What kind of windows to use when you run out of money
Reports
MLS: 718096Property Overview
1319 BRANHAM LN
SAN JOSE (San Jose) 95118
Detached Single Family (Class 1)
Bed/Bath: 4 / 3 1/2
SqFt: 2,600
Lot: 1 to 4,500 SqFt
Age: –
List Price: $980,000
Assoc Fee:
Remarks
Come view Cherry Glen brand new beautiful home situated in Cambrian Area. Be the first to live in one of our Cherry Glen Homes. Buyer to pick ctr-top&floor covering. Model home open weekend 12:00-5:00. go direct lockbox on the door.
Am I the only person who is really perturbed by the windows in this new house? Is it just me or is the wall to window ratio really strange?
It’s as if the contractor started building the house, but then ran out of money so they had to scrimp on windows.
But then again, this is more energy efficient I guess! Eco friendly! Sweet!
What do you think?
November 5th, 2007 at 6:22 am
Looks like a multi-family opportunity to me. You could get what, 5 OR 6 growing families in there, if migrants, apply for state aid. Tell them the small windows are apartments with a shared bath and kitchen. Plenty of room in the courtyard for car maintenance, especially oil changes. Have a Cinco party monthly.
Go for the Option ARM or Subprime options. Put nothing down. Use another name with forged documents easily available in San Jose. Delay foreclosure as long as possible pocket rent money and then completely trash on the way out. Pour concrete down drains, craigslist appliances, countertops, etc. This will lower value so you can repurchase for cheap from Bank. Remember, one mans loss is another mans gain.
Is this a great country or what?
November 5th, 2007 at 6:34 am
This is a very well designed fortress/meth lab. The random patterns serve three purposes:
1. Camo
2. Sniper positions
3. Vomit-inducing effect keeps out intruders.
November 5th, 2007 at 7:50 am
The Jack O’Lantern teeth over the garage are a nice touch to this architectural monstrosity.
November 5th, 2007 at 8:57 am
a teardown, me thinks.
November 5th, 2007 at 9:15 am
#1, I talked to a real estate investor friend and she mentioned an interesting phenomenon in LA. It is her opinion some people took out subprime loans never intending to pay them back, banked on the quickly growing equity, took out the equity line, and then when the house was going into foreclosure they claimed bankruptcy, giving them a few months of no mortgage payment living in the house. They give up the house, walk away with the equity line and live rent free for a few months. Brilliant! I’m sure this isn’t the case for all subprime loans, but I wonder how many of these did occur, people who went into the transaction intending to commit fraud. Any thoughts?
November 5th, 2007 at 9:28 am
>walk away with the equity line
Don’t you have to have some equity in the house to get an equity line? I’m not familiar with how this works.
November 5th, 2007 at 9:50 am
Wow. I drive by this place all the time, and it isn’t this ugly from the street side.
But still… 980K to live in a house crammed on an infill corner lot with other big houses, and on a busy corner at that? I’ll admit it’s close to services — there’s a liquor store and pizza place on one corner, and a mortgage broker on the other, and an Orchard Supply a block down — but that doesn’t seem like million dollar material.
But then I’m probably just one of those housing naysayers, too stupid to realize that the best way to wealth is an interest-only mortgage on a house that’s out of my price range.
And I’d really worry about the mortgage brokers breaking into cars as the market goes downhill.
November 5th, 2007 at 10:54 am
I think what she was saying that it appreciated so quickly that even making limited payments then made it possible to take equity lines on the house. I’m not really sure how it all worked which is why I hadn’t even considered it was possible.
November 5th, 2007 at 11:46 am
>walk away with the equity line
Then wire it to mexico straight cash
November 5th, 2007 at 11:54 am
>walk away with the equity line
Get an appraiser to inflate the “price” of the house, and then take out a home equity loan (never to be paid back)
November 5th, 2007 at 1:27 pm
If that sort of fraud really is what is driving foreclosures and mortgage-company meltdowns, then the whole process sorely needs to be revamped. Keep only the fixed-rate mortgages and high-quality capped ARMs. Set a legal 5% minimum for down payment and a maximum LTV of 95% for all mortgages on a single property. With that alone, the market will return to normalcy, and we’ll find out exactly what real estate is REALLY worth.
November 5th, 2007 at 1:36 pm
You guys ARE RIGHT! Wow, how could I have missed these ‘opportunities’? Get that equity line maxed out right away and take as much cash with you at closing! Genious I tell ya. Perfect.
Phony appraisals, -No Problem Senior, how much you want say Amigo?
Thanks All, now that’s American ingenuity, team work and Know How at work! Thats’ what made this country GREAT. I am so proud to be an Americano in El Presidente Buush’s Country.
Adios Amigos
November 5th, 2007 at 3:59 pm
I love the huge upper jaw poised to munch the car the 1027th time it leaves the garage …. CHOMP!!
It’s a great promotion for the car-free movement. Besides, you turn that garage into another illegal apartment, meth-heads don’t tend to own cars anyway.
November 5th, 2007 at 4:43 pm
Did they hire a blind architect? Perhaps the windows spell something in Braille like T-E-A-R D-O-W-N.
November 5th, 2007 at 7:03 pm
By the way – I wouldn’t think of this as a particularly busy corner.. busy road, yeah, Branham gets traffic, but then again, VTA is going to discontinue the 38 bus line after this year because nobody was using it. And nothing makes 20% appreciation happen faster than the bus service going out of business!
November 5th, 2007 at 8:10 pm
The bus in silicon valley is expensive. People can get by much cheaper riding a bike. Extra points if they “check out” trash cans as they’re tooling along on the sidewalk.
You haven’t lived until you’ve hung out in Santa Clara observing the local human ecosystem. Looks normal until you realize that old man in a suit riding a bike is checkin’ out the trash cans, the people leaning and standing around don’t have jobs, that there are a large number of homeless that use any bucks they get for food, cheapo booze, etc. Certainly not for the bus – the bus is too expensive for the abundant truly poor in Silicon Valley, because it’s special here.
November 5th, 2007 at 8:29 pm
The bus is expensive – except in one particular situation. You know the 22 line? That’s the one that runs from the Palo Alto Caltrain station, down El Camino Real, into downtown San Jose and then down King to the Eastridge Mall. It also happens to be the only VTA line that runs 24 hours a day, every day.
Well, the bums have gotten wise that they can pay $5 for a day pass and ride the bus all night – giving them a shelter from the cold and the rain. They don’t do that on SamTrans’ 397 line because that provider don’t offer a day pass, plus they charge you $3 to leave San Francisco.
November 5th, 2007 at 8:46 pm
Still? I remember reading that when rents soared back in 2000.
November 6th, 2007 at 8:25 am
Oh yeah. They can’t run the same bus for more than about 12 hours at a time because they have to air the stink out.. and it still smells terrible on most of those articulated New Flyers.
November 6th, 2007 at 8:22 pm
I heard they were closing down the “Hotel 22″ along El Camino, splitting it up at night into different routes or something.
I rode the 22 once. ONCE. That was enough. It was to go into San Jose to close out my resale license and pay ‘em their tax on all the wonderful business I’d done in the BA for 07, and I took the 22 to get there. That really sucked. Slowest bus on earth. I overshot my stop which is an easy mistake, got to walk a bit, did my business, then tried taking the 22 back. Well, the San Jose Grand Prix was on and the buses were all messed up. I ended up getting onto some kind of shuttle route to Diridon and took the train home.
The 22 goes all over but it does it SLOWLY.
November 6th, 2007 at 11:16 pm
I used to take the 22 all the time. Actually, I usually took the 522 which is limited-stop, much faster, and goes down Capitol Ave. instead of King, but the same kind of people ride it. Either way, it was certainly an interesting slice of humanity. I once spotted a 522 going the other direction flashing “EMERGENCY CALL 911″ on its headsign. I saw people get claustrophobic to the point of nearly tearing off the doors. And boy oh boy did I see a whole lot of bums, complete with trash bags on handcarts from Walgreen’s.
But that’s off topic.. this house is nowhere near the 22 line. It’s on the 38, which runs from Monterey & Senter through Saratoga and Los Gatos on its way to Campbell and gets very little ridership.
November 7th, 2007 at 10:21 am
Million dollar mortgage and catching the bus…welcome to the Bay.