THREE YEARS OLD AND NEVER BEEN LIVED IN!
A little while ago we had this century-old listing in Willow Glen, where someone had bought the property and subdivided the lot, then built three houses all in a row behind the original one. Thanks to Burbed reader nomadic, who found this listing in comments, we bring you one of those “newer” homes.
906 WILLOWSHIRE Way, San Jose, CA 95125
$749,000
BEDS: 4
BATHS: 2.5
SQ. FT.: 1,994
$/SQ. FT.: $376
LOT SIZE: 2,613 Sq. Ft.
PROPERTY TYPE: Detached Single Family
STYLE: Traditional
STORIES: 2
VIEW: Neighborhood
YEAR BUILT: 2008
COMMUNITY: Willow Glen
COUNTY: Santa Clara
MLS#: 81119719
SOURCE: MLSListings
STATUS: Pending With Release
ON REDFIN: 35 daysTHREE YEARS OLD AND NEVER BEEN LIVED IN!PHENOMENAL HOME. JUST MOMENTS TO THE FINE AMENITIES OF DOWNTOWN LINCOLN AVE!CHIC DESIGNER STYLE THRUOUT. HIGH END FINISHES. STAINLESS APPLIANCES. GORGEOUS HARDWOOD FLOORS. TO DIE FOR MASTER SUITE W/ FIREPLACE. MASTER BATH W/ JETTED TUB. HIS AND HERS CLOSETS. CLOSE TO PARKS, SCHOOLS, NEW LIBRARY, & FRESH & EASY GROCERY STORE.
Yes, this is the same Realtard as the old house, and she’s SHOUTING AT YOU just as LOUDLY. Hmmm. At first I wondered if she was behind the development in the first place, but the 2008 attempts at sale, as well as the April sales used a different broker. The limited liability corporation behind this development was called Willowshire LLC, with a mailing address in Saratoga. The contractor was Vern Easthouse, of Los Gatos, and the construction was approved by the San Jose Planning Department back in 2005. The three new houses were begun in May 2007 and finished in August, 2008.
Meanwhile, soon after they were finished, the ownership was transferred from Willowshire to United Security Bank of Fresno, by way of some capital service, not the one which held the construction loan. Whoops! I found a Notice of Default dated June, 2008, so the financial problems hit before the homes were finished. There were a couple of mechanic’s liens filed against them too.
Meanwhile, there’s another long list of asking prices being changed, delistings, relistings, etc. etc. Here’s what Zillow had on this place:
There’s similar roller-coaster action with the original old house as well.
A Cisco manager married to a financial consultant bought one of the three new houses in 2009. A Yahoo executive married to an Internet startup CEO bought another one of the new houses in 2010 and recently signed a consent decree for this property, which suggests he had some kind of lawsuit going against the development. The original house in front and the remaining new one was bought from United Security Bank by a Palo Alto developer this April for $570K… but it had been sitting empty for 3 years. New light bulbs and Drano now installed, it’s your turn to move in!
Best of all, when you want to do that Pride of Ownership/Water Your Own Lawn thing… it won’t take a lot of your time. Check out that lot: 2613 square feet. Your gardener will charge you more to drive to your house than to rake the leaves!
June 28th, 2011 at 6:34 am
What a-holes in city hall approved these deuce-burgers? If I want to build a shed on my property, I have to do all sorts of exposed ground calculations, but these guys are allowed to pave over the world because they turn one nice lot into 4 separate tax-streams.
June 28th, 2011 at 6:42 am
Since this is zoned R-18, a PUD with a row of McMansions is the ownership oriented alternative to a dingbat apartment building. Central Willow Glen is much more dense and busy than the foothills of the peninsula. In a way it kind of looks like some of the molars of Toothopolis.
June 28th, 2011 at 8:15 am
If I had tonz of money, it’d be fun to buy ‘em up, then rent bedrooms out cheep to tonz of “working poor”, students, marginal people of all sorts, with the requirement that they have to drive some sort of hoopty and park it on the micro-lawns as well as the driveways. It would bring the neighborhood to its logical conclusion.
June 28th, 2011 at 8:41 am
An apartment complex would have been nicer.
June 28th, 2011 at 9:08 am
#4- You have got to be kidding! Filling a neighborhood up with apartment rentards would make it better? Rentards can never make things nicer, no matter how bad things might seem today.
June 28th, 2011 at 9:24 am
Yeah, they should have put in a bunch of condos. All the problems of an apartment complex, plus HOA!
June 28th, 2011 at 9:25 am
For anyone else who is wondering, the other two houses that sold went for $700,000 (6/10) and $710,000 (11/09). Zestimates are $751k and $807k, respectively – for the same house with the same square footage. Funny how Zillow thinks the one that sold the longest time ago has appreciated so much more.
June 28th, 2011 at 9:44 am
#3,
Gilroy,
If I had money to burn, I’d take it one step further. I’d rent those places out to pimps, hookers and child molestors.
June 28th, 2011 at 11:22 am
#6, #8, those *are* ways to achieve maximum suck. And maximum suck is what the RE racket is all about, after all.
June 28th, 2011 at 11:45 am
Hey! It appears that the builder screwed up because the lot size is about 1500 square feet bigger than the house’s footprint. Maybe a new owner can buy this property and subdivide it into 2 or 3 properties? Sell each for $500,000 and you’ve made a handsome profit. In Ghana I used to do this all the time. Feel free to call me for advice!
June 28th, 2011 at 11:46 am
#4 is making Real Estater-like comments. Really? An apt complex would be better? How about a prison?
June 28th, 2011 at 3:11 pm
A prison? You’re thinking too small. It needs to become a cubicle house.
Remember, you can run three shifts!
June 28th, 2011 at 4:37 pm
“for the same house with the same square footage.”
Nope. This one is first, and therefore it is on a busy street: The two neighbors must drive by every day. The one on the end isn’t on a busy street.
June 28th, 2011 at 9:56 pm
We are number one!
SF is the most expensive place in California, and housing cost is the highest of all places!
June 28th, 2011 at 10:09 pm
Check out the CEO Cribs
Price is a little off …
Here’s another good one.
July 1st, 2011 at 4:46 am
Very interesting to say the least. I am curious as to how things would turn out for this listing.