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How is this a $1.5M house?
The record is sketchy on this -- I didn't see any permits for one thing. It looks like they bought the house as land only for $660K and then built a 4/4.5 with 4000+ sqft on more than an acre of land:
http://www.redfin.com/CA/San-Jose/20394-Almaden-Rd-95120/home/932064
The tax valuation was more than $1.4M in 2010 and 2011, before being changed to $50K because of the landslide issue for 2012:
http://www.scc-assessor.org/ari/search.do?action=chooseYear&apn=58313011&indc=C&year=2012
To add insult to injury, the owner appears to be the founder of a construction company. Anyone who finds out about what happened to his house should be wary of hiring him, most likely.
Assuming it was built and sold in 2005
Sold on 04/27/2005 $660,000
$1.5 would be very inflated price today.
What does this all say about prior sales prices ? dont know..
Sep 14, 2004 Sold (Public Records) $160,000 -51.2%/yr Public Records
Jul 22, 2003 Sold (Public Records) $365,000 249.5%/yr Public Records
I didn't see any permits for one thing. It looks like they bought the house as land only for $660K and then built a 4/4.5 with 4000+ sqft on more than an acre of land:
Maybe paid 160K in 2004 and built/sold in 2005 for $660K.
Maybe paid 160K in 2004 and built/sold in 2005 for $660K.
That wouldn't explain why the tax value is $1.4M. Under Prop 13, something must have caused the tax value to rise that much -- 2% increases for 6 years only gives you $743K.
What does this all say about prior sales prices ? dont know..
It would suggest that people speculate a lot on marginal plots of land in the Bay Area. Most of the empty plots I've seen for sale are not that great to build on. There are various problems. Too steep, like this one, is not uncommon.
In most cases, some would-be opportunist already tried to build a house on the place before the current owner, only to be smacked down by the building department or planning department. I saw the disclosures for an empty plot in another Bay Area city recently, and the current owner and the prior owner had both tried to build something on it, and the only thing that had been done was a driveway to nowhere. Because of the slope and other characteristics of the lot, the architectural plans that would be approved by the city wouldn't result in a big enough house to be worth it, so no one built an actual structure.
It's an interesting one! I saw this $1.5M house on the market for a day, next day gone! Is this a game people playing here?
20394 Almaden Rd,, San Jose, CA 95120
Here is an old cached on a different site: http://www.sawbuck.com/property/Bay_Area/95120_San_Jose/9107570-20394-Almaden-Road
It's not easy to get a hold of the listing agent, left a few messages without any respond about our CASH OFFER.
How can we notify THAT BANK that we got few people waiting here with the CASH OFFERS for this one!
What's the owner & the agent are playing here?