Shootin' Fish in a Beach Reporter

Admittedly MBC has been offline a bit, with a mild sunburn to prove it. AVP came to town.

In between matches, we found some minor howlers in this week's edition of the RE adsheet of choice, the Beach Reporter:










Zen like? Tranquility?

This is a pitch for 801 11th. As discussed here, it is on Pacific, backs up to a commercial building, and rests about 100 feet from MBB. You may prefer your tranquility in less compressed, busy, noisy settings.

We had to figure out what the reality tie was here, so we saw some pictures. Turns out the interior (newer home) is quite stark, sharply modern and yes, a bit "zen-like," if we may abuse the term here along with the listing agent.

Also, the home appears to be largely, or entirely, vacant. No clothes in the master closet. Some rooms unfurnished.

Maybe that's just the style.








This screamer appears in an ad for 1400 Elm. It began June 5 at $2.35m. Now it's at $2.295m.

That is $55k (-2%).

It's not really incredible.















You might like to build some equity. In real estate, over the long term, you will.

In the short term, equity building ain't gonna be automatic anymore, just from buying and holding.

So what is this ad trying to tell us? Buy it and it will appreciate? Buy it, fix it, flip it?

The listing language is more frank, recognizing that this will take a contractor or "owner looking for a remodel project" to turn a dog into a fast pony.

Bottom line: This is a 2100 sq. ft. lot, normal for this side of 13th, but tiny for most of the surrounding area. Asking $1.6m is ambitious. It won't go up from there without a ton of work.













Not again!

Seven weeks ago, MBC noted that a very similar-looking ad had rather wrongly characterized 2709 Oak as a "new" listing. In a few days, it will be one year old. What qualifies as "new?"

Price is still right: 7 weeks ago, 2709 Oak was "priced right" at $2.349m. Now, it's "priced right" at $2.299m. It began – oh so long ago, even though it's new – at $2.395m. So we are finally down almost $100k, still "priced right," still waiting for something to happen. After a year, could it be that price is the problem?

What we didn't see in the BR...

No free car anymore at 1313 Oak.

The price is down now from $2.490m to $2.390m, and with that, we lost the offer of a "free" 2007 Mercedes S550 (price, new: $90k).

At this point, buyers have missed out on $300k in free furniture and a $90k Mercedes. The list price is down $409k from last year. It's nice, but people wouldn't buy it with prizes attached, so how do you gin up interest now?