Hosed flipper in Venice

We know how many of you enjoy hearing about flippers who get stuck, and get burned, so we thought we'd pass along this one from Curbed LA: It's Curbed's "PriceSpotter" game, which is a game show within a blog, but the bottom line is that a duplex in Venice that sold in April of '06 for $1.135 million just sold for a bit less -- $1.080 million. As Curbed observes, "Some poor flipper got hosed."

Your thoughts? Comments? Be nice. E-mail story tips to lalandblog@yahoo.com
Photo Credit: Curbed LA

Comments

[Tom Chou]

I don't think this is right. MLS says it sold for 1.52M
It also looks like there are two different properties listed as 760 Milwood.
The one pictured *definitely* sold for more that 1.08M, and
1.52M sounds about right.

Venice resident...

[jb]

Not much feeling one way or another for the flipper - more interstingly, who is the knife-catcher?

[Scott Story]

While "Flipper" may appreciate an underwater home, the two-legged variety dosen't Hope he didn't drop another 100,000 clams on a remodel. When your a flipper in a market gone mad like CA, their is no such thing as a "dolphin safe" investment.

[Cal]

property shark does show 2 transactions closing the same day. One for 1.08 and one for 1.52, it looks like it went from one person to a middle man who instantly resold it to a third person for 440k more . It would be interesting to know what happened here.

[Another]

Over a million for that?? Un – be – lievable.

The writeup says, “…on a huge 5400sq ft lot…”, paleezzzzeee. I’ve had garages almost half that large, which would make found memories for this place considering it once had a two car but it was converted to living space.

If you like that 50s glass look, the bathroom may appeal, but not I. The rest of it is a hodge-podge of disjunct / mismatched décor. Which is pretty sad considering the utterly depressing exterior. There is no appeal here inside or out.

The place sold for $200k ten years ago, I can’t figure how anyone could rationally value it for more than $500k today even with the ugly upgrades. This flop is a prime example of no matter how you dress a pig, it’s still a pig.

Is this how illegal money gets laundered into “the system”?

[AnnS]

It is a DUPLEX! Presumably the idea is to rent out the units. Even at 41.08, that means a very stiff rent per unit. Is over $3500 a month per unit even feasible?

[jb]

Peter,
Posts like this would be more informative if the sales history was given. Is this ino available?

[Martin]

There is nothing unique about this. Earth to moon: it's a miserable sales market. People who bought a house during the past year or so are getting burned now. It's happening on my block. It's likely happening on yours. We can spotlight every investment gone sour if we have a few decades to spare. In the interim, let's all offer blog information -- -- and intelligent assessment -- that is truly fresh.

[Dave]

>Posts like this would be more informative
>if the sales history was given

You can get about 20 years of sales info -- for free -- for most any US property at Zillow.com.

[KavJack]

Last week I did some research on previous owners of my house which was built in 1920. I found out the name of a previously unknown owner who bought my house in July 1938 and sold it in July 1939. According to the 1938 Long Beach City directory my house was vacant in 1938. This was the only year since it was built that my house was vacant for more than a month or two. So I am guessing that this was a 1930s style flipper ?
On checking the Grantor/Grantee records this individual was also buying other homes around the same time, so he was definitely a 1930s style Real Estate speculator. I have no idea whether he was successful or not.