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By Ryan Rockwood

Yet another spooky P.O.S. foreclosure in Rancho Palos Verdes went on the chopping block today. 26715 Menomine, Rancho Palos Verdes, CA didn’t have any takers though so it’s now the fabulous new property of SunTrust Mortgage!

RPV foreclosure does have nice view

A Troubled Property

Don’t believe me? Well then move your family right on into 26715 Menomine. I predict your life heads straight down the toilet.

I don’t consider myself superstitious. But I do believe in bad houses. And this is one of them.Watch for these characteristics:

1. Several 1/2 finished and ill conceived remodeling projects.
2. Long narrow crummy driveway.
3. House orientation rotated 90-degrees off everything else on the block.
4. An over-the-garage addition.
5. Lousy everything else.
6. A clearly unsanitary ’swimming pool’

But none of these get at the heart of the matter which is the generally creepy ax-murder style vibe of some homes. Also, creepy owners/residents don’t hurt.

Last week I was at this house in my never-ending quest to bring foreclosure solutions (and joy and hope) to distressed Palos Verdes homeowners.

The door is open so I knock.

“Hello,” I announce myself.

“Come in,” says a friendly voice who follows that with “…I think.”

But by then I was already well inside the vestibule. Next, a pretty good size guy (250 lbs) rushes out and blocks me. He comes at me WAY too fast and he comes WAY to close. I need my personal space, you know? This guy obviously does not want me to see what he is doing in the other room. Creepy, right? Anyway, he makes a halfhearted attempt to pretend he is shaking my hand as he throws me out the front door.

Outside I brush myself off and question my career choice. Whatever, like I care whose body he’s busy dismembering.

Anyhoo, back to the Real Estate part of the story. I think it’s safe to assume the tax records are wrong in this case. Nobody would have lent $2.4 million on this property. So let us assume it’s $1-million off. What’s $1-million among friends anyway, right? $1.4 seems reasonable to me, at one time. Now everything is gone but the 1st lien which is around $1-million bucks. At the auction they were ready to let it go for $920k and change. But it is going to take more than that these days.

Look for this home soon as an REO. I call it a good buy for $750,000. Bring your tools and your fav exorcist.

Help fund the continued creation of fine literature on this blog by Buying / Selling a house with me. Seriously, call me at 310-809-0203. And for goodness sake, subscribe to this blog already!

“Honey, I think we are going to be short on our mortgage payment by $165,858.”

– Imagined dinner conversation of Bob Lowe, chairman and chief executive of Lowe Enterprises, The Terrenea Resort’s principal owner.

Oh snap!

Terranea fixtures for sale?

Gosh, maybe they’ll let it slide? …Turns out they just might! As always, it’s great to be rich. And it’s even greater to be uber rich. Check out this quote from the L.A. Times:

“Lenders are loath to take these properties back, especially something as management-intensive as hotels,” Reay said. “Foreclosure is the last resort on a resort hotel.”

So I guess the lesson here is…

…. wait there is no lesson here. It’s just lame. And so is the Terranea resort, in this writer’s ever so humble opinion. Every time I drive by I wonder, ‘Who the heck would come here?’ Also, how are they going to get here, the 110 South to Gaffey and through San Pedro? Wow, that route is going to make folks feel special – that is if they are into driving through poverty and gangland to arrive at Disneyland-style largess in the middle of nowhere. To me, it’s about as attractive as a long weekend in Haiti. Just stay inside the compound and you’ll have a lovely time.

Anyhoo, time for some fun math!

The Terranea Resort was built for a jaw-dropping $480-million. (Brief pause here so you, dear reader, may swallow the little bit of vomit that just bubbled up your throat).  So since everything else around is here down by 20-33 %, where does that put the value of Terranea? Well, take the land value and add the replacement construction cost and factor in the 50% drop in tourism of late and factor in the pledged millions of tax dollars…now calculate that and arrive at: $%@!!!^@!!

Terranea to Trump: Save me!

In layman’s terms, that basically equals whatever the heck Donald Trump is willing to pay for it.

Why that’s ridiculous, we are just snazzy!

Again, from the LA Times article:

The hotel is 100% booked for Saturday night, and as many as 200 rooms have been rented on weekdays, Lowe said. Three weddings will be celebrated at Terranea this weekend.

My bad. Silly me. Here I was thinking all these negative thoughts without noting the resort was full on Saturday. I guess having 100% occupancy on the busiest hotel night of the week must be the yardstick for success in that industry. Don’t get me wrong, 3 weddings is great. But unless they can charge $60K a piece it’s still going to be tough to make those monthlies. (Actually, they probably CAN charge that much)!

My hidden agenda:  The Terranea Website autoplays annoying music.

Recently my wife and I celebrated our 1-year wedding anniversary. (See adorable photos posted on this very Website). She was gunning for a couple nights at Terranea and I was modestly interested in making her dream a reality. So we get online and do the usually clicking around, and so on.

The cheapest ocean view room is $360/night. That means, of course, a 2 night stay is going to set you back a cool grand – and that’s assuming you don’t pickup the phone or even look at the minibar.

So I’m soon contemplating that expense as a percentage of my yearly income. And suddenly this ‘little local getaway weekend’ is anything but.

‘Gosh, that’s a ton of money,’ I think. ’Or maybe not. Maybe I’m just really poor.’

But then again, consider the average income of Americans …. once again, I’m back to, ‘Gosh that’s expensive.’

I start to think about other uses for that money. How could I make the money / the stay / the fun stretch? Is there somewhere we could fly, visit and stay for 3x as long for the same amount?

Then it occurs to me. And I’m soon Google-ing: “Travel deals to Haiti.’

Terranea Alternatives

For more information on the Terranea Resort please contact someone who cares. But for an unorthodox, dry and generally funny (but sometimes annoying) take on Real Estate in Palos Verdes Peninsula call me right away! I’m at 310-809-0203. And for goodness sake, subscribe to the blog already.

Those auction trustees must be getting a real kick out of themselves.

By Ryan Rockwood 

Sure, we seen many PV homes ‘accidentally’ sold at auction. And lots of other funny incidents too, resulting in Palos Verdes families getting kicked out of their long-time homes. But this week a new high (or low, or whatever). It looks like the State of California is foreclosing on itself!

Check out the strip of municipal land in Palos Verdes Estates that recently got its walking papers! What exactly does the mailman do with a Notice of Trustee Sale addressed to a small strip of parkland? My best guess is to tape the notice to a tree, or something.

So are you interested in purchasing some city property that you can never build on and never live on? Yes? Well then this may be the property for you.

Stay tuned for more knee-slapping stories of foreclosures in the Palos Verdes Peninsula!

For information on this property (actually, don’t call me about this one…it’s obviously a mistake, right?) or any other property in Palos Verdes pick up that phone and call 310-809-0203. And for goodness sake, be sure to subscribe to this blog!

The Harder They Come, The Harder They Fall?

Rolling Hills Foreclosure

By Ryan Rockwood

….If so there must have been a thunderous crash recently when 10 Poppy Trail, Rolling Hills, CA went on the auction block.

It appears the minimum bid was $2,880,000 which sounds steep until you compare it the properties recent list price of $9,990,00. Holy Cow.

So what went wrong here? Why didn’t the owners just sell for $2,880,000 last fall? Great question, I’m glad you asked! I would love to know myself. So if you are privy to inside info please comment below!

But we do know that the recent foreclosure killed about $2-million worth of other mortgages on the property. So it would have been impossible to have sold the home for much less than a cool $5-million!

For more information on this or any other Palos Verdes Peninsula Peninsula. Call me at 310-809-0203 right away!

Are you an unrealistic Peninsula homeowner?

Do you refuse to ‘give your house away?’ Well, use the recent sale of 27661 E Palos Verdes DR , Rancho Palos Verdes 90275 as your guide!

I won’t get into the details but suffice it to say this ‘determined’ homeowner has been trying to sell since late 2005. (That’s like 3-years on the market, for those wondering if I just made a typo).  I could go on and on about this property and how every Realtor in the area was sick of showing this listing at least 2-years ago – but I’ll just leave it at that.

Honestly I’ve too much listing fatigue to even analyze this one more than this: 9/9/2005 listed at $1,285,000. 8/20/2009 sold at $1,027,000.

One significant fact:

This is a really nice home. I would guess they had more than one $1.2 million-plus offer within the first 3-months of listings.

One amazing Realtor:

Hat’s off to listing agent Gayle Probst of PV Coldwell Banker. I’ve done a couple deals with Gayle and she is awesome. But to manage for 3-long years (without pay)  and not murder your clients must be a new record. Gayle is a real pro so I’m certain she didn’t pull any punches with this homeowner. This homeowner had the facts, a skilled and experienced agent and it was 2005, for goodness sake! Real estate was flying off the shelves.

The fact of the matter? Who knows, but smart money is on a homeowner that ‘knew better’ than everyone else!

*Sigh* Well, next time I’m reaching the Red Zone with a client I’ll have to repeat my new mantra: WWGD? (What would Gayle Do?)

Handy reference guide:

Realtor Gayle Probst in Action

Unreasonable Home Sellers (in general)

2062 Upland, Rancho Palos Verdes, CA

…Here is a riddle:

Q: What does a failed Rancho Palos Verdes short sale look like?

A: The newly bank owned property pictured on the right!

I don’t know the details on this one. But since the owners were at least trying to short sell this sucker I’d put my money on an incompetent, out of touch – and bailed out by tax payer dollars – mortgage lender!

Watch for this listing to crop up in the coming weeks. It will be interesting to see what this home will fetch. It sold in 2007 (still the beginning of the housing crash) for $787,000. The house itself is decent – your typical junky ranch home we are so used to out here. But Upland is a horrible street, in my humble opinion, and this is of course ‘the bad’ side of the Palos Verdes Peninsula!

I would rate it a nice buy for an owner/occupant at $650,000.

Best regards,

Ryan Rockwood

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30203 Kingsridge Dr, Rancho Palos Verdes, CA

….is one of our area’s most recent foreclosures. This is a large and very nice home located on the East side of Rancho Palos Verdes (off Miraleste).

Recently this well kept home went up for foreclosure auction – but no takers at $1-million! No wonder, too. Today you can get on ‘the good’ side of the Palos Verdes Peninsula for that $$$.

Even now that almost $400,000 in liens have been removed this is still going to be a VERY short sale.

As of today, I put the market value of this home at about $750,000-$800,000. Ouch!

I have a nearby short sale listing in a similar price tier. It’s taken the bank 18-months to finally admit that home prices are in the toilet – and their ‘investment’ is nothing but a liability.

Thanks for reading,

Ryan Rockwood

Do you like this article? Would you like to know this sort of info? Well for goodness sake, get on my mailing list right this second! Subscribe (upper left). Better yet call me at 310-809-0203.

30934 Rue De La Pierre

Recorded on August 12, 2009 this home was purchased at Trustee Auction recently.

Details are sketchy but it appears the sale was for approx $1million and change. The new owner is listed simply as a Trust and the mailing address an escrow business in Signal Hill.

All that plus the consumer-style lockbox on the front door lead me to believe the property will soon be available for sale.

At $1million this is obviously a very good buy. But exactly how much this home can command is up to debate.

Homes on this street have sold in the past for about $1.3million, including a sale one year ago. But that home was on the other side of the street – the ‘good’ side. And these days 1-year ago is ancient history.

Recently I sold a home not 600 yards from this property. It was quite a property at 3000+ sqft. In many ways it was much more desireable than this property. But in regards to the ocean views very few homes will compare to the homes on Rue De La Pierre.

Best,

Ryan Rockwood

Do you like this article? Would you like to know this sort of info? Well for goodness sake, get on my mailing list right this second! Subscribe (upper left). Better yet call me at 310-809-0203.

Rancho Palos Verdes home lost to foreclosure auction today.

My longtime clients know that I am particularly interested and involved in the Palos Verdes Peninsula ‘foreclosure scene’.

Foremost, my mission is to help PV homeowners continueto be PV homeowners. So I hold seminars and private meetings and teleseminars – whatever I can to educate folks about their options.

Most people have far more options than they realize, of course.

I also find good deals for buyers.

Today a Palos Verdes dream dies

25 Rockinghorse, RPV was lost at foreclosure auction today. This home was last sold at the height of the market – Dec. 2005 for $1,125,000. The stats: 3/2 1700sqft interior, 27,000 sqft lot with a huge SP Harbor view.

Buyers: Expect to see this home on the market soon. Please email for additional pics and details. Now that the secondary liens have been eliminated the remaining lienholder has just $880,000 on the property. I believe this will be a very good buy at $950,000 while market value is probably closer to $1 million. Contact me immediately for more information.

-Ryan Rockwood

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