Sunday, August 06, 2006

One of Many POSs in Mill Valley

Opportunity for the right buyer who is looking for mill valley. A 3 bedroom, 2 bath home plus 1 bedroom 1 bath non-conforming rental unit. Foundation work required on the house with estimated from $150,000-$250,000. The house has not been tagged. Owners can live there but work should be done on the foundation before the next rainy season. Lots of upside in the neighborhood. Lockbox, go direct
This $599,000 Mill Valley POS comes in with 3 br 2 ba, 1536 sq ft, and a very pointed roof (and what the heck is going on there to the left of the main entrance?). At least it hasn't been "tagged" yet. Phew, what a relief. Otherwise, we might have to question our assumptions.

"Lots of upside in the neighborhood". Uh, "upside" what? Lot's of recent upside down buyers? Lot's of people with upside down priorities? Everyone in this neighborhood has to build up because of the 45 deg slopes? No doubt what the realtor meant was "upside potential" which implies that this is a whole neighborhood of POSs (not very surprising for Mill Valley, especially up on the mountain). Misery loves company don'tchyaknow.

So let's say some fool buyer pays the $599,000 asking price and then ends up paying an additional $150,000 to $250,000 to fix the foundation. (As the existence of toxic loans attests, it is clear that there are a lot of mathematically-challenged buyers out there so... that's a total of $749,000 to $849,000.) What are you left with? You are still the proud owner of one ugly-arsed Mill Valley POS in a whole neighborhood of POSs. The only difference is hopefully your house won't slide away next winter.

3 Comments:

Blogger marine_explorer said...

Lots of upside in the neighborhood

For all of Mill Valley's charms, there are quite a few rough spots--even downtown. I see a haphazard mix of commercial and residential property (some w/ noticeably deferred maintainence). While there are many nice homes tucked away from all that blight, I still find it hard to classify the town as "upscale"--despite pricing. I've seen a lot of similar construction in smaller NW towns, but often more orderly, well-kept, and closer to $250/sqft for newer homes. And yes, these are within commute distances to jobs.

August 07, 2006 12:31 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

the photo doesn't show the roof. I have hiked past this house and the roof is really bad...more like add another $250K to the cost...might as well budget in $ for booze because you are going to need it if you buy this wreck

August 07, 2006 4:32 PM  
Blogger astrid said...

sounds like another tear down

why don't the realtors just come out and say it. Pay $700K for the land (when you add in bulldozing and permits and stuff) and if you're lucky, you can build something liveable on top.

August 09, 2006 6:32 PM  

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