle down unless the force of government and taxation causes it to.

The only constant is change. The "rehab" might end up being a mink lined apartment building or it might be bulldozed before any of its walls has a chance to settle. It will be interesting to watch, at any rate.

[Baby Snooks]

33. "I have, therefore I am..."

This is yet another reflection of the ethos of America - "spirituality " measured by how much you have in the bank. "I have, therefore I am."

[closeupready]

35. RE: converting homes into SRO's; that's happening again here in NY.

n/t

[exboyfil]

3. Let me ask

"She says she knows of buyers willing to pay well over the auction price who have been unsuccessful in getting the bank to act on their offers."

Then why did they not bring their checkbooks to the auction? Me thinks it is because they wanted a loan to buy the house. In other words they were willing to let a bank pay well over the auction price.

[kskiska]

4. Maybe Octomom should take a look

Her mother said she couldn't find a rental with more than 4 bedrooms.

[Zynx]

5. I would, but the property taxes are probably ruinous.

[Bette Noir]

9. Give it a try.

You'd be surprised how low the property taxes are in California. Why do you think the state is broke?

[mnhtnbb]

13. Property taxes on new sales are not low--1% base rate. People with low taxes

have Prop 13 to thank which caps the taxes during the time you own property. Prop 13 is what destroyed
CA.

[pnwmom]

37. Taxes are HIGH in California -- for new home buyers.

Proposition 13 only keeps the property taxes low for people who bought their houses years ago. So two identical houses next door to each other could have entirely different tax payments, with the owners of the newly purchased house paying several times more than the original purchasers next door.

[Kittycat]

6. Page not found at link.

[UpInArms]

18. couldn't make it work but found this

http://onlineforeclosureinfo.com/foreclosure/bankruptcy/auction/guide/huge-home-in-foreclosure-doesnt-muster-one-bidder-san-diego-union-tribune

it has a sublink that seems to work

[phantom power]

7. Most people couldn't even afford the utility bills and upkeep.

[muriel_volestrangler]

8. It's still $150,000 per bedroom at the 'opening bid' price no-one would pay

that's not exactly dirt cheap. Not entirely surprising .

[No Elephants]

10. In the 1970's, some of the nicest and largest homes in Brookline, a nice Massachusetts town, sold

peanuts, largely for two reasons. The days of cheap help were over and the homes cost way too much to heat.

[Liberal_in_LA]

11. This thread needs some pics! Link here. Fancy place

http://www.viviendaestate.com/

[Auggie]

12. Thanks. The upkeep must be murder.

[Demeter]

15. Looking At those Pictures brings out the LBJ in Me!

I want to go around turning off the lights....

[Flora]

19. A drug re-hab???

You would have to TAKE drugs just to forget about the worry of maintenance costs!! And what type of substance abusers was she hoping to attract?? I mean, who could afford to stay in a place like that?

[UpInArms]

21. I was thinking I needed me some drug bad habits so I could

go and be taken care of there

[Lost in CT]

27. Plenty of very wealthy drug abusers.... Rehab places like this are quite common.

Besides Hollywood Celebrities you also have the wayward children of the rich and the DUI kings among the hoi polloi.

[GinaMaria]

25. Maybe they could run it as a boutique B and B?

Hold weddings there? Luxury spa? It's a beautiful place but, would you really want to deal with the property taxes, the upkeep and home ownership headaches multiplied by 10?

[Lorien]

53. That's what I was thinking. An upscale B & B with a Spa seems like it

would keep the bills paid. I heard recently that spas are doing excellent business in the down economy. People are going to them for vacations instead of taking more expensive trips overseas.

[shanti]

44. beautiful property

i've always loved spanish style houses.

[mainer]

60. Wow, it looks gorgeous. At 2.5M, it'd be a steal.

I'm surprised no one's bidding.

[Kolesar]

14. It was a campus for drug-rehab, not an indulgent home

geez

[jmowreader]

17. Can you imagine how much it would have cost to rehab there?

I saw the pictures. That place is WAY over the top.

[Canuckistanian]

58. That's true, it's not like it was a "home"

It was always intended to be a facility, an enterprise meant to house people for short periods.

This was no single-family "mansion"

[Honeycombe8]

16. Even if a rich org. got it at a bargain, who could afford to maintain it?

The utility bills alone would be thousands per month, not counting grounds keeping, repairs and renovations, plumbing. And can you imagine the re-roofing bill, which will come about sooner or later? And the property taxes? Sheesh.

I'm gonna guess it wasn't built "green." But maybe it was.

[davsand]

20. The bank will probably end up losing whatever they loaned on that deal.

Dunno any of the details on that original loan for the California property, but the bank is probably never going to get back any significant part of what they loaned on that project. The "potential buyers" are probably not gonna be able to even GET financing on that place because most other banks will be running scared.

Locally we have a place on the market that was contracted for construction by two heart docs at the local clinic. One doc got fired from that clinic and they both ended up leaving the area to go someplace else. The house was about 3/4 completed when this all hit the fan. The builder has title right now, and has finished the house.

We were at the house doing a walk thru (one of the really cool parts of my job!) and one of the workmen told me that the finish on the house was not as fancy as the original contract had called for, but that the builder had saved about $500,000 by "cutting corners" on that aspect of construction. We joked that it was the "poverty level" of finish trim because the exotic wood floors had been eliminated in favor of hardwood and the high tech media center had been scaled back to "just a family room."

I realize I'm just a government wonk and I'm not living the high life. It is no big thing to my family because we live according to what we can afford. But I have got to admit that there is something about walking into a master suite that has a BATHROOM that my entire house would probably fit into that really kind of makes me scratch my head. How much room does ANYONE really need?

It isn't up to me to sit in judgment, but I have to wonder just how MANY bathrooms does anyone REALLY need in a house? I'm not sure I even GO to the bathroom THAT many times a day--ya know?

When lenders write loans on places like this, I have to wonder just WHAT were they thinking at the time? There IS no real market locally for this kind of property. There are a finite number of people in our local market that can afford to sustain a mortgage at that level, and IF they have that kind of income they are gonna want to build according to their OWN plans--not buy an existing structure.

They are hoping to get $2,000,000 for the property--in spite of the "poverty level" of finish. I doubt they will manage it unless they catch somebody in a real hurry to relocate to this area.


Laura

[UpInArms]

22. back in the 80s, I worked for an S&L that

had part of the T. Cullen Davis estate in Fort Worth

similar feelings to yours were mine at that time

here's some background if you missed the drama

http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/notorious_murders/not_guilty/t_cullen_davis/index.html

[davsand]

31. I made it as far as realizing he killed a 12 year old girl.

My daughter will turn 12 in May. Sorry, but I wimped out at that point. I promise I'll try and read the entire thing sometime when I'm not sitting in the family room with her watching Back at the Barnyard a few feet away...

--------

That picture of the house looked pretty impressive, and the idea of needing to run a a "half mile" to get to the neighbors' house gives a real good idea of what kind of neighborhood we are talking about. A property like that is not exactly an easy sale in any economic time, but AFTER a high profile murder I can't imagine that it sold anytime real soon after. How long did it sit empty?


Laura

[UpInArms]

34. years and years

grass grew up in the tennis courts - it was tangled in a "participation loan" involving Sunbelt Savings and 25 other banks

it was one of the biggest messed up paper trails that I ever dealt with

[davsand]

39. Getting a clear title on that had to be a trip to hell.

It never seems to be too easy with any foreclosure, but I can't even begin to imagine what a mess that was given the legal stuff, the liabilities, and the whole murder thing. Wow.

I have to admit, I wondered about the ultimate condition on that property if it did sit empty for too long. I have a saying that houses seem to "die" if they sit empty for too long. Sounds weird, but all that stuff that people do when they live in a house prolongs its life--even if it is just pulling the weeds out of the joints in the concrete...

I live in an area where we have a really cold winter--cold to the point that heat is a "gotta do" to prevent pipes from freezing up and bursting. We also have a really humid summer--so then moisture becomes an issue unless humidity is controlled in some way. With moisture comes mold--and we ALL know how much damage mold can do to a house.

Literally, I saw a foreclosure here where the owners were booted in winter, the electricity (and thus the heat) got turned off, the pipes burst, water spread, and then mold set in...

What started as a very nice house on the golf course ended up as a liability to the lot value because mold remediation was gonna cost THAT much just to tear it down. I was in that house before anything was done and I was wheezing after about 5 minutes inside--and I am not a highly allergic person!

Foreclosures are such a terrible thing for the real estate involved. I really think most people have no idea...


Laura

[murielm99]

41. I live in an old remodeled farm house that needs

a lot of work again. We just put on a new roof and rehabbed two bathrooms. Now we don't have any more money for the horrid kitchen.

The place is big. It has four bedrooms, one full and two half baths. It sits on three acres.

This was good when our children were at home. Now I wish we could afford to do the needed work and get out of here. We don't use the upstairs at all. Mostly, we use about four rooms in the downstairs. Why do some of these empty nesters build humongous homes after their families are grown? I would love to be living in a two-bedroom house with a small yard and no basement.

[RedEarth]

23. High on the Hill in Calif

scroll down for video....

http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2009/02/high-on-hill.html

[Beam Me Up]

42. hehe -- as soon as I saw the 200amp I knew what that had been! n/t

[Lance_Boyle]

26. Hahahahaha! Why doesn't Deepak Chopra buy the place?

That clown's got the $$$.

[Deja Q]

36. Don't hate him because he's rich.

:silly:

[Misskittycat]

28. I live in Encinitas. Maybe I should bid on it. (sarcasm)

[Lucky Luciano]

29. $2MM is a steal for that place. If you got the cash, you

should buy it! It is certainly worth more than that if you can hold it and sell it as a property that is not distressed. Upkeep not so bad because heating and AC are deminimus in the SD area. Lawn care is cheap too in SoCal.

No bank will lend multi-millions for a house though, so it probably has to be a cash deal. That is a lot of house for about $125 per square foot. Very cheap. In NYC homes are about $1,000 - $1,200 per sq ft. Full price, that house was about $625 per sq ft.

[grahamhgreen]

32. Hey - if they'll lend me the money, I'll buy every foreclosure in the country! Seriously!

[4lbs]

30. 16000 sq ft.

That's a lot of land just for the house.

Much more than a quarter-acre.

[louis-t]

38. My lot is 100x160

The exact size of that house. Almost 10 times the size of my house.

[4lbs]

46. Yeah. Typical homes are about 1700 to 2000 sq ft.

They are usually on lots about 3600 to 4000 sq ft.

Four homes with lawns and backyards could easily fit inside of 16000 sq ft.

[Cleita]

40. Well, it's too bad they didn't check the zoning laws before they built it. I

suspect that's what is behind it, running a commercial enterprise in a residential neighborhood. The neighbors were probably able to use that ruling to stop a drug rehab center from being in their neighborhood. Maybe one of the rich Saudi Arabia sheiks can afford it for his plural wives, their children and extended family and servants. Although, most of the oil rich Arabs prefer Beverly Hills and Encinitas might be to common for them.

[InvisibleTouch]

43. I never could figure out why a huge house...

...needs more bathrooms than bedrooms.

15 bedrooms, I could use easily. Just give me a shot at them. I'd have all kinds of theme and decorating ideas. But 17 bathrooms? Hell, a person can only use one at a time. Even if there was one person per bedroom living in the house, and for some reason they all needed to take a shower at the same time, there would still be 2 left over. Makes no sense to me.

[truthisfreedom]

45. In a house that big, you need bathrooms on the floors that don't have bedrooms as well.

Guest baths, bathrooms for the staff, visitor bathrooms to keep them out of private baths...

[barb162]

47. Two years ago, that place would have been a steal for that amount .

[bitchkitty]

48. So if nobody wants it, then what?

Convert it into condos?

Who needed a house this large and ostentatious? Who would choose to spend that much money to say "look at me, I live in a palace!" And now, the waste. It should be converted into affordable housing for families.

[MadMaddie]

49. Why not turn it over to the VA and use it for injured military

folks and their families? Get a pratical use out of the property.

[Vinca]

50. DU ought to buy it and turn it into a home for aging lefties.

:rofl:

[barb162]

51. Or a small art museum? n/t

[jzodda]

52. The gov should sieze that house

Give fair market value to the owner and allow her to live there till she finds a new place, and then gut the place and make it a place for the homeless around San Diego to live.

[Endangered Specie]

54. Perfect house for the Octopussy

:evilgrin:

[marshall]

55. Anyone else see the school bus driver who bought an $800,000 house?

Some woman in southern California who drives a school bus for a living was interviewed because she can't afford the mortgage (and likely the taxes) of the nearly one million dollar house she bought. What possesses people to think they can afford these kind of homes?

[Blue_Tires]

56. maybe a Charger or Padre will buy

[rebecca_herman]

57. Well, it's a lovely property

Would have made a nice upscale spa if they built it in an area where the zoning laws allowed it.

I supposed it's pretty cheap for a house that big if someone that can actually afford it wants a home that big....

[Ilsa]

59. I'm surprised someone doesn't want it for a bed and breakfast hotel opportunity. nt