Back in Clairemont!

by Tom | Jan 7, 2023 | House Design, San Diego Real Estate Market

We are back in Clairemont to kick off 2023. We bought this property direct from the out-of-state owner saving them all the expense and hassle of using an agent. Fun fact is that in 2004 we flipped an exact model-match home on this very same street. That is over 18 years ago! Green Button Homes, the original San Diego Cash Homebuyer. They hired a local attorney to look over our paperwork, here is his Green Button Homes testimonial:

“Recently I had the pleasure of working with Tom Tarrant of Green Button Homes LLC in San Diego. Tom was an efficient and detail oriented businessperson who treated those he worked with fairly and with respect. I would be happy to work with him again in the future.”

Steven Haskins, Real Estate Attorney and Licensed Real Estate Broker

Green Button Homes is the original “We Buy Houses” company in San Diego. In business for over 17 years, we have bought 100’s of homes hassle-free directly from sellers with no agents involved. Being a family owned small local business, we take pride in creating win-win solutions and improving the neighborhoods we love one house at a time. Receive an offer for your San Diego property.

Eastlake Sold!

by Tom | Oct 29, 2022 | San Diego Real Estate Market

SOLD! This great Chula Vista home sold to a very nice family from the area and with relatives nearby. It’s great to see this happen and we are so proud of making this a very special home for this wonderful family. Green Button Homes (619) 438-0234 tom@greenbuttonhomes.com. We Buy Houses in Chula Vista and surrounding areas.

Eastlake Project and Falling Home Prices

by Tom | Aug 17, 2022 | House Design, House Flipping, San Diego Real Estate Market

Just wrapped up another great project down in South Bay near the Eastlake/Otay neighborhoods. This is really a great family home located on a pride of ownership culdesac in a newer track home development originally built by McMillian in the 1990’s. The floorplan is really familiar and reflective of a lot of homes built in the 90’s in San Diego.

The San Diego real estate market is in the beginning stages of a what we think is a huge correction. We are now seeing median home prices drop for the first time in 13 years. Needless to say, all this was fueled by QE and low mortgage rates. The market seemed to peak around May 2022, since then we have lost 10% on median home prices. Nobody thought prices would drop with less than 2 months of inventory, but I predicted this would happen and we adjusted our buying criteria to be safe. As of August 12, 2022 the San Diego median home price is $805,000, down from $865,000 on June 3rd.

With inflation and higher interest rates, the squeeze is on. Affordability is at a 40-year low so combined with plummeting consumer confidence from the recession, buyers are feeling cause for concern. Almost 30% of homes in San Diego listed for sale have reduced asking prices at this time. The days of 20 offers on the first weekend and $100k overbidding are long gone but this is a healthy situation needed to move into a more normal market.

The home is 5 bedroom, 3 bath with 2400 s.f. We did a complete remodel with all new surfaces. Newer homes like this are usually a breeze because the electrical and plumbing are in good shape and there is no need to make floor plan improvements. There was an April identical floorplan home that sold before the decline for over $200,000 more than we are asking! This is a great deal and reflective of the new normal.

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Rancho Penasquitos Townhome

by Tom | May 23, 2022 | House Design, House Flipping, San Diego Real Estate Market

New townhome in Rancho Penasquitos with Poway School District!! We bought this home direct from the owner this Spring “as-is” and took it with a problem tenant who had not paid rent in 2 years using COVID as the excuse. After $2,500.00 in attorney fees and multiple trips to the property trying to convince her to leave, I finally got the keys. Entering the property was quite a shock, they had left everything behind and it was quite a mess.

Real Estate prices have jumped in this complex, my exit price projection based on comparable sales was only $430,000 when I bought it. It’s on the market now and all redone for $499,000-$549,000 MLS# 220012628 and in the award winning Poway Unified School District. This is the second-best school district in the San Diego area and 14th best in California for those of you looking for good schools in San Diego. Listed with Atkin Homes. We had 6 showings yesterday and don’t see a problem getting what we want for this great townhome in Rancho Penasquitos. Stay tuned!

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Allied Gardens is Live!

by Tom | May 10, 2022 | House Design, House Flipping, Kitchens, San Diego Real Estate Market

Our newly completed Allied Gardens bungalow is so cute! We are certainly loving the transformation on this house flipping project. This unique property with great elevation is located on a very private and quiet Allied Gardens street with surrounding views. The inviting front porch just makes you want to take a seat and relax after work while seeing your neighbors out and about walking their dogs. The vertical large house numbers and the horizontal porch rail design gives it a beachy coastal vibe. Just listed for $899,900 and now on the market. MLS# 220011058

The front door color is SW 7701 Cavern Clay. This is a play on a traditional red front door but modernized to fit our palette. Leaning more terra cotta, it has brown undertones and really went well with the existing brown roof. Keep in mind these real estate photos are shot in HDR. In person this color is not so orange.

My accent siding choice is SW 7046 Anonymous. It also is a greyish-brown to tie into the brown roof. This is my first time using this Sherwin Williams color on a house we bought to flip, I wanted something bold for this siding panel and it makes a great statement. Picking exterior house colors to go with a brown roof can be tricky, I am very happy with what we pulled off here.

We really made this floorplan work by opening up the wall and rearranging the kitchen layout with a small island, walking into this home you would never feel it is only just over 1000 square feet. The original kitchen had the sink in the corner under the window, this definitely wasn’t going to work so we moved it to the island along with the dishwasher as our only choice.

Tons of light comes in and makes this space feel very welcoming. I went lighter than we normally do also on the waterproof flooring material to make the space feel larger. Using a LVP material or waterproof flooring allows us to seamlessly run the flooring through the wet area being the kitchen. We even managed to squeeze in a pantry with the new configuration as well as leave a generous allowance of space for a dining room table.

Once again I kept the bathroom tile choice very clean and timeless, not getting too trendy. White subway tile in large format is combined with wood-look porcelain floor tile and matching niche. It truly is the perfect little bungalow for a family starting out or a young professional from nearby Mission Valley or Kaiser Hospital. I just love the Allied Gardens vibe, it’s very sophisticated but hip.

Stay tuned and we will see how the market reacts. Even though we went live on Mothers Day weekend we are getting showings and the feedback has been great. Selling a home at this time of the year is no prooblem in San Diego, the market is still holding up and with the San Diego Median Home Price now $1,000,000 this is right in line for being completely redone.

Otay Mesa is SOLD!

by Tom | Apr 14, 2022 | San Diego Real Estate Market

Hooray, after multiple offers we opened escrow with a military family and the house is now sold! Congrats to the new owners who were VA Loan buyers. A lot of investors here in San Diego and house flippers hesitate to accept a VA financed offer. The real estate agent representing this VA Buyer did a good job so we went with them and crossed our fingers.

VA appraisals can be strict sometimes but I wanted to sell to this buyer because we had other military families all living right around the property from what I observed. They offered $802k and I knew it would likely not appraise as the highest comps were around $770,000.

Home values in San Diego have been increasing around $10k a month but this appraiser did not give me a penny over the last sale of $770k. Any time a VA appraisal comes in short it gets sent to an online portal called Tidewater. Here, you have an opportunity to rebut the low appraisal and try and get it bumped up. It all worked out, the buyer chipped in an extra $10,000 out of their pocket and we ate $22,000 so the final sales price was $780,000.

Still an awesome deal and I am happy to make a dream come true for a military family. On to the next house!