If you ever played the game of Monopoly like I did back when I was little, you would remember the Community Chest yellow card that read “Bank Error in Your Favor, Collect $200″! It was always a relief when you got that card because it was an advantage that not every one got unless they landed on Community Chest. It put money in your pocket. Here’s a couple of “sleepers” that are priced below market value where I would say the bank made errors that could be in your favor. For those of you who have asked how you can get on the lake for under $500k, here’s a couple of options.
- The first house is located over on North Shore Drive. It only has a 1 car garage, but it has a bedroom and deck on each floor (3 stories), an elevator in the house, backs to the National Forest and is across the street from the lake. Great views and deeded access to the lake. Water is a private water supply through a natural spring. It sold at the end of 2005 for $710,000; and again in August of 2006 for $845,000. It’s currently on the market for $374,900. My guess is this will sell quickly…several agents in my office have already contacted clients regarding this home (I give it less than a week before it goes pending). UPDATE as of 3/14/2010: Property went into escrow. 3/30/2010: Property closed escrow for $410,000 (cash deal).
38520 North Shore Drive
- The second property is across the street from the lake over in Boulder Bay on Big Bear Blvd. It backs to the National Forest, has 5 bedrooms, 2 baths, and 2200 square feet (approximately 720 sqft is not permitted). It sits on an 18,000 sqft lot and has nice lake views of Boulder Bay. According to the last listing agent, it comes with boat dock number 81A and was a good vacation rental. This is currently listed for $389,900 and probably won’t sell as fast as the property above…it needs a little TLC, but is probably in a better location if you want to be closer to town (on the south side of the lake where the shopping, skiing, and Village is located). The biggest complaint I have about it is the access. Upslope driveway and steps up to the front door.
38898 Big Bear Blvd
Error #1). Both properties are listed out of the area and are not in our local MLS. What’s the problem with that? I would say only 10% of agents in the Big Bear Valley know about listings outside the Big Bear MLS. The other 90% don’t know about them because they’re not members of other boards like the SoCal MLS, the MRMLS, or the VVAR MLS. On top of that, 99% of all sales in our valley are done by local agents, so if 10% know about the property the bank is at a big disadvantage. If either one of these properties were listed in Big Bear MLS, they would be sold by now.
Error #2). The listing agents representing the banks aren’t advertising that these properties have deeded dock rights (which is the biggest selling feature of either property)….mainly because they don’t know they have dock rights. These REO properties got assigned to agents that normally work in other areas so their lack of knowledge is your advantage. Both properties are not adjacent to the lake so they’re not considered lakefront but they do have boat dock privileges according to the MWD so both are undervalued in my opinion. What is the biggest negative? Both are located on busy streets. If you don’t like traffic or noise, this isn’t for you. But if you don’t mind the roads and want your road to be the first to be plowed either one of these would be a good buy.
When looking for property in Big Bear, make sure your real estate agent knows everything that’s currently for sale. That means properties that are in the Big Bear MLS as well as properties that are listed by out of area agents. Make sure your agent knows which properties have dock rights and which don’t (or have them call the MWD to verify), otherwise, you could be “missing the boat” on a good deal.
I bet it sold for over $500k no matter what the asking price was.
By: G Heard on March 28, 2010
at 3:31 pm
It sold fast and I know there were multiple offers….so I think it was over $400k, but not sure how high it got bid up. As soon as it closes I’ll post the numbers.
By: Mike Wochner on March 28, 2010
at 7:17 pm
Well *I* would have paid more than $400K for it, IF I had only known it was for sale!
By: G Heard on March 29, 2010
at 1:12 am
I’ll set you up on a flash through our MLS system…whenever a lakefront property comes on the market it will automatically send the information along to you. Or if anything pops up that’s not on the MLS that I think you would be interested in I’ll forward that on to you as well.
By: Mike Wochner on March 29, 2010
at 5:48 pm